Basic Level PPC Interview Questions & Answers

1. What are Ad words?

Ad Words is an advertising system, that developed by Google to help businesses to

reach their online target markets through its search engine platform and partner
sites On Google.com, Ad Words ads typically appear in specific locations at the top
and right-hand side of a search results page.

2. What is PPC marketing?

Pay-per-click (PPC) is an online advertising model in which an advertiser pays a

publisher each time when an advertisement link is “clicked” on. Alternatively, PPC is
known as the cost-per-click (CPC) model.

3. Explain how Ad words work?

Google Ad Words is a pay-per-click online advertising platform where they allow

advertisers to display their ads on Google's search engine results page. Based on
the keywords they want to target, businesses pay to get their advertisements
ranked at the top of the search results page.

4. Why use Google ad words?

Google Ads allows you to focus on the people who are searching for what your
business offers to them. This means you can continually refine your searches so that
the actual people who want to buy your products or services are sent to your
websites through this platform.

5. What is ad rank?

A value that is used to determine your ad position (where ads are shown on a page
relative to other ads) and whether your ads will show at all. So even if your
competition has higher bids than yours, you can still win a higher position at a lower
price by using highly relevant keywords and ads.

Ad Rank = Maximum Cost Per Click Bid x Quality Score

6. Explain what is Google quality score?

The Quality Score is Google's rating of the overall user experience that your ads and
landing pages provide when users search for your keyword. This is represented on a
scale of 1-10, with 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest. You may check your
Quality Score by looking at your keywords report.

7. What is the formula to find CTR (Click through rate)? Does CTR help in improving
the quality score?

CTR is the number of clicks that your ad receives divided by the number of times
your ad is shown: clicks ÷ impressions = CTR. For example, if you had 10 clicks and
100 impressions, then your CTR would be 10%. So summarize, if your actual search
network CTR is below expected, making changes to improve it can significantly
increase your Quality Score. However, once you have achieved an expected click-
through rate, you can make HUGE improvements to your click-through rate and only
see minimal improvement in Quality score.

8. What is the difference between CPM, CPC and CPA?

CPM, CPC, and CPA are all metrics that are associated with advertiser costs.

• CPM: Cost per mile visitors- Cost per mile, also called cost per thousand is
commonly used for measurement in advertising. It is the cost an advertiser pays
for one thousand views or impressions of an advertisement.

• CPC: Cost per click- Cost per click (CPC) is an online advertising revenue model
that websites use to bill advertisers based on the number of times visitors click
on a display.

• CPA: Cost per acquisition- It is also known as cost per conversion, is a growth
marketing metric that measures the aggregate cost of a user taking an action
that leads to a conversion. CPA is a vital metric for every business and provides
the business perspective by which you can turn your campaign success.

9. What is the character limit of a destination URL?

The URL address of the page in your website that people reach when they click your
Ad is called destination URL. Technically speaking, your URL should never be longer
than 2,048 characters. Any long than this and Internet Explorer won't be able to load
your page.

10. What is Ad rotation?

Ad rotation is the way that delivers your ads on both the Search Network and the
Display Network. If you have multiple ads within an ad group, your ads will rotate
because no more than one ad from your account can show at a time.
11. What is the difference between clicks and impression?

• Ad Clicks- It is a marketing metric that counts the number of times users have
clicked on a digital advertisement to reach an online property.

• Ad Impressions (IMPR) - It is a count of the total number of times digital

advertisements display on someone’s screen within the publisher's network.

12. How many characters are allowed in ad words?

Your text ad consists of three headlines where you can enter up to 30 characters
each to promote your product or service.

13. What is automated bidding strategy?

A bidding strategy automatically set bids for your Ads based on that Ad's likelihood
to result in a click or conversion. Automated bidding takes the heavy lifting and
guesswork out of setting bids to meet your performance goals.

14. What is phrase match?

Phrase match is a keyword matching option whereby Google matches your ad only
against keywords that include a phrase you designate. Phrase match is more
targeted than broad match, but more flexible than exact match.

15. What are all the basic practices every new ad word advertiser should always
remember?

• Write new Ads. Use the extra characters to say something new. Don’t just add a
second headline.
• Include your most important messaging in the headlines.
• Remember: Headline-1 is more important
• Don’t pause your old ads right away.
• Write all your ads to speak to users on all devices.
• Include top keywords in the path fields.
• Update your ad extensions.

16. What is frequency capping in ad words?

A feature that limits the number of times your display or Video ads appear to the
same person. Frequency is the number of times a user sees ads in your Display or
Video campaign over a given time period.
17. Explain Google click to call?

Click-to-call refers to a type of Google Ads’. Ad that, when clicked, directly calls the
business as opposed to linking to their website. These ads can only show on mobile
Devices; therefore, they are vital to mobile marketing campaigns.

18. What is IP address exclusion in Google ad words?

The IP exclusion list allows users to manually enter the IP addresses of users who
they don't want seeing their ads. Anyone who’s on the list won't be able to see any
of your ads and therefore won't be able to click them.

19. What is the use of search term report in Google ad words?

Use the search terms report to identify new search terms with high potential, and
add them to your keyword list. Look for search terms that aren't as relevant to your
business, and add them as negative keywords. This can help you avoid spending
money showing your ad to people who aren't interested in it. By using this you can
save your money.

( Manisha Nayak, Digital Marketing, PPC training in Bangalore)