Digital Marketing and Online Advertising Glossary [From A To Z]

There is a set of terms that are specific to online advertising and digital marketing, just like any other discipline.

These terms may be unfamiliar at first, or even a little overwhelming, if you’ve never studied these topics.

But even if you’re not a digital marketer, it’s important for you know them.

Why?

Because digital marketing is so important now for businesses that want to have a presence online and attract prospects to their websites.

The first step you need to take if you want to create a digital marketing strategy that works, is to understand what digital marketing is.

We’ve gathered together the most common terms to help you master them:

A

A/B Testing

In digital marketing, A/B testing involves random experiments with two variables: A and B. One is controlled and the other differs to challenge it.

This enables you to measure different versions of the same element (landing pages, CTAs, emails, etc.) at the same time.

Ad Blocker

An app or internet extension that allows browsers to block or limit some of the ads that would appear while they are navigating.

Ad Exchange

A technology platform that facilitates the purchase and sale of a company’s media ad inventory for multiple kinds of parties, such as advertisers and agencies, etc., in real time.

Ad Network

The “middleman” between websites and advertisers. They are like a digital media wholesaler that sell digital advertising space.

Their main advantage that they allow you to place your offer on different media platforms and access them from one place without having to move from platform to platform.

Ad Rank

This is a value used to determine an ad’s position (where the ad will appear on a page) and whether or not they will appear.

The ad’s rank is calculated using the bid’s total value, its quality (percentage of clicks previewed, ad relevance and landing page experience) and the predicted impact of the ad’s extensions.

Ad Space

A space where ads can be placed on a website.

Ad Tracking

A way of tracking the results of your ad campaigns across different advertising platforms.

A tracking code (see Tracking Code) is inserted into a website’s source code. It collects information for your campaign key performance indicators (KPIs).

Advertiser

An individual or entity that rents advertising space to promote their/its products and services.

Advertising Spot

An ad is a sequence of words or symbols that communicates a particular message or promotes something.

It’s a message whose purpose is to spread specific information and entice prospects, users, buyers or spectators with it.

There are different kinds of ads in the digital environment. They include text ads, image or display ads (see Display), video ads and rich media ads (see Rich Media).

Affiliate Marketing

This type of marketing often involves a number of parties. There is usually at least the  seller, who promote their own products and services on an affiliate’s website, and an affiliate, who earns a commission on every action or sale that occurs as a result of the ads  placed on their website.

The affiliate uses a unique link (so he or she can identify where the traffic that generate visitors came from) that generates an image, text or other type of ad they can then place on their website.

Algorithm

A set of rules, logical steps or systematic procedures that perform a certain task or activity in order to solve a problem.

Amplification

A group of actions to increase the reach of digital media content.

API

An application program interface, or communication interface between software components.

Artificial Intelligence – AI

In computer science, artificial intelligence is the ability a nonliving agent has to reason, be that a robot or a machine—to name some of the most popular examples. AI is possible thanks to the design and development of processes, by human beings.

Besides reasoning, these devices mimic the cognitive functions that humans associate with other human minds. For example: “learning” and “solving problems”.

Avatar

A graphic element selected by users to depict them on certain platforms or digital media (in chat rooms, on social media, etc.).

Average Page Views

This is the average page views a website receives per session (see Session). It’s a KPI (see KPI) that Google Analytics uses, and is calculated by dividing the number of page views between the total number of views.

With this KPI, you can find out the depth of the visit, or how much interest your visitors show when visiting your website.

Average Position

This statistic tells you the rank or position of an ad in Google AdWords when compared to other ads.

The rank controls the order of the ads on the page when you search on something, and 1 is the highest position.

Average Session Duration

This is the average amount of time users stay on a specific website.

You can calculate this KPI by dividing the sum of the average session duration by the number of page views.

Awareness (as a stage of the buying process)

This is one of the stages a consumer goes through before making a purchase, when the prospect starts looking for solutions for their problems or satisfy their needs.

B

B2B

A business model that revolves around an agreement between two companies. Companies that offer their products or services to other companies are B2B companies.

B2C

A business model that revolves around an agreement between a company and a consumer. Companies that offer products or services to consumers are B2C companies.

