Marketing Glossary: 150 Terms to Know

Marketing research and workflows are core to business processes and directly help sales teams bring in new customers.

Looking to build a marketing communication foundation? We’ve collected a list of 150 marketing terms you must know in today’s landscape.

Find the perfect marketing agency on Clutch.

Top 150 Marketing Terms to Know

A

A/B Testing: the process of comparing the performance of two different versions of a marketing asset (email, web page, copy) to decide on which to utilize long-term.

Ad blocker: software designed to filter ads from a web browser or applications

Affiliate marketing: strategy involving a business paying third-party content creators to send traffic to the company through link placements (affiliate links). Content creators generally earn a commission for sales through these links.

Algorithm: a sequence of instructions with a determined end goal, logic often carried out by a computer.

Alt Tag: content tag that presents the audience with alternative text for visuals on websites. If the image cannot be displayed, alt text from the tag will appear instead.

Anchor text: the words or phrases online with a link attached to it, commonly identified by their blue color

ASO: app store optimization is when marketers develop app product pages strategically so they’re highly visible on app stores.

B

Backlink: a link on another site that brings traffic back to your site

Banner ad: a form of digital advertisement that appears prominently across the widthlength of a website

Source: DocuSign

Bounce rate: percentage of website visitors that leave your site before making an engagement action

Brand awareness: a measure of how recognizable a company’s branding and messaging is for individuals in the target market

Brand characteristics: fundamental descriptors selected by brands with the goal of embodying desired traits

Brand identity: a collection of brand assets and elements that come together to give an audience an idea of your product, values, and goals.

Brand loyalty: occurs when customers repeatedly buy from, rely on, and trust a given company

Business-to-business (B2B) marketing: marketing efforts centered around companies serving other companies

Buyer persona: a profile containing characteristics of an ideal customer, often created following market research and data collection.

C

Call to action (CTA): a piece of content that directly asks the reader to take a desired action, often displayed boldly and prominently in copy

Cascading Style Sheet (CSS): stylesheet language used to dictate the visual presentation written in HTML.

Case study: a thorough piece of content on a group, company, or individual meant to describe and investigate particular qualities intensively

Chatbot: program that mimics a human discussion online, often used on websites for customer service purposes

Clickthrough rate (CTR): a metric to determine the quality of keywords and online ads — calculated by dividing clicks on your ad by the total number of impressions the ad received over the same time period.

CTR=Clicks/Impressions

Co-branding: marketing effort meant to unite two brands and sell a product or service together, sharing associated risk

Content management system (CMS): a software system that enables the creation, editing, and publishing of content online. Popular CMS options include WordPress and Joomla.

Content marketing: strategy involving the creation and distribution of relevant content to spread brand awareness and generate leads

Content syndication: the process of republishing content on external domains, expanding the impressions and audience base for the piece while directing traffic to the original site

Conversion rate: the percentage of those who convert (make a purchase or other desired action) of the total number of people who interacted with the ad

Cost per click (CPC): paid advertising metric that denotes the pricing of a single click on an ad for a given keyword

Cost Per Mille (CPM): the amount a marketer would spend on a given keyword per 1,000 impressions on average

Cost per action (CPA): marketing metric that states how much was spent on an ad per consumer action that results in a sale

Customer acquisition cost (CAC): total cost of marketing and operational efforts to generate a sale from a customer

Customer journey: describes the flow or series of interactions customers have with a brand before making a purchasing decision. Customer journeys are often displayed as maps or templates.

Customer relationship management (CRM): a software system that facilitates interactions with potential customers, allowing for a smooth customer journey

Customer retention rate: the percentage of customers that continue buying or engaging with a brand after a defined amount of time.

D

Data visualization: the process of using visuals (graphs, charts, etc.) to illustrate data or complex information with the aim of highlighting trends

Demographics: data highlighting broad characteristics of a population (age, location, income, etc.)

Demand generation: marketing tactic centered around messaging and brand awareness as a means of lead generation

Digital marketing: marketing processes and strategies specific to online spaces

Digital transformation: Adjusting or completely redefining internal operations and customer-facing journeys as a means of adapting to the market

Direct-to-consumer (D2C) marketing: a retail marketing approach that involves brands creating, promoting, and delivering a product directly to their buyers.

Display advertising: an online advertisement that contains words, visuals, and a URL that returns those who click to a brand’s website

Dofollow link: a link signals to search engines that the source of the link is authoritative on the topic at hand, boosting SEO performance

Domain Authority: a search engine ranking score aimed at determining how authoritative websites are (developed by Moz)

E

E-book: an electronic book published online containing text and visuals, often used by brands for marketing purposes

E-commerce: purchasing and sale of goods and services in the online space

EAT: part of Google’s algorithm for search results rankings, stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.

Earned media: coverage and exposure from unpaid marketing efforts

Email marketing: marketing carried out over email, requiring the creation of email lists and segmenting an audience

Engagement rate: the percentage of those who interact with your content (like, comment, share) out of those who saw it

Evergreen content: content that will be relevant to readers for years after publishing

External link: link in a piece of content that is directed toward a site other than the domain it's on

F

FCC: stands for the Federal Communications Commission, which is a US government agency that’s responsible for overseeing communications and media in the United States.

