Here’s the complete PPC Interview Question and Answer Guide, including simple and complex questions. Each answer is clear, concise, and varies in depth based on complexity. A mix of Google Ads, Meta Ads, Search & Display Network, and remarketing are covered.
PPC Questions for interviews
From Basic ppc interview questions to complex questions.
1. What is PPC marketing?
Answer: PPC (Pay-Per-Click) marketing is an online advertising model where advertisers pay a fee each time one of their ads is clicked. It’s primarily used to drive traffic to websites.
2. What is Campaign Management?
Answer: Campaign management involves planning, executing, tracking, and optimizing PPC campaigns to meet business goals like traffic, leads, or sales.
3. What is Google AdWords?
Answer: Google AdWords (now Google Ads) is Google’s advertising platform that lets advertisers bid on keywords to display ads on Google search results and partnered websites.
4. How do AdWords work?
Answer: Google Ads runs on an auction model. Advertisers bid on keywords; ads are ranked based on Ad Rank (bid × Quality Score), and the highest-ranked ads appear first.
5. Why is PPC an essential part of online advertising?
Answer: PPC offers immediate traffic, precise targeting, measurable results, controlled spending, and complements SEO by capturing intent-driven users.
6. Why should people use Google AdWords?
Answer: Google Ads provides broad reach across Google Search, YouTube, and partner networks, highly targeted ad options, detailed analytics, and strong ROI tracking.
7. What is the actual cost per click?
Answer: It’s the price you pay each time someone clicks your ad. Actual CPC is less than or equal to your maximum bid and follows second-price auction rules.
8. What is Ad Rank?
Answer: Ad Rank determines the position of your ad. It’s calculated by multiplying bid amount and Quality Score, with influence from ad extensions and context.
9. What is Quality Score?
Answer: Quality Score is a metric from 1–10 that measures the relevance and quality of your ads, keywords, and landing page compared to user queries.
10. How does Quality Score affect ad position and CPC?
Answer: Higher Quality Scores improve ad rank and lower CPC since Google rewards relevant, high-performing ads with better visibility and lower costs.
11. Does the Google PageRank of the landing page affect the Quality Score?
Answer: PageRank doesn’t directly influence Quality Score. However, user experience factors like relevance and landing page quality do affect it.
12. Is PPC only appropriate for big brands?
Answer: No. PPC is scalable and beneficial for startups, SMBs, and large brands alike since budgets and targeting can be customized.
13. What are the settings that can’t be changed once an Ad in an account is created?
Answer: Account currency and time zone cannot be changed once set.
14. What is the Google Ads double-serving policy?
Answer: This policy prevents advertisers from running ads for the same product or service from multiple accounts to avoid unfair competition.
15. How can conversion rates be improved?
Answer:
- Optimize landing pages
- Use clear CTAs
- Test ad copy
- Refine targeting
- Add negative keywords
- Improve loading speed
16. What is the limit of characters used in a PPC Ad?
Answer: Google Ads allows:
- Headline: 30 characters each (3 headlines)
- Description: 90 characters each (2 descriptions)
17. What are Invalid Clicks, and how does Google determine them?
Answer: Invalid clicks are illegitimate clicks from bots or malicious activity. Google filters them using algorithms to prevent fraudulent billing.
18. What is a Converted Click?
Answer: It refers to a unique click that led to a defined conversion action (e.g., purchase or signup).
19. What is a Remarketing Audience?
Answer: A group of users who previously visited a site or used an app. They’re targeted with specific ads to re-engage.
20. What are Search Terms?
Answer: Actual phrases users searched for that triggered your ads. Available in the Search Terms report.
21. How does the Google AdWords auction work?
Answer: Every time someone searches, Google runs an auction. Ads are ranked based on Ad Rank, and your CPC is determined by the ad rank of the competitor below you.
22. What is an Ad Group?
Answer: A set of ads linked by a common theme or set of keywords within a PPC campaign.
23. What is a Conversion Optimizer?
Answer: Google’s automated tool that uses historical performance to adjust bids and improve conversions based on your CPA goals.
24. List some of the Google Ad extensions.
Answer:
- Sitelink
- Callout
- Structured Snippet
- Call Extension
- Location Extension
- Price Extension
- App Extension
25. What are the two most important factors that determine ad position?
Answer: Ad Rank and Quality Score.
26. How is the Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) calculated?
Answer:
\(\text{ROAS} = \frac{\text{Revenue from Ads}}{\text{Cost of Ads}}\)27. What is the Impression Share Metric?
Answer: It’s the percentage of total impressions your ads received compared to the total eligible impressions.
28. What is the character limit of a destination URL?
Answer: The final URL can be up to 2048 characters.
29. What is the difference between managed and automatic placements?
Answer: Managed placements are manually selected websites where ads appear. Automatic placements let Google choose based on targeting.
30. What can you do if your Ad gets disapproved?
Answer: Review the reason, edit the ad to comply with policies, and resubmit for approval.
31. What is a Phrase Match?
Answer: A keyword match type that shows ads for a sequence of words in the same order, with slight variations.
32. Can your ad link directly to a product brochure PDF?
Answer: No, Google Ads requires landing pages to be HTML pages, not direct links to PDFs or downloads.
33. Which are better, broad matches with negative keywords or exact match keywords?
Answer: Depends on the campaign goal. Broad with negatives is good for discovery and reach; exact match offers precision and higher relevance.
34. What does click-through rate (CTR) mean?
Answer
\[
\text{CTR} = \left( \frac{\text{Clicks}}{\text{Impressions}} \right) \times 100
\]
35. How do you intend to manage the Google Quality Score?
Answer: By improving ad relevance, landing page quality, and expected CTR through targeted keywords and compelling ad copy.
