Digital marketing 101
Marketing terms in plain English
Every digital marketing report is full of abbreviations and jargon. Whether it comes from Google Ads, Meta or GA4, or from a conversation or report from a marketing agency. Below you'll find, per term, what it means, how to calculate it where that applies, and where it belongs in your numbers.
Each term also shows the level at which it is usually a KPI: profit, financial, business model, campaign or ad. How those levels fit together, you can read in What is a KPI?. Words that mean something else outside marketing, such as ADR or CPA, get "in marketing" or "in hospitality" added.
Search by letter, type a term in the search box or filter by theme.
Missing a term? Disagree with how a definition is written? Let me know.
A
A/B test
Google Ads and searchWebsite and analyticsLevel: ad
Running two versions of an ad or page at the same time to see which works better. Test one difference at a time, or you won't know what caused the result. With little traffic, it takes a long time before the difference is reliable.
Ad group and ad set
Google Ads and searchSocial and emailLevel: ad
The level between campaign and ad. In Google Ads it's called an ad group and contains keywords and ads. In Meta it's called an ad set, where you choose audience and budget.
Ad Rank
Google Ads and searchLevel: ad
The score that decides whether and where your ad appears. It depends on your bid, the quality of your ad and landing page, and the context of the search. With better quality, you can get the same position with a lower bid.
Ad set → see Ad group and ad set
ADR (average daily rate)
HospitalityLevel: business model
In hospitality: the average price you get per booked night. Together with occupancy, it tells you whether you're full because people want you, or because you're too cheap.
ADR = revenue from stays ÷ booked nights
More: What is a KPI?
AEO (answer engine optimisation)
Google Ads and searchWebsite and analytics
Structuring your content so search engines and AI assistants can take an answer straight from it, for example for a featured snippet at the top of Google or an answer from a voice assistant. A clear definition at the top and short answers to concrete questions help.
AI Overviews
Google Ads and searchWebsite and analytics
The answer Google has AI write at the top of some search results, with links to its sources. It can lower the number of clicks to the normal results, even when you rank well.
ALOS → see Average length of stay (ALOS)
Answer engine optimisation → see AEO (answer engine optimisation)
Assets (extensions)
Google Ads and searchLevel: ad
Extra parts added to your ad, such as sitelinks or your logo. They make your ad bigger and give more reasons to click.
Attribution
Google Ads and searchWebsite and analyticsLevel: campaign
In marketing: how you divide a conversion across the channels and clicks that came before it. The model you choose decides which channel gets the credit, and so where your budget goes.
Attribution model (last click, data-driven)
Google Ads and searchWebsite and analyticsLevel: campaign
The rule that decides how a conversion is divided across the clicks and channels before it. With last click, the last click gets everything. With data-driven, Google divides the credit based on your own conversion data. That's the default in Google Ads and GA4. The model changes nothing about your sales, only about which channel gets the credit.
Average daily rate → see ADR (average daily rate)
Average job value
Lead generationLevel: business model
The average value of a signed job. Together with your number of new customers, it determines your revenue from new work.
Average job value = revenue from new jobs ÷ number of new jobs
Average length of stay (ALOS)
HospitalityLevel: business model
How many nights a booking lasts on average. Longer stays mean fewer changeovers and so less cleaning per night.
Average length of stay = booked nights ÷ number of bookings
Average order value (AOV)
EcommerceLevel: business model
The average value of one order. A higher order value gives you more room to pay for a new customer.
Average order value = revenue ÷ number of orders
B
B2B (business-to-business)
General marketingLead generation
Selling to other businesses. A purchase takes longer and involves more people, so sales cycle and qualified leads weigh more heavily.
B2C (business-to-consumer)
General marketingEcommerce
Selling to consumers. Decisions are quicker, and conversion rate and order value are central.
Backlink
Website and analytics
A link from another website to yours. Relevant links from trustworthy sites can help you rank higher in Google.
Benchmark
Basics
A point of comparison for judging whether a number is good: your own figure from last year, your sector average or a competitor's. Sector averages are rough. Your own figures from last year are something you can rely on.
Bidding strategy
Google Ads and searchLevel: campaign
How Google Ads sets your bid for each auction. With manual bidding, you set a maximum per click yourself. With automated strategies, such as maximise conversions or a target ROAS, Google sets the bid based on your conversion data.
Blended ROAS → see MER (marketing efficiency ratio) or blended ROAS
Booking engine
HospitalityWebsite and analyticsLevel: campaign
The part of your website where guests check availability and book. The conversion rate of your booking engine shows what share of the visitors who start booking also finish.
Booking window
HospitalityLevel: business model
How far ahead people book, also called lead time. A leading indicator in hospitality, best compared with your own previous years. If the booking window of your recent bookings is shorter than last year, people are booking later and you can still catch up on a shortfall.
Booking window = average number of days between booking date and arrival date
More: What is a KPI?
Bookings on the books (pace)
HospitalityLevel: business model
How many bookings you already have today for a season or period, compared with the same date last year or the average of recent years. If booking behaviour stays similar to previous years, it gives a good estimate of where your season will end.
More: What is a KPI?
