Google Ads Search practice questions

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Question 1Search advertising fundamentals

Which three components are combined to calculate a keyword's Quality Score?

Expected CTR, ad relevance, and landing page experience Correct answer.
Keyword match type, bid strategy, and device settings
Maximum CPC bid, daily budget, and ad group theme
Ad strength, conversion rate, and search impression share percentage

Explanation

Quality Score is a 1–10 estimate of how relevant your keyword, ad, and landing page are to a person searching. Google builds it from expected click-through rate, ad relevance, and landing page experience. Bid, budget, and match type affect delivery but are not Quality Score components.

Question 2Search advertising fundamentals

Which keyword match type gives the tightest control by serving on searches that carry the same meaning as the keyword, including close variants?

Broad match
Exact match Correct answer.
Negative exact match
Phrase match

Explanation

Exact match serves on searches with the same meaning as the keyword, including close variants such as misspellings, plurals, and reorderings, but not on searches that add terms changing the intent. Phrase match also allows additional words before or after the phrase.

Question 3Search advertising fundamentals

What is the main purpose of adding negative keywords to a campaign?

To stop ads from showing on searches you consider irrelevant Correct answer.
To raise the Quality Score of underperforming keywords
To automatically add keywords from the search terms report
To increase the number of impressions the campaign receives

Explanation

Negative keywords act as exclusions: when a user's query contains the negative term, your ad is not eligible to show. They are the main tool for filtering out traffic that is unlikely to convert and for protecting budget.

Question 4Search advertising fundamentals

At a high level, which formula describes how Ad Rank is determined?

Quality Score multiplied by the landing page conversion rate
Daily budget divided by the number of keywords in the ad group
Cost per click multiplied by the click-through rate
Bid times quality, plus the expected impact of ad assets Correct answer.

Explanation

Ad Rank is built from your bid and quality signals, with an added component for the expected impact of assets and ad formats such as sitelinks and callouts. It determines whether your ad enters the auction and where it can appear.

Question 5Search advertising fundamentals

How does Google Ads treat a Search campaign's average daily budget?

It resets only at the end of each calendar quarter.
It is charged only on days when the campaign reaches its target CPA.
It is an average; spend may reach twice the daily amount on some days. Correct answer.
It is a hard cap that can never be exceeded on any single day, regardless of traffic.

Explanation

The daily budget is an average over the month. Google may spend up to twice the daily amount on a given day when traffic is valuable, and it balances that overspend with lower-spend days so the monthly total stays within about 30.4 times the daily budget.

Question 6Search advertising fundamentals

What is the defining feature of a responsive search ad?

It serves only on the Display Network and never on Google Search.
It pulls headlines automatically from the landing page and rewrites the description.
It mixes multiple headlines and descriptions and assembles them per search. Correct answer.
It uses one fixed headline and one fixed description that never change.

Explanation

A responsive search ad holds multiple headlines and descriptions that the system combines, testing and selecting combinations likely to perform well for each query and device. Advertisers can pin assets when specific text must always appear.

Question 7Search advertising fundamentals

Click-through rate (CTR) is calculated as:

Cost divided by clicks
Clicks divided by impressions Correct answer.
Conversions divided by impressions
Impressions divided by clicks

Explanation

CTR measures how often an impression leads to a click, so it is clicks divided by impressions and is usually shown as a percentage. It is a core relevance signal in Quality Score.

Question 8Search advertising fundamentals

Which report shows the actual search queries that triggered your ads?

The Keyword Planner forecast
The landing page report
The search terms report Correct answer.
The change history report

Explanation

The search terms report lists the queries users typed that matched your keywords, along with performance for each query. It is the standard source for finding new keyword ideas and for building negative keyword lists.

Question 9Search advertising fundamentals

Your ad has a Quality Score of 5, and the ad ranked directly below yours has an Ad Rank of 20. Using the simplified formula, what is your approximate cost per click?

