Marketing can be difficult to grasp at the best of times, not to mention when conversations are littered with acronyms that you’ve never even heard of. Having a good understanding of the most common marketing acronyms can really help you stay on top of your game, improve your understanding and enable you to contribute to conversations more effectively.
With this in mind, we’ve pulled together the ultimate A-Z of acronyms and abbreviations, targeted specifically at marketers working in the tech industry.
Feel free to skim our A-Z, devour it in one go or even bookmark it so you can return to it in your hour of need. However you digest the content, we hope you find it useful!
A
A/B TESTING – SPLIT TESTING
A/B testing is when you use two variables of the same webpage or digital ad to determine which one resonates most with your audience.
ABM – ACCOUNT BASED MARKETING
A strategic approach to marketing, where sales and marketing work together to target individual prospects or customer accounts.
AIDA – AWARENESS, INTEREST, DESIRE, ACTION
A model that describes the steps a customer goes through in the process of purchasing a product.
AMA – ASK ME ANYTHING
Commonly used on social media platforms. It is a type of informal interview whereby the interviewee opens up questions from the public.
AOV – AVERAGE ORDER VALUE
The average value of orders received in a given time period.
API – APPLICATION PROGRAMMING INTERFACE
A software intermediary that allows two applications to talk to each other.
ASP – APPLICATION SERVICE PROVIDER
Internet hosting that provides computer-based services (aka SaaS products) to customers over a network.
B
B2B – BUSINESS TO BUSINESS
A transaction between two different businesses, most often used in marketing when an organisation is your customer.
B2C – BUSINESS TO CONSUMER
A transaction between a business and an individual consumer.
BANT – BUDGET, AUTHORITY, NEED, TIMELINE
A formula used to determine whether business prospects have the budget, authority, need, and timeline to buy what you are selling.
BH – BLACK HAT
People who increase their page’s SEO rankings through illegal means.
BR – BOUNCE RATE
The percentage of the people who land on your web page and return within 3 seconds.
C
CAC – CUSTOMER ACQUISITION COST
The cost of acquiring a new customer.
CAPTCHA – COMPLETELY AUTOMATED PUBLIC TURING TEST TO TELL COMPUTERS AND HUMANS APART
A method used to check whether the user is a person or a robot.
CMS – CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
A web application that is specifically designed to make the process of creating, editing, and managing website easy for non-technical users.
CPA – COST PER ACTION
A model in which an advertiser pays only for the action someone takes like a click, impression or sale.
CPC – COST PER CLICK
The amount of money spent to get an ad clicked when running PPC campaigns.
CPL – COST PER LEAD
The amount it costs for your organisation to acquire a lead.
CPM – COST PER MILLE (THOUSAND)
Used to denote the price of 1000 views or impressions of an ad.
CRO – CONVERSION RATE OPTIMISATION
The process of optimising your website to increase the likelihood that visitors will complete a specific action.
CSS – CASCADING STYLE SHEETS
A language that manages the design and presentation of web pages: colour, look, feel, and so on.
CTA – CALL TO ACTION
This refers to the desired action. For instance sign up, watch video, buy now.
CTR – CLICK THROUGH RATE
The percentage of the number of clicks on CTA over the total number of people that can click.
D
DA – DOMAIN AUTHORITY
A search engine ranking score that predicts how likely a website is to rank in search engine result pages (SERPs).
DM – DIRECT MESSAGE
A private form of communication, most commonly mentioned in reference to social media, where the messagres are only visible to the sender and receiver.
DNS – DOMAIN NAME SYSTEM
A DNS translates domain names into IP addresses so computers can comprehend them.
F
FAQ – FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
A document that provides answers to a list of typical questions that users might ask regarding a particular subject.
G
GA – GOOGLE ANALYTICS
An online tool that generates details statistics about a website’s traffic and traffic sources, and measures conversions and sales and provides insights into your Google advertising ROI.
GDPR – GENERAL DATA PROTECTION REGULATION
A legal structure with set rules for collecting and processing personal information from individuals who live in the European Union (EU).
GMB – GOOGLE MY BUSINESS
A free and easy-to-use tool that helps local businesses manage their digital footprints across Google, including Search and Maps.
GTM – GOOGLE TAG MANAGER
GTM allows you to manage all of your website tags without editing code.
H
HTML – HYPER-TECT MARKUPLANGUAGE
The standard language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser.
I
IBL – INBOUND LINK
Also known as backlinks, they are links from other sites that point to your site.
ILV – INBOUND LEAD VELOCITY
The rate at which leads are increasing.
IP ADDRESS – INTERNET PROTOCOL ADDRESS
A numerical label assigned to each device connected to a computer network.
