Glossary

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Strategy & Planning Acronyms

For building the big picture: where are you going, and how will you get there?
 

• SWOT — Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats
  Used during business planning or before major launches.
  Example: “Let’s do a quick SWOT before launching this rebrand.”

• OKR — Objectives and Key Results
  A goal-setting framework.
  Example: “Our Q2 OKRs include increasing site traffic by 30%.”

• KPI — Key Performance Indicator
  Your north star metrics.
  Example: “Customer acquisition cost is a key KPI for our growth strategy.”

• ROI — Return on (marketing) Investment
  How much you got back compared to what you spent.
  Example: “The MROI on that campaign was 250%.”

• TAM — Total Addressable Market
  The full market demand for your product or service.
  Example: “Our TAM in MENA is growing—let’s capture more share.”

Acquisition & Performance Marketing Acronyms

For attracting new leads and converting them into paying customers.
 

• CPC — Cost Per Click
  Amount you pay per ad click.
  Example: “Our CPC is too high — let’s adjust targeting.”

• CPA — Cost Per Acquisition
  Cost to acquire a new customer or lead.
  Example: “We want a lower CPA for newsletter signups.”

• CTR — Click-Through Rate
  % of people who click your link after seeing it.
  Example: “The new subject line doubled our CTR.”

• CVR — Conversion Rate
  % of visitors who take a desired action.
  Example: “CVR dropped after the landing page change.”

• CAC — Customer Acquisition Cost
  Total cost to acquire a new customer.
  Example: “We’re tracking CAC vs. LTV closely.”

• LTV or CLTV — Customer Lifetime Value
  Total revenue expected from a customer over time.
  Example: “High LTV customers get better offers.”

• SEM — Search Engine Marketing
  Paid search marketing (Google Ads, Bing).
  Example: “Our SEM spend is highest in Q4.”

• SEO — Search Engine Optimization
  Improving rankings in unpaid search results.
  Example: “We optimized our blog for SEO ranking.”

• PPC — Pay-Per-Click
  A model of digital advertising where you pay for clicks.
  Example: “We paused PPC to focus on organic growth.”

Customer Relationship & Growth Acronyms

For keeping the customers you have—and getting them to spend more.
 

• CRM — Customer Relationship Management
  Software to manage interactions with customers.
  Example: “We use HubSpot as our CRM.”

• NPS — Net Promoter Score
  A measure of customer loyalty based on how likely they are to recommend you.
  Example: “Our NPS dropped after shipping delays.”

• CSAT — Customer Satisfaction Score
  Survey-based satisfaction metric.
  Example: “CSAT surveys are sent post-support.”

• ARPU — Average Revenue Per User/Unit
  How much each user brings in, on average.
  Example: “We’re testing bundles to boost ARPU.”

• Churn — Customer Attrition Rate
  The % of customers who leave.
  Example: “Reducing churn is a Q3 priority.”

Social Media, Content, & Engagement Acronyms

For managing content, creators, and community.
 

• UGC — User-Generated Content
  Content created by your customers or fans.
  Example: “We showcase UGC weekly on Instagram.”

• SOV — Share of Voice
  Your visibility compared to competitors.
  Example: “We gained SOV during the campaign.”

• DM — Direct Message
  Private message on social media.
  Example: “Reach out via DM for support.”

• KOL — Key Opinion Leader
  An influencer, often with expertise in a niche.
  Example: “We partnered with KOLs in wellness.”

• CTA — Call to Action
  The button, link, or phrase prompting the next step.
  Example: “Every ad must have a clear CTA.”

• Impressions — Total number of times your content is displayed.
  Example: “Impressions were high, but engagement low.”

• Engagement Rate — % of people who interacted with your content.
  Example: “Our engagement rate tripled post-rebrand.”

Testing & Experimentation Acronyms

Fine-tune what works through data-backed optimization.
 

• A/B Testing — Comparing two versions to see which performs better.
  Example: “We A/B tested our homepage CTA and the red button won.”

• MVT — Multivariate Testing: testing multiple variables simultaneously.
  Example: “Let’s run an MVT to optimize the headline-image combo.”

• UAT — User Acceptance Testing: final stage before launch to ensure the product meets user expectations.
  Example: “We’re doing UAT before launching the new dashboard.”

Marketing Automation & Lifecycle Acronyms

Support full-funnel growth and customer retention through smart sequencing.
 

• DRIP — Drip Marketing: scheduled series of automated messages.
  Example: “New subscribers enter our welcome DRIP sequence.”

