Marketing Acronyms
Unabbreviated Phrases and Definitions
A - Marketing Acronyms
ABM
Account-Based Marketing - A B2B strategy that focuses resources on a specific list of high-value target accounts.
AIDA
Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action - A marketing model that outlines the steps a customer takes during the purchasing process.
AMA
- Ask Me Anything - A term used for interactive Q&A sessions.
- American Marketing Association - A professional organization providing resources, training, and networking for marketers.
AOV
Average Order Value - The average amount spent per order, calculated as total revenue divided by the number of orders.
ARR
Annual Recurring Revenue - A metric used by subscription-based businesses to estimate yearly revenue, commonly in SaaS models.
B - Marketing Acronyms
B2B
Business-to-Business - Businesses that offer their products or services to other businesses.
B2C
Business-to-Consumer - Businesses that offer their products or services to consumers.
BOF
Bottom of Funnel - In a funnel model, content that is created for the purchase decision-making phase of the customer journey. The other two funnel phases are TOF (Top of Funnel) and MOF (Middle of Funnel).
BR
Bounce Rate - A term that, when applied to your website, refers to the percentage of visitors who arrive on your website then depart from the same landing page. In email marketing, BR refers to the percentage of emails you send in a campaign that are unable to be delivered, divided by the total number of emails sent.
BTT
Back to Top - It seemed appropriate to turn our Acronym's page 'back to top' link into an acronym. Yes, we are nerds. Good for you for checking the 'B' section.
C - Marketing Acronyms
CAC
Customer Acquisition Cost - A metric used to express the average cost to gain a new customer, calculated as total marketing and sales cost divided by the number of new customers during a time period.
CBM
Consent-Based Marketing - CBM is the practice of only contacting prospects who have given prior express consent. Consent can only be given through an implicit action. General website use, downloading a white paper, or signing up for a newsletter does not constitute consent for all forms of marketing communication. Another term for this is "Permission Marketing," coined by Seth Godin.
CDP
Customer Data Platform - A CDP is software, typically SaaS, that collects customer data from multiple touchpoints. It acts as a central database of customer master data, with other marketing, operations, and accounting systems sourcing data from it.
CMS
Content Management System - A web application designed to help non-technical users create, edit, and manage a website, handling content organization, indexing, navigation, and user permissions.
CPA
Cost Per Acquisition - A metric that measures the total cost of customers taking an action leading to conversion, calculated as total campaign costs divided by the number of conversions.
CPC
Cost Per Click - The average cost per ad click, calculated as total media cost divided by the number of clicks.
CPG
Consumer Packaged Goods - Physical products marketed and sold to consumers, often requiring unique branding and distribution strategies.
CPL
Cost Per Lead - The cost to acquire a lead, which factors into customer acquisition cost (CAC).
CPM
Cost Per Mille - The cost per 1,000 ad impressions, primarily used in brand awareness campaigns and programmatic advertising.
CR
Conversion Rate - The percentage of people who complete a desired action due to a marketing program.
CRO
Conversion Rate Optimization - The process of improving lead generation and revenue efficiency through targeted strategies.
CRM
Customer Relationship Management - A sales and marketing platform that tracks interactions between prospects, customers, and a company.
CSS
Cascading Style Sheet - A style sheet language used to define the appearance of website content.
CTA
Call To Action - A prompt encouraging users to take immediate action, such as "Learn More" or "Register Now."
CTR
Click Through Rate - The percentage of users who clicked on an ad after seeing it, calculated as clicks divided by impressions.
CX
Customer Experience - The overall interactions between a company and a customer throughout their relationship.
D - Marketing Acronyms
DA
Domain Authority - A search engine ranking score that forecasts a page’s ability to rank in search results. Scores range between 1 and 100. Note that search engines primarily rely on Page Rank (PR), so DA is a lesser measure of ranking ability.
DM
- Direct Mail - Printed marketing materials such as postcards, brochures, flyers, and catalogs that are sent to prospects and customers by mail.
- Direct Message - A private message sent directly from one account to another on a social media platform.
DNS
Domain Name Server - A system that controls your domain name’s website and email settings. These settings are typically managed through a CPanel on your domain host's servers (e.g., GoDaddy, Squarespace, WPEngine).
E - Marketing Acronyms
ESP
- Emotional Selling Proposition - A sales pitch designed to appeal to prospects on an emotional level (limbic resonance) rather than a rational level (neocortex).
