Digital marketing terms

Owned media

Stuff you control, like your own website.

Paid media

Stuff you pay for, like online ads.

Earned media

Stuff others say about you (that you didn't pay for), like customer reviews.

Firm-Initiated Communication (FIC)

When the company starts the conversation, like sending ads or emails.

Customer-Initiated Communication (CIC)

When the customer starts the conversation, like searching for you or getting a referral.

Channels

Think of these as the specific two-way streets where you and the company can actually talk back and forth.

Examples:

• Making a phone call to customer service.

• Using a live chat on their website.

• Sending an email expecting a reply.

• Talking to a salesperson in a store.

Touchpoints (moments of truths)

This is every single time you come into contact with the company or its products/services, one-way or two-way.

Examples:

• Seeing one of their ads on TV (one-way).

• Receiving their email newsletter (one-way).

• Visiting their website just to browse (mostly one-way).

• Making a phone call (two-way - also a channel).

• Using their product.

• Reading reviews about them online (customer-to-customer).

The zero moment of truth

The online research and comparison you do before you make a purchase decision or even go to the physical/digital shelf. It's that moment you gather information yourself, often online, shaping your opinion before the store gets a chance.

• Touchpoints

First moment of truth

Decision Point - Convincing you to buy it when you see it on the shelf in a store for example.

Second moment of truth

Purchase Evaluation - Convincing you that you made the right choice after you use it.

Attribution

Is simply the process of figuring out which of the interactions (or "touchpoints") should get the credit for making the sale happen (attribution problem is the difficulty assigning credit).

Last Touch Attribution (LTA)

Gives 100% of the credit to the very last interaction the customer had before making the purchase (simple way to solve the attribution problem).

Google Ads Attribution Models

These are specific rules or sets of rules within the Google Ads platform that decide how much credit each of your Google Ad clicks gets when a customer eventually completes a desired action (like making a purchase, signing up, etc. - called a "conversion").

Single-Touch Attribution Models

These models give 100% of the credit for the conversion to just ONE specific touchpoint (one ad click) in the customer's journey.

Multi-Touch Attribution Models

These models share the credit for the conversion across MULTIPLE touchpoints (multiple ad clicks) in the customer's journey. They acknowledge that several interactions often play a role.

Omnichannel

Is a strategy to have multiple touchpoints (website/social media/physical store) and track consumers here to make it easier for consumers to shop and increase purchase intention. Creating a unified customer experience across all channels. Integrating channels to match how customers shop naturally.

Showrooming

Store -> Online Example: Shopping in store and then you purchase online because they have a better price/more colours online for example.

Webrooming

Online -> Store Example: When you purchase a car you look at features online and then you go to a showroom to actually test and purchase it.

Multichannel

Using many channels that are not connected to reach customers. Making each channel perform well individually.

Brand focus on breadth (Coverage)

How many different online stores sell the brand's products.

Brand focus on depth (In-Store)

How many online stores feature the brand's products prominently (e.g., on landing page).

Pipeline Model (Old way)

Company sells products that they own themselves, where they have the full power over the products/price/stock etc. (Nike or Douglas bv)

Platform Model (New way)

Company creates a platform for other brands to sell their products. (Etsy, Vinted, Airbnb bv)

Digital Platforms

Purely creates a platform to connect buyers and sellers online - Platform models.

Hybrid Platforms

These businesses use platform features to connect external sellers and buyers, but they also sell their own products/services directly - Mix of both platform and pipeline models.

Related Businesses

These digital businesses primarily focus on creating and delivering their own digital products or services directly to customers - Pipeline model.

Platforms have 4 important characteristics:

• Mediation Role: They are the middleman connecting sellers and buyers.

• Autonomy of Sellers: Sellers on the platform are mostly independent and run their own businesses on it.

• Network Effects: The more users a platform has (both sellers and buyers), the more valuable it becomes for everyone. Think of social media - it's better when more people are on it.