• RFM — Recency, Frequency, Monetary: a segmentation model to identify high-value customers.
  Example: “Use RFM to prioritize loyal spenders in our loyalty campaign.”

• LTV:CAC — Ratio of customer value to acquisition cost.
  Example: “An LTV:CAC of 5:1 means our campaign is highly efficient.”
   

Behavioral & Psychological Acronyms

Marketing is all about Psychology.
 

• FOMO — Fear of Missing Out: a psychological trigger used in urgency-based marketing.Example: “We added a countdown timer to trigger FOMO.”

• FOC — Fear of Change: often cited in resistance to adopting new products.
  Example: “Let’s position this as an upgrade to address FOC concerns.”

• CTA Psychology — Behavioral triggers applied to Calls to Action.
  Example: “The verb-first CTA saw a 32% lift in clicks.”
   

Web Development & UX Acronyms

When marketing meets engineering—bridge the gap.
 

• UX — User Experience: overall ease and delight of interacting with a site or product.
  Example: “Our cart UX was blocking checkouts—time to streamline.”

• UI — User Interface: design and layout of interactive elements.
  Example: “The new UI doubled form submissions.”

• CRO — Conversion Rate Optimization: improving user flow to increase actions.
  Example: “CRO experiments raised signups by 18%.”

• FCP — First Contentful Paint: web performance metric tracking load speed.
  Example: “We reduced FCP to under 2s for mobile users.”
   

Voice Search & AI Optimization Acronyms

Stay future-ready and voice-assistant friendly.
 

• VEO — Voice Engine Optimization: optimizing content for spoken search queries.
  Example: “Our FAQ page was rebuilt with VEO in mind.”

• NLP — Natural Language Processing: AI’s ability to understand human language.
  Example: “Chatbots use NLP to answer complex customer questions.”

• SERP Features — Specialized listings in Google results like snippets and FAQs.
  Example: “Let’s structure our content to win the FAQ SERP feature.”
   

Sales & Revenue Operations Acronyms

Where sales funnels meet financial forecasts.
 

• BANT — Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline: lead qualification framework.
  Example: “Let’s BANT these leads before passing them to sales.”

• ABM — Account-Based Marketing: targeting high-value accounts with personalized campaigns.
  Example: “We’re running an ABM campaign for the top 20 clients.”

• MRR — Monthly Recurring Revenue: key SaaS revenue metric.
  Example: “Our MRR has grown 12% month-over-month.”

• ARR — Annual Recurring Revenue: annualized version of MRR.
  Example: “ARR growth is a strong VC selling point.”

• TTV — Time to Value: how quickly a user gains benefit from your product.
  *Example: “Reducing TTV improves onboarding retention.”
   

AdTech Acronyms

For anyone playing in the programmatic sandbox.
 

• SSP — Supply-Side Platform: tech that helps publishers manage ad space.
  Example: “We increased yield using a smarter SSP integration.”

• DSP — Demand-Side Platform: tech that enables advertisers to buy ad space in real-time.
  Example: “Our agency is running the campaign via a DSP.”

• DMP — Data Management Platform: used for audience targeting across campaigns.
  Example: “The DMP lets us retarget based on behavioral segments.”

• RTB — Real-Time Bidding: automated auction of ad impressions.
  Example: “We optimized our RTB bids for higher viewability.”
   

Finance & Attribution Acronyms

Critical for justifying your budget and scaling profitably.
 

• MER — Marketing Efficiency Ratio: Revenue ÷ Ad Spend.
  Example: “Our MER dropped after we added TikTok.”

• ROAS — Return on Ad Spend: measures direct revenue vs. ad cost.
  Example: “That funnel drove 7x ROAS.”

• TCO — Total Cost of Ownership: includes all long-term costs of a solution.
  Example: “TCO is key for enterprise SaaS selection.”

• ROMI — Return on Marketing Investment: ROI specific to marketing initiatives.
  Example: “We present ROMI at quarterly board reviews.”
   

Email & Deliverability Acronyms

If your emails aren’t landing, nothing else matters.
 

• CTO — Click-to-Open Rate: clicks ÷ opens.
  Example: “CTO improved with personalized subject lines.”

• DKIM — DomainKeys Identified Mail: email authentication to prevent spoofing.
  Example: “Gmail flagged us until we fixed DKIM.”

• SPF — Sender Policy Framework: another authentication standard.
  Example: “SPF misconfigurations can kill deliverability.”

• DMARC — Domain-based Message Authentication Reporting and Conformance.
  Example: “DMARC lets you monitor spoof attempts.”