Learning Centre

Learning Centre Help - AdWords Help
  Print this lesson

Lessons Catalogue

Lesson 1a: Introduction to AdWords

Quiz

Basic AdWords Features
Quiz

Quiz

   
Basic AdWords Features « Previous Topic       Next Topic  »

Objective: Learn some basic AdWords terminology. Understand the benefits of the Google Network, language and location targeting as well as placement targeting.

Basic Definitions Back to Top

Using Google AdWords for the first time may introduce you to some new terminology. Here are some of the most commonly used AdWords terms.

Cost-per-click (CPC): Under the CPC pricing model, AdWords will charge your account for each click on your ads. You will not incur any costs if your ad is displayed for a search query, but users do not click it.

Cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM): Under the CPM pricing model, AdWords will charge your account for each time your ad is displayed, whether a user clicks on it or not. You make your bid on each 1000 impressions your ad receives.

Quality Score: Quality Score is the basis for measuring the quality of your keyword and determining your minimum bid. Quality Score is determined by your keyword's click-through rate (CTR), relevance of your ad text, historical keyword performance and other relevancy factors. The higher your Quality Score, the lower your minimum bid and price you will pay per click.

Minimum bid: The amount assigned to a given keyword in your account based on its quality (or Quality Score). The minimum bid is usually the least amount you can pay per click in order for your keyword to show ads.

Click-through Rate (CTR): Your click-through rate (CTR) is a metric that helps show you how your ads are performing. The more relevant your ads are, the more often users will click on them, resulting in a higher CTR. The system calculates your CTR as follows: Number of ad clicks/number of impressions x 100.

The Google Network Back to Top

With Google AdWords, your ads are eligible to appear on the Google Network - comprising thousands of high-quality search and content sites and products across the web - in addition to Google search results pages. Electing to show your ads on the Google Network can greatly expand your marketing presence to customers you might not have reached on Google alone.

The Google Network is divided into the Google search network and the Google content network. Advertisers can choose to show their ads on either or both of these networks.

  • Google search network: Includes Google search pages, search sites and properties that display search results pages, such as Froogle and Earthlink. AdWords ads can appear alongside or above search results, as part of a results page as a user navigates through a site's directory, or on other relevant search pages.

  • Google content network: Includes news pages, topic-specific websites, blogs and other properties - such as Google Mail and The New York Times. AdWords ads can appear on a webpage if the content and URL of that page relate to the ad.

To learn more about the Google Network, see the Search and Content Targeting lesson.

Language & Location Targeting Back to Top

A significant benefit of AdWords is the ability to target your ads to almost any language and location worldwide. For example, you can target your ads to Spanish speakers in California or Portuguese speakers in Brazil. This language and location targeting functionality lets you tailor your ads and promotions to increase your business's appeal to a variety of audiences. To learn more, see the Location & Language Targeting lesson.

Placement Targeting Back to Top

AdWords offers two ways to target ads:

  • With keywords
  • With placements

Keyword targeting is Google's traditional advertising model, whereby advertisers select keywords that can trigger their ads to appear on Google search pages and on the Google content network. (Unless specified, most of the content in the Learning Centre focuses on keyword-targeted advertising.)

Placement targeting lets advertisers choose individual sites in the Google content network where they'd like their ads to appear. A placement can be an entire website or it can be a subset of pages or ad units on a site, as defined by the site's publisher. For example, a news site might offer you the chance to place your ads across its entire site, only on its front page or just in ad units on the upper half of its sports pages.

Placement targeting gives advertisers even greater flexibility to control exactly where their ads are shown. Keywords and placements are both available in AdWords campaigns. You can target keywords only, placements only or both keywords and placements to reach the audience you most want for your ads.

To learn more, visit the placement targeting lesson.

« Previous Topic       Next Topic  »