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Marketing glossary of ad, analytics and SEO terms in plain English

34 terms explained in plain English, with what each one measures, where the number comes from, a worked example and the mistakes that make it misleading.

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A to Z

Definition, mechanics, a worked example and common mistakes for every term.

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Each letter jumps to its terms. Gray letters have no terms yet.

Categories

Terms by area of marketing

The areas of marketing we cover. The number next to each is how many terms are already explained.

Paid advertising

11

Auctions, bids, costs and campaign types in Google Ads and Meta.

SEO

4

How search engines match pages to queries and what earns visibility.

Analytics

9

Ratios and metrics that connect marketing spend to revenue.

Social media

1

How posts and paid social are measured.

Content

1

Pages and content built to turn a visit into an inquiry.

Strategy

3

Funnels, lead stages and how marketing hands off to sales.

Ecommerce

2

Online store metrics, product feeds and shopping ads.

Tools and tracking

3

Pixels, server events and tags that make reporting possible.

A to Z index

Marketing terms from A to Z

Every entry starts with a short definition and ends with the mistakes to avoid.

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Analytics

A/B testing

A/B testing is a controlled experiment: you show two versions of a page, ad or email to randomly split groups at the same time and measure which one gets more of the action you want.

Ecommerce

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 what a typical checkout is worth.

Analytics

Attribution

Attribution is how you give credit for a sale or lead to the marketing touchpoints a customer passed through on the way, such as an ad click, an email and an organic search visit.

SEO

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.

Analytics

CAC

CAC, or customer acquisition cost, is the total sales and marketing spend it takes to win one new paying customer. It includes media, people, tools and fees, not only the ad budget.

Analytics

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's the mirror image of retention.

Analytics

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 your traffic turns into results.

Tools and tracking

Conversions API

The Conversions API, or CAPI, sends conversion events such as purchases and leads to Meta directly from your server or a platform like Shopify, so you're not relying on the browser pixel alone. It restores data that ad blockers and privacy settings remove.

Paid 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's the bridge between ad spend and business results.

Paid 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 tells only part of the story.

Paid 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 what a conversation costs, not a sale.

Paid 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.

Analytics

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.

Social 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.

Paid advertising

Facebook Ads

Facebook Ads, now branded Meta Ads, is the paid advertising system that places your ads on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and partner apps. You pick an audience and a goal, and an auction decides who sees each ad.

Paid advertising

Google Ads

Google Ads is the advertising platform Google runs across Search, YouTube, Gmail and partner sites. You usually pay when someone clicks, and the ads reach people who are already looking for what you sell.

Ecommerce

Google Shopping

Google Shopping is Google's product listing format: an image, title, price and store name pulled from your Merchant Center data, shown either as paid Shopping ads or as free listings.

Paid 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're actually reaching.

SEO

Keyword

A keyword is the word or phrase a person types into a search engine, and the phrase a page or ad is built around. In SEO and paid search, it's the link between what someone wants and what you offer.

Content

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.

SEO

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".

Analytics

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.

Strategy

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.

Tools and tracking

Meta Pixel

The Meta Pixel is a snippet of code on your website that reports visits, page views and conversions such as purchases back to Meta. It lets you measure, optimize and retarget your Facebook and Instagram ads.

Strategy

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.

Paid advertising

Performance Max

Performance Max is a Google Ads campaign type that runs across Search, Shopping, YouTube, Display, Gmail, Discover and Maps from a single campaign, using automated bidding and your assets to chase a conversion goal.

Paid 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.

Paid 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 getting in touch.

Analytics

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.

Analytics

ROI

ROI, or return on investment, measures the profit something produced relative to its full cost. In marketing, it tells you whether a campaign or channel earned back more than everything it took to run.

Strategy

Sales qualified lead

A sales qualified lead is a prospect your sales team has reviewed and accepted as worth a direct sales conversation, because the fit, the need and the timing all check out.

SEO

Search engine positioning

Search engine positioning is the work of moving specific pages higher in organic Google results for chosen queries. It runs on three fronts at once: technical health, content and links.

Paid advertising

TikTok Ads

TikTok Ads is the paid advertising system inside TikTok. Businesses pay to put short vertical videos in front of people chosen by age, location, interests or past behavior on their website.

Tools 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.

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