zombie account

Definition

A customer account that's technically active but generates no revenue or engagement, cluttering your metrics like digital dead weight. They're not users, they're ghosts.

Example Usage

Half their million 'active users' were zombie accounts that hadn't logged in since 2019.

Source: Digital marketing and user analytics

Related Terms

Beginner

Cost per acquisition (CPA)

The actual cost to acquire one customer after all is said and done—the metric that separates marketing theater from marketing accountability.

📣 Marketing / Advertising

Intermediate

Conversion Funnel

An imaginary funnel that describes how thousands of potential customers enter at the top and approximately three of them actually buy something at the bottom. It's called a funnel because your hopes narrow dramatically at each stage.

📣 Marketing / Advertising

Beginner

billboard test

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.

📣 Marketing / Advertising

Intermediate

frequency cap

The limit on how many times an individual user will see the same ad within a given time period. Preventing your target audience from developing homicidal thoughts about your brand.

📣 Marketing / Advertising

Intermediate

shill

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.

📣 Marketing / Advertising

Intermediate

virtue signaling

When companies publicly support social causes to appear ethical while doing nothing substantive behind the scenes. It's performative activism designed to boost brand image without affecting the bottom line or requiring actual change.

📣 Marketing / Advertising

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