Digital Marketing Glossary
Digital marketing terms are often confusing, even for people who work in the industry. At Blueprint.Inc, we are committed to providing clarity and transparency to this important segment of the marketing world. Here is a glossary of terms often used in digital marketing. If you have questions about a term that is missing from here, just contact us.
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- 301 RedirectA status code that your server sends to your browser, automatically and permanently loading a new page different than requested on the search engine. This may be used when your website is broken, you have a new page, or you're fixing your page
- 302 RedirectSimilar to 301 Redirects, but the move is only temporary. These are easier to create, but used less often
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- 404 Error PageA 404 error page is a page that is no longer available on a particular website.
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- A/B TestingA/B testing is a basic randomized experiment to determine which of two or more variants on a page determines better results"}" data-sheets-userformat="{"2":513,"3A/B testing is a basic randomized experiment to determine which of two or more variants on a page determines better results
- Ad GroupAn ad group contains one or more ads that share similar targets. Each of your campaigns is made up of one or more ad groups. Use ad groups to organize your ads by a common theme.
- Ad NetworkAn ad network is a company that connects advertisers to websites that want to host advertisements. The key function of an ad network is an aggregation of ad supply from publishers and matching it with advertiser's demand.
- Ad ServerAn ad server is a piece of advertising technology used to make instantaneous decisions to determine which ads will be shown on a website as a part of an ad campaign
- Adobe AnalyticsAdobe Analytics is a competitor of Google Analytics. A key difference is that Adobe allows for CRM integration, and Google does not
- Affiliate MarketingAn advertising model in which the company compensates third party publishers to generate traffic or leads, with the comission feed incentivising the affiliates to promote the compant
- Alt TextAlt Text are used within an HTML code to describe the appearance and function of an image on a page.
- AMPAMP stands for Accelerated Mobile Pages, a Google-backed project intended as an open standard for any publisher to have pages load quickly on mobile devices.
- APIApplication Programming Interface is how programmers and applications communicate, wtih the codes that allow data and functionality to be available between websites
- Attributionmarketing attribution is the analytical science of determining which marketing tactics are contributing to sales or conversions.
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- BacklinkA backlink for a given web resource is a link from some other website to that web resource. A web resource may be a website, web page, or web directory
- Banner AdA web banner or banner ad is a form of advertising on the World Wide Web delivered by an ad server. This form of online advertising entails embedding an advertisement into a web page. It is intended to attract traffic
- Behavioral TargetingA technique used by advertisers that displays relevant ads based on visitor browsing habits (e.g., search terms, sites, purchases)
- Black Hat SEOBlack hat SEO is a practice against search engine guidelines, used to get a site ranking higher in search results. These unethical tactics don't solve for the searcher and often end in a penalty from search engines.
- BotA bot is a software application that runs automated tasks over the Internet. Typically, bots perform tasks that are simple and repetitive, much faster than a person could.
- Bottom of the FunnelBOFU users offer the most value. These are the users that are ready to buy your product or engage with your business. Companies use ads to target these
- Bounce RateBounce rate is an Internet marketing term used in web traffic analysis. It represents the percentage of visitors who enter the site and then leave rather than continuing to view other pages within the same site.
- BreadcrumbA breadcrumb is a small text path, often located at the top of a page indicating where the user is on the site.
- Business Listingbusiness listings are online portfolios that contain information about your business, such as your name, address, phone number, hours, and other data
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- Call To ActionThe part of your advertisement that tells your audience what to do- e.g. "Click Here" or "Buy Now"
- Call Tracking NumberCall tracking is the process of tracking phone leads by inserting a tracking number in your paid ads, emails, landing pages and website to see which of your marketing efforts are producing results
- CampaignA digital marketing campaign is an online marketing effort put forward by a company to drive engagement, conversions, traffic, or revenue
- ChannelAnything that gets your product or service in front of your desired audience- social media, emails, search engines, and more
- ChatbotA chatbot is a software application used to conduct an on-line chat conversation via text or text-to-speech, in lieu of providing direct contact with a live human agent.
- Churn RateThe attrition rate or percentage of users who unsubcribe from a brand over a period of time
- Closed-Loop MarketingMarketing relying on data from closed-loop reporting, or reporting from the sales team about what happened to their leads. This helps marketers make decisions on actions that are occuring further down the funnel
- CMSA content management system is a computer software used to manage the creation and modification of digital content. CMSs are typically used for enterprise content management and web content management.
- Container TagA code used in web development that removes the need for multiple pieces of tracking codes being placed directly on the site; instead, one piece of code is placed on every page on a site, which holds additional third-party code.
- Content MarketingContent marketing is a form of marketing focused on creating, publishing, and distributing content for a targeted audience online.
- Conversion PathThe steps taken by the user of a website to get to the desired page or end from the standpoint of the marketer
- Conversion RateThe percentage of visitors to your website that reach your desired goal. In short, percentage of site visitors who become paying customers
- CookieCookies are a small amount of data stored on a user's computer, which is added to their web browser when they visit a website. This customizes the user experience.
