Digital Media Marketing Glossary
Digital Marketing is constantly evolving, so we’ve compiled an up-to-date glossary of terms across key areas like SEO, SEM, and Social Media to help clarify the industry’s complexities.
Click on the letter to view terms beginning with that alphabet.
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301 Redirects
Refers to the approach used to redirect visitors from one web page to another page permanently. The “301” is used to reference the HTTP status code for the type of redirect. With this type of code, the browser is redirected from one URL to another. In general practice from maintaining SEO performance, we recommend websites to use 301 redirects instead of 302.
302 Redirects
Refers to the approach used to redirect visitors from one web page to another web page temporarily.
404 Page
An error message on a web page is given when a user tries to visit a page that has been moved, or removed
A
A/B Testing
Creating two versions of advertising or website content to determine which users respond to the most.
Ad Blocking
The blocking of Web advertisements, typically the image in graphical Web advertisements.
Ad Extensions
Additional pieces of information about a business, such as a phone number or a link to a specific page on the website can be included in ads.
Ad Network
A network that acts as an intermediary between publishers (websites) and advertisers who want to purchase ads.
Ad Sequences
Running ads in a particular defined order. This strategy allows for building interest amongst the audience and reinforcing messaging from the brand.
Algorithm
A set of rules or calculations designed to produce a specific outcome.
Alt Text
An HTML attribute that describes the image on a website. The Alt Text appears if the image on the website cannot be loaded.
Analytics
The process of collecting, measuring, and analyzing data to understand and optimize the effectiveness of a website or marketing campaign.
Anchor Text
Visible and clickable text that links to a different document or web page. Anchor text typically appears in a different colour and is often underlined.
Application Programming Interface (API)
The language that programmers or developers use to communicate with a specific piece of software or hardware.
Attribution
In marketing, attribution is the way in which marketers assess the value or return on investment of the channels that connect them to potential customers.
Audience
The group of people whom a website reaches, or has access to through a platform
Audience Targeting
Identifying a group of users who are likely interested in the product or service. These groups can be defined by demographics, interests, and online behaviour.
B
Backlink
An incoming link from one webpage to another website.
Banner Ads
A form of Display advertising. Banner ads are image ads embedded onto a web page. The ads can be static, or animated, and redirect to an external site when clicked.
Bing Ads
Paid Search advertising that appears on the sponsored section of the Bing Search Engine Results.
Blog
A website or section that features regular updates in the form of written articles or posts.
Bounce Rate
The percentage of users who visit a website and leave after only visiting one page
Business Manager
A tool developed by Facebook to allow businesses and agencies to securely manage their company’s Pages, ad accounts, and pixels in one place.
Buyer Persona
Refers to a semi-fictional character or characters used by marketers to represent different buyer types and scenarios. These characters are created from market research and real data used by existing customers and leads. Personas are used to represent real type consumers and customers that might visit the site, purchase a product, use the product, etc., in a similar manner. Marketers can combine personas with market segmentation. Qualitative personas are constructed to represent specific segments. Negative buyer personas can also be created and used to describe consumers and customers that marketers would like to avoid.
C
Call to Action (CTA)
The Call to Action is the instruction on an ad that advertisers want a user to take. Examples include: Buy Now, Learn More, etc.
Campaign
An advertising strategy that is carried out through multiple mediums and channels with shared messaging, to achieve a goal.
Chatbot
Is a computer program that simulates human conversation through voice commands or text chats or both. Chatbots can improve lead generation, qualification and nurturing. Chatbots can ask or answer questions throughout the buyer’s journey and provide information that may persuade the user and create a lead.
Click
A user intentionally interacts (clicking) with the link or ad.
Click Through Rate (CTR)
The percentage of users who click on a link or ad compared to the total users who viewed the ad.
Cloaking
The practice of presenting different content or URLs to users and search engines. Cloaking is considered a violation of Search Engine guidelines, as it presents users with different information than they expect.
