Digital Marketing Dictionary
It can be a jargon-filled alphabet soup out there. So, I've compiled some common internet marketing abbreviations and acronyms to help students and beginners navigate their way through the many options and disciplines of marketing on the web.While this is not an all-inclusive list, knowing these basics can help you assess which forms of digital marketing might be best for your product.
These are my own casual, super-quick definitions; for additional information, try MarketingTerms.com or one of my Favorite Free Internet Marketing Resources.
Behavioral Targeting: Delivering display ads to online audience based on their interests or shopping behaviors, as determined by tracking their activity on other sites. Example: Someone searches for a rental car in Orlando. Then, when visiting a completely different website, sees an ad about car rental, travel or Orlando attractions.
CPA: Cost per Acquisition. An advertising pricing model (and ROI metric) that charges only for leads, sales or conversions, rather than just for impressions or clicks.
CPC: Cost per Click. Another advertising pricing model. Unlike paying just to appear in front of your target audience (CPM), you don't pay if your ad appears; only if someone clicks the ad to visit your site. Consider this method if driving website visits or conversions is your objective.
CPM: Cost per Thousand. A common way to purchase advertising impressions. Best for branding or creating awareness.
CTR: Click-through rate. The percentage of recipients or audience members clicking on an email or ad.
Conversion: A target customer taking the desired action on your website. A conversion is usually a purchase, but may also be a site membership, whitepaper download, newsletter registration, etc.
Display ads: Banner ads or other graphical advertisements or formats, so named because you can display a product or compelling imagery (unlike search ads, which only display copy). Usually sold on a CPM basis. May include standard banner sizes, takeovers, rich media and other specialty formats.
DMA: Designated Market Area. A local geographic area in the U.S. as defined, measured and ranked by Nielsen. Has its roots in the TV industry, but web metrics and online ad targeting are available by DMA as well. Important for local and service businesses who must focus resources on the areas they serve, even if their websites get traffic from elsewhere.
Impressions: The number of times your online ad appears in front of the target audience. Typically purchased on a CPM basis.
Keyword: A word or phrase used in a search engine to find relevant websites.
Keyword strategy: The process of identifying which keywords are most relevant to your website's individual pages. A critical step for SEO and SEM.
Open rate: The percentage of recipients opening an email message.Organic search (a/k/a organic listings): Essentially, what a search engine believes is important to you. The list of "natural" results delivered to you by a search engine as determined by their algorithm, not including any advertisements that may appear across the top or down the side of the page.
ORM: Online Reputation Management. An emerging practice of monitoring conversations about your brand on social media, review sites and blogs and responding appropriately. This has become increasingly necessary as power has shifted to consumers, with the web and social media making it easy for people to talk about your company and its products -- even in a forum that you don't control.
Paid search: a/k/a Search Engine Marketing (See SEM, below). Google AdWords or other advertisements placed on search engines in order to promote a product and gain better visibility in search engine results.
Retargeting: Achieving a repeat ad impression by "following" someone with a relevant message, even on a different site. Example: Someone browses jeans on Gap.com, but doesn't purchase; later sees an ad for Gap jeans on TelevisionWithoutPity.com.SEM: Search Engine Marketing. The practice of bidding on search terms and achieving higher placement on search engines. Common platforms are Google AdWords and Bing.
SEO: Search Engine Optimization. A set of best practices for on-page optimization (ways to program your web pages) and off-page optimization (inbound links, site architecture, etc.) that will help search engines find, categorize and rank your web pages.
SERP: Search Engine Results Page. The list of websites or web pages offered to you buy a search engine after your search.
SERP Real Estate: The amount of space you
take up on a search results page, either with your organic listing, paid ad, or
both. One school of thought is that the more page one SERP real estate you have, the better.