- Email Service Provider - A company that offers email marketing or bulk mail services (e.g., Gmail, MailChimp, Zoho, Constant Contact).
F - Marketing Acronyms
FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions - A list of questions with answers on a specific topic intended to help prospects and customers quickly find information. In many cases, FAQs are used to position or sell concepts or serve as a first point of contact for customer service, which is not always ideal.
GA
Google Analytics - Google's platform for tracking and reporting a website's user activity and performance.
GAD
Google Ads - Google's advertising platform that allows you to run ads appearing in search results, on YouTube, in apps, and across a network of partner websites.
GRP
Gross Rating Point - A measurement of advertising effectiveness across media channels. GRP is calculated as Reach (% of audience reached) × Frequency (number of ad impressions to the target audience).
G - Marketing Acronyms
I - Marketing Acronyms
IBL
Inbound Link - A term used in SEO to describe a link from a third-party website to content on your website, also known as a backlink.
ICP
Ideal Customer Profile - The firmographic, environmental, and psychographic attributes of a company's ideal account(s) or client(s).
L - Marketing Acronyms
LRUX
Limbic Resonant User Experience - LRUX is the theory that by using human-centered design methodologies when building or marketing a product, it can manifest limbic resonance with users, which in turn has the potential to create behaviors, build lifetime relationships, and increase advocacy. This is the underlying theory of UX design.
LTV
Lifetime Value - The value that a customer brings over the span of their relationship with your brand, a critical KPI for Brand Marketing and Growth Marketing.
LP
Landing Page - A page on your website or a third-party landing page SaaS platform that is created for a specific purpose, such as gathering leads or making an offer. LPs are typically used with paid media or paid social campaigns.
MTD
Month to Date - The period from the start of the current month to the current date, often used in reporting to illustrate progress made during the current month. This is comparable in function to YOY.
MOF
Middle of Funnel - A term used to describe content created for the consideration stage, between brand awareness and purchase stages, or the middle part of the customer journey. The other two funnel phases are TOF (Top of Funnel) and BOF (Bottom of Funnel).
MOM
Month Over Month - A comparison of the current month's data to the previous month's data. Used for short-term engagement and when less than a year's worth of data is available. Once a year of data is accumulated, reports typically use YOY for data comparisons.
MQL
Marketing Qualified Lead - A lead generated by marketing using a qualifier such as a whitepaper download, webinar registration, or other conversion method that indicates the lead is in a targeted audience. Once a lead is qualified by marketing, it is passed to the sales team to be qualified as an opportunity or SQL (Sales Qualified Lead).
MRR
Monthly Recurring Revenue - The amount of revenue a subscription-based business receives per month. Includes MRR gained by new accounts (net new), MRR gained from upsells (net positive), MRR lost from downsells (net negative), and MRR lost from cancellations (net loss).
M - Marketing Acronyms
N - Marketing Acronyms
NPS
Net Promoter Score - A survey-based customer satisfaction metric that measures, on a scale of 0-10, the likelihood that an audience would recommend your business.
O - Marketing Acronyms
OBL
Outbound Link - A link from your website to a third-party website. Examples include links to your social media pages, your YouTube channel, and resources on other websites.
OKR
Objectives and Key Results - Objectives are goals, while Key Results are scheduled, measurable milestones under each goal, assigned to team members or teams and tracked for progress toward the overarching goal. They are typically done quarterly, which is called an “OKR Cycle.”
P - Marketing Acronyms
PPC
Pay Per Click - An online advertising payment method where the advertiser incurs a cost every time a person clicks on the advertiser's ad. This is the most popular method of ad payment on paid media platforms. PPC is related to CPC.
PR
Page Rank - A value assigned by Google to a webpage that determines, in part, where the webpage appears in search results for specific keywords.
PV
Page View - The metric used by website analytics platforms to describe the loading of a single web page.
Q - Marketing Acronyms
Q&A
Questions & Answers - A type of interview format or a format used on a website to provide information to prospects and clients, similar to FAQs.
QA
Quality Assurance - The process of testing, issue identification, and resolution for a product or service before it is released for sale and/or distribution.
QR (Code)
Quick Response (Code) - A machine-readable code used for storing URLs or other information. Typically used to provide additional online information for brands, products, services, and events.