Content Management System (CMS)
Computer software used to manage the creation and modification of digital content.
Content Marketing
A marketing strategy focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience, with the goal of driving profitable customer action.
Conversion
A specific action a website visitor takes, such as making a purchase or filling out a form.
Conversion Funnel
A visual representation of the journey a consumer takes through an Internet advertising or search system, navigating an e-commerce website and finally converting to a sale.
Conversion Rate
The percentage of website visitors who take a specific action, such as making a purchase or filling out a form.
Cookies
A small file placed on a user’s computer by a website that stores information about the user’s browsing activity.
Cost Per Click (CPC)
The amount an advertiser pays for a user to click on their ad.
Cost Per Lead
The amount an advertiser pays for each lead generated. In marketing, a lead is a potential customer who is interested in the product or service.
Cost Per Action (CPA)
The amount an advertiser pays for a specified type of action from users.
Cost Per Thousand (CPM)
The amount an advertiser pays for every 1000 impressions on an ad.
Crawler
Refers to an internet bot (automated piece of software) that scans websites. The bot is a systematic program typically used to index sites. The crawler “crawls” through code. Crawlers can also be referred to as “spiders.” Google is a search engine that uses crawlers to locate new content and to evaluate webpage quality for rank scoring purposes.
CSS
A language used to describe the presentation of a document written in a markup language. CSS provides a more elegant alternative to straight HTML to quickly specify the look and feel of a single web page, or a group of multiple web pages.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Technology for managing a company’s relationships and interactions with customers and potential customers.
D
Database
A structured collection of data that is stored electronically and can be accessed and manipulated by a computer.
Demographics
Characteristics about groups of people. Demographics include age, gender, income, education and employment.
Digital Marketing
Digital marketing utilizes the internet to promote products and services and can measure its impact. Digital marketing includes Search, Social Media, Video, Email and Display.
Digital Marketing Services
Refers to a digital marketing company or provider. They are online marketing specialists that promote businesses online through digital channels like websites, SEO, PPC, content marketing, and social media.
Display Advertising
Advertising that appears on websites (or a network of websites) and include banners, text, images, and video. The primary purpose of display advertising is to bring awareness to the product or service.
Dofollow
A value that can be assigned to an HTML attribute to instruct search engines that the link can directly influence the search engine rankings.
Domain Name
The unique name that identifies a website.
Domain Name System (DNS)
A naming system in which domain names are translated into IP addresses.
DoubleClick
An ad platform owned by Google that enables advertisers and media agencies to create and manage campaigns.
Duplicate Tagging
The practice of using the same title and description tags across pages on your site. It is advised to write a unique and relevant title as well as description tags for each page.
Duplicate Tagging
The practice of using the same title and description tags across pages on your site. It is advised to write a unique and relevant title as well as description tags for each page.
Dynamic Search Ads
Instead of targeting using keywords, Google dynamically generates an ad with a headline based on the query , and with text based on your most relevant landing page. This works best for brands with large websites as Google is able to generate most relevant content based on the query.
E
eCommerce
Buying and Selling Goods/Services over the internet.
Email Lists
Refers to a collection of email addresses. Marketers use email addresses to target email campaigns. Typically, email lists are grouped by user classification. Classifying the email list allows marketers to focus on the type of communication with the consumer. For example, marketers can send one type/set of emails to prospects, while another type/set to customers. Classification allows marketers to better communicate with their prospects and customers.
Email List Segmentation
Refers to a marketing technique that splits or segments an email subscriber list. The technique is used for marketers to better focus on communications with their prospects and customers. By segmenting a list, a marketer can send more relevant emails specific to the people on their list. Examples of these lists may include cart abandoners, lapsed purchasers, active purchasers and geographical, etc.
Email Marketing
A marketing strategy that involves sending targeted and personalized emails to a specific audience to promote a product or service.
