A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M|N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

A

Actual Cost Per Click

The amount you actually pay for each click, considering your click through rate and the performances of your competitor ads. In this way, you may get to pay less than you bid.

Ad Group

An ad group can contain one or more ads targeting the same group of keywords.

Ad Rank/Ad positioning

The ad rank is calculated by considering the bid (max. cost per click), the click through rate and ad text.

Ad Served Percentage

The number of times an ad is displayed, in relation to the number of searches and the other ads in the ad group.

AdSense

An advertising program by which Google acts as the intermediary between content sites and web advertisers.

AdWords Discounter

The Google tool that allows you to pay less that your maximum bid, as soon as your competition loosens.

Affiliate

Someone who sells online other people's products and services and earn from commissions. When you subscribe to an affiliate program you become an affiliate (marketer).

Affiliate Directory

A list on the web where you can find affiliate programs.

Affiliate Link

A link on your website that refers to a program you are affiliated with.

Affiliate Marketing

The sum of activities you develop to promote the programs you are affiliated with.

Affiliate Network

A specialized intermediary website that links between affiliate marketers and merchants, providing a wide range of services to both categories.

Affiliate Program

A system defined by a merchant site by which it attracts affiliates.

API

The acronym from Application Programming Interface.

Average Cost Per Click

The average amount you pay when somebody clicks on one of your ads.

Average position

Your ad's positioning on the average throughout a period of time.

B

Bid

The maximum amount of money you are willing to pay for a click on your ad; the same as maximum cost per click (Max. CPC).

Broad Match

An option that relates to keywords set-up. By using the broad match option, your ad will display for every possible search phrase that uses your keyword phrase. The broad match doesn't consider the topic of the words or the existence of additional words in the search phrase.

C

Click Through Rate (CTR)

The ratio/percentage of the number of times an ad is clicked divided by the number of times an ad is viewed.

Content Network

The network of websites that are being subscribed to the Google AdSense program and thus can display the Ads by Google.

Conversion Rate

The percent of people that buy your product/service of all who visit your webpage.

Cookie

A small text file that you can store on your hard drive and allows you to track the visitors to your website and how many times they come back.

Copy

The actual text of your ad or webpage.

Cost Per Click (CPC)

The amount of money you pay to a search engine for one click on your ad.

Cost Per View/Cost Per Impression

A concept by which you pay not for the clicks on your ad but for the number of people that view your ad.

D

Daily Budget

The maximum amount of money you are willing to spend in one day with Google AdWords.

Destination URL

The actual URL of your landing page (the webpage you send your visitors to).

Display URL

The "cosmetic" URL that displays in your ad.

E

Editorial Guidelines

A list of do's and don't do's assessed by Google, that you have to know by heart and comply with when using AdWords.

Exact Match

A keyword option by which you set your ad to be displayed only when the search phrase you define and that of the internet user match exactly. When you use this option you put your keyword phrases in brackets.

F

Full Ad Delivery

An expression for those ads that are displayed for all the searches that match the keywords they target.

G

Geo-targeting

Geographical targeting. Describes the distribution of your ad to Internet users in different countries.

Gmail

The email service from Google. It displays AdSense ads that relate when possible to the subject of the conversation.

GoTo

The former name of Yahoo's pay per click program - Overture.

GoToast

The former name of Atlas One Point, a bid management service.

H

Hit

When people click on your webpage you say they make hits.

Home Page

The main page of your website. Usually not recommended to make it your landing page, because it has less targeted content.

I

Impression

When somebody views your ad but doesn't click on it, it means your ad has got one impression. Impressions are counted by the number of searches that your ad is being displayed for.

In-house Advertising

All the advertising activities that are done by one or more people within the company, with no contribution from a specialized agency.

K

Keyword/Keyword Phrase

The term or phrase that a user types in the search box of a search engine, in order to receive more information that relates to that term/phrase.