R - Marketing Acronyms
ROAS
Return On Ad Spend - A metric that indicates the performance of a digital marketing campaign. ROAS is calculated by dividing revenue by media spend and is expressed as a ratio (e.g., 3.5:1), indicating how many dollars were earned for each dollar spent.
ROI
Return On Investment - A metric that indicates the performance of a campaign based on total investment during a specific period. This can include costs from digital marketing, traditional marketing, and sales.
S - Marketing Acronyms
SaaS
Software as a Service - Any software that is hosted by another company, which stores your information in the cloud. Examples include Google Analytics, Google Ads, Salesforce, Hubspot, and online martech platforms.
SAM
Serviceable Available Market - The segment of the TAM targeted by your products and services within your geographical reach. The other two market subsets are TAM (Total Available Market) and SOM (Serviceable Obtainable Market). The subset model is as follows: (TAM → SAM → SOM).
SDR
Sales Development Rep - A member of an inside sales team who determines if an MQL has simple "interest" or purchase "intent."
SEM
Search Engine Marketing - A strategy that helps to target users via paid advertising that appears on search engine results pages (SERPs).
SEO
Search Engine Optimization - A systematic approach to aligning content creation and technical aspects of your website with Google's best practices to help your web pages rank higher on the SERP for relevant search queries. SEO is critical for every website that builds brand presence, connects, and sells.
SERP
Search Engine Results Page - The page of paid and organic results that loads after a person enters a search query by typing or speaking.
SMB
Small to Medium Business - Typically companies that have between 10 and 500 employees.
SMM
Social Media Marketing - Activity on a social platform, including free posts, stories, videos, and paid social ads designed to build brand awareness, promote action, or build a community.
SOM
Serviceable Obtainable Market - The portion of SAM that you can capture. The other two market subsets are TAM (Total Available Market) and SAM (Serviceable Available Market). The subset model is as follows: (TAM → SAM → SOM).
SOV
Share of Voice - A measure of the market your brand owns compared to your competitors. It acts as a gauge for your brand visibility and how much you dominate the conversation in your industry.
SQL
Sales Qualified Lead - A lead that has been passed from marketing to sales and further qualified by an SDR.
SWOT
Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats - A SWOT analysis helps a company identify internal strengths and weaknesses and external opportunities and threats. The goal is to generate a plan containing the most important action items required to address these areas.
T - Marketing Acronyms
TAM
Total Available Market - A term that refers to the total market demand for a product or service. The other two market subsets are SAM (Serviceable Available Market) and SOM (Serviceable Obtainable Market). The subset model is as follows: (TAM → SAM → SOM).
TOF
Top of Funnel - A term that refers to marketing activities that create brand awareness and utility for your target audience. This is critical for establishing brand resonance at the start of the engagement process. The other two funnel phases are MOF (Middle of Funnel) and BOF (Bottom of Funnel).
UGC
User Generated Content - Content that is written or visual content created by your product or service users, including testimonials, blog posts, social media posts, fan sites, images, videos, and more.
USP
Unique Selling Proposition - A communication that focuses on how your product or service is different and better than your competitors' offerings. The focus can be on price, quality, speed, efficiency, or another factor that is important to your target audience.
UV
Unique Visitor - The number of individuals requesting pages from the website during a given period of time.
UX
User Experience - The cumulative effect of all customer touchpoints from the perspective of the consumer. In the software/SaaS space, this refers more narrowly to design considerations that optimize the experience of a software user. UX design relies upon LRUX for meaningful, lasting, and profitable connections.
U - Marketing Acronyms
V - Marketing Acronyms
VOD
Video On Demand - Video content made available to an audience at any time. Examples include video content on web platforms such as YouTube, Vimeo, Netflix, and Hulu, as well as content from cable providers available by special login.
W - Marketing Acronyms
WYSIWYG
What You See Is What You Get - A term mainly used to describe website builder platforms that allow you to create content using a simple drag-and-drop visual interface. Examples include Squarespace, Wix, and Weebly.
WOM
Word of Mouth - A term referring to free promotion shared organically by satisfied customers. This can be completely organic or solicited by a company with a seed message to share.
X - Marketing Acronyms
XML
eXtensible Markup Language - A set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable. Uses include website sitemaps, online platform configuration files, and RSS feeds for blogs, vlogs, podcasts, and more.
Z - Marketing Acronyms
What the Zed?
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