GoogleAdsGlossaryforEcommerce

AOV (Average Order Value)

Average Order Value (AOV) is total revenue divided by number of orders. In ecommerce advertising, higher AOV improves profitability by spreading customer acquisition costs across larger basket sizes.

The average amount spent per transaction. Calculated by dividing total revenue by number of orders. Higher AOV typically improves advertising efficiency by spreading acquisition costs across larger purchases.

Absolute Top Impression Share

The percentage of your ad impressions that appear in the very first position above all organic results. Useful for brand defence but often comes at a premium cost.

Ad Rank

Google's score that determines your ad position and whether your ad shows at all. Calculated from bid, Quality Score, and expected impact of extensions and formats.

Ad Strength

Google's rating of your responsive search or display ad quality. Ranges from 'Poor' to 'Excellent' but doesn't directly correlate with performance. A 'Poor' ad can outperform an 'Excellent' one.

Affinity Audiences

Google's predefined audience segments based on users' demonstrated interests and habits. Useful for awareness but typically too broad for direct response campaigns.

Asset

Any creative element used in Google Ads: headlines, descriptions, images, videos, or logos. Performance Max and Responsive ads combine assets automatically.

Asset Group

A collection of creative assets within Performance Max campaigns, including headlines, descriptions, images, and videos. Google combines these automatically to create ads across all its networks.

Asset Group Dilution

The degradation of Performance Max performance when too many products are grouped together, preventing Google's algorithm from learning effective patterns. Occurs when asset groups lack commercial coherence or contain products with conflicting margins.

Attribution

The process of assigning credit to marketing touchpoints that contributed to a conversion. Google Ads uses various attribution models including last-click, data-driven, and linear attribution.

Audience Segment

A group of users defined by shared characteristics: demographics, interests, behaviours, or past interactions. Used to target or exclude specific user groups.

Auction Insights

A Google Ads report showing how your ads perform relative to competitors in the same auctions. Useful for competitive analysis but shouldn't drive strategy on its own.

Auto-Apply Recommendations

Google's feature that automatically implements its suggestions without manual approval. Often prioritises Google's revenue over advertiser profit. Proceed with extreme caution.

Agentic Commerce

Agentic Commerce is AI agents researching and purchasing products on behalf of consumers. Brands must optimise product data for machine readability, not just human browsing, as AI-driven purchasing grows.

The emerging model where AI agents (not humans) research, compare, and purchase products on behalf of consumers. Requires product data to be machine-readable and structured for AI interpretation, not just human browsing.

AI Overview (AIO)

AI Overviews are Google's AI-generated answers above search results. They reduce organic clicks but create citation opportunities for brands with structured, authoritative content that AI can reference.

Google's AI-generated summary that appears above organic search results, synthesising information from multiple sources. Reduces click-through to websites but creates citation opportunities for brands with authoritative, structured content.

Bid Adjustment

A percentage increase or decrease to your base bid based on device, location, time, or audience. Less relevant with Smart Bidding but still available in manual campaigns.

Bid Cap

The maximum amount you're willing to pay for a click or conversion. Protects against overspending but may limit delivery in competitive auctions.

Blended ROAS

Return on ad spend calculated across all advertising channels combined, rather than per-channel. Provides a holistic view of marketing efficiency but can mask underperforming channels.

Brand Lift

The measurable increase in brand awareness, consideration, or intent resulting from advertising. Typically measured through surveys comparing exposed and unexposed groups.

Brand Tax

Brand Tax is ad spend on branded search that captures demand you would have received organically. It inflates ROAS by claiming credit for inevitable conversions. Reducing Brand Tax improves true advertising efficiency.

The portion of advertising spend that captures demand you would have received anyway, particularly through branded search terms. High brand tax means paying to convert customers who were already going to purchase. Represents a hidden cost that inflates ROAS while providing minimal incremental value.

Branded Search

Search queries that include your brand name or variations of it. These typically convert at higher rates but often capture demand that already exists, rather than creating new customers.

