Your Google Ads Encyclopedia: Translating Common SEM Jargon

If you’re reading this, chances are you already know how effective targeted, strategic Google Ads can be for coworking spaces.  

And if you’re not aware, this may help shed some light: one of Spacefully’s clients went from having 24 vacancies to being 100% booked, largely because of their targeted Google Ads. 

In a nutshell, Google Ads can have a great ROI for your coworking or flexible office space. 

However, setting up your ad campaign might be easier said than done, as Google Ads terminology can feel like a language on its own. But learning these terms is crucial for setting up your coworking space’s Google Ad campaign and bringing in high-quality leads to optimize your ROI. 

In this article, we’ve categorized common SEM (search engine marketing) speak by each step of the process. We first explain the basic terminology to lay a solid foundation for understanding the process holistically. Then, we dive into more specific and technical terms. By the end, you should feel comfortable enough with important SEM terminology to start creating effective Google Ad campaigns. 

Common SEM Terms You Need To Know For Your Coworking Space Ads

General SEM Terminology 

Let’s start with a breakdown of the basic terms before going into set-up or conversion-specific terms. These terms set the foundation to help you understand how Google Ads work at the simplest level. 

Search engine ads: Search engine ads are the ads you get when searching for a product, service, or product/service-related inquiry on a search engine. They’re tagged with a bolded “sponsored” so you can distinguish them from organic search results. 

SEM: SEM stands for search engine marketing. This term refers to using search engine ads to market your product or service. 

Ad Words: This is interchangeable with Google Ads. Google Ads used to be called AdWords.  

LP: LP is an abbreviation for landing page. A landing page is the site page people are directed to when they click on your Google Ad. Typically, this webpage is a homepage or a dedicated product page that uses copywriting techniques to convert visitors into trial users or customers. We recommend having a custom landing page for a higher conversion rate, and to allow for experimentation. 

Keyword(s): Refers to the term or terms you create your Google Ad for. For example, if you want to create an ad for your coworking space in New York, your ad keywords could be “office space New York” or “coworking space New York.” 

Long tail keywords: These types of keywords are longer phrases; sometimes, they can be as long as a question or a shorter sentence. An example of a long tail keyword is, “How to choose the perfect coworking office space?”

Bid/bidding: Similar to an auction, bidding in the Google Ads space refers to the act of paying in exchange for an item or, in this case, for your ad to be considered to appear on Google search results. It’s important to understand this concept as the Google Ads platform operates on a bidding system—check out our deep dive into how Google Ad bidding works to increase your chances of winning a bid. 

Negative keywords: Negative keywords help to “filter out” phrases that allow you to exclude certain words that you don’t want to bid for. For example, if you offer premium or luxury coworking offices, you might want to use “cheap” or “affordable” as negative keywords. That way, your office spaces will not appear in the search results for anyone who is searching for cheap or affordable options. In this way, using negative keywords can help attract higher-quality leads. We’ve created a resource on excluding the right keywords for your coworking brand—that’s how important negative keywords are! 

Congruency: This refers to the similarity between the Google Ad (ad text, messaging, etc.), keyword searched, and the landing page. This is a key concept to understand. You want a high congruence, or similarity, between the intent of the keyword searched, the Google Ad, and the landing page. Put another way, when people search for a certain keyword, both your Google Ad and landing page should answer or provide a solution to that search inquiry. You don’t want them feeling misled. High congruence translates to higher ad quality, and can help lower CPC or cost per click (we’ll cover that below, but essentially means you won’t be penalized with higher ad cost). 

Types of Conversions 

Next, you need to understand the most common types of conversions. You’ll need to set up your conversion to the right type before creating a campaign. 

Website: With website conversions, you’re aiming for sign-ups, purchases, or getting leads on your site landing page. 

App: The intent here may be to sign up for a free tour, book a meeting room, download your coworking space app, or take another custom action. 

Imported: With imported conversions, you may be aiming for analytics or other CRM imports via Salesforce, Firebase, etc. 

It’s also critical to label conversions as Primary or Secondary, to allow you to better communicate where valuable conversions are coming from.  For example, you may want to track a new newsletter subscriber as a conversion, but may not necessarily want that to be your Primary conversion.  

Campaign Terminology 

Your next step is creating a campaign. But what’s the right campaign type to create? Here are the most common campaign types, what they mean, and some insight into which might be the best for your coworking space ads. 

Brand defense campaign: With a brand defense campaign, you’re “defending” your coworking or flexible office space brand name. You bid on your brand name so that when someone searches for your local coworking brand, it’s the first one to show up (instead of displaying a big-name competitor brand).

Competitor campaign: With a competitor campaign, you’re bidding on your competitor’s brand name. So, when someone searches for your competitor’s brand name, you can bid to display your brand instead. 

Direct campaign: This campaign uses an exact search term (or keyword). The search term is for more “direct”, product or service-focused keywords. So, referring back to our previous keyword example, a direct campaign might be “coworking office New York” (using those specific keywords). 

