So you’ve done a little research on Paid Ads and are bombarded with acronyms and technical jargon. It’s completely overwhelming at first. That’s why Lafayette Louisiana Website has created this simple guide explaining the ABCs of SEO. Don’t get caught off-guard by the next salesman trying to impress you with mumbo jumbo that they heard in a seminar once. We’ll teach you what you need to know about paid search marketing. In this article, we will list the main terms for Pay-Per-Click advertising.

Pay-Per-Click or PPC

PPC, pay-per-click, is a type of search engine marketing (SEM) that follows a paid advertising model. The beauty of PPC advertising is that you are only paying when people click on your ad. This makes PPC a particularly beneficial form of online marketing.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

SEM refers to any form of online marketing that targets Search Engines. Think of it as the umbrella under which all organic (unpaid) and paid advertising operates. Even though Google represents a large share of the search market, Yahoo, Bing, Duck Duck Go, and others can present an excellent opportunity to rank.

Cost-Per-Click (CPC)

CPC is the amount you would pay on each click for your search engine ad. When placing a Cost-Per-Click ad, you set the amount you are willing to pay for a single click on your ad. Naturally, you would assume that the more money you spend. The better placement you’ll get in the CPC auction. It’s more complicated though, as you are also rated based on relevancy and quality of content when bidding.

Ad Rank

Your Ad Rank is the value which decides the position your ad places in the search results page.

Quality Score

Each ad is given a Quality Score based on the clickthrough rate, quality of landing page, the relevance of keywords, and past performance. This quality score significantly impacts the amount you will pay per click.

Maximum Bid

When placing your ad, you can set the amount you are willing to spend on each ad and not to exceed. This can either be done manually, by setting the bid, or enhanced, which is adjusted by the search engines automatically. Enhanced typically changes the bid based on conversions or clicks and overall budget to spend your dollar during peak times better.

Campaign

Each search engine ad requires a Campaign. Your campaign can be comprised of multiple ads, or ad groups, which all fit a certain category or theme with a common goal in mind.

Ad Group

An Ad Group is a series of ads within the campaign that relate to specific keywords. Each Ad Group can have its own Cost Per Click assigned to it.

Keywords

Perhaps the most important part of the equation, Keywords are the targetted words or search terms. You will select which terms you are bidding for to rank whenever someone searches for them.

Ad Text

Ad text is the copy that is written in your ads to entice users to click through to your website. Keywords should be included in your ads that users are likely to search. Remember, the relevance of the keywords to the ad placement will affect your ads Quality Score.

Landing Page

The landing page is the page where users click through from the ad. It is the second half of the equation of your ad strategy. The most effective landing pages are specifically tailored to the audience you are targetting.