Break-Even ROAS

Break-Even ROAS is the minimum return on ad spend needed to cover all costs with zero profit. Calculated from gross margin percentage. A 25% margin requires 4.0 ROAS just to break even.

The minimum ROAS required to cover all costs and achieve zero profit. Calculated from product margins, fulfilment costs, and payment fees. Any ROAS below this level loses money.

Broad Match

The loosest keyword match type, triggering ads for related queries, synonyms, and conceptually similar searches. Offers reach but requires strong negatives and monitoring.

Budget Pacing

How quickly your daily or campaign budget is spent. Standard delivery spreads spend evenly; accelerated delivery spends as fast as possible. Smart Bidding handles pacing automatically.

Basket Economics

The analysis of profitability at the order level rather than the product level. A basket containing one high-margin and two low-margin products may be profitable overall even if individual products wouldn't justify ad spend alone.

CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is the total cost to acquire one new customer, including ad spend, agency fees, and creative costs. Unlike CPA, CAC excludes repeat purchases and measures true new customer economics.

The total cost to acquire a new customer, including advertising spend, agency fees, and related costs. Distinguished from CPA by focusing specifically on new customers rather than all conversions.

Call Extension

An ad extension displaying your phone number, allowing mobile users to call directly from the ad. Useful for high-consideration purchases where customers have questions.

Cannibalisation

When advertising claims credit for sales that would have happened organically, particularly in branded search. High cannibalisation means wasted spend with no incremental value.

Click Fraud

Invalid clicks from bots, competitors, or malicious actors designed to waste your budget. Google filters most invalid clicks but some still get through.

Commercial Role

The strategic purpose assigned to each product in your catalogue. Roles include Margin Driver (profit focus), Cash Recycler (volume), Stock Clearance (inventory reduction), and Controlled Scale (deliberate growth limits). Each role requires different bidding strategies.

Contribution Margin

Contribution Margin is revenue minus all variable costs: product cost, fulfilment, payment fees, and ad spend. It reveals the actual profit each sale contributes after covering direct costs. Essential for SKU-level advertising decisions.

Revenue minus variable costs (COGS, fulfilment, payment processing) and advertising spend. Shows the actual profit contribution from paid advertising after accounting for direct costs.

Contribution Margin Threshold

The minimum contribution margin required for a product to be advertised profitably. Calculated by considering product margin, advertising costs, and target profitability. Products below this threshold should not receive ad spend.

Conversion Action

A specific event you track as valuable: purchase, lead form, phone call, or add to cart. Primary conversions feed Smart Bidding; secondary conversions track but don't optimise.

Conversion Rate

The percentage of clicks that result in a purchase. Calculated by dividing conversions by clicks. While important, optimising solely for conversion rate can miss margin and profit opportunities.

Conversion Value

The monetary value assigned to each conversion. For ecommerce, typically order revenue. Dynamic values are essential for value-based bidding strategies like Target ROAS.

CPA (Cost Per Acquisition)

The cost to generate one conversion. Calculated by dividing total spend by number of conversions. Unlike CAC, CPA may include repeat purchases from existing customers.

CPC (Cost Per Click)

The amount paid for each click on your ads. Determined by auction dynamics, quality score, and competition. Lower CPC isn't always better if click quality is poor.

CPM (Cost Per Mille)

The cost per thousand impressions. Primarily used in display and video campaigns where awareness rather than clicks is the goal.

CSS (Comparison Shopping Service)

Services that aggregate product listings from multiple retailers. Google CSS partners can show Shopping ads with reduced margin requirements, lowering effective CPCs by up to 20%.

CTR (Click-Through Rate)

The percentage of impressions that result in clicks. Calculated by dividing clicks by impressions. Influences Quality Score and can indicate ad relevance, but high CTR doesn't guarantee profitability.

Customer Match

A targeting feature that lets you upload customer lists (emails, phone numbers) to target or exclude specific users. Increasingly important as third-party data becomes less reliable.

Consent Mode

Consent Mode adjusts Google tracking based on cookie consent. It models conversions from users who declined cookies, maintaining bidding accuracy under GDPR. Without it, you lose 30-40% of conversion signals.

