Google Ads Glossary

Definitions of key Google Ads terms used throughout WonderAds. Click any letter to jump to that section.

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API Key: A secret token used to authenticate requests to the WonderAds REST API. API keys are tied to your user account and grant programmatic access to your accounts, keyword lists, combinations, and generation. Keys should be stored securely and never shared publicly.
Ad Group: A container within a campaign that holds one or more keywords and their associated ads. In the SKAG methodology used by WonderAds, each ad group contains a single keyword (plus its synonyms and match type variants).

Bid Strategy: The method used to set bids for your ads. Common strategies include Manual CPC, Target CPA, Target ROAS, and Maximize Conversions. WonderAds calculates initial CPC bids based on your target CPA and expected conversion rate.
Broad Match: A keyword match type that triggers your ad for searches related to your keyword, including synonyms, related searches, and other relevant variations. Written without any special characters (e.g., plumber london).

Campaign: The top-level organizational unit in Google Ads. Campaigns contain ad groups and control settings like budget, bid strategy, targeting, and location. WonderAds generates campaign names following the pattern: {language}_{country} | Search | [List1+List2+...].
Cartesian Product: A mathematical operation that combines every element from one set with every element from another set. WonderAds uses streaming cartesian product to combine keyword lists — if List A has 50 items and List B has 20, the result is 1,000 unique combinations.
Conversion Rate: The percentage of ad clicks that result in a desired action (purchase, sign-up, phone call, etc.). Used by WonderAds to calculate initial CPC bids from your target CPA.
CPA (Cost Per Acquisition): The average cost to acquire one conversion. Calculated as total ad spend divided by the number of conversions. WonderAds uses your target CPA to calculate suggested CPC bids.
CPC (Cost Per Click): The amount you pay each time someone clicks your ad. WonderAds calculates initial CPC bids using the formula: CPC = CPA × Conversion Rate.

Description: The body text lines of a Responsive Search Ad. Google Ads allows up to 4 descriptions, each with a maximum of 90 characters. WonderAds supports long, short, and default variants for each description.
Display Path: The URL path shown in your ad (path1/path2), appearing after your domain. Maximum 15 characters per path segment. The display path is cosmetic and doesn't have to match the actual Final URL.

Exact Match: A keyword match type that triggers your ad only for searches that have the same meaning as your keyword. Written with square brackets (e.g., [plumber london]).

Final URL: The actual landing page URL that users reach after clicking your ad. In WonderAds, the Final URL is constructed from your account domain plus the leading keyword's landing path.

Google Ads Editor: A free desktop application from Google for managing Google Ads campaigns offline. WonderAds exports CSV files formatted for direct import into Google Ads Editor.

Headline: The clickable title lines of a Responsive Search Ad. Google Ads allows up to 15 headlines, each with a maximum of 30 characters. WonderAds supports long, short, and default variants for each headline.

Keyword: A word or phrase that triggers your ad to appear when someone searches for it on Google. In WonderAds, keywords are organized into themed lists and combined via keyword combinations.
Keyword Combination: A WonderAds concept that ties two or more keyword lists together. The tool generates a cartesian product of all keywords across the selected lists, creating unique multi-word keyword phrases.
Keyword List: A named collection of related keywords in WonderAds. Lists are the building blocks — you create themed lists (e.g., "Services", "Locations") and combine them to generate keyword permutations.

Landing Path: An optional URL path assigned to a keyword in WonderAds. Combined with the account domain to form the Final URL (e.g., domain.com + /services/plumber).
Leading List: The first keyword list in a WonderAds combination. It drives the ad group structure and determines Final URLs via its keywords' landing paths.

Match Type: A setting that controls which searches can trigger your ad. Google Ads supports three match types: Exact (most restrictive), Phrase (moderate), and Broad (least restrictive).

Negative Keyword: A keyword that prevents your ad from showing for certain searches. WonderAds automatically generates Negative Exact and Negative Phrase keywords in Broad match campaigns to prevent match type cannibalization — ensuring traffic is funneled to the most specific match type campaign. See the "Negative Keywords and Match Type Protection" article for a full explanation.

Phrase Match: A keyword match type that triggers your ad for searches that include the meaning of your keyword. Written with quotation marks (e.g., "plumber london").
Pin Position: A setting that forces a headline or description to always appear in a specific position in your RSA. Headlines can be pinned to positions 1-3, descriptions to positions 1-2. Use pinning sparingly as it reduces Google's optimization flexibility.

Quality Score: A Google Ads metric (1-10) estimating the quality of your ads, keywords, and landing pages. Higher Quality Scores lead to lower CPCs and better ad positions. SKAGs typically achieve higher Quality Scores due to tight keyword-to-ad relevance.

RSA (Responsive Search Ad): The standard ad format for Google Search campaigns. You provide up to 15 headlines and 4 descriptions, and Google dynamically combines them to create the best-performing ad for each search. WonderAds generates RSAs with variable-resolved, individually tailored assets.

SKAG (Single Keyword Ad Group): A Google Ads strategy where each ad group contains only one keyword (plus match type variants and synonyms). This maximizes ad relevance and Quality Score. WonderAds is built around the SKAG methodology.
Split Mode: A WonderAds setting that controls how match types are organized. "None" puts all match types together, "Campaign" creates separate campaigns per match type, and "Ad Group" creates separate ad groups per match type.
Synonym: An alternative version of a keyword in WonderAds. Synonyms are added as extra keyword rows within the same ad group, sharing the same ads. For example, "plumber" might have synonyms "plumbing service" and "plumbing expert".

Variable: A placeholder in WonderAds ad text (written as {{variable.name}}) that gets replaced with real values during generation. Variables include account info ({{account.name}}), keyword values ({{lists.services}}), and more.