Glossary
The performance marketing glossary.
Every term a founder or marketer needs to read a media plan, argue with a dashboard or brief an agency — defined in plain English, with the formula, a worked example in rupees and the mistakes to avoid. Start with ROAS, MER, CAC and break-even ROAS.
- Terms
- 100
- Categories
- 12
A
ConversionA/B testingComparing two versions with real users to see which performs better.Open →B2BABM — Account-Based MarketingMarketing to a named list of target companies instead of broad audiences.Open →MarketplacesACoS — Advertising Cost of SaleAd spend as a percentage of ad-attributed sales — Amazon's version of inverse ROAS.Open →CRM & retentionActivation rateThe share of new users who reach the first real moment of value.Open →SEO & AI searchAEO — Answer Engine OptimisationStructuring content so AI assistants and answer features can extract and cite it.Open →SEO & AI searchAnchor textThe clickable words of a link — a clue to what the destination is about.Open →Core metricsAOV — Average Order ValueRevenue divided by orders — a lever that makes every acquisition cheaper.Open →Paid mediaASO — App Store OptimisationOptimising app listings to rank higher and convert more store visitors.Open →MeasurementAttributionHow credit for a conversion is assigned across the touchpoints that preceded it.Open →
B
SEO & AI searchBacklinkA link from another website to yours — a signal of trust and relevance.Open →StrategyBOFU — Bottom of FunnelThe decision stage — capturing people ready to buy.Open →ConversionBounce rateThe share of visits that weren't engaged — context decides if it's a problem.Open →MeasurementBrand liftThe measurable increase in awareness or consideration caused by ads.Open →MeasurementBranded searchSearches containing your brand name — a proxy for demand you've created.Open →Core metricsBreak-even ROASThe ROAS below which every order loses money — calculated from your real margin.Open →
C
Core metricsCAC — Customer Acquisition CostWhat you spend to win one new customer — the number every channel must beat.Open →SEO & AI searchCanonical tagA tag telling search engines which version of a page is the master copy.Open →MeasurementCAPI — Conversions APIMeta's server-to-server connection for sending conversion events reliably.Open →ConversionCart abandonmentShoppers adding items to cart but leaving without buying.Open →CRM & retentionChurn rateThe share of customers you lose in a period.Open →Core metricsContribution marginWhat each order leaves after every variable cost — the true budget for acquisition.Open →CRM & retentionConversational commerceSelling through conversations on WhatsApp, DMs and chat.Open →ConversionConversion rateThe share of visitors or clicks that complete the action you want.Open →SEO & AI searchCore Web VitalsGoogle's three metrics for loading speed, responsiveness and visual stability.Open →Paid mediaCPA — Cost Per AcquisitionSpend divided by conversions — the price of each defined action.Open →Paid mediaCPC — Cost Per ClickWhat you pay, on average, for each click on an ad.Open →Paid mediaCPI — Cost Per InstallAd spend per app install — useful context, poor optimisation target.Open →Paid mediaCPL — Cost Per LeadAd spend per lead — meaningful only alongside lead quality.Open →Paid mediaCPM — Cost Per MilleThe price of 1,000 ad impressions — the raw cost of attention.Open →Paid mediaCPV — Cost Per ViewWhat you pay per counted video view — mostly a YouTube metric.Open →SEO & AI searchCrawl budgetHow much of your site search engines are willing and able to crawl.Open →CreativeCreative fatigueWhen performance decays because people have seen your ad too often.Open →Paid mediaCTR — Click-Through RateClicks as a percentage of impressions — how compelling an ad or listing is.Open →
D
CRM & retentionDeliverabilityWhether your emails actually reach the inbox.Open →CRM & retentionDLT — Distributed Ledger Technology registrationIndia's mandatory registration system for commercial SMS senders and templates.Open →SEO & AI searchDomain authorityA third-party estimate of a website's link strength — useful, not official.Open →Paid mediaDSP — Demand-Side PlatformSoftware advertisers use to buy impressions across many publishers in real time.Open →
E
SEO & AI searchE-E-A-T — Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, TrustworthinessThe qualities Google's raters look for in trustworthy content.Open →SocialEngagement rateInteractions relative to reach or followers — useful when you count the right interactions.Open →MeasurementEnhanced conversionsGoogle's method of improving conversion matching with hashed first-party data.Open →SEO & AI searchEntityA distinct, identifiable thing — like your brand — that search engines and AI understand.Open →
F
G
H
I