Google's framework for adjusting tag behaviour based on user cookie consent status. Models conversions for users who declined tracking. Essential for maintaining bidding signal quality under GDPR without violating user privacy.

Custom Label

Up to five custom attributes in your product feed used to segment products in Google Shopping campaigns. Commonly used for margin tiers, seasonal relevance, bestseller status, or commercial role. The most powerful Shopping optimisation lever most brands never use.

Data-Driven Attribution

Google's machine learning-based attribution model that distributes conversion credit across touchpoints based on their actual contribution to conversions, rather than fixed rules.

Dayparting

Adjusting bids or enabling/disabling ads based on time of day or day of week. Useful when conversion rates vary by schedule, but less relevant with Smart Bidding.

Demand Gen

Google's campaign type focused on discovery and consideration phases, running across YouTube, Discover, and Gmail. Designed for prospecting and brand awareness rather than direct response.

Diminishing Returns Curve

The point at which additional advertising spend produces progressively smaller returns. Every account has a spend level beyond which efficiency declines. Understanding this curve is essential for budget allocation decisions.

Display Network

Google's network of millions of websites, apps, and videos where your display ads can appear. Offers massive reach but typically lower intent than Search.

DSA (Dynamic Search Ads)

A Google Ads campaign type that automatically generates ads based on your website content. Useful for coverage but requires careful negative keyword management to prevent waste.

Dead Stock

Inventory that hasn't sold within a defined period and is unlikely to sell at full price. Advertising dead stock at standard margins wastes budget; it requires separate campaigns with different economic goals focused on cash recovery rather than profit.

ECPC (Enhanced CPC)

A bidding strategy that automatically adjusts manual bids based on likelihood of conversion. Allows more control than fully automated bidding while still leveraging Google's signals.

Exact Match

The most restrictive keyword match type, triggering ads only for searches that match the keyword's meaning precisely. Offers control but limits reach.

Exclusion List

A list of placements, audiences, or keywords you exclude from your campaigns. Essential for controlling where your ads appear and who sees them.

Feed Optimisation

The process of improving product data quality, including titles, descriptions, images, and attributes. Critical for Shopping and Performance Max performance as Google matches products to searches based on feed data.

Final URL

The landing page users reach after clicking your ad. Must match the domain in your ad and provide a relevant, fast experience.

First-Party Data

Customer data you collect directly (email lists, purchase history, website behaviour). Increasingly important as third-party cookies phase out and privacy regulations tighten.

Frequency

The average number of times a unique user sees your ad. High frequency can indicate audience saturation and may lead to diminishing returns or ad fatigue.

Frequency Capping

Limiting how many times a single user sees your ad within a time period. Prevents ad fatigue and wasted impressions on users unlikely to convert.

Feed Enrichment

The process of adding supplemental data to your product feed beyond basic attributes: margin data, return rates, stock levels, seasonal flags, and commercial roles. Enriched feeds enable profit-aware bidding that basic feeds cannot support.

Fulfilment Cost

The total cost of picking, packing, and delivering an order. Often overlooked in ROAS calculations but critical for true profitability. A bulky £30 item with £12 fulfilment cost has fundamentally different economics to a lightweight £30 item with £3 fulfilment.

Geographic Targeting

Restricting or adjusting ads based on user location. Essential for businesses with regional delivery, store locations, or location-based demand patterns.

Google Merchant Center

The platform where you upload and manage your product data feed for Shopping and Performance Max campaigns. The foundation of all Google Shopping activity.

GTIN (Global Trade Item Number)

A unique product identifier (like UPC or EAN barcodes) used in Google Shopping feeds. Products with GTINs typically perform better as Google can match them to its product database.

Gateway SKU

Gateway SKUs are first-purchase products that lead to higher-value repeat orders. They may lose money initially but drive long-term customer value. Identifying and investing in gateway products is key to profitable acquisition.

A product that serves as a customer's first purchase and leads to higher-value repeat purchases. Gateway SKUs may be unprofitable on first order but strategically valuable for customer acquisition when LTV is modelled correctly.

