Glossary.

An experiment in which two variants of an ad or page are shown to comparable groups at the same time to find out which performs better.

Optimising content so it is served directly as an answer, for example in featured snippets, voice assistants or AI answers.

Assigning a conversion to the channels and touchpoints that contributed to it, such as an ad, a search or an email.

The average cost of winning a new customer. Includes ad spend and usually agency and sales costs.

A Google standard that lets your cookie banner pass user consent to Google tags. Required for personalised advertising with users from the EEA.

A desired user action, such as an enquiry, a purchase or a booking.

The share of visitors who convert. 3 conversions from 100 visitors equals 3 percent.

An interface that sends conversions server-side rather than only through the browser to ad platforms such as Meta. Makes measurement more robust.

The average cost per click on an ad.

The average ad cost per lead, meaning per enquiry or contact.

The cost of 1,000 ad impressions. Important for reach and awareness campaigns.

Systematically improving pages and funnels so more visitors become leads or buyers.

The share of people who see an ad or search result and click on it.

Experience, expertise, authoritativeness, trustworthiness. Criteria Google uses to judge the quality and credibility of content.

A uniquely identifiable thing such as a brand, person or place. Search engines and AI systems connect facts about entities into a knowledge graph.

Optimising brand and content so generative AI systems such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini or Google AI Overviews mention and cite them.

The free business listing on Google Maps and in local search. Central to local SEO.

The first one to three seconds of an ad or video that decide whether someone keeps scrolling or stops.

The page visitors land on after clicking an ad. It focuses on exactly one goal.

Guiding prospects with helpful content across several touchpoints until they are ready for a call or purchase.

A text file in a website’s root that gives AI systems a compact overview of the most important content. A voluntary proposal, not an official standard.

Search optimisation for location-based queries such as “agency Hanover”. Covers Google Business Profile, reviews and local content.

A Google Ads campaign type that automatically serves ads across Search, Shopping, YouTube, Display, Discover and Maps.

Advertising to people who have already interacted with your website, profile or content.

Revenue divided by ad spend. A ROAS of 4 means €4 revenue per €1 of ad spend.

A vocabulary for describing content in code in a machine-readable way, such as businesses, services or FAQs. Helps search engines and AI systems understand it.

Everything that makes a website more visible in unpaid search results: technical setup, content and outside signals.

Measurement data is sent to analytics and ad tools through your own server instead of directly from the browser. More robust and controllable.

Content in the style of real users, such as reviews or unboxing videos. Often more credible in ads than classic advertising.