Marketing and SEO glossary
The terms behind growth, explained plainly.
Short, straight definitions of the numbers and ideas we work with every day: ads, tracking, search and AI answers, conversion, and the business software we build. Each one has its formula and a worked example.
Paid ads
- Ad frequencyAd frequency is the average number of times one person saw your ad over a period: impressions divided by reach (the number of different people who saw it).
- Break-even ROASBreak-even ROAS is the return on ad spend at which ads neither make nor lose money: the revenue covers the cost of the goods sold and the ad spend, with nothing left over. It equals 1 divided by your gross margin.
- CPA: Cost per acquisitionCPA (cost per acquisition) is how much you spend on ads to get one conversion, such as a sale, a lead or a sign-up. It is ad spend divided by the number of conversions.
- CPC: Cost per clickCPC (cost per click) is the average amount you pay each time someone clicks your ad. It is your ad spend divided by the number of clicks.
- CPM: Cost per thousand impressionsCPM (cost per mille) is what you pay for 1,000 ad impressions, that is, 1,000 times your ad is shown. It is mostly used for social, video and display ads.
- CTR: Click-through rateCTR (click-through rate) is the share of people who saw your ad or search result and clicked it: clicks divided by impressions, as a percentage.
- MER: Marketing efficiency ratioMER (marketing efficiency ratio) is your total revenue divided by your total marketing spend over the same period. Unlike platform ROAS, it doesn't depend on which channel gets credit for a sale.
- Quality ScoreQuality Score is a 1 to 10 rating Google Ads gives each keyword, based on expected click-through rate, how relevant the ad is to the search, and the landing page experience. Higher scores usually mean cheaper, better-placed ads.
- RetargetingRetargeting (also called remarketing) shows ads to people who already visited your website, used your app or engaged with your brand, to bring them back to finish a purchase or enquiry.
- ROAS: Return on ad spendROAS (return on ad spend) is the revenue your ads bring in divided by what you spent on those ads. A ROAS of 4 means every 1 spent on ads returned 4 in revenue.
Measurement
- Marketing attributionAttribution is how credit for a sale or lead is shared between the marketing touchpoints that came before it, such as an ad click, a search visit and an email.
- CAC: Customer acquisition costCAC (customer acquisition cost) is what it costs on average to win one new paying customer: your sales and marketing spend over a period divided by the new customers you gained in it.
- Conversions API: Meta Conversions APIThe Meta Conversions API (CAPI) lets a business send website and offline events, such as purchases and leads, from its server directly to Meta, alongside or instead of the browser-based Meta Pixel.
- GA4: Google Analytics 4GA4 (Google Analytics 4) is Google's current analytics platform for websites and apps. It records every interaction as an event, and it replaced Universal Analytics, which stopped processing new data in July 2023.
- LTV: Customer lifetime valueLTV (customer lifetime value) is the total revenue, or better the total gross profit, you expect from one customer over the whole time they buy from you.
- Server-side trackingServer-side tracking sends conversion and analytics data from a server you control to platforms such as Google and Meta, instead of only from scripts running in the visitor's browser.
- UTM parametersUTM parameters are tags added to the end of a link (utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, and optionally utm_term and utm_content) so analytics tools know exactly where a visitor came from.
SEO & AI search
- AEO: Answer engine optimizationAEO (answer engine optimization) means shaping your content so search engines and AI assistants can lift it as a direct answer: featured snippets, Google's AI Overviews, voice answers and chat replies.
- BacklinkA backlink is a link from another website to yours. Search engines treat relevant links from trusted sites as a sign that your pages are worth showing.
- Canonical tagA canonical tag (rel="canonical") tells search engines which address is the main version of a page when the same or very similar content can be reached at several addresses.
- Core Web VitalsCore Web Vitals are Google's three measures of real-world page experience: Largest Contentful Paint (loading, good at 2.5 seconds or less), Interaction to Next Paint (responsiveness, good at 200 ms or less) and Cumulative Layout Shift (visual stability, good at 0.1 or less).
- GEO: Generative engine optimizationGEO (generative engine optimization) is the work of getting your brand mentioned, cited and recommended in answers from generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, Google's AI Mode, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity.
- Google Business ProfileGoogle Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) is the free listing that shows your business on Google Maps and in local search results, with your address, hours, phone, photos, reviews and posts.
- Local SEOLocal SEO helps a business show up when people nearby search for what it offers, in the Google Maps results (the local pack) and in normal results for searches with a city or 'near me'.
- schema markup: Schema markupSchema markup is structured data added to a web page, using the schema.org vocabulary, that tells search engines exactly what the page contains: an organization, a product, an article, an FAQ, a local business and so on.
- Search intentSearch intent is the goal behind a search: to learn something (informational), to find a specific site (navigational), to compare options (commercial) or to buy or book (transactional).
- SEO: Search engine optimizationSEO (search engine optimization) is the work of making your website show up higher in unpaid search results for the searches your customers make, through technical fixes, useful content and links from other websites.
Conversion
- A/B testingA/B testing shows two versions of a page, ad or email to comparable groups of people at the same time, and measures which one brings more of the result you want.
- Conversion rateConversion rate is the share of visitors (or clicks, or sessions) that complete the action you want, such as a purchase, a lead form or a booking, shown as a percentage.
- CRO: Conversion rate optimizationCRO (conversion rate optimization) is the process of finding out why visitors don't buy or enquire, and changing pages, forms and checkout so a larger share of them do.
- Landing pageA landing page is a page built for one goal, such as a lead form or a purchase, usually where visitors arrive from an ad, email or campaign link.
- Marketing funnelA marketing funnel describes the stages people pass through on the way to becoming customers, usually awareness, consideration, conversion and, after the sale, retention and referral.
Business software
- Car rental softwareCar rental software runs a rent a car business in one system: online and counter bookings, the fleet and its availability, rental contracts, payments and deposits, damage checks, and the vehicle's servicing.
- Fleet management softwareFleet management software uses GPS trackers in vehicles to show where each vehicle is, how it is driven and when it needs servicing, so a business can run its vehicles more safely and at lower cost.
- hospital management system: Hospital management systemA hospital management system (HMS) is software that runs a hospital's or clinic's daily work in one place: appointments, patient records, billing, pharmacy, lab and admissions.
- POS system: POS systemA POS (point of sale) system is the software and hardware a shop or restaurant uses to take orders and payments, print or send receipts, and keep track of sales and stock.
- School management systemA school management system is software that brings a school's administration into one place: admissions, attendance, timetables, marks and report cards, fees and communication with parents.
Want these numbers working for your business?
We set up the tracking, read the numbers and run the campaigns, reported against leads, sales and cost per customer.