Holdout Test

A holdout test excludes a random audience segment from ads to measure true incremental impact. Comparing conversions between exposed and holdout groups reveals what advertising actually contributes versus what would happen anyway.

An incrementality testing method where a portion of your audience is deliberately excluded from seeing ads. Comparing conversion rates between groups reveals true advertising impact.

Hero Product

A bestselling product that receives disproportionate traffic and attention. Hero products should anchor your feed strategy with optimised titles, images, and competitive pricing. However, over-reliance on heroes creates portfolio risk.

Impression

Each time your ad appears on screen. Counted regardless of whether users notice or interact with your ad. The foundation metric for reach calculations.

Impression Share

The percentage of available impressions your ads received. Lost impression share can result from budget constraints or ad rank issues. 100% isn't always desirable if it means paying for low-quality traffic.

In-Market Audience

Users Google identifies as actively researching or planning to purchase in a specific category. Higher intent than affinity audiences but still requires careful monitoring.

Incrementality

The additional conversions generated by advertising that wouldn't have occurred otherwise. Branded search often has low incrementality as those customers may have converted anyway.

Incremental ROAS

Incremental ROAS measures return only from sales that wouldn't have happened without advertising. Unlike standard ROAS, it excludes organic demand you would have captured anyway. Critical for understanding true ad effectiveness.

The return on ad spend from conversions that would not have happened without the advertising. Measures true advertising impact by excluding sales that would have occurred organically.

Invalid Clicks

Clicks Google determines are not genuine user interest: bots, accidental clicks, or click fraud. Google refunds these, but some always slip through.

Inventory Velocity

The rate at which products sell through available stock. High-velocity products may justify aggressive bidding despite lower margins; low-velocity products tie up working capital and may need bid suppression or promotional push.

Keyword

A word or phrase you bid on to trigger your ads. Different from search terms, which are what users actually type. Keywords are your targets; search terms are user behaviour.

Keyword Planner

Google's tool for researching keyword ideas, search volumes, and competition levels. Useful for discovery but volumes are estimates, not guarantees.

Landing Page Experience

Google's assessment of how relevant and useful your landing page is to users who click your ads. Affects Quality Score and ad rank. Speed, mobile-friendliness, and relevance all factor in.

Last-Click Attribution

An attribution model that gives 100% credit to the final touchpoint before conversion. Simple but misleading as it ignores all earlier interactions in the customer journey.

Learning Period

The time Smart Bidding needs to calibrate after significant changes (typically 7-14 days). Performance may fluctuate during this phase as the algorithm adjusts.

Location Extension

An ad extension showing your business address and distance. Useful for driving foot traffic but less relevant for pure ecommerce.

Lookalike Audience

Audiences built from users who share characteristics with your existing customers. Called 'Similar Audiences' in Google Ads (now largely deprecated in favour of first-party data).

LTV (Lifetime Value)

Lifetime Value (LTV) is total revenue a customer generates across all purchases. Higher LTV justifies higher acquisition costs and longer payback periods. Essential for subscription and repeat-purchase businesses.

The total revenue a customer generates over their entire relationship with your business. Higher LTV justifies higher acquisition costs because the customer value is recovered over time.

Manual Bidding

Setting bid amounts manually rather than using automated bidding strategies. Provides maximum control but requires constant monitoring and doesn't leverage Google's real-time signals.

Marginal CPA

The cost to acquire one additional customer beyond your current volume. Typically rises as you scale because easy conversions are captured first, leaving harder ones.

Match Type

Controls which searches trigger your keyword ads. Broad match allows variations, phrase match requires the phrase, exact match is most restrictive. Each has trade-offs between reach and precision.

Maximise Clicks

An automated bidding strategy that gets as many clicks as possible within budget. Useful for traffic but ignores conversion quality entirely.

Maximise Conversions

An automated bidding strategy that aims for the most conversions possible within budget. Focuses on volume rather than efficiency; may bid aggressively on easy conversions.

