Top 33 Digital Marketing Terms You Need to Understand

Digital marketing has become increasingly important to many businesses over the past several years. Today's marketers must be digitally savvy in order to effectively reach their customers. An average of 78% of internet shoppers conduct product research online, and 83% of marketers feel that Facebook and other social media platforms are critical to their business. Do you understand these key digital marketing terms?

1. A/B Testing:Testing one facet of a campaign against another to see which assets your consumers prefer.
2. Analytics: Metrics that analyze the effectiveness of marketing campaign performance.
3. Automation: Setting specific marketing processes up to run automatically, rather than needing direct input from your staff.
4. Attribution: How you determine what factors contributed to a consumer's conversion.
5. Backlinking: Building links from other sources back to your website for SEO purposes.
6. Bounce Rate: What percentage of consumers move away from your website after visiting a specific page.
7. Brand Awareness: Consumers' general level of awareness of your brand, what sets you apart, and what you have to offer.
8. Call-to-Action: The specific wording that tells consumers what they should do next, whether that is to make a purchase, sign up for your email list, or connect with your brand in a specific way.
9. Click-Through Rate: The number of consumers who click through a specific ad, email, or piece of content.
10. Competitive Analysis: An analysis of where you stand in the market compared to your competitors. It may include evaluating what you have to offer versus what they can offer, where they're advertising, and what your place is in your industry.
11. Conversion Rate: The percentage of consumers who convert after interacting with your business in a specific way.
12. Cost Per Click: Also described as CPC, the actual cost per customer who clicks on a specific digital ad.
13. Cost Per Thousand: Also known as CPM, or cost per mille [thousand], the average cost per thousand customers who click on or view a specific ad.
14. Email Marketing: A marketing strategy that utilizes email to connect with consumers. Your email marketing strategy may include automated emails as well as specific emails sent out during sales or when you want consumers to take specific actions.
15. Engagement Rate: The rate of consumers who engage with your content, including liking or commenting on social media.
16. Hashtags: The hashtag (#) symbol in front of a specific piece of content connects it to other content within a specific campaign or category connected to your business.
17. Insights: Marketing insights provide you with critical information about your target market based on deep data analysis.
18. Impressions: The number of people who view, but do not necessarily interact with, a piece of marketing content.
19. Key Performance Indicators: The factors you track in order to determine the success of your campaign.
20. Keywords: Specific words that you use to highlight your products, usually the terms that people use to look up information on your industry via a search engine.
21. Landing Page: A specific, simple page that consumers "land" on when clicking a link after viewing a particular piece of marketing content.
22. Metrics: Measurable values used to assess the effectiveness of a marketing campaign.
23. Meta Descriptions: An HTML attribute that provides a brief summary of a website or piece of content for search engine purposes.
24. Organic Search Traffic: Traffic that comes to your website as a result of natural searches.
25. Optimization: Making sure your website has the ideal features and attributes, usually for a search engine or mobile access.
26. OTT: Over-the-top, or streaming, services. This type of content is often viewed on personal devices, so consumers can click directly from the ad to your website.
27. Paid Advertising: Advertising that you, the marketer, must pay for specifically.
28. Pay Per Click: Advertising that you pay for based on the number of clicks to your website.
29. Retargeting: Reconnecting with a consumer who has viewed your content on another platform or connected with your business in the past. Cart abandonment emails or ads are common examples of retargeting.
30. ROI: The return on your investment, or how much you make from your campaign. You may also choose to view ROI as the benefits of a specific campaign, especially one that does not focus on increasing sales.
31. Segmentation: Breaking your audience down into specific categories or segments to allow you to send out effective marketing materials targeted to each one based on their needs of where they are in their buyer’s journey.
32. SEO: Search engine optimization, or increasing the odds that your business will appear in top search results for your industry.
33. SEM: Search engine marketing, or marketing that appears on search engine pages. These ads usually appear when consumers search for specific keywords related to your industry.

Digital marketing has become an increasingly important part of your advertising efforts. By developing your understanding of key marketing terms, you can ensure that you understand the digital marketing options available to you and that you make your marketing choices based on your business's needs. Connecting with a media partner can also help give you a better overall understanding of your marketing options and how they can benefit your business.