The growth marketing glossary

ROAS

Return on ad spend - revenue generated per rupee/dollar spent on ads.

CAC

Customer acquisition cost - the full cost to win one new customer.

CPA

Cost per action - what you pay for one conversion event.

CPL

Cost per lead - the acquisition cost of one inbound lead.

CTR

Click-through rate - the share of viewers who click your ad.

CPC

Cost per click - what each ad click costs you.

CPM

Cost per thousand impressions - the price of attention.

Retargeting

Showing ads to people who already visited, viewed or abandoned.

Lookalike Audience

Meta's modeling that finds new people similar to your best customers.

Advantage+

Meta's automated campaign type that hands targeting and mix to the algorithm.

Quality Score

Google's 1-10 rating of ad relevance and landing experience.

Search Intent

The real goal behind a search query - informational, navigational or transactional.

Geo-targeting

Restricting or weighting ad delivery by location.

Frequency

How often the same person sees your ad - the fatigue dial.

LinkedIn Ads

Professional-targeting ads for B2B pipeline, not impressions.

Ad Rank

Google's scoring formula that decides your ad position and cost per click.

Impression Share

The percentage of available auctions where your ad actually showed.

Broad Match

Keyword matching that lets Google show ads for related searches it deems relevant.

Exact Match

Keyword matching restricted to the precise query (plus close variants).

Negative Keywords

Searches you explicitly block so ads never show for them.

Performance Max

Google's all-inventory campaign type that optimizes across Search, Display, YouTube, Gmail and Maps.

Bid Strategy

The automation rule deciding how much you pay per auction.

Dayparting

Scheduling ads to run only during hours or days that convert.

Creative Fatigue

The performance decay when audiences see the same ad too often.

Hook Rate

The percentage of viewers who stop scrolling on your video's first three seconds.

Thumb-Stop Rate

How effectively an ad interrupts passive scrolling in the first moment.

View-Through Conversion

A conversion credited after someone saw (not clicked) an ad earlier.

Attribution Window

How long after touching an ad a conversion can still be credited to it.

Incrementality Test

An experiment measuring what your ads caused versus what would have happened anyway.

Geo Lift Test

An incrementality experiment using matched geographic regions as test and control.

Brand Lift Study

Survey-based measurement of how ads moved awareness, consideration and intent.

UGC Ads

Ads produced to look like everyday user content rather than studio commercials.

Whitelisting

Running paid media through a creator's handle with their permission.

Spark Ads

TikTok's format boosting organic posts - native feel with paid distribution.

Catalog Sales Campaigns

Automated product-ad campaigns powered by your merchandise feed.

SEO

Search engine optimization - earning organic visibility in search results.

E-E-A-T

Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trust - Google's quality lens.

Domain Authority

A 0-100 estimate of a site's ranking strength (Moz metric; similar: DR by Ahrefs).

Backlinks

Links from other sites to yours - the original currency of authority.

Technical SEO

The crawl, index, speed and structure layer search engines require.

Core Web Vitals

Google's speed/stability metrics: LCP, INP, CLS.

Local SEO

Winning map-pack and near-me visibility for physical businesses.

Google Business Profile

The listing that powers maps, local pack and direct calls.

Topical Authority

Depth of coverage that makes you the source on a topic, not a page.

Schema Markup

Structured data that tells machines exactly what your content is.

Canonical Tag

A signal telling search engines which version of duplicate content is the primary one.

Hreflang

Markup telling search engines which language and region each page version serves.

Largest Contentful Paint

How long the biggest visible element takes to render - Google's speed headline metric.

Cumulative Layout Shift

How much page elements jump around during loading.

Interaction to Next Paint

How fast the page responds when users tap, click or type.

Featured Snippet

The answer box Google lifts onto the top of results - position zero.

AI Overviews

Google's AI-generated answers summarizing sources above traditional results.

LLMS.txt

A markdown file guiding AI models to your best content and key facts.

Crawl Budget

How many pages Googlebot will fetch from your site in a given period.

Index Bloat

Low-value pages occupying Google's index and diluting site quality.