Backlink

A hyperlink that connects different websites to each other or pages of the same site to one another.

Banner An online advertising format where the ad (or banner) is made up of an image, copy, audio, or even video. It is usually placed to one side of the page or in some other area reserved for advertising.

Bid

The maximum value that advertisers indicate they’re willing to pay in an auction in order to reach a certain goal (e.g. a number of clicks, impressions or conversions).

Big Data

The process of gathering enormous amounts of data and immediately processing and analyzing them to find hidden information, recurring patterns, new correlations, etc.

The array of data is so huge and complex that it surpasses conventional software’s capacity to capture, manage and process it in a reasonable period of time.

Blog

A website where an author or various authors periodically post articles about one or more different topics.

Bot

Type of robot or computer program that is able to perform concrete tasks and mimic human behavior.

Bounce Rate

The percentage of visitors that land on a website and abandon it after just a few seconds without navigating to any other sections of the site.

Brand Awareness 

The capacity of a consumer to identify, associate and remember a brand or its attributes.

Brand Content

The content generated by a brand in order to advertise their goods or services in a customized way without being too intrusive. Brand content provides value to the consumer through content that is useful and enjoyable..

Branding

The process of creating and building a brand. It could be defined as the development and maintenance of a group of specific features and values that will be acknowledged by its audience.

Browser

This is an app, program or software that grants you access to the web, interpreting information of various types of files and websites, so these can be visualized.

C

Call to Action – CTA

This is an invitation to the user to perform a given action. Examples include “buy”, “download now”, “call now”, etc.

CTAs usually appear as buttons and include just a little copy that begins with a verb. But they may also simply be links, copy or images.

In other words, this is a textbox that invites the user to perform the action you’ve decided is your goal.

Channels

Channels are sources of traffic for a website.

Churn Rate

This is the rate that customers cancel or unsubscribe from a service during a specific period of time.

You can find more information about this indicator in this post, which talks about the KPIs involved in digital marketing.

Click

The act of pressing the mouse button when the pointer is placed over an element on the screen.

In online advertising, clicks measure the amount of times a link inserted into an ad (see Ad), banner (see Banner) or CTA (see CTA) is activated. Performing that action may take you to another website, download a file or play multimedia content.

Click Through Rate – CTR

This is a digital advertising metric that is calculated by dividing the number of total clicks an ad receives by the total amount of times it was seen (impressions), and then multiplying that by one hundred.

Combination Rate

Price model based on the information of the CPM (see Cost per Mille) model and a price model based on results (see Cost per Lead).

Community Manager

Individual that serves as the “middleman” between a brand and its audience on social media. He’s responsible of building, handling and operating the brand’s online community.

Content Management System

A tool or software installed onto a server (see Hosting) that lets you create and manage the content and elements on a website, blog, or in an online store.

Some examples include WordPress, Joomla, Magneto, etc.

Content Marketing

This is creating and distributing useful, relevant and valuable content for leads and prospects with the purpose of attracting them to the company and making a connection with them.

Context Advertising

Advertising that is related to the specific content of a website. For example, seeing a car ad when you’re reading car industry news.

Conversion       

This is when a user completes the action that you’ve as your goal, which might be a click, subscription, download, phone call, sale, or the creation of a lead, etc.

Conversion Rate

This is the percentage of users that performed a specific action or conversion in relation to the total number of prospects or visitors that landed on a website.

For example, in an online store (see e-commerce), the number of visitors that arrived at the website and became customers can be measured by dividing the total number of sales completed by unique visitors by the total number of visitors from a specific period of time. And, since the result is expressed as a percentage, it then needs to be multiplied by 100.

Cookies

Cookies are small text files from a website that are stored on a user’s device via their browser whenever that user is active online. The purpose of the cookies is to optimize user experience.

Cost per Action – CPA

An advertising model where the advertiser just pays whenever a user completes a desired action: filling out a contact form (lead creation), buying something, calling, downloading a file, etc.

This is one of the KPIs to monitor when you put your digital marketing strategies into action.

Cost per Click – CPC

This is the average cost that an advertiser pays for every click that a user performs. You can calculate it by dividing the total amount invested by the number of clicks you’ve received.

