Whether you are a beginner in digital marketing or a veteran, there is always a need to use numerous acronyms while communicating with your clients and stakeholders. PPC terms and acronyms are used to ensure that everyone is on the same page while discussing paid media metrics and data points.

This article breaks down the essential PPC terms and abbreviations you need to know.

A quick read, and you can navigate campaigns like a pro, understanding key metrics, bidding strategies, and performance indicators with confidence.

Are you ready to dig into PPC terminology and finally take ownership of your PPC strategy?

We will go through the terms in alphabetical order.

A

Ad Rank

Ad rank refers to the position of an ad that you have placed on a search engine results page (SERP). The ad rank depends on various factors like bid amount, ad quality, expected impact of ad extensions, and user experience.

Ad Campaign

When a set of common advertisements focused on a particular objective or goal is presented on a digital advertising platform, it is referred to as an ad campaign.

Affiliate Marketplace

An affiliate marketplace is like a bridge platform that allows advertisers and publishers to connect with each other to promote products and services. The affiliates earn commissions for driving traffic or sales.

Attribution Models

The attribution models are the rules that decide how credit for conversions is assigned to different touchpoints in a customer’s journey, like first-click, last-click, or multi-touch attribution.

Ad Copy

Ad copy is simply the text or content of an advertisement that engages users or the audience and motivates them to take action.

Ad Extensions

E-commerce marketing services add extensions like phone numbers, site links, or callouts to increase the visibility of an ad.

Ad Group

It is a platform that connects advertisers with platforms for the broadcasting of ads across various platforms like websites, apps, and other channels.

Ad Network

It is a platform that connects advertisers with platforms for the broadcasting of ads across various platforms like websites, apps, and other channels.

Audience

The audience is simply the users who watch and interact with online advertisements. They can be segmented based on demographics, interests, behaviors, or past interactions with a brand.

Automatic Bidding

The ad platform automatically adjusts the bidding amount for the maximum performance of ads while staying within a set budget. The procedure is referred to as automatic bidding.

Average Cost-Per-Click (CPC)

The purchase price is an important term in digital marketing. It is simply the amount paid by the advertiser for each click on the ad. To calculate the average cost-per-click, divide the total ad spend by the number of clicks received.

B

Bid

A bid is the maximum amount that an advertiser is ready to pay for a click, impression, or conversion on the published ad.

Bidding Types

There are different types of bids, such as manual bids, automatic bids, cost-per-click, cost-per-mile, cost-per-acquisition, target ROAS (return on ad spend), and others.

target

Banner Ads

You must have seen ads on website bottoms or sidebars, which are in images, GIFs, or other formats. These are banner ads.

Bounce

When a user lands on a website, say an e-commerce website, and leaves without any further interaction, then it is termed a bounce user.

Bounce Rate

It is simply the calculation of the percentage of users who have visited the website and left without any interaction with the total users who visited the site.

Broad Match

In paid search advertising, ecommerce marketing services use keywords so that ads will display around that keyword. It also includes variations, synonyms, or related terms of the ones that are broad matches.

Bottom Funnel

The bottom funnel is the final stage of the marketing funnel, where users are almost ready to become converted customers and close the purchase.

C

Campaign

A campaign is a structured marketing activity with an objective to reach a target of sales, customer conversion, etc. There are multiple ads, ad groups, and targeted settings in a campaign.

Click

It is an action taken by a user when they interact with an ad by clicking on it, leading to the product or service webpage or app.

Client ID

These are unique identities given to the users by analytical platforms such as Google Analytics or Adobe Analytics.

Conversion

Conversion is mostly used in the e-commerce industry, in which the users perform a certain action that was intended for the business on a website or app.

Conversion Rate

Conversion rate is simply the calculation of the percentage of the incoming visitors on the website or app that have actually converted.

Call-To-Action (CTA)

A CTA or Call-To-Action button is a prompt in an ad or webpage that motivates users to perform a particular action, like “Buy Now,” “Click Here to Know More,” etc.

Click-Through Rate (CTR)

These are the percentages of users who have clicked on the ad of the total users who viewed the ad.

Cost-Per-Click (CPC)

The amount you are charged for each click on your ad.

Cost-Per-Impression (CPI)

It is the cost that the advertiser pays per single ad impression, i.e., each time the ad is displayed to the user.

Cost-Per-Acquisition (CPA)

The cost per acquisition is calculated as total ad expense divided by the number of total conversions. Basically, it indicates the amount the advertiser spent acquiring a single customer.

