Marketing
glossary

These are the terms that show up in ad reports, website proposals and CRM conversations. Each definition is short, with a note on why it matters to a small business. Terms are grouped by topic and listed alphabetically inside each group.

Ad metrics

• Ad Rank: Google's score that sets your ad's position and what you pay per click. It blends your bid, ad quality and the expected impact of assets.
• CPA (cost per acquisition): ad spend for one conversion, such as a booking or a sale.
• CPC (cost per click): what one click costs you. It swings widely by industry and metro; see cost per click explained.
• CPL (cost per lead): ad spend divided by the number of inquiries. For service businesses, the number I watch most. More in cost per lead.
• CPM (cost per mille): the price of 1,000 impressions, common on Facebook and Instagram.
• CTR (click-through rate): clicks divided by impressions. A weak CTR usually means the ad doesn't match the search.
• Frequency: the average number of times one person saw your ad. Push it too high and people tune out.
• Impression: one display of your ad on a screen, noticed or not.
• Quality Score: Google's 1 to 10 rating of how well a keyword, ad and landing page fit together.
• ROAS (return on ad spend): ad revenue divided by ad spend. A ROAS of 4 means $4 back for each $1. The difference from ROI is in ROAS vs ROI.
• ROI (return on investment): profit after every cost, including fees and cost of goods, divided by those costs.

Campaign types and ad tools

• Demand Gen: a Google campaign type for image and video ads on YouTube, Discover and Gmail.
• Lead form ad: an ad where people submit their details without leaving Facebook, Instagram or Google.
• LSA (Local Services Ads): Google ads above the regular results with a Google Screened or Google Guaranteed badge, charged per lead rather than per click. Availability depends on your city and category; see Google Local Services Ads.
• Match type: how closely a search must match your keyword: broad, phrase or exact.
• Negative keyword: a word that blocks your ad, such as "free", "jobs" or "DIY". Read negative keywords.
• Performance Max (PMax): one Google campaign that runs across Search, Maps, YouTube and Display, steered by your conversion data.
• Remarketing: ads shown to people who already visited your site, also called retargeting.
• Search terms report: the real searches that triggered your ads. The fastest way to spot wasted spend.
• Special Ad Categories: Meta's label for housing, employment, credit and financial products, and social issues, elections or politics. It limits targeting by age, zip code and other options.

Analytics and tracking

• Attribution: the rule for crediting a sale to the ad or channel that led to it.
• Conversion: an action you count as a result: a call, a form, a booking, a purchase.
• Conversions API (CAPI): sends conversion data from your server to Meta, so fewer results go missing when a browser blocks the pixel.
• Consent Mode: a Google setting that adjusts tags to the visitor's cookie choice.
• Enhanced conversions: Google Ads matching hashed form data to clicks for more accurate reporting.
• GA4 (Google Analytics 4): Google's free analytics tool, built on events rather than sessions. Start with GA4 for small business.
• GTM (Google Tag Manager): one container that manages every tracking code on the site without editing code each time.
• Pixel: a snippet from Meta, TikTok or others that reports visits and conversions back to the ad platform.
• UTM parameters: labels added to a link (source, medium, campaign) so analytics knows where a visitor came from. See the UTM parameters guide.

Websites and SEO

• Bounce rate: in GA4, the share of sessions that weren't engaged. Only meaningful next to other numbers.
• CMS (content management system): the panel where you edit pages. I build a custom one per project instead of using a page builder.
• Core Web Vitals: Google's measures of loading speed, responsiveness and visual stability for real visitors.
• CRO (conversion rate optimization): changes that raise the share of visitors who call or fill in a form.
• GBP (Google Business Profile): your free listing on Google Search and Maps, often the biggest source of calls for a local business.
• Landing page: one page built for one offer and one action, usually paired with an ad.
• Local pack (map pack): the three map listings Google shows for local searches.
• NAP: name, address and phone. They should match on your site, Google, Apple Business Connect, Bing Places, Yelp and the BBB.
• Organic traffic: visitors from unpaid search results.
• SEO (search engine optimization): work that helps pages rank in unpaid results.
• SERP: the search engine results page, everything Google shows for a query.

Sales, CRM and customers

• CAC (customer acquisition cost): all marketing and sales costs divided by new customers won.
• Close rate: the share of leads that turn into paying customers.
• CRM (customer relationship management): one system holding every lead, conversation and deal, with reminders.
• Funnel: the path from first contact to purchase, and the points where people drop out.
• Lead: someone who called or left contact details about your service.
• LTV (lifetime value): the total profit one customer brings over the whole relationship. More in customer lifetime value.
• MQL and SQL: a marketing-qualified lead looks interested; a sales-qualified lead has been checked and is ready to talk price.
• Speed to lead: how quickly you answer a new inquiry, often the cheapest way to win more of them. See speed to lead.

US rules owners run into

Short descriptions only, not legal advice. Rules change, so check with your attorney.

• 10DLC: carrier registration for business texting from regular 10-digit numbers. Unregistered traffic is often filtered or blocked.
• ADA and WCAG: the Americans with Disabilities Act is widely applied to business websites in lawsuits; WCAG 2.1 AA is the usual technical reference. See ADA website accessibility.
• CAN-SPAM: the federal law for commercial email: truthful sender and subject line, a physical postal address and an unsubscribe honored promptly. Details in CAN-SPAM email rules.
• CCPA/CPRA: California's consumer privacy law, as amended. It applies above certain thresholds and brings duties such as "Do Not Sell or Share" handling.
• Endorsement Guides: FTC guidance requiring disclosure when a review or endorsement is paid, gifted or otherwise incentivized.
• FTC fake reviews rule: in force since late 2024, it bans buying, selling or faking reviews. See the FTC fake reviews rule.
• HIPAA: the federal health privacy law. Tracking pixels on patient-facing pages are a known risk; talk to your compliance advisor.
• State privacy laws: Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Texas, Oregon and other states have their own consumer privacy laws with thresholds. Many small businesses fall under none, but some do.
• TCPA: the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. Marketing texts and autodialed calls generally need prior express written consent, respect for quiet hours and working opt-outs like STOP.

Missing a term? Ask me, or dig deeper on the blog. If you'd rather someone else watched these numbers for you, that's what Google Ads management is for.