Peripheral campaign: With a peripheral campaign, you use a long-tail keyword that’s related to your product or service (i.e., search words that are “peripheral” to your product or service). Unlike a brand defense, you’re not targeting your specific product or service but trying to capture traffic from product/service-related inquiries. An example might be “tips to find the best coworking spaces in New York.” 

Ad Type Terminology

You have your conversion type set up, and you’ve decided on the right campaign type for your ad strategy. Next up in Google Ad speak is understanding the ad types. We’ve defined the three main types of ads. 

Text ads: These are the ads you may be most familiar with. Text ads contain a headline, a description, and a URL. 

Responsive search ads: These types of ads are similar to text ads, except they adapt or “respond” to show more relevant messaging to potential customers or leads. You can put in a combination of different headlines and descriptors, and Google will test them out in searches. Over time, Google will tell you what combination performs best. 

Call-only ads: These ads target individuals who are on their phones to encourage them to call your business. When an individual clicks on a call-only ad, a call is initiated from their phone to your business phone number. 

Match Type Terminology 

Understanding match types comes after choosing your keywords. Here are four main match types, as well as the pros and cons of each. 

Broad match: This match type broadens the scope of your search campaign. With a broad match type, your ad appears in the search results of keywords that may be related but not a direct match to your keyword or search term. Your ad may show up for close matches or related term searches. For example, if your keywords are “coworking office New York,” a broad match may display your site in search results for related terms like “workspaces New York” or “coworking spots New York.” While a broad match may help to reach a wider audience by catching misspellings and synonyms, it can also show results for unrelated inquiries like “warehouses New York” or “garages for rent New York.” Lastly, broad matches can be more expensive because they cast a wider net. 

Phrase match: This match type includes a phrase as a search term or keyword. Other words can be added before or after it. Let’s stick with “coworking office New York” as the example keyword. With a phrase match type, your keyword can match “premium coworking office New York” or “affordable coworking office New York.” This is where negative keywords can come in handy—if you set “affordable” as a negative keyword, your ad will not appear for “affordable coworking office New York.” 

Exact match: This match type only allows your ad to be considered for the exact keywords without any modifications. So, if you set your campaign to an exact match type, your ad would only appear or be auctioned for “coworking office New York,” not “coworking office Chelsea New York,” “premium coworking office New York,” or any other variation. 

Bid Type Terminology

One of the last steps when creating a Google Ad campaign is setting up your bid type. Understanding the different bid types is key, as they’re each tailored to deliver slightly different results. If you have a solid Google Ad strategy in place, navigating the right bid type is relatively straightforward. 

Enhanced CPC or maximize clicks: This bid type allows Google to automatically manage your total bid. You set your total bid, or budget, for an ad campaign, and Google works to collect the most clicks possible within the budget. This is a great way to collect data about what type of audience converts best. 

Maximize conversions: This type of campaign will automatically set a bid based on previous data. Once you’ve run your campaign to maximize clicks (enhanced CPC) and collected data, you can switch over to maximize conversions to get the most conversions from that historical data. This bid type can charge you different amounts for conversions. 

Target CPA: CPA stands for cost per action. You set a target conversion cost, or cost per acquisition (CPA), and Google will automatically bring in as many conversions as possible at or under that set CPA.  

Target ROAS: ROAS stands for return on ad spend. This strategy not only optimizes conversions based on target cost but also targets a set return on ad spend. You will, however, need to have at least 15 conversions in the past 30 days to use this bid type. Additionally, this strategy usually works best when you have a measurable conversion value, to help calculate and target your return on investment.

Maximize conversion value: This bid type aims to get you as many high-value conversions as possible within your budget. This bid strategy, specifically for lead generation, typically requires a more sophisticated setup whereby an arbitrary value or real-world value is assigned to the conversion.

Ad Extension Terminology

Once everything else is set up, you can go in and add different ad extensions. These extensions are additions that can make your Google Ad stand out, so be sure to use them wisely. 

Site link extensions: Site link extensions allow you to add additional links from your site to your Google Ad. Some examples of links you may want to add to your Google Ad include “About Us” or “FAQs” pages. 

Call-out extensions: Call-out extensions allow you to advertise additional features on your ad. Terms like “free tour,” “24/7 customer service,” or “500+ 5-star reviews” are all examples of call-out extensions. They allow you to highlight features that stand out to your ideal customer. 

Call extension: This extension allows you to add a phone number to your Google Ad. 

Putting it All Together 

Equipped with an understanding of the most essential Google Ads terminology, the next step is to put the power of search engine marketing to work for your coworking space. That’s where Spacefully comes into play.
We’ve helped dozens of coworking spaces generate new leads and bring in new members using specialized Google Ads campaigns. If you’d like to learn how we can supercharge your lead generation and help you bring new members into your coworking space, sign up for our Google Ads Blueprint today.