Cost per Lead – CPL

This is the average cost that is paid for a lead or prospect. Users become leads when they provide a website with enough information about themselves to turn them into prospects.

Cost per Mille – CPM

This is the cost you need to pay every time an ad appears one thousand times—in other words, the cost an advertiser pays for a thousand impressions.

Cost per View– CPV

The cost an advertiser pays each time a user plays a video.

Customer Acquisition Cost – CAC

The cost of acquiring a new customer. This is one of the most important KPIs of digital marketing.

You can calculate your CAC by dividing the total cost associated with the acquisition by the total number of new customers acquired during a specific period of time.

Customer Centric Marketing

Customer centric marketing is about putting customers first, and taking their wishes and needs into account when carrying out your marketing activities, as opposed to traditional marketing, which revolves around the needs of a brand.

Customer Lifetime Value – CLV

This is the total value of the income your client generates while he or she is still your client. In other words, the time he or she continues to buy products or services from your company or is subscribed on one of your plans.

Customer Relationship Management – CRM

A strategy that focuses on client loyalty and satisfaction. The term is also used to describe the software companies use to manage their customer relationships.

D

Dashboard       

This is the graphic representation of the KPIs used to achieve the goals you set for your business, Its purpose is to help you make clever decisions and optimize your company’s strategy.

Data

This is the symbolic representation (numeric, alphabetic, algorithmic, spatial, etc.) of a quantitative or qualitative attribute or variable.

Demand Site Platform – DSP

A technology platform that automates commercial management, and which allows you to manage your access to multiple advertising inventories and maximize your investment in digital media.

Digital Agency | Digital Marketing Agency

A communications company that develops media campaigns for mass distribution, and is in charge of the branding and positioning of a company on different digital media.

Digital Marketing

Carrying out commercial, promotional and positioning strategies on digital media. All of the techniques from the offline world are mimicked and applied in the online world.

Direct Traffic        

These are the visitors that arrive at a website after typing or tapping an URL into the search bar of a search engine.

It also includes traffic that hasn’t been identified as coming from any other source.

Domain      

The unique and exclusive name assigned to your website on the internet.

Dynamic Rotation

Displaying ads randomly, on different pages or in different places on a website using a rotation system.

E

E-Business

e-business (e-business), or Electronic Business, is the administration of conducting business via the Internet. This would include the buying and selling of goods and services, along with providing technical or customer support through the Internet. e-business is a term often used in conjunction with e-commerce, but includes services in addition to the sale of goods.

E-commerce 

Commerce between companies and customers via the Internet.

E-book

Books in digital format that can only be read using a digital device.

Email

This is a network service that allows users to send and receive messages (also known as electronic messages) via the Internet.

Email Bounced

An indicator of the number of emails that couldn’t be delivered to the inbox of a recipient during an email marketing campaign.

Engagement

Connecting with an audience in a way that motivates interaction or active involvement between them and a brand.

Engagement Rate

A metric that reflects the level of interaction between followers and the social profiles of a specific brand. You can calculate it by dividing the number of users that had some kind of interaction with the brand (for example, those that ”liked”, “shared”, or commented on your content), by the number of total number of impressions (the total number of times an ad was shown).

Enhanced CPC

This is a bidding strategy that adjusts the CPC in order to maximize conversions.

Event

An arbitrary action, occurrence or other interaction with your site that you need to measure—for example, playing a video.

F

Facebook Conversion Pixel

HTML code inserted into a website to measure the number of conversions generated by a Facebook ad.

Floating Ads

These are ads that appear in a browser’s main window above the content of a website, giving the impression that they’re floating over the page. Pop-up windows are one example.

Frequency

The average number of times the same person sees a specific ad.

G

Google

The most popular search engine in the world.

Google AdSense

An online context advertising system and the property of Google. Basically, it allows publishers to receive earnings by placing text, graphic or advanced interactive ads on their website.

Google AdWords

This is Google’s online advertising software. With AdWords, advertisers can create online ads that reach users at the precise moment that they are looking for the product or service you’re offering.

Google Analytics

This is Google’s web analytics tool. It offers  information on the traffic that lands on a website, including who its audience is, lead acquisition, visitor behavior, and the conversions that have been generated.

