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Plain-English definitions of the marketing terms we use — CPA, ROAS, CTR, CPC, SEO, PPC, GBP and more. Understand the metrics used in your marketing reports.
The process of structuring and improving content so search engines, AI assistants and answer engines can understand, extract and present useful answers from it — through clear Q&A formatting, concise definitions, structured content, entity clarity, schema markup and strong topical coverage. AEO complements traditional SEO rather than replacing it.
The process of determining which marketing interactions receive credit for a conversion. Accurate attribution helps businesses understand which marketing channels contribute to customer acquisition, across models like last-click, first-click, linear and data-driven attribution.
A group of people targeted, analyzed or segmented for marketing purposes — created based on location, demographics, interests, website behavior, customer lists, purchase behavior or search intent. Common in Google Ads, Meta Ads and remarketing.
A link from another website to your website. Search engines may use backlinks as one of many signals when evaluating a page's authority and relevance — quality and relevance matter more than sheer volume.
An analytics metric associated with sessions where users do not meaningfully engage with a website. In GA4, it's the percentage of sessions that were not engaged sessions. A high bounce rate isn't automatically bad — it should be evaluated based on page purpose and traffic source.
A Google Ads keyword match type that allows Google to show ads for searches related to the meaning of your keyword. Requires strong conversion tracking, negative keyword management and campaign optimization to use effectively.
The average amount a business spends to acquire one new customer.
CAC = Total Sales and Marketing Costs ÷ Number of New Customers Acquired
Spend ₹1,00,000, acquire 50 customers → CAC = ₹2,000. Should be evaluated alongside revenue, gross margin and LTV.
A valuable action completed by a potential customer — a purchase, phone call, lead form, WhatsApp inquiry, booking, appointment, demo request or signup. The correct conversion depends on your business model.
The percentage of users who complete a desired action.
Conversion Rate = Conversions ÷ Total Visitors or Interactions × 100
1,000 visitors, 50 form submissions → 5% conversion rate.
Measures how much advertising spend is required to generate one conversion or acquisition. Whether a given CPA is good depends on lead quality, sales conversion rate, revenue per customer, gross margin and LTV — CPA should never be evaluated without commercial context.
CPA = Advertising Cost ÷ Number of Conversions
Spend ₹50,000, generate 100 conversions → CPA = ₹500.
The average amount paid for each advertising click. A lower CPC isn't automatically better — a higher-cost click that generates profitable customers can outperform cheap traffic that never converts.
CPC = Advertising Cost ÷ Number of Clicks
Spend ₹10,000, receive 500 clicks → average CPC = ₹20.
Measures how much marketing or advertising spend is required to generate one lead. Should be evaluated alongside lead quality, lead-to-customer conversion rate, CAC and profitability.
CPL = Marketing Cost ÷ Number of Leads
The cost of generating 1,000 advertising impressions. Commonly used when evaluating display, video and social media advertising.
CPM = Advertising Cost ÷ Impressions × 1,000
The systematic process of improving websites, landing pages and customer journeys to increase the percentage of users who complete desired actions — through headline improvements, clearer offers, reduced form friction and behavior testing.
Measures the percentage of impressions that result in clicks. Can help evaluate whether ads and listings attract attention, but a high CTR doesn't automatically mean a campaign is profitable.
CTR = Clicks ÷ Impressions × 100
10,000 impressions, 500 clicks → CTR = 5%.
The process of creating awareness, interest and demand for a company's products or services — unlike strategies that only capture existing search demand. Channels include content, advertising, social media, events and thought leadership.
Measures how frequently users interact with content, ads, websites or social posts — clicks, comments, shares, saves, reactions or video views. The exact formula depends on the platform and context.
Information a business collects directly from customers and audiences — website analytics, CRM data, purchase history, lead forms and email subscribers. Supports analytics, personalization, advertising and retention.
A framework describing stages of the customer journey — typically awareness, consideration, conversion, retention and advocacy. Businesses should develop strategies for each stage of customer decision-making.
Google's current website and application analytics platform, used to measure traffic, user behavior, events, conversions, customer journeys and campaign performance. Implementation should align with the actions that actually matter to your business.
Strategies intended to improve the likelihood that brands, websites and content are discovered, understood or referenced by AI-powered search and generative answer systems — clear entity information, topical coverage, original research and structured content. Treat GEO as an extension of strong SEO and digital authority.
Google's advertising platform, spanning Search, YouTube, Display, Shopping, Maps and other properties. Campaign types include Search, Performance Max, Display, Video, Demand Gen, Shopping and App campaigns.
The business listing that can appear across Google Search and Google Maps — showing business name, categories, address, service areas, hours, photos, reviews, services and updates. GBP management is a core part of Local SEO.
Recorded when an advertisement, webpage listing or piece of content is displayed. An impression does not necessarily mean someone clicked, engaged with or carefully viewed it.
A link connecting one page of a website to another page on the same website — helping users navigate, search engines discover pages, distribute internal authority and build topic clusters.
