Digital Marketing Glossary, our top 100 terms to know..

This blog post serves as your ultimate guide to navigating the complex landscape of digital marketing with a meticulously curated glossary of 100 essential terms. Whether you’re a seasoned marketer or just starting out, this comprehensive glossary will empower you to decode industry jargon, optimize your strategies, and achieve success in the digital realm.

1. 404: A 404 error is a standard HTTP response code indicating that a requested webpage could not be found on the server. It occurs when a user attempts to access a page that no longer exists or has been moved. 
2. 301 Redirect: A 301 redirect is a permanent redirection from one URL to another. It is used to inform search engines and users that a web page or content has moved permanently to a new location. 
3. A/B Test (Split Test): Comparing two versions of a webpage, ad, or content to understand which version performs better and achieves higher engagement or conversion rates.
4. Add to Cart: The action taken by users on an e-commerce website when they select items they want to purchase and place them in their online shopping cart for checkout.
5. Ad recall (Facebook): A metric that estimates the number of users who remember seeing your ad within a specific time frame, indicating its effectiveness in leaving a lasting impression.

   

6. Ad Sets (Facebook): Groups of ads within a Facebook advertising campaign that share the same target audience, budget, schedule, and placement settings to achieve specific objectives.
7. Always On (Marketing): A continuous and ongoing marketing strategy that ensures a consistent brand presence across various digital channels to maintain audience engagement and visibility.
8. Alt Text: Alt text, short for “alternative text,” is a descriptive text attribute added to an HTML image tag. It provides a textual description of an image’s content for users who cannot see the image, such as those using screen readers or when the image fails to load.
9. Anchor Text: The clickable text within a hyperlink that provides context and describes the content of the linked page, aiding users and search engines in understanding the link’s purpose.
10. Attribution: The process of assigning credit to different touchpoints or interactions in a user’s journey that contribute to a desired action, helping marketers understand the effectiveness of each channel.

    

11. Audience behavior (Facebook): Actions and interactions that users take on Facebook, such as likes, shares, clicks, comments, and engagement with specific types of content or ads.
12. Audience interest (Facebook): The preferences, behaviors, and topics that users engage with on Facebook, enabling advertisers to target specific segments based on demonstrated interests and engagement.
13. B2B (Business-to-Business): Business transactions involving the sale of products or services from one business to another, typically within the context of supply chains, partnerships, or collaborations.
14. B2C (Business-to-Consumer): Business transactions where products or services are sold directly from a company to individual consumers, often through online retail or e-commerce platforms.
15. Backlinks (Inbound Links): Links from external websites that direct users to your website, signaling to search engines that your content is valuable and authoritative, which can positively impact search rankings.

    

16. Black Hat (SEO): Unethical and manipulative SEO practices that violate search engine guidelines, often leading to penalties or de-indexing due to tactics such as keyword stuffing, cloaking, or link schemes.
17. Blog: An online publication where individuals, businesses, or organizations regularly share articles, insights, opinions, or information related to specific topics, engaging readers and building authority.
18. Blog Outreach: Collaborating with bloggers or website owners to publish content on their platforms, often to gain exposure, acquire backlinks, and expand reach within relevant audiences.
19. Bounce Rate: The percentage of visitors who leave a website after viewing only one page, which can indicate lack of engagement or relevance, influencing overall user experience.
20. Broad Match: A keyword matching option in paid search advertising where ads are displayed for a wide range of search queries related to the specified keyword, allowing for broader reach.

    

21. Broken Link: A broken link is a hyperlink that points to a webpage or resource that no longer exists or cannot be accessed. When users click on a broken link, they are typically directed to an error page, such as a 404 error page, indicating that the content cannot be found.
22. Breadcrumb (Navigation): Breadcrumbs are a type of navigation aid displayed on a website that shows the hierarchical path from the homepage to the current page. They provide users with a clear visual representation of their location within the site’s structure, making it easier for them to navigate and backtrack through different sections or levels.
23. Bumper (YouTube): A brief and non-skippable video ad format on YouTube that is limited to a short duration, often used to convey a concise message to viewers.
24. Campaign Objective (Facebook): A specific goal set for a Facebook advertising campaign, such as brand awareness, website traffic, conversions, or engagement, guiding the strategy and metrics of success.
25. Crawl (Website): Crawling is the process where search engine bots, also known as crawlers or spiders, systematically navigate through web pages to discover and analyze content.