Bounce rate
Website and analyticsLevel: ad
In GA4, the opposite of engagement rate: the share of sessions without engagement. Useful while testing a landing page, but as a standing KPI it says little about enquiries or sales.
Bounce rate = 100 − engagement rate
Brand awareness
General marketingSocial and email
How many people in your target audience know you. Hard to measure directly. Possible signals are more searches for your brand name and more direct traffic after an awareness campaign, though neither measures awareness on its own.
Brand search
Google Ads and searchLevel: campaign
Searches that include your own brand name. Advertising on your brand name can bring cheap clicks and lots of conversions, but part of that would have come without the ad too. How big that part is differs per business.
Break-even ROAS
FinanceGoogle Ads and searchLevel: financial
The ROAS at which your ads earn back exactly what they cost. Calculate with your margin after all variable costs except ads. If you only use your gross margin, your real break-even is higher as soon as shipping or payment costs come on top. At a 25% margin, your break-even ROAS is 4, or 400%.
Break-even ROAS = 1 ÷ margin (as a decimal)
C
CAC (customer acquisition cost)
FinanceEcommerceLead generationLevel: financial
What you spend on marketing, on average, to win one new customer. Some businesses also include sales costs. Pick one definition and stick to it. Whether your CAC is high or low depends on what that customer brings in over the years, your CLV.
CAC = marketing costs ÷ number of new customers
CAC payback period
FinanceEcommerceLead generationLevel: financial
How long it takes for a new customer to pay back what it cost to win them. Until then, that money is tied up. The formula assumes a roughly even margin per month. If customers buy irregularly, add up per cohort how much margin comes in month by month.
CAC payback period = CAC ÷ gross margin per customer per month
More: What is a KPI?
Cancellation rate
HospitalityLevel: business model
What share of your bookings gets cancelled. Flexible cancellation terms push this rate up.
Cancellation rate = cancelled bookings ÷ all bookings × 100
Cart abandonment
EcommerceWebsite and analyticsLevel: business model
The share of visitors who put something in their cart but don't check out. A high share can point to shipping costs or an awkward checkout.
Cart abandonment = abandoned carts ÷ carts created × 100
Cash flow
FinanceLevel: profit
The money coming in and going out over a period. A business can be profitable and still get into trouble if money comes in too late. Marketing affects your cash flow through your ad spend, among other things, and through your CAC payback period.
Channel grouping → see Default channel group
Channel manager
Hospitality
Software that updates your availability and prices on your own site and all booking platforms at the same time. That way you avoid double bookings.
Churn
EcommerceLevel: business model
What share of your customers drops off in a period. With a subscription, that's a cancellation. In an online shop, you decide yourself when a customer counts as lost, for example after twelve months without a purchase.
Churn = customers lost in the period ÷ customers at the start × 100
More: Why your most loyal customers are leaving without you noticing
Churn rate → see Churn
Click
Google Ads and searchWebsite and analyticsLevel: ad
A click on your ad or link. Not every click becomes a session in GA4: people who click straight back or refuse cookies don't always show up there.
Click ID → see GCLID (Google click ID)
Click rate (email)
Social and emailLevel: campaign
What share of recipients clicked a link in your email.
Click rate = unique clicks ÷ delivered emails × 100
Click to availability
HospitalityGoogle Ads and searchLevel: ad
The number of visitors who look at an accommodation's availability or calendar after an ad. An early sign of booking intent, well before the booking itself.
Click-through rate → see CTR (click-through rate)
CLTV → see CLV (customer lifetime value)
CLV (customer lifetime value)
FinanceEcommerceLevel: financial
What a customer brings in over the whole time they buy from you. LTV (lifetime value) and CLV mean the same. The formula below is a simple estimate in revenue. If you calculate with margin instead of revenue, and subtract returns and other variable costs, you see what that customer earns you.
CLV = average order value × orders per year × number of years a customer stays
CLV/CAC ratio
FinanceLevel: financial
How many times a customer pays back what it cost to win them. At a ratio of 3, a customer brings in three times their CAC. If you calculate your CLV with margin, below 1 you lose money on every new customer.
CLV/CAC ratio = CLV ÷ CAC
CMP → see Cookie banner (CMP)
Cohort
EcommerceLevel: business model
A group of customers who first bought in the same period, for example everyone who became a customer in January. Putting cohorts side by side shows whether new customers today come back as often as they used to.
More: Why your most loyal customers are leaving without you noticing
Consent management platform → see Cookie banner (CMP)
Consent Mode
Website and analyticsGoogle Ads and search
A Google setting that tells your tags whether a visitor accepted cookies. If someone refuses, the advanced version still sends signals without cookies, and Google fills in part of the missing conversions with estimates. It doesn't replace your cookie banner. You still ask for consent there.
Contribution margin
FinanceEcommerceLevel: financial
What's left of your revenue after all the costs that rise with every sale: cost of goods, shipping, payment fees and marketing. It shows what an extra sale contributes to your fixed costs and profit.
Contribution margin = (revenue − variable costs) ÷ revenue × 100
Conversion
Google Ads and searchWebsite and analyticsLevel: campaign
In marketing: an action you count as a result, such as a purchase or an enquiry. You decide yourself which actions count as conversions in Google Ads or GA4. If you count too much as a conversion, your campaigns learn to steer on the wrong things.