$4.01 Correct answer.
$0.20
$100.00
$5.00

Explanation

Actual CPC is approximately the Ad Rank of the ad below you divided by your own Quality Score, plus $0.01. Here that is 20 ÷ 5 + 0.01 = $4.01. The formula shows that better quality lowers what you pay for a given position.

Question 10Search advertising fundamentals

A marketer wants Smart Bidding to set bids so that the campaign averages a specific cost per acquisition. Which strategy fits?

Target impression share
Maximize clicks
Manual CPC
Target CPA Correct answer.

Explanation

Target CPA is a Smart Bidding strategy that sets bids in each auction to maximize conversions while averaging toward the cost per acquisition you set. Impression share strategies optimize visibility, and Maximize clicks optimizes traffic rather than acquisition cost.

Question 11Search advertising fundamentals

How does phrase match behave for the keyword "running shoes"?

It matches only queries where the words appear in that exact order with nothing between them.
It matches only the exact query "running shoes" with no variants.
It matches the phrase's meaning, with words added before or after. Correct answer.
It matches any query containing at least one of the two words.

Explanation

Phrase match includes queries that share the meaning of the keyword and allows additional words before or after the phrase, as long as the meaning is not changed, along with close variants. It sits between broad and exact match in reach.

Question 12Search advertising fundamentals

Why is it best practice to build ad groups around tightly related keywords?

Ads and landing pages can match a narrow theme, improving relevance. Correct answer.
It removes the need to set bids at the campaign level.
It guarantees the lowest possible cost per click in the auction.
It allows more than one daily budget per ad group.

Explanation

Tight themes let you write ad copy that speaks directly to the query and send users to a closely matching page, which typically lifts CTR and landing page experience. Both feed into Quality Score and Ad Rank.

Question 13Search advertising fundamentals

Which set of factors best reflects a good landing page experience?

Long load times that let users read the page fully, plus heavy use of pop-ups
Relevant original content, easy navigation, and clear business info Correct answer.
A high number of keywords repeated in hidden text
A page that redirects users to an unrelated offer

Explanation

Landing page experience reflects how useful and trustworthy the page feels to someone who clicked the ad. Relevant, original content that matches the ad promise, easy navigation, and transparency about the business all support it.

Question 14Search advertising fundamentals

What is the default location targeting setting for a new Search campaign?

People located anywhere in the world
People whose physical location is inside the targeted locations only
People who have ever searched for the targeted locations
People in, regularly in, or showing interest in the locations Correct answer.

Explanation

The default setting is presence or interest, which reaches people located in the targeted area, people who regularly visit it, and people showing interest in it through searches and other signals. Advertisers can narrow this to physical presence only.

Question 15Search advertising fundamentals

A campaign uses Target CPA and has an ad schedule that excludes weekends. What happens to ad delivery on Saturday and Sunday?

Ads do not serve during those hours because the schedule excludes them. Correct answer.
The campaign switches to Manual CPC for those days.
Ads keep serving and bids are automatically doubled.
Ads serve only to users who previously converted.

Explanation

Ad schedules define the days and hours when ads are eligible to serve, and excluded periods simply pause delivery. Bid adjustments can be layered on the allowed periods to raise or lower bids, but they never override an excluded time block.

Question 16Search advertising fundamentals

A campaign has 60% search impression share, with 25% lost to budget. What does this indicate?

The campaign's ads are being disapproved for policy reasons.
The campaign appears in 60% of all Display Network ad placements.
Budget limits reach; more budget could add impressions. Correct answer.
The campaign is limited only by Ad Rank and quality.

Explanation

Search impression share is the eligible impressions you received divided by the impressions you were eligible for. The share lost to budget column attributes part of the shortfall to spending limits, so additional budget or looser targeting is the direct fix for that portion.

Question 17Search advertising fundamentals

Which statement about broad match is accurate?

It shows ads only on searches identical to the keyword.
It blocks searches that contain misspellings of the keyword.
It reaches related searches such as synonyms and gives the least control. Correct answer.
It requires all of the keyword's words to appear in the same order for a match.