Google Display Network

This is a set of more than two million websites, videos and apps where Google AdWords-created ads can appear (see Google AdWords).

Google Tag Manager

This is <script> code (see Tracking Code) that generates an iframe container that, when placed just behind the opening <body> tag of a website, will keep the website’s original code tags updated and therefore enable you to measure your campaigns more effectively.

H

Hashtag

A word or phrase preceded by the # symbol. Hashtags are useful for social media strategies, since they help with site visibility.

Heatmap 

This is a graphic that shows where a website visitor has spent most of their time, clicked, or  how many times the pointer went through a specific region, etc. The areas where the users spend most of the time generate warmer colors and vice versa.

This web analytics technique allows you to find out which regions of your website are receiving the most attention. The purpose of this is to obtain useful data from the behavior of the users that navigate around your website, and  make the necessary improvements afterwards.

Hit         

When a user lands on a website, their computer sends a download request to the website’s server. Each one of those file requests (images, sounds…) performed by the browser is called a hit.

Hosting

This is the service that provides internet users with a system to store information, images, videos or any other content available on their website.

HTML

A language used to create websites, and a group of text file codes known as tags (*.txt) that determine the way a browser gathers and displays the information.

Hyperlink

This is a link that normally connects two pages on the same website, but it can also take you to another website. There are different types, including text, image, local and external hyperlinks.

I

Impression

An impression occurs every time an ad is shown to a user, regardless of whether it receives a click or not. So when we talk about impressions, we’re referring to the number of times an ad was shown to a user, with the understanding that the same user might see that same ad more than once (see Frequency).

In-Banner Video Ad

A 100% video ad displayed within a standard banner space. When the user lands on the website, the video starts playing, but the audio must be activated by the user.

In-Page Video Ad

A video ad inserted into a website, and which plays when the user scrolls down through the content.

In-Stream Video Ad

A video ad inserted into the player that can appear during specific times during the video, while it’s streaming. In-stream videos ads might occur before, during or at the end of a video.

In-Text Video Ad

An ad that’s inserted into a website that doesn’t contain any videos, but does contain copy. For example: blogs, news and recipe sites, etc. The ad is usually activated when the user’s pointer runs through a word.

Inbound Links

This is a link from a website that takes you to another website. The word inbound is generally used by the person or website that receives the visitor.

Inbound Marketing

Digital marketing techniques that are designed to attract the customer to a brand. This is why it’s also called “attraction marketing”.

Some of the most popular inbound marketing techniques include SEO, social media marketing and content marketing.

Influencer

An individual that has earned the trust, credibility and recognition of a specific market segment through their actions on social media, a blog or other Internet platform.

Insight

The non-evident need or motivation of a consumer that drives their behavior towards a product or brand. They’re considered as hidden truths, since they are the outcome of a profound investigation that reveals what is it that drives us to behave in a certain way.

Interaction

A KPI that indicates how many times users have performed a certain action in response to a specific ad format. An interaction might be a click on a text ad, a click on an image ads, a click to play a video, etc.

Interstitial

A banner that fills the whole browser window. It’s called an interstitial because it usually appears between a user’s click on a link and the content the link was related to.

IP Address

IP is the acronym for Internet Protocol, which are unique and unrepeatable numbers used to identify a computer or device that’s connected to a network that works with IP.

J

Javascript

A programming language used mainly for creating dynamic websites.

K

Key Performance Indicators

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are metrics used to calculate the results of a specific action or strategy according to established goals.

Keyword

Phrases used to connect the search terms used by users with an SEO and SEM strategy.

L 

Landing Page

This is the page a user is taken after clicking on an ad. These pages are designed to generate conversions of some kind, whether that’s getting the user to fill out a form, download some content, give up their contact details, or another action defined by you.

When a user completes the action, they’re redirected to a thank you page.

Lead Nurturing

This is a strategy that is designed to establish relationships with leads (see Lead)—or users that have signed up for your newsletter or in some other way. You provide them with valuable information over time so they develop a connection with your brand, until they’re finally ready to make a purchase.

Different techniques are used to nurture these leads, such as sending personalized emails containing interesting content and offers, and telemarketing.

