Digital Marketing Acronyms and Abbreviations Handbook
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Pathlabs Marketing |
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August 15, 2023 |
As marketing and media professionals, we have all found ourselves in the situation where we hear an acronym or abbreviation and have no idea what it means. It makes our palms sweaty, and our hearts beat a little faster as we are scared to ask for clarification.
To curb this problem, we are introducing Pathlabs’ Digital Marketing Acronyms and Abbreviations Handbook.
This handbook lists 120 of the most common acronyms and abbreviations we use on a daily basis.
Review this handbook at your leisure, or keep it handy during your next meeting to stay ahead of the curve with digital marketing terms.
120 Digital Marketing Acronyms and Abbreviations
Advertising Methods
1. DOOH – Digital Out of Home: DOOH refers to any digital billboard or ad signage experienced outside the home. These digital billboards can field multiple ads played in succession and often include elements like 3D visuals, video, sounds, and interactive features.
2. DSA - Dynamic Search Ads: DSAs are a type of paid search ad on Google. The advertiser provides their website URL, and Google crawls it, taking the page content and generating custom search ads to field to relevant searches.
3. CTV – Connected TV: CTV refers to video devices connected to the internet, enabling access to OTT streaming services and other online content.
4. OOH – Out of Home: Refers to physical billboards or ad signage experienced outside the home. These have more static, non-digital elements compared to DOOH.
5. OTT - Over-the-Top: OTT refers to content, such as TV shows and movies, delivered over the internet directly to users' devices, bypassing traditional cable or satellite TV providers. OTT ads are displayed on various devices like smartphones, tablets, CTVs, and computers.
6. OBA - Online Behavioral Advertising: Targeted advertising that utilizes user's online behavior data to deliver personalized ads.
7. Organic: Serves as a demarcation for things like content, traffic, and marketing methods that marketers don’t pay for to execute or appear. There can be organic search results or organic traffic generated from methods like social media posts and content pieces.
8. Paid: Refers to ad methods where marketers pay to drive performance. These can be in the form of paid search ads, paid display, etc.
9. SEM - Search Engine Marketing: SEM involves utilizing search engine optimization (SEO) and paid search advertising to increase a brand’s visibility on search engine results pages.
10. PPC - Pay-Per-Click: PPC is a digital advertising model where advertisers pay a fee each time their ad is clicked, driving traffic to their website or landing page.
11. PPV - Pay-Per-View: PPV is a model where viewers pay to access specific digital content, such as streaming movies or events.
12. PR - Public Relations: PR involves managing and maintaining an organization's positive public image and communication. Many teams do so through multiple types of digital marketing methods.
13. SMM - Social Media Marketing: SMM uses social media platforms to promote products, services, or content.
14. UGC - User-Generated Content: Any form of content, such as text, images, videos, reviews, testimonials, and social media posts created and shared by individuals not professionally affiliated with a brand or company.
15. WOM - Word-of-Mouth: Refers to the transmission of information between individuals.
“As a new Media Coordinator here at Pathlabs, I have realized how important it is to be up to speed with digital marketing acronyms; keeping a running log has been very helpful.
It has also been important to note that every acronym can have multiple meanings or implications based on the industry and the company that uses it. So, it is always important to double-check with your team to ensure everyone is on the same page.”
Performance and Cost Measurements
16. AOV - Average Order Value: The average amount spent by customers in a single transaction.
17. BR - Bounce Rate: The bounce rate measures the percentage of visitors who leave a website without interacting further after viewing only one page.
18. CAC - Customer Acquisition Cost: Refers to the cost to acquire a new customer.
19. CLTV - Customer Lifetime Value: CLTV predicts the total revenue a customer will generate throughout their relationship with a business.
20. CPA - Cost Per Action: CPA measures the cost of a specific action, such as a purchase or sign-up, within a marketing campaign.
21. CPA - Cost Per Acquisition: Refers to the cost to get a prospect to take an action that leads to a conversion
22. CPC - Cost Per Click: CPC is the amount advertisers pay each time a user clicks on their ad.
23. CPCo - Cost Per Conversion: CPCo measures the average amount spent to acquire a single desired action on a website.
24. CPE - Cost Per Engagement: The cost for each user engagement with an ad or content.
25. CPL - Cost Per Lead: CPL quantifies the cost of acquiring a lead, typically through activities like form submissions or registrations.
26. CPM - Cost Per Mille: CPM measures the cost of reaching one thousand people with an advertisement. It's a standard metric in display advertising.
27. CPV - Cost Per View: The cost for each view of a video ad.
28. CR - Conversion Rate: CR calculates the percentage of users who complete a desired action, such as making a purchase, after interacting with a digital touchpoint.
