Ultimate Digital Marketing Terms Glossary 2023
The digital marketing industry is full of disorientating terminology. Abbreviations, acronyms and other tech-lingo can leave you scratching your head, with sentences like:
“Once we optimise the PPC campaign, the new copy and creative will increase our CTR by 2% resulting in a ROAS of 4x.”
Did you get any of that!? No?…
Well, fear not, the ultimate Digital Marketing Terms Glossary is here!
If you’re new to digital marketing, or if you just want to be able to communicate more efficiently with your digital marketing team or agency, then this article will be a goldmine of knowledge with over 40 definitions to help you sound like an expert.
We have compiled this list of the top terms we think all marketers and business owners should know.
These are broken into four sections:
- General Marketing Terms
- AI Marketing Terms
- Paid Social Terms
- Digital Marketing Tools
- Marketing Customer Segment Terms
1 – GENERAL MARKETING TERMS
Creative / Assets
The images / video / design created for an online ad.
Copy
Copy means ‘text’. It could include text / captions used in paid ads, or written content on a webpage or landing page including headings and paragraphs.
Hook
A tagline, slogan or angle that grabs attention, creates interest and makes an audience receptive to your message.
Offer
A free or discounted product or service of value given in exchange for people completing a call to action.
Optimisations
The tweaks made to an advertising campaign throughout its run period. These implementations aim to improve the performance of that ad based on analysed data and testing. This can include removing low-performing ads and re-distributing budgets to minimise any wasted ad spend.
There is no rule for how often campaigns should be optimised, these could happen daily, or less frequently to allow sufficient data to be collected before taking action.
PPC
Pay-Per-Click. This model of internet marketing calculates how much an advertiser will pay every time their ad is clicked. This covers platforms like Meta + Google.
GDS
Google Data Studio. The platform we use to collate statistics and data in one place in order to provide insights to clients. GDS recently rebranded to Google Looker Studio.
Event
An action on a website that can be tracked e.g. Form Submission, Email Sign Up, Add to Cart. Events are tracked through Google Tag Manager and displayed in Google data Studio.
Looker (Google product)
A platform that allows you to visualise and make sense of your business data. It is a free tool that turns your data into informative, easy to read and fully customisable dashboards and reports.
SEO
Search Engine Optimisation. The process of raising your website and its links higher up in internet searches. This process is complex, and optimisations can made on the website itself (on site SEO), as well as building links and awareness to your site from elsewhere on the internet (off site SEO).
Keywords
SEO will use specific words to include in your content that attract visitors to your page. These specific terms can also be utilised in Google Ads. Think concise words that summarise your product/brand that related audiences would search/ seek out.
CRO
Conversion Rate Optimisation. CRO marketing is the method of increasing the percentage of website visitors that take the desired action, or, to use marketing speak – ‘convert’. This can be achieved through testing two variations of your website to see which converts better.
Bounce rate
A website bounce rate is the percentage of people who land on your website and leave without taking any action e.g. clicking a button, viewing another landing page etc. A high bounce rate is not necessarily a bad thing, and it is not a ranking factor for Google.
CTA
Call To Action. A CTA is a button, text link or copy that encourages users to take action.
For example: ‘Learn more today’ is a CTA encouraging users to take action by visiting a website.
KPI
Key Performance Indicator. The metrics we look at to evaluate if the Marketing Activity was successful or not.
For example: 20% uplift of landing page traffic within 3 months of campaign launch.
A/B Testing
Testing 2 versions of the same element (headline, text, image) to see which performs better in the market
Landing Page
The page (generally NOT the homepage) that an ad click will direct to. It usually has a specific CTA and copy associated with the campaign: summer sale, open day registrations, etc. A great offer is important on landing pages.
Lead magnet
A process used to create a sales lead. It can be a trial subscription, an ebook, checklist, sample or a free consultation, that is offered to someone in exchange for their email address or contact details.
2 – AI MARKETING TERMS
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
The capability of a machine or computer program to learn, think, and make decisions similar to humans.
Generative AI
A type of AI that learns from data and then creates new, similar data. This is often used to generate text, images, and music that seem like a human could have created them.
Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs)
These are a type of AI model used in unsupervised machine learning where two neural networks compete with each other to generate new, synthetic realities, while improving both networks in the process.
Deepfake
A synthetic media in which a person’s likeness is swapped onto another’s using generative AI techniques, primarily GANs.
Machine Learning (ML)
A subset of AI that enables systems to learn and improve from experience without being explicitly programmed.
