Are you interested in getting involved in the world of digital marketing but don’t want to be caught out by all the seemingly complicated jargon? Not to worry, we have the perfect blog that has you covered! Our digital marketing glossary goes from A-Z to get you started with the most common technical terms you’ll need to know in the marketing industry.
A
A/B testing – testing two versions of a webpage or email campaign and choosing which performs better, also known as split testing.
Affiliate marketing – the promotion of a product or service made by a different business, where commission is earned from each sale driven by the promotion.
Analytics – the analysis of data which is generated by the audience’s activity on websites.
Audience – who the product or service is aimed towards.
Automation –automating marketing tasks and messages across different channels regularly, including social media posts, ad campaigns, and email marketing.
B
B2B – business-to-business.
B2C – business-to-consumer.
Backlink – a hyperlink from an external web page to your website, also known as an inbound link.
Bounce Rate – the percentage of visits when a user lands on a website and then exited without any further interactions. Typically, a good bounce rate is ideally lower than 80%.
Buyer Persona – a fictional description/representation of a business’s target audience or client.
C
Call To Action (CTA) – a clickable element on a website page that promotes and redirects a visitor to a specific action a business wants them to take, such as signing up or downloading a resource.
Click Through Rate (CTR) –the percentage of users that saw an advert compared to how many clicked it. This term can also be applied to search engine listings and organic social media posts.
Conversion – the action you want visitors to perform. This could include purchases, phone calls, or video views.
Conversion optimisation – the process of increasing the percentage of visitors to complete your goals.
Conversion Rate – the ratio of conversions to visits, often used to measure digital performance.
Cost Per Click (CPC) – the cost to produce a single click on a digital advertisement.
CPM – cost per thousand impressions from a digital advertisement.
Crawler – a program designed to systematically browse content on the Internet and collect information quickly to help searchers find what they’re looking for.
D
Dashboard – a reporting tool which provides an insight into marketing performance by displaying marketing analytics, KPIs, and metrics using data visualisations.
Demographics – used to segment the market and represent the characteristics of a target audience. Refers to age, gender, income, ethnicity, etc.
Domain Authority – a search engine ranking score, it provides an insight into the website’s credibility from a search engine’s perspective.
E
E-commerce – the sale of products and services online.
Email marketing – promoting a product or service through an email, they are sent to potential or existing customers.
Engagement Rate – a metric that measures the level of interaction that a certain piece of content is receiving from its audience. It measures actions such as clicks and shares.
F
Freemium – providing a basic service to consumers at no cost, often on a ‘free trial’ basis or having a restricted version of a service.
Frequency cap – limits the number of times an advert can be seen by the same individual within a period of time.
G
Geo-targeting – advertising a product or service to consumers who are in a specific location.
H
H Tags – a heading tag that summarises the pages content. Optimising your H tags with relevant keywords can be a simple way to boost your search engine rankings.
Heatmap – a visualization of data used to see where visitors interact with the web page the most. For example, the redder or hotter an area is, the more interactions take place there.
I
Impressions – the number of times an advert is displayed.
Inbound – A marketing strategy that involves creating content that addresses what your target audience are searching for, encouraging this audience to learn more about your brand, products or services.
J
JavaScript – a programming or scripting language that is used to produce dynamic content for a web page.
K
Keyword – a word, or a group of words, that a web user enters when using a search engine.
Keyword research – discovering and analysing the common words a business’s target audience uses when using the search engine.
Keyword stuffing – using a high number of keywords in an attempt to rise in the position of the search results page. This is now viewed as bad SEO practice, as results are often irrelevant and hard to read. Some search engines including Google will supress the rankings of web pages they suspect of keyword stuffing.
KPI – key performance indicator which shows how well a business is performing in order to meet its objectives.
L
Landing Page – a standalone page, it’s usually the first page a business intends a user to arrive on promoting a campaign.
Lead – a potential customer who has shown an interest in the product or service that has been advertised.
Link building – getting relevant links from an external website back to your own.
Linkbait – a piece of content on a website aimed to gain attention and encourage those viewing it to attract inbound links. Unlike clickbait, this is often high-quality content such as original data or a well-researched opinion piece.
M
Meta Description – a HTML attribute with a description of a web page, it appears in the search engine results pages and has a 160 character limit.
Multivariate testing – a similar mechanism to A/B testing, however, this compares multiple variables and provides a wider range of information.
N
Navigation – the links within a website that interconnect the pages together in order for users to easily find web pages.
O
Organic Listings – an unpaid listing that is shown on the search engine as it is related to the keywords that have been searched.
P
Paid Listings – adverts that appear on search engines, generally at the top, are paid positions within Google. The advertiser will be charged by Google every time someone clicks onto the ad.
PPC – pay per click, an advertising system which advertisers pay for users to click on their advertisements.
Q
Query – another term for a keyword, the words users type into a search engine to get a result.
R
Reach – the amount of people that have seen an advert or piece of content.
Remarketing – connecting with those who have previously interacted with a website, for example, strategically showing ads to this audience.
S
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) – a form of advertising that allows you to bid for your advertisement to show along with search results for keywords that people are typing in.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) – the practice of making changes to web pages, content and the promotion of that content to improve visibility in an organic way.
SERP – search engine results page.
Session – interactions which take place on a website within 30 minutes.
T
Traffic Acquisition – the process of attracting visitors to the website or other digital platforms.
U
UTM Tracking – standing for ‘Urchin Traffic Monitor’, this informs Google Analytics about the path visitors follow to reach the website.
V
Value Proposition – a summary of why a potential customer should choose the product or service being promoted.
Viral marketing – a technique where consumers are encouraged to spread information about a product or service.
W
Web design – the design process of a website.
Web hosting – an internet hosting service that provides access to a website and stores its files.
Wireframe – the illustration and layout of a web page, usually only the lines and vertices are shown.
X
XML Sitemap – a file that lists information about what is featured on a website, such as images and videos.
Z
Zero-Click Queries – a search engine query from an organic search result, which does not send you to a third-party website. Features such as Google’s Knowledge Panel, Featured Snippet, and Direct Answer can result in users finding what they’re looking for without leaving the search engine results page.
#
301 – a redirect where a web page has been moved permanently from one place to another.
302 redirect – a redirect to a different web page, however, it is only for a temporary amount of time.
404. – the web page cannot be found, usually due to an error.
Why is jargon used in digital marketing?
At a glance, all this technical language may seem rather challenging, but it certainly isn’t here to catch any future digital marketers out! Once you gain familiarity with these terms, you’ll be able to use this language to help your team precisely discuss their data, set goals, and implement effective marketing strategies.
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Did you know that apprenticeships are a great way to take your Digital Marketing knowledge to the next level?
Our Level 3 programme offers a great way to get started in a marketing role and help advance your career.