Maximise Conversion Value

An automated bidding strategy that aims for the highest total conversion value within budget. Better for ecommerce than Maximise Conversions as it considers order size.

MER (Marketing Efficiency Ratio)

Marketing Efficiency Ratio (MER) is total revenue divided by total marketing spend across all channels. It avoids attribution complexity by measuring blended efficiency. CFOs prefer MER for board reporting over channel-specific ROAS.

Total revenue divided by total marketing spend across all channels. Provides a blended view of marketing efficiency without channel attribution complexities. Sometimes called 'blended ROAS'. CFOs often prefer MER for board reporting because it sidesteps attribution debates.

Micro-Conversion

A smaller action that indicates purchase intent: add to cart, begin checkout, email signup. Useful for feeding algorithms when purchase conversions are limited.

Margin-Weighted Bidding

Margin-Weighted Bidding adjusts Google Ads bids based on product profit margin, not just revenue. It ensures high-margin products get more spend while low-margin products get less. This is how POAS-focused bidding works in practice.

A bidding approach that factors product margin into bid decisions rather than treating all conversion value equally. A £100 product with 60% margin should receive higher bids than a £100 product with 20% margin, even though ROAS treats them identically.

Merchant Promotions

Google Shopping annotations that display promotional offers (percentage off, free shipping, etc.) directly on product listings. Can improve CTR but reduce margin if not managed alongside bidding strategy.

nCAC (New Customer Acquisition Cost)

New Customer Acquisition Cost (nCAC) measures the cost to acquire genuinely new customers, excluding repeat buyers. Unlike standard CAC, nCAC reveals true acquisition economics and is essential for calculating LTV payback periods.

The cost to acquire a genuinely new customer, excluding repeat purchasers. More precise than standard CAC which may include returning customers in conversion counts. Critical for understanding true customer acquisition economics and LTV payback periods.

Negative Keyword

Search terms you exclude from triggering your ads. Critical for preventing wasted spend on irrelevant searches. Often neglected in automated campaigns, leading to budget leakage.

Non-Brand Search

Search queries that don't include your brand name. Generally more expensive but captures customers earlier in their journey and builds awareness among new audiences.

Net Revenue

Gross revenue minus returns, refunds, and exchanges. The number that actually appears on your P&L. Google Ads reports gross revenue; the gap between gross and net can be 25-40% in fashion and sized products.

Observation Audience

An audience you monitor without restricting targeting to only that group. Allows you to see how segments perform while still reaching broader audiences.

Optimisation Score

Google's recommendation score from 0-100%. Often prioritises Google's revenue over your profit. High scores don't guarantee good commercial outcomes. Treat recommendations critically.

Optimisation Score

Google's recommendation score from 0-100% that suggests changes to improve your account. Often prioritises Google's revenue over your profit. High scores don't guarantee good commercial outcomes. Treat recommendations critically.

Payback Period

The time required to recover customer acquisition cost through customer purchases. Shorter payback periods reduce cash flow strain and business risk.

Performance Max (PMax)

Google's AI-driven campaign type that runs across all Google networks (Search, Shopping, Display, YouTube, Discover, Gmail, Maps) from a single campaign with automated bidding and targeting.

Phrase Match

A keyword match type that triggers ads for searches containing your keyword phrase in order, with words before or after. Balances reach and control.

Placement

The specific websites, apps, or YouTube channels where your Display or Video ads appear. Placement reports reveal where budget is actually going in automated campaigns.

POAS (Profit on Ad Spend)

Profit on Ad Spend (POAS) measures gross profit generated per pound spent on advertising. Unlike ROAS which tracks revenue, POAS accounts for product margins, revealing true advertising profitability. A 2x POAS means £2 profit for every £1 spent.

Similar to ROAS but measures actual profit rather than revenue. Accounts for product margins, making it a more accurate measure of advertising effectiveness than revenue-based metrics.

Portfolio Bid Strategy

A Smart Bidding strategy shared across multiple campaigns. Allows the algorithm to balance performance across campaigns rather than optimising each in isolation.

