80 Terms To Know

Welcome to the world of Digital Marketing! We use a lot of terms, and acronyms here, and whether you are new to digital marketing or a veteran, sometimes their meanings can allude you. Not to worry. We’ve created this comprehensive list of terms you should know for you to save and reference whenever you need it.

We know 80 terms is a lot to take in so we've split it up into 6 different sections to help break it up. At the bottom of each section, we've also provided a PDF download of all the terms for you to save and reference later. All the PDFs are also linked at the very bottom of this blog, including a master list with all 80 terms sorted A-Z.

Happy Learning!

Sections Of Terms Covered:

30 General Digital Marketing Terms

#1 Bounce Rate:

The percentage of people who visit your website but leave without visiting any other page or taking an action. Learn more about the reasons why people leave your website.

#2 Brand Awareness:

How aware of your brand others are. What happens after you put your brand out to the world.

#3 Brand Personality:

A set of human characteristics that are attributed to a brand. An effective brand increases its brand equity by having a consistent set of traits expressed through all of its content and communications that a specific consumer segment enjoys. Learn how to inject humor into your brand.

#4 Brand Recognition:

The tools that you use to make your brand recognizable - logo, brand colors, brand fonts, etc. The work you put in before you put your brand out to the world. Check out our blog about what makes a great logo.

#5 Business To Business (B2B):

Businesses that sell to other businesses.

#6 Business To Consumer (B2C):

Businesses that sell directly to consumers.

#7 Buyer Persona:

A representation of your ideal consumer based on current consumers and market research. Learn how to create a buyer persona.

#8 Call to Action (CTA):

A word or phrase used to inspire the end-user to take a specific action, often via a button or another stylized link. Learn more about when to use a CTA in your social posts.

#9 Churn Rate:

The net % of customers that a business loses over a given time period, If a company started last quarter with 100 customers, then lost 50 customers over the same time period, their churn rate would be 50%.

#10 Click-Through Rate (CTR):

The percentage of the people who saw a search result, ad, or e-mail who then clicked through to your website. (clicks / impressions=CTR)

#11 Cohort:

A group of individuals (e.g. users, customers, prospects) that exhibit the same, or similar characteristics. Example: Any visitor to your site that fills out a form, but does not convert could be labeled as a ‘non-converters cohort.

#12 Conversion:

The completion of a predefined goal. This is often used to track the number of site visitors that have been “converted” into paying customers, though sales are not always chosen as the metric.

#13 Conversion Rate:

The percent of people who complete an action prompted on a specific web page. (Example, filling out a form on a page.)

#14 Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO):

A process or system for increasing the percentage of visitors to a website that converts into leads or customers or any desired action on a website or dedicated landing page is being taken.

#15 Cost Per Acquisition (CPA):

How much it costs to acquire what is defined as an ‘acquisition’. This could include a lead, a free trial or acquiring a new customer—sometimes stated as cost per conversion.

#16 Cost Per Click (CPC):

The amount you pay on an advertising platform for each click. CPC (Cost Per Click) – The amount of money spent for a click on an ad in a Pay-Per-Click campaign.

#17 Cost To Acquire A Customer (CAC):

Primarily used in Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) businesses. Calculated by dividing the marketing cost (can include just media spend or media spend and fully loaded cost of team members) by the number of paying customers.

#18 Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV) or Lifetime Value (LTV):

Prediction of the net profit value attributed to the entire future relationship of a customer.

#19 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs):

KPIs are measurable data that is used to evaluate how effectively a marketing campaign succeeded. They are extremely helpful and valuable when making decisions.

#20 Keyword:

A word or group of words a user uses to perform a search in a search engine or search bar.

#21 Landing Page:

A single web page that serves as the destination for a click on any ad or search engine optimized search result. The intent of this page is to focus on generating an action (lead, sale, download). Learn more about why your landing page matters and best practices.

#22 Lead:

An individual or organization with an interest in what you are selling who confirms their interest by filling out some sort of contact form.

#23 Marketing Funnel:

The concept of leading customers through a series of events or actions that can be mapped out in the shape of a funnel. The action at the top of the funnel would focus on attracting and driving users to your website, after which they move down the funnel as they download a resource or sign up for your email list, after which they (ideally) move to the bottom of the funnel and become a paying customer.

#24 Reach:

Reach is a term associated with the content you digitally release. Not to be confused with impressions, reach is the total number of people that see your given content.

#25 Retention Rate:

The net % of customers that a business retains over a given time period, If a company started last quarter with 100 customers, then lost 10 customers over the same time period, their retention rate would be 90%.

#26 Sales Funnel:

The sales funnel is the experience a prospect encounters after certain touchpoints from within the marketing funnel up until the point when the sale is actually made. The stages of the sales funnel could include; purchase contemplation, making a purchase decision, experiencing post-purchase engagement.

