The glossary
233 terms, each answered in one sentence, then explained properly with an analogy and a worked example.
AllBasicsSearch feedsDomains & parkingBuying trafficMoney & metricsTracking & optimisationPolicy & complianceFraud & invalid trafficSearch adsBusiness & financeAI & the future
A
- Ad auction
- An ad auction is the instant, automated contest run for each search that decides which advertisers' ads appear, in what order and at what price per click.
- Ad Rank
- Ad Rank is the value Google Ads calculates in every auction to decide whether an ad may show and where it appears relative to other ads.
G
- Google Ads
- Google Ads is Google's advertising platform, where businesses bid to show ads on Google Search, its search partner sites, YouTube and other properties.
K
- Keyword match type
- A keyword match type tells the ad platform how closely a person's search must match an advertiser's keyword before the ad is allowed to show.
M
- Maximum CPC bid
- A maximum CPC bid is the most an advertiser is willing to pay for one click on its ad; the actual price charged is often lower.
- Microsoft Advertising
- Microsoft Advertising is Microsoft's ad platform, formerly Bing Ads, which sells search ads on Bing and on partner sites that syndicate its results.
N
- Negative keyword
- A negative keyword is a word or phrase an advertiser adds to stop its ad showing on searches that contain it.
P
- PPC (pay per click)
- PPC, or pay per click, is an advertising model in which the advertiser pays only when someone clicks the ad, not when it is merely shown.
Q
- Quality Score
- Quality Score is Google Ads' 1 to 10 diagnostic rating of how an advertiser's ad quality for a keyword compares with other advertisers.
S
- Search terms report
- The search terms report shows an advertiser the actual searches that triggered its ads, alongside the keywords and match types that matched them.
- SEM (search engine marketing)
- SEM, search engine marketing, is the practice of winning customers from search engines, today mostly meaning paid search ads bought per click.