Full-service marketing agency: a marketing agency that provides a broad range of services rather than specializing in a single area of marketing

G

GDPR: stands for General Data Protection Regulation, which is legislation protecting EU citizens’ personal data from companies

Gated content: a piece of content strategically placed behind a wall meant for lead capture, often requiring the user to provide an email address to access the content

Gamification: the practice of giving game-like qualities to an experience, such as giving customers points when they make a purchase

Geo-targeting: advertising practice that relies on a customer’s location to determine which messages to send them

Google Analytics: a Google product meant to help marketers track traffic and engagement on their websites

Graphic design: the creation of visual assets using computer software (or sometimes by hand) with the goal of interesting or informing potential customers

Growth marketing: a marketing strategy that relies on a team building relationships with customers through a series of touchpoints with the intention of creating loyal customers

H

Hashtag: metadata tag regularly used by social media platforms and denoted by the ‘pound sign’ (#)

Homepage: the front page of a website, introducing visitors to its various niche pages

HTML: stands for HyperText Markup Language), which is a type of code used to structure the content on a website. HTML can break a block of text into lists, paragraphs, and headings

I

Impressions: the total number of people that have been shown an ad or piece of content

Inbound marketing: a marketing tactic that relies on a team creating and publishing helpful content that’s accurately tailored to the intended audience. The content attracts customers rather than outreach or a cold call.

Influencers: individuals or groups with a large following within a certain niche (ex. lifestyle, beauty, parenting).

Influencer marketing: the process of brands collaborating with influencers to widen their reach, particularly on social media

Infographic: a visual intended to present data or a complex idea, making it easier to understand for viewers

Source: Canva

Information architecture (IA): the way in which a website or platform is structured and organized, enabling navigation and search

K

Key performance indicator (KPI): A metric used by a company to define and quantify success on their team

Keyword research: the processes of finding phrases to focus on within content to rank in search engine results effectively

L

Landing page: the page consumers are led to after clicking on a marketing ad or email link. These pages directly relate to the marketing call to action that generated the click and are stand-alone, unlike other pages on a website.

Lead Generation: the process of discovering potential buyers through research and planning to reach out to them with aim of making a sale

Lead Nurturing: the process of maintaining contact with leads either before or after initial purchase with the intent to foster customer loyalty

Lifecycle marketing: marketing strategy focused on facilitating the customer journey for potential buyers. Lifecycle marketing roles are centered around messaging and buyer motivation

Link Exchange: an agreement between two or more unrelated parties to publish links to the other’s site within content to mutually boost SERP performance

M

MarTech: short for marketing technology, a software system that helps team perform against marketing goals such as real-time analytics

Marketing automation: tools that facilitate the creation and execution of marketing campaigns, allowing businesses to target audiences across channels

Marketing campaign: a series of promotional tasks across channels aimed at marketing a product or service

Marketing funnel: visualization of how marketing activities guide customers to making a purchasing decision — stages include awareness, interest, consideration, intent, evaluation, and purchase.

Marketing strategy: a series of tactics performing against a company’s short-term and long-term goals

Media buyer: a marketer responsible for the media buying process and maintaining alignment with overall company marketing goals

Media agency: companies dedicated to helping clients execute marketing strategies, especially in the paid media space

Meta description: a short HTML description of a piece of content that’s displayed by search engines on SERPs

Mobile ads: advertisements that are specific to mobile devices

Monetization: the action of making money off of a good or service

N

Native advertising: advertisements that are meant to match the look and feel of the website or type of media hosting them

Newsletter: marketing tool used to round up and share business insights and updates with customers and other subscribers — often delivered over email

Nofollow link: a link to an external website with HTML instructing crawlers not to attribute authority to the link’s source website — does not benefit SEO efforts as much as a dofollow link

O

Off-page SEO: SEO activities that occur outside of a brand’s website, including link earning efforts and social media marketing

Over The Top (OTT): a media service that delivers content directly to consumers via internet

Omnichannel marketing: the process of utilizing multiple channels to reach, engage, and guide customers down the marketing funnel

On-page SEO: SEO efforts taking place on a brand’s website, including technical SEO optimizations, blog content creation, and more

Online advertising: all advertising activity that takes place on the internet

Open rate: email marketing metric that measures the percentage of recipients who open a given email

Opt-in: action potential buyers take when they agree to receive emails or other messages from a brand

Organic traffic: the number of users that come to a brand’s site naturally through search engines rather than searching specifically for the brand

Out-of-home advertising: all advertising that consumers encounter outside of their homes, including billboards and public transportation ads

P

Packaging design: all elements that make up product packaging are accounted for in packaging design services: structure, color, visuals, text, brand materials, size, regulatory statements, and more

Page views: the number of times a page has been loaded in a browser over the course of a given timeframe

Paid search: ad placements that have been paid for on search results pages, denoted with “Ad” or “sponsored” tags accompanying the listing

Pay-per-click (PPC): a form of paid advertising that charges the advertiser a certain amount each time the ad is clicked

