Digital Marketing Glossary
Let’s go to the world of words! Browse our glossary and expand your digital marketing vocabulary
A
A/B Testing (Split Testing)
A/B testing, also known as split testing, is the process of comparing two versions of a variable. You can do this by splitting your audience and showing version A to half of them and version B to the other half to determine which one performs better.
Above the Fold
Above the fold refers to the area of a website that is visible to users without scrolling down.
Account-Based Marketing
Account-Based Marketing (ABM) is a strategy for B2B marketing that involves designing personalized campaigns for a set of target accounts. These campaigns consider each account’s specific needs to engage them to the maximum.
Account-Based Selling (ABS)
Account-based selling (ABS) is a sales model that targets accounts or companies rather than individual prospects.
Average Order Value
Average order value (AOV) is a metric that eCommerce businesses use to measure the average monetary value of customer orders on a website. To calculate your AOV, you can simply divide total revenue by the number of orders.
Average Time on Site
Average order value (AOV) is a metric that eCommerce businesses use to measure the average monetary value of customer orders on a website. To calculate your AOV, you can simply divide total revenue by the number of orders.
B
Behavioral Targeting
Behavioral targeting is an advertising method that uses the data collected from users’ behavior throughout the web to show them relevant advertisements. This data includes what users are doing on your website or app, what kind of content they like, how they react to your campaigns, etc.
Below the Fold
Below the fold is the lower part of a website that is not visible when users land on the page, so they have to scroll down to see it.
Bounce Rate
Bounce rate is a metric that measures the percentage of users who landed on a web page but left without taking any action, such as making a purchase, signing up for a weekly newsletter, or filling out a form. One of the main reasons bounce rate is important is because a low bounce rate means a low conversion rate.
Buyer Persona
A buyer persona is a semi-fictional character representing your target customers. The buyer persona includes information such as your customers’ likes and dislikes, their job, habits, and how they decide to buy your products.
C
Call to Action (CTA)
Call to action (CTA) is a piece of content used in marketing campaigns that encourages users to immediately take the desired action.
Card Sorting
Card sorting is a UX design technique in which businesses ask participants to put their products into categories that makes sense to them. Card sorting is effective for creating information architectures, processes, menu layouts, and website navigation routes.
Churn Rate
Churn rate, also known as attrition rate, is the rate at which customers leave your product or company over a given period of time. Churn can also include the number of people who cancel or won’t renew their contract with your brand. The higher the churn rate, the more customers you’re losing.
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
Click-through rate (CTR) is the number of people who clicked on your ad to visit your website or the number of people who clicked on a specific link. You can calculate CTR by dividing the number of people who clicked on your ad or link by the number of total visitors’ impressions.
Compliance Gaining
Compliance gaining refers to the process of attempting to change someone’s behavior and making them do what you want them to do.
Conversion
Conversion is the completion of an expected and desired action on your site by visitors, such as filling out a form, signing up for a newsletter, or purchasing a product.
Conversion Rate (CR)
Conversion rate (CR) is the percentage of the total visitors who have completed a desired action on your website. You can calculate the conversion rate by dividing the number of users who converted by the number of all of the visitors.
Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)
Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is the process of boosting the percentage of your website visitors who complete a desired action. CRO best practices involve improving your website or app’s elements through A/B testing to see which one converts more visitors.
CRAP
CRAP stands for contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity which are four graphic design principles. You should use all these four principles for a perfect design that attracts visitors’ attention.
Cross-Selling
Cross-selling is the process of selling an additional product or service related to what the customer is purchasing. Cross-selling shouldn’t be confused with upselling, which means selling a higher version of what the customer wanted to purchase initially. An example of cross-selling is when you buy a hamburger, and the seller asks you if you want fries with it.
Customer Behavior Analysis
Customer behavior analysis is the process of gathering qualitative and quantitative data while customers interact with your business.
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV or LTV)
Customer lifetime value (CLV or LTV) is a metric that measures the total revenue a customer brings to a business during their entire relationship with that business. By tracking customer lifetime value, you can easily understand your company’s potential and each customer’s profitability to aim for growth in the long term.
Customer Marketing
Customer marketing is any marketing activity that focuses on the current list of your customers. Customer marketing is specially conducted to drive retention and customer loyalty.
Customer Journey
Customer journey contains all of a user’s interactions with your business in order to take a desired action and achieve a goal. Customer journey helps you understand how customers behave on your website, where they get stuck, and how you can help them to have the best experience.
Customer Journey Mapping
Customer journey mapping is a visual story of a customer’s experience with your brand. Customer journey involves the customer’s experiences through any channel they use, such as social media, live chat, email, etc.
Customer Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction is a measurement that determines how a business’s products or services meet customers’ needs and expectations.
Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
Customer satisfaction score (CSAT) is a metric that measures customer satisfaction with your brand, product, or a specific interaction. It can also show customer loyalty.
D
Door in the Face
The door in the face is a compliance gaining method in which the persuader asks for a large request followed by a smaller one only to gain the respondent’s compliance. A simple example is when you ask your parents to stay outside until 1 A.M. Since it’s very late, they’re probably going to say no. Then you strike again with an acceptable offer and ask if you can stay outside until 9 P.M.