B2BICP — Ideal Customer ProfileThe type of company most likely to buy from you and succeed.Open →Paid mediaImpression shareThe share of eligible auctions where your ad actually showed.Open →MeasurementIncrementalityThe sales your marketing actually caused — not just the ones it touched.Open →SEO & AI searchINP — Interaction to Next PaintHow quickly a page visibly responds when someone taps or clicks.Open →SEO & AI searchInternal linkingLinks between your own pages that guide users and distribute authority.Open →
K
L
SEO & AI searchLCP — Largest Contentful PaintHow long it takes the main content of a page to appear.Open →B2BLead scoringRanking leads by how likely they are to buy.Open →SEO & AI searchLocal packThe map and three business listings Google shows for local searches.Open →SEO & AI searchLong-tail keywordSpecific, lower-volume searches that are easier to win and often convert better.Open →Paid mediaLookalike audiencePeople similar to a seed list of your customers, found by the ad platform.Open →Core metricsLTV — Customer Lifetime ValueThe total gross profit a customer generates over their relationship with you.Open →
M
Core metricsMER — Marketing Efficiency RatioTotal revenue ÷ total marketing spend — the one efficiency number platforms can't inflate.Open →ConversionMessage matchYour landing page repeating the promise the ad made.Open →SEO & AI searchMeta descriptionThe page summary that often appears under a search result.Open →MeasurementMMM — Marketing mix modellingStatistical modelling of how each channel contributes to sales over time.Open →StrategyMOFU — Middle of FunnelThe consideration stage — turning interest into intent.Open →B2BMQL — Marketing Qualified LeadA lead that marketing judges ready to pass to sales.Open →
N
O
MeasurementOffline conversionsSales and lead outcomes from your CRM sent back to ad platforms.Open →StrategyOmnichannelOne connected customer experience across every channel, online and offline.Open →CRM & retentionOpen rateThe share of emails opened — less reliable than it used to be.Open →CRM & retentionOpt-inA customer's explicit permission to receive your messages.Open →
P
Q
R
Paid mediaReachThe number of unique people who saw your ad at least once.Open →CRM & retentionRetention rateThe share of customers who keep buying or using your product.Open →CRM & retentionRFM — RFM segmentationGrouping customers by how recently, how often and how much they buy.Open →Core metricsROAS — Return on Ad SpendRevenue generated per rupee of ad spend — the most used and most misused metric in performance marketing.Open →eCommerceRTO — Return to OriginOrders that come back undelivered — the hidden tax on COD-heavy D2C.Open →
S
SEO & AI searchSchema markupCode that tells search engines exactly what a page is about.Open →SEO & AI searchSearch intentWhat the searcher actually wants when they type a query.Open →MeasurementSentimentWhether conversations about your brand are positive, negative or neutral.Open →SEO & AI searchSEO — Search Engine OptimisationImproving a site so search engines show it for relevant queries.Open →SEO & AI searchSERP — Search Engine Results PageThe page a search engine shows in response to a query.Open →MeasurementServer-side taggingTracking routed through your own server rather than directly from the browser.Open →StrategySOV — Share of voiceYour brand's share of the category's total visibility or conversation.Open →B2BSQL — Sales Qualified LeadA lead sales has confirmed as a real opportunity.Open →ConversionStatistical significanceHow confident you can be that a test result isn't just random noise.Open →
T
MarketplacesTACoS — Total Advertising Cost of SaleAd spend as a share of all sales — shows whether ads build or rent your rank.Open →CreativeThumb-stop ratioHow often your ad makes people stop scrolling — the first battle in feed advertising.Open →StrategyTOFU — Top of FunnelThe awareness stage — reaching people before they're actively looking.Open →SEO & AI searchTopic clusterA pillar page linked with supporting pages that cover a topic in depth.Open →
U
CreativeUGC — User-Generated ContentContent made by customers or creators — often the best-performing ad style.Open →StrategyUSP — Unique Selling PropositionThe specific, credible reason to choose you over the alternatives.Open →MeasurementUTM parametersTags added to URLs so analytics knows where a visit came from.Open →
V
W
How the glossary is built
Every entry opens with a one- or two-sentence definition you can quote, followed by the formula where one exists, a worked example in rupees, the mistakes people make with it and related terms. Definitions are written for Indian marketers — COD, RTO, UPI and quick commerce included — and reviewed as platforms change.
Terms are linked automatically from every other page on this site, so wherever you meet a metric you can jump straight to what it means.
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