Glossary of Marketing Terms

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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A

• Acquisition – act of obtaining a customer. Actions that denote acquisition can include a customer’s email address, a customer’s first purchase order, etc. 
• Asset (or Creative Asset) – a piece of collateral used within marketing campaigns that represents the brand, product or service in some way. This could range from a video clip to a full commercial, from a radio ad to an event pamphlet, from a social media post to just the ad copy on a logo.

B

• Brand (or Brand identity) – a physical and emotional representation of a company or organization and the products and services they offer.
• Brand guidelines – a set of do’s and don’ts related to the brand. This can include color palettes, logo design, usage rules, and more.
• Brand equity – the commercial value that comes from consumer perception of the brand, rather than from the product or service itself. Oftentimes, brand equity is multiples more valuable than the product or service cost.

C

• Campaign – an organized course of action to promote and/or sell a product or service.
• Call-to-Action (CTA) – a piece of content intended to induce a customer or user to perform a certain act (e.g. “buy now” or “click here”).
• Clicks – actions taken when customers or users click on a link, ad, or piece of content. This is often tracked in digital marketing metrics.
• Click-through-rate (CTR) – a metric used in tracking digital marketing performance, calculated as total clicks divided by total impressions. Shown as a percentage, CTR helps marketers gauge interest in a piece of content or asset. The higher the CTR, the more engaging a piece of content/asset can be in driving that CTA.
• Channel – the way a product or service gets to the end-customer. Channels can be people, organizations, and/or activities that deliver the goods from a brand to the customers.
• Content – information serving a purpose, either to educate, promote, or sell a brand, product or service. Content can come in various formats from video to long-form texts to images. In marketing, we always say “content is king” because if done right, content can generate additional benefits such as SEO.
• Conversion – a response to a call-to-action. For example, CTR is a conversion rate for clicking on a piece of content or ad. In retail, conversion often refers to purchase.
• Copy – words or phrases used on creative assets. This could be a tagline (“Just Do It”) or simply a call-to-action (“Buy Now”).
• Cost per acquisition (CPA) – a metric used in tracking paid marketing performance, calculated as spend (budget) divided by total acquired customers or users. This metric helps marketers gauge cost effectiveness in driving acquisition goals.
• Cost per click (CPC) – a metric used in tracking paid marketing performance, calculated as spend (budget) divided by total clicks. This metric helps marketers gauge cost effectiveness of each paid channel in driving engagement.
• Cost per thousand impressions (CPM) – a metric used in tracking paid marketing performance, calculated as spend (budget) divided by impressions that has been divided by a thousand. This metric helps marketers gauge cost effectiveness of each paid channel in driving reach.
• Cost per order (CPO) – a metric used in tracking paid marketing performance, calculated as spend (budget) divided by total orders (placed or shipped). This metric helps marketers gauge cost effectiveness of each paid channel in driving order volume.
• Cost per view (CPV) – a metric used in tracking paid marketing performance, calculated as spend (budget) divided by total video views. This metric helps marketers gauge cost effectiveness of each paid channel in driving video viewership.

E

• Engagement – actions that get acquired customers to perform another action (e.g. provide additional information, place a second order) 

G

• Go-to-market (GTM) – When a new product or service is developed, the product marketer will develop a full GTM strategy and plan, including what message will be told at launch, how it will be told and what happens to the product/service after launch.

I

• Impressions – number of times a piece of content or asset has been shown to a customer or user. Impressions can be for content (e.g. email) or ads. This is often tracked in digital marketing metrics. 
• Indicators (or signals) – direct information from customer that can convey an intent and help marketers predict next steps.

M

• Media mix – percentage allocation of budget between different marketing channels (e.g. 60% TV vs 40% radio).

P

• Paid media – External marketing efforts that involve a paid placement (e.g. on TV as commercial, on video platforms as video ads, on website as display banners, etc.).
• Paid partnership (or Sponsorship) – Often part of paid media, this form of marketing refers to a partnership in which one side is getting paid to endorse/sell a product/service. 

R

• Reach – number of customers who have been exposed to a piece of content or ad.
• Return on Investment (ROI) or mROI (marketing ROI) – a financial term, calculated as revenues (or return on that investment) divided by cost of that investment (or budget) minus 1. This will give you a percentage or ratio that tells how much incremental value was derived from a particular investment. In marketing, we’re often measuring mROI through metrics like cost per acquisition (CPA).

S

• Search Engine Marketing (SEM) – the practice of marketing a brand, product or service using paid ads that appear on search engine results pages (SERPs). This could be in the form of text ads or product ads on search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, Baidu, etc.. 
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – the practice of optimizing web pages on search engine results pages (SERPs) for higher rank position. 

W

• Word-of-Mouth (WOM) – a marketing tactic where information about a brand, product, or service is passed from one customer to another.