ISP – INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDER
An organisation that provides internet services.
ISV – INDEPENDENT SOFTWARE PROVIDER
An organisation that makes and sells software products, rather than computer hardware.
K
KPI – KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATOR
A type of performance measurement companies use to evaluate an activity’s success. While KPIs are used throughout a business, marketers look at KPIs to track progress toward marketing goals.
KW – KEYWORDS
Any word or phrase that people enter into search engines to retrieve the information they’re looking for.
L
LB — LINK BUILDING
The process of getting links from another website to point to yours.
LP – LANDING PAGE
A standalone web page created specifically for a marketing campaign.
LTKW – LONG TAIL KEYWORDS
Keywords that have more than 3 words.
LTV – LIFETIME VALUE
How much money a customer will bring your brand throughout their entire time as a paying customer.
M
MAP – MARKETING AUTOMATION PLATFORM
The use of software to automate marketing activities.
MDF – MARKET DEVELOPMENT FUNDS
Funding that vendors grant to its indirect sales channel partners to help the channel with sales and marketing programs.
MQL – MARKETING QUALIFIED LEAD
A lead that marketing identifies as valuable because it meets a set of pre-defined criteria, and is deemed as more likely to become a customer compared to other leads.
O
OBL – OUTBOUND LINK
Also called an external link is a link from your website to a different website.
P
PPC – PAY PER CLICK
An online advertising model in which an advertiser pays a publisher every time an advertisement is “clicked” on.
PR – PUBLIC RELATIONS
PR refers to the strategic communication from an organisation to the public to maintain or cultivate public image and/or respond to public discourse.
PV – PAGE VIEW
A request to load a single web page on the internet. Marketers use them to analyse their website and gauge how large their audience is.
Q
QR CODE – QUICK RESPONSE BARCODE
A type of barcode that contains various forms of data and often points to an online destination.
R
RDA – RESPONSIVE DISPLAY ADS
Ads that adjust their size, appearance and format without manual intervention, so it fits available ad spaces on Google’s Display Network
ROAS – RETURN ON AD SPEND
A marketing metric that measures the amount of revenue your business earns for each pound spent on advertising.
ROI – RETURN ON INVESTMENT
A profitability metric used to evaluate how well an investment is performing.
ROMI – RETURN ON MARKETING INVESTMENT
A metric used to measure the effectiveness of a marketing campaign. It examines results in relation to the specific marketing objective.
RSS – RICH SITE SUMMARY
A web feed that allows users and applications to access updates to websites in a standardized format.
RT – RETWEET
The reposting of a tweet on Twitter.
S
SAAS – SOFTWARE-AS-A-SERVICE
A way of delivering applications over the internet, as a service.
SEM – SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING
The process of gaining traffic to your company’s site by purchasing ads on Google and other search engines.
SEO – SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION
The optimization of your website for getting ranked in search engine result pages.
SERP – SEARCH ENGINE RESULTS PAGE
Webpages served to users when they search for something on a search engine.
SLA – SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENT
A commitment between a service provider and a client.
SM – SOCIAL MEDIA
The collective term for websites and applications that facilitate content creation and the sharing of information, ideas and interests within a virtual community.
SMART – SPECIFIC, MEASURABLE, ATTAINABLE, RELEVANT, TIME-BOUND
An acronym that provides criteria to guide the setting of goals and objectives.
SMM – SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
The use of social media platforms and websites to promote a product or service.
SOW – SCOPE/STATEMENT OF WORK
An agreement on the work that’s going to be performed on a specific project. The document usually includes deliverables, a timeline, milestones, and reports.
SQL – SALES QUALIFIED LEAD
A lead that has moved through the sales pipeline to a position where the sales team can now work on converting them into an active customer.
SWOT – STRENGTHS, WEAKNESSES, OPPORTUNITIES, THREATS
A SWOT analysis is when a company conducts a study to pinpoint its internal strengths and weaknesses and its external opportunities and threats.
U
UI – USER INTERFACE
A good user interface provides user-friendly experience by allowing users to interact.
USP – UNIQUE SELLING POINT
The unique benefit exhibited by a company, service, product or brand that enables it to stand out from competitors.
UV – UNIQUE VISITOR
A person who visits your website more than once within a defined period of time.
UX – USER EXPERIENCE
The overall experience that a customer has with your business. This is most often referenced in relation to a users experience when navigating your website.
V
VOD – VIDEO ON-DEMAND
A way of consuming video content that is stored within online libraries.
W
WOM – WORD OF MOUTH
The passing of information from person to person.
Y
YTD – YEAR TO DATE
A period starting from the beginning of the current year and continuing up to the present day.
