The marketing industry is full of complex concepts, terminology, and acronyms. This comprehensive glossary is here to clarify confusing lingo, demystify buzzwords, and provide citable definitions to help grow your vocabulary. It’s a one-stop resource for finding the meaning of common (and uncommon) phrases any marketer may encounter on the job. While it is geared towards the marketing terms, you will also find sales terms as they are very much relatable to the marketing industry.
We plan to launch a new segment each week while we build the ultimate dictionary, so stay tuned each week for more exciting content! Not only do we plan to launch a new segment each week, but we will be also be releasing examples of each term, how exciting!
A
1. A/B Testing
This is the process of comparing two variations of a single variable to determine which performs best in order to help improve marketing efforts. This is often done in email marketing (with variations in the subject line or copy), calls-to-action (variations in colours or verbiage), and landing pages (variations in content). Outside of marketing, you can use it to determine what tastes better on a peanut butter sandwich: jelly or fluff. In my opinion, you should be using A/B testing to optimize all of your marketing!
Want a few examples/case studies, see more detail here.
2. Above the Fold
The first space in your web page that appears on a screen before a visitor needs to start scrolling down. This can also be referred to as the bottom of a browser window or it can be measured as 600 pixels from the top of the page.
3. Ad Group
An ad group is a single set of adoptions run against a specific set of keywords in Google Ads. They are used to keep your Google Ads account organized.
4. Advertising
Putting a spotlight on a product, service or business through paid broadcasting either in print form or digital.
5. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is a form of relationship marketing where a company pays a commission to another company or individual in exchange for referral traffic (and sales attributable to that traffic). Typically, a website will include links to products on another site (usually in a blog post or articles), which will pay a small percentage of its revenue totals in return.
6. AI(Artificial Intelligence) Marketing
AI Marketing is a method of leveraging customer data and AI concepts like machine learning to anticipate your customer’s next move and improve the customer journey.
7. Algorithm
The internal sorting process that computer systems and software platforms used to automate problem-solving or information retrieval.
8. Alt Tag
Alt tags are metadata that offer text descriptions of web images for search engines and screen readers for the visually impaired. As a best practice, they often include text that may appear on the image or a simple summary of the graphic.
9. Analytics
What I sometimes refer to as the “eyes” of inbound marketing, analytics is essentially the discovery and communication of meaningful patterns in data. When referred to in the context of marketing, it’s looking at the data of one’s initiatives (website visitor reports, social, PPC, etc.), analyzing the trends, and developing actionable insights to make better-informed marketing decisions.
10. Annual Recurring Revenue
Annual recurring revenue refers to the monetary value of a subscription-based company’s subscriber base or yearly value of a single subscription. This metric is most often used to measure yearly revenue for subscription services (such as software services like CoSchedule, Spotify, or Adobe’s Creative Cloud). It is commonly abbreviated as ARR, and it tightly related to MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue).
11. Application Programming Interface (API)
APIs are a series of rules in computer programming, which allow an application to extract information from service and use that information either in their own application or in data analyses. It’s kind of like a phone for applications to have conversations — an API literally “calls” one application and gets information to bring to you to use in your software. APIs facilitate the data needed to provide solutions to customer problems. Let’s say you used Quickbooks for your accounting and Expensify for expense tracking, API can connect these two apps to work together seamlessly.
12. Attribution Modeling
An attribution model is made up of criteria that determine how much weight should be given to specific actions and touchpoints that contribute to a sale being made. There are several different types of these models that modern marketers use.
13. Average Revenue Per Unit
The average revenue your company makes per unit of product.
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14. B2B Marketing
An adjective used to describe companies that sell to other businesses. For example, Google and Oracle are primarily B2B companies. Also known as Business to Business marketing.
15. B2C Marketing
An adjective used to describe companies that sell directly to consumers. For example, Amazon, Apple, and Nike are primarily B2C companies. Can also be referred to and Business to Consumer marketing.
16. Backlink
Backlinks are incoming links to a webpage. When a webpage links to any other page, it’s called a backlink. In the past, backlinks were the major metric for the ranking of a webpage. A page with a lot of backlinks tended to rank higher on all major search engines, including Google.
17. Big Data
Extremely large sets of data that can be analyzed by computer algorithms to extract insights. It is useful for finding connections and patterns in human and consumer behaviour that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to analyze.
18. Blogging
Originally, the term was weblog or weblog and eventually…blog. Individuals, small business and even large corporations write articles, commentaries, and the like, publishing regularly on their website. A primary component of the inbound marketing method, blogging helps to drive website traffic, builds thought leadership and authority, and drives leads.
19. Blue Ocean Strategy
“Blue ocean strategy” refers to moving in a direction where there is little to no competition. In a content marketing context, this could mean creating content on topics that no one else in that industry covers. In a broader business sense, it could mean creating a product or service that solves a problem in a way none other does.
20. Bottom of the Funnel
A stage in the buying process, this happens last – when leads move through the top of the funnel (identifying a problem), the middle (shopping for solutions), and finally, to the bottom, where they’re ready to buy. At this stage, leads are interested in a demo, a call, or a free consultation.
21. Bounce Rate
A bounce rate in terms of search engine marketing is when a user lands on your site and only views one page. Google Analytics will show you the bounce rate for your website. If this number is high, you will need to make some adjustments. The more pages a user views and the more time they spend on your site, the higher the chances for you to move up in search rankings.
22. Brand Identity
The characteristics and personality traits that define your brand both on and offline. It is the whole message and aesthetically presented to your audience, and the promise your brand makes to its customers.
23. Broad Match
In Google Adwords, a broad match keyword is one that loosely correlates with several different variations of a given term.
24. Buyer Journey
A semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on market research and real data about your existing customers. While it helps marketers like you define their target audience, it can also help sales reps qualify leads.
25. Buyer Persona
A semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on market research and real data about your existing customers. While it helps marketers like you define their target audience, it can also help sales reps qualify leads.
Tune in next week where we will continue on with the ELVTD Marketing dictionary. Be sure to subscribe to our mailing list for free tips and more directly(like blog updates) to your inbox. You can subscribe by clicking here.
Jason Puckering
[email protected]
416-522-4407
Tracy Swinscoe
[email protected]
813-820-2783
Thanks for reading and if you have any questions, email us or drop a line below 🙂 We look forward to hearing from you!