• Digital Infrastructure: Platforms rely on digital technology (websites, apps, etc.) to work.

If a business is thinking about platforms, they have three main choices:

1. Innovation (Build your own platform): Create your own platform, like Decathlon (sports store) or Douglas (beauty store) might do to sell their own products and maybe products from others.

2. Cooperation (Use other platforms): Sell your products through existing platforms like Amazon or other marketplaces to reach more customers.

3. Confrontation (Compete with platforms): Don't become a platform, but find other ways to compete against platforms. IKEA (furniture) or Chick-fil-A (restaurant) might focus on their own stores and unique experiences instead of relying on platforms.

The 5 sources of value creation enabled by digital technologies/ due to digital technologies these help make things better or more valuable:

• Automation - Making things happen automatically without it being requested by the consumer.

• Individualization - Making things just for you

• Interaction - Letting people or things connect and communicate easily

• Transparency & control - Making it easy to see what's happening and manage it

• Ambient embeddedness - Having technology woven into the background of our lives, almost invisibly

Organic search results

Without the ad sign

• 95% of the clicks are on organic search results and not ads

• Often based on seasons/trends etc

SEO

Search engine optimization

• It's all the stuff you do to try and make your website appear higher up in the organic (not paid) search results on Google, Bing, etc

SEA/SEM/Paid search

Search engine advertising

• Companies pay money to have their website show up as an advertisement in search engine results (like the ads you see at the top of Google).

• The goal is to get your website seen more often by using these paid ads.

Keywords

These are the words or short phrases people type into Google when they search for something. Advertisers use these same keywords to make their ads show up for those searches.

Generic keywords

Describing something. These are general words about a product type, like just "running shoes".

Branded keywords

Describing something combined with a brand, like "Nike running shoes". 

Impressions

How many times your ad was shown.

CTR

Click through rates - % of people who clicked the ad when they saw it.

CVR

% of people who bought something after clicking.

• Conversion rate

M

How much profit (margin) you make on each sale.

CPC

How much you paid for each click.

• Cost per click

Retargeting/ behavioral targeting

Showing online ads specifically to people who have previously visited your website or app but didn't complete a desired action (like making a purchase).

Selection effect/selection bias

When you use retargeting as a method, the consumers that you show the ad where already interested in the product, so maybe they would have bought the product anyway. This makes the results look better than they really are (artificially inflated). The ad gets credit for something that might have happened naturally.

Overpersonalization

Overpersonalization is when ads get too specific or too frequent, making you feel uncomfortable (creepy!) or annoyed.

Measure for experiential browsing

Checks how much someone enjoyed exploring or felt engaged while browsing without a specific goal (like window shopping online).

Measure for goal-directed browsing

Checks how quickly and successfully someone found the specific thing or completed the task they intended to do (like finding a specific product).

View-through

When you saw the ad and didn’t click on it, BUT went back to the site later. Data can measure this as well.

Content-integration

The ad blends in with the normal stuff on the website.

• Example: The ads you see on Pinterest for example, that blends in with your usual feed but you do not see it is an ad.

Content-separation

 The ad is clearly separate from the normal stuff on the website.

• Example: You're reading a news article, and a banner ad for shoes (that you looked at earlier) appears on the side. The ad isn't part of the news article itself.

Advertising elasticity

If I spend 1% more money on ads, how much extra sales (%) will I get? It measures how much your sales change when you change your ad budget slightly.

CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility)

Doing good through business actions. It's about companies doing good things, not just profitable things.

• Examples:

  • Cleaning up its own mess (pollution).

  • Treating its own people well (wages, volunteering).

  • Helping its immediate neighbors (local donations, hiring).

  • It's generally seen as "good housekeeping" or being a responsible local citizen. It's less likely to be controversial.

Socio-Political Activism

Taking a stand on social issues.

• Examples:

  • Publicly supporting or opposing a specific law (e.g., on climate change, voting rights, LGBTQ+ rights).

