Maisie Lloyd
Maisie is the Digital Content Manager at Intelligency, handling all things creative for the agency. Her experience centres around the production of digital content, pertaining to graphic design, writing copy, and video and audio content.
Whether you’re emerging into your first marketing role or you’re hopping onto a client/agency meeting, you’re bound to hear some acronyms being thrown around. With so many marketing long-tailed terms, we’ve found ways to abbreviate and simplify. But as a marketer, it’s easy to forget just how unfamiliar all these terms are when you first hear them.
This is your go-to marketing dictionary, where we’ll delve into all the key terms you’ll need to know so you’re armed with all the marketing jargon for your next meeting!
A-Z Marketing Acronyms
A/B Testing
A/B testing is a method used in marketing to test two versions of a piece of work to see which performs better. This can be for ad campaigns or establishing the best user interface for your website.
ARPU
Average revenue per user is the revenue a business makes from a single individual. This can be calculated by dividing the total revenue by the number of users (within a set time frame).
B2B
B2B is the abbreviation of business-to-business- it just keeps it short and sweet. A great example of a B2B business is ourselves, as we don’t work directly with our clients’ customers, but rather support the business in their marketing efforts to optimise the experience for users.
B2C
B2C stands for business-to-customer; unlike business-to-business, this is direct communication with the customer/audience.
BR
BR, or bounce rate, is the volume of users who leave after viewing a page. It’s an incredibly important metric for understanding audience engagement. To calculate it, you’ll need to divide the number of single-page sessions by the overall total of sessions.
CAC
CAC stands for customer acquisition cost- another incredibly valuable metric to gain insight into how much of your budget is spent on drawing in an audience. This is done by dividing the budget for a specific period by the number of new users.
CPC
Cost-per-click is a more common term used for paid advertising, whether that online advertising via search engines or through paid advertising on social channels. Simply divide the number of clicks by the overall cost to determine the cost per click.
CPM
CPM is abbreviated from cost per mille (thousand).
CPV
Cost per view which can be calculated by dividing the total advertising cost by the number of views.
CRO
CRO is a shortened form of conversion rate optimisation, a term used to describe you optimising your site, content or campaign in order to maximise the amount of conversions.
CTA
A CTA is a call to action, which is language used in content or on buttons which are there to encourage your audience/customer to take action.
GA/GA4
GA4 is just an abbreviation of Google Analytics 4, Google’s most recent analytical platform used to track performance.
GDPR
General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, is the protocol and regulations a business must follow to keep its customers’ data safe and ensure it is used legally.
KPI
A KPI is a key performance indicator. We set these in marketing in order to measure the success of our performance. We assign specific metric values as a reference point to compare and analyse against the actual performance.
PPC
Pay-per-click is the term coined for digital advertising and how much it costs to have their ad clicked.
ROI
ROI is an acronym for return on investment, which analyses the performance profitability. Return on Investment equals (Revenue generated from marketing minus the cost of marketing), divided by the cost of marketing, then multiplied by 100 to get a percentage.
ROAS
Return on ad spend defines the overall money made back from the money spent on an ad campaign. To find your ROAS metric, divide the revenue generated by the overall cost of the ad.
SEO
SEO is a classic marketing term; it stands for search engine optimisation. Search engine optimisation looks to optimise your website performance through technical and content optimisations to create a better opportunity of displaying on the search engine results page.
SERP
SERP is a search engine results page. This is the content list you see when you are exploring the internet, on a search engine. When we talk about the SERP, it’s typically in reference to the overall ranking on the results page and where your website is being positioned as recommended.
UGC
User-generated content, or UGC, is content that the customer created about your product or service (without you collaborating or sponsoring them).
UI
UI is the acronym for user interface, a term used to describe how a customer sees your website. I.e. web elements, visual/ design elements and auditory components.
UX
UX is user experience. When we discuss the user experience, it is about the enjoyment and ease of use of your website.
Final Thoughts
Marketing acronyms can feel like an entirely new language when you’re first getting started, but now, you’ve got the cheat sheet. Whether you’re building your first campaign, sitting in on a client call, or brushing up on industry lingo, this dictionary is your go-to reference for demystifying the jargon. The more fluent you become, the more confidently you’ll navigate conversations, strategies, and results.
Keep this glossary handy, and you’ll be speaking marketing like a pro in no time.
