Marketing glossary

ROAS (return on ad spend)=How much revenue comes back for every dollar you spend on ads.

ROI (return on investment)=What you actually keep as profit after all costs, not just what you sold.

Cost-to-revenue ratio=What share of your revenue advertising eats up. It is the flip side of ROAS: lower is better.

ATL (above the line)=Broad advertising that reaches a lot of people at once and builds brand awareness.

BTL (below the line)=Targeted advertising aimed at specific people at the right moment, driving immediate action.

TTL (through the line)=ATL and BTL combined in one campaign: pretty much the default today.

B2B (business to business)=You sell to other companies, not to end consumers.

B2C (business to consumer)=Straightforward selling of goods or services to the end consumer.

B2G (business to government)=You supply products or services to government, cities or public agencies, usually through tenders.

B2B2C (business to business to consumer)=You sell through another company, but your product is meant to reach its end customer.

B2B2B (supply chain of businesses)=A chain of companies: one supplies material, the next turns it into a part, a third assembles the final product.

C2C (consumer to consumer)=People trade directly with each other; the company just provides the marketplace.

C2B (consumer to business)=An individual offers value or a service to a company, not the other way round.

B2E (business to employee)=A company provides products, services or perks to its own employees.

D2C (direct to consumer)=The maker skips distributors and retailers and sells straight to the end customer.

G2C (government to citizen)=Government or local authorities providing services and communicating with citizens.

G2B (government to business)=Government dealing with companies, from taxes to grants.

G2G (government to government)=Agencies, ministries or countries exchanging information, data and services with each other.

P2P (peer to peer)=Two parties trade or share resources directly, with no middleman at all.

Brand awareness=How many people even know your company exists and what it does. Nobody buys from a brand they have never heard of.

Performance marketing=Advertising built for immediate, measurable results: a click, a purchase, a signup. The opposite of brand work, which builds trust over time.

Acquisition=Winning new customers who have never bought from you.

Retention=Keeping customers who already bought and getting them to buy again. Usually far cheaper than acquisition.

Conversion=The moment a visitor does what you want: buys, signs up, calls. Conversion rate is the share of visitors who do it.

CTR (click-through rate)=The share of people who see your ad and click it.

CPC (cost per click)=What one click on your ad costs you.

CPA (cost per acquisition)=What it costs you in total to win one new customer or order.

CRM (customer relationship management)=The system where you keep customer information so you can look after them and sell to them again.

KPI (key performance indicator)=The key number that tells you whether things are going well.

Media mix=The combination of advertising channels you use together, and how the money is split between them.

Remarketing=Reaching people again who visited your site or browsed a product but did not buy.

Affiliate marketing=You pay other people or sites a commission for sending you a customer who actually buys.

Influencer marketing=You partner with people who have an audience on social media so they recommend your product.

OOH (out of home)=Advertising outdoors: billboards, bus stops, building wraps.

Content marketing=Creating useful content: articles, videos, guides: that pulls people toward your brand without looking like an ad.

PR (public relations)=Building the company's reputation through media, articles and public appearances rather than paid ads.

Benchmark=The typical value in your industry that you compare your own results against.

CLV / LTV (customer lifetime value)=How much one customer spends with you in total over the whole relationship, not just on the first purchase.

CAC (customer acquisition cost)=The average cost of winning one new customer, ads and the work around them included.

Funnel (buying journey)=The path from first seeing your brand to buying. Many people at the top, few at the bottom.

AEO (answer engine optimization)=Writing content so that systems answering on your customer's behalf understand and quote it: featured snippets, voice assistants and AI chatbots.

SEO (search engine optimization)=Shaping your website so Google and other search engines find it, understand it and show it to people looking for what you offer.

GEO (generative engine optimization)=Writing content so generative AI tools (ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity) use it in their answers and cite you as the source.

MarTech (marketing technology)=Tools and software that help you run and measure marketing: emailing, analytics, CRM, automation.

AdTech (advertising technology)=The technology through which paid online advertising is bought, shown, targeted and measured.

Online marketing=Everything that happens on the internet: websites, search, social media, emails, paid ads. The upside: you can measure it precisely.

Offline marketing=Advertising away from the internet: billboards, print, radio, events, personal selling. Harder to measure, but it still works.

Events (event marketing)=Running your own events or joining others where you meet customers in person. More expensive, but a strong experience sticks.

PR (public relations)=Earning attention from media and the public without paying for it as advertising. More credible, but less controllable.