Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 2.5. Sample advertisement with highlighted headline, description, and link.
section is the link or URL. This link points to the advertiser's Web site. The link dis-
played may or may not be the exact URL of the Web page, but it is typically similar.
Collectively, the headline, snippet, and link are known as the ad copy.
There may be other components of the advertisement, such as a thumbnail, which
is a small image, a geo-location tag, a telephone number, a product review rating, or
other metadata.
Potpourri
: Metadata is data about data. Metadata can aid a searcher by adding
value to a chunk of information, especially for multimedia content.
Potpourri
: Metadata is data about data. Metadata can aid a searcher by adding
value to a chunk of information, especially for multimedia content.
Rank placement of the advertisement
Note in
Figure 2.4
that there are several advertisements on the SERP. Not only are the
ads in three different locations (north, east, and south), but the ads are in an ordered list-
ing within each location. The topmost ad in each location is in rank one. The ad below
that is rank two, and so on. Ad rank has an effect on several sponsored-search metrics.
Key sponsored-search metrics
When an ad appears on a SERP, this appearance is known as an impression. We can
sum up the number of impressions over a given period to calculate the demand or
market (based on searchers' queries) for our product or service.
An advertiser wants an ad to appear on a SERP typically to get the searcher to
click on the ad's link.
If our ad appears on the SERP, a searcher can (but not necessarily will) click on
the ad. These clicks can be recorded for a given time period. We can sum up the clicks
to give us an indication of several aspects of our sponsored-search effort, including
the effectiveness of our ad and keyword selection.
The ratio of clicks to impressions within the same time period is known as the click-
through rate (CTR), which is the basis for a host of sponsored-search metrics. The CTR
is a key indicator for the health of our sponsored-search effort. We can establish goals
for CTR (and other metrics), which are known as Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
An advertiser wants a searcher to click on an ad to get the searcher to the adver-
tiser's Web page. An advertiser wants the searcher to go to a given Web page to take
some action on that Web page, such as to make a purchase, sign up for a newsletter,
or download a paper. This action, whatever it is, is known as a convert or conversion.
It is really at the heart of our sponsored-search effort, and it is the goal by which all
KPIs should be measured.