Conversion rate
Website and analyticsEcommerceLead generationGoogle Ads and searchLevel: campaign
What share of your visitors does what you want: buy, send an enquiry, book. You can calculate it for your whole site or for a single landing page. Pick one denominator, such as sessions or users, and stick to it when you compare periods or channels. A rising conversion rate isn't always good news. It also rises when you get fewer, but warmer, visitors.
Conversion rate = conversions ÷ sessions × 100
Conversion value
Google Ads and searchLevel: campaign
The value an ad platform gives your conversions, usually the order or booking value. It isn't the same as the revenue in your accounts. Platforms sometimes double count or miss returns.
More: Why Google Ads and your CRM never agree, and which one to trust
Conversion window
Google Ads and searchWebsite and analyticsLevel: campaign
How long after a click or impression a conversion is still credited to your ad, for example 30 days. With a long sales cycle, conversions come in later, so the numbers for recent weeks keep rising.
Cookie banner (CMP)
Website and analytics
The notice on your site where visitors accept or refuse cookies. CMP stands for consent management platform, the software behind it. Through Consent Mode, the banner passes that choice on to your Google tags.
Cost of goods sold (COGS)
FinanceEcommerceLevel: financial
What the products you sold cost you. You need it to calculate your gross margin.
Cost per booking → see CPA (cost per acquisition)
Cost per click → see CPC (cost per click)
Cost per conversion → see CPA (cost per acquisition)
Cost per enquiry → see CPL (cost per lead)
Cost per mille → see CPM (cost per mille)
Cost per qualified lead
Lead generationGoogle Ads and searchLevel: campaign
What you pay, on average, for an enquiry that fits you. The standard CPL counts every enquiry, including the ones that don't fit. If you send every enquiry to Google or Meta as a conversion, your campaign also learns to bring in people who don't fit.
Cost per qualified lead = marketing costs ÷ number of qualified leads
More: What is a KPI?
CPA (cost per acquisition)
Google Ads and searchLead generationHospitalityLevel: campaign
What you pay in ads, on average, for one conversion, also called cost per conversion. Sometimes the A stands for action. For an accommodation, this is the cost per booking.
CPA = ad spend ÷ conversions
CPC (cost per click)
Google Ads and searchSocial and emailLevel: ad
What you pay, on average, for one click on your ad. Your cost per conversion is your CPC divided by your conversion rate as a decimal. At a CPC of €2 and a conversion rate of 5%, a conversion costs €40.
CPC = ad spend ÷ clicks
CPL (cost per lead)
Lead generationGoogle Ads and searchLevel: campaign
What you pay, on average, for one enquiry, whether or not it fits you. That's the standard definition. If you'd rather steer on the enquiries that fit you, use the cost per qualified lead.
CPL = marketing costs ÷ number of leads
CPM (cost per mille)
Google Ads and searchSocial and emailLevel: ad
What you pay per thousand impressions. Mostly used for awareness campaigns and on social media.
CPM = ad spend ÷ impressions × 1,000
CPQL → see Cost per qualified lead
CRM (customer relationship management)
General marketingLead generation
Software, and the way of working behind it, for keeping track of your contacts and customers. With a properly connected CRM, you see what happens after the click, such as which enquiry became a customer and what that customer brought in.
More: Why Google Ads and your CRM never agree, and which one to trust
CRO (conversion rate optimisation)
Website and analytics
Improving your site or landing page so more visitors convert, using analysis and tests such as A/B tests.
Cross-sell
EcommerceHospitality
Offering a customer another, complementary product, such as breakfast with a stay. That also raises your order value.
CTR (click-through rate)
Google Ads and searchSocial and emailLevel: ad
The percentage of people who click on your ad after seeing it. A high CTR can also come from curious people who never buy. It mainly helps you judge whether your ad appeals.
CTR = clicks ÷ impressions × 100
Customer journey
General marketing
The whole route a customer takes, from the first time they hear of you to after the purchase, across all channels. Broader than a funnel, because it also covers what happens after the sale.
Customer lifetime value → see CLV (customer lifetime value)
D
D2C → see DTC or D2C (direct-to-consumer)
Dashboard
BasicsWebsite and analytics
An overview that shows the same handful of KPIs in the same place every time, on your own data, with the target and a comparison next to them. A good dashboard saves you looking in five different tools.
More: Marketing dashboards
Data-driven attribution → see Attribution model (last click, data-driven)
Default channel group
Website and analytics
GA4's grouping into broad channels, such as Organic Search or Paid Social, based on source and medium. Without correct UTM tags, traffic ends up in the wrong group.
Direct traffic
Website and analytics
Visitors who type your address directly or use a bookmark. This also collects traffic whose source GA4 doesn't know, such as links in apps or emails without a UTM tag.
Direct-to-consumer → see DTC or D2C (direct-to-consumer)
Distribution (distribution channels)
General marketingEcommerceHospitality
The channels you sell through, such as your own website or a marketplace. In hospitality, it's about the split between your own site and booking platforms. That distribution mix decides how much commission you pay.