Redirect Chain

A URL bouncing through multiple hops before reaching its destination.

Orphan Page

A published page no internal link points to.

Thin Content

Pages offering little unique value - duplicated, shallow or scraped material.

Doorway Pages

Near-duplicate pages generated to capture many keyword permutations.

Keyword Cannibalization

Multiple own-site pages competing for the same query and splitting rankings.

Long-Tail Keyword

Specific, lower-volume searches with clearer intent and less competition.

Search Volume

Monthly estimate of how often a keyword gets searched.

Keyword Difficulty

An estimate of how hard ranking for a keyword will be.

SERP Features

Non-standard results on Google - snippets, PAA boxes, maps, videos, shopping units.

Zero-Click Search

Searches ending without any click because Google answered on the results page.

Programmatic SEO

Publishing many structured pages from data templates to cover query space systematically.

Internal Linking

Links between your own pages that route authority and define site structure.

Anchor Text

The clickable words of a hyperlink describing the destination.

Link Building

Earning hyperlinks from other websites to yours.

Digital PR

Earning media coverage and links through newsworthy stories and expert commentary.

Log File Analysis

Studying server logs to see exactly how search bots crawl your site.

Site Architecture

How pages are organized, nested and connected across the site.

Image SEO

Optimizing images for search visibility and load performance.

Title Tag

The clickable headline of a search result and a primary ranking signal.

Lifecycle Marketing

Messaging systems mapped to where a customer is - not calendar blasts.

Email Flow

Triggered email sequences that fire on behavior, not schedules.

WhatsApp Marketing

The 98%-open-rate channel - broadcasts, flows and commerce in chat.

RFM Segmentation

Segmenting customers by Recency, Frequency, Monetary value.

Segmentation

Splitting your audience by behavior, value or traits - and messaging accordingly.

Opt-in

Explicit consent to be messaged - the license for every lifecycle channel.

Drip Campaign

A time-based message sequence that 'drips' education or offers over days.

Winback

Campaigns that reactivate customers who stopped buying.

Churn

The rate at which customers or subscribers stop being customers.

Retention

The share of customers who come back and buy again.

Personalization

Adapting messages, offers and pages to the individual's behavior.

Double Opt-In

Confirming subscribers via a verification email before adding them to lists.

Hard Bounce

An email permanently undeliverable - invalid or deleted mailbox.

Soft Bounce

A temporary delivery failure - full mailbox, server down, size limits.

Spam Complaints

Recipients marking your email as spam - the heaviest reputation penalty.

DMARC

Email authentication policy preventing spoofing of your domain.

DKIM & SPF

DNS records cryptographically proving emails originate from your systems.

Email Deliverability

Whether emails reach the inbox, spam folder or nowhere at all.

Preference Center

A page letting subscribers choose topics and frequency instead of unsubscribing entirely.

Sunset Policy

Automatically removing subscribers who ignore emails for a defined period.

Transactional Email

Service-triggered messages - receipts, shipping notices, password resets.

SMS Marketing

Direct text messaging for time-sensitive offers and operational updates.

Push Notifications

App or browser alerts re-engaging users without email or SMS.

Onboarding Flow

The guided sequence moving new users or buyers to first success.

Loyalty Program

Structured rewards increasing repeat purchase frequency and lifetime value.

Net Revenue Retention

Revenue retained from a cohort including expansion, excluding new customers.

LTV

Lifetime value - total profit a customer generates across the relationship.

MER

Marketing efficiency ratio - total revenue / total ad spend, no attribution.

Attribution

Assigning credit for a sale across the touchpoints that produced it.

Conversion Rate

The share of visitors who take the action you built the page for.

CRO

Conversion rate optimization - systematic testing to raise conversion.

A/B Testing

Splitting traffic between variants to prove which performs better.

Creative Testing

Batch-testing ad creative to find winners fast.

KPI Dashboard

One live page with the numbers that decide decisions.

Payback Period

How many months until a customer's profit repays their acquisition cost.

Unit Economics

The per-customer profit math: margins, CAC, LTV, payback.

First-party Data

Data customers give you directly - the post-cookie advertising asset.

