Digital Marketing and E-commerce Glossary

404 page

A URL that tells the visitor that the webpage does not exist

A/B testing

A method of testing where two versions of content with a single differing variable are compared to determine which yields better results

Abandoned cart

When a potential customer adds an item to their cart, but doesn't complete the purchase

Abandoned cart email

A follow-up email sent to customers who added an item to their cart but didn't complete the purchase

Accessibility

Considering the needs of people with disabilities when products, services, and facilities are built or modified, making them usable by people of all abilities

Acquisition email

An email sent to acquire new customers

Ad auction

A process that determines the best ad to show to a person at a given point in time

Ad extension

A Google Ads feature that shows additional information about the business, such as website links, a phone number, or address

Ad formats

Elements such as text, videos, images, digital content ads, and more that make up a Google Ad

Ad group

A group of ads that is organized by a group of keywords

Ad spend

How much a company spends directly on advertisements

Agency

An outside partner that fulfills a company's digital marketing and advertising needs

Alt text

A brief, written description of an image with the primary purpose of assisting individuals who are visually impaired

Anchor text

The visible text in a hyperlink

Applause rate

The number of approval actions—such as likes, mentions, Retweets, or favorites—that a post receives relative to the total number of followers

Area chart

Represents data in the same way as a line chart, but with the space under the line filled in to form a visual area

Artificial intelligence (AI)

A field developing intelligent machines and software that simulate human thought or work

Attribution

Assigns credit for conversions from ads, last clicks, or other touch points along a user's path to conversion completion

Attribution project

Organization for macro and micro conversions in Google Analytics

Automated bidding strategy

A Google Ads feature that automatically sets a bid for an ad based on an ad's likelihood to result in a click or conversion that helps achieve a specific goal

Autonomous marketing

Uses real-time analytics to automate marketing activities

Average daily budget

The average amount set for each ad campaign on a per-day basis

Average order value (AOV)

The sum of individual order amounts divided by the number of orders

Average session duration

Reported in seconds, a calculation that divides the total duration of all sessions by the number of sessions

Awareness stage

The first stage of the marketing funnel, when a potential customer first becomes aware of the product or service

Backlink

A link that points to a website from another site

Behavioral data

Refers to information about the actions a customer takes—or doesn't take—when it comes to shopping on a website

Best sellers report

A report in Google Merchant Center that provides information about the most popular brands and products used in Shopping ads and free listings

Bid

The amount a marketer is willing to spend each time a potential customer clicks their ad or calls their business

Bid modification

Bidding a percentage more or less than a starting bid

Bidding strategy

Tells an advertiser how much to pay for each user action related to an ad

Big data

A field in analytics that systematically mines and extracts information from very large datasets for insights

BigQuery

Google's cloud-based data warehouse solution

Blog

A discussion or informational website published on the internet consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries

Blogging

Refers to self-published writing that lives online

BOPIS

An acronym for 'buy online, pick up in store'

Bounce rate

The percentage of website visitors who view one page and then leave the site

Brand

How a business or organization is perceived by the public

Branding

To promote a product or service by identifying it with a particular brand

Brand advocacy

Measures the number of customers who promote a brand through word-of-mouth marketing or other methods

Brand awareness

How familiar people are with a particular business or product

Brand awareness metrics

Metrics that measure the attention a brand received across all

awareness metrics

Metrics that measure the attention a brand received across all social media platforms during a reporting period

Brand equity

The value consumers attribute to one brand's offerings when compared with similar products from another brand

Brand evangelists

Customers who are so passionate about a product or service that they enthusiastically promote it to others

Brand identity

The combination of elements that inform how people perceive a brand

Brand position statement

Outlines exactly what a company does and for whom, and what makes it different from competitors

Brand safety

Keeping a brand's reputation safe when they advertise online

Brand voice

The distinct personality a brand takes on in its communications

Brand voice guidelines

Describes the way a brand should be presented in writing

Branded content

Any post that features a third-party product, brand, or sponsor

Breadcrumbs

A row of internal links at the top or bottom of the page that allows visitors to quickly navigate back to a previous section or the homepage

