Glossary
Plain-English definitions for terms used on this site.
- Ad group
- A set of closely related keywords and ads inside a campaign, like "volunteer opportunities" within a volunteer campaign.
- AdSense
- Google's program that places other companies' ads on a website. Sites in the Ad Grants program can't display them.
- Baseline
- Your site's traffic before work begins, counting only visitors in your service area who are interested in your topics. Growth is measured from here.
- Campaign
- In Google Ads, a group of ad groups that share a goal, budget, and location settings. Not the same as a fundraising campaign.
- Click-through rate (CTR)
- The share of people who click your ad after seeing it. 50 clicks from 1,000 views is a 5% CTR.
- CMS (content management system)
- The software you use to edit your website, such as WordPress or Squarespace.
- Conversion
- A meaningful action someone takes after clicking your ad, like donating, signing up to volunteer, or registering for an event.
- Conversion tracking
- Code on your website that records conversions, so you can see what your ads produced.
- Cost per click (CPC)
- What an advertiser pays each time someone clicks an ad. With Ad Grants, clicks are paid from the grant.
- Engagement
- Signs a visitor is actually interested, like staying on the page, clicking, or visiting more than one page.
- Goodstack
- The company Google uses to verify that an organization is a registered nonprofit. Some Google pages still call it Percent.
- Google for Nonprofits
- Google's program for verified nonprofits. You join it first, then activate Ad Grants.
- HTTPS
- A secure website connection, shown by the padlock in your browser's address bar.
- Keyword
- A word or phrase you choose so your ad can appear when people search for it.
- Landing page
- The page someone arrives on after clicking your ad.
- Maximize conversions
- A Smart bidding strategy that aims to get the most conversions from your budget.
- Meta Ads
- Paid ads on Facebook and Instagram.
- Negative keyword
- A word or phrase that stops your ad from showing, used to filter out unrelated searches.
- Organic traffic
- Visitors who arrive from regular, unpaid search results.
- PageSpeed Insights
- Google's free tool that scores how fast and usable a page is on mobile and desktop, with a list of fixes. Find it at pagespeed.web.dev.
- Paid search
- Search ads paid from your own budget, outside the grant. Also called PPC (pay-per-click).
- Quality Score
- Google's 1-to-10 rating of how well your keyword, ad, and landing page match each other.
- Reinstatement
- Asking Google to turn a suspended account back on after you've fixed the problem.
- Search intent
- What a person is actually trying to do when they search, like finding a food bank open today versus reading about food insecurity.
- Search terms report
- A list of the actual searches that triggered your ads.
- SEO (search engine optimization)
- Improving your website so it shows up in regular, unpaid search results.
- Sitelink
- Extra links under your ad that point to specific pages, like "Volunteer" or "Upcoming Events."
- Smart bidding
- Google's automated bidding, which adjusts for each search based on how likely it is to lead to a conversion.
- Suspension
- Google pausing an Ad Grants account for breaking program rules.
- Technical SEO
- The behind-the-scenes side of SEO: site speed, page structure, and whether search engines can read your pages.
- UX (user experience)
- How easy and pleasant your website is to use.