Marketing glossary: ad, analytics and SEO terms in plain English
Marketing terms explained for the people who pay for marketing: what each one measures, where the number comes from, a worked example and the mistakes that make it misleading.
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All terms
Marketing terms from A to Z
Every entry starts with a short definition and ends with the mistakes to avoid.
Analytics
A/B testing
A/B testing is a controlled experiment in which you show two versions of a page, ad or email to randomly split groups of people at the same time and measure which version gets more of the action you want.
Read the entryEcommerce
AOV
AOV, or average order value, is the total revenue from orders in a period divided by the number of those orders. It tells a store how much a typical checkout is worth.
Read the entryAnalytics
Attribution
Attribution is the method of assigning credit for a sale or lead to the marketing touchpoints a customer passed through, such as an ad click, an email and an organic search visit.
Read the entrySEO
Backlink
A backlink is a link on another website that points to a page on your site. Search engines treat relevant backlinks as a signal that your page is trusted and worth ranking.
Read the entryAnalytics
CAC
CAC, or customer acquisition cost, is the total sales and marketing spend needed to win one new paying customer. It includes media, people, tools and fees, not only the ad budget.
Read the entryAnalytics
Churn rate
Churn rate is the percentage of customers or subscribers who stop buying from you during a set period, such as a month or a year. It is the mirror image of retention.
Read the entryAnalytics
Conversion rate
Conversion rate is the share of visitors, clicks or sessions that complete a goal you defined, such as a purchase, a form or a call. It shows how well traffic turns into results.
Read the entryTools and tracking
Conversions API
The Conversions API, or CAPI, sends conversion events such as purchases and leads to Meta directly out of your server or a platform like Shopify, instead of relying on the browser pixel alone. It restores data that ad blockers and privacy settings remove.
Read the entryPaid advertising
CPA
CPA, or cost per acquisition, is what you pay in advertising to get one completed action, usually a purchase, a signup or a booked appointment. It is the bridge between ad spend and business results.
Read the entryPaid advertising
CPC
CPC, or cost per click, is the amount you pay each time someone clicks one of your ads. It prices traffic, not customers, so it only tells part of the story.
Read the entryPaid advertising
CPL
CPL, or cost per lead, is the advertising spend needed to get one person to hand over their contact details, such as by submitting a form or calling. It measures the price of a conversation, not a sale.
Read the entryPaid advertising
CPM
CPM is the cost of showing an ad one thousand times. It prices reach and visibility rather than clicks or sales, which makes it the standard unit for awareness, display and video buying.
Read the entryAnalytics
CTR
CTR (click-through rate) is the share of people who clicked an ad, link or listing out of everyone who saw it. It shows whether the message earned a click, not whether the click was worth anything.
Read the entrySocial media
Engagement rate
Engagement rate is the share of people who saw or follow a piece of content and then interacted with it through likes, comments, shares, saves or clicks, expressed as a percentage.
Read the entryEcommerce
Google Shopping
Google Shopping is the set of product listings on Google, fed by your Merchant Center product data, that show an image, title, price and store name, either as paid Shopping ads or as free listings.
Read the entryPaid advertising
Impression share
Impression share is the percentage of times your ads appeared out of all the times they were eligible to appear. It shows how much of the available demand for your keywords you are actually reaching.
Read the entrySEO
Keyword
A keyword is the word or phrase a person types into a search engine, and the phrase a page or ad is built to match. In SEO and paid search it is the link between what someone wants and what you offer.
Read the entryContent
Landing page
A landing page is a single web page built for one audience and one action, usually the page a visitor reaches after clicking an ad, an email link or a social post.
Read the entrySEO
Long-tail keyword
A long-tail keyword is a longer, more specific search phrase with fewer searches per month but clearer intent, such as "light roast ethiopian coffee beans" instead of "coffee".
Read the entryAnalytics
LTV
LTV, or customer lifetime value, estimates the total gross profit a business earns from one customer over the whole relationship. It shows how much you can afford to spend to win a customer.
Read the entryStrategy
Marketing funnel
A marketing funnel is a model of the stages people move through on the way from first hearing about a business to buying from it, usually awareness, consideration and decision.
Read the entryTools and tracking
Meta Pixel
The Meta Pixel is a snippet of code placed on your website that reports visits, page views and actions such as purchases back to Meta, so your Facebook and Instagram ads can be measured, optimized and retargeted.
Read the entryStrategy
MQL
An MQL, or marketing qualified lead, is a contact who fits your target customer profile and has shown enough interest that marketing considers them ready for sales follow up.
Read the entryPaid advertising
Performance Max
Performance Max is a Google Ads campaign type that runs across Search, Shopping, YouTube, Display, Gmail, Discover and Maps out of one campaign, using automated bidding and your assets to chase a conversion goal.
Read the entryPaid advertising
Quality Score
Quality Score is a 1 to 10 diagnostic in Google Ads that estimates how relevant your keyword, ad and landing page are to what a person searched for. A higher score can lower your cost per click and improve ad position.
Read the entryPaid advertising
Remarketing
Remarketing, also called retargeting, shows ads to people who have already visited your website, used your app or appeared in your customer list. It brings back visitors who left without buying or contacting you.
Read the entryAnalytics
ROAS
ROAS, or return on ad spend, is the revenue your ads brought in divided by what you spent on those ads. A ROAS of 4 means every unit of ad budget produced four units of tracked revenue.
Read the entryAnalytics
ROI
ROI, or return on investment, measures the profit an activity produced relative to its full cost. In marketing it answers whether a campaign or channel earned back more than everything it took to run.
Read the entryStrategy
Sales qualified lead
A sales qualified lead is a prospect that your sales team has reviewed and accepted as worth a direct sales conversation, because the fit, the need and the timing all check out.
Read the entryTools and tracking
UTM parameters
UTM parameters are short tags added to the end of a link that tell your analytics tool where a visit came from, such as the source, the medium and the campaign name.
Read the entryCategories
Terms by area of marketing
Paid advertising
Auctions, bids, costs and campaign types in Google Ads and Meta.
Analytics
Ratios and metrics that connect marketing spend to revenue.
SEO
How search engines match pages to queries and what earns visibility.
Strategy
Funnels, lead stages and how marketing hands off to sales.
Tools and tracking
Pixels, server events and tags that make reporting possible.
Questions
About the glossary
01What is this marketing glossary for?
It helps owners and managers read proposals, dashboards and monthly reports without guessing. Each term is defined in plain words, shown in a small calculation and paired with the mistakes that make it misleading.
02Are the numbers in the examples industry benchmarks?
No. Every example states its own assumptions so the arithmetic is easy to follow. What counts as a healthy value depends on your margins, sales cycle and channel mix, and that is what the free analysis looks at.
03How are glossary terms connected to the blog?
Blog articles link a term the first time it appears, and each glossary entry links back to the services and related terms where it matters, so you can move from a definition to a practical guide.
04Can Marketers.com set up the tracking behind these metrics?
Yes. After the free analysis, a senior project manager with 15+ years of experience matches a vetted specialist who sets up conversion tracking, UTM rules and reporting so the numbers in this glossary are measured correctly.
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