Google Ads terms: A 13 terms, defined.

A list of negative keywords applied to the whole account at once, for searches that are wrong for the business everywhere, such as jobs or free. Brand terms do not belong here, because the list also blocks your own brand campaign.

A set of keywords and the ads that answer them, inside a campaign. Keywords in one ad group should share one meaning, so one ad can answer all of them well.

The score Google uses to decide whether an ad shows and in what position. It combines the bid, the quality of the ad and landing page, the context of the search and the expected effect of assets.

The days and hours a campaign may show. Schedules run in the account's time zone. A business that answers calls in office hours should not serve call ads at night.

Google's rating of a responsive ad, from Poor to Excellent, based on how many distinct headlines and descriptions it gives Google to combine. Google says the rating itself is not used in the auction.

A Search campaign setting that lets Google match searches beyond your keywords, write ad text and send people to other pages of your site. It widens what a campaign buys. Since September 2026 Google turns it on for some campaigns by itself, so check whether yours have it.

A piece of an ad that Google can show: a headline, a description, an image, a video, a sitelink, a callout, a phone number or an address. Assets at the account, campaign or ad group level can make the ad larger at no extra cost per click.

The building block of a Performance Max campaign: the headlines, descriptions, images, videos and signals Google uses to build ads for every channel. A group short of assets cannot appear everywhere it could.

The rule that decides how credit for a conversion is shared between the clicks and ads that led to it. Google Ads uses data-driven attribution by default for most conversion actions, with last click as the other option.

A Google Ads report showing the other advertisers in your auctions, with overlap rate, position above rate and their impression share. It is not open to most apps through the Google Ads API.

A hint you give Performance Max about who is likely to convert: your customer lists, site visitors, interests and custom segments. Search themes are a separate signal. It guides the campaign at the start but does not limit who sees the ads.

Google's recommendations applied to the account without anyone approving each one, once the account subscribed to them. Check which are on, and what the change history shows they changed.

The average cost of one click: total cost divided by clicks. Read it per match type and per campaign, because one account average mixes cheap brand clicks with expensive generic ones.