Glossary of Terms

Find out about helpful Digital Marketing and E-Commerce Terms and definitions all business owners should know.

4/18/202328 min read

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Glossary

Digital Marketing and E-Commerce Terms and definitions.

A/B testing: A method of testing where two versions of content with a single differing variable are compared to determine which yields better results

Abandoned cart: When a potential customer adds an item to their cart, but doesn’t complete the purchase

Abandoned cart email: A follow-up email sent to customers who added an item to their cart but didn’t complete the purchase

Accessibility: Considering the needs of people with disabilities when products, services, and facilities are built or modified, making them usable by people of all abilities

Acquisition email: An email sent to acquire new customers

Ad auction: A process that determines the best ad to show to a person at a given point in time

Ad extension: A Google Ads feature that shows additional information about the business, such as website links, a phone number, or address

Ad formats: Elements such as text, videos, images, digital content ads, and more that make up a Google Ad

Ad group: A group of ads that is organized by a group of keywords

Ad spend: How much a company spends directly on advertisements

Agency: An outside partner that fulfills a company’s digital marketing and advertising needs

Alt text: A brief, written description of an image with the primary purpose of assisting individuals who are visually impaired

Anchor text: The visible text in a hyperlink

Applause rate: The number of approval actions—such as likes, mentions, Retweets, or favorites—that a post receives relative to the total number of followers

Area chart: Represents data in the same way as a line chart, but with the space under the line filled in to form a visual area

Artificial intelligence (AI): A field developing intelligent machines and software that simulate human thought or work

Attribution: Assigns credit for conversions from ads, last clicks, or other touch points along a user's path to conversion completion

Attribution project: Organization for macro and micro conversions in Google Analytics

Automated bidding strategy: A Google Ads feature that automatically sets a bid for an ad based on an ad’s likelihood to result in a click or conversion that helps achieve a specific goal

Autonomous marketing: Uses real-time analytics to automate marketing activities

Average daily budget: The average amount set for each ad campaign on a per-day basis

Average order value (AOV): The sum of individual order amounts divided by the number of orders

Average session duration: Reported in seconds, a calculation that divides the total duration of all sessions by the number of sessions

Awareness stage: The first stage of the marketing funnel, when a potential customer first becomes aware of the product or service

Backlink: A link that points to a website from another site

Behavioral data: Refers to information about the actions a customer takes—or doesn’t take—when it comes to shopping on a website

Best sellers report: A report in Google Merchant Center that provides information about the most popular brands and products used in Shopping ads and free listings

Bid: The amount a marketer is willing to spend each time a potential customer clicks their ad or calls their business

Bid modification: Bidding a percentage more or less than a starting bid

Bidding strategy: Tells an advertiser how much to pay for each user action related to an ad

Big data: A field in analytics that systematically mines and extracts information from very large datasets for insights

BigQuery: Google’s cloud-based data warehouse solution

Blog: A discussion or informational website published on the internet consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries

Blogging: Refers to self-published writing that lives online

BOPIS: An acronym for “buy online, pick up in store”

Bounce rate: The percentage of website visitors who view one page and then leave the site

Brand: How a business or organization is perceived by the public

Branding: To promote a product or service by identifying it with a particular brand

Brand advocacy: Measures the number of customers who promote a brand through word-of-mouth marketing or other methods

Brand awareness: How familiar people are with a particular business or product

Brand awareness metrics: Metrics that measure the attention a brand received across all social media platforms during a reporting period

Brand equity: The value consumers attribute to one brand’s offerings when compared with similar products from another brand

Brand evangelists: Customers who are so passionate about a product or service that they enthusiastically promote it to others

Brand identity: The combination of elements that inform how people perceive a brand

Brand position statement: Outlines exactly what a company does and for whom, and what makes it different from competitors

Brand safety: Keeping a brand's reputation safe when they advertise online

Brand voice: The distinct personality a brand takes on in its communications

Brand voice guidelines: Describes the way a brand should be presented in writing

Branded content: Any post that features a third-party product, brand, or sponsor

Breadcrumbs: A row of internal links at the top or bottom of the page that allows visitors to quickly navigate back to a previous section or the homepage

Brick-and-mortar: A traditional retail store with a specific location where customers can come to shop

Broad match: A keyword match type in Google Ads that shows ads when someone searches for a term related to a keyword

Broken link: A link that leads to a webpage that no longer exists

Bucket testing: (refer to A/B testing)

Budget spend: How much is allocated to or spent on a campaign

Business goal: A desired aim, achievement, or outcome for a business

Business-to-business (B2B): Refers to when businesses sell products or services to other businesses (when businesses purchase from each other)