Keyword Matching

A set of options that, when applied to the keywords in your AdWords account, allow you to control the distribution of your ad. Through keyword matching you "tell" the system how exactly to match your keywords with those of the people that make a search.

Keyword Status

In your AdWords account, your keywords may have four statuses: Disabled, In Trial, Normal and On Hold.

Keyword Tool

A tool that you can use as soon as you set-up your AdWords account. It allows you to estimate numbers like keyword-popularity and maximum cost per click.

L

Landing Page

The webpage that you send your visitors to, through one or more ads.

M

Maximum/Minimum Cost Per Click

The maximum cost per click is the amount of money you have to pay for one click so that your ad ranks best. The minimum cost per click with AdWords is five cents.

MediaPartners Bot

Mediapartners bot is responsible for ads served to you. Do not confuse Googlebot with it.

Misspellings

Errors in spelling. You have to take them into consideration when building your keyword list. The reason is that many people type their search phrases with misspellings, but they are still potential targeted traffic for you.

Merchant

A person who sells a product or service online. Usually, a merchant is referred to as the person that also opens affiliate programs that you can join.

Metrics

All the numbers that you need to know in order to track your campaign results.

N

Negative Keyword

A keyword that defines the term(s) you don't want your ad to display for.

O

Organic Results

The unpaid results which are being displayed at the left of the search engine's results page when somebody makes a search.

Overture

The first pay per click program, that belongs to Yahoo, formerly known as GoTo. Today, Overture is the main competitor of Google.

P

Paid Placement

The reverse of organic placement. The system through which you agree to pay so that your ad is displayed on a search engine results page (SERP)

Pay Per Click (PPC)

A concept for online advertising where you pay a certain amount of money each time somebody clicks on your ad.

Pay Per Lead

The amount of money you spend to generate an action from one visitor. That action doesn't necessarily have to be a purchase, but a subscription to your newsletter for example.

Pay Per Sale

The amount of money you need to pay to generate a sale through your website.

Pay Per View

The system by which you pay every time when somebody views your ad, even if that person doesn't click on it; A concept that is not very popular anymore.

Phrase Match

The option that limits your ad to be displayed only when somebody types in the search box a phrase that includes your keywords, in the same order.

R

Reactivation Fee

The amount of money you have to pay every time you restore full delivery of your account after it has been slowed.

Relevancy

The accuracy of the match between the keyword typed in the search box by an Internet user, and the results returned by the search engine.

Results Page

The list of resources a search engine returns when somebody performs a search.

Return On Investment (ROI)

A percentual expression of the amount of money you gain for the sum you invest.

S

Search Engine

A web-based program that allows users to search and retrieve specific information available on the Internet.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

A single term definition for both pay per click (PPC) advertising and search engine optimization (SEO).

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

A term that defines the sum of activities you run in order to promote your website as high as possible among the organic results on a search results page.

Search Engine Results Page (SERP)

See results page.

Search Term

A word or phrase through which a person defines what s/he is looking for. The phrase is used to inquire the database of indexed pages of a search engine.

Statistics, Stats

All the data that expresses the results of your campaign: totals, percents, means, evolution curves and predictions.

Stemming

The family of words that derive from the same base (radical). Word stemming is a common way of generating new keywords.

T

Targeted Traffic

The number of people that visit your website and actually have the potential to become customers right away or at a further moment.

Tracking URL

URL that has specific parameters assigned to it, allowing you to gather information about the source of the click, the search query used, and other metrics.

Traffic

The number of people that visit your webpage, being led there by your ads.

Two-tier

An Internet marketing model that allows affiliates to sign-up for other affiliates. The principle is similar to multi-level marketing.

U

Unique Visitor

The unique IP address that describes the identity of the visitor.

URL (Uniform Resource Locator)

A unique sequence of characters that describes the location of a webpage.

Usability

The potential of a website to return value to its users as quickly and easily as possible.

W

WordTracker

The keyword tool most widely used by PPC advertisers.