Are all these acronyms & marketing terms confusing or overwhelming?
Metrik marketing has developed a glossary of Internet terms of some of our most popular online advertising terminology to help you understand and guide you through quotes, proposals & reports. If something is still not clear, please Contact Us for a more in-depth definition. Be sure to ask us what we though Pay Per Click stood for when we first started.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Putting your message in front of people who are searching using particular keywords and key phrases.
Campaign Consists of one or more keyword clusters. The ads in a campaign share the same start and end dates, language, geographical targeting, daily budget and syndication options.
Clicks (also known as click-throughs) The process of clicking through an online advertisement to the advertiser’s destination.
Impressions (IMP) The number of times the ad is served or shown online.
Click-Through Rate (CTR) The average number of click-throughs per hundred ad impressions, expressed as a percentage.
Cost Per Click (CPC) Online advertising payment model in which payment is based solely on qualifying click-through. They are usually at the right side of the page.
Cost Per Engagement (CPE) Online advertising payment model in which payment is based on when an advert is “actually engaged by a target consumer”. Engagement is defined as a user interacting with an ad in any number of ways, including playing a game, taking a poll, rolling over an ad unit for a specified amount of time or taking a product tour.
Cost Per Action (CPA) also known as Pay Per Action (PPA) is an online advertising pricing model, where the advertiser pays for each specified action (a purchase, a form submission, and so on) linked to the advertisement.
Google Networks There are 3 types of Google Networks that an advertiser is able to advertise on. Most other Search Engines have similar setups.
Search Network The user is actively seeking information from a search engine.
Display Network (Content Network) The user clicks on your ad while reviewing content on another website. Ads can be Text, image, video, or rich media that are targeted based on themes in your keyword list, rather than specific keywords.
Site-Targeting Network ads run only on sites the advertisers select in the Google content network. These ads do not appear on search result pages.
Key Words / Key Phrases (KW or KWs) A word or phrase typed into a search engine when performing a search. (i.e.: “Insurance Quotes”)
Keyword Match Type There are four different keyword matching options, each specifying a different way for a keyword to interact with search queries
Broad Match If your ad group contained the keyword, your ad would be eligible to appear when a user’s search query contained your keyword, in any order and possibly along with other terms. The broad match modifier is an AdWords targeting feature that lets you create keywords which have greater reach than phrase match, and more control than broad match
Phrase Match If your ad group contained the keyword, your ad would be eligible to appear when a user searches on the keyword, in the selected order, & possibly with other terms before or after the phrase
Exact Match If your ad group contained the keyword, your ad would be eligible to appear when a user searches for the specific keyword or phrase only in the order you selected in your ad Group
Negative Match Ensures your ad doesn’t show for any search that includes that term
Ad Group contains one or more ads which target a set of keywords or sites. The advertiser sets a maximum cost per click (CPC) or cost per thousand impressions (CPM) for all the keywords or sites in the Ad Group. The advertiser may also set prices for individual keywords or sites within the Ad Group.
Reporting Period Current period of reporting.
Text Ad advertisement using text-based hyperlinks, these are generally used in CPC campaigns.
Campaign To Date (CTD) Results for entire campaign duration.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) This is the process of editing a web site’s content and code in order to improve visibility within one or more search engines.
Search Engine Results Page (SERP) the page delivered to a searcher that displays the results of a search query entered into the search field. Displays both paid ad (sponsored) and organic listings in varying positions or rank.
Organic / Natural Results are listings on SERPs that were not paid for; listings for which search engines do not sell space. Search engine has applied formulas (algorithms) to its search crawler index, combined with editorial decisions and content weighting, that it deems important enough inclusion without payment.
Pages Indexed – this is the number of pages of your site that the search engines have crawled and included in the index. Ideally this number equal to the actual number of pages your site has; large discrepancies over or under can be indicative of a larger problem with your website.
Search Engine Saturation (Saturation) the number of URLs included from a specific web site in any given search engine. The higher the saturation level or number of pages indexed into a search engine, the higher the potential traffic levels and rankings.
Inlinks – the number of links pointing to your site as reported by the search engines.
Social Media Glossary Terms are fairly new and still changing. To date here are the most popular terms we use.
Social Networking, Social Media, or Web2.0 website where individuals or organizations can connect and communicate via interaction with the site’s various protocols. Popular platforms are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Flickr & MySpace.
Social media marketing (SMM) is the process of generating interest and excitement in a product or service through various online social outlets.
Social Media Optimization (SMO) changes implemented to optimize a site so that it is more easily linked to, more highly visible in social media searches on custom search engines and more frequently included in relevant posts on blogs, podcasts and vlogs.
Facebook Reporting Glossary
Date The date on which the activity reported in the row of the report took place. Please note that monthly reports will be dated on the first of each month and weekly reports will be dated on the Sunday that marks the beginning of the week.
Ad/Campaign Name The name of the ad/campaign reported in the row.
Total Impressions The total number of times the ad referenced was shown has been shown on the site.
Total Clicks The total number of clicks on the ads tracked by that row in the report.
Total CTR stands for click through rate. The CTR for an ad is calculated as the number of clicks the ad received divided by the number of impressions (times the ad was shown on the site) in the given time period.
Total Average CPC The average cost per click for the given row.
Total Average CPM The average cost per thousand impressions for the given row.
Total Spent The total investment for the given row.
Unique Impressions The number of people who viewed the ad(s) tracked by the given row of the report.
Unique Clicks The number of people who clicked on the ad(s) tracked by the given row of the report.
Unique CTR The unique click through rate. The unique CTR is calculated as the number of unique clicks the ad(s) received divided by the number of unique ad impressions.
Total Social Impressions The total number of views (impressions) for ads with social actions attached to them for the given row. Not all ads have social actions attached to them.
Total Social Clicks The number of clicks on ads with social actions attached to them for the given row. Not all ads have social actions attached to them.
Total Social CTR The click through rate for ads with social actions attached to them. It is calculated as the number of “social clicks” divided by the total number of “social impressions”.
Unique Social Impressions The number of people who viewed ads with social actions attached to them for the given row of the report.
Unique Social Clicks The number of people who clicked on ads with social actions attached to them for the given row.
Unique Social CTR The unique click through rate for ads with social actions attached to them. It is calculated as the number of “unique social clicks” divided by the number of “unique social impressions”.
For a more indepth list of definitions Visit SEMPO’s Search Engine Optimization & Marketing Glossary available in English, Spanish & Portuguese, or get up to speed with the Google Ads Glossary.