  • Running ad campaigns about divisive social topics.

  • Boycotting a state or country over its policies.

  • Donating specifically to political campaigns or causes.

Expectancy Violation Theory

When things don't happen the way we expect, it makes us pay more attention and think about it, whether the surprise is good OR bad.

2 different types of content strategies

• Functional: Informational - Deals - This is content focused on being useful and giving facts. Bv 10% discount related posts.

• Hedonic: Emotional - Social - This content is focused on creating feelings and pleasure. Bv Valentines day’s related posts.

Univariate

Looking at ONE variable (one column) at a time.

Bivariate

Looking at TWO variables (two columns) together to see if they are related.

Standard deviations

How spread out the numbers are around the average (are costs usually very similar, or do they vary a lot?).

ROAS

(Return On Ad Spend) - Revenue earned for every dollar spent on advertising.

CPM

Cost Per Mille (Thousand) Cost for 1,000 ad impressions (views).

CPC

(Cost Per Click) - Cost paid for each click on an ad.

Bounce rate

How many people visit just one page on your site and then leave.

Page views

Total number of pages viewed across all visits.

Volume of UGC

(User-Generated Content) - Amount of content created by users about the brand.

Repeat purchase rate

Percentage of customers who buy again.

Paid Search

Paying search engines (like Google) to show your ads when people search for specific keywords.

Display Ads

Banner ads or video ads you see on websites (not search results).

• Are a bit of a middle ground, okay for branding and getting clicks, and good for targeting specific online groups.

Offline Ads

Things like TV commercials, radio ads, billboards, or ads in magazines.

• Are best for getting your brand name out there widely.

Synergy (complementarity)

Ads working together. Sometimes, using different types of ads together makes them extra powerful. It's like 1 + 1 = 3.

Cannibalization (substitution)

Sometimes, using different ads together means they end up competing or being overlapping.

Wear-in

This is the "warming up" period. It's the time it takes for your ad to start having its biggest effect.

Wear-out

This is when the ad starts getting old. People have seen it too many times, and they get bored, annoyed, or just start ignoring it. Because of this "ad fatigue," the ad becomes less effective over time.

Spurios correlations

Misleading relationships that appear connected, but are actually caused by coincidence or other factors.

• Bv: Do murders lead to more ice creams being sold?

3 key features of experimental designs:

• Manipulate the independent variable

• Randomly assign into groups

• Measure effects on dependent variable (Common metrics in digital marketing: Sales, CTR, conversion rate, page views, comments, shares etc.

Null hypothesis

Generally the opposite of what you might expect just by looking at the difference shown in the diagram.

• You conduct the statistical test (like a T-test or ANOVA) to see if the difference you observed in your diagram (your sample data) is strong enough evidence to make you reject that initial null hypothesis (the idea of "no difference").

P value

Statistical test where if the P value is lower than 0.05 (also called alpha level), the difference is significant.

Efficiency

How well did you use your money and got a return for it?

• Measured by ROAS

Effectiveness

How much profit did you make overall?

• Measured by Net Return (Profit)

Soft Metrics

These measure how people feel or think about your brand. Are they aware of you? Do they like you? Are they considering buying from you? What are they saying about you online?

• Examples: Brand awareness, liking the brand/ad, good reviews, positive social media comments.

Hard Metrics

These measure what people actually do and the concrete results of those actions, especially things that lead to sales or money.

• Examples: Searching for your brand online, clicking your ads, visiting your website, making a purchase (conversions/sales), how much money you made back from your ad spend (ROAS).

Two Main Ways to Get Data

1. Primary Data

• Through Surveys

• Experiments

2. Secondary Data

• Using Econometric Models

Surveys pro’s and con’s

PROS: Get direct feedback on how people think/feel. Flexible.

CONS: What people say isn't always what they do. Answers can be biased. Hard to prove cause-and-effect.