Product Feed

A structured data file containing your product information (titles, descriptions, prices, images, availability) submitted to Google Merchant Center. The foundation of Shopping and Performance Max campaigns.

Product Group

How products are organised within Shopping campaigns. Can be segmented by category, brand, product type, or custom labels for different bidding strategies.

Payback Period

Payback Period is the time to recover customer acquisition cost. A £50 CAC with £15/month contribution margin takes 3.3 months to pay back. Shorter periods reduce growth risk; longer ones require working capital reserves.

The time required to recover customer acquisition cost through subsequent purchases. A 90-day payback period means you need three months of cash flow to fund growth. Critical for subscription and replenishment brands where first-order loss is strategic.

Price Competitiveness

How your prices compare to competitors in Google Shopping auctions. Google tracks this and factors it into ad visibility. Products significantly above market price receive fewer impressions regardless of bid level.

Product Type

A Google Shopping feed attribute used to categorise products with your own taxonomy. Unlike Google Product Category (which is standardised), product type uses your internal classification and enables more granular campaign segmentation.

Quality Score

Google's rating (1-10) of your ad relevance, expected CTR, and landing page experience. Higher scores typically result in lower CPCs and better ad positions.

Remarketing

Targeting people who have previously interacted with your website or ads. Typically shows higher conversion rates than prospecting, but incrementality is often lower.

Remarketing List

An audience of users who have visited your site or taken specific actions. Used for remarketing campaigns or bid adjustments. Minimum size of 1,000 users for display, 100 for search.

Responsive Display Ad

An ad format where you provide assets (images, headlines, descriptions) and Google automatically combines and sizes them for different placements.

Responsive Search Ad (RSA)

The standard Search ad format where you provide multiple headlines and descriptions. Google tests combinations to find best performers.

Return Rate

The percentage of orders that are returned. High return rates can destroy advertising profitability even when ROAS looks healthy.

ROAS (Return on Ad Spend)

Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) is revenue generated per pound of advertising. A 4x ROAS means £4 revenue for every £1 spent. Widely used but misleading: it ignores margins, so high ROAS can still mean losing money.

Revenue generated per pound spent on advertising. A 4x ROAS means £4 revenue for every £1 spent. Common but often misleading as it ignores margins and profitability.

Return-Adjusted ROAS

Return-Adjusted ROAS subtracts the cost of returned orders from revenue before calculating return on ad spend. Fashion products with 35% return rates see ROAS drop by a third. Without this adjustment, you systematically overbid on high-return products.

ROAS recalculated after factoring in actual return rates per product or category. A product showing 5x ROAS with a 35% return rate delivers only 3.25x after returns. This adjustment is essential for fashion, footwear, and sized products.

Search Partners

Websites that partner with Google to show search ads (like Ask.com). Can extend reach but traffic quality varies. Worth testing separately from Google Search.

Search Query Report

Shows the actual searches that triggered your ads. Essential for identifying wasted spend and new keyword opportunities. Less visible in Performance Max, creating transparency issues.

Search Term

The actual query a user typed into Google that triggered your ad. Different from keywords, which are the terms you bid on. Search term reports reveal what people are actually searching for.

Seasonality Adjustments

Temporary modifications to Smart Bidding that account for expected changes in conversion rates during sales, holidays, or other events. Helps algorithms adapt faster to known patterns.

Shared Budget

A budget shared across multiple campaigns. While administratively convenient, can cause uneven distribution and obscure which campaigns are actually driving results.

Shopping Actions

Programmes that allow users to purchase directly from Google surfaces without visiting your website. Changes the customer relationship and data ownership dynamics.

Sitelink Extension

Additional links that appear beneath your main ad, directing users to specific pages on your site. Increase ad real estate and provide multiple entry points to your catalogue.

SKU (Stock Keeping Unit)

A unique identifier for each distinct product in your catalogue. SKU-level analysis reveals which products actually drive profit versus which drain the advertising budget.

Smart Bidding

Google's automated bidding strategies that use machine learning to optimise for conversions or conversion value. Includes Target CPA, Target ROAS, Maximise Conversions, and Maximise Conversion Value.