    

26. Canonical Tag: canonical tag (rel=canonical) in HTML signals the preferred version of a webpage among duplicates, aiding search engines in showing the right content and avoiding duplicate content penalties.
27. Captions (Facebook): Text accompanying images or videos in Facebook posts and ads, enhancing content accessibility and engagement by providing additional context or information.
28. Cache: Cache refers to a temporary storage location where data is stored for quick retrieval.
29. CDN (Content Delivery Network): A Content Delivery Network is a network of servers strategically distributed across various geographic locations.
30. Check Out: The final step in an online shopping process where users review their selected items and proceed to complete the purchase, providing necessary information for payment and delivery.
31. CPC (Cost-Per-Click): The amount an advertiser pays each time a user clicks on their ad, providing a measure of the cost-effectiveness of a specific campaign or keyword.

    

32. CPAS (Collaborative Performance Advertising Solution): enables advertisers to integrate their advertising accounts (such as Google and Facebook) with their marketplace shops (such as Shopee and Lazada).
33. CPM (Cost-Per-Thousand Impressions): The cost an advertiser pays for every one thousand times their ad is displayed to users, providing insights into the cost of visibility and exposure.
34. CPL (Cost-Per-Lead): The cost associated with acquiring a lead, often calculated by dividing the total campaign cost by the number of leads generated, helping measure lead generation expenses.
35. CPV (Cost-Per-View): The cost an advertiser pays each time a user views a video ad, typically used in video advertising campaigns on platforms like YouTube.
36. CRM (Customer Relationship Management): Strategies, practices, and technologies used by businesses to manage and analyze interactions with customers, fostering stronger relationships and improving customer satisfaction.
37. Cross-Device: The ability to track and analyze user behavior and interactions across multiple devices, allowing marketers to gain a comprehensive view of user journeys.
38. CTR (Click-Through Rate): The percentage of users who click on an ad after seeing it, serving as a key performance indicator to assess the relevance and appeal of ad content.
39. CTA (Call-to-Action): A specific prompt or instruction designed to encourage users to take a desired action, such as clicking a button, signing up, or making a purchase.
40. Demographics: Characteristics that define a specific group of people, such as age, gender, location, income, education, and other key attributes used for targeting and segmenting audiences.

    

41. Dynamic Ads: Personalized advertisements that automatically adjust content, such as images or product recommendations, based on user data, providing tailored messaging to individual users.
42. Dynamic Remarketing: An advertising strategy that targets users with ads featuring specific products or content they previously interacted with on a website, encouraging them to revisit and complete a desired action.
43. Earned Media: Publicity and exposure generated through organic means, such as word-of-mouth, social sharing, press coverage, or customer testimonials, contributing to brand awareness and credibility.
44. Exact Match: A keyword matching option in search advertising that displays ads only for the exact keyword or phrase entered by users, ensuring precise targeting and relevancy.
45. Evergreen Content: Timeless and enduring content that remains relevant and valuable to users over an extended period, attracting consistent traffic and engagement over time.
46. Facebook Pixel: A Facebook Pixel is a code snippet placed on your website that tracks user interactions, helping you measure and optimize the effectiveness of your Facebook advertising campaigns. It enables you to gather data on actions taken by users and target specific audiences.
47. Frequency: The number of times an individual user is exposed to an ad within a specific time frame, influencing ad recall and potential conversion rates.
48. GA4 (Google Analytics 4): The latest version of Google’s web analytics platform, offering advanced tracking and insights into user behavior, interactions, and website performance.
49. GDN (Google Display Network): A collection of websites, apps, and video platforms that display ads through Google Ads, providing advertisers with a wide-reaching and diverse audience.
50. Google My Business (GMB): Google My Business is a free tool that allows businesses to create and manage their online presence on Google. It includes information such as business hours, location, reviews, and enables customers to find and engage with your business.