Distribution mix → see Distribution (distribution channels)
DTC or D2C (direct-to-consumer)
General marketingEcommerce
Selling directly to consumers through your own channels, with no wholesaler or shop in between. You keep more margin and own the customer data, but you also pay for winning every customer yourself.
Dynamic pricing
HospitalityEcommerce
Prices that move with demand: higher when you're nearly full or in peak periods, lower when you're behind last year.
E
EBITDA
FinanceLevel: profit
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation. It shows what your operations bring in, regardless of how you're financed. It's a common measure when valuing a business.
Engagement rate
Website and analyticsSocial and emailLevel: ad
In GA4: the share of engaged sessions. A session is engaged if it lasts longer than ten seconds, includes at least two page views or contains a conversion. On social media: interactions such as reactions or clicks, divided by reach or followers. Which denominator depends on the platform.
Engagement rate = engaged sessions ÷ sessions × 100 (GA4)
Enhanced conversions
Google Ads and searchWebsite and analyticsLevel: campaign
A Google Ads feature that sends hashed customer data, such as an email address, along with a conversion. That lets Google link more conversions to the right ad, even when cookies are missing. There's also a version for leads that links offline conversions without a GCLID. Your privacy and consent obligations still apply.
Extensions → see Assets (extensions)
F
First-party data
General marketingWebsite and analytics
Data you collect yourself from your customers and visitors, such as your customer list or purchase history. You use it for example for lookalike audiences or offline conversion import.
Form started
Lead generationWebsite and analyticsLevel: ad
The number of people who start filling in your form. Next to the number of forms sent, it shows where people drop out.
Frequency
Google Ads and searchSocial and emailLevel: ad
How often the same person saw your ad, on average. A low frequency can mean people see your message too rarely. A high one can point to saturation. What's too low or too high depends on your campaign and your audience.
Frequency = impressions ÷ reach
Funnel
General marketing
The steps someone goes through from first contact to customer. At every step people drop out, which is why it's called a funnel.
G
GA4 (Google Analytics 4)
Website and analytics
Google's free analytics platform that measures what visitors do on your site. The numbers almost always differ from your ad platforms and your accounts, partly because of cookie refusals and different ways of attributing.
More: Why Google Ads and your CRM never agree, and which one to trust
GCLID (Google click ID)
Google Ads and searchWebsite and analyticsLevel: ad
A code Google Ads adds to the link with every click on your ad. If you store it with an enquiry, you can later report which click became a customer.
Generative engine optimisation → see GEO (generative engine optimisation)
GEO (generative engine optimisation)
Google Ads and searchWebsite and analytics
Improving your visibility in the answers of generative AI, such as ChatGPT or Google's AI Overviews. The aim is for those answers to mention your brand or cite your site as a source. How these systems choose their sources is only partly known. You measure it by regularly asking those assistants the questions your audience asks, and tracking who gets mentioned.
Google Merchant Center
Google Ads and searchEcommerce
The platform where you submit your product feed to Google. From there, Google uses your products for Shopping ads and for free product listings.
Google Search Console
Website and analyticsGoogle Ads and search
A free Google tool that shows which searches your site appears for, how often people click and what average position you had. You use it to track your SEO.
Google Shopping
Google Ads and searchEcommerceLevel: campaign
Ads with a product photo and price in Google, built from your product feed. You don't bid on keywords. Google decides itself which searches your products fit, based on the data in your feed.
Google Tag Manager → see GTM (Google Tag Manager or go-to-market)
GOPPAR (gross operating profit per available room)
FinanceHospitalityLevel: financial
The operating result per available room or night. That's your revenue minus the costs of running your accommodation, such as staff and cleaning, but before fixed costs such as rent and depreciation. Where RevPAR only looks at revenue, GOPPAR shows what's left after those costs.
GOPPAR = gross operating profit ÷ available nights
Go-to-market → see GTM (Google Tag Manager or go-to-market)
Gross margin
FinanceEcommerceLevel: financial
What's left of your revenue after buying in your products, as a percentage. Revenue alone says little. An online shop that sells 20% more by discounting everything can earn less than last year.
Gross margin = (revenue − cost of goods) ÷ revenue × 100
More: What is a KPI?
GSC → see Google Search Console
GTM (Google Tag Manager or go-to-market)
Website and analyticsGeneral marketing
Two meanings. In analytics and advertising: Google Tag Manager, a free Google tool for managing tags on your site, such as the GA4 tag or the Meta Pixel, without changing your site's code each time. In strategy: go-to-market, the plan for bringing a product or service to market, with your target audience and the channels you sell through.
H
Holdout test (incrementality test)
Google Ads and searchLevel: campaign
A test where you deliberately show no ads to a group of people or a region, and compare it with the rest. The difference shows what your ads added, see incrementality.
Hook rate
Social and emailLevel: ad
For video ads on Meta: what share of the people who saw your video kept watching for the first three seconds. It shows whether your opening grabs attention. This is a common definition, not a fixed Meta metric. Some divide by video starts instead of impressions.
Hook rate = 3-second views ÷ impressions × 100
I
Impressions
Google Ads and searchSocial and emailLevel: ad
How often your ad was shown. An impression doesn't tell you whether someone saw it, let alone bought anything.