Business-to-consumer (B2C): Refers to when businesses sell products or services to consumers (when consumers purchase from businesses)

Call to action: An instruction that tells the customer what to do next

Campaign: A plan of action for how a set of one or more ad groups that share a budget, location targeting, and other settings will be distributed online

Cart abandonment: When a customer adds an item to their cart, but doesn't complete the purchase

Cart abandonment rate: The percentage of customers who add a product to their shopping cart and leave the site without completing their purchase

Cell: A position in a spreadsheet with a column and row designation; for example, cell A2 is the unique position in column A and row 2

Change management: Methods, practices, approaches, and processes that organizations take to ensure changes are implemented smoothly

Chatbot: A programmed system that responds to common customer questions

Chronological feed: A social media stream that displays the latest published content first

Click: An interaction with an ad and online user

Click-and-mortar: A type of retail store that sells online as well as in a brick-and-mortar store

Click-to-open rate: The percentage of email recipients who clicked on one or more links in an email

Closed captions: Subtitles that are overlaid on video and can be turned on and off by users

Color contrast ratios: Measures the luminescence (or brightness) of a lighter color against the luminescence of a darker color

Comma-separated values (CSV): A file format in which a comma is placed between each data value in the file

Competition: The other sellers that exist already in the market

Complaint rate: The percentage of complaints recipients send to mailbox providers about receiving an email

Confidence interval: The range of possible values after accounting for the margin of error

Confidence level: How likely an experiment’s range of results would contain all results if the test ran longer; most researchers select a 95% confidence level

Consideration stage: The second stage of the marketing funnel, when a marketer provides customer with more detailed information

Consumer-to-business (C2B): Refers to when individuals (consumers) sell products or services to businesses (when businesses purchase from consumers)

Consumer-to-consumer (C2C): Refers to when individuals (consumers) sell products or services to other consumers (when consumers purchase from each other)

Contact page: A common webpage on websites that provides information for visitors to contact the organization or individual hosting the website

Content buckets: Categories to group marketing content

Content marketing: A marketing technique that focuses on creating and distributing valuable content to a specific audience

Continuous metrics: Metrics that are measured and change over time

Conversion: The completion of an activity that contributes to the success of a business

Conversion paths: A feature in Google Analytics that enables a marketer to view the first and last touchpoints before conversion and touchpoints in between

Conversion rate: The percentage of users or website visitors who completed a desired action, such as clicking on a link in an email or purchasing a product

Conversion rate optimization: The process of increasing the percentage of users or website visitors who complete a desired action Conversion stage: The third stage of the marketing funnel, when a marketer capitalizes on the interest people have already shown

Cookie: A small file stored on devices that tracks user behavior and analyzes traffic

Copy: Any written material that encourages a customer to buy a product or service

Cost per acquisition (CPA): The average cost of acquiring a potential customer

Cost per action (CPA): The amount a marketer pays when someone completes a desired action

Cost per click (CPC): The amount a marketer pays when someone clicks on their ad

Cost per thousand impressions (CPM): The amount a marketer pays for every 1,000 impressions an ad receives

Cost per view (CPV): The amount a marketer pays when a viewer watches a video ad for a minimum amount of time or interacts with it, such as when they click a link embedded in the video

Crawlers: Automated software that crawls (fetches) pages from the web and indexes them

Crawling: The process of finding new or updated webpages

Creatives: Any content that can be promoted in a campaign, such as text, images, GIFs, or videos

Cross-channel attribution: A model in Google Analytics that attributes a percentage of a conversion to all advertising channels with touchpoints

Cross-selling: A sales technique used to encourage customers to spend more by purchasing a product that’s related to what they’re already buying

Curriculum vitae (CV): A document that presents a full history of an applicant's full academic credentials and professional experience

Custom audiences: A platform feature that allows a marketer to create relevant remarketing campaigns to reach highly-specific groups of people by uploading email lists of existing customers and followers

Customer acquisition: The process of gaining new customers

Customer acquisition cost (CAC): The average cost of acquiring a paying customer

Customer engagement: The interactions and emotional connection between a customer and a brand

Customer journey: The path customers take from learning about a product, to getting questions answered, to making a purchase

Customer journey map: A visualization of the touchpoints a typical customer encounters along their purchase journey

Customer lifetime value (LTV or CLV): The average revenue generated per customer over a certain period of time

Customer persona: Represents a group of similar people in a desirable audience

Customer persona barrier: What is preventing the customer from achieve their goal

