Picture this. You hop onto a meeting with your marketing team ready to strategize. But, when he or she begins speaking, it’s like they’re talking a whole other language! Maybe it’s Greek or maybe even Martian? Who knows. Whatever it is… you definitely don’t understand a word they’re saying!
This can be embarrassing and frustrating for CEOs, small business owners, and entrepreneurs alike. But sadly – it’s not uncommon. Have no fear, though! Your friendly marketing team at Virtual Marketing Experts is here to help so the next time you’re in a marketing meeting you feel empowered and in control!
Here are 30 Marketing Terms (from Ads to SEO to Funnels, and more!) explained and demystified just for you!
Ads (Facebook, Instagram, Google, etc.)
- Ad Spend: This is the amount of money that you pay to an advertising platform, like Facebook, to run your ads. Now, your ad spend does not include any money spent on graphic design, copywriting services, or your paid ads manager/contractor. It is JUST what you pay for the ad to appear on the platform.
- Click-Through Rate (CTR): This is the percentage of people who click on your advertisement. The number ONLY includes those who have seen the ad. It’s the percentage of people who “clicked-through” from the ad to your website/funnel. The CTR is an important metric because it helps you understand your customers. It tells you what works (and what doesn’t work) when trying to reach your target audience. A low CTR could indicate that you’re targeting the wrong audience or that you’re not speaking their language persuasively enough to convince them to click. You can get lots of great info from this one metric!
- Cost Per Impression (CPM): This is one of the metrics aimed at demonstrating the effectiveness of online marketing campaigns. The lower the CPM rates, the more effective and optimized the marketing campaign is. It’s one of the FIRST things we look at to see if your ads are working well!
- Cost Per Click: This is the amount of money you pay for each click (aka, each time a person clicks on your ad) when you are running a pay-per-click (PPC) marketing ad campaign. This metric can be influenced by factors like your maximum bid, quality score, and more.
- Return On Ad Spend (ROAS): This is a statistic used to determine whether or not an ad is performing well and generating results. ROAS is literally the financial return generated for the amount being spent to run the ad. For example, a 3x ROAS means that you are generating 3 times from the ads what it costs you in “ad spend” to run them.
- Conversion Rate: This is the percentage of people converted from not taking an action to taking an action on a funnel page. The conversion rate can be used to describe the effectiveness of opt-in pages or sales pages/order forms. The conversion rate is calculated by dividing the number of action takers by the total number of page persons and multiplying by 100. For example: “The conversion rate on my opt-in page is low; not that many people are opting in. Out of 500-page visitors, only 2 opted in. That’s just a .4% conversion rate.”
SEO (aka Search Engine Optimization)
- Bounce Rate: This is the percentage of people who visit your website but leave without engaging any further with your site. For example, people who visit your site without clicking any buttons or links to visit or interact with other pages on your site.
- Key Performance Indicator (KPI): This is a measurable value that indicates how well an activity is achieving a goal.
- Organic: This is when you’ve earned placement in search results, as opposed to having paid for that placement through advertisements.
- Traffic: Simply, this is the number of visits made to a website.
Sales Funnels
- Sales Funnel: This is a series of steps your potential customers go through to help them complete a purchase.
- Average Cart Value: This is the average dollar amount that a customer spends when finished making purchases in your funnel. It’s calculated by taking the total revenue from all sales in the funnel and dividing it by the number of customers (buyers).
- Copy: The literal words that you use on your sales pages, sales funnels, website, and other marketing materials to communicate with your prospective buyers. Copy, or “sales copy”, includes not only headlines but any text you use in your marketing to educate your leads and emotionally connect to guide the prospective buyer to a sale.
- Core Offer: This is the main product being sold in your sales funnel. It’s usually placed after the tripwire but before an upsell.
- Downsell: This is a product offered to a lead going through a funnel who has rejected the upsell. It’s usually priced lower or packaged in an enticing way (e.g. payment plan) to persuade the customer to reconsider purchasing this new offer.
- Landing Page: A webpage on which a funnel builder hopes a lead will “land” so they can input their information in exchange for a lead magnet.
- Lead: This is what we call your potential customers. It’s a person who opts in for a lead magnet and goes through a sales funnel to potentially make a purchase.
- Lifetime Value (LTV): An estimated amount or prediction of the total profit you’ll make from a customer during the entire time you have a relationship with them.
- Open Rate: The percentage of people who open an email out of all the people who received it.
- Opt-In: This is when a lead submits his/her email address or other pertinent information into a landing page to receive a free lead magnet. The action of opting in grants you permission to keep their information and continue sending them communications.
- Opt-In Rate: This is the percentage of people who land on the first page of a sales funnel and complete the opt-in process to receive your free lead magnet. The higher your opt-in rate, the better.
- Show Up Rate: This is the percentage of people who “show up” or attend your webinar out of all the people that registered for it.
- Self-Liquidating Offer (SLO): This is an introductory offer made to a lead who has just entered your sales funnel. Your SLO will usually have a low price point. The idea behind an SLO is to cover the cost of your paid ads or marketing efforts with revenue generated from the SLO alone. Profit is earned from upsells in the funnel once the lead purchases the introductory offer.
- Trip Wire: An irresistible, low-cost product offered to a lead first in the funnel before a core offer. It’s a way to get them to complete their first purchase which will hopefully lead to others as they move through your funnel.
- Upsell: A product offered to a lead going through a funnel who has already purchased the core offer. The upsell is usually priced higher as a way to increase profits gained from that one customer.
- Value Ladder: This is a collection of products, usually increasing in value and price, offered to a lead through a sales funnel.
- Video Sales Letter (VSL): A video shown to a prospective buyer to further explain your product and lead them through the process of making a purchase.
General Marketing Terms
- Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): The average amount of money you have to spend (typically on marketing) to acquire a new customer in a given period of time. For example, if you spend $1,000 in paid ads over one month to acquire 10 customers from those ads in that same time period, your CAC for that month is $100.
- Scarcity: This is a marketing tactic which utilizes a limited number of product availability to encourage customers to buy immediately instead of waiting to purchase. This is usually accomplished by placing the number of inventory remaining on the page. For example, a site might display copy that says, “Grab this amazing offer before it sells out! There are only 3 left, so buy now before someone else does!”
- Urgency: This is a marketing tactic in which the amount of time a lead has to purchase, or their window to buy, is limited. This encourages them to buy sooner rather than waiting to purchase. For example, a site might display copy that says, “Grab this amazing offer before the timer expires and this offer goes away forever!”
There you have it, 30 marketing terms explained! Feel free to bookmark this page and come back to it for reference anytime you find yourself in a marketing convo looking like a deer in headlights! Just think of us as your behind-the-scenes marketing secret weapon!