    

51. Google Shopping: An online platform that showcases product listings directly within Google search results, allowing users to explore and purchase products without leaving the search engine.
52. GSC (Google Search Console): Google Search Console is a free web service provided by Google that allows website owners and webmasters to monitor and manage their site’s presence in Google search results. 
53. Goals (Analytics): Specific user actions or interactions that are tracked and measured within analytics platforms to assess the effectiveness of a website or marketing campaign.
54. H1 (Heading 1): An H1 tag is an HTML element used to define the main heading or title of a web page. It represents the highest level of heading and is typically the most prominent text on the page.
55. H2 (Heading 2): An H2 tag is an HTML element used to define subheadings within a web page. It follows the H1 tag in the hierarchy and provides a way to organize and structure content into meaningful sections.
56. Host (Website Hosting): A service that allows a website to be accessible on the internet, providing the necessary infrastructure, storage, and resources to keep the website operational and accessible to users.
57. Hreflang Tag: The hreflang tag is an HTML attribute used to indicate the language and regional targeting of a web page. It helps search engines understand which version of a page to display to users based on their language and location preferences. 
58. IG (Instagram): Abbreviation for Instagram, a popular visual social media platform where users share photos, videos, stories, and engage with content from other users.
59. Impression: An impression refers to each instance of an ad or content being displayed to a user on a webpage, regardless of whether the user interacts with it.

    

60. IS (Impression Share): The percentage of times an ad is shown to users relative to the total number of opportunities for the ad to be displayed, providing insights into visibility and ad reach.
61. Internal Link: An internal link is a hyperlink that connects one page of a website to another page within the same website. Internal links are used to guide users to related or relevant content on the same site, providing a seamless navigation experience.
62. Keywords: A specific term or phrase used in online advertising and SEO to target and optimize content for relevant search queries made by users.
63. Keyword Mapping: The process of assigning target keywords to specific pages on a website to ensure proper optimization and alignment with user search intent.
64. Landing Page: A dedicated web page designed to receive and convert traffic from specific marketing campaigns or promotions, often focused on a single call-to-action.
65. LINE Ads: Advertising on the LINE messaging app, a popular platform for messaging, social networking, and content sharing, widely used in Asian markets.
66. Local SEO: The practice of optimizing a website or online presence to improve visibility and rankings in local search results, particularly important for businesses targeting local customers.
67. Lookalike: A targeting strategy that identifies and targets users who share similar characteristics, behaviors, and interests with an existing audience, increasing the likelihood of engagement and conversion.
68. Masthead (YouTube): A premium ad format on YouTube that appears at the top of the YouTube homepage, providing high visibility and reach to a wide audience.

    

69. Mobile-Friendly: A website is considered mobile-friendly when its design, layout, and functionality are optimized for a seamless user experience on mobile devices.
70. Meta Description: A meta description is a brief summary or snippet of text that describes the content of a web page. It is often displayed in search engine results below the page title and URL.
71. Meta Tag: A meta tag is a snippet of HTML code that provides metadata about a web page’s content to search engines and browsers. Meta tags include information such as the page title, description, author, and keywords.
72. Mobile Indexing: The practice of search engines prioritizing and indexing the mobile version of a website’s content to ensure that it is properly ranked and displayed in mobile search results.