Customer persona goal: What the customer wants to achieve

Customer referral: A word-of-mouth initiative that encourages existing customers to introduce their family, friends, and contacts to become new customers

Customer relationship management (CRM) system: Software that helps a business manage and monitor its interactions with existing and potential customers

Customer retention rate: The percentage of customers that a company retains over a certain period of time

Customer satisfaction (CSAT) survey: A tool that measures how products and services supplied by a company meet or surpass customer expectations

Customer service: The advice and support a company provides to its customers before, during, and after a purchase

Dashboard: A tool to track, analyze, and display KPIs, metrics, and insights dynamically based on interactive user criteria

Data: A collection of facts or information

Data analysis: Examining data to draw conclusions, make predictions, and drive informed decision-making

Data analytics: Monitoring and evaluating data to gain actionable insights

Data anonymization: Techniques to mask or remove personal information from data to protect the identities of people

Data bias: Human error that skews data collection or interpretation of data in a certain direction

Data ethics: The study and evaluation of moral challenges related to data collection and analysis

Data privacy: Rights of individuals under the law to control how their personal information is collected, processed, shared, archived, and deleted

Data-driven attribution: Measures customer engagement with marketing content across channels to understand what is motivating them to take action

Data-ink ratio: The proportion of ink (or pixels in digital content) that is used to present actual data compared to the total amount of ink (or pixels) used in an entire visualization

Data pulling: Collecting data from analytics tools and putting it in a spreadsheet or database

Data reporting: Organizing and summarizing data to track performance across marketing and sales efforts

Data storytelling: Conveying data insights to a specific audience using a clear and compelling narrative

Data visualizations: Graphical representations of data that convey information

Dead stock: Inventory that remains unsold for a long period of time and has little chance of selling in the future

Demand: How much consumers are willing and able to buy a certain product over a given period of time

Demographic targeting: Delivering an ad based on user information, like age

Demographics: Information specific to the customer, such as age, gender identity, income, family size, occupation, education, and location

Digital advertising: Communication made by a company to promote its brand, product, or service using various platforms and online channels

Digital channel: Any communication method or platform a business can use to reach their target audience online

Digital marketing: The practice of reaching consumers online through digital channels with the aim of turning them into customers

Digital shopping cart: The virtual equivalent of a physical shopping cart

Dimensions: Attributes or characteristics of an event that determine the metrics collected in Google Analytics

Discrete metrics: Metrics that have specific values, can be counted, or are binary—like on/off or true/false settings

Display ad: A visual ad format placed on websites or applications

Display campaign: A Google Ads tool that allows businesses to place image advertisements across various websites

Domain: The core part of a website’s URL, or internet address

Dropshipping: A fulfillment method in which products are shipped from the supplier directly to the customer

Duration: How long a campaign will run

Dynamic remarketing: A process that allows a company to show previous visitors ads that contain products and services they viewed on the company’s site

E-commerce: The buying and selling of goods or services using the internet
E-commerce platform: A software application that allows businesses to sell products or services online

E-commerce point-of-sale (POS) system: Software that allows a business to process payment transactions from customers online
E-commerce store: A store that sells its products online

E-commerce strategy: A working plan to promote an online store and increase its sales

Earned media: Any positive digital exposure generated through personal or public recommendations

Elevator pitch: A short, memorable description that explains a concept in an easy-to-understand way

Email body: The text in the main content of an email

Email bounce rate: The percentage of emails sent that could not be delivered to the recipient's inbox

Email copy: The text in a subject line, preview text, and email

Email marketing: The process of sending messages to a list of existing subscribers to share information, drive sales, or create community

Email marketing provider: A company that offers email marketing or bulk email services

Email marketing report: A collection of KPIs presented to the team and stakeholders to inform them of a campaign’s progress

Email marketing strategy: A set of procedures that a marketer identifies and follows to achieve their desired marketing goals with email advertising

Engagement: How an audience interacts with a brand on social media

Engagement marketing: (refer to experiential marketing) Event: An activity that causes data collection to occur in Google Analytics

Evergreen content: Content that will be relevant over a long period of time

Exact match: A keyword match type in Google Ads that shows ads when someone searches for a term that has the same meaning or same intent as a keyword

Experiential marketing: The process of encouraging consumers to not only purchase a brand or product, but to experience it

External link: A link on a website that leads to content on other sites

Featured snippet: A special box that displays information about a search in the results page Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC): Grouping people together when they have similar browsing characteristics without the use of a unique identifier per browser; may be used for internet-based advertising which is an alternative to using cookies

First click attribution: Assigns all the credit to the first touchpoint that eventually leads to a conversion