29. CTR - Click-Through Rate: CTR measures the percentage of users who click on an ad or link after viewing it.
30. DM - Direct Message: A DM is a private message sent on social media platforms or messaging apps. Marketers can use this as a form of engagement tracking.
31. EBR - Email Bounce Rate: Used in email marketing to measure the percentage of sent emails that were undeliverable due to issues like invalid addresses.
32. ROAS - Return on Ad Spend: ROAS measures the effectiveness of advertising campaigns by comparing revenue generated to the cost of the ads.
33. ROI - Return on Investment: ROI calculates the profitability of an investment by comparing the gains to the initial cost.
34. SER - Search Engine Ranking: SER indicates a website's position in search engine results for a specific keyword.
35. TCV - Total Conversion Value: Represents the sum of revenue generated from completed conversions.
36. UV - Unique Visitor: A unique visitor refers to a user visiting a website or interacting with digital content. Each visitor is counted only once, regardless of how many times they access the site, providing a measure of distinct user engagement.
37. VCR - Video Conversion Rate: VCR measures the percentage of users who complete a desired action after interacting with a video.
38. QS - Quality Score: Quality Score is a metric search engines use to evaluate the relevance and quality of a marketer's keywords, ads, and landing pages.
“It’s essential to keep track of acronyms for a few reasons. Not only to generate efficiency in how we communicate internally but also the obvious one: understanding the basics of digital marketing, like what a KPI is.
Outside of that, at Pathlabs, we strive to be experts in the industry. Understanding common terminology is just one of many ways we install confidence in our clients. ”
Core Strategy and Advertising Concepts
39. B2B - Business-to-Business: B2B refers to transactions and interactions between two businesses.
40. B2C - Business-to-Consumer: B2C refers to transactions and interactions between a business and individual consumers.
41. CTA - Call-to-Action: A CTA is a prompt commonly used in an ad that encourages users to take a specific action, such as clicking a button or making a purchase. It is not always a sales sentence that says, “Buy me!”. Marketers can tailor it creatively to grab user attention and hook them in.
42. CRO - Conversion Rate Optimization: CRO entails making strategic changes to digital touchpoints to improve the percentage of website visitors who take desired action and convert.
43. CX - Customer Experience: Refers to the overall perception and interaction that customers have with a brand, product, or service throughout their entire journey. It encompasses all the touchpoints and interactions a customer has with a business, from initial awareness and consideration to purchase, post-purchase support, and ongoing engagement.
44. IO - Insertion Order: A formal document or contract between advertisers and publishers to run ad campaigns and placements.
45. KPI - Key Performance Indicator: Quantifiable metrics used to evaluate the performance and success of a marketing campaign, strategy, or business.
46. LPO - Landing Page Optimization: LPO involves refining landing pages to improve user engagement and conversion rates.
47. MQL - Marketing Qualified Lead: A lead that a marketing team identifies as having potential interest in a company’s products or services. MQL criteria can include the lead’s webpage engagement, number of content downloads, job title, etc.
48. OKR - Objectives and Key Results: OKR is a goal-setting framework that defines specific objectives and measurable key results.
49. O2O Attribution - Online-to-offline Attribution: Measures the impact of online touchpoints on driving offline user actions or conversions.
50. RFP - Request for Proposal: A formal document that outlines the specific needs, requirements, and objectives of a digital marketing project or campaign; used by companies to solicit proposals from digital marketing agencies, consultants, or service providers who can offer solutions to meet those needs.
51. SEO - Search Engine Optimization: The practice of optimizing a web page or online content to improve its visibility and ranking in search engine results, increasing organic (non-paid) traffic.
52. SERP - Search Engine Results Page: A SERP presents relevant websites and content based on a user's search query, including organic results and paid search ad results.
53. SaaS - Software as a Service: SaaS is a software distribution model where companies provide applications over the Internet on a subscription basis. Users can access and use the software through a web browser, eliminating the need for installation and maintenance on their local devices.
54. SMO - Social Media Optimization: The practice of optimizing a social media campaign to enhance brand awareness and user engagement.
55. SQL - Sales Qualified Lead: A lead that sales teams deem as having a high propensity to become a customer. SQL criteria can include the lead’s number of employees, revenue amounts, budget, industry fit, geographic location, etc.
56. SWOT - Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats: An analysis used to assess a team’s current state of performance.
57. UI - User Interface: UI refers to the visual elements and design users interact with on a digital platform.
58. URL - Uniform Resource Locator: A URL functions as a web address for pinpointing online resources. It's the character sequence entered into a web browser to reach particular webpages, files, images, videos, or diverse content types hosted on the global internet.
59. USP - Unique Selling Point: A USP is a distinctive feature that sets a product or service apart from competitors, influencing consumer decisions.
