Deciphering 15 Common Marketing Acronyms

SEO – Search Engine Optimization

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It’s the process of improving your website to increase its visibility for relevant searches. The better visibility your pages have in search results, the more likely you are to garner attention and attract prospective and existing customers to your business.

Video: SEO In 5 Minutes | What Is SEO And How Does It Work | SEO Explained | SEO Tutorial | Simplilearn

PPC – Pay-Per-Click

PPC, or Pay-Per-Click, is a form of internet marketing where the business advertising pays a fee each time one of their ads is clicked on. It is highly effective as research has found that those who click on ads are 50% more likely to make a purchase. The most common form of PPC advertising is paid search engine ads.

CPC – Cost Per Click

Cost Per Click (CPC) refers to the actual price you pay for each click in your pay-per-click (PPC) marketing campaigns. CPC is important because it helps to determine the financial success of your online advertising campaigns.

CPM – Cost Per Thousand Impressions

CPM stands for Cost Per Thousand Impressions, where M denotes the Roman numeral for 1,000. This metric is used to denote the price of 1,000 advertisement impressions on one webpage. If a publisher charges $2.00 CPM, that means an advertiser must pay $2.00 for every 1,000 impressions of their ad.

Video: What Is CPM? Marketing and Advertising CPM Explained For Beginners

CTR – Click-Through Rate

Click-Through Rate (CTR) measures the percentage of people who click on your ad after seeing it. It’s calculated by dividing the number of clicks by the number of impressions and multiplying by 100. A high CTR is an indication that users find your ads helpful and relevant.

ROI – Return on Investment

Return on Investment (ROI) is a performance measure used to evaluate the efficiency of an investment. In marketing, it’s used to measure the profitability of marketing campaigns. It’s calculated by dividing the net profit by the cost of the investment and multiplying by 100.

KPI – Key Performance Indicator

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are measurable values that demonstrate how effectively a company is achieving key business objectives. Organizations use KPIs at multiple levels to evaluate their success at reaching targets. High-level KPIs may focus on overall business performance, while low-level KPIs may focus on processes in departments such as sales, marketing, or customer service.

CPA – Cost Per Acquisition

Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) is a marketing metric that measures the aggregate cost to acquire one paying customer on a campaign or channel level. CPA is determined by dividing the total cost of conversions by the number of conversions.

Video: What is CPA Marketing? CPA Marketing Explained For Beginners

CPL – Cost Per Lead

Cost Per Lead (CPL) is a pricing model where the advertiser pays for an explicit sign-up from a consumer interested in the advertiser’s offer. It’s a common online advertising pricing model used in lead generation campaigns.

CRM – Customer Relationship Management

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) refers to the practices, strategies, and technologies that companies use to manage and analyze customer interactions and data throughout the customer lifecycle. The goal is to improve customer service relationships and assist in customer retention and drive sales growth.

UX – User Experience

User Experience (UX) encompasses all aspects of the end-user’s interaction with the company, its services, and its products. It’s important because it aims to fulfill the user’s needs, ensuring positive experiences that keep customers loyal to the product or brand.

CTA – Call to Action

Call to Action (CTA) is a marketing term for any design to prompt an immediate response or encourage an immediate sale. A CTA most often refers to the use of words or phrases that can be incorporated into sales scripts, advertising messages, or web pages to compel the audience to act in a specific way.

Video: What is a CTA? Advertising and Marketing CTAs Explained For Beginners

SEM – Search Engine Marketing

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is the practice of marketing a business using paid advertisements that appear on search engine results pages. Advertisers bid on keywords that users of services such as Google might enter when looking for certain products or services, which gives the advertiser the opportunity for their ads to appear alongside results for those search queries.

SMM – Social Media Marketing

Social Media Marketing (SMM) is the use of social media platforms and websites to promote a product or service. Although the terms e-marketing and digital marketing are still dominant in academia, social media marketing is becoming more popular for both practitioners and researchers.

Your Digital Marketing Lexicon

Understanding these acronyms is essential for anyone involved in digital marketing. They are the building blocks of communication within the industry. With the help of the above, you should now be fully on top of your digital marketing lexicon.