A word or phrase associated with what people search for online, used in SEO research, Google Ads, content strategy and Local SEO. Modern keyword strategy should focus on search intent and topics rather than repeating exact phrases.
A third-party SEO metric estimating how difficult it may be to rank organically for a keyword. Not an official Google metric — different platforms calculate it differently.
A webpage designed around a specific campaign, audience, service, product or conversion objective — combining clear positioning, relevant messaging, a strong offer, trust signals, calls to action and measurement.
A potential customer who has expressed interest in a business — by submitting a form, calling, sending a WhatsApp message, requesting a quote or booking a consultation. Not all leads have equal commercial value; quality should be measured alongside volume.
The process of improving a business's visibility for geographically relevant searches — through Google Business Profile optimization, local keyword research, local landing pages, review management, citation consistency and Google Maps visibility monitoring.
Estimates the value a customer generates during their relationship with a business. LTV helps businesses determine how much they can sustainably invest in acquiring customers — strong retention and high LTV can tolerate higher acquisition costs.
The advertising platform used to run campaigns across Facebook, Instagram and other Meta properties — for awareness, traffic, engagement, lead generation, sales or app promotion. Performance depends on creative, audience, offer and conversion infrastructure together.
The process of assigning conversion credit to different customer touchpoints and marketing channels — common models include last-click, first-click, linear, position-based and data-driven attribution. No model perfectly represents every customer journey.
A business's Name, Address and Phone Number. Consistent NAP information across websites, business profiles and directories supports customer trust and Local SEO.
Prevents Google Ads from showing advertisements for specified searches or categories of searches — reducing irrelevant clicks, improving traffic quality and protecting campaign efficiency.
Website visits generated through unpaid search engine results. The commercial value of organic traffic depends on search intent, traffic quality and conversion performance — not traffic volume alone.
A goal-based Google Ads campaign type that distributes advertising across Google's inventory using automated bidding, targeting and creative combinations. Requires accurate conversion tracking, strong creative assets and audience signals — automation doesn't remove the need for strategy.
An advertising model where advertisers generally pay when users click ads. Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising are common PPC platforms; the term is often used more broadly for paid search marketing.
The process of creating large numbers of useful, structured webpages using data, templates and automation — location, product, integration, comparison or directory pages. Should create genuinely useful pages rather than mass-producing thin content.
A diagnostic Google Ads metric scored 1–10 at the keyword level, based on expected CTR, ad relevance and landing page experience. Useful for diagnosing issues, but shouldn't be treated as the primary campaign objective.
The process of advertising to people who have previously interacted with a business — website visitors, app users, previous customers, video viewers or lead form visitors. Must comply with platform policies and privacy requirements.
Generally refers to advertising strategies used to reach people who previously interacted with a business. The terms remarketing and retargeting are often used interchangeably.
Measures the revenue generated for each unit of advertising spend. A high ROAS doesn't automatically mean a business is profitable — also consider gross margins, agency fees, operational costs, refunds, CAC and LTV.
ROAS = Revenue Attributed to Advertising ÷ Advertising Spend
Spend ₹1,00,000, generate ₹5,00,000 attributed revenue → ROAS = 5, or 5:1.
Structured data added to webpages to help search engines understand the entities and information on a page — common types include Organization, LocalBusiness, Service, Product, Article, FAQPage and BreadcrumbList. Should accurately represent visible page content.
What a user is trying to accomplish when performing a search — informational, navigational, commercial investigation, transactional or local. Understanding intent helps businesses create pages aligned with user expectations.
The process of improving websites and content to increase visibility in organic search results — technical SEO, keyword research, content strategy, on-page optimization, internal linking, digital PR, Local SEO and structured data.
The page displayed by a search engine after a search — containing organic results, ads, Local Packs, Maps results, featured snippets and AI-generated answers. SEO strategy should consider the complete SERP environment, not just traditional listings.
Improving the technical infrastructure that affects crawling, indexing, rendering and website performance — crawlability, indexation, canonicalization, redirects, XML sitemaps, structured data, page speed and Core Web Vitals.
Tags added to URLs to help analytics platforms identify campaign traffic sources — utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, utm_term and utm_content. Consistent conventions improve reporting and attribution.
Occurs when a user sees an advertisement, doesn't click it, and later completes a conversion. Helps advertisers understand advertising influence beyond direct clicks, but should be evaluated carefully within the broader attribution model.
Systems used to measure when marketing activity results in users starting WhatsApp conversations or completing valuable actions through WhatsApp — click tracking, GTM events, Meta Pixel events, Conversions API and CRM attribution. A WhatsApp click should not automatically be treated as a confirmed sale.
Understanding marketing terminology is useful. Understanding how those metrics affect your business is more important. CTR should help you evaluate whether your ads attract attention. CPC should help you understand traffic acquisition costs. CPA should help you evaluate conversion efficiency. CAC should help you understand customer acquisition economics. ROAS should help you evaluate advertising revenue efficiency. LTV should help you understand how much a customer may be worth over time.
The objective of marketing reporting should be better decision-making — not more dashboards, not more unexplained acronyms, not more vanity metrics.
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