60 UX - User Experience: UX refers to the overall quality of a user's interaction with a digital product, focusing on ease of use and satisfaction.
61. VTC - Video Teleconferencing: VTC allows individuals to conduct meetings and conferences via video communication.
62. YTD - Year-to-Date: Looks at the period of time from the beginning of the current calendar year up to the current date
63. YOY - Year-over-Year: Used to analyze the changes in data over a period of one year compared to the same period in the previous year.
“It’s vital to keep track of all the acronyms used within the space you work to ensure that you fully comprehend everything going on. You can always ask for clarification on unfamiliar acronyms, but at the end of the day, you must work to expand your marketing vocabulary. Most importantly, no acronym will be static, so make sure to revisit your lists to update them accordingly.”
Tech and Platforms
64. AI - Artificial Intelligence: AI simulates human intelligence in machines, enabling them to perform data analysis and decision-making tasks autonomously. Many marketing software and platforms now integrate some extent of AI.
65. API - Application Programming Interface: A set of protocols and tools that allows different software applications to communicate and interact with each other.
66. AR - Augmented Reality: AR overlays digital elements onto the real world, enhancing user experiences through smartphones or other devices.
67. CMS - Content Management System: CMS is a software platform that allows users to create, manage, and organize digital content, such as websites, blogs, and online stores. CMSs provide an interface for non-technical users to publish and update content without needing extensive coding knowledge.
68. COS - Content Optimization System: A technology or platform that facilitates the process of refining digital content to enhance its performance, engagement, and effectiveness.
69. CRM - Customer Relationship Management: CRM refers to software and practices enabling businesses to manage customer interactions, improving relationships and communication.
70. DSP - Demand-Side Platform: A DSP is a programmatic platform that allows advertisers to purchase digital ad inventory.
71. DMP - Data Management Platform: Technology platform that enables organizations to collect, organize, analyze, and leverage large volumes of data from various sources for marketing and advertising purposes.
72. ESP - Email Service Provider: Companies that offer email marketing platforms and services.
73. GA - Google Analytics: GA is a web analytics service that tracks and reports website traffic, providing insights into user behavior.
74. GAds - Google Ads: Online advertising platform by Google, displaying ads on search results and websites for businesses.
75. GA4 - Google Analytics 4: GA4 is the latest iteration of GA, replacing the former version known as Universal Analytics (UA).
76. GSN - Google Search Network: A collection of search-related websites and apps where advertisers can display ads. These ads most commonly appear in formats like search results and shopping ads and are usually labeled as "ads" to distinguish them from organic results.
77. GDN - Google Display Network: Collection of websites, mobile apps, and other platforms associated with or owned by Google where advertisers can field display ads.
78. GTM - Google Tag Manager: GTM containers are small pieces of code that allow Google Tag Manager to fire tags.
79. IP - Internet Protocol: An IP address is a unique numerical label assigned to every device connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. It serves as a way to identify and locate devices on the internet.
80. ML - Machine Learning: ML is a subset of AI that focuses on enabling computers to learn from data and make predictions or decisions based on it, continuously improving.
81. NLP - Natural Language Processing: Technology that enables computers to understand, interpret, and generate human language.
82. PMP - Private Marketplace: Digital advertising marketplace where a select group of advertisers can purchase ad inventory directly from publishers.
83. RT - Real-Time: Refers to the state where actions, reception, generation, or execution occur instantly, without any noticeable delay from the moment they actually take place. This is evident in processes like data or real-time bidding (RTB), where actions like data analysis, auctions, and placement decisions occur within milliseconds.
84. RTB - Real-Time Bidding: RTB is an automated process in programmatic advertising where ad inventory is bought and sold in real-time through digital auctions.
85. RTD - Real-Time Data: RTD refers to data that is updated and processed immediately as generated.
86. SSP - Supply-Side Platform: A SSP is a programmatic platform publishers use to manage and sell their ad inventory.
87. SMS - Short Message Service: Text messages sent to mobile phones.
88. TTD - The Trade Desk: TTD is a demand-side platform offering programmatic ad-buying advertising solutions. This is a platform we frequently use at Pathlabs.
89. UTM - Urchin Tracking Modules: UTM stands for urchin tracking modules which are snippets of text appended to the end of a URL, designed to help marketers track, categorize, and attribute their digital traffic.
90. QR Code - Quick Responses Code: Two-dimensional barcodes that devices can scan to access different information, content, and resources.
Position and Management
91. AD – Account Director: Commonly lead media teams, respond to RFPs, manage portfolios, enhance efficiency, collaborate on platform improvements, present pitches, stay updated, and adapt to changes.
