Confused by the jargon? We've included this glossary to help define many of the special terms you'll find in SEM and our application.
A set of ads and related keywords within a campaign.
The title and description displayed in a keyword search ad.
The position of your ad within the sponsored search results (i.e. where your ad appears on a SERP, and what page it appears on). You control your listing's rank based on how much you bid for keywords. See Rank and Position.
The formula a search engine uses to rank results and listings within its index in response to a particular query. Search engine companies keep their algorithms confidential to protect themselves from spammers and competitors.
A tool for communicating with search engine campaign platforms. Adapt SEM uses APIs from Google AdWords and Yahoo Marketing Solutions to make changes to your search campaigns on your behalf.
When a keyword contributes to a conversion that was credited to a different keyword.
Modifying the amount you are willing to pay for a keyword displayed in ad text.
An Adapt SEM tool that will painlessly convert your existing campaign data to the new Yahoo Search Marketing Panama platform (for Professional and Agency tier subscribers only).
The action of clicking an ad that takes visitors to your Destination Page or Landing Page.
Expressed as a percentage and calculated as follows:
Clickthroughs / Impressions x 100 = CTR.
For example, your CTR is 1% if 100 people see your ad and one person clicks through to your site. CTRs typically range from 0.5% for banner ads to 3.0% for text links. Also known as ad impression ratio.
The suite of Adapt SEM tools that allows Professional and Agency tier subscribers to compare search listings to those of their competitors'.
Advertisements appearing on sites or mobile phones, which are served based on the content displayed by the user (e.g. relevant product reviews, articles, new stories, etc). Contextual Advertising does not rely upon keyword search queries, and instead the content of your ad's title, description, and landing page, and the user's IP address is used to determine placement. These ads are more targeted so they are likely to generate more clicks, in turn, generating revenue for the owner of the site (and the server of the advertisement). Referred to as "Content Match" on Yahoo Marketing Solutions and "Contextual Targeting" on Google AdWords. Examples of contextual advertising programs include Google AdSense, Yahoo Publisher Network, and Microsoft adCenter Content Ads.
Occurs when a visitor successfully completes an action on your site. Conversion types vary from site to site depending on business goals. For example, a conversion can be a visitor signing up for your email newsletter, completing a "more information" form, filling out a survey, purchasing a product, providing an email address, or just visiting a specific page on your site.
A tracking tool that lets you see how your search listings are performing. Conversion counters measure the number of clickthroughs that lead to conversions on your site. Both Google AdWords and Yahoo Marketing Solutions offer conversion tracking to their customers at no charge.
See Data Input & Settings to learn how to track your ad conversions.
A Yahoo feature that allows you to track conversions and revenue on your site generated from your Sponsored Search and Content Match ads.
The percentage of visits to your site that result in a lead, sale, or other ad goal. The conversion rate is calculated by the formula:
Number of visitors who respond to your ad's call to action / Impressions x 100 = CR
For example, if 30 out of 1,000 users clickthrough to your site and purchase a product, the conversion rate is 3%.
An advertising model where an advertiser pays a publisher an agreed amount each time a user clicks on a link leading to the advertiser's site. CPC is calculated by the formula:
Cost of advertising / Number of clicks = CPC
Also referred to as Pay-Per-Click (PPC).
The average advertising/marketing cost to acquire each new customer. It's calculated by the formula:
Total cost of advertising / Total number of new (customers, leads, or sales) = CPA
See Target CPA and the section on CPA to learn more.
A traditional direct marketing measure that reflects the cost of generating a qualified prospect. In paid search advertising, cost-per-click and cost-per-lead are synonymous.
Advertisers pay an agreed amount for the number of times their ad is seen by a consumer, regardless of the consumer's subsequent action. These ads are often sold in blocks of 1,000 ("M" is the Roman numeral for 1,000).
A search engine component that gathers listings by "crawling" the web. It follows links to web pages, copies them, and stores them in a search engine's index. Also called a Spider or a robot.
The ability to run different ads during specific times of the day, or bid different amounts depending on the time of day. The majority of search engine traffic comes during daytime hours, with peaks during the lunch hours of all U.S. time zones. An advertiser may want to target these key hours.
Google refers to day-parting as "ad scheduling".
