Glossary of digital marketing terms

How much revenue a campaign brings in for each unit you spend on ads. A ROAS of 4x means you make 4 for every 1 spent.

A Google Smart Bidding strategy: you set the return you want and Google adjusts bids to reach it. It needs plenty of conversions and solid tracking.

A Google Ads campaign type that uses AI to show your ads across Search, Shopping, YouTube, Display, Discover and Gmail from one campaign.

Sends conversion data straight from your server to an ad platform like Meta, so you're not relying only on browser pixels that cookie and ad blockers can stop.

Google's 1 to 10 rating of how relevant your keyword, ad and landing page are. A higher score means cheaper clicks and better ad positions.

What you pay each time someone clicks your ad, set by an auction that weighs your bid and your Quality Score.

What you pay to get one qualified lead. It's the main efficiency number for lead generation campaigns.

The cost of winning one customer or conversion: total ad spend divided by conversions.

The share of people who click your ad or listing after seeing it: clicks divided by impressions.

The share of visitors who buy, fill in a form or take the action you want: conversions divided by sessions.

Testing and improving landing pages, forms and user journeys so more of your existing visitors convert.

Shaping your content so AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews show and cite it. It works alongside SEO, not instead of it.

A close cousin of GEO: writing content so each question is matched to a clear answer that stands on its own.

Google's event-based analytics tool for websites and apps, and the replacement for Universal Analytics.

Sending event data from your own server to analytics and ad platforms instead of a browser pixel, so it's more accurate and isn't blocked.

Code that tells search engines and AI tools what a page is, such as a Service, an FAQ or an Article, helping you win rich results.

Showing ads to people who've already visited your site or app. It returns well because they already know you.

How much revenue a customer brings in over the whole time they buy from you. Compare it to CPA to see if growth can last.

How you split credit for a conversion across the marketing touchpoints a customer saw, from last-click to data-driven models.

Google's measures of page speed and experience (LCP, INP and CLS). They affect rankings and are central to technical SEO.