More Free Lessons in

PPC and Paid Search View All →

Get cutting-edge digital marketing skills, know-how and strategy

This micro lesson is from one of our globally recognized digital marketing courses.

Start a FREE Course Preview Start a FREE Course Preview
Global Authority

The Global Authority

12 years delivering excellence

Members

245,000+ Members

Join a global community

Certification

Associate Certification

Globally recognised

Membership

Membership Included

Toolkits, content & more

Digital Marketing - Study Notes:

Definition

PPC stands for pay-per-click, which is the most common way of advertising on the web. It’s called PPC because you, as the advertiser, only pay when someone clicks on your ad. So you’re only paying for actual visitors to your website.

Terminology

PPC has a lot of specific terminology. Here are some of the most important acronyms and phrases:

  • Keywords: Search terms that users might type into search engines that you want to advertise on.
  • Impressions: How often your ad is being shown on a search results page.
  • Clicks: How often your ad is being clicked.
  • Click-Through Rate (CTR): The percentage of impressions that lead to a click.
  • Cost-Per-Impression (CPM): The cost to show your ad 1,000 times.
  • Cost-Per-Acquisition (CPA): How much it costs in PPC advertising to generate a single sale or conversion on your website.
  • Placement: Where your ad is shown on a search results page.
  • Landing Page: The page on your website that your ad links to.
  • Conversion: A sale or other desirable action on your website.
  • Conversion Rate: The percentage of visits that lead to a conversion on your website.
  • Product Listing Ad (PLA): A special type of pay-per-click ad for e-commerce products.
  • Dynamic Search Ad (DSA): An automatically generated ad based on the content of your landing page.
Back to Top
Barry Adams

Barry Adams is the founder of Polemic Digital, which won Best Small SEO Agency at the 2016 UK Search Awards. He has been an active practitioner since 1998 and is co-chief editor for State of Digital. His clients include national brands like EMO Oil and The Sun, multinationals and local businesses.

Data protection regulations affect almost all aspects of digital marketing. Therefore, DMI has produced a short course on GDPR for all of our students. If you wish to learn more about GDPR, you can do so here:

DMI Short Course: GDPR

You will not be assessed on this content in your final exam.

ABOUT THIS DIGITAL MARKETING MODULE

Introduction
Barry Adams
Skills Expert

This module introduces the core principles and concepts of search marketing. It demonstrates how the use of organic search can benefit marketing campaigns. It introduces the key concepts of paid search and the ways in which it can be used to improve the performance of a campaign. It also outlines how to measure the success of a search campaign and how it fits within a wider digital marketing strategy.