Brick-and-mortar

A traditional retail store with a specific location where customers can come to shop

Broad match

A keyword match type in Google Ads that shows ads when someone searches for a term related to a keyword

Broken link

A link that leads to a webpage that no longer exists

Bucket testing

(refer to A/B testing)

Budget spend

How much is allocated to or spent on a campaign

Business goal

A desired aim, achievement, or outcome for a business

Business-to-business (B2B)

Refers to when businesses sell products or services to other businesses (when businesses purchase from each other)

Business-to-consumer (B2C)

Refers to when businesses sell products or services to consumers (when consumers purchase from businesses)

Call to action

An instruction that tells the customer what to do next

Campaign

A plan of action for how a set of one or more ad groups that share a budget, location targeting, and other settings will be distributed online

Cart abandonment

When a customer adds an item to their cart, but doesn't complete the purchase

Cart abandonment rate

The percentage of customers who add a product to their shopping cart and leave the site without completing their purchase

Cell

A position in a spreadsheet with a column and row designation; for example, cell A2 is the unique position in column A and row 2

Change management

Methods, practices, approaches, and processes that organizations take to ensure changes are implemented smoothly

Chatbot

A programmed system that responds to common customer questions

Chronological feed

A social media stream that displays the latest published content first

Click

An interaction with an ad and online user

Click-and-mortar

A type of retail store that sells online as well as in a brick-and-mortar store

Click-to-open rate

The percentage of email recipients who clicked on one or more links in an email

Closed captions

Subtitles that are overlaid on video and can be turned on and off by users

Color contrast ratios

Measures the luminescence (or brightness) of a lighter color against the luminescence of a darker color

Comma-separated values (CSV)

A file format in which a comma is placed between each data value in the file

Competition

The other sellers that exist already in the market

Complaint rate

The percentage of complaints recipients send to mailbox providers about receiving an email

Confidence interval

The range of possible values after accounting for the margin of error

Confidence level

How likely an experiment's range of results would contain all results if the test ran longer; most researchers select a 95% confidence level

Consideration stage

The second stage of the marketing funnel, when a marketer provides customer with more detailed information

Consumer-to-business (C2B)

Refers to when individuals (consumers) sell products or services to businesses (when businesses purchase from consumers)

Consumer-to-consumer (C2C)

Refers to when individuals (consumers) sell products or services to other consumers (when consumers purchase from each other)

Contact page

A common webpage on websites that provides information for visitors to contact the organization or individual hosting the website

Content buckets

Categories to group marketing content

Content marketing

A marketing technique that focuses on creating and distributing valuable content

Continuous metrics

Metrics that are measured and change over time

Conversion

The completion of an activity that contributes to the success of a business

Conversion paths

A feature in Google Analytics that enables a marketer to view the first and last touchpoints before conversion and touchpoints in between

Conversion rate

The percentage of users or website visitors who completed a desired action, such as clicking on a link in an email or purchasing a product

Conversion rate optimization

The process of increasing the percentage of users or website visitors who complete a desired action

Conversion stage

The third stage of the marketing funnel, when a marketer capitalizes on the interest people have already shown

Cookie

A small file stored on devices that tracks user behavior and analyzes traffic

Copy

Any written material that encourages a customer to buy a product or service

Cost per acquisition (CPA)

The average cost of acquiring a potential customer

Cost per action (CPA)

The amount a marketer pays when someone completes a desired action

Cost per click (CPC)

The amount a marketer pays when someone clicks on their ad

Cost per thousand impressions (CPM)

The amount a marketer pays for every 1,000 impressions an ad receives

Cost per view (CPV)

The amount a marketer pays when a viewer watches a video ad for a minimum amount of time or interacts with it, such as when they click a link embedded in the video

Crawlers

Automated software that crawls (fetches) pages from the web and indexes them

Crawling

The process of finding new or updated webpages

Creatives

Any content that can be promoted in a campaign, such as text, images, GIFs, or videos