Flight: (refer to duration)

Follow-up interview: A more in-depth meeting that often includes members of the team that the applicant will be working with

Follower: Someone who opts in to receive updates from a business or brand on a social media platform

Footer: A navigation section at the bottom of a website

Forecasting: The process of predicting the future demand for products

Forward rate: The percentage of recipients who click on the “share” button to post to social media or who click the “forward” button to send to others

Frequency: How many times an individual encounters an ad

Frequently asked questions (FAQ): A section on a website that provides answers to the questions that customers might have regarding a business, their products or services, policies, processes, and more

Fulfillment service: A third-party company that prepares and ships orders from their fulfillment centers

Generalist: Someone who is knowledgeable about many topics and has various interests

Geographic segmentation: The grouping of customers with regards to their physical location

GIF: An animated image

Goal-based automated bidding: A bidding strategy where a marketer sets an ROAS or cost per action target to maximize the advertising goal at a certain efficiency

Google Ads: An online advertising platform where advertisers bid to display brief advertisements, service offerings, product listings, or videos to web users

Google Analytics: A web analytics service that tracks and reports website traffic

Google Business Profile: A tool that allows local businesses to tailor how their information appears on Google Search and Google Maps

Google Display Network: A group of websites, videos, and apps where ads can appear

Google knowledge panels: Information boxes that appear on Google when someone searches for people, places, organizations, or things that are available in Google’s knowledge database

Google Merchant Center: A tool advertisers use to upload their store and product data to Google and make it available for Shopping ads and other Google services

Google Search Console: A tool that helps users better understand how a website is performing on Google Search

Google Trends: A free Google tool that lets people explore what citizens around the world are searching for on Google

Googlebot: The generic name of Google's crawler

Hashing: A security method which turns the personal information in email lists into randomized code

Hashtag: A word or phrase preceded by the pound symbol that indicates that a piece of content relates to a specific topic or category

Heat map: A data visualization tool that demonstrates how visitors interact with a website

Histogram: Shows individual data points that have been categorized into ranges, with the frequency of each range represented by the height of a unique column

Home page: The main page of a website

Horizontal bar chart: A 90-degree rotation of a vertical column chart

HTTPS: An internet communication protocol that protects the integrity and confidentiality of data between the user’s computer and the site

Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS): A method of transferring information over the internet that protects the integrity and confidentiality of data between the user’s computer and the site

Impression: When a piece of content is displayed to a target audience

In-house: Within a single company

Inclusive marketing: The practice of improving representation and belonging within the marketing and advertising materials that an organization creates

Incremental sales: The sales during a period of time that are above and beyond what a

business normally sells in that timeframe

Indexing: The process of Google saving and organizing website information to display in the search engine

Influence: The degree to which a stakeholder can convince people to take certain actions

Influencer: A person with the ability to influence potential buyers of a product or service by promoting or recommending the items on social media

Influencer-generated content: Any post created by an influencer that promotes a brand’s products and services

Influencer marketing: The process of enlisting influential people to endorse or mention a brand or product to their followers on social media

Influencer marketing platform: Software that provides influencer discovery tools such as large searchable databases of potential influencers

Informative report: A report used to provide company leadership with a broad understanding of campaign performance, focusing on larger metrics like return on investment (ROI) and other key performance indicators (KPIs)

Insight: Information that is discovered through research or data analysis and that can be actioned upon to benefit a marketing strategy

Insight report: A report that finds meaning in the data and aims to communicate that meaning at a high-level to stakeholders

Interest: The degree to which a project informs or impacts a stakeholder’s objectives

Interest targeting: Delivering an ad based on user preferences

Internal link: A link on a website that points to other pages on the site

Internet troll: A person who intentionally antagonizes others online by posting inflammatory, unnecessary, or offensive comments or other disruptive content

Key performance indicator (KPI): A measurement used to gauge how successful a business is in its effort to reach a business or marketing goal

Keyword: A search term that people use to find information, products, or services online

Keyword research: The process of finding terms and phrases that people use in search engines

Keyword stuffing: The practice of loading a webpage with keywords or numbers in an attempt to manipulate a site’s ranking in the search results

Landing page: The first page a visitor encounters when they go to a website

Last click attribution: Assigns all the credit to the last known touchpoint before conversion

Law of diminishing returns: An economic principle stating that if investment in a particular area increases, the rate of profit from that investment will eventually decrease if other variables remain constant

Lead: A potential customer who has interacted with a brand and shared personal information, like an email address

Lead generation: The practice of collecting a potential customer’s email address

Lifetime ROAS: The result of multiplying the number of new customers by the total LTV and dividing the result by the ad spend

