Where every click is a journey and every impression counts.
A fancy word for 'slice' that marketers use to sound more professional when dividing customers into groups. Whether it's a pie chart section, a customer demographic, or a portion of your total addressable market, segments make everything feel quantifiable and strategic. It's basically the business world's way of saying 'let's break this down.'
The ratio of people who actually click on your ad versus those who pretend it doesn't exist, much like how people treat street performers. A 2% click-through rate is considered good, which tells you everything you need to know about how much people love ads.
Fear Of Missing Out, the primal anxiety that everyone else is having more fun, getting better deals, or attending cooler events than you. Marketers exploit this emotion like a villain in a Disney movie, using countdown timers and "only 2 left" warnings.
Creating an uncontested market space where competition is irrelevant because you're the only fish in the pond. The opposite of battling in the 'red ocean' where everyone's fighting over the same bloody scraps.
A targeted marketing effort attempting to re-engage customers who've stopped buying, typically through discounts and guilt-inducing subject lines like 'We miss you.' It's the commercial equivalent of texting your ex at 2am.
Publicity gained through promotional efforts other than paid advertising, like press coverage, social shares, or word-of-mouth. It's called 'earned' because you can't buy it—you have to trick journalists into caring about your product launch.
The systematic process of increasing the percentage of visitors who complete desired actions, typically through endless A/B testing and arguing about button colors. Science meets superstition in pursuit of marginal gains.
A sequential content marketing approach where each piece builds on the previous, leading audiences from awareness to conversion. Like a choose-your-own-adventure book, but with more CTAs.
A prospect who's shown enough interest to warrant sales attention but hasn't quite committed, occupying that precious limbo between 'downloaded a whitepaper' and 'actually wants to talk to someone.' The marketing team's way of saying 'we've done our part, now it's your turn' to sales.
Highly specific, low-competition search phrases that attract fewer visitors but convert better, like fishing in a small pond with hungry fish instead of the ocean with everyone else. The unsexy workhorses of SEO that collectively drive more traffic than flashy head terms.
Content created specifically to flatter influential people or brands in hopes they'll share it with their audiences. Shameless flattery disguised as journalism or analysis.
A hidden message, inside joke, or subtle reference embedded in marketing materials or products that rewards attentive audiences. The marketing team's way of entertaining themselves.
A conversion credited to an ad that someone saw but didn't click, measured by whether they later converted through another channel. It's how display advertising takes credit for sales it might not deserve.
The final stage of the marketing funnel where prospects are ready to make a purchase decision. Abbreviated BOFU, it's where marketing hands leads to sales and both teams blame each other when nothing converts.
A prospect who's been vetted by marketing, kicked over to sales, and deemed worthy of actual human attention rather than automated email sequences. Abbreviated as SQL, which confusingly has nothing to do with databases.
Placing ads based on the content of the page rather than the user's browsing history, making a surprising comeback now that cookies are endangered. It's targeting ads like it's 1999, except now algorithms read the pages instead of humans.
The budget remaining after a campaign that mysteriously needs to be spent before fiscal year-end, often on questionable initiatives. Use it or lose it money that spawns terrible ideas.
Compensatory advertising inventory provided when campaigns underdeliver on promised impressions or performance. The media equivalent of 'sorry we ruined your wedding, here's a gift card.'
Using natural language processing to determine whether customer feedback, social mentions, or reviews express positive, negative, or neutral opinions about your brand. It's teaching computers to detect sarcasm, which goes about as well as you'd expect.
Visual banner ads served across websites and apps, ranging from tasteful rectangles to screen-dominating monstrosities that make you question humanity. The descendants of magazine ads, but with the added benefit of following you everywhere online.
A schedule planning what content to publish and when, designed to bring order to the chaos of content marketing and typically abandoned by February. It's the New Year's resolution of marketing planning.
A psychological marketing tactic where advertisers convince you that buying a product literally transforms you into a cooler, better version of yourself. It's why people name their cars and spend more on vehicle maintenance than their own healthcare. The dark art of making consumers believe they don't just own the product—they ARE the product.
A product deliberately sold at a loss to attract customers who'll hopefully buy other profitable items, the retail equivalent of free samples at Costco. It's why printers are cheap but ink costs more than human blood.
In digital advertising, the competitive auction process where advertisers throw money at platforms like Google and Facebook for the privilege of showing their ads to eyeballs. It's capitalism at its most caffeinated, with algorithms determining in milliseconds who pays what for each ad impression. The highest bidder usually wins, unless the platform's complex quality score decides otherwise—because even ad auctions need participation trophies.