50 Marketing & Performance Acronyms Every Business Professional Should Know

Because understanding your agency’s reports shouldn’t require a translator.

Core Performance Metrics

1. CPC – Cost Per Click. What you pay each time someone clicks your ad. A key metric for paid search and display campaigns.
2. CPM – Cost Per Thousand Impressions. The price to have your ad shown 1,000 times. Useful for brand awareness campaigns where reach matters more than clicks.
3. CTR – Click-Through Rate. The percentage of people who click your ad after seeing it. Higher CTR usually means your creative and targeting are working.
4. CPA – Cost Per Acquisition. How much do you spend to get one desired action, like a sale or sign-up.
5. ROAS – Return on Ad Spend. Revenue generated for every dollar spent on ads. If you spend $1,000 and earn $3,000 back, your ROAS is 3:1.
6. ROI – Return on Investment. A broader measure of how much profit you make from your overall spend, not just ads.
7. CVR – Conversion Rate. The percentage of visitors who complete a desired action, like filling out a form or making a purchase.
8. LTV – Lifetime Value. The total revenue a customer is expected to generate during their entire relationship with your brand.
9. AOV – Average Order Value. How much, on average, customers spend each time they purchase from you.
10. CAC – Customer Acquisition Cost. The average cost of acquiring a new customer, factoring in all your sales and marketing spend.

Campaign & Audience Terms

11. TOFU – Top of Funnel. The awareness stage, attracting people who are just discovering your brand or product.
12. MOFU – Middle of Funnel. The consideration stage, engaging those who know you but aren’t ready to buy yet.
13. BOFU – Bottom of Funnel. The decision stage, targeting people who are ready to convert.
14. MQL – Marketing Qualified Lead. A lead who has shown interest and fits your target profile but isn’t yet ready for sales.
15. SQL – Sales Qualified Lead. A lead deemed ready for direct sales follow-up, usually after deeper engagement.
16. UV – Unique Visitors. The number of distinct people who visit your site in a given period.
17. UU – Unique Users. Similar to UV, sometimes used interchangeably to count individual site or app visitors.
18. PV – Page Views. The total number of pages viewed on your site, including repeat visits.
19. SOV – Share of Voice. Your visibility compared to competitors, often expressed as a percentage of total ad impressions or mentions in your category.
20. CTR% – Click-Through Rate Percentage. Just CTR written explicitly as a percentage, watch for this in reports to avoid confusion.

Analytics & Reporting

21. GA4 – Google Analytics 4. The latest version of Google Analytics, tracks website and app behaviour with a focus on events and privacy.
22. UTM – Urchin Tracking Module. Tags you add to URLs so you can track where your traffic is coming from in analytics tools.
23. KPI – Key Performance Indicator. The most important metrics you use to measure success against your goals.
24. API – Application Programming Interface. A way for different software tools to talk to each other and share data.
25. BI – Business Intelligence. The process and tools for analysing data to make informed business decisions.

E-commerce Specific

26. SKU – Stock Keeping Unit. A unique identifier for each product or variation you sell, essential for inventory management.
27. CLV – Customer Lifetime Value. Another way to write LTV, same concept: total revenue expected from one customer over time.
28. ARPU – Average Revenue Per User. The average amount each customer or user brings in, typically over a set period.
29. MRR – Monthly Recurring Revenue. Revenue you can count on every month, key for subscription businesses.
30. ARR – Annual Recurring Revenue. The annualised version of MRR, a big number SaaS and subscription companies love to showcase.

Paid Media & Ad Platforms

31. PPC – Pay Per Click. An advertising model where you pay only when someone clicks your ad.
32. SEM – Search Engine Marketing. All marketing efforts (paid and sometimes organic) to increase visibility in search engines.
33. SEO – Search Engine Optimisation. Improving your site and content so it ranks higher in organic (non-paid) search results.
34. DSP – Demand Side Platform. A system that allows advertisers to buy digital ads across multiple platforms in real time.
35. SSP – Supply Side Platform. The flip side of DSP, used by publishers to sell their ad space programmatically.
36. CPV – Cost Per View. How much you pay each time someone watches your video ad.
37. CPL – Cost Per Lead. How much you spend to generate one lead, like an email sign-up or contact form submission.
38. RPM – Revenue Per Mille. Revenue earned per 1,000 ad impressions, often used in publishing and display advertising.
39. CTV – Connected TV. Advertising that appears on internet-connected televisions, like Hulu or Roku.
40. OTT – Over The Top. Content delivered over the internet, bypassing traditional cable, think Netflix or Disney+.

Email & Engagement

41. OR – Open Rate. The percentage of recipients who open your email.
42. CTR – Click-Through Rate. How many people clicked a link in your email, divided by the total delivered.
43. CTO – Click To Open Rate. The percentage of people who clicked after opening an email, a good measure of content relevance.
44. ESP – Email Service Provider. The platform you use to send marketing emails, like Mailchimp, Klaviyo, or Campaign Monitor.
45. CRM – Customer Relationship Management. Software for managing and analysing customer interactions and data, like Salesforce or HubSpot.

Other Useful Terms

• B2C – Business to Consumer. Companies that sell directly to consumers, like Nike or Spotify.
• ABM – Account-Based Marketing. A strategy that targets specific high-value accounts rather than broad audiences.
• SaaS – Software as a Service. Software delivered via the cloud on a subscription basis, like Slack, Shopify, or Zoom.
• DTC / D2C – Direct to Consumer. Selling products directly to customers without intermediaries, think Warby Parker or Glossier.
• B2B – Business to Business. Companies that sell to other businesses, like Salesforce or WeWork.