Explanation

Broad match is the widest match type, reaching searches related to the keyword, including synonyms, related topics, and other variations. Because control is lowest, broad match is usually paired with Smart Bidding and monitored through the search terms report.

Question 18Search advertising fundamentals

A Search campaign's ads should include sitelink assets. What do sitelinks do?

They add links to specific pages of the site beneath the ad. Correct answer.
They replace the ad's final URL with a phone number.
They display product prices pulled from a feed.
They translate the ad into the user's language.

Explanation

Sitelinks add extra links under the ad that take users to specific pages such as a category, store locator, or promotion page. They give searchers more ways to reach relevant content and can increase the size of the ad.

Question 19Search advertising fundamentals

What is required before a Search campaign can optimize toward conversions with Smart Bidding?

An active Display campaign in the same account
A minimum of 100 keywords in each ad group
Conversion tracking with meaningful conversion actions Correct answer.
At least three ad groups per campaign

Explanation

Smart Bidding learns from conversion data, so conversion tracking must be in place and must record actions that represent real business value. Without that signal, the strategy has nothing to optimize against.

Question 20Search advertising fundamentals

Which bidding strategy aims to show ads in a target percentage of eligible impressions?

Cost-per-thousand viewable impressions
Maximize conversion value
Target impression share Correct answer.
Target ROAS

Explanation

Target impression share sets bids to help your ads appear in a chosen percentage of eligible impressions, optionally weighted toward the absolute top of the page. It is a visibility objective rather than a conversion-cost objective.

Question 21Search advertising fundamentals

An account records 500 add-to-cart conversions and 50 purchase conversions in the last 30 days, and both actions are marked "Include in conversions" while the campaign uses Target CPA. What is the main risk?

Conversion values will be double counted in the conversions column.
Bids optimize toward blended add-to-carts rather than purchases. Correct answer.
Target CPA will automatically be converted into a Target ROAS.
The campaign will stop serving because two conversion actions cannot be counted.

Explanation

Only actions marked include in conversions feed the bidding algorithm, so mixing a high-volume upper-funnel action with a low-volume sales action skews the target toward the cheaper, weaker signal. Marking only purchases as primary keeps the CPA target tied to revenue-generating outcomes.

Question 22Search advertising fundamentals

An advertiser wants tighter control over which queries trigger ads without giving up close-variant coverage. Which setup best fits?

Exact match keywords only, with no negative keyword lists applied
Phrase match keywords plus negatives drawn from the search terms report Correct answer.
Dynamic Search Ads with no page feed and no negative exclusions
Broad match keywords plus a Maximize clicks bidding strategy

Explanation

Phrase match retains close-variant coverage such as plurals and same-meaning queries while requiring the phrase's meaning to be present. Layering negatives harvested from the search terms report removes the irrelevant patterns that slip through, giving control without narrowing to exact match.

Question 23Search advertising fundamentals

Which attribution model distributes conversion credit across all touchpoints using machine learning?

Linear
First click
Last click
Data-driven Correct answer.

Explanation

Data-driven attribution uses your account's observed paths and machine learning to estimate how much credit each interaction deserves. First-click and last-click credit single touchpoints, and linear splits credit evenly without learning from the data.

Question 24Search advertising fundamentals

A campaign's daily budget is fully spent by mid-morning every day, and impression share lost to budget is high. Which action most directly expands the reach that is being cut off?

Add more negative keywords to narrow the traffic.
Change the ad rotation setting to optimize.
Lower bids to make each click cheaper and stretch spend.
Raise the daily budget so the campaign can spend past its current cap. Correct answer.

Explanation

Impression share lost to budget measures the impressions you missed purely because funds ran out. Increasing the budget, or pooling budgets through a shared budget, directly removes that constraint. Lowering bids or adding negatives reduces demand rather than satisfying it.

Question 25Search advertising fundamentals

In the keywords table, what does the "top of page bid (low range)" estimate represent?