Incrementality
BasicsGoogle Ads and search
The part of your results that wouldn't have happened without the campaign. An ad on your own brand name or a remarketing campaign can get credited with conversions from people who would have bought without the ad anyway. How big that part is depends on your situation, for example your price and your competitors.
Incrementality test → see Holdout test (incrementality test)
Indexing
Website and analyticsGoogle Ads and search
Whether Google has added a page to its index. A page that isn't indexed doesn't appear anywhere in search results. In Search Console you can see per page whether it's indexed.
K
Key event
Website and analyticsGoogle Ads and searchLevel: campaign
An action on your site that you mark as important in GA4, such as a purchase or a submitted form. Until 2024, GA4 called this a conversion. In Google Ads it's still called a conversion. You can import key events from GA4 or measure conversions directly in Google Ads.
Keyword
Google Ads and searchLevel: ad
The word or phrase you bid on in Google Ads. You choose it yourself, and the match type decides which search terms your ad may appear for. What someone typed is the search term.
KPI (key performance indicator)
Basics
A number you choose to track whether you're reaching your goal, and that you steer by. When it moves, you make a decision. Of all the numbers you can measure, KPIs are the few that say something about how your business is doing. Which numbers are KPIs depends on your goal and on the level. What's a metric for the business owner can be exactly the KPI for a campaign.
More: What is a KPI?
L
Lagging indicator
Basics
A KPI that only moves once things have already happened, such as revenue or profit. It tells you whether you reached your goal, but leaves you little time to adjust. The higher a KPI sits in your business, the later it usually moves.
More: What is a KPI?
Lagging KPI → see Lagging indicator
Landing page
Website and analyticsGoogle Ads and searchLevel: ad
The page someone lands on after clicking your ad or a Google result. Match it to the search and the ad. That helps your conversion rate and your Quality Score.
Last click → see Attribution model (last click, data-driven)
Lead
Lead generationLevel: business model
In marketing: someone who shows interest and leaves their details, for example through a form or on WhatsApp. A lead isn't a customer yet.
Lead generation
Lead generation
Everything you do to bring in enquiries, such as ads or content. Judge it on the number of enquiries that fit you.
Lead time → see Booking window
Leading indicator
Basics
A KPI that moves before your results follow. The number of quote requests or new bookings for next season are leading: if they drop today, you see it in your revenue weeks or months later. Leading indicators give you time to adjust.
More: What is a KPI?
Leading KPI → see Leading indicator
Lead-to-customer rate
Lead generationLevel: business model
What share of your qualified leads signs. It depends on, among other things, how fast you respond and which channel the lead comes from.
Lead-to-customer rate = new customers ÷ qualified leads × 100
More: What is a KPI?
Limited by budget
Google Ads and searchLevel: campaign
A status in Google Ads that tells you your campaign could have had more impressions with a higher daily budget. You can then raise the budget or narrow the campaign, for example with fewer keywords or a smaller area.
Liquidity
FinanceLevel: profit
Whether your business can pay its bills in the short term. It compares what you have available quickly, such as money in the bank, with what you have to pay soon.
LLM (large language model)
General marketingWebsite and analytics
The kind of AI behind assistants such as ChatGPT or Gemini. It writes answers based on patterns in large amounts of text. What an LLM says about your business depends on what can be found about you online.
LLMO → see GEO (generative engine optimisation)
Lookalike audience
Social and email
An audience Meta builds from people who resemble a list you provide, such as your customers. That way you reach new people with a similar profile.
LTV (lifetime value) → see CLV (customer lifetime value)
M
Margin per job
FinanceLead generationLevel: financial
What's left of a job after the costs of doing it. For a business that works with quotes, the equivalent of gross margin.
Margin per night
FinanceHospitalityLevel: financial
What a booked night earns you after the costs that come with it, such as cleaning or booking platform commission.
Marketing cost per booking
FinanceHospitalityLevel: financial
What you spend on marketing, on average, for one booking, across all channels together, including booking platform commission if you count it.
Marketing cost per booking = marketing costs ÷ number of bookings
Marketing costs as % of revenue
FinanceLevel: financial
What share of your revenue goes to marketing. Useful for comparing across months or years, and for seeing whether your growth is in proportion to what it costs. The inverse is MER.
Marketing costs as % of revenue = marketing costs ÷ revenue × 100
Marketing mix
General marketing
The choices that together shape your marketing, classically summed up as the four Ps: product, price, place and promotion.
Marketing mix modelling → see MMM (marketing mix modelling)
Match types
Google Ads and searchLevel: ad
How broadly Google may interpret a keyword. Exact shows your ad for searches with the same meaning, phrase for searches that include the meaning, and broad for anything Google considers related.
MER (marketing efficiency ratio) or blended ROAS
FinanceGoogle Ads and searchLevel: financial
Your total revenue divided by your marketing costs, across all channels together. Where ROAS per campaign looks at what a platform credits to itself, MER looks at the whole. That way you avoid channels counting the same sale twice. Agree up front whether you count only ad spend or all marketing costs.
MER = total revenue ÷ total marketing costs
More: Why Google Ads and your CRM never agree, and which one to trust
Meta description
Website and analyticsGoogle Ads and search
The short description under the title in search results. It doesn't count directly towards your ranking. It does help decide whether someone clicks. Google sometimes picks different text from your page itself.