Engagement
The level of interaction and involvement that a customer has with a brand or product.
Engagement Rate
Refers to the percentage of followers or viewers that engage with a post. In other words, engagement rate shows marketers/publishers how much people interact with their published piece. Various factors influence engagement such as users’ comments, shares, likes, etc. Engagement rate is a metric strongly used in analyzing social media.
Exit Rate
The percentage of website visitors who leave a site after viewing a specific page.
F
Facebook Advertising
Advertisements on the Facebook platform that allows audience targeting by location, demographics, and profile information.
Facebook Ads Manager
Refers to a Facebook tool that marketers use to create and optimize Facebook social network campaigns. Marketers can create and run ads, target ads, and offer the capability to see the ad performances and billing summary, payment history, and payment method information.
Facebook Audience Insights
Refers to a Facebook tool that marketers use to target audiences, including aggregate information regarding demographics, geography, consumer purchase behavior, and more. Facebook Audience Insights provides marketers with a look at trends in their current and potential customers across Facebook.
Facebook Business Page
A page specifically created for businesses, brands, celebrities, causes, and other organizations. Advertisers must have a Facebook Business page in order to advertise on the platform.
Facebook Profile
An individual user’s personal account on Facebook, where personal information can be shared. This includes interests, photos, videos, and current hometown and location.
Featured Snippet
Short snippets of text that appear at the top of Google’s search results in order to quickly answer a searcher’s query. Common examples include definitions, steps, tables and lists.
Floodlight
Floodlight is the conversion tracking system for Google Marketing Platform. Like other conversion tracking systems, it consists of tags that track activity on a site, along with reporting features for adding conversion data to reports.
Freemium
A business model in which a product or service is offered for free, with the option to upgrade to a paid version.
FTP
Internet protocol which facilitates the downloading and/or uploading of digital files.
G
Google Click Identifier (GCLID)
A unique tracking parameter that Google uses to transfer information between Google Ads and Google Analytics 4 (GA4) accounts.
Google Display Network (GDN)
A network of websites, videos and apps where ads can be placed.
Geo Fencing
The practice of using GPS to create a geographic perimeter (or “fence”) online. This perimeter is then used to send alerts to mobile devices that are inside this range.
Google Ads
An online advertising platform developed by Google, where advertisers bid to display advertisements, service offerings, product listings, or videos to web users. It can place ads both in the results of search engines and on non-search websites, mobile apps, and videos.
Google Analytics
A web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic.
Google Analytics 4
The new generation of Google Analytics, offers different reports and functionality than Universal Analytics. While UA only supports websites, Google Analytics 4 (GA4) can be used for websites, apps, and both together. In the future, it is slated to include advanced machine learning to fill in data gaps and preserve campaign insights.
Google Analytics 360
The paid, enterprise version of Google Analytics for large corporations (formerly known as Google Analytics Premium).
Google DV 360
Google’s Demand Side Platform for Programmatic Media Buying. It integrates data, creative, and media and allows advertisers to activate media buys with a very high degree of control.
Google Grant
An advertising grant that is available to Non-Profit organizations to create text-based Search ads, with access to tools and tracking.
Google Maps
The web mapping service created by Google. Maps includes: Route planning, traffic conditions, satellite view, street maps, and business information.
Google Marketing Platform
A unified advertising and analytics platform that enables stronger collaboration for marketing teams by building on existing integrations between DoubleClick and Google Analytics 360.
Google My Business
A service by Google which allows businesses to create accounts and profiles to manage how they appear to users on Google Search and Maps.
Google PageSpeed Tools
Google PageSpeed is a family of tools by Google Inc, designed to help a website’s performance optimizations. The tools are designed to help aid in website performance optimizations. The four main components of page speed are Page Speed Module, Page Speed Insights, Page Speed Service, and Page Speed Chrome DevTools extension. Each of the tools is constructed to recognize any issues in a site’s compliance with Google’s best practices and to automate the adjustment process.