Experiments pro’s and con’s

PROS: Best way to prove if your marketing caused a result. Good for testing specific actions. Learn as you go.

CONS: Can be hard/expensive to run big tests properly. Results might only apply to the specific test situation.

Econometric models pro’s and con’s

PROS: Can analyze many marketing activities at once using data you likely already have. Helps guide budget decisions. Can account for competitors or seasonal trends.

CONS: Usually shows links (correlation) not proof (causation). Needs lots of good data. Requires statistical experts. Data quality is crucial.

Dashboard

One screen that brings together all the most important marketing numbers, charts, and key information (metrics).

Dashboards help because they..

1. Keep Everyone Consistent: Make sure different teams measure success the same way.

2. Track Performance & Learning: Show you how well marketing is doing (what's working?) and help you learn from the results.

3. Plan Better: Help you set future goals and strategies based on data.

4. Communicate What Matters: Easily show bosses or clients the key results and what the company values (by showing what it chooses to measure).

5. Start Important Talks: Provide data to have discussions, especially when talking about challenging goals or needing resources.

eWOM

Consumer-generated, consumption related communication that employs digital tools and is directed primarily to other consumers. Should be these 4:

• Consumer-generated

• Related to consumption

• Digital aspect - employs digital tools

• Directed primarily to other consumers

eWOM process

• Motivation: The desire to process information.

• Ability: The extent to which consumers have the necessary resources to process information (important in cluttered environments)

• Opportunity: The extent to which distractions or limited exposure time affect consumers attention to information. 

Valence/sentiment

Are the reviews generally positive or negative? This is often shown as the average star rating.

Volume

How many reviews are there?

• High volume can create a "bandwagon effect" – people might buy something just because many others are reviewing it.

Composite metric

Valence and volume combined.

• How many positive reviews or how many negative reviews

Variance

How much do people disagree in their ratings? Are the stars all clustered together (low variance) or spread out across 1 to 5 stars (high variance)? 

• Consumers are more confused here with high variance so it’s bad for sales.

To understand how eWOM affects sales, we need to look at three main dimensions of eWOM

• Platforms

• Metrics

• Products

Products can be categorized by

• Form: 

  • Services (haircut)

  • Tangible (camera)

  • Digital (ebook).

• Purpose: 

  • Hedonic (for pleasure/fun, like coffee) 

  • vs. Utilitarian (practical need, like a t-shirt).

• Age: 

  • New (just launched) 

  • vs. Mature (been available for a while).

• Cost: 

  • High (expensive car) 

  • vs. Low (cheap cup of tea).

Functional Risk for products

The worry a product/service won't perform well.

• High for services (can't check quality first).

• eWOM helps find hedonic (fun things) items matching personal taste.

• eWOM reduces uncertainty for new products.
  

Financial Risk for products

The worry about wasting money.

• When risk is high (expensive items), people use eWOM for assurance.

The findings suggest eWOM is more effective for

• New products (compared to mature ones).

• Products with higher financial risk (more expensive items).

  • No differences in the effectiveness of eWOM across tangible goods (physical items you can touch), services, and digital products, or between hedonic and utilitarian products. They are all the same regarding effectiveness.

Low channel lock-in (seamless transitions)

How easy it is for consumers to switch between channels from one journey stage to the next.

Third-party service / good providers

External organizations or individuals that supply products or services to a business, which then offers these to its customers. They are not part of the primary company but are crucial in providing additional products or specialized services.

Sparseness problem

Conversion rates are often low, and many keywords are not associated with any sales whatsoever.

Ad auction in google considers three main factors for your ad:

1. Your bid

2. The quality of your ad (Expected click through rate CTR, Ad’s relevance, Landing page experience)

3. The expected impact of ad extensions (Ad extensions: When creating your ad, you have the option to include additional information to your ad, such as a phone number, or links to specific pages on your site.)

Message modality

The form or type of a message. Is it text, an image, a video, audio, or a combination? It's about how the message is presented.