Meta Pixel and Conversions API
Social and emailWebsite and analytics
The ways your site tells Meta what visitors do. The pixel works in the browser, the Conversions API directly from your server or CRM. Together they capture more conversions, for example when a browser blocks the pixel. The Conversions API doesn't release you from your privacy and consent obligations.
Metric
Basics
Anything you can measure: impressions, clicks, visitors, followers, time on page. A metric becomes a KPI once you steer by it. Every KPI can be unfolded into the metrics that explain it, and one level down those metrics are KPIs themselves.
More: What is a KPI?
MMM (marketing mix modelling)
Google Ads and searchWebsite and analytics
A statistical method that estimates from historical data how much each channel contributes to your sales, without tracking clicks or cookies. You do need a few years of data for it.
MQL and SQL
Lead generationLevel: business model
Two steps in qualifying a lead. An MQL (marketing qualified lead) fits your target audience on paper. An SQL (sales qualified lead) has been judged a real opportunity by you or your salesperson. Mostly used in businesses with a separate sales team.
N
Negative keyword
Google Ads and searchLevel: ad
A word for which your ad must not appear, for example "free" or "jobs". Negatives keep your budget away from searches that never turn into customers.
Negative keywords → see Negative keyword
Net margin
FinanceLevel: financial
What share of your revenue is left as profit, after all costs.
Net margin = net profit ÷ revenue × 100
New customers
EcommerceLead generationLevel: business model
The number of people buying from you or signing for the first time. Together with your marketing costs, it determines your CAC.
No-show
HospitalityLevel: business model
A guest who has booked but doesn't turn up, without cancelling. The no-show rate is the share of your bookings where that happens.
O
Occupancy → see Occupancy rate
Occupancy rate
HospitalityLevel: business model
What share of your available nights is booked. Always look at it together with price. Being full with heavy discounts can bring in less than being a bit less full at a better price.
Occupancy rate = booked nights ÷ available nights × 100
More: What is a KPI?
Offline conversion import
Google Ads and searchLead generationLevel: campaign
Telling Google Ads afterwards which clicks led to a customer or a qualified lead, for example from your CRM. Google links it to the ad through the GCLID or through enhanced conversions. That way your campaigns learn to steer on enquiries that fit you.
More: What is a KPI?
Open rate
Social and emailLevel: campaign
What share of recipients opened your email. Since Apple Mail Privacy Protection started preloading emails automatically, this number is often too high. Click rate is more reliable.
Open rate = opened emails ÷ delivered emails × 100
Opportunity score → see Optimisation score
Optimisation score
Google Ads and search
A percentage in Google Ads that measures how closely you follow Google's own recommendations. Meta has a similar opportunity score. It can sometimes help bring costs down, but following every suggestion can also cost you more.
Orders
EcommerceLevel: business model
The number of orders in a period. Together with order value, it determines your revenue. The number of orders is itself the result of sessions × conversion rate.
Organic traffic
Website and analytics
Visitors who come in through the normal, unpaid search results. The result of your SEO. On social media, organic means: reach without ads.
OTA (online travel agency)
Hospitality
A booking platform such as Booking.com or Airbnb. It brings reach, but you pay commission on it. Your share of direct bookings shows how dependent you are on them.
P
Pace → see Bookings on the books (pace)
Page views
Website and analytics
How often pages on your site were viewed. A high number isn't necessarily good news. People who search and can't find anything also view lots of pages.
Paid search → see PPC (pay per click)
Performance Max
Google Ads and searchLevel: campaign
A campaign type in Google Ads that shows ads on Search and YouTube, among others from one budget. Google largely automates where and to whom your ads appear, within the signals and exclusions you provide. You have less direct control over search terms and placements, and reporting is more limited than in a standard search campaign.
Pick-up
HospitalityLevel: business model
How many bookings or nights were added in a certain period for a future date, for example in the past week for August. It shows how quickly your season is filling up.
Pipeline (value of open quotes)
Lead generationLevel: business model
The sum of all quotes that have been sent but not yet signed or turned down. A leading indicator: when that value drops, your revenue follows later.
POAS (profit on ad spend)
Google Ads and searchEcommerceLevel: campaign
Like ROAS, but with profit instead of revenue. That profit is what's left of the sale after cost of goods and other variable costs, before your ad spend. At a POAS of 1, you then earn back exactly what you spent on ads. Useful when your products have very different margins. Tools don't all count the same costs, so agree which ones you include.
POAS = profit before ad spend ÷ ad spend
PPC (pay per click)
Google Ads and search
Advertising where you pay per click, as in Google Ads. In the UK, the usual word for paid search.
Product feed
Google Ads and searchEcommerce
A file with all your products and their details, such as title and price, that you submit to Google or Meta. The quality of your feed helps decide which searches your products appear for.
Product mix
EcommerceLevel: financial
Which products sell in which proportion. If your sales shift towards products with a lower margin, your gross margin drops, even when your revenue rises.
Profit
FinanceLevel: profit
What's left of your revenue once all costs are paid. For every commercial business, the KPI at the top. Profit is also the slowest number. You only know it once everything has already happened, which is why you steer by the KPIs below it.
