All The Must Know Marketing Acronyms
Have you ever been in a meeting or speaking with some marketing shmuck and you realize you have no idea what in the world they are talking about? It's probably because they are using acronyms that mean diddly squat to people who don't live in the marketing space on a daily basis. Well, we understand. There are more acronyms out there than we can count. We decided to break down some of the most common marketing acronyms. Enjoy!
PPC (PAY PER CLICK)
We're going to get the ball rolling with PPC because this is a term used every day by marketers and is also the acronym everyone asks about when I don't specify what it means. Pay per click means exactly what it sounds like when you run a campaign where you pay for people to click on your ad. The most common use of PPC is with Google Ads.
CPC (COST PER CLICK)
Cost per click is a measurement used with PPC campaigns. CPC can vary widely depending on the industry, time of year, and the ads themselves. If you run a campaign with a budget of $100 and you received 200 clicks, your cost per click is $.50.
CPM (COST PER MILLE/COST PER 1,000 IMPRESSIONS)
In French, "mille" means thousand. So, with CPM we are measuring the cost per 1,000 impressions. This is an extremely useful measurement, but it is rarely used. I tend to look at CPM when running brand awareness campaigns. If I'm optimizing my ads for reach instead of clicks, cost per 1,000 impressions is probably better when assessing the effectiveness of your campaign.
CTR (CLICK THROUGH RATIO)
Click through ratio is an incredibly good indicator of how well your campaign is performing. If you take the number of clicks and divide it by the number of impressions you'll get your CTR.
EVC (ERIC VAN CLEAVE)
Eric is our Co-CEO and pretty much everyone on the planet refers to him as EVC. Not a marketing acronym, but it's close enough.
NAP (NAME ADDRESS PHONE)
Whenever you hear NAP you'll hear NAP scrub. This is something that is used quite a bit if your business moves locations. You basically need to scrub the internet for your name, address, and phone number and update it everywhere you can. Websites usually include Yelp, Trip Advisor, Facebook, and any website with a business listing.
TOFU (TOP OF THE FUNNEL)
Marketers really do love their funnels... Top of the funnel is used all the time when you are describing different ad tactics that feed your sales/marketing funnel. Newsletter signups, brand awareness campaigns, and word of mouth all add to the top of your funnel.
BOFU (BOTTOM OF THE FUNNEL)
This isn't quite as cute because the acronym isn't food, but it is still extremely important. BOFU is used as often as TOFU because they will always be connected with one another. Great bottom of the funnel tactics are conversion campaigns, email campaigns, and shopping cart abandonment campaigns.
BR (BOUNCE RATE)
Bounce rate is a term used by every digital marketer on the planet. BR is when someone visits your website or landing page and does not go to another page on your site. It does not matter how long they were on your site if they don't visit another page, they bounced. A 40-50% bounce rate is pretty normal, but anything higher than that and you should look at how you can adjust your site content. Read more about how the definition of bounce rate has changed here.
CMS (CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM)
Figuring out the content management system for your business is a crucial first step. There are a ton of options out there such as WordPress, Drupal, and Magento.
CTA (CALL TO ACTION)
A CTA is when you are urging your customers to do something such as buy a product, sign up for a webinar, download a white paper, etc. Having a strong call to action is one of the most important things you'll ever do in marketing.
KPI (KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS)
A key performance indicator is any measurement or statistic that will help indicate if your campaign is successful or not. Many of the acronyms we've covered in this blog could be considered a KPI, such as PPC, CTR, and CPM.There ya go! Now you are fully prepared for your next marketing meeting. Drop sentences like "Let's optimize our BOFU strategy by increasing our CTR, dropping our CPM and assess new KPIs."