Back to home
    Reference

    Google Ads Glossary

    Every metric, acronym, and concept you need to know, explained in plain English.

    A

    Ad Group
    A container within a campaign that holds one or more ads and a set of related keywords.
    Ad Spend
    The total amount of money spent on advertising over a given period.
    Attribution
    The process of assigning credit for conversions to different touchpoints in the customer journey, such as first click, last click, or data-driven.

    B

    Bidding Strategy
    The method Google uses to determine how much you pay for clicks or conversions. Options include manual CPC, target CPA, target ROAS, and maximize conversions.
    Budget Pacing
    Tracking how fast your ad budget is being spent relative to the time remaining in your billing period to avoid over- or under-delivery.

    C

    Campaign
    The highest organizational level in Google Ads. Each campaign has its own budget, targeting settings, and bidding strategy.
    Conversion Rate
    The percentage of clicks that result in a desired action, such as a purchase, form submission, or phone call.
    Conversions
    Completed actions that you define as valuable, such as purchases, sign-ups, or phone calls.
    CPA
    Cost Per Acquisition. The average cost to acquire one conversion, such as a purchase or lead submission.
    CPC
    Cost Per Click. The amount you pay each time someone clicks your ad.
    CPM
    Cost Per Mille. The cost per 1,000 impressions of your ad.
    CTR
    Click-Through Rate. The percentage of impressions that result in a click. Calculated as clicks divided by impressions.

    G

    Google Shopping
    Product-based ads that appear in Google search results and the Shopping tab, showing product images, prices, and store names.

    I

    Impression
    A single instance of your ad being shown to a user. One user may generate multiple impressions.
    Impression Share
    The percentage of total available impressions your ads received. Low impression share can indicate budget or bid constraints.

    L

    Landing Page
    The web page users arrive at after clicking your ad. Landing page quality directly impacts Quality Score and conversion rates.

    M

    MCC
    My Client Center. A Google Ads manager account that lets agencies manage multiple client accounts from a single login.

    N

    Negative Keywords
    Keywords you exclude from your campaigns to prevent your ads from showing on irrelevant searches, reducing wasted spend.

    O

    Offline Conversions
    Conversions that happen outside your website (phone sales, CRM-closed deals) that you import back into Google Ads to optimize bidding on real revenue.

    Q

    Quality Score
    Google's rating (1-10) of your keyword's relevance and quality, based on expected CTR, ad relevance, and landing page experience.

    R

    ROAS
    Return on Ad Spend. Revenue generated per dollar spent on advertising. A ROAS of 4.0 means $4 in revenue for every $1 in ad spend.

    S

    Search Terms
    The actual words and phrases people type into Google that trigger your ads. Different from keywords, which are the terms you bid on.
    SKU
    Stock Keeping Unit. A unique identifier for each product in your inventory, used to track product-level ad performance.
    Smart Bidding
    A set of automated bid strategies that use machine learning to optimize for conversions or conversion value in each auction.