More: What is a KPI?
Profit on ad spend → see POAS (profit on ad spend)
Q
Qualified lead
Lead generationLevel: business model
An enquiry that fits you: the right kind of customer, the right kind of job, a realistic budget. The share of qualified leads is the part of all your enquiries that meets those conditions. You can let Google and Meta know afterwards which enquiries fitted, so your campaigns steer on those.
More: What is a KPI?
Quality Score
Google Ads and searchLevel: ad
A score from 1 to 10 that Google Ads gives each keyword. It depends on your expected CTR, how relevant your ad is and the experience on your landing page. The score itself doesn't count in the auction, it's a diagnosis. The quality behind it can help your Ad Rank.
R
Rate parity
Hospitality
The agreement that you don't sell cheaper on your own site than on booking platforms.
Reach
Google Ads and searchSocial and emailLevel: ad
How many different people saw your ad or post at least once. In an awareness campaign, you steer by reach. In a sales campaign, it's background at most.
Referral traffic
Website and analytics
Visitors who come in through a link on another website, such as a partner or an article.
Remarketing (retargeting)
Google Ads and searchSocial and emailLevel: campaign
Showing ads to people who have visited your site before. Google calls it remarketing, other platforms retargeting. Remarketing can get the credit for purchases that would have happened without the ad anyway.
Repeat purchases
EcommerceLevel: business model
Orders from customers who bought before. The basis for both your repeat rate and your repeat customer share.
More: Why your most loyal customers are leaving without you noticing
Repeat rate (repeat customer rate)
EcommerceLevel: business model
What share of your customers buys again. Not to be confused with repeat customer share, which is about your sales. Preferably compare customers who have been customers for the same length of time, or older customers will have had more chance to buy again.
Repeat rate = customers with more than one order ÷ all customers × 100
More: Why your most loyal customers are leaving without you noticing
Retargeting → see Remarketing (retargeting)
Retention
EcommerceLevel: business model
What share of a group of customers is still buying after a fixed period, for example after 90 days or a year. Calculate per cohort, so you compare customers over the same period. With the same group and period, retention is the opposite of churn.
Retention = customers from the cohort who bought again after the period ÷ customers in the cohort × 100
More: Why your most loyal customers are leaving without you noticing
Retention rate → see Retention
Return on ad spend → see ROAS (return on ad spend)
Return rate
EcommerceLevel: business model
What share of your orders gets sent back. A high return rate eats into your margin, even when your revenue looks fine, and makes the conversion value in ad platforms too optimistic.
Return rate = returned orders ÷ all orders × 100
Revenue
FinanceEcommerceLevel: business model
Everything you sell, before costs come off. Revenue can go up while your profit goes down, for example when you grow through discounts or expensive ads.
Revenue management
Hospitality
Managing price and availability to get as much as possible out of every available night. It works with figures such as RevPAR and bookings on the books.
Revenue per available room → see RevPAR (revenue per available room)
Revenue per session
EcommerceWebsite and analyticsLevel: business model
How much revenue one visit to your online shop brings in, on average. It combines conversion rate and order value. It can go up while your revenue goes down, if the number of sessions drops further.
Revenue per session = revenue ÷ sessions = conversion rate × order value
More: What is a KPI?
RevPAR (revenue per available room)
HospitalityLevel: business model
Revenue per available night. It brings occupancy and price together in one number. For a network with many locations, the average alone is too rough. Split it per location to see where the problem is.
RevPAR = revenue from stays ÷ available nights = ADR × occupancy rate (as a decimal)
More: What is a KPI?
ROAS (return on ad spend)
Google Ads and searchEcommerceHospitalityLevel: campaign
How much conversion value you get back for every euro of ad spend. At a ROAS of 4, every euro brings in €4 of conversion value. For an accommodation, you calculate with booking value. A high ROAS on products with little margin brings in little, which is why break-even ROAS and POAS exist. The ROAS a platform shows credits sales based on clicks and impressions. That's not the same as what your ads added, see incrementality.
ROAS = conversion value ÷ ad spend
ROI (return on investment)
FinanceGoogle Ads and searchLevel: financial
What an investment brought in, compared with what it cost. For marketing, you calculate with the profit the campaign brought in. ROAS uses revenue, and that's where they differ.
ROI = (return − cost) ÷ cost × 100
RSA (responsive search ad)
Google Ads and searchLevel: ad
The standard text ad in Google Ads. You give up to fifteen headlines and four descriptions, and Google puts together the combination that seems to work best for each search.
S
Sales cycle
Lead generationLevel: business model
How long it takes from first contact to a signed job. It also decides when you can judge a campaign. With a sales cycle of six weeks, a two-week campaign tells you nothing yet about customers.
Sales cycle = average number of days between first contact and signed job
More: What is a KPI?
Schema → see Structured data (schema)
SEA (search engine advertising)
Google Ads and search
Paid advertising in search engines, such as Google Ads. The common term in the Netherlands and Belgium. In the UK, people usually say PPC or paid search.
Search intent
Google Ads and searchWebsite and analytics
What someone wants with a search: to learn something, compare something, or buy or book something. Your ad and your page need to answer that intent, or people click but nothing happens.