#27 Sitemap:

This is really just what it sounds like—a map listing the pages on your website that allows search engines like Google and Bing to identify where pages are, what order they come in, their importance, and how to generally navigate your site.

#28 Search Engine Results Page (SERP):

The page displayed by a web search engine in response to a query by a searcher. Every time you perform a Google search, you are greeted by a SERP.

#29 Search Intent:

The reason or reasons someone typed their question into a search engine.

#30 Search Term:

A word or combination of words entered into a search engine in order to search a specifc thing. Also known as a Search Query.

Download 30 General Digital Marketing Terms PDF

11 Search Engine Optimization Terms

#1 Alt-Text:

Also known as 'Alternative Text', is a short written description of an image, which is then read to users who are unable to view the image. This helps improve a website's accessibility.

#2 Anchor Text:

The text that is linked, which indicates what a user will see on the linked page if they were to click it. This helps provide context to both users and search engines as to where that link will take them.

#3 Backlink:

This is when one website hyperlinks to another website using HTML href code. Backlinks are a major factor used by Google in determining organic rankings.

#4 Bread Crumbs:

Links that appear at the top of a webpage that helps a page visitor better understand where they are within the website. These links often appear as: Home > Services > Specific Service.

#5 Canonical Tag:

A bit of code that tells search engines which page is preferred when two URLs are similar or duplicate. (Most commonly, this tag is used when you have products or content that is accessible by multiple URLs.)

#6 Keyword Stuffing:

The act of filling a webpage with keywords in an attempt to manipulate a site's ranking. This is a black hat practice, and you should not take part in it. Learn more about black hat vs. white hat SEO.

#7 Long Tail Keywords:

The specific, three- or four-word phrases that potential customers use when searching for your product or service. These are often easier and quicker to rank for in search engines and can account for the bulk of a website’s traffic.

#8 Meta Description:

An HTML tag used to describe the content of a landing page. It is usually between 140-160 characters.

#9 Meta Tag:

Hidden bits of code on your website that help determine the various ways that your site appears within search engines, from supplying the “title” and “description” that appear in Google to telling search engines what kind of business you are and what products you offer.

#10 Rankings:

A term for where a website appears in search engine results. A site’s ranking may increase or decrease over time for different search terms, or queries.

#11 Schema Markup:

A piece of code you can add to a page’s HTML to help search engines understand what your website is about and what type of information it contains.

Download 11 Search Engine Optimization Terms PDF

12 Paid Media Terms

#1 Affiliate Marketing:

A strategy where businesses reward individual affiliates (people or organizations outside the business) for bringing in new customers or visitors through ads or content on the affiliate’s website. Affiliates receive payments or product discounts based on the number of customers they generate.

#2 Behavioral Targeting:

Serving advertising to people who should be receptive to your message given past web behavior such as purchases or websites visited.

#3 Cookie:

A yummy baked…err… A small item of data sent from a website, that is stored on the user’s device. Cookies help the user’s device remember useful data like a shopping cart, visited pages or form field information.

#4 Cost Per Thousand Impressions (CPM):

The amount you pay on an advertising platform per thousand times people see your ad. CPMs can range from $0.50 on some ad networks to over $200 for popular content sites or niche target audiences.

#5 Dynamic Retargeting:

Essentially, next-level retargeting—serving ads to users who have been to your website that contain images and information about the exact item they viewed.

#6 Geo-Targeting:

The ability to reach potential clients based on their physical location.

#7 Impression:

A term used in PPC (Pay-Per-Click) advertising that represents how many times an ad has been shown.

#8 Paid Search:

Also referred to as Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Paid Placement, or Pay Per Click (PPC), paid search allows advertisers to pay to be listed within the Search Engine Results Pages(SERP) for specific keywords or phrases. Most commonly associated with Google Ads and Facebook Ads.

#9 Quality Score:

A numerical score Google AdWords assigns to ads and campaigns based on ad quality, ad relevance, and landing page experience. Generally, the higher your quality score, the higher your ads can appear on a search engine results page. Retargeting: Someone visits your website, and then after they exit and continue browsing, your ad appears as a display ad on other websites or social media channels that accept ads from the ad network you use for retargeting. (It’s a little creepy, but it works.)

#10 Remarketing:

Also known as retargeting, a type of paid ad that allows advertisers to show ads to customers who have already visited their site. Learn more about the power of remarketing.

#11 Return on Ad Spend (ROAS):

Gross revenue generated for every dollar spent on advertising. (revenue from ad campaign / cost of ad campaign = ROAS)

#12 Return on Investment (ROI):

Less specific than ROAS. The multiple of value generated for every dollar spent. That could include people, hardware, software, and advertising. Usually referred to in multiples. For example, the ROI on the last campaign was 7x (7x = business received 7x the value for the dollars invested..so a $1000 investment, yielded $7,000 in value).