    

73. Outbound Clicks: Clicks on links that direct users away from a webpage to another destination, often indicating user engagement and interest in exploring additional content.
74. Owned Media: Digital assets and content that a business has complete control over, such as a website, blog, social media profiles, and other online properties.
75. Orphan Page: An orphan page is a web page on a website that is not linked from any other pages within the site. Orphan pages are not easily discoverable by users or search engines, which can impact their visibility and accessibility.
76. Page Title: The page title, also known as the title tag, is an HTML element that specifies the title of a web page.
77. PDPA (Personal Data Protection Act): A legal framework that governs the collection, use, and protection of personal data, ensuring the privacy and rights of individuals in data handling and processing.
78. Phrase Match: A keyword matching option in search advertising that displays ads for search queries containing the specified keyword or phrase, providing a balance between broad reach and precision.
79. PPC (Pay-Per-Click): A digital advertising model where advertisers pay a fee each time a user clicks on their ad, commonly used in search engine advertising and paid social media campaigns.
80. Programmatic: The automated process of buying and displaying digital ads through software and algorithms, optimizing targeting and placements based on real-time data.
81. PBN (Private Blog Network): A network of interconnected websites created for the purpose of building backlinks to a single website, often considered a black hat SEO tactic.
82. Reach: The number of unique users exposed to an ad or content within a specific time frame, indicating the potential audience size and visibility of a campaign.
83. Remarketing: A marketing strategy that targets users who have previously interacted with a website or content, displaying relevant ads to encourage them to revisit and engage further.

    

84. ROAS (Return On Ad Spend): A metric that calculates the revenue generated from advertising relative to the cost of the ads, providing insights into the profitability and effectiveness of specific campaigns.
85. ROI (Return On Investment): A performance metric that measures the profitability of an investment by comparing the gain or return from the investment to its cost.
86. Search Query: The specific term or phrase that users enter into a search engine when seeking information, products, or services, influencing search engine results and ad targeting.
87. Sitemap (HTML): An HTML sitemap is a web page on a website that provides an organized and hierarchical list of links to various pages within the site.
88. Sitemap (XML): An XML sitemap is a structured file that provides search engines with a comprehensive list of all the pages and content on a website.
89. SEO (Search Engine Optimization): The practice of optimizing a website’s content, structure, and technical elements to improve its visibility in search engine results, ultimately increasing organic (unpaid) traffic.
90. SERP (Search Engine Results Page): The page displayed by a search engine in response to a user’s search query, containing a list of relevant organic and paid results.
91. Semantic Search: A search engine’s ability to understand the context, intent, and meaning behind a user’s search query, delivering more relevant and accurate search results.
92. Story (Facebook/IG): Short-lived and immersive content formats on platforms like Facebook and Instagram that allow users to share photos, videos, and updates in a visually engaging way.

    

93. Subdomain: A subdomain is a division of a main domain name that is used to organize and categorize content within a website.
94. Subfolder: A subfolder, also known as a subdirectory, is a directory or folder located within the main directory of a website. Subfolders are used to organize and group related content together.
95. Tag Manager (Google): A tool provided by Google that allows marketers to manage and deploy various tags, such as tracking codes and scripts, on a website without requiring manual coding.
96. UTM (Urchin Tracking Module): Tags added to URLs to track and measure the performance of online campaigns, providing insights into the sources of traffic and user interactions.
97. View-Through Conversion: A conversion event that occurs when a user views an ad but does not immediately click on it; instead, they convert at a later time after being influenced by the ad.
98. Viewable CPM: A pricing model where advertisers pay for every one thousand viewable ad impressions, ensuring that ads are actually seen by users.
99. Viewable CTR: The click-through rate calculated based on viewable ad impressions, providing insights into the effectiveness of ad content and placement.
100. White Hat (SEO): Ethical and legitimate SEO practices that align with search engine guidelines and focus on providing value to users, promoting sustainable and long-term results.

So that concludes our blog on the top 100 terms around Digital Marketing, please feel free to let us know if we’ve missed anything and as always we’ll try to keep this blog updated with the latest tools and trends.

About the author

As the managing partner for Phoenix Media, Rob brings over 10 years’ experience in digital marketing and running successful agencies in the UK, Australia and Thailand. Starting in a sales role he has covered all aspects of the agency from sales and service to technical ad operations. Reach him directly on rob@phoenixmedia.co.th