Lifetime value (LTV): The average revenue generated by customers over a certain period of time

Line chart: A chart in which individual data points for a changing variable are connected with a continuous line

Linear attribution: Assigns equal credit to each touchpoint along the customer journey

List growth rate: The rate at which an email subscriber list grows

List-based remarketing: Uses lists of existing customers or visitors who have provided their email address and shows specific ads to them

Live chat: A customer service technology that allows customers to communicate in real time with a business representative

Live View: A feature in Shopify that provides a real-time view of an e-commerce store’s activity as it happens

Local search: A search query that generates local-based search results

Local SEO: Optimizing content so that it displays in Google's local search algorithms

Location targeting: Delivering an ad based on user location

Lookalike audience: People with similar demographics and behaviors who haven’t yet been introduced to a brand

Loyalty stage: The fourth stage of the marketing funnel, when customers become repeat customers and brand advocates

LTV to CAC ratio: The total LTV (total lifetime value) divided by CAC (customer acquisition cost)

Macro conversion: A completed purchase transaction

Macro-influencers: Influencers with between 100,000 and 1 million followers

Manual action: Google’s way to demote or remove webpages that are not compliant with its webmaster quality guidelines

Manual bidding: Managing bids based on the criteria the marketer selects

Margin of error: The statistically-calculated difference between a test result and the theoretical result that could have come from a test with a lot more users

Market research: The process of gathering information about consumers’ needs and preferences

Market size: The total number of potential customers within a specific industry

Marketing automation: The practice of using software, programs, and technology to create and implement applications to automate marketing tasks

Marketing funnel: A visual representation of the process through which people go from learning about a brand to becoming loyal customers

Marketing goal: An objective in a marketing plan or strategy that supports a business goal

Marketing mix models: Statistical models advertisers use to predict the effectiveness and ROI of an advertising spend

Marketing return on investment (ROI): A metric calculated by subtracting the marketing cost from the total sales growth and dividing the result by the marketing cost

Maximum bid: The highest amount a marketer is willing to bid on a platform; also known as the ceiling

Media mix: A combination of digital channels marketers use to reach their goals and how they divide their budget among them

Media mix models: (refer to marketing mix models)

Media plan: Contains details about where, when, and how often an ad will appear across all media channel

Mega-influencers: Influencers with 1 million or more followers

Meme: An amusing or interesting item—such as a captioned picture or video—that is spread widely online

Merge tag: (refer to personalization tag)

Meta description: Text that provides search engines a summary of what the page is about

Metrics: Quantifiable measurements that are used to track and assess a business objective

Micro conversion: A completed response that indicates a user is moving toward a completed purchase transaction

Micro-influencers: Influencers with between 10,000 and 100,000 followers

Microblogging: Blogging on a smaller scale; Ideal for distributing short-form content quickly and frequently

Minimum bid: The lowest amount a marketer is allowed bid on a platform; also known as the floor

Mobile-friendly webpage: A webpage that is designed to load quickly and render well on a phone screen

Monthly active users: Refers to the number of unique customers who visit a platform over a month-long span

Multi-channel customer service: Refers to providing customer service across multiple channels

Multivariable testing: (refer to multivariate testing)

Multivariate testing: A method of testing where two or more versions of content with several differing variables are compared to determine which combination yields better results

Nano-influencers: Influencers with 10,000 followers or fewer

Navigation bar: A collection of links to other pages within a website

Negative keywords: Search terms excluded from an ad campaign

Net profit: The amount of money left over after expenses are paid

Net profit margin: The percentage of revenue left over after expenses are paid

Net Promoter Score (NPS): A metric that helps predict future customer engagement by asking customers, “How likely is it that you would recommend our product to a friend?”

Net Promoter Score (NPS) survey: A single-question survey that asks respondents to rate the likelihood that they would recommend a company, product, or a service to a friend or colleague on a scale from zero to ten

Newsletter: An email sent to subscribers on a regular basis, containing news and informational content relevant to the company and of interest to subscribers

Off-season: The period where customers tend to take more time in making purchases, especially if it’s for a larger ticket item

Omnichannel: The integration or synchronization of content on multiple channels

Online advertising: A form of marketing which uses the internet to deliver promotional marketing messages to consumers

On-season: The period where customers are much more likely to buy products due to related weather variables or special events

Open captions: Subtitles that are embedded directly in video and can’t be hidden or turned off by users

Open rate: The percentage of users or customers who open an email

Open-source: Software that allows the user to access and edit the original source code

