Ever feel overwhelmed by digital marketing? If you’re not currently working in the digital world, or only dip your toes in from time to time, it can be hard to keep up with vocabulary – so many acronyms! – let alone best practices.
We’ve prepared this guide to help you quickly decipher these terms and see how they are used in context. We’ll get you talking like a pro in no time!
Digital Marketing Terms and Acronyms
SEO
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It is the practice of optimizing a website to improve its visibility and rankings on search engine results pages (SERPs). The primary goal of SEO is to increase organic (unpaid) traffic to a website by making it more relevant and valuable to search engines and users.
SEO involves various techniques and strategies, including keyword research, on-page optimization (such as optimizing meta tags, headings, and content), technical optimization (improving website speed, mobile-friendliness, and site structure), and off-page optimization (building high-quality backlinks and promoting the website through social media and other channels).
Implementing effective SEO practices can improve a website’s search engine rankings, increase its visibility to potential visitors, and ultimately drive more organic traffic, resulting in a higher probability of attracting customers or achieving other desired goals. To read the full story about SEO, see our article More than SEO: Great Website Optimization.
SEM
Search engine marketing (SEM) is a form of internet marketing that involves the promotion of websites by increasing their visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) through paid advertising.
SEM works by placing ads on search engine results pages (SERPs) when users search for specific keywords or phrases. These ads are typically displayed at the top or bottom of the SERPs, and they are labeled as “ads” or “sponsored links.”
We should note that there is some disagreement about whether SEM includes SEO or whether it is limited to paid advertising in search engines. Popular and credible sources on the internet seem to disagree on this point. At VONT, we use SEM to refer to paid search engine advertising only.
Search Marketing
Search Marketing has become the umbrella term that covers ALL digital marketing efforts – both paid and organic – used to drive traffic to a website. SEO and SEM are both components of Search Marketing.
PPC or CPC
PPC stands for Pay Per Click and is sometimes referred to as Cost Per Click or CPC. It refers to the model in which an advertiser only pays when its ad is clicked. PPC can also stand for Pay Per Call and is used when the cost trigger is a phone call versus a click.
SEM, mentioned above, is a cost-per-click (CPC) advertising model. This makes SEM a very effective way to reach potential customers who are interested in what you have to offer.
CPM
Cost per impression (CPM) is a pricing model in online advertising where the advertiser pays a fixed amount for every 1,000 times their ad is displayed. This means that the advertiser pays if their ad is seen by someone, even if they don’t click on it.
CPM is a common pricing model for display advertising, such as banners and pop-ups. It is also used for some other types of online advertising, such as video ads.
CPA
CPA stands for Cost Per Acquisition. In digital advertising, it is a pricing model where the advertiser pays a fixed amount for every new customer who takes a desired action, such as signing up for a newsletter, making a purchase, or downloading a free trial.
CPA advertising is a popular choice for businesses that want to track the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns and ensure that they are only paying for results. It is also a good option for businesses that are targeting a specific audience and want to make sure that their ads are seen by people who are likely to be interested in their products or services.
KPI
KPI stands for Key Performance Indicator and it isa metric used to determine the success of your campaigns. KPIs can vary widely depending on the goals of your campaigns –- and even change from campaign to campaign. If you are running an awareness campaign, a likely KPI would be measuring the increase in traffic to your website from both organic and paid sources. If you are running a lead generation campaign, a KPI could be the number of form submissions you collect.
Remarketing
Remarketing, or retargeting, is a very commonly used digital marketing tactic. Advertisers serve ads to users who have completed a certain behavior as a way to keep the user interested and engaged with their product or service. For example, if someone looks at a pair of boots on a particular company’s website, they will receive remarketing ads for that specific product. These remarketing ads can be served across multiple platforms, and over any given period of time.
CR
CR stands for Conversion Rate. A conversion occurs anytime a user completes a desired action on a web page, i.e., filling out a form, clicking on a link, or making a phone call. The conversion rate is the percentage of users who take the conversion action. A high conversion rate describes a page on which a high percentage of users complete the desired action, while a low conversion rate describes a page on which a low percentage of users complete the desired action. Pages with high conversion rates are said to perform well; pages with low conversion are said to perform poorly.
CRO
CRO stands for Conversion Rate Optimization and describes those actions taken to improve the CR of a web page, landing page or even social media, calls to action (CTAs) and other types of digital marketing. Design approach, key optimization principles, and testing all contribute to improving the conversion rate.
CTA
CTA stands for Call to Action. A CTA encourages a website visitor to take a particular action. It can be linked text, or a photo, button, or other type of link that may include phrases such as “Call now” or “Find out more.”
CTR
CTR stands for Click-Through Rate. CTR is a way of measuring how often the people who see your ad click on it. It is found by dividing the number of click-throughs by the number of times your ad is shown. CTR is used to assess just how well your ad is performing.
Pageview
A pageview is a term used in web analytics to describe the number of times a web page is loaded by a visitor. A pageview is counted each time a page is loaded, regardless of whether the visitor is new or returning.
Pageviews are an important metric for website owners because they can be used to track the popularity of different pages on a website. Pageviews can also be used to track the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and to identify areas where a website can be improved.
UV vs. Visits
UV stands for Unique Visitor and refers to the number of distinct individuals visiting pages on your website, regardless of how often they visit. This is opposed to Visits, which refer to the number of times your website is visited, regardless of how many UVs are involved. A visit begins when a user first loads a page on a website and ends when the user leaves the website. To illustrate, if an individual came to your website once a day for two days in a row and looked at 10 pages on your site each day, it would be described as two visits by one unique visitor with 10 pageviews per visit.
Bounce Rate
The bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who leave a website after viewing only one page. A high bounce rate can indicate that visitors are not finding what they are looking for on a website.
Pages Per Visit or Pages Per Session
The pages per session or pages per visit is the average number of pages that visitors view during a single visit to a website. A low pages per session can indicate that visitors are not finding what they are looking for on a website.
Average Time on Page
The average time on page is the average amount of time that visitors spend on a web page before leaving the website. A low average time on page can indicate that visitors are not finding the content on a page to be relevant or interesting.
LP
LP stands for Landing Page. LP has two different meanings. In the broader (and older) sense, it refers to any web page that a user starts their visit to a website by landing on. In the narrower (and newer) sense, it refers to a standalone web page distinct from your main website that has been designed for a single focused objective. A Landing Page is where your visitor arrives after clicking on a digital advertisement. It is distinct from your website (often containing no navigation to it) in order to better guide visitors to complete an intended action.
Once you understand the vocabulary, it’s easy to join the discussion confidently. Never be afraid to ask digital marketers to clarify what something means or what is being measured in a campaign. We tend to speak fast and sometimes forget to slow down and explain ourselves!
About VONT Performance Digital Marketing
At VONT we believe that change is the only constant in the digital world – and that excites us. When tools and environments are constantly changing, new opportunities to help our clients achieve success are constantly arising. Each new advertising technology, each new social platform, each new design approach allows us to improve on the results we achieve for our clients.
We believe in this idea of continual fine-tuning so much that we named our company VONT, which means to achieve exponential improvement in incremental steps. It is our core belief, and the reason why we are not simply a web design company or simply a digital advertising agency, but rather a long-term, single source partner providing a comprehensive array of web development and digital marketing capabilities.
In short, we’re here so that our clients achieve success in the ever-changing digital world. If you’d like to learn more about VONT and the work we’ve done with our client partners, visit our Work page, or, if you have a question, contact us. We’ll get right back to you!