Download 12 Paid Media Terms PDF

6 Social Media Terms

#1 Branded Resources:

Content that provides value to consumers but may or may not directly include branded products. One example is ‘How-To’ blogs.

#2 Conversational & Brand Building Content:

Content that encourages user interaction and extends the desired brand image.

#3 Engagement Rate:

Engagement rate describes the number of interactions—likes, clicks, comments, shares—a piece of content receives.

#4 Hashtag:

A phrase beginning with the symbol “#” used in social media as a way of tagging content for users to find. Adding hashtags to a post allows users to find that post when searching for that topic. Read 'Hashtags for Every Day of the Week'.

#5 Promotional Content:

Content that pushes products, promotions, or offers that tie directly to sales.

#6 User-generated Content:

Content created by your consumers about your company or industry that you can reshare to your community.

Download 6 Social Media Terms PDF

6 Email Marketing Terms

#1 A/B Testing:

An optimization technique that divides a list in two then sends a different email version to each half to determine which variation converts best.

#2 Click-To-Open-Rate (CTOR):

Measures the effectiveness of the content of your email. Calculated by the number of unique clicks divided by the number of unique opens.

#3 Drip Marketing:

A sequence of communication that is written in advance, and then sent to prospective or current customers at predetermined intervals to advance them through your sales funnel.

#4 Email Automation/Autoresponders:

A feature that enables you to send out messages to your customers at designated times, such as: When a subscriber signs up for your email list, when they perform an action on your website (like download an e-book), or when they add an item to their shopping cart but don’t complete the purchase.

#5 Evergreen Content:

Content—whether it be a video, blog, social post, etc.—that is relevant and interesting no matter the time or context the content is viewed in.

#6 Open Rate:

The percentage of the total number of subscribers who opened any one email campaign. For general newsletters (same message to every subscriber), open rates can be 20%-40%. For segmented emails (more relevant email to a subscriber based on a specific action or attribute), open rates can be 50%-80%.

Download 6 Email Marketing Terms PDF

15 Website Design + Development Terms

#1 301 Redirect:

A method of redirecting a visitor from one web page to another web page. These are critical for launching a new website and informing Google of page name changes.

#2 404 Error:

Also, known as "404 Page Not Found", this error indicated that the page or resource you're trying to view can't be found. Typically, this means that it has been deleted or moved.

#3 Content Management System (CMS):

A web application designed to help you make a user-friendly website. Read 'Why You Need a Website with a CMS'.

#4 Cascading Style Sheets (CSS):

A style sheet language used for describing the presentation of a document written in a markup language like HTML, including colors, layout, and fonts.

#5 Dynamic Content:

Messaging on your website that is tailored to each unique visitor. For example, a new visitor may see a different CTA than a frequent visitor.

#6 Favicon:

The small icon image, often a company logo, that displays on the title bar or tab of a browser tab. This acts as a visual reminder of the website's identity in the browser tabs.

#7 Friction:

Elements of your website that cause stress, confusion, or displeasure for the consumer and cause them to click off of your site.

#8 Hypertext Markup Language (HTML):

A standardized system for tagging text files to achieve font, color, graphic, and hyperlink effects on web pages. Put simply, they tell a web browser how to display a webpage.

#9 Javascript:

An object-oriented scripting language commonly used to make HTML pages more dynamic and interactive.

#10 Page Speed:

The length of time a browser takes to load all the content on a specific landing page of a website. Also known as load time.

#11 Really Simple Syndication (RSS):

A way for users to keep track of updates to multiple websites (news sites, blogs, and more) in one place, as opposed to having to manually check in on every single site individually. An RSS Feed is a place where all updates are tracked together, in an easily viewable format.

#12 Responsive Design:

Web design that changes and is optimized for each specific device a consumer could be using/viewing your content on.

#13 User Experience (UX):

How a user feels when interfacing with a system such as a website, a web application, or desktop software. UX often determines how well a website converts or how much time users spend on a website or application.

#14 User Interface (UI):

Everything is designed into an information device that a user may interact with. This includes display screens, keyboards, user interfaces of applications and websites.

#15 Visual Hierarchy:

The organization of the design elements on a landing page so that the user’s eye is guided to consume each aspect in the order of intended importance.

Download 15 Website Design & Development Terms PDF

Here’s the full list of PDF Downloads linked throughout this blog:

30 General Digital Marketing Terms PDF

11 Search Engine Optimization Terms PDF

12 Paid Media Terms PDF

6 Social Media Terms PDF

6 Email Marketing Terms PDF

15 Website Design & Development Terms PDF

Bonus: 80 Digital Marketing Terms (A-Z) PDF (All The Above Terms In One Document)

We hope you found this helpful & learned a lot!

Have a term you still aren’t quite sure about? Did we miss one? Contact us

The Ultimate Digital Marketing Glossary - 80 Terms To Know