- CPACost per action (CPA) is an online advertising measurement and pricing model, referring to a specified action – for example a sale, click, or form submit
- CPMCost Per Thousand (M in Latin). This is a historical carryforward from direct mail days to cut down on decimal places. Example, $10 CPM = $0.10 per item
- CrawlerA web crawler copies webpages so that they can be processed later by the search engine, which indexes the downloaded pages. This allows users of the search engine to find webpages quickly.
- CRMCustomer Relationship Management, or a platform that manages and tracks your existing or potential customers
- CSSCascading Style Sheets is a style sheet language used for describing the presentation of a document written in a markup language like HTML
- CTRThe clickthrough rate, or the number of clicks that your advertisement receives divided by the number of times your ad is shown
- Custom AudienceCustom Audience is an ad targeting option that allows advertisers to target an audience from an uploaded customer list. Custom Audiences are typically used on Facebook
- Customer JourneyThe customer journey is the complete sum of experiences that customers go through when interacting with your company and brand
- Customer LifecycleThe customer lifecycle includes attracting, converting, retaining, and leveraging clients in order to boost revenue and brand, engaging customers throughout their entire buying journey
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- DAMDigital assett management, or a system to organize, store, and access digital content. This also helps manage rights and permissions
- Display AdDigital display advertising is graphic advertising on Internet websites, apps or social media through banners or other advertising formats made of text, images, flash, video, and audio
- Domain Authoritydomain authority is like your website’s reputation as a thought leader. The search engine uses your domain authority to make sure you can provide the highest-quality content about your specific subject matter. If you do, you’ll have good domain authority
- DoubleClickAn ad-technology platform that allows advertisers to effectively create, manage, and grow marketing campagins
- Drip CampaignA communication strategy using automated, pre-written messages over longer periods of time in order to nurture prospects or leads through the marketing funnel
- DSPA demand-side platform (DSP) is a system that allows buyers of digital advertising inventory to manage multiple ad exchange and data exchange accounts through one interface
- Dynamic ContentWeb-page or email content that changes based on the user and their data, location, time of visit, device
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- Earned MediaEarned media, or earned content, is any material written about you or your business that you haven't paid for or created yourself. Although this type of media is always published by a third party, there are ways marketers can position themselves for earned media opportunities.
- Email BlastEmail blast is the strategy of sending a single email to a large distribution list simultaneously
- Engagement RateA metric that tracks how actively involved your audience with your content. Can be calculated by number of interactions divided by total followers
- Event TrackingAnalysis done by Google Analytics tracking interaction with "events", events being website components such as buttons, downloads, menus, or search boxes
- Evergreen ContentContent that stays relevant long past its publication, so traffic grows to that post a over time
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- Facebook Business ManagerFacebook Business Manager is a tool that allows you to manage multiple Facebook Pages, business assets and ad accounts, as well as Instagram accounts and product catalogs, in one place. It also allows you to grant full or partial access to team members based on their role.
- First Party DataFirst party data is collected directly the company's sources on their audience (ie. info from your website, app, CRM, social media or surveys)
- FTPFile Transfer Protocol. A protocol for transferring files over the internet that allows for your website to be optimized for search engines
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- Geo TargetingDelivering content and advertisements to consumers based on their geographic locations. This is used to advertise to local prospects
- Google AdwordsAdWords is Google's ad system in which advertisers bid on keywords that Google users search. This is a type of PPC (pay-per-click) advertising
- Google AnalyticsOne of the most popular digital analytics softwares, using Javascipt coded onto your page to track and analyze details about your visitors
- Google My BusinessGoogle my business lets you engage with customers directly and manage how your business appears on Google Search and Maps.
- Google Search ConsoleGoogle Search Console is a free service offered by Google that helps you monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot your site's presence in Google Search results
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- Hard BounceWhen an email is returned to its sender because the recipcient email address was invalid
- HeadersA section of your website or blog that larger than the rest of the content to signify importance.
- HitsA hit is merely a request for a file from a Web server. A request for a Web page counts as a hit, but so does a request for a graphic on a Web page.
- HTTPHTTP means HyperText Transfer Protocol. HTTP is the underlying protocol used by the World Wide Web and this protocol defines how messages are formatted and transmitted, and what actions Web servers and browsers should take in response to various commands.
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- ImpressionsImpressions are the number of times your content is displayed, no matter if it was clicked or not.
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- Javascriptan object-oriented computer programming language commonly used to create interactive effects within web browsers.
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- KeywordA keyword is a term used in digital marketing to describe a word or a group of words an Internet user uses to perform a search in a search engine or search bar
- Knowledge GraphThe Google Knowledge Graph is a knowledge base used by Google and its services to enhance its search engine's results with information gathered from a variety of sources
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- Lead NurturingBuilding relationships with prospects throughout the funnel by engaging them, providing value, and educating
- Lifetime Value (LTV)The projected revenue a customer will generate throughout their lifetime
- Lookalike AudiencePotential customers to reach based on having similar demographics to your current best cutomers
- LumascapeThe Lumascape is a series of charts that organize the madness of ad tech by grouping together similar companies on a single page.