The exact amount you will pay for every click on the keyword
The maximum CPC allowed by Google Ads policy for that keyword
An estimate of the bid you may need to compete for a top-of-page position Correct answer.
The minimum daily budget required to run the keyword for a month

Explanation

Top-of-page bid estimates are historical guidance about the bid levels that were needed for ads to reach the top of the results page for that keyword. They are estimates, not guarantees, and actual auction outcomes vary by query and competitor behavior.

Question 26Search advertising fundamentals

Under exact match, which searches can a keyword trigger ads on?

Searches that include the keyword's terms in any order, plus related terms
Searches whose meaning is loosely related to the keyword
Searches with the same meaning as the keyword, including close variants Correct answer.
Only searches containing the exact keyword terms in the same order, with no variants

Explanation

Exact match includes close variants such as misspellings, singular and plural forms, reordering, and searches with the same meaning or intent as the keyword. Advertisers still gain some control through negative keywords. It does not require a literal, word-for-word match.

Question 27Search advertising fundamentals

Which three factors make up Quality Score for Search ads?

Ad strength, asset count, and ad group size
Conversion rate, average cost per click, and impression share
Bid, daily budget, and account currency
Expected CTR, ad relevance, and landing page experience Correct answer.

Explanation

Quality Score is an estimate of how relevant your ads, keywords, and landing page are to a person seeing the ad. It is built from expected click-through rate, ad relevance, and landing page experience. Each component is rated below average, average, or above average.

Question 28Search advertising fundamentals

When the Search Partners network is enabled for a campaign, where can its ads appear?

On websites in the Display Network chosen by the advertiser
On partner sites and apps that show Google search results Correct answer.
Only in YouTube search results and Google Maps
Only on Google's own search results pages

Explanation

Search partners are sites and apps that display Google search results or search-like experiences, such as partner search engines and some video and shopping surfaces. They are separate from the Display Network, which requires its own opt-in. Search Partners cannot be targeted site by site.

Question 29Search advertising fundamentals

What is the purpose of callout assets in a Search ad?

To add extra links that send people to specific pages of the website
To highlight short business selling points without a link Correct answer.
To show the advertiser's phone number next to the ad
To display product prices and promotional offers

Explanation

Callouts are short, non-clickable snippets such as "Free shipping" or "24/7 support" that add detail to an ad without taking users to another page. They can appear in any order and Google may show a subset. Assets that link somewhere are sitelinks, and price information comes from price assets.

Question 30Search advertising fundamentals

A campaign has a daily budget of $100. On a single day, what is the most Google may charge for that campaign's ad clicks?

No limit, as long as the monthly average stays on target
Up to $200 Correct answer.
Up to $150
Exactly $100

Explanation

Google may spend up to twice the daily budget on any given day when it predicts the extra traffic will be valuable. Over a billing period, average daily spend stays at or below the set budget, and the monthly charge limit is roughly the daily budget multiplied by 30.4. This protects advertisers from runaway spend.

Question 31Search advertising fundamentals

Which ad rotation setting lets Google's system favor the ads it expects to perform better?

Rotate evenly
Pause underperforming ads after 30 days
Optimize: prefer best performing ads Correct answer.
Rotate indefinitely

Explanation

The optimize setting uses signals such as clicks, conversions, and expected performance to show the ads predicted to do best more often. Rotate indefinitely gives lower-performing ads more exposure for testing purposes. There is no automatic 30-day pause rule.

Question 32Search advertising fundamentals

A campaign has the negative phrase keyword "running shoes". Which search is blocked from triggering the campaign's ads?

cheap running shoes for kids Correct answer.
trail running footwear
shoes for running on trails
running socks and shoes deals

Explanation

Negative phrase match blocks searches that contain the terms in the same order with no words in between. Only "cheap running shoes for kids" contains the contiguous phrase "running shoes". Reordered or interrupted terms remain eligible.

Question 33Search advertising fundamentals

An advertiser has a fixed budget and wants to bring as many visitors to the site as possible, without regard to conversion volume. Which bid strategy fits best?

Target CPA
Maximize clicks Correct answer.
Target ROAS
Target impression share

Explanation

Maximize clicks sets bids to get as many clicks as possible within the budget, and it can be paired with a maximum CPC limit for cost control. It does not need conversion data to function. Strategies such as Target CPA and Target ROAS optimize for conversion outcomes instead of traffic volume.