The first web page a user sees after clicking your ad. This could be your home page, a dedicated page for a product or service, or a deep link to a specific product in your online store. Also called a Landing Page.
A measurement used to determine a site's ability to convert visitors into customers. The formula for EPC is calculated as:
Total sales / Total page views = EPC
Another measurement used to determine a site's ability to convert visitors into customers. The formula for EPV is calculated as:
Total sales / Total number of visitors = EPV
A feature that allows ads to be displayed within a specific geographic area, or displayed to users who express an interest in a particular locality. For example, a business that sells real estate in California can selects the state as its sales region. Ads will be displayed to customers located within California, as well as to anyone who searches for relevant terms like "California Real Estate". Also called "regional targeting".
While SEM goals are unique to each company (e.g. increasing conversions, keeping down your CPA, generating leads, etc.), they primarily fall into two different categories: Cost-Per-Acquisition (CPA) and Cost-Per-Click (CPC).
The number of times a search listing or ad is displayed. Each time your keyword appears on a SERP, it counts as one impression.
A keyword where the maximum CPC doesn't meet the minimum bid requirement to trigger ads on search engines and their search network partners. The keywords associated with these ads often generate a high volume of impressions but no clicks, indicating a lack of interest from searchers. Inactive keywords can adversely affect your account's Google Quality Score and/or its Yahoo Quality Index. This may, in turn, result in higher per-click charges to your campaigns.
Any grouping of SEM efforts that share a common goal. These may be specific campaigns, your entire account on one goal search, or individual campaigns on each search engine. When you create an Initiative,Adapt SEMx produces recommendations based on the goals you've specified.
Examples of Initiatives include:
See Initiatives & Goals for easy-to-follow instructions on setting up an Initiative.
A programming language used extensively on the Internet to make web pages interactive. For example, Google and Yahoo use JavaScript to track your ad conversions.
A word or multi-word phrase entered into a search engine to find information, products, or services online. Advertisers select and bid on keywords that are relevant to their products or services.
Removing keywords from your search marketing campaign.
Finding keywords to add to your search marketing campaign by locating terms that semantically relate to your keywords currently in use. The more focused and relevant your keywords are, the more exposure your site will receive and the more customers you'll attract.
ThisAdapt SEMx tool quickly generates lists of new keywords that can be added to your search engine marketing campaigns (for Professional and Agency tier subscribers only).
The practice of buying advertising space on a particular (SERP); not to be confused with PPC advertising. Keyword purchasing offers a fairly high level of targeted advertising, as the ad is only displayed to users who enter specific keyword queries.
A web page where customers "land" when they click through to your site from a search listing, banner, link, or other advertising element.
Allow you to eliminate searches that you know are not related to your ad campaign. For example, if you sell men's suits you might want to add negative keywords for swim and bathing. This will help ensure that ads for men's swimsuits and men's bathing suits do not appear alongside your ad. Negative keywords should be used with caution, as they can potentially eliminate a large portion of a desired audience if applied incorrectly.
Changes made to your search marketing campaigns to improve results and reach your goals. These changes can generate cost savings, bring more visitors to your site, and increase the likelihood that a site's visitors become customers.
Optimization involves many elementsAdapt SEMx can assist you with, including:
To successfully optimize your campaigns, you must first track their performance.
See Data Input & Settings to learn how.
An advertising program where a web page is guaranteed to be included in a search engine's index in exchange for payment. Paying a fee does not affect the position of a site-it only assures that the site will be listed in the search engine or directory. Also called pay-for-inclusion (PFI).
Listings that search engines sell to advertisers, usually through Paid Placement or Paid Inclusion programs. In contrast, organic listings are not sold. The term also refers to keyword-targeted advertisements, where the advertiser pays the search engine a fixed amount to have its ad shown on the SERP for a specific keyword.
An advertising program where listings are guaranteed to appear in response to particular search terms, and higher rankings can be achieved by paying more than other advertisers, though there is no guarantee. Paid placement listings can be purchased from a portal or search networks like Google and Yahoo. Search networks are often set up in an auction environment where keywords and phrases are associated with a Cost-Per-Click fee.
Often confused with a hit, a page view refers to the actual number of pages – not files – viewed by all visitors who come to a site during a specific time period.