Operational report: A report that provides real-time updates and information on metrics like audience growth rates, impressions, click-through rates, and more

Optimization score: An estimate of how well a Google Ads account is set to perform

Order fulfillment: All the steps that take place between receiving an order and delivering the order to the customer

Organic results: Search results not paid for by advertisers

Organic search: Unpaid results a search engine produces when a search is performed

Organic social media: Any social media activity that does not require a paid promotion

Owned media: All the digital content a brand fully controls

Paid media: Any form of digital promotion a brand pays to put online

Paid results: Search results that advertisers pay to show whenever a user runs a search containing certain keywords

Paid social media: Displaying paid advertisements or sponsored marketing messages on social media platforms to target a specific audience

Pain point: A specific problem faced by current or prospective customers while interacting with a site

Payment service provider: A secure way to process transactions online

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising: A type of advertising that allows the advertiser to pay only when someone clicks on an ad link

Performance goal: A target that has a measurable, numeric value

Performance marketing: The process of using concrete information about customer behaviors to plan and refine marketing and sales strategies

Performance Planner: A Google tool that allows an advertiser to forecast the impact of different spending scenarios and events during upcoming seasons

Performance reporting: (refer to data reporting)

Personalization: The practice of delivering a customized experience for each customer

Personalization tag: A code that allows the writer to insert unique user data from their mailing list into emails

Personalized advertising: A type of advertising that relies on user interest or behavior data to determine the right audience for ads

Personally identifiable information (PII): Information that could be used to directly identify, contact, or locate an individual

PESTLE analysis: An audit that identifies political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental factors that may affect a marketing strategy

Phrase match: A keyword match type in Google Ads that shows ads when someone searches for a term that includes the meaning of a keyword

Pie chart: A chart that shows data with partial and whole results

Pillars of social media marketing: The pillars that can help guide an effective social media marketing campaign: strategy, planning and publishing, listening and engagement, analytics and reporting, and paid social media

Pivot table: A visualization that changes the view of data in a spreadsheet to a different perspective to categorize it or to identify an insight or trend (without changing the data itself)

Pixel-based remarketing: A process that sends ads automatically to users after placing a cookie into their web browser that tracks the pages and products they view

Podcast: An episodic series of digital audio files that users can download to a personal device to listen or read a transcription

Point of diminishing returns: The point at which revenue-to-ad spend is at its highest

Points model: A rewards program that offers customers a point equivalent for a determined monetary value spent over the course of several purchases

Portfolio: An edited collection of an individual’s best projects intended to showcase work experience, style, or methods

Post-purchase communication: Any direct interaction customers have with a brand after they make a purchase

Potential reach: A metric that measures how many people have potentially seen a post

Power grid: (refer to stakeholder map)

Predicted lifetime value (pLTV): The predicted revenue generated by customers over a period of time that includes the future

Predictive analytics: Uses historical data to predict what might happen

Preliminary interview: A fast-paced meeting conducted over a phone call or video chat

Preview text: Text next to an email’s subject line in the inbox that gives extra insight into what’s inside the email

Primary research: Research obtained first-hand

Privacy policy: A legal document that discloses some or all of the ways a business gathers, uses, discloses, and manages a customer's data

Product analytics: Monitoring and evaluating data to gain insights into how users interact with a product or service

Product description: The text on the product detail page of an e-commerce store that provides details and information to customers about the product

Product detail page (PDP): A page on an e-commerce site that provides information about a specific product

Product conversion rate: The percentage of customers who purchase a product after viewing it

Product recommendation engine: Software that uses artificial intelligence to analyze customers’ data, learn which products might interest them, and display those products to the customer

Product sourcing: How a business acquires the products they sell to customers

Product viability: The sales potential for a specific product

Promoted post: A social media post that a marketer pays the platform to make more visible

Promotional email: An email sent out to inform subscribers of new or existing products or services

Property: A website, mobile application, or web page that is associated with a unique measurement ID in Google Analytics to enable metrics collection

Psychographic data: Refers to information based on customers’ activities, interests, and opinions

Python: A programming language used for data analysis and data visualization

Qualified traffic: Traffic made up of visitors who are likely to become customers

Qualitative data: Information that describes qualities or characteristics

Quality control: The process through which a business seeks to ensure that product quality is maintained or improved

Quantitative data: Information that can be counted or compared on a numeric scale

Quarter: A three-month time period based on a company’s financial calendar

Query: The words typed into a Google Search bar

Rank: A webpage’s position in the search engine results pages (SERPs), which is determined by an algorithm

Reach: The total number of unique individuals who encounter an ad across their different devices