Deep Learning (DL)
A type of machine learning inspired by the structure of the human brain (neural networks), which allows machines to process large amounts of data and recognize patterns.
Neural Network:
A computing model designed to mimic the human brain, used to process complex data.
Natural Language Processing (NLP)
The AI technique used to understand, interpret, and generate human language in a valuable way.
chatbot
A computer program that simulates human conversation through voice commands, text chats, or both.
Prompt
A question or instruction that guides the input for an AI model, particularly a language model.
3 – PAID SOCIAL CHANNELS
Meta
Meta is the umbrella name for platforms owned by Facebook (Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp etc.)
Lookalike Audience
Lookalike Audience is a feature on Meta that generates a list of users similar to an existing group. For example, you can generate a list of people that ‘look like’ your current page followers – these new users will have similar behaviours / demographics, etc.
Retargeting
The method of re-approaching target users that have engaged with your site or content in a specified time period.
Conversions
The measurement of how many site visitors are undertaking your desired action. For instance, how many visitors process a sale vs. the number of visitors adding products to their cart.
Ad Set
Ad sets are the categories of ads that select how, when and where ads will run.
Ad set level is where you can choose audience characteristics such as location, gender and age.
CTA Button
Call-To-Action Button. The link prompt that directs you towards an action or destination.
For Example: Learn More. Download Now. Contact Us.
Pixel
A snippet of code added to websites that allows for tracking of users website interactions. The meta pixel for example can track the user from the time they click on an Instagram or Facebook ad, through to when they checkout on your website, which helps track ROAS.
URL
URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator. It is the location of a specific website, page, or file on the internet.
URL Parameter
An extension to a URL that allows us to track where visitors have come from. This extension is added in Meta so specific campaign + ad set origins can be identified.
Reach
How many individuals the Ad was delivered to.
Impressions
How many times the ad was viewed in total. This number will often be higher than ‘Reach’ as Ads are often delivered and viewed more than once to a user.
CPC
Cost-per-click. For example; we achieved a $0.05 CPC means each user clicking on the Ad cost $0.05 to obtain.
CTR
Click-through-rate. The percentage of an audience that has clicked on the advertisement or emailed campaign.
Overall reach ÷ Clicks = CTR.
CPM
Cost per million impressions.
CPA
Cost per acquisition.
CPL
Cost per lead generated.
CAC
Customer acquisition cost.
ROAS
Return on ad spend. Typically for eCommerce clients/ sites using a pixel to track the amount of revenue generated from an ad / campaign.
Placements
Where the ad will appear for Meta. These can be set manually or optimised automatically. Be aware different placements require specifically formatted content.
For example: News feed, Stories, Reels, Search page, Overlays, etc.
Frequency
The number of times an account has seen a specific ad.
Learning Phase
The phase of the lifespan of an ad in which the ad platform (Meta or Google) is still gathering data to make recommendations. Making edits while in this phase will only delay progress.
Lead Generation
Using a form on Facebook to create a list of potential customers that would like to hear from you in the future.
4 – DIGITAL MARKETING TOOLS
GDS
Google Data Studio. Data Studio is a free Google tool that turns your data into informative, easy to read, easy to share, and fully customizable dashboards and reports.
GA
Google Analytics.Google Analytics is a free web analytics tool offered by Google to help you analyze your website traffic.
GTM
Google Tag Manager. Tag Manager gives you the ability to add and update your own tags for conversion tracking, site analytics, remarketing, and more.
Google Optimise
An easy way to roll out A/B testing for CRO (Conversion Rate Optimisation) on page without making permanent changes to site copy or design.
5 – MARKETING CUSTOMER SEGMENT TERMS
B2B
Business to business. Companies that sell to other businesses. For example; Google and Oracle are primarily B2B companies.
B2C
Business to Consumer. An adjective used to describe companies that sell directly to consumers. For example; Amazon, Apple + Nike are primarily B2C companies.
Top of the Funnel
Customers in the attention phase of a customer journey – this is where they are gaining awareness of your ad sets.
Middle of the Funnel
Customers in the interest phase of a customer journey – this is where they see your problem as a solution to their wants + needs.
Bottom of the Funnel
Customers who are familiar with your marketing activity – this is where they become paying customers.
There you go. All of the terms you need in one place.
It can be a lot to take on with one read, so feel free to bookmark for ongoing reference.
If this is feeling overwhelming, or you are in need of professional help, contact us today for a free 30 minute scoping and strategy session. Our Digital Marketing team is here to help!
Now that you’ve mastered your Digital Marketing terms, keep the momentum going and check out our Web Development Terms Glossary!