Cost-Per-Thousand Impressions (CPM)

It is the cost of an advertisement to display it to 1000 impressions. Generally, it is used in display and video advertising.

Customer lifetime value (CLV)

The overall revenue a company can expect from a customer throughout the course of their relationship with the company. It helps determine how much money to spend on client acquisition and retention.

D

Daily Budget

The daily budget is the amount that the advertiser has set for daily advertising expenditure.

Display Network

The display network includes all the platforms on which ads can be displayed, like websites, social media platforms, apps, and others.

Dynamic Product Ads (DPA)

These are the ads that are displayed to the users based on their activities like search, browsing history, etc.

Dynamic Text Ads (DTA)

These text-based ads function similarly to dynamic product ads, displaying based on user activities.

E

Exact Match

An exact match is a keyword match type in which the ad will only trigger or be displayed to the users if the defined keyword exactly matches the users’ search query.

F

Facebook Ads

As the name suggests, online retailers place these ads on the Facebook website and app to promote their products and increase sales.

Facebook Dynamic Ads

Facebook Dynamic Ads are displayed based on the activities of the users on the internet and other e-commerce platforms. It includes activities like browsing, searching, adding to a cart, and others.

G

Geofencing

Geofencing is a location-based marketing strategy, i.e., the ads are displayed to a user if he is in a particular geo-area.

Geotargeting

Unlike geofencing, in which users will receive ads if they enter a particular area, in geotargeting, marketers can deliver ads to users based on their geographic location, such as country, city, or a specific radius.

Google Ads

Google Ads is the advertising arm of Google through which businesses can display ads to users through different platforms of Google.

Google Analytics

It is an AI-based analytics platform that tracks and reports website traffic, user behavior, and other performance metrics.

Google Display Network (GDN)

A vast network of over 2 million websites, apps, and digital platforms where businesses can display visual ads.

I

Image Ads

The term “image ads” refers to advertisements that appear as images on websites or apps.

Impression

An impression is the total number of times a user sees an advertisement on a webpage, app, or search result.

Instagram Ads

Any seasoned e-commerce social media marketing agency would make use of ads on Instagram, typically inspired by your browsing history across various social media platforms, which are likely familiar to you.

Interest Categories

This technique categorizes users in digital advertising based on their online activity, preferences, and browsing history.

Invalid Clicks

These are unintentional or fraudulent clicks often generated by bots, accidental taps, or malicious activity to artificially inflate costs.

K

Key Performance Indicator (KPI)

KPIs are the metrics that digital marketers set for a campaign. For e.g., there can be a KPI for a 30% conversion rate through social media ads. Common KPIs are click-through rate, conversion rate, cost-per-acquisition, etc.

Keywords

These are the words or phrases commonly used by users for search queries, and advertisers or digital marketers use these words to trigger ads or other activities.

Keyword Research

Digital marketers must conduct research on the keywords people use for specific purposes.

Keyword Planner

It is a free tool by Google Ads to help advertisers get ideas for keywords, analyze their volume, and provide other metrics. AtWytlabs, our experts use the tool to pick the right set of keywords to help your business grow and shine.

L

Landing Page

A landing page is the intended page on which the user should land after clicking on a CTA or an ad.

Lead

Leads are potential customers who have similar interests in the products or services you are offering.

LinkedIn Ads

Just like Instagram ads, these are another category of social media ads. These are mostly B2B advertisements on the LinkedIn platform.

Location Extensions

It is a feature provided by Google Ads that allows businesses to display their details, including physical addresses, phone numbers, and a Google Map link for easy navigation.

Location Targeting

It is a synonym of geotargeting, i.e., the advertisers can display ads to users of a particular location.

Long-Tail Keywords

These are highly specific keyword phrases (usually three or more words) with lower search volume but higher conversion intent.

Low Search Volume

These are the categories of keywords with no or almost no search volume on search engines.

M

Manual Bidding

In this bidding process, advertisers set their maximum bid for clicks, impressions, or conversions instead of depending on automated bidding.

Marketing Funnel

This funnel showcases three major stages of customers, from awareness to final conversion, which are:

Top of the funnel: Awareness Stage
Middle of the funnel: Consideration Stage
Bottom of the funnel: Conversion Stage

Marketplace

It is a platform that connects the suppliers of a product or service to the customers or demand by charging a certain commission or fee. Some of the popular examples are Amazon, Walmart, etc.

