Search Engine Marketing Terms
Search Engine Marketing (SEM): An internet advertising method used to drive traffic to websites, where an advertiser pays the advertising network when their ads are clicked.
Ads Account: Stores the advertiser’s billing information and ad campaigns.
Campaign: A set of ad groups, ads, and keywords that share a budget, location targeting, and other settings. A campaign targets one product or multiple closely related products.
Ad Group: Contains ads and keywords. They are used to segment campaigns so that ads can be associated with relevant keywords.
Ad: A collection of text and other media assets that are displayed to entice users to engage with when they meet your targeted advertising criteria.
Keyword: Words or phrases that are used to match your ads with the terms people are searching for.
Negative Keywords: A type of keyword that prevents your ad from being shown for a certain word or phrase. For example, “Claims Number” is added as a negative keyword to prevent ads from showing in searches related to claims.
Search Term/Query: Actual user searches that cause an ad to show.
Search Engine Marketing Metrics
Clicks & Impressions
Impressions: Number of times ads were displayed during the selected time period.
Clicks: Number of clicks on ads during the selected time period.
Click-Through Rate (CTR): Percentage of people who viewed your ad that clicked on your ad.
Average Cost Per Click (CPC): Average cost per click on your ad.
Cost: Amount of money in the form of ad spend for your advertising campaign.
Impressions: Number of times ads were displayed over time.
Clicks: Number of clicks on ads over time.
Clicks by Campaign: Total number of clicks on ads by campaign.
Impressions by Campaigns: Total number of times ads were displayed by campaign.
Conversions
Conversions: Number of conversions during the selected time period.
Cost Per Conversion: Average cost per conversion during the selected time period.
Conversion Rate: Percentage of people who clicked on your ad that completed a conversion action.
Phone Calls: Number of people who clicked on your ad that also clicked on your phone number in the ad or on your landing page.
All Conversions: Total number of conversions.
Cost Per All Conversion: Average cost per conversion.
All Conversion Rate: Percentage of people who clicked on your ad that completed any conversion action.
Conversions: Number of conversions over time.
Cost per Conversion: Average cost per conversion over time.
Conversions by Campaign: Clicks that resulted in a conversion by campaign.
All Conversions: Total number of conversions over time.
NOTE: The difference between conversions and all conversions is that some conversions can be classified as secondary. Since each campaign’s configuration is custom, some campaigns may use secondary conversions, and some may not. This means the metrics for conversions and all conversions may be the same or different depending on how each campaign is configured to track performance.
Search Impression Share
Search Impression Share: Impressions ads received divided by the estimated number of impressions you were eligible to receive during the selected time period.
Search Lost Impression Share (Budget): Percentage of time that your ads weren’t shown due to budget.
Search Lost Impression Share (Rank): Percentage of time your ads weren’t shown due to ad rank. Ad rank is a value used to determine where ads are shown relative to other ads or if your ad will be shown at all.
Search Impression Share: Impressions ads received divided by the estimated number of impressions you were eligible to receive over time.