Where every click is a journey and every impression counts.
A person secretly paid to hype up a product while cosplaying as an unbiased enthusiast, essentially the original influencer before Instagram made it a legitimate career. They're the planted audience member at an auction driving up bids, or that 'random customer' in the infomercial who just can't believe how amazing this vegetable chopper is. The word itself has become the ultimate callout in online discourse for anyone suspected of suspiciously enthusiastic endorsement.
The percentage of times your ad was shown divided by the total number of times it was eligible to appear, typically in paid search or display campaigns. It measures how much of the available opportunity you're actually capturing.
The distinct benefit or feature that sets a product apart from competitors, ideally something compelling and defensible. It's your answer to 'why should I buy from you instead of the other guys,' assuming you have a good answer.
The phenomenon where repeated exposure to the same advertisement causes declining performance as audiences develop immunity to your creative genius. Your ad doesn't suck; people are just tired of your face.
The mean time users spend on your website before leaving or falling asleep, whichever comes first. A vanity metric that correlates with engagement unless your site is just really confusing.
Delivering ads in a specific order to tell a story or build a narrative over time. Because apparently one interruption isn't enough—you need a whole series.
A snippet of code that tracks website visitors so you can haunt them with ads across the internet. The technology that makes people think you're literally reading their minds.
A method of grouping customers by shared characteristics or behaviors within a specific timeframe to track patterns over time. It's essentially marketing's way of figuring out which batch of customers is actually worth keeping around.
Placing ads based on the content of the page rather than user tracking, showing car ads on automotive sites instead of following users around. It's the old-fashioned targeting approach that's suddenly new again as privacy regulations tighten.
The gift of gab taken to professional extremes—someone who talks smoothly, rapidly, and seemingly without ever needing to breathe. In sales and marketing, it's either your greatest asset or most annoying quality, depending on whether you're the one talking or listening. Think used car salesman meets TED talk speaker.
An algorithmic technique in programmatic advertising that reduces your bid to just above the second-highest bidder, saving money while still winning auctions. The poker player's bluff applied to ad tech.
Advertising where you only pay when a specific action occurs—clicks, leads, sales—rather than just hoping brand awareness somehow translates to revenue. It's marketing for people who believe in accountability, or at least pretend to.
When print advertising extends beyond the trim edge, or in digital terms, when brands' messaging accidentally spills into each other's territory—awkward both ways.
To weaken resistance, morale, or harsh edges—the corporate equivalent of turning down an opponent's defenses before asking them to sign the contract.
Your digital shopping cart's prettier older sibling—a holding area where your soon-to-be regretted purchases wait patiently before you commit to the transaction. Also a metaphor for grouping related things together.
The principle that your key message should be clear and compelling enough to be understood if displayed on a billboard for only a few seconds. If you can't explain it while driving 65 mph, it's too complicated.
Creating a virtual perimeter around a physical location to trigger targeted ads or notifications when people enter the area. Digital stalking made respectable through technology.
A product or campaign so remarkable and unique that it stands out in a sea of mediocrity and naturally attracts attention. Based on the principle that ordinary brown cows are boring.
The phenomenon where your audience becomes so numbingly bored with seeing the same ad that performance metrics plummet faster than enthusiasm at a timeshare presentation. The marketing equivalent of playing 'Wonderwall' at every party.
Information a company collects directly from its own customers through owned channels, increasingly precious in a post-cookie world where tracking strangers is frowned upon. The marketing equivalent of growing your own vegetables instead of buying them from sketchy data brokers.
An algorithmic process that identifies new prospects who share characteristics with your existing customers, based on the bold assumption that people who look similar on paper will buy similar things. Statistical stereotyping, but make it marketing.
A psychological pricing tactic where an initial high price makes subsequent prices seem more reasonable by comparison. It's why software shows you the $999/month enterprise plan first, making the $99/month option feel like a steal.
Bite-sized marketing content designed for rapid consumption during micro-moments, because modern attention spans measure in seconds. The content equivalent of gas station jerky.
The minimum standard for an ad to count as 'viewed'—typically 50% of pixels visible for at least one second. A bar so low that advertisers celebrate ads nobody actually noticed.