Search query → see Search term
Search term
Google Ads and searchLevel: ad
The search someone typed into Google, after which your ad appeared. One keyword can match dozens of search terms. On the phrase match keyword "marketing consultant", for example, your ad can appear for "marketing consultant london" or "freelance marketing consultant rates". The search terms report in Google Ads shows which search terms brought clicks and conversions. That's also where you find the searches you want to exclude.
Search terms report → see Search term
Search volume
Google Ads and searchWebsite and analytics
How often a search is made per month on average. You find it in the Google Ads Keyword Planner. The figures are rounded estimates, useful for comparing.
Segmentation
Social and emailGeneral marketing
Dividing your customers or contacts into groups that are alike, for example new and returning customers, so you can send each group a fitting message.
SEM (search engine marketing)
Google Ads and search
Marketing through search engines. Sometimes it means SEO and paid search together, sometimes only the paid side.
SEO (search engine optimisation)
Google Ads and searchWebsite and analytics
Everything you do to rank higher in Google's normal, unpaid search results: your content, the technical side of your site and links from other sites.
SERP (search engine results page)
Google Ads and searchWebsite and analytics
The page of search results Google shows. It contains ads and normal results, sometimes with an AI answer above them.
Server-side tagging
Website and analytics
Running tags on your own server instead of in the visitor's browser. You have more control over which data you pass on, and browsers block less. It needs a technical setup and doesn't release you from consent.
Session
Website and analytics
One visit to your website. In GA4, a session ends by default after half an hour without activity. Someone who visits twice in a day with more than half an hour in between counts as two sessions.
Shopping campaign → see Google Shopping
SMART
Basics
A KPI target is SMART when it's specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. Example: "Cost per new customer drops from €42 to €35 by the end of March." You know which number has to move, you can measure it, it's been done before, it helps your profit and there's a date on it.
More: What is a KPI?
Smart Bidding
Google Ads and searchLevel: campaign
Google Ads' automated bidding strategies that bid in each auction based on the likelihood of a conversion. They become more reliable as more and better conversion data comes in, and only work well if you count the right actions as conversions.
Solvency
FinanceLevel: profit
Whether your business can carry all its debts in the long term. It shows how much of your business is funded with its own money, compared with borrowed money.
Source/medium
Website and analytics
In GA4: where a visitor comes from. The source is the place, such as google or newsletter. The medium is the type of traffic, such as cpc or organic. Together you read, for example, google / cpc for Google Ads.
Structured data (schema)
Website and analyticsGoogle Ads and search
Extra code on your page that tells search engines in a fixed format what's on it, such as an article or a list of definitions. It can extend your listing in Google and help AI systems read your content.
T
Target
Basics
The number you want a KPI to reach, such as €35 per new customer. Without a target and without a comparison with last month or last year, it's hard to tell whether a number is good or bad.
More: What is a KPI?
Target audience
General marketingSocial and email
The group of people you want to reach with your marketing. Describe them sharply, and your ads and copy will fit better.
Target CPA (tCPA)
Google Ads and searchLead generationLevel: campaign
A Google Ads bidding strategy where you set what a conversion may cost on average. Google then bids in each auction to stay within that cost.
Target ROAS (tROAS)
Google Ads and searchLevel: campaign
A Google Ads bidding strategy where you set the ROAS you want to reach. Google then bids in each auction to hit that ROAS. Set it too high and your volume shrinks.
tCPA → see Target CPA (tCPA)
Title tag
Website and analyticsGoogle Ads and search
The title of a page, which Google usually shows as the clickable headline in search results. It counts towards your ranking and helps decide whether people click.
TRevPAR (total revenue per available room)
HospitalityLevel: business model
Like RevPAR, but including all revenue: breakfast or activities too. Useful if you earn a lot on top of the stay itself.
TRevPAR = total revenue ÷ available nights
tROAS → see Target ROAS (tROAS)
U
Unsubscribe rate
Social and emailLevel: campaign
What share of recipients unsubscribes after an email. A rise can point to too many emails or content that doesn't fit.
Unsubscribe rate = unsubscribes ÷ delivered emails × 100
Upsell
EcommerceHospitality
Offering a customer a more expensive version or an upgrade of what they're already buying, such as a larger accommodation or a late check-out. It raises your order value.
User
Website and analytics
In GA4: a browser or device that visited your site, not necessarily one person. Someone who visits on their phone and their laptop counts as two users. Because of cookie refusals, you don't see everyone either.
USP (unique selling point)
General marketing
What sets you apart from competitors, and why a customer chooses you. A good USP is concrete and hard to copy.
UTM tag
Website and analytics
A piece added to a link, such as ?utm_source=newsletter, that tells GA4 where a visitor came from. Without a UTM tag, visitors from emails and social posts often end up under direct traffic.
V
Vanity metric
Basics
A number that looks good in a report but says little about your business, such as followers or impressions. It can be useful for adjusting a campaign. As a KPI it's dangerous, because it can go up while your revenue falls.
View-through conversion
Google Ads and searchSocial and emailLevel: campaign
A conversion from someone who saw your ad but didn't click it, and later bought or enquired anyway. Platforms sometimes count these in their results. Whether the ad caused it remains uncertain.