Google Reviews
Customer reviews of a business that are eligible to appear on Maps, Search, and other Google services.
Google Search Console
A service by Google which allows webmasters to check indexing status and optimize visibility of their websites.
Google Tag Manager
Google’s tag management platform that enables marketers to deploy and track marketing data by adding code snippets to their website or app. It allows advertisers to track conversions, website analytics and retarget.
H
Hashtags
Refers to the symbol “#” that is used in social media. Hashtags are used for social media users to find content easily. Hashtags are used for broad topics, detailed topics, and niches.
Heatmap
A representation of data in the form of a map that uses colour coding to represent different values.
HTML
Stands for Hypertext Markup Language, and is the standard markup language used to create web pages.
Hreflang Tag
Refers to a website’s HTML code that provides search engines with the spoken language of the page. For sites with pages in multiple languages, Hreflang tags are especially helpful. Hreflang tags help Google to place and display pages to specific audiences, such as a Spanish speaking audience.
Hyperlink
Refers to an HTML code that is used to create a link from one webpage to another page. The HTML code often includes a highlighted word or image that will take a user directly to the location when the highlighted word or image is clicked.
I
Impression Share
The percentage of impressions an ad receives, in comparison to the total amount of impressions that ad was eligible for.
Impressions
The metric that measures the number of times an ad has been displayed to users.
Inbound Marketing
A marketing strategy that focuses on attracting customers through content and interactions that are relevant and helpful, rather than interruptive.
Index
A unified advertising and analytics platform that enables strong collaboration for marketing teams by building on existing integrations between DoubleClick and Google Analytics 360.
Influencer Marketing
A form of social media, influencer marketing leverages an influencer’s following and reputation online to promote a product or service. This can include supporting the brand, endorsing a product, or creating original content.
Invisible Text
Text that appears on a webpage in the same colour as the background. Although users are unable to see the text, search engines are still able to see the text.
Irrelevant Keywords
Adding keywords that aren’t relevant to your webpage’s content or meta tags in order to attract more traffic to the site and in hopes of raising the site’s ranking. However, since the keywords are not relevant and represents the content on your website, this may be ignored or penalized by search engines.
K
Key Performance Indicator (KPI)
A value that demonstrates how effectively a business is achieving its goals. In media, it is important to know the KPI of a campaign, in order to develop a strategy that will help to deliver the desired results.
Keyword
A specific word or phrase that is used to target and optimize content for search engines.
Keywords Density
The percentage of times a keyword or phrase appears on a web page compared to the total number of words on the page.
Keywords Research
Refers to a practice of search engine optimization used by marketers to research alternative search terms Internet users type into their search engine browser when searching for information. Keywords relevant to their topic are researched and used to achieve better search engine rankings. The keywords may also be used for Paid Search, content writing, or even for social media. Once a marketer finds a niche keyword, the marketer will expand on it to find more relevant keywords.
Keywords Stuffing
Refers to the SEO practice of overloading web pages by inserting a large amount of keywords in page content or meta tags. These keywords may be repetitive keywords or relevant keywords. SEO encourages the use of relevant keywords, but keyword stuffing may lead to poor user experience and may be penalized by Google or an algorithmic devaluation in a search. Some keywords stuffing to avoid are invisible text, irrelevant keywords, hidden text and links, and duplicate tagging.
L
Landing Page
A standalone web page, created specifically for the purpose of a marketing or advertising campaign, that is designed to direct the visitor to take a specific action, such as making a purchase or filling out a form.
Lead
A potential customer who has expressed interest in a product or service.
Lead Generation
The process of identifying and cultivating potential customers for a business.
Link Building
The process of acquiring backlinks (inbound links) from other websites to a specific webpage in order to increase its visibility and ranking in search engine results.