Question 34Search advertising fundamentals

Two Search campaigns in the same account share a single budget. What happens when one campaign can capture more traffic than the other?

Spend shifts toward the campaign that can use it best Correct answer.
The shared budget is split evenly by the number of ad groups
Each campaign is guaranteed exactly half of the shared budget
The campaigns must have identical bids to share a budget

Explanation

A shared budget is a single pool of money allocated across the campaigns that use it. Google's system moves spend toward whichever campaign is likely to capture more valuable traffic, so one campaign can consume most or all of the budget. Performance is managed at the pooled level rather than per campaign.

Question 35Search advertising fundamentals

An advertiser adds a remarketing audience to a Search campaign using the "Observation" setting. What is the effect?

The audience is excluded from all ad groups in the campaign
Bids are automatically raised for everyone who is on the list
Ads show only to people who are on the remarketing list
Ads serve normally, and results can be segmented by audience Correct answer.

Explanation

Observation lets you collect performance data for an audience without narrowing who can see your ads. Bids and targeting stay unchanged unless you add audience bid adjustments, and reports can be segmented by audience. This makes it a common first step before switching an audience to targeting.

Question 36Search advertising fundamentals

A keyword has a max CPC bid of $1.00, and the campaign has a +20% mobile bid adjustment. What is the maximum bid used for a mobile search?

$2.00
$1.00
$0.80
$1.20 Correct answer.

Explanation

Device bid adjustments are multipliers applied to the base bid for searches on that device. A +20% adjustment raises the $1.00 bid by $0.20, giving a maximum mobile bid of $1.20. The desktop bid stays at $1.00.

Question 37Search advertising fundamentals

What does the "first page bid" estimate in the keywords table represent?

The minimum bid required for the keyword to stay active
The bid likely needed to show on the first page of results Correct answer.
The average CPC paid by competitors on that keyword
The bid needed for the ad to appear in the very first position

Explanation

The first page bid estimate approximates the bid a keyword may need to have its ad appear anywhere on the first page of search results. It is based on Quality Score and current competition, so it changes over time. It is a guide, not a guarantee or a threshold for eligibility.

Question 38Search advertising fundamentals

A campaign targets Canada and uses the default "Presence or interest" location setting. Who can see the ads?

People in Canada only when they search in English or French
People in Canada and people elsewhere who show interest in Canada Correct answer.
Only people physically located in Canada at the time of the search
Only people who have a Canadian billing address on their Google account

Explanation

Presence or interest reaches people located in the targeted area plus people outside it who have shown interest in that area, such as someone abroad researching a Canadian trip. Switching to the presence option limits delivery to people physically in the targeted location. Language targeting is a separate setting.

Question 39Search advertising fundamentals

For Target ROAS bidding to work as intended, which input is essential?

A verified Google Merchant Center product feed
At least three responsive search ads per ad group
A manual CPC ceiling set for every keyword
Conversion values recorded for the campaign Correct answer.

Explanation

Target ROAS optimizes for conversion value divided by cost, so the system needs the revenue or value associated with each conversion. If conversions carry no values, the strategy has nothing to optimize against. A Merchant Center feed is relevant only for Shopping formats.

Question 40Search advertising fundamentals

In the linear attribution model, how is credit for a conversion assigned?

Credit is weighted toward touchpoints closest to the conversion
Credit is divided equally among every touchpoint in the path Correct answer.
All credit goes to the first interaction that started the journey
All credit goes to the last ad or click before the conversion

Explanation

Linear attribution gives each touchpoint on the conversion path an equal share of the credit, so a two-step path splits 50/50 and a four-step path splits 25% each. It rewards every interaction rather than one position. Position-based and time-decay models weight credit unevenly.

Question 41Campaign setup and management

Which keyword match type requires the search term to have the same meaning as the keyword, including close variants such as misspellings and singular or plural forms?

