Most retailers are feeling the pinch as in-person sales move to the internet. If you’re tired of doing the same old thing with your advertising and getting the same old results, a move to digital marketing and advertising will connect you to the next generation of customers! We put together this list of need-to-know terms so you can explore the world of digital advertising with confidence.

CPC (cost per click) - Cost Per Click refers to the actual price you pay for each click in your pay-per-click (PPC) marketing campaigns.

KPI (key performance indicator) - Key Performance Indicators measure the success of your marketing campaigns. A KPI can be any kind of analytic like click-through-rate, bounce rate, and many others. 

CPA (Cost per acquisition) - Cost per acquisition shows how much it costs to acquire one customer. Divide the total cost of a campaign by the number of conversions. CPA is important because it shows how much you are actually spending per conversion.

Conversion - In digital marketing, a conversion occurs when a visitor to your website or social media page completes the desired goal like filling out a form or making a purchase.

Lookalike Audiences - Building a lookalike audience via Facebook is a way to find customers that are similar to the ones you already have. Upload your email marketing list and Facebook will analyze it and find similar users to target. 

A/B Split Testing - Run 2-3 similar ads at the same time to see which performs best. A/B split testing will help you better target your audience by showing you which advertisement people liked more. 

CPM (Cost Per Impression) - Impressions measure how many times your ad or content was displayed. CPM is the measured cost that an advertiser will pay when their ad is shown per one thousand impressions. In 2018, the average cost per thousand impressions was $2.80.

Lead Generation - Lead generation is how your business grabs the attention of potential customers. 

Lead Magnet - A lead magnet is a tool that helps your business capture potential customers. It’s usually a small giveaway, like a free ebook or guide that your business offers in exchange for a lead’s email address. 

Lead Nurturing - Once a contact becomes a lead, you will need to nurture them until they become a customer. Lead nurturing can be sending emails, retargeting potential customers on social media or actually calling your potential customers to follow up with them.

CTR (Click Through Rate) - Click-through rate shows how many times an ad was clicked on by users.

Engagement Rate - How many users are interacting with your brand. How many comments did you get on your social media posts? How many shares did that blog post receive? Usually the higher your engagement rate is, the better your content is.

Remarketing - If you are shopping online and viewing a chair on a website, that chair will most likely show up again in ads on another website you visit. Remarketing is used to get customers who did not make a purchase to return to your site.

CTA (Call To Action) - A call to action is usually a button used to get your customer’s attention and make them click, purchase, give their email or any other action you want them to take. A call to action can be used in social media advertisements, email campaigns or on your website. Your CTA should be big, bold and be able to grab your customer’s attention. An effective CTA is also short, sweet and to the point. When someone lands on your website they should immediately know what action you want them to take whether it is to shop a sale, enter their email or browse your newest products.

Buyer Persona - Also known as an “audience avatar”,  a buyer persona gives you a better idea of what your target customers look like. This includes demographics like gender, age, and interests. It is based on research of your target market so that your customers’ buying motivations, behaviors and goals are considered.  Learn more here and grab a free worksheet! 

Pixel - This is a snippet of Facebook code that is inserted into your website for tracking purposes. It can gather analytics and data on your customers and their movements across your website. You can also use pixels to retarget customers. Since the pixel on your site is tracking every customer that visits, you can use this data to target them in future Facebook ads.

PPC (Pay Per Click) - PPC is a model of digital marketing in which advertisers pay a fee each time one of their ads is clicked. It's basically a way of buying visits to your site, rather than attempting to “earn” those visits organically.

Domain Authority - This is a number 1-100 that is assigned to websites by Moz, a marketing analytics company. The higher your Domain Authority, the more “powerful” your website and higher your chances of ranking for search terms. 

Page Authority - Page authority is a metric for predicting how a specific page will rank in search engines. Based on a 0 to 100 scale, a high page authority score means your page has the potential to rank well in search engine results.

List Segmentation - Email list segmentation is an email marketing technique where you segment (or split) your subscriber list, based on any number of conditions such as location, length of time as a contact, purchase intent and many more. 

Bounce Rate - the percentage of emails that were not delivered in your campaign

Hard Bounce - Hard bounces are emails that were not delivered. 

Soft Bounce - A soft bounce means that your email was delivered but bounced back because the user’s inbox was full, their email server was down at the time of delivery or maybe the email was too large.

Open Rate vs Total Opens - Email open rate tells you the percent out of 100 that recipients opened your email. Total opens measures each time your email has been opened.