36. What third-party keyword-finding tools do you employ?
Answer: SEMrush, Ahrefs, Ubersuggest, WordStream, and Moz Keyword Explorer.
37. Ad Rank’s effect on the cost per click (CPC)?
Answer: Higher Ad Rank reduces your actual CPC as you pay just more than the ad rank below you, promoting quality and relevance.
38. What does On-Schedule Indicator (OSI) mean?
Answer: In Google Ads, OSI shows if your campaign is pacing appropriately based on budget and duration.
39. Why separate Display and Search Network campaigns?
Answer: Different user intents and strategies apply. Search is intent-driven; Display is passive and awareness-oriented.
40. What are the advantages of managed placements for advertisers?
Answer: Control over where ads appear, brand safety, and higher relevancy.
41. How long should advertisers wait to evaluate effectiveness after launching a new display campaign?
Answer: Minimum 2–4 weeks to gather enough data.
42. How can I get my Ad to rank higher in Bing?
Answer: Improve Quality Score, adjust bids, optimize keywords, and ensure relevancy.
43. Difference between Bing search and content ads?
Answer: Search ads on Bing Search engine, content ads on Microsoft partner sites like MSN, Yahoo.
44. Is there a formula for calculating Bing’s Quality Score?
Answer: Yes, it’s based on CTR, ad relevance, and landing page relevance, similar to Google.
45. What type of audience should I be aiming for?
Answer: It depends on campaign goals: high intent users for search, remarketing users for conversion, or broad audiences for funnel-building.
46. Is my website set up to handle the tracking needs necessary for a remarketing campaign?
Answer: Only if it has the necessary tracking pixels (Google Ads remarketing tag or Facebook Pixel) installed and privacy-compliant.
47. What benefits does remarketing offer?
Answer: Higher conversion rates, lower CPC, personalized messaging, and higher ROI due to targeting warm leads.
48. Is it a good idea to use a list that AdWords has generated for me?
Answer: Yes, auto-generated lists (e.g., “All visitors”) are good for default remarketing but may require segmenting for better performance.
49. What are the most vital KPIs for success measurement?
Answer: CTR, CPC, conversions, CPA, ROAS, impression share, and Quality Score.
50. What budgetary options exist on Facebook?
Answer:
- Daily Budget
- Lifetime Budget
You can set spending limits at campaign, ad set, or account level.
51. How can I boost my Ad’s number of impressions?
Answer: Increase budget, bid higher, expand keywords or targeting, and check ad approval status.
52. Relationship between campaign spending levels and budget allocations?
Answer: Account-level budgets affect how much you can spend across campaigns. Campaign-level budgets determine per-campaign allocation.
53. Why is PPC important in digital marketing?
Answer: It’s immediate, measurable, scalable, and targeted. It enhances visibility and conversions effectively.
54. Explain IP address exclusion in Google AdWords.
Answer: It lets you block ads from being shown to specific IPs (e.g., your company’s IP) to reduce invalid clicks and skewed data.
55. Explain search term report in Google Ads.
Answer: It shows actual user queries triggering your ads — helpful for discovering new keywords and adding negatives.
56. What are the different sizes of display Ads?
Answer:
720×90 (Leaderboard), 300×250 (Medium Rectangle), 160×600 (Wide Skyscraper), 320×100 (Large Mobile Banner), etc.
57. Types of billing strategies?
Answer:
- Monthly Invoicing
- Prepay Billing
- Automatic Billing
58. What is keyword insertion?
Answer: A dynamic feature where your search ad automatically updates to include the searcher’s keyword in the ad headline or description.
59. Reasons keyword insertion might not work?
Answer:
- Too long keywords
- Special characters
- Trademarked or restricted terms
- Incorrect syntax
60. How to improve Ad position in Google Ads?
Answer: Improve Quality Score, increase bids, use extensions, improve relevance.
61. Max length of destination URL?
Answer: Up to 2048 characters.
62. How to improve landing page quality in Google Ads?
Answer: Make it fast, relevant, mobile-friendly, and with clear CTAs.
63. Define frequency capping in Google Ads.
Answer: It limits how many times the same user sees your ad in a given timeframe. Used in Display and Video campaigns.
64. Difference between clicks and impressions?
Answer: Clicks are when users click your ad; impressions are the number of times your ad was shown.
65. Types of automatic bidding strategies?
Answer:
- Maximize Conversions
- Target CPA
- Target ROAS
- Maximize Clicks
- Enhanced CPC
66. Targeting options in Search Network Ads?
Answer: Keywords, demographics, audiences, devices, locations.
67. Targeting options in Display Ads?
Answer: Placements, topics, interests, demographics, custom audiences.
68. Different types of access levels in AdWords?
Answer:
- Admin
- Standard
- Read-only
- Email-only
69. What is Ad rotation?
Answer: It determines how Google chooses to show different ads within an ad group—either by optimizing for best performance or rotating them evenly.
70. What is Google Ad API?
Answer:
It is a tool that lets developers automate and manage Google Ads accounts and campaigns programmatically, instead of using the regular Google Ads dashboard.
71. How can you track conversions in Google AdWords?
Answer: By setting up Google Ads conversion tracking, using Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager (GTM), or importing offline conversions.
72. Explain difference between CPM, CPC, and CPV bidding.
Answer:
- CPM: Cost per thousand impressions
- CPC: Cost per click
- CPV: Cost per view (usually for video ads)