Broad match
Phrase match
Negative broad match
Exact match Correct answer.

Explanation

Exact match serves ads only when the query carries the same meaning as the keyword. Close variants such as misspellings, singular and plural forms, stemming, abbreviations, and reordering that preserves meaning are included.

Question 42Campaign setup and management

A Search campaign has an average daily budget of $100. What is the most Google Ads can charge for that campaign over a full month?

$3,000.00
$2,000.00
$3,040.00 Correct answer.
$6,000.00

Explanation

Over a full month, charges are capped at the average daily budget multiplied by 30.4, so $100 × 30.4 = $3,040. On any single day Google may spend up to twice the daily budget, but overages are balanced against lower-spend days.

Question 43Campaign setup and management

At which levels can negative keywords be applied to a Search campaign?

Only at the account level, for every campaign
At campaign, ad group, or shared list level Correct answer.
Only inside a single ad group's keyword list
Only through a shared negative keyword list

Explanation

Negative keywords can be added to a campaign, to an individual ad group, or to a shared negative keyword list applied to multiple campaigns. Ad group negatives filter only that ad group, while campaign and list negatives filter more broadly.

Question 44Campaign setup and management

Which of these is one of the three components of Quality Score for Search ads?

Daily budget amount
Maximum cost-per-click bid
Ad Rank position
Expected clickthrough rate Correct answer.

Explanation

Quality Score is estimated from expected clickthrough rate, ad relevance, and landing page experience. Bid, budget, and Ad Rank influence whether an ad serves and where it ranks, but they are not Quality Score components.

Question 45Campaign setup and management

Which asset type adds links to specific pages of your site below the main ad text?

Promotion asset
Callout asset
Structured snippet asset
Sitelink asset Correct answer.

Explanation

Sitelink assets display additional links to specific pages, such as a store locator or a size guide, beneath the ad. Callouts, snippets, and promotions add text but do not link to separate landing pages.

Question 46Campaign setup and management

Which campaign setting determines whether your Search ads may appear on Google search partner sites?

The ad schedule section of campaign settings
The audience segments applied to the ad group
The location options under campaign settings
Search Partners in the Networks settings Correct answer.

Explanation

Search partners are controlled by the Networks setting, where you choose Google search and optionally Search Partners. Turning the Search Partners option off limits delivery to Google search results only.

Question 47Campaign setup and management

Why should keywords in a single ad group share a common theme?

It removes the need for negative keywords in the campaign
It makes conversion tracking optional for that ad group
It reduces the number of ad groups Google allows per campaign
Ads there can be closely relevant to every keyword Correct answer.

Explanation

Keywords grouped by theme let you write ad copy and choose a landing page that speaks directly to those searches, which supports ad relevance and expected clickthrough rate. Tightly themed groups also make budget and bidding easier to manage.

Question 48Campaign setup and management

Which bidding strategy requires you to set keyword-level maximum cost-per-click bids yourself?

Target cost per action
Target return on ad spend
Maximize conversions
Manual cost-per-click Correct answer.

Explanation

Manual CPC leaves bid setting to the advertiser, including optional ad group and keyword bids. Automated strategies such as Target CPA, Target ROAS, and Maximize conversions set bids on your behalf.

Question 49Campaign setup and management

What must an account have before a campaign can use Target cost per action bidding?

At least 100 conversions per month
A linked Merchant Center account
Active conversion tracking Correct answer.
A linked Google Analytics 4 property

Explanation

Target CPA relies on observed conversions to set bids, so the campaign needs conversion tracking that records a conversion action it can optimize toward. There is no absolute minimum volume, although low volume makes the strategy slower to learn.

Question 50Campaign setup and management

Which strategy aims to get as many clicks as possible within budget while letting you cap what you pay per click?

Maximize conversions
Target return on ad spend with a shared budget
Maximize clicks with a max CPC cap Correct answer.
Target impression share

Explanation

Maximize clicks spends the budget to win the most clicks available, and an optional maximum CPC bid limit caps what you pay per click. Without the cap, Google may bid higher per click to capture additional volume.