92. AM – Account Manager: Help lead media client relations, analyze campaign performance, strategize, manage media plans, provide solutions, and ensure client satisfaction through collaboration and innovation.
93. CA – Campaign Analyst: Deploy and optimize media campaigns across platforms, analyze metrics, ensure pacing, troubleshoot issues, collaborate for strategic improvement, and contribute to platform development.
94. CFO - Chief Financial Officer: A CFO is a senior executive managing an organization’s financial structure, overseeing day-to-day financial operations and strategic planning for the future.
95. CIO - Chief Information Officer: A CIO primarily oversees an organization's management, implementation, and utilization of information technology and systems.
96. CMO - Chief Marketing Officer: A CMO oversees marketing strategies and initiatives within an organization.
97. COO - Chief Operating Officer: A COO manages an organization's day-to-day operations.
98. CSO - Chief Security Officer: A CSO prioritizes cybersecurity and protects an organization's sensitive data, information assets, and technological infrastructure against cyber threats and attacks.
99. CTO - Chief Technology Officer: A CTO focuses on an organization's high-level technology strategy. They lead the technology direction and vision, ensuring that the organization effectively uses innovative technology to achieve its business objectives.
100. Dev ops – Development Operations: DevOps teams bridge development and operations, streamlining software deployment, automation, and collaboration to enhance efficiency, scalability, and product delivery in digital contexts.
101. IT – Information Technology: IT teams support digital marketing by maintaining tech infrastructure, data management, website development, analytics, security, and tool integration.
102. MC – Media Coordinator: Support media service teams with admin tasks, creative trafficking, QA, campaign setup, reporting, problem-solving, client collaboration, and evolving duties.
Position and Management
103. BTW - By the Way: Accompanies a comment or message that may seem off-topic, impertinent, or just good to know.
104. EOD - End of Day: A common deadline set by marketers. EOD may refer to the end of the typical working day at 5 pm or the literal end of the day at 11:59 pm.
105. IMO - In My Opinion: Indicates an individual is expressing their personal perspective.
106. JTLYK - Just to Let You Know: Similar to BTW, it is said when a person adds information or context to a conversation without it necessarily connecting to the main point of discussion.
107. KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid: To whom this acronym is directed, they are encouraged to try and work smarter and not go overboard when solving a problem, creating a piece of content, or handling another task.
108. LMK - Let Me Know: When someone uses "LMK," they indicate interest in receiving information or updates about a particular topic or situation.
109. OOO - Out of Office: Employees can display OOO in their Slack status or calendar to indicate they will be unavailable.
110. POC - Point of Contact: A POC is typically an individual who serves as the primary liaison or contact person for a specific project, initiative, or situation.
111. WFH - Working From Home: Indicates that someone is working from their home location, wherever that is.
112. WTF - What the Fudge: Playful expression used to convey surprise or disbelief, almost always used in informal conversations.
Pathlabs Specific Acronyms
113. MEP - Media Execution Partner:
“Pathlabs is an MEP. MEPs offer end-to-end digital media execution solutions to agencies, providing people, proven workflows, and advanced technology. MEPs efficiently manage all aspects of planning, execution, optimization, analytics, and reporting tasks for agencies, freeing up time for agency leaders.”
114. WIN - Work If Necessary: At Pathlabs, we occasionally permit a WIN-Friday where our employees only work if they still need to finish their usual tasks or if their team needs extra help. If the employee has completed all their tasks, exceeded expectations, and gone the extra mile, they can enjoy the rest of their Friday.
115. DMC - Deep Meaningful Conversation: Refers to conversations or meetings between our employees or agency partners with strong substance, helping relieve problems and miscommunications, even igniting a fire of motivation and excitement for employees.
116. Off-go - Office Doggo
“One dog is allowed in the Pathlabs HQ office daily. We inaugurate said dog as the ‘off-go’ for the day.”
117. EAK - Eating at Keyboard: Media execution is a tough job. Sometimes you need to fuel up and eat a snack while on video calls, even if crumbs get on your keyboard.
118. H-R-US - Human Resources: This is the fun way we refer to our HR department at Pathlabs.
119. 2-da-moon - To the Moon: This is a common exclamation our employees yell when expressing joy or support for Pathlabs and our pursuit of growth and success.
120. Tacos
“Tacos is an integration we use on Slack to give fellow employees kudos. Employees post chats in the taco channel, shouting out a coworker. Then, fellow employees can engage with the message by adding taco emojis. An example of using the term ‘tacos’ may be: ‘Tacos to Kes for helping with last-minute adjustments to a campaign, even on her WIN-Friday!’”
Conclusion
We hope this handbook serves as a useful tool for you in your digital marketing endeavors. Refer to it often and keep track of new acronyms you can add to your personal vocabulary list!