LinkedIn Advertising
Advertising services offered on the LinkedIn social platform. These offerings include Sponsored content, Sponsored InMail messaging, text, display and dynamic ads.
Long Tail Keywords
Longer and more specific phrases that users enter into a search engine. These keywords have a lower search volume but have a much higher conversion rate.
Lookalike Audience
A Facebook segmentation tool that targets users whose interests and/or demographics are similar to the existing audience or customers.
M
Marketing Automation
Platforms and technologies designed to more effectively advertise and market on multiple channels online and automate repetitive tasks.
Medium
The channel being used to target the audience. Examples of Digital marketing mediums include SEM, Social Media and Display advertising.
Meta Data
Data that describes information about other data. Meta Data makes finding and working with particular instances of data easier.
Meta Description
Longer and more specific phrases that users enter into a search engine. These keywords have a lower search volume but have a much higher conversion rate.
Meta Keywords
Refer to a specific type of meta tag that appears in a webpage HTML code. The meta keywords are used to help search engines to understand the webpage topic. Meta keywords appear in the source code of a page and not on the visible page.
Meta Tags
Refers to HTML snippets added to a web page’s code for web crawlers and search engines to better recognize the page content. Metadata is used for search engines to help decide relevant information from a webpage to display in search results. Meta tags include various page information such as when that page was published, the page author and title, and image descriptions.
Metrics
Data or measurements used to evaluate the performance of a website or marketing campaign.
Mobile Search
Submitting a query to a search engine from an Internet-connected handheld device, such as a smart phone. The types of information that users search for on mobile devices is typically different than computer-based searches.
N
Native Advertising
A form of online advertising that is designed to blend in with the surrounding content.
Negative Keywords
Terms that advertisers exclude from campaigns, in order to focus on keywords that are most relevant to the audience.
Nofollow
A value that can be assigned to an HTML attribute to instruct search engines that the link should not influence the search engine rankings.
O
Optimization
The process of improving the performance of a website or marketing campaign in order to achieve specific goals, such as increasing conversions or improving search engine rankings.
Organic Search
The (unpaid) results that appear on a Search Engine Results Page. The results are not influenced by advertising, and appear based on an algorithm.
P
Paid Advertising
Advertising that is purchased, such as pay-per-click (PPC) ads or sponsored posts.
Paid Search Advertising
Advertising that appears at the top of a SERP within the sponsored listings section. The advertiser does not pay unless a user clicks on the ad.
Paid Social Advertising
Displaying advertisements on Social Media platforms (such as Facebook and Instagram) used to target certain audiences.
Pixel
A tiny image referenced by a line of HTML or a block of JavaScript code embedded into a web site or third-party ad server used to track activity.
Pinterest Advertising
Refers to Pinterest social media ad service. The social media platform provides marketers with the option to pay to display ads. Pinterest ads look like regular Pins only they are displayed to a broader Pinterest audience. Pinterest users, also called Pinners, can save pins to various boards to revisit later. When the pin is a promoted pin, the user’s followers will also see the ad in their feeds.
Pay Per Click (PPC)
An online advertising model in which advertisers pay each time a user clicks on one of their ads.
Q
Quality Score
A metric that estimates the quality and relevance of both ads and keywords. Higher scores can lead to lower costs, and better ad positioning.
R
Remarketing
Serving targeted ads to users who have already visited, or taken action on a website.
Responsive Display Ads
An ad on the Google Display Network that can automatically adjust its size, appearance and format to fit available ad spaces.
Responsive Search Ads
Responsive search ads let you create an ad that adapts to show more relevant messages to your customers. Enter multiple headlines and descriptions when creating a responsive search ad, and over time, Google Ads automatically tests different combinations and learns which combinations perform best.
Responsive Web Design
A web development approach that creates dynamic changes to the website appearance, depending on screen size and orientation of the device being used to view it.
Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)
A metric that measures the efficiency of our campaigns. ROAS measures the amount of revenue earned for each advertising dollar spent.