Leads

An individual or company that has shown interest in a brand’s offerings by requesting additional information through a contact form, email or call. Leads are also known as prospects.

“Like”

A “like” is the action of expressing pleasure or satisfaction after seeing a specific post or ad on social media. Users express their approval by clicking on an image that states this action. This could be a thumbs-up icon, a heart, or another symbol.

Link

The electronic connection between two websites or documents via an URL. They are also known as hyperlinks. There are different types, including text and image links. They look like underlined words in your browser.

Link Building

A marketing strategy that aims to encourage third parties to link to your website. This practice improves organic positioning in search engines.

M 

Machine Learning

Automatic learning or machine learning is a subdiscipline of the computer sciences and a branch of artificial intelligence, whose goal is to develop techniques that allow computers to learn.

The field involves the creation of systems that learn automatically. By learning, we mean identifying complex patterns in big data. The actual machine that learns is nothing more than an algorithm that examines data and is able to predict future behaviors.

Max CPC

The maximum value that an advertiser is willing to pay for one click on an ad.

Media

Media are the advertising channels where messages or ads are shown to the public.

Mention

This is the act of naming or mentioning a specific account on a social media platform. To mention someone you need to write an “@” before the name of the account you wish to mention.

The mentioned account will receive a notification. The purpose of mentioning is to incentivize conversations and interactions with the mentioned accounts.

Meta tags

Meta tags are HTML tags that inform search engines about the content of a website.

They should include reference information (metadata) about the website: the author, title, date, keywords, description, etc.

Microsite

A temporary website with very few pages. It might contain text, images, videos, animation and other digital formats.

This page or group of pages are designed to disseminate and complement the information and functionality of the microsite’s main website.

Mid-Roll

A video ad shown halfway during a video.

Mobile Advertising

Advertising that appears in mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets.

Mobile Commerce

This is an e-commerce platform operated on a mobile device where you can purchase something through a browser or an app.

Mobile Marketing

A group of formats and techniques used to promote products and services using mobile devices as the main communication channel.

N

Native Advertising

This refers to adding promoted content on a website or platform while following the format and style rules of that platform. 

New Visitor

A new visitor is a user that visits a website for the first time. The browser is able to find out if a user is visiting a website for the first time, or if he or she is a recurring visitor using cookies (see Cookies).

O

One-to-One Marketing

A marketing strategy based on customized actions attained after gaining the necessary knowledge about the interests and habits of an individual customer. Brand-consumer interactions are of the utmost importance in this type of marketing.

Online Advertising

Advertising on the internet and on digital media platforms.

The most common online advertising formats include display advertising (graphics, video, text), search engine advertising (text), social media advertising, classified advertising and email advertising.

Organic Reach

This is non-paid reach (it’s free of charge). It contains an advertising message on specific media.

Organic Search Results

These are the non-paid search results that usually appear in the middle zone of a search engine page.

Overlay

Advertising content that usually appears over audiovisual content in a video player.

P

Pages per Session

The average number of page views per session (see Session). This is a metric that is very important if you want to measure the relationship a user has with a website.

Pageviews

This is the number of times a page loads when requested by a user via their browser. A pageview is counted every time a user visits a page on your website, so one user may stack up multiple pageviews.

Paid Reach

This is the reach you achieve after making an investment in order to impact a larger amount of people.

Podcast

This is a free audio file that can be downloaded and listened to from a computer, or on a mobile device or MP3 player. The files are distributed using an RSS file, so other users can subscribe and use a program to download it and listen to it whenever they want.

Pop-up

An advertising format that appears over the current browser window.

Post

Content designed to be spread on a social platform and aimed for a specific audience.

Post-roll     

A video ad shown at the end of a video.

Pre-roll

A video ad shown at the beginning of a video.

Prosumer

An acronym formed by merging the words producer and consumer.

This is a consumer that’s capable of generating content, opinions and comments on the products or services a company has to offer. These can be shared by a community with similar preferences.

Publisher      

A platform, individual or organization that generates, prepares and adapts content for distribution on one or multiple websites or other digital platforms for commercialization or other purposes.

Pull

A pull occurs when a user sends a company information, and that first interaction with the brand is initiated by the user.

