Google Ads Measurement flashcards
Google Ads Measurement · Build recall with a focused review session.
32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.
- Auto-tagging
- Google Ads setting that appends the gclid parameter to landing page URLs so Analytics can attribute paid clicks to the correct campaign, ad group, and keyword.
- Google Ads link in GA4
- Product link created under GA4 Admin that shares Analytics audiences, conversions, and attribution data with a Google Ads account, requiring edit permission on both sides.
- gclid
- Google Click Identifier appended to ad URLs when auto-tagging is on; it is the key that joins a Google Ads click to a GA4 session and its downstream conversions.
- Enhanced conversions
- Feature that sends hashed first-party data such as email or phone from the conversion page so Google can match conversions that cookie loss would otherwise hide.
- Consent Mode v2
- Signals sent by the tag indicating whether a user granted ad_storage, analytics_storage, ad_user_data, and ad_personalization consent; enables modeled conversions when consent is denied.
- Data-driven attribution
- Default model in GA4 and new Google Ads conversion actions that distributes credit across all ad interactions using machine learning rather than assigning all credit to the last click.
- Conversion window
- Period after a click or view during which a conversion is credited; Google Ads defaults to 30 days click and 1 day view unless edited per action.
- Key events in GA4
- Events marked as important in GA4 property settings; they feed conversion reporting and, once imported, become conversion actions in linked Google Ads accounts.
- Primary versus secondary conversion
- Google Ads marks each conversion action primary or secondary; the Conversions column and Smart Bidding use primary actions only, while All conversions includes both.
- Google Signals
- GA4 setting that enables Google-sign-in data for cross-device reporting, demographics, and remarketing audiences; it must be on for those features to populate.
- Measurement protocol
- Mechanism for sending events to GA4 from servers or offline systems, used to capture conversions that browser tags miss, such as calls or CRM-verified sales.
- CTR formula
- Click-through rate equals clicks divided by impressions; it measures ad or asset appeal and feeds the expected CTR component of Quality Score.
- CPA formula
- Cost per acquisition equals total cost divided by conversions; compare against target CPA and against revenue per conversion to judge profitability.
- ROAS formula
- Return on ad spend equals conversion value divided by cost; a ROAS of 4 means four units of revenue per unit of spend.
- Engagement rate
- Engaged sessions divided by total sessions, where an engaged session lasts at least ten seconds, fires a conversion event, or views two or more pages.
- Impression share
- Impressions received divided by eligible impressions; the remainder splits into lost IS (budget) and lost IS (rank), which together identify the limiting constraint.
- Lost IS (budget)
- Share of eligible impressions missed because the campaign budget was exhausted; a nonzero value signals the budget, not the bid, is capping delivery.
- Lost IS (rank)
- Share of eligible impressions missed because the ad rank was too low; levers are bid, ad relevance, expected CTR, and landing page experience.
- GA4 thresholding
- Privacy mechanism that withholds rows or demographic detail when user counts fall below a minimum, so missing data reflects identity protection rather than zero activity.
- Session attribution in GA4
- Sessions are credited whole to their start date and are not split at midnight, which can cause day-level differences against Google Ads reporting.
- All conversions column
- Google Ads metric summing primary and secondary conversion actions; it is broader than the Conversions column and is not what Smart Bidding optimizes toward.
- Conversion value
- Monetary amount assigned to a conversion, either a fixed value per action or a dynamic value passed by the tag; it is the input for value-based bidding.
- Quality Score components
- Expected CTR, ad relevance, and landing page experience; each is rated below average, average, or above average and influences ad rank and cost per click.
- Data freshness lag
- Delay before metrics finalize: GA4 standard reports can take 24 to 48 hours, real-time reports are near instant, and Google Ads conversions can lag about three hours.
- Sampling in Explorations
- When a query exceeds processing limits, GA4 returns a sampled subset; totals in Explorations or the API can therefore differ from unsampled standard reports.
- New versus returning users
- GA4 classifies a user as new on first identified session and returning thereafter; the split depends on identifier coverage and is skewed when consent blocks cookies.
- Budget-limited campaign action
- If lost IS (budget) is high and the campaign is profitable, raise budget or shift spend from low-ROAS campaigns rather than adjusting bids.
- Rank-limited campaign action
- If lost IS (rank) dominates, improve ad relevance and landing page experience or raise bids; budget increases will not recover those impressions.
- Smart Bidding learning period
- Window after a target or budget change during which performance is unstable; evaluate results only after one to two full conversion cycles have passed.
- Search terms report action
- Review queries that triggered ads, add irrelevant ones as negative keywords, and promote converting queries into exact or phrase keywords with dedicated ad copy.
- Value-based bidding prerequisite
- tROAS and Maximize conversion value require conversion values to be passed reliably; without values the strategy cannot differentiate high- and low-value conversions.
- Google Ads experiments
- Drafts and experiments split traffic between a control and a variant so a single change, such as bid strategy or landing page, can be measured cleanly.