Personalization: the process of tailoring marketing messaging to individual consumers rather than relying on generalized messages — oftentimes, this involves stating the customer’s name in outreach

Podcast: a digital audio file that’s made for listeners to either download or stream online. Generally, podcasts are for storytelling and increasing brand awareness in a certain niche

Postproduction: video marketing term that refers to all video editing activities that occur after the video is shot (the production stage)

Pop-up ads: Advertisements that appear while users browse certain web pages, sometimes obscuring the page content or interrupting the user experience

Product marketing: the messaging, positioning, and demand generation activities that go into bringing a product to market

Production company: a video production team that’s responsible for helping clients shoot and produce video marketing content

Public relations (PR): type of marketing that works specifically on maintaining and improving a brand or individual’s public image

Public service announcement (PSA): short, simple radio or TV messages that are distributed for free in favor of raising awareness or shaping public opinion on certain topics

Q

Qualified lead: a prospective customer that’s been defined as a good fit for a brand’s goods or services by the sales team

Qualitative research: Research and data that does not involve numeric information, rather focusing on anecdotes, descriptions, and more

Quantitative research: Research that results in numeric data and information

R

Reach: the number of different people your ads or content potentially comes in contact with

Rebrand: a strategic effort involving changes to brand elements such as colors or logos, oftentimes to refresh the brand image or merge multiple brands together following an acquisition

Referral: the act of recommending a brand or company to another based on a positive reputation or personal experience

Retargeting: the act of reaching out to past leads or website visitors through digital advertising placements or promotional emails

Review: feedback on a company’s services or products from a past or current customer on their experience

Return on investment (ROI): the amount of revenue generated by marketing activities after accounting for expenses of a campaign or effort

S

Schema Markup: code used by SEO professionals to describe content to search engines — also known as structured data

Search engine marketing (SEM): paid search marketing process, in which advertisers bid for ad placements from search engines such as Google or Bing

Search engine optimization (SEO): the process of organically improving SERP performance through content, link building, and technical site efforts

Search engine results pages (SERPs): pages that search engines return following a query being made by a user

Search intent: the reason behind a user making a given search engine query — what users are looking to find in SERPs

Segmentation: the process of splitting a brand’s desired audience into groups based on demographics, behaviors, interests, and more distinguishing traits

Small and Midsize Business (SMB): businesses with a smaller headcount than enterprise-level companies — SMBs have between 25–500 employees

Social media: platforms where users can create and share content within a certain network of other individuals; examples include LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Social listening: the process of determining what people are saying about a brand or company online, specifically on social media platforms

Social networking: the process of connecting and sharing information with users online via social media platforms

Specialized marketing agency: a marketing company that provides expert services within a given marketing niche rather than offering a broad range of services

Streaming: the act of viewing video or audio content directly over the internet, rather than downloading the content first

Structured data: also known as schema markup — the code used by marketers to detail the contents of a webpage to search engine crawlers as a means of improving SEO performance

Subscription model: a business model that requires that buyers pay a fee on a regular basis for access to a product or service — seen commonly with streaming services and subscription box services

Supply-side platform (SSP): adtech tools meant for advertising publishers to connect with advertisers and manage demand

T

Tagline: a slogan used by marketers and advertisers to promote brand awareness

Target audience: the ideal group of individuals a brand aims to connect with — discovered through market research

Targeted advertising: the process of creating and placing advertisements to be seen by a certain group or demographic with a higher likelihood to engage and make purchases

Technical SEO: the process of enhancing technical and UX components of a website’s structure and content in order to perform better in SERPs

Third-party data: information that is purchased by companies from an outside source that collects and distributes user data. Customers don’t have a direct connection with the company that ends up with their data, differentiating third-party data from first and second-party data.

Title tag: an HTML meta tag used by SEO teams and content marketers to indicate the correct title of the page

Traffic source: the origin of visitors to your site, including social media links, search engine results pages, and more

U

User experience (UX): the quality of a user’s interaction with a platform or website — UX includes site structure, readability, quality of visuals, usability, and more

User-generated content (UGC): content created by consumers for the use of brand marketing efforts

User testing: the process of experimenting with UX changes and new functionalities by allowing users to test new features in an otherwise normal environment

V

Vertical video: video content shot vertically rather than horizontally, popularized by and typically achieved through smartphone cameras

Video marketing: marketing strategy involving the use of video content on websites, social media platforms, and more

Vision Statement: a short description of a brand’s long-term goals, intended to motivate the team and shape processes

W

Wearables: tech products that can be worn by users and reached by marketers and advertisers

Web page: a single hypertext page online with a unique URL

Webinar: a seminar event that takes place online, allowing attendees to garner expert advice on niche topics from anywhere

Word-of-mouth marketing: process involving a series of customer referrals and recommendations as a means of lead generation and brand awareness

Looking for more marketing expertise? Connect with a team of marketing professionals on Clutch.

Additional Reading:

• Guide to SEM
• Wearables and Market Size
• What is Targeted Advertising
• Non-Fungible Token (NFT) Glossary