Working with an advertising agency often means measurable results, friendly customer service, and creative ideas that drive brand awareness. But it also can mean confusing jargon. Here are some common marketing terms for the letter P you may come across while working on your next campaign.

Paid Search

With paid search marketing, also referred to as “Search Engine Marketing” or SEM, you’re paying for your brand to appear in the search results of Google, Yahoo, or another search engine. If you google “burrito” and the first result is for Chipotle with a small “Ad” next to it, it’s because Chipotle used paid search marketing to appear there.

Pay-Per-Click

Pay-per-click, or PPC, goes hand-in-hand with paid search. PPC is a way of measuring how much you’re paying for your ad to appear. In this case, you pay a certain amount each time somebody clicks on your ad. Like an auction, you bid on a keyword and the highest bidder gets the first result. Most paid search ads are sold on a PPC basis, but some platforms may give you the option to pay on a CPM (cost-per-thousand-impressions) basis.

Pixels

Pixels are the atoms of the internet. Everything you see online is made of small dots called pixels that, when combined, form a full image. When talking about digital advertisements, you may hear us discussing an ad’s “specs,” (short for specifications), including the ad’s dimensions as measured in pixels. A 300×250 display ad, for example, measures out at 300 pixels across and 250 pixels down.