In order to pass the Google Professional Advertising Exam you will need to be thoroughly familiar with the basic terminology used to track and measure AdWords campaigns for yourself and your clients. As a result, Google's Learning Center takes a comprehensive look at terminology used. This article will address four basic concepts that need to be thoroughly understood when preparing for the Google exam: CPC, CTR, Quality Score, and Minimum bids.

Cost-per-click (CPC): Simply put, cost-per-click or CPC is how much you or your client will pay each time a web surfer clicks on your advertising link. Under the cost-per-click (CPC) pricing model, AdWords charges your account for each click your ad receives. If 10 people click on your ad, you are charged for 10 clicks at a set price depending on the placement of your ad in relation to the competitors. If no one clicks on your ad, you won't incur any costs. It will simply be displayed during  a search query and users don't click it. No click. No cost.

Clickthrough Rate (CTR): Clickthrough rate (CTR) is a metric that measures how your ads are performing. It takes into account the relevancy of your ads, how often users are predicted to click on them, and based on a formula a resulting higher or lower CTR is calculated. The system computes your CTR by taking the number of ad clicks divides it by the number of impressions and multiplies by 100.

Minimum bid: When we mentioned the cost-per-click this assigns the least amount you can pay per click in order for your keywords to show up in the listings. Say your minimum bid is 1.00. If the keyword requires a minimum bid of 1.05, your ad for that given keyword will be inactive for the search. In other words, it will be invisible and no one will click on it. If you increase your minimum bid to $1.05, the ad will suddenly show up based on the least amount your willing to pay per click. Very important when trying to advertise.

Quality Score: Quality Score is tricky but useful if you are trying to lower cost-per-clicks for your advertising or for your client. It measures the quality of your keyword and ad and based on that computation determines your minimum bid. The Quality Score is determined by your keyword's clickthrough rate (CTR), the relevance or lack thereof of your ad text, the keyword performance in the past and over time and other relevancy factors. What you need to remember when looking at the Quality Score is, however quite simple. The higher your Quality Score, the lower your minimum bid, and as a result, the price you'll wind up paying per click.

Learning the basic AdWords terminology and understanding the benefits of reading your reports for minimum bid and getting lower pricing by thoroughly understanding the Quality Score will go a long way towards increasing customer satisfaction and return clients. These can be further refined by analyzing how-to use the Google Network, language and location targeting, and site targeting effectively.