A pull-push campaign is a campaign where the users perform a request first (pull) and they receive a response (push).

Push

Information that is sent after it has been requested by the user.

A push campaign is a campaign where the company communicates a commercial message to prospects without them requesting it.

Q

Quality Score

A score given by Google in Google AdWords from 1 to 10 (10 being the best score) on ad quality. They are scored using a range of factors.

Some of the factors that influence the quality level are: CTR (see Click Through Rate), ad relevance (see Ad Relevance) and the quality of the landing page (see Landing Page).

A high-quality level will position the ad above the competition, and you will pay less for each click.

R 

Reach

This is the percentage of a target audience that has been exposed to at least one ad on a specific media platform. It is also defined as the total number of people exposed or reached one or more times by the ads on a certain media platform.

Real Time Bidding

This is the purchase of digital space in real time, using technological tools and knowledge about an audience. It can be performed using fixed prices, direct negotiations or by using a bidding process.

Referrals

In a web traffic acquisition context, a referral is when a user lands on your website after clicking on the link of an external website.

Referral Traffic

These are visitors that land on a website due to media, sites or platforms that have linked to their content, generally through a hyperlink (see Hyperlink).

A analytical information about referral traffic informs you  which sites have been sending traffic.

Retargeting | Remarketing

A form of online advertising for online stores (see E-commerce) aimed at users that have already visited an online store, showed an interest, or interacted with a product or service, but didn’t then make a purchase. They can be enticed to go back by ads that appear on the pages they visit afterwards.

Returning Visitor

A user that has previously visited your website and comes back. You can find out who has returned using cookies (see Cookies) stored in the user’s browser.

Return on Investment – ROI

This is a value that measures the performance of marketing actions that are implemented. It is essential to find out how profitable an investment is turning out to be.

You can calculate it using this simple formula:

[Obtained income – Investment costs] / Investment costs

As it is expressed as a percentage, the result of the equation needs to be multiplied by 100.

Rich Media

A digital advertising format that uses advanced technology to unlock more complex features. Rich media formats allow a more complete user experience through interaction with audiovisual elements.

RSS

Software that allows users to follow content, websites and blogs, receive updates from them via email or by using a feed-reader like Feedly.

S

Sales Funnel

The definition of the sales funnel (also known as a revenue funnel or sales process) refers to the buying process that companies lead customers through when purchasing products. A sales funnel is divided into several steps, which differ depending on the particular sales model.

Search Engine

A platform that sorts the information available on the internet, and presents it as an index when a user performs a specific search on a topic.

Search Engine Optimization – SEO

A group of actions and techniques aimed at positioning or ranking a website on the first few pages of the search results when users search using certain keywords (see Keywords).

Search Engine Reputation Management

This involves monitoring and managing the search results that appear on a search engine to a company’s benefit.

If any negative comments are online about a certain website, the SERM will apply techniques to prevent these from appearing before the positive ones.

Search Sponsored Ads

Ads that appear in the main results on search engines.

Segmentation

The process of dividing the total market of a product or service into various smaller groups that are similar to each other.

This is a strategic marketing tool to focus your efforts more precisely, optimize resources and achieve better results.

Session

This is one visit to a website. That one session may include a user visiting multiple sub-pages or sections of that same website.

A session starts from the moment a user lands on a website and ends when they leave or close it. If they come back later, a new session begins.

Share of Voice

This is the amount of presence you have on an advertising channel in relation to the competition. It is expressed as a percentage.

On social media (see Social Media Platforms), it can be measured using the number of conversations about your brand in relation to the total number of conversations about the whole sector during a specific period of time.

Shares

This is when a person literally shares another person’s post with their friends and followers on social media. On social media, there’s an image or text box underneath every post, which allows you to “share” or “retweet” that post (no matter whether it’s an image, text or video). The button you can use to share these posts is a little different on each of the various social media platforms. When the user clicks on it, the post is automatically share with all their friends and followers.

Short Message Service – SMS

This is a mobile phone service that allows its users to send short messages, known as text messages, to different mobile phones.

Social Media Platforms

These are  websites where individuals with similar interests or activities in common (friendships, kinship, job colleagues) gather to communicate and exchange information.