Real-time analytics: Monitors immediate data for insights to respond to events more quickly

Real-time marketing: A marketing approach that involves responding to current events, trends, or feedback in real or near-real time, almost always on social media

Redirect testing: A method of testing where two ads or webpages with different URLs are tested against each other to determine which yields better results

Referral: Refers to how someone was guided to a website

Remarketing: A strategy in which a marketer uses paid ads to target customers who have visited a website, app, or social media profile

Remarketing ad: An advertisement delivered to previous purchasers, subscribers, or visitors to a brand’s website or social media

Replenishment emails: Emails used to prompt customers to make a repeat purchase when the items they previously bought are about to run out

Repurposing content: The process of recreating and republishing content in different formats

Responsive display ad: A display ad that automatically adjusts its size, appearance, and format to fit available ad spaces

Responsive website: A website that is designed to work on all types of devices, including computers, mobile phones, and tablets

Resume: A document created and used by a person to present their background, skills, and accomplishments

Retention email: An email sent to a current customer with the intent of keeping them as a customer

Return on ad spend (ROAS): How much revenue is gained versus how much was spent

Return on investment (ROI): A ratio of net income (money made) to investment (money spent)

Return policy: A document that describes, in detail, a business's process and requirements for accepting returns

Return rate: The percentage of products sold that are returned by customers

Revenue-per-click: The average revenue for each individual click on all of a company’s pay-per-click keywords and ads

Rewards program: A marketing strategy designed to build customer loyalty by providing incentives for customers to continue shopping with the brand

Rich results: Enhanced results in Google Search with extra visual or interactive features

Rule of seven: A marketing concept that states a potential customer must see a message at least seven times before they’re ready to take action

Schema: The type of code used for structured data markups

Screen enlargement application: Technology that helps users see content more easily by magnifying text and images on a computer or digital device screen

Screen reader: An application that converts text, buttons, images, and other screen elements into speech or Braille

Search algorithm: An automated process that helps locate information to answer a user’s query

Search campaign: Text ads that appear on search results when people search on Google for related products and services

Search engine: Software that provides information on a search query

Search engine marketing (SEM): Increasing a website’s visibility on a search engine results page through paid advertising

Search engine optimization (SEO): The process of increasing the visibility of website pages on search engines to attract more relevant traffic Search engine results pages (SERPs): The results pages that appear when someone performs a search query

Seasonality: The regular and predictable fluctuation of e-commerce traffic around special holidays, events, and weather on a quarterly or yearly basis

Secondary research: Research done by others

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate: A digital certificate that authenticates a website’s identity and enables an encrypted connection

Segment: A subset of analytics data that features a common characteristic; examples are a user segment, an event segment, or a session segment

Segmentation: The practice of dividing an email subscriber list into smaller groups based on criteria like interests, location, or purchase history

Session recording: A rendering that captures a visitor’s actions as they navigate a website, including mouse movement, clicks, taps, and scrolling

Shopping campaign: Product listings that appear on search results and the Google Shopping tab

Sitemap: A file that provides information about the pages, videos, and other files on a site, and the relationships between them

SMART: A goal-setting method that can help define and measure the success of the goals of a campaign; Stands for “specific,” “measurable,” “attainable,” “realistic,” and “time-bound”

Smart bidding: Automated bidding strategies that use machine learning to optimize for conversions or conversion value with each auction

Smart campaign: An automated campaign management tool within Google Ads that helps promote a business

Smart Shopping campaign: An advanced Shopping campaign that uses technology to optimize for more sales and reach Google shoppers across Google’s sites and networks

Social ads: Paid advertisements on social media platforms targeted to social media users

Social listening: Refers to tracking and analyzing conversations and trends related to a brand

Social listening tool: Software that helps track mentions of a brand, relevant keywords, and direct feedback from multiple social media platforms in one place

Social media: Any digital tool that enables users to create and share content publically

Social media algorithm: A way of sorting posts in a user’s feed based on relevancy rather than the order in which they are published

Social media analytics: The process of collecting data from social media platforms and analyzing that data to make business decisions

Social media calendar: A calendar of all social media posts

Social media engagement: Refers to the actions people take on social media, such as likes, favorites, comments, shares, Retweets, saves, clicks, hashtags, and mentions

Social media marketing: The process of creating content for different social media platforms in order to drive engagement and promote a business or product

Social media report: A document that presents relevant data and analysis about a brand’s social media activities

Social media sentiment: The attitude and feelings people have about a brand on social media

Social media target audience: The specific group of people a company wants to reach on social media platforms Social share: When a customer shares a product or service with their social media followers

