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149 Marketing Acronyms Every Online Marketer Must Know
Have you ever been on social media or reading an article when an acronym crosses your path that you don't know?
Frustrating, isn't it?
And the problem is that new acronyms and internet slang keep popping up. Using them is almost a rite of passage for active and successful social media users.
As social media professionals, it can be downright embarrassing when we come across a few letters that are obviously packed with meaning but elude us of meaning.
You might be thinking, "Who cares?" or "Acronyms are not so important" and that's exactly what I thought.
I remember being a little late to the ICYMI game early in my career (if you don't know what it means, you MUST keep reading, trust me). I saw it popping up everywhere and at one point my boss asked me what it meant...
Shit... as the Germans say!
I had no answer for him. It didn't cost me my job, but when you're involved in your company's social media marketing, you need to keep up with slang, especially when it comes to jargon.
Acronyms also have practical uses. They save characters when you're trying to message on Twitter or just trying to keep your communications short and sweet.
To get you started, I've compiled a comprehensive list of the social media and marketing acronyms you MUST know if you're anywhere in the digital world.
But the rest of the work is up to you, new acronyms appear regularly and you need to make sure you understand and use them to stay relevant online.
Marketing Acronyms
In the world of marketing, there are many important acronyms that you cannot live without. They're in memos, emails, articles, business plans, and budgets, but what are they and what do they mean?
AIDA: attention-interest-request campaign
Also known as a "purchase funnel," it describes the events that occur when a consumer interacts with an advertisement.
API: Application Program Interface
Set of routines, protocols and tools for creating software applications. APIs specify how software components should interact with each other.
ASP: Application Service Provider
Refers to a company that provides computer-based services to its customers over a network.
B2B: Business to Business
When one company enters into a commercial transaction with another.
B2C: Business to Consumer
When a business enters into a commercial transaction with a consumer.
BR – bounce rate
Percentage of a website's visitors who leave the website after viewing just one page.
CAC: Customer Acquisition Cost
The costs involved in persuading a customer to buy a product or service. Costs could include research, marketing and accessibility.
CMS: Content Management System
A computer application that allows content to be published, edited, and organized from a central interface.
CPA - Cost per action
A pricing model for online advertising in which the advertiser pays for each specified action (such as an impression, click, or sale).
CPC – cost per click
An online advertising model in which the advertiser pays the publisher a preset amount each time the ad is clicked. (aka pay-per-click PPC)
CPM: Cost per thousand
The cost of reaching a thousand people through a specific advertising platform or medium.
CR - Conversion Rate
Percentage of users who take a desired action (e.g. buy something on the website).
CTR – click through rate
The ratio of users who click a specific link to the total number of users viewing a page, email or advertisement.
CRM: Customer Relationship Management
Refers to an approach to managing a company's interactions with its customers (current and prospective) by analyzing customer history data with a company.
CRO: Conversion Rate Optimization
A system for increasing the percentage of visitors to a website who convert to customers.
CSS: Cascading style sheet
A style sheet language used to describe the presentation of a document written in a markup language. Most commonly associated with the visual style of web pages and user interfaces written in HTML and XHTML.
CTA: Call to Action
An instruction to the audience or customer intended to elicit an immediate response.
CX: Customer Experience
Refers to the interaction between an organization and a customer over the life of their relationship.
DNS: Domain Name Server
A system that controls your domain name's website and email settings.
ESP: Email Service Provider
A company that offers email marketing or bulk mail.
FTP: file transfer protocol
The standard protocol used to transfer computer files from one host to another host over the Internet.
HTML: Hypertext markup language
The default markup language used to create web pages.
IBL: Inbound link
A hyperlink back to your site from another site.
IM: instant messaging
A form of real-time online communication using typed text.
IP address: Internet protocol address
The numeric label assigned to any device participating in a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communications.
KPI: Key Performance Indicators
A measurable value that shows how effectively a company achieves important business goals.
LTV: lifetime value
Predicting the net profit attributed to the entire future relationship with a particular customer.
OBL: Outbound link
Links that take you away from your current website.
PR: PageRank
Google's ranking software that calculates the relevance of a web page to the search terms entered.
PV: side view
A request to load a single HTML file (web page) from an Internet site.
QR code: Barcode for quick answers
A machine-readable code used to store URLs or other information for the camera to read on a smartphone.
ROI: return on investment
The benefit to the investor from investing in a resource.
RSS: Rich Site Summary
A collection of different websites combined into one feed or channel.
SaaS: Software as a Service
A software licensing and delivery model where software is licensed on a subscription basis and centrally hosted.
SEM: Search Engine Marketing
Form of internet marketing that involves promoting websites by increasing their visibility in search engine results.
SEO: search engine optimization
The process of maximizing traffic to a given website by ensuring that the website ranks high in search engine results.
SERP: Search engine results page
The listing or results returned by a search engine in response to a keyword query.
SMM: Social Media Marketing
A form of internet marketing that uses social media as a marketing tool.
SMO: Social Media Optimization
The use of social media communities to generate advertising to increase awareness of a product, brand or event.
SOV: Share of Voice
A revenue model for online advertising that focuses on the weight or percentage of other advertisers.
Terms and Conditions: Terms of Use
Rules that you must agree to in order to use a service.
UGC: User Generated Content
Content created by users of an online system or service.
User interface: user interface
Everything is designed as an information device that a human can interact with.
URL: Uniform Resource Locator
An address to a resource on the Internet.
UV: Unique Visitor
The number of people requesting pages from the website during a given period of time.
WOM: word of mouth
Verbal or written communication from a satisfied customer to potential customers of a good or service.
WWW: World Wide Web
An information system on the Internet that allows documents to be linked to other documents using hypertext links.
Social media acronyms
DM: direct message
The private messaging feature on Twitter.
FB: Facebook
The social network.
Google+: Google+
Google's social network.
