Basic AdWords Features

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

About the Google Network

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 Gmail 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 Contextual Targeting lesson.

Basic AdWords Definitions

Using Google AdWords for the first time may introduce you to some new terminology. Here are a few of the most commonly used AdWords terms.
Cost-per-click (CPC): Under its cost-per-click (CPC) pricing model, AdWords charges you for each click your ads receive. You won't incur any costs if your ad is displayed for a search query and users don't click it.
Quality Score: Quality Score is the basis for measuring the quality of your keyword and ad and determining your cost-per-clicks (CPCs). Quality Score is determined by your keyword's clickthrough rate (CTR), relevance of your ad text, historical keyword performance, and other relevancy factors. The higher your Quality Score, the lower the price you'll pay per click.
First page bid estimates: You can find a first page bid estimate for each of your keywords on the Keyword Analysis page. This metric estimates the cost-per-click (CPC) bid needed for your ad to reach the first page of Google search results when the search query exactly matches your keyword. The first page bid estimate is based on the Quality Score and current advertiser competition for that keyword.
Clickthrough Rate (CTR): Your clickthrough rate (CTR) is a metric that helps show 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.
To learn about more common terms, visit our full Glossary.

About Language and Location Targeting

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 to 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 Language and Location Targeting lesson.

About Keyword and Placement Targeting

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 Center 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 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 show. 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.

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