Spend Governance

A framework for managing advertising budgets with clear rules about when to increase, decrease, or reallocate spend based on commercial outcomes rather than arbitrary targets.

Standard Shopping

Traditional Google Shopping campaigns with manual structure and bidding control. Offers more transparency and control than Performance Max but requires more active management.

Server-Side Tracking

Server-Side Tracking sends conversion data from your server to Google, bypassing browser limitations. It recovers 15-25% of conversions lost to ad blockers and cookie restrictions, providing cleaner data for bidding algorithms.

Sending conversion data from your server to Google rather than relying on browser-based tags. More reliable than client-side tracking, resistant to ad blockers and cookie restrictions, and provides cleaner data for Smart Bidding optimisation.

SKU Segmentation

Dividing your product catalogue into strategic groups based on commercial role, margin, velocity, or lifecycle stage. Each segment receives different bidding targets and budget allocation. The foundation of profit-first advertising strategy.

Stock-Aware Bidding

Automatically adjusting ad bids based on real-time inventory levels. Products running low on stock get bid reductions to prevent overselling; products with excess stock get bid increases to accelerate sell-through.

Supplemental Feed

An additional data feed that enriches your primary product feed with extra attributes like custom labels, margin tiers, or seasonal flags. Allows strategic data overlays without modifying your core feed infrastructure.

Target CPA

A Smart Bidding strategy that automatically sets bids to achieve a specified cost per acquisition. Google adjusts bids in real-time based on conversion likelihood.

Target Impression Share

A bidding strategy focused on appearing in a certain percentage of eligible auctions. Useful for brand defence but typically inefficient for profit-focused campaigns.

Target ROAS

A Smart Bidding strategy that automatically sets bids to achieve a specified return on ad spend. Focuses on conversion value rather than conversion volume.

tCPA (Target CPA)

Shorthand for Target CPA bidding strategy. The 't' prefix indicates a target-based automated bidding approach.

tROAS (Target ROAS)

Shorthand for Target ROAS bidding strategy. Common notation in Google Ads reporting and documentation.

tPOAS (Target POAS)

A bidding strategy that optimises for profit on ad spend rather than revenue. Requires feeding margin data to Google through conversion value rules or server-side adjustments. The most commercially accurate automated bidding approach for ecommerce.

Unit Economics

Unit Economics are the revenues and costs of selling a single product unit: COGS, fulfilment, payment fees, and ad spend. Profitable unit economics at scale is the difference between a brand that grows and one that grows broke.

The direct revenues and costs associated with selling one unit of a product. Includes product cost, fulfilment, payment processing, and allocated advertising spend. Understanding unit economics is the foundation of profitable scaling.

View-Through Conversion

A conversion from a user who saw but didn't click your ad. Controversial attribution since the ad may not have influenced the purchase. Often over-credited in display and video campaigns.

Wasted Spend

Wasted spend is budget that generates no commercial return. Common sources: zombie SKU spend (8%), poor search terms (7%), wrong dayparts (4%), and geographic inefficiencies (4%). Most accounts waste 15-25% of budget.

Ad budget spent on clicks or impressions that don't contribute to profitable outcomes. Sources include zombie SKUs, poor search terms, wrong audiences, and geographic inefficiencies.

Working Capital Constraint

The limitation on advertising spend caused by cash flow timing. Even profitable campaigns can cause cash flow problems if payment cycles are misaligned. Spend governance must account for working capital, not just ROAS.

Working Capital

The cash available to fund day-to-day operations including inventory purchases and advertising spend. Aggressive advertising can strain working capital if the payback period exceeds the payment cycle. Spend governance must account for cash flow, not just ROAS.

Zombie SKU

Zombie SKUs are products that receive ad impressions and clicks but never convert profitably. They drain budget silently, hidden in blended metrics. Identifying and pausing zombies is essential for campaign efficiency.

Products in your catalogue that receive impressions and clicks but never convert profitably. They consume advertising budget without contributing to the bottom line. Often hidden in blended campaign metrics and only visible through SKU-level analysis.