Manual Tagging

Manually adding tracking parameters (such as UTM codes) to URLs to improve campaign monitoring in tools like Google Analytics.

Modified Broad Match

The key phrases for which your e-commerce marketing servicesagency defines your ads are modified broad matches. The query should have all the phrases in the keyword selected along with other words.

N

Negative Keywords

These are those keywords that the advertisers exclude to prevent ads from showing to an irrelevant audience.

New Visitor

These are the users who are landing on or visiting the website or app for the first time within a particular tracking period.

O

Organic Search Results

These are the results that appear on the search engine results pages due to the users’ search query.

P

Pay-Per-Click (PPC)

This payment model for digital advertising charges the advertiser a certain amount each time a user clicks on the ad. E-commerce PPC services help you reach the right audience by spending a minimal amount and helping you get the most out of your investment.

Pay-Per-Click Management

It is the process of planning, adjusting, and monitoring campaigns that your ecommerce PPC services use to maximize return on ad spend (ROAS).

Phrase Match

It is a Google keyword match technique that works when a search query contains the keyword in order but with additional words before or after.

Pinterest Ads

These are the ads that are displayed on the Pinterest platform as promoted pins.

Primary Metric

It is another term for KPIs that refers to measuring the success of any digital marketing strategy, such as PPC, CTR, etc.

Product Listing Ads (PLA)

It is a type of Google Shopping Ad that the e-commerce platform teams, like the Shopify PPC management team, use to display product images, prices, and information about the merchant.

Performance Data

These are a collection of different metrics that are involved in a digital marketing campaign.

Q

Quality Score

It is a metric employed by Google to check the quality and relevancy of a Google ad, keyword, or landing page.

Qualified Web Traffic

Website visitors have a high likelihood of engaging or converting based on their intent, activity, and demographics.

R

Reach

These are the number of users who saw the ad within a specific time frame.

Returning Visitor

A user who once visited the site or an app and returned within a particular time frame.

Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)

It refers to the revenue generated per dollar spent on advertising.

Return on investment (ROI)

It is a widely used financial metric that calculates the profitability of an investment.

Remarketing

A digital advertising strategy that targets users who have previously interacted with a website, app, or ad but didn’t convert.

S

Sales Funnel

The sales funnel is a synonym for the marketing funnel in digital marketing.

Search Engine

The search engine is an online tool that allows people to search for their queries, and it returns relevant websites in the search results.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

It is a digital marketing strategy that involves paid advertising, like Google Ads, to appear in search engine results.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

The process involves improving the quality of the website, content, and other attributes to get a high rank in SERPs organically.

Search Engine Results Page (SERP)

The webpage any search engine displays after the user enters the query.

Search Network

The network is a collection of search engines and associated websites that can display text-based advertisements for a SaaS marketing agency.

Search Marketing

It is a wide term that involves both SEO and SEM.

Search Query

These are the queries made by users on the search engines that the SaaS PPC agency targets to run ads for your business.

Search Volume

This metric gives the count of a keyword, phrase, or query being searched within a specific interval of time.

Shared Budgets

A Google Ads feature that allows many ads to share a single daily budget, with cash allocated dynamically based on performance.

Sitelinks Extensions

This is another feature of Google Ads that adds extra links beneath an ad, directing users to specific pages.

Snapchat Ads

These are the paid ads on the popular app Snapchat that appear between stories. Your ecommerce social media marketing agency can help you create the best ads for most returns.

Smart Bidding

This term is another name for automated bidding in Google Ads.

Split Test

Split testing, or A/B testing, compares two or more variations of an ad, landing page, or email campaign to analyze which is giving better results.

T

Traffic

Traffic refers to the number of visitors who have visited a website or interacted with an ad.

U

Unique Visitor

These are the visitors who have visited a website for the first time within a specified interval of time.

User

Users are simply the people who are interacting with digital channels or technologies.

User ID

These are the unique IDs created by analytics platforms like Google Analytics based on various parameters.

V

Visitor

The visitor is a user who has landed on your website.

Conclusion

Now that you understand the necessary PPC acronyms, you’re one step closer to becoming a professional in the paid advertising space! Whether tracking your CTR, your CPC, or optimizing for a higher ROAS, understanding these definitions will allow you to make better and more informed decisions based on data. The easiest way to refine your PPC strategies is to continue exploring, testing, and optimizing your campaigns. Sometimes, success is just one well-optimized campaign away!