Net Promoter Score

A loyalty survey scoring willingness to recommend on a 0-10 scale.

CSAT

Customer Satisfaction score from post-interaction ratings.

Customer Journey Map

A visual model of every stage buyers pass through, with emotions and friction points.

Bounce Rate

Sessions ending without meaningful interaction beyond the landing page.

Exit Rate

The percentage of visitors whose journey on your site ended at a given page.

Event Tracking

Instrumenting specific user actions - clicks, scrolls, plays, form steps - as measurable events.

UTM Parameters

URL tags labeling traffic sources so analytics attributes sessions correctly.

Cohort Analysis

Tracking groups acquired in the same period to reveal true trends underneath totals.

Statistical Significance

Confidence that a test result reflects reality rather than randomness.

Sample Size

How many observations a test needs before results mean anything.

Multi-Touch Attribution

Models distributing conversion credit across every touchpoint in the journey.

Blended CAC

Total acquisition cost divided by new customers across every channel combined.

Server-Side Tracking

Routing analytics through your own server instead of browser scripts.

Data Layer

A structured JavaScript object feeding consistent event data to tracking tools.

Direct Traffic

Sessions arriving without detectable referrer - typed URLs, bookmarks, dark sharing.

Branded Search Volume

How often people search your brand name - the purest demand signal.

Pipeline Velocity

Revenue-generating speed: opportunities x win rate x deal value / cycle length.

Win Rate

Percentage of qualified opportunities that become customers.

Sales Cycle Length

Average days from first meaningful contact to closed deal.

Landing Page

A single-purpose page engineered for one action, free of site navigation.

Message Match

Continuity between the ad's promise and the page's headline.

CTA

Call to action - the single, unmistakable next step you want.

Lead Magnet

A valuable free asset traded for contact details.

Lead Scoring

Ranking leads by fit and intent so sales works the best first.

Lead Nurturing

Systematic follow-up that moves a lead to a decision.

SQL

Sales-qualified lead - a lead vetted as ready for a sales conversation.

B2B Funnel

The multi-stage journey from cold audience to closed contract.

Social Proof

Evidence that others trusted you - reviews, logos, results, numbers.

Urgency & Scarcity

Real time or inventory limits that make deciding-now rational.

Form Abandonment

Users starting forms but leaving before submitting.

Micro Conversion

Small committed actions signaling progress toward the main conversion.

Speed to Lead

Elapsed time between a lead arriving and your first human response.

Exit Intent

Detecting cursor movement toward leaving to trigger a last-moment offer.

Social Login

Signing up via Google, Apple or social accounts instead of passwords.

Checkout Completion Rate

Percentage of checkouts started that finish in successful payment.

Form Friction

Anything in a form making completion harder than necessary.

Trust Signal

Proof elements reducing perceived risk at decision moments.

AOV

Average order value - the mean revenue per order.

Upsell & Cross-sell

Offering a better version (upsell) or complement (cross-sell) at peak intent.

Cart Abandonment

The ~70% of filled carts that never check out - and the flows that save them.

Repeat Purchase Rate

The share of customers who buy a second time.

GMV

Gross merchandise value - total sales before costs and returns.

D2C

Direct-to-consumer - brands selling straight to buyers, owning the relationship.

Marketplace vs D2C

Selling where the traffic is (Amazon, marketplace) vs owning the customer.

Hyperlocal

Serving a tight geographic zone - delivery-radius businesses.

Inventory Turnover

How many times stock sells through and replenishes annually.

Sell-Through Rate

Percentage of received stock sold within a period.

Take Rate

The percentage of transaction value a platform keeps as revenue.

Contribution Margin

Revenue minus variable costs - what each sale contributes to fixed costs and profit.

Gross Margin

Revenue minus cost of goods, before operating expenses.

Net Margin

Final profit after every cost - the percentage that actually becomes yours.

Purchase Frequency

How many orders the average customer places per period.

Discount Depth

How large your price reductions are relative to list price.

Margin vs Markup

Two different percentages describing the same profit - confused constantly.

Break-Even Point

The sales volume where total revenue equals total costs.