Sometimes used as a synonym for Pay-Per-Click, stressing to advertisers that they are only paying for ads that "perform" in delivering traffic. In contrast, Cost-Per-Thousand-based ads cost money, even if they don't generate a click.
A system where advertiser pays an agreed amount for each time a user clicks on a link leading to their site. Synonymous with Cost-Per-Click (CPC).
Detailed information provided by search engines to reflect what is happening in your account. Performance reports typically indicate click costs, impressions, conversions, click-through rates, and more. Also called conversion data, performance data is used byAdapt SEMx to:
See Data Input & Settings to learn howAdapt SEMx gathers your Google AdWords and Yahoo Marketing Solutions performance data.
How well a particular page or site is listed on a SERP (i.e. whether is appears first or fourth among displayed ad results). See Rank.
A relative measure used by Yahoo to track your ad's performance. The Quality Index takes into account your ad's click-through rate, relative to its position and to other ads displayed at the same time. The overall Quality Index is calculated across each Ad Group keyword for which your ad is displayed.
A relative measure used by Google to encourage relevant and successful ads, and for setting your keyword status, minimum CPC bid, and ad rank in an ad auction.
Your Quality Score is influenced by many factors, including your keyword's click-through rate (CTR), the relevance of your ad text, keywords, and the landing page.
Where an ad or page displays in the research results (i.e. whether it's listed on the first page of results, the second page, or perhaps even the 200th page). See Position.
The list of recommendations provided byAdapt SEMx after analyzing your performance data and comparing it to your Initiative goals. The Recommendations are displayed from highest to lowest priority and by type. Types include changes to bids, keywords, budgets, and Ad Groups.
Check out the Recommendations section to learn more about managing your bid and keyword changes.
A measurement often used to determine the success of a marketing campaign. ROAS is expressed as a percentage and is calculated by the formula:
[(Sales from marketing campaign - Ad spend of marketing campaign) / Ad spend of campaign] x 100 = ROAS.
For example, ROAS on a campaign that spent $2500 in click costs and generated $7500 in sales is calculated as follows:
[($7500 - $2500) / $2500] x 100 = 200%
A measurement often used by marketers to determine the success of their marketing campaigns. ROI expressed as a percentage and calculated by the formula:
[(Sales or revenues - Cost) / Cost] x 100=ROI
ROI is usually a broad calculation, which includes the cost of the marketing campaign, salaries, cost of goods, depreciation, etc. Still, this is a metric used by many marketers in a simpler way, where cost includes only the fees of the marketing campaign. This ROI calculation is more typically referred to as ROAS, or "return-on-ad-spend".
Marketing a site through a search engine. Examples include improving an ad's Rank in the organic listings, purchasing paid listings, or a combination of these and other search engine-related activities. While SEM is used as an umbrella term, it typically refers to the paid side of marketing a site in the search results (e.g. through Pay-Per-Click advertising).
Altering a site so it has a higher likelihood of appearing in the organic listings of a search engine. In the past, SEO was used to describe any type of SEM activity.
The page displayed by a search engine in response to a query.
Relating to meaning in language.
Allows Googe AdWords advertisers to select individual sites within the Google content network (e.g. blogs and email programs) where they'd like their ads to appear. Ad display is based on content themes rather than specific keywords.
A browser-like program that searches the Internet for pages to include in a search engine's index. Also known as a Crawler.
The maximum price you are willing to pay to acquire a new customer, lead or, sale. TCPA can also be an arbitrary number set by a marketer to achieve financial goals. It's calculated by the formula:
Marketing budget / Target number of (customers, leads, or sales) = Target CPA
ThisAdapt SEMx tool identifies the keywords that are strongly contributing to those of your campaign's performance and where your ads currently rank. You can use the Top Keywords tool to compare your ads to your competitors' (for Professional and Agency tier subscribers only).
Provides information about the source of the click, the search query used, and other advertising metrics. Tracking URLs help advertisers determine the effectiveness of their ads and keywords. Also known as "Destination URL" and "Clickthrough URL".
A person who visits a site. One person may generate multiple visits over a specific time period, so log files typically show more visits than unique visitors. See Visitor.
The number of times people visit a site - not the actual number of people visiting it.
