The Google Ads terms you'll hit most often break into four groups: cost/bidding (CPC, CPA, ROAS), targeting (match types, negative keywords, remarketing), performance metrics (CTR, CPM, Quality Score, impression share) and campaign types (Search, Shopping, PMax, Display). Below is what each actually means, in plain English.
Start a conversationMost business owners I work with don’t need to become PPC experts — they need to be able to sit in a monthly call, read a report, or spot when an agency is quietly padding a number, without having to nod along to jargon. Google Ads has its own dense vocabulary, and it’s easy to lose confidence in a conversation the moment someone drops “impression share” or “attribution model” without explaining it.
This is the reference I wish more clients had before their first call with an agency. No fluff, no invented benchmarks — just what each term means and why it matters to your budget.
Nobody needs to memorise all of this to run a business well — that’s what an agency or consultant is for. But knowing the difference between a keyword and a search term, or between CPC and CPA, is usually enough to ask one good follow-up question in a review call that tells you a lot about whether the person reporting to you actually understands your account, or is just reading out a template.
CPC is the cost of a single click. CPA is the cost of a single conversion (sale, lead, or booking). A campaign can have a low CPC and still be expensive if very few of those clicks actually convert — CPA is usually the more meaningful number for judging whether spend is working.
Because broad and phrase match keywords let Google match your ad to related searches beyond the exact words you added, based on meaning and intent. This is by design, not a bug — but it’s exactly why checking the search terms report regularly and adding negative keywords matters.
It’s a useful diagnostic rather than a goal in itself. A low Quality Score usually points to a real problem — weak ad relevance or a poor landing page experience — that’s also hurting your cost per click. Fix the underlying issue and the score tends to follow, rather than optimising for the score directly.
ROAS targets are built around revenue, so they suit ecommerce accounts where every conversion has a trackable value. CPA targets are built around cost per conversion regardless of value, which tends to suit lead generation businesses where the ‘value’ of a lead isn’t a fixed number at the point of conversion.
It depends on the cause. Impression share lost to budget means you’re capped by spend and missing eligible traffic. Impression share lost to rank means your bids or Quality Score aren’t competitive enough. Google Ads reports these separately, and the fix is different for each.
Not in detail, but it’s worth knowing that the default model splits credit across multiple touchpoints rather than giving it all to the last click. If someone reports results to you using only last-click numbers on a business with a longer buying journey, they may be under-crediting the earlier ads that started the process.
I can go through your actual Google Ads account with you — plain English, no templated report — and tell you honestly what's working, what isn't, and what each of these terms actually means for your numbers. Start a conversation.
Call 07410 907 104 Start a conversation