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- Marketing AutomationLeveraging a software to automate marketing activities, generally with repetitive tasks such as emailing prospects
- MartechMarketing Technology, or an umberella term for digital marketing strategies
- Matchback ReportMatchback Analysis allows you to more accurately attribute a sale to all the marketing campaigns and stimuli that touched the customer.
- Meta TagMeta elements are tags used in HTML and XHTML documents to provide structured metadata about a Web page. They are part of a web page's head section
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- Native AdvertisingMaterial in an online publication resembling the pulication's editorial content but is paid for by an advertiser for promotion
- Net Promotor ScoreA metric used in customer experience programs that measures the loyalty of customers to a company
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- Omnichannel MarketingA multichannel sales approach, such as through brick-and-mortar stores, phone, and online, providing customers with an integrated shopping experience
- OmnitureOmniture is the former name of Adobe Analytics, a competitor of Google Analytics. A key difference is that Adobe/Omniture allows for CRM integration, and Google does not
- Open RateThe percentage of subsrcibers, out of the total number of subscribers, who open a specific email
- Organic ListingA free listing that appears in Google for example because it's relevant to someone's search terms. Organic listings are NOT paid
- Owned MediaOwned media comprises digital marketing channels that a company exercises complete control over, such as their branded website and social media.
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- Page AuthorityPage authority is a score that predicts how well a specific page will rank on search engine results page. Page Authority scores range from one to 100, with higher scores corresponding to a greater ability to rank.
- Page ViewsThe number of internet users visiting a specific page on a wesbite
- Paid MediaPaid media refers to external marketing efforts that involve a paid placement. Paid media includes PPC advertising, branded content, and display ads
- PESOPeso stands for Paid, Earned, Shared and Owned media. PESO is an acronym for the big-picture, all-channels-inclusive way of communicating
- PixelA pixel is a snippet of javascript that does something on your website. Oftentimes, they are collecting some information about the visitor to a website and their behavior on the site
- PPCPPC stands for pay-per-click, a model of internet marketing in which advertisers pay a fee each time one of their ads is clicked
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- Qualified LeadA lead who has indicated interest in a brand, making them more likely to become a customer
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- ReachReach refers to the total number of people who have seen your ad or content. Think of reach as the number of unique people who view your content.
- Referral MarketingSpontaneously promoting a product or service to new customers by word of mouth
- RemarketingServing targeted ads to people who have already visited or taken action on your wesbite, also known as retargeting
- Remarketing/Retargetingis a form of digital marketing in which marketers serve ads to users who have visited their website, and who have or have not taken a specific action. Remarketing is an effective way to target people who have already shown some interest in your business or brand.
- ROASReturn on ad spend, or a measure of how much your business earns in revenue for every dollar spent on marketing
- ROIA measure of how efficient an investment is, calculated by the benefit of an investment divided by the cost
- RPCRemote procedure call, or a protocol used by a program to request a service by another program without having to be on the same network or understand the network details
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- Second Party DataSomeone else's first party data. You purchase this from the company that owns it, and there is no middle man
- SEMSearch engine marketing, or promoting your business by paying Google to show your ads
- SEOUnlike SEM, search engine optimization earns a free spot in search results by optimizing keywods, without paying Google
- SERPSearch engine results pages (SERP) are web pages served to users when they search for something online using a search engine, such as Google
- SFTPSSH File Transfer Protocol- a more secure option than FTP, making it difficult for hackers to access your files
- SiteCatalystSiteCatalyst is a web analytics product that provides marketers with one place to measure, analyze, and optimize integrated data from all online initiatives across multiple marketing channels.
- Soft BounceWhen an email is able to reach the recipient's mail server but is returned to sender undelivered, often because the recipient's inbox is full
- SourceIn digital marketing, advertisers are commonly referred to as sources, while members of the targeted ads are commonly called receivers. Sources frequently target highly specific, well-defined receivers.
- SpiderSpider or crawler is a program that visits Web sites and reads their pages and other information in order to create entries for a search engine index
- SSPA supply-side platform (SSP) is a software system that allows publishers to offer their available inventory to ad exchanges and demand-side platforms (DSP)s. In this context, supply side refers to the supply of advertising space, which is what the publisher is offering.
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- Tailer AudienceTailored Audiences are a way to target your existing users and customers to create highly relevant campaigns. It lets you reach fans who already expressed interest in your business
- Third Party DataThird party data is bought from someone other than the original collector. You buy this data through aggregators who purchase other's first party data
- Tracking Code/SnippetA tracking code is a snippet of JavaScript code that tracks the activity of a website user by collecting data
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- UIUI (user interface) is anything a user may interact with to use a product or a service. UI also focuses on a products look or function
- Unique VisitorThe number of people who visit your website during a reporting period, not including when visitors return to the page multiple times
- UTMUrchin Tracking Module, or a code that can be attached to a URL to generate Google Analytics data, in order to track a digital marketing campaign
- UXUX (user experience) is focused on the users experience when using a specific product or service. UX focuses on the users journey
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- View-through conversionView-through conversion is a type of conversion tracking within Google which measures how many visitors saw your Google Display Network ad but did not click.