Social testing: A process that provides data-driven insights about a brand’s social media performance and audience preferences

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS): Web-based software available on a subscription basis

Spam: Unsolicited and unwanted junk email sent out in bulk to a broad recipient list

Specialist: An expert in a specific field

Spend-based automated bidding: A bidding strategy where a marketer sets a daily budget to maximize their advertising goal

Spend-based model: A rewards program that offers customers incentives based on an amount spent during a single purchase

Split testing: (refer to A/B testing)

Stakeholder: Someone with an interest in or a concern for a project and its results

Stakeholder map: A grid with four quadrants and two variables—interest and influence—that can be used to keep track of the influence and needs of stakeholders and the level of communication required to work with them

STAR method: A strategy for answering interview questions that focuses on a specific situation, task, action, and result

Statistical significance: A determination of whether a test result could be due to random chance or not

Stock keeping unit (SKU): A unique code that retailers use to identify a product

Strategy: A plan to achieve a marketing goal

Structured data: Code used to describe a webpage’s content better to search engines

Structured query language (SQL): The standard language used to communicate with databases developed by different vendors and hosted on multiple platforms

Subdomain: The subset of a larger domain used to organize an existing website into a different page URL

Subject line: The first text recipients see after the sender’s name when an email reaches their inbox

Subpage: A lower-level page that appears below the homepage of a website

Subscription model: A rewards program that requires customers to make a recurring payment in order to receive an exclusive incentive

Suggested bid: A recommended bid rang

Supply chain: The flow of goods from the beginning stage of sourcing raw materials all the way to the finished product that is delivered to the customer

SWOT analysis: An audit that identifies a company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats

Tactic: An action a marketer takes to make a marketing goal happen

Tag management system (TMS): Enables the deployment and management of many tags for multiple advertising platforms and systems in a simple and centralized way

Target audience: The group of people most likely to purchase a company's products

Targeted location: The towns, cities, or countries in which an ad will appear

Theme: A pre-built website template that creates the design and layout of an e-commerce store

Third-party cookies: Cookies that aren’t developed and distributed by a website’s owner but are distributed through third-party tools

Tier-based model: A rewards program that allows customers to graduate to new customer status levels based on the amount of money they spend with a company over time

Tone: How a brand’s voice is applied

Total LTV: The average revenue generated by customers over a period of time that includes the past to the present

Touchpoint: Any interaction a customer has with a brand during their purchase journey

Traditional advertising: Non-digital ad placements, like newspapers, radio, TV, or billboards

Traffic: The number of visits that a website receives

Transferable skills: Skills from other areas that can help someone progress in a career in marketing

Transport Layer Security (TLS) certificate: (refer to Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate)

Tweet: Any message posted to Twitter; May contain elements like text, photos, videos, links, and audio

Unique selling proposition (USP): An explanation of why a product or service is better than the competition

Unsubscribe rate: The percentage of email recipients who unsubscribe from a send list after opening an email

Upselling: A sales technique used to encourage customers to spend more by upgrading to a more expensive product

URL: The address of a webpage or file on the internet

Usability survey: A survey that assesses the customer’s satisfaction with a company’s website and identifies any problems the customer may experience along their shopping journey

User experience: How a person—the user—feels about interacting with or experiencing a product

User-generated content (UGC): Any content created by people, rather than brands

UTM: A text tag added to a URL to help monitor that content

Variables: Refers to the segments, dimensions, and metrics configured in a Google Analytics account

Variants: Different versions of the same content served to users during an A/B test

Vertical column chart: A chart in which individual measurements are each shown as a vertical column

Video campaign: A Google Ads tool that allows businesses to place video advertisements before, during, or after YouTube videos and in the search results

Visitors: The total number of times people have been to a website or app as a result of clicking an ad

Visual hierarchy: A structured organization of visual components that groups elements together, places elements in a natural or predictable pattern (such as reading from left to right), or leads to the most important elements to click on

Web accessibility: The practice of designing and developing a website or mobile app so that people with disabilities can use it

Webinar: A presentation, typically educational, that is provided online

Webpage title: An element that provides both users and search engines with a page’s topic

Webpage title element: Text that provides both the users and search engines with a page’s topic

Website prompt: A digital banner that calls on a website visitor to act in some way

Welcome email: An email sent out to brand new customers or subscribers

Long Story Short

Remember, these are just a few of the commonly used tools for social listening. They all have similar use cases, but the user interface and capabilities may vary. If you have a moment, take some time and try out each tool to help you identify which one you feel most comfortable in.