PPC & Google Ads glossary

Extra pieces attached to a search ad — sitelinks, callouts, structured snippets, call and price assets. They expand the ad and feed into Ad Rank.

The score Google recalculates at every auction to decide if and where your ad shows. It blends your bid, ad and landing-page quality, the Ad Rank thresholds, auction competitiveness, context, and expected asset impact.

The model that decides which clicks and touchpoints get credit for a conversion. Google Ads defaults to data-driven attribution, which spreads credit across the path rather than only the last click.

The keyword match type that lets Google show your ad on related searches, not just close variants. Since July 2024 it is the default for new Search campaigns and needs Smart Bidding plus negatives to stay efficient.

Clicks divided by impressions. The 2026 all-industry search average is 6.64%. A low CTR usually signals weak ad relevance or the wrong audience.

Google’s framework for adjusting tags based on a user’s consent choices. Required for EEA and UK advertisers since March 6, 2024 to keep remarketing and measurement working.

Conversions divided by clicks. The 2026 all-industry search average is 8.18%, but it ranges from under 3% in Finance to over 16% in Animals & Pets.

Total spend divided by conversions — what each conversion costs. Lead-gen accounts often track cost per lead (CPL) as the same idea for form fills and calls.

What you pay when someone clicks your ad. The 2026 all-industry search average is $5.42, from $1.63 in Arts & Entertainment to $9.87 in Legal.

The share of available impressions your ads actually won. Lost impression share is split into budget-limited and rank-limited, which tells you whether to add budget or improve quality.

How tightly a keyword controls which searches trigger your ad: broad (loosest), phrase (middle), and exact (tightest). The mix decides how much you rely on Smart Bidding versus manual control.

Terms you exclude so your ads never show for them. The single most reliable way to stop broad match and Performance Max from spending on irrelevant queries.

A goal-based campaign that serves across Search, Shopping, YouTube, Display, Gmail, Maps, and Discover from one asset set. Google reports up to 18–27% more conversions, but it hides query data and needs guardrails.

A 1–10 diagnostic of keyword quality built from expected CTR, ad relevance, and landing-page experience. It is a health signal, not a live auction input, but the same factors drive Ad Rank.

The standard Search ad format since Expanded Text Ads retired in 2022. You supply up to 15 headlines and 4 descriptions and Google assembles combinations per auction.

Revenue divided by ad spend. A 4:1 target is the common rule of thumb, though 2025 ecommerce averaged closer to 2.87:1, so the right target depends on margin.

The report of actual searches that triggered your ads. The primary source for new negatives and new keyword ideas, and the first place broad-match waste shows up.

Automated bid strategies that use auction-time signals to hit a goal: Maximize Conversions (with optional Target CPA) and Maximize Conversion Value (with optional Target ROAS).

A Smart Bidding goal that aims for an average cost per conversion. Now set as a field inside Maximize Conversions rather than a standalone strategy.

A Smart Bidding goal that aims for an average return on ad spend. Now set as a field inside Maximize Conversion Value.