Social Media Advertising

Online advertising that displays ads on social media platforms, apps or websites.

Spam

Any email that hasn’t been explicitly requested by the user. Span is usually  advertising content that doesn’t generate any real value for the user and is sent to a huge target market.

Spider

A program used by search engines that visits websites and reads their pages and other information in order to index them and improve the service for users searching on keywords.

Sponsored Content

Paid content that resembles the editorial content, but has the purpose of communicating an advertiser’s product or service’s features.

Storytelling

The art of telling a story related to a brand, company, product or service that generates an emotional connection with clients who read the story.

Subscriber

A user that has requested or given permission for a company to send them content updates or information about that company, its website or blog via email (see Email).

T 

Target Market

A segment of people that are selected based on their attributes because they are likely to become prospects for a brand. In other words, the ideal group of consumers for a product or service.

Text Ad

Brief, static copy used to advertise a product or service.

Tracking Code

This is a piece of JavaScript code (see JavaScript) that gathers and sends data to Google Analytics—or any other measuring platform, and reports on a website’s KPIs (like clicks, unique visitors, average session duration, conversions, etc.).

Google Analytics’ tracking code can be inserted into the HTML code of every page of a website, or indirectly, by using a tag management system, such as Google Tag Manager (see Google Tag Manager).

Traffic

The number of visitors that access a website during a specific period of time.

Transaction

A transaction is an isolated purchase that takes place in an online shop. Bear in mind that an isolated purchase could cover just one item, or a whole shopping cart that contains many products, even though the payment is only executed once.

Transaction by User

A metric obtained by dividing the number of total transactions by the number of users that performed transactions.

Trolls

Users that post provocative messages on forums, blogs or social media with the intention of generating controversy. Their only purpose is to upset others.

U 

Unique Tag Manager (UTM) Code

Small fragments of text added to the end of an URL or link (see URL) that allow you to measure where your website visitors have come from when you’re promoting a provide or service during a campaign on a specific media platform, or at any other time.

You can create a UTM using Google Analytics’ URL Builder.

Unique Visitor

The number of different (not duplicated nor recurring) users that visit a website, app or digital platform during a specific period of time.

This metric gives you an idea of the approximate number of different people that access your website.

URL (Uniform Resource Locator)

The technical term for a website address.

It’s a unified system for identifying resources online, and. the standard mode of providing the address of any resource on the Internet.

URL Shortener 

Service providers that shorten links or URLs (see URL) for you, so they take up as little space as possible.

They are useful for social media platforms since they optimize the appearance of your posts.

User

In digital marketing, a user is defined as any individual with access to the internet who can navigate around  websites, media and digital platforms.

User Experience – UX

All the aspects that impact the user’s interaction with a company, their products and services, within the digital environment.

A good UX should meet a user’s needs as quickly and conveniently as possible while they are on your website.

V

Video Advertising

Online advertising related to playing videos.

Viral Content

Online content shared from one person to another organically (free of charge) that a huge audience is exposed to.

Viral Marketing

A marketing strategy based on the actions of user, such as: sharing, forwarding or communicating the content created by a brand, maximizing its initial reach.

Visitor

A visitor is an individual that visits a website using a device that has access to the Internet.

Visits

This is the most important metric in web analytics. A visit is counted every time a user clicks on your website and navigates around it.

W

Webinar

This is a conference, workshop or seminar in video format played using online software. What makes a webinar different is that it provides added value through the interaction between the lecturer and those that attend the webinar.

Web Analytics

A field of study that deals with the statistics generated by the activity that takes place on a website, which involved the measurement, analysis and reports on that activity. Web analytics’ purpose is to understand users’ behavior.

Website

A space on the internet identified by a domain and made up of a group of pages that allow users to view content (copy, images and multimedia elements).

You can access a website through a browser. Links placed on a website can also allow the user to navigate to other websites.

Whitepaper

A document that acts like a guide, whose purpose is to explain how to solve a problem or help prospects understand a specific topic.

 

And you’re done!

If you reached this point, congratulations! You can now brag about being a digital marketing and advertising buff!

Would you add any other terms or words to this glossary? If you think we missed one, don’t forget to mention it in the comments below.