E
Eye-Tracking
Eye-tracking is the process of measuring eye movement to understand where a person is looking on the screen using eye-tracking software.
F
Form Conversion
Form conversion happens when a visitor completes a form on your website’s landing page, homepage, etc.
Funnel Analysis
Funnel analysis is the practice of mapping users’ interactions to a set of funnel steps on your website that leads to the conversion goal. Companies use funnel analysis to see how their customer journey is doing, optimize it, and find out how many users converted at each step.
H
Heatmap
Heatmap is a data representation method that uses color to show how visitors interact with your site.
I
Inbound Marketing
Inbound marketing is a business methodology that focuses on attracting customers by creating content and experiences tailored to them.
K
Key Performance Indicator (KPI)
KPI, which stands for key performance indicator, is a quantifiable value that evaluates the success of an objective over a specific period. KPIs help businesses set definite goals, measure if they’re heading towards what they expected, and provide invaluable insights that simplify decision-making.
L
Landing Page
A landing page is the first page users visit when clicking on your ad or your link in their email.
Landing Page Optimization
Landing page optimization (LPO) is the process of improving each element of a landing page to see which version drives more conversions.
Lead Generation
Lead generation is the process of creating consumer interest for a product or service in order to turn them into buying customers. Examples of lead generation in marketing are writing blog posts, hosting live events, offering a discount, etc. This process usually includes asking for consumers’ contact information, such as email.
M
Micro-Conversion
A micro-conversion is a small step users take toward the primary goal, which is a macro-conversion. For example, when a user fills out a form on their way to purchase, it is a micro-conversion.
Macro-Conversion
A macro-conversion happens when a website visitor completes the primary conversion goal, such as purchasing something from your website or subscribing to a web service. Since macro-conversions are your primary website goals, you can use them to measure the success of your website.
Multivariate Testing (MVT)
Multivariate testing (MVT) process of testing multiple variations of a web page to determine which combination of page elements performs better.
N
Negative Keyword
A negative keyword is a type of keyword that prevents your advertisements from being displayed to unrelated search queries
P
Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) is an online marketing model for advertising in which users pay a fee for every click they make on ads. By using PPC, companies gain paid visitors rather than attract them organically. One of the most popular forms of PPC is search engine advertising.
Pay-Per-Click Optimization (PPC Optimization)
Pay-Per-Click Optimization (PPC Optimization) is the process of analyzing PPC campaigns’ performance to improve them. Businesses can do this by implementing PPC strategies such as improving their website’s performance, localizing landing pages, using ad extensions, etc.
Personalization
Personalization is the process of creating a tailored experience based on information about an individual’s former visit to your website. For example, it’s so insensitive of you to buy a gift for someone’s birthday based on your own taste. Instead, you will buy them a present based on the previous information you have about them.
Persona Mapping
Persona mapping is the process of creating fictional but realistic profiles based on target customers from different segments. Your persona mapping should include users’ characteristics such as their motivations, goals, lifestyle, interests, etc.
Psychographic Segmentation
Psychographic segmentation is a research methodology that segments customers based on psychological characteristics such as their interests, motivations, values, habits, etc.
R
Retention Rate
Retention Rate is a metric that SaaS companies use to count customers who continue to use your service or product over a given period of time. A high retention rate means a low churn rate.
Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)
Return on ad spend (ROAS) is a marketing metric that indicates the amount of revenue you earn for each dollar spent on advertising. ROAS is similar to return on investment (ROI) which measures the profitability of your investments.
Return on Investment (ROI)
Return on Investment (ROI) is a metric that indicates the profitability of an investment. You can measure return on investment by dividing the revenue you gained by the amount of money spent on that investment multiplied by 100. For example, if you made $1000 out of 500$, your ROI will be 0.2%
S
Sales Funnel
The sales funnel is a visual representation of the stages potential customers go through on their way to becoming your customers.
Sales Prospecting
Sales prospecting is a stage in the sales process where businesses search and reach out to potential customers to generate more sales opportunities. Sales preps do this by communicating with the target audience to determine whether to forward them through the sales funnel or not.
Session
A session is the total amount of time a user interacts with a website or app.
Session Recording (Replay)
Session recording, also known as session replay, is a qualitative research tool to record all visitor’s activities on your website. Session recordings help you optimize the customer journey, fix any issues they face, and increase conversion rate.
Shopping Cart Abandonment
Shopping cart abandonment happens when a customer adds an item to their shopping cart but leaves it before completing their purchase. An item that is added to the shopping cart but is never purchased is considered abandoned by the retailer.
U
Upselling
Upselling is a sales strategy where the salesperson encourages the customer to buy a higher version of the product they were planning to buy in the first place.
V
Value Proposition
A value proposition is a statement that communicates why a customer should purchase your product or service. It contains the benefits customers would gain from working with your company.
Visitor Tracking
Website visitor tracking is the process of tracking visitors’ interactions and behavior using website visitor tracking software.