Return on Investment (ROI)
A metric that measures total revenue in comparison to the overall investment. In media, the overall investment can include advertising dollars, agency fees, overhead expenses, internal expenses, etc.
S
Search Engine
A software program that searches a database of internet sites to find information that is relevant to a specific search query.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Search Engine Marketing aims to increase user traffic and visibility to websites using both Paid Search and Organic Search.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
The process of improving the visibility and ranking of a website in search engine results, through techniques such as keyword research and link building.
Search Engine Results Page (SERP)
The list of relevant web pages given to users when they enter a query into a Search Engine (such as Google or Bing).
Search Query
A word (or string of words) the user enters into the Search Box of a search engine (such as Google or Bing).
Sessions
The actions that a single user takes while visiting a website. For example, clicking on three different pages on a website, and then exiting the website is considered one session.
Sitelink
Sitelinks are hyperlinks to website subpages that appear under certain Google listings to help users navigate the site.
Social Media Marketing
A marketing strategy that involves using social media platforms to connect with and engage potential customers.
SSL Certificate
An SSL certificate encrypts the data that goes from a user’s computer to the target website and back.
T
Tag
Software code that an advertiser provides to a publisher or ad network that calls the advertisers ad server for the purposes of displaying an ad.
Target Audience
The specific group of people that a business or marketing campaign is trying to reach and influence.
Tracking Code
A tracking code is a snippet of JavaScript code that tracks the activity of a website user by collecting data and sending it to an analytics module. The code is generated automatically, is different for each website, and has to be installed on every page that needs to be tracked.
Twitter Advertising
Twitter Advertising allows advertisers to promote individual tweets, or entire campaigns to achieve objectives.
U
User Generated Content (UGC)
Any form of content about a brand or product that has been created by users, and not the brand itself. This can include images, video, text, and audio.
User Initiated (UI)
The willful act of a user to initiate with an ad. Users may interact by clicking on the ad, or rolling their cursor over the ad for at least one second.
Unique Visitors
The number of distinct people who have visited a website in a certain period. Each person is counted only once.
URL
URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator. A URL is the specific web address of a web page on the internet.
UTM
UTM stands for Urchin Tracking Module. UTM codes allow advertisers to track the effectiveness of a campaign, and which advertising channel the website traffic is coming from.
User Experience (UX) Design
UTM stands for Urchin Tracking Module. UTM codes allow advertisers to track the effectiveness of a campaign, and which advertising channel the website traffic is coming from.
V
Variable
In the A/B testing process, a variable is the metric that is being tested or changed to determine which works best depending on the goal. The variable may include Call To Action, headline, ad copy, layout, or timing.
Video (Digital Video)
In digital advertising, the digital recording of a physical event or animated files that have been transcribed into a digital video format.
Viral Marketing
Advertising or marketing techniques that encourage users to to pass on marketing message to other users, creating exponential growth across users and markets.
W
Web Crawler / Spider / Bot
A software program which visits web pages in a methodical, automated manner. The resulting data is used for various purposes, including building indexes for search engines, validating that ads are being displayed in the appropriate context, and detecting malicious code on compromised web servers.
Website
A collection of electronic files that are stored on a server and accessed via the internet.
Wireframe
A visual guide that represents the skeletal framework of a website, in which there are only lines and vertices.
X
XML Site Map
A text file that is used to detail all URLs on a website.
Y
YouTube Advertising
A pay-for-placement system that allows brands to reach YouTube’s more than 1 billion users through targeted advertisements. The ads (videos, banners, or text) can be shown before the requested video plays, as an overlay while a video plays, or in the right margin of the page.
Z
Z-Generation (Generation Z)
The demographic cohort succeeding millennials. Researchers and popular media use the mid-to-late 1990s as starting birth years and the early 2010s as ending birth years. This generation is perceived as being familiar with the internet from a very young age.
