Digital, Marketing & Product terms

Average session duration The mean length of time visitors spend in a session, measured differently by different analytics platforms. Bot traffic Website activity generated by automated programs rather than human visitors, ranging from crawlers to fraudulent scripts. Bounce rate The share of sessions that show no interaction beyond the entry page, defined differently by GA4 and classic web analytics. Browser fingerprinting Identifying a device from browser and device characteristics, such as screen size or fonts, without setting a cookie. Clickstream The raw, timestamped sequence of pages, clicks, and interactions a single visitor generates while browsing a site or app. Cookie A small piece of data a website stores in a visitor's browser to recognize them on return visits or across pages. Cookieless tracking Measuring visitor behavior without relying on persistent third-party cookies, using first-party, server-side or modeled data. Core Web Vitals Google's page-experience metrics for loading speed, interactivity and visual stability, used as a minor ranking signal. Custom dimension An attribute a site owner defines and sends to their analytics tool to capture data not tracked by default. Dark social Content sharing that happens through channels analytics tools cannot attribute, such as private messaging apps and copied links. Data layer A structured object on a page that exposes site and event data for a tag management system to read. Direct traffic Website visits an analytics tool cannot attribute to a referring source, such as a typed URL or a bookmark. Engaged time The time a user actively interacts with content, such as scrolling or clicking, as distinct from a page simply staying open. Engagement rate The share of sessions that meet a minimum bar for meaningful interaction, GA4's replacement for bounce rate. Exit rate The share of sessions that ended on a given page, out of all sessions in which that page appeared. Goal tracking Configuring an analytics tool to record when a visitor completes an action the business treats as valuable. Heatmap A visual overlay of a webpage showing aggregated visitor clicks, cursor movement or scrolling using color intensity. Landing page The first page a visitor sees in a session, used in analytics as an entry-point performance dimension. Organic traffic Visits arriving from unpaid listings on a search results page, as distinct from paid search, social or direct visits. Page load time How long a webpage takes to become usable to a visitor, measured at several different possible points. Pages per session The average number of pages a visitor views during a single session on a site. Pageview One load or reload of a web page recorded by an analytics tool, the most basic unit of web traffic measurement. Referral traffic Visits that arrive by clicking a link on another website, other than a search engine, paid ad or social network. Sampling in analytics Computing a report from a subset of the underlying data rather than the complete data set, to return results faster. Scroll depth How far down a page a visitor scrolls, tracked as a percentage or discrete thresholds to measure content exposure. Session A grouped window of a user's activity on a site or app, bounded by an inactivity timeout or similar cutoff rule. Session replay A reconstructed playback of one visitor's clicks, cursor movement and scrolling on a page, captured via browser events. Sessionization Grouping a visitor's raw, timestamped events into discrete sessions, usually by closing a session after a period of inactivity. Tag management A system for adding and configuring marketing and analytics tracking tags without editing a site's code. Third-party cookies Cookies set by a domain other than the one being visited, historically used for tracking visitors across sites. Unique visitors The count of distinct individuals, approximated by a client identifier, who visited a site within a given period. Activation rate The share of new users who complete the specific actions that mark them as having found a product's core value. Aha moment The point at which a new user first experiences the core value of a product clearly enough to want to continue. Daily active users (DAU) The count of unique users who take a qualifying action in a product within a single calendar day. Event data model The structured format — event name, timestamp, user ID, and properties — that a single tracked user action is recorded in. Event taxonomy The standardized naming and structure for the user actions a product tracks, so events mean the same thing everywhere. Event tracking Capturing specific user actions, such as clicks or purchases, as discrete, named pieces of data. Feature adoption The share of eligible users who take up and continue using a specific feature after its release. Feature flag A configuration switch that turns a piece of functionality on or off, or for specific users, without deploying new code. Funnel analysis A method for tracking how users move through an ordered sequence of steps toward a goal, and where they drop off. Guardrail metric A secondary metric watched during an experiment to catch harm the primary metric would not show, such as load time or churn. Holdout group A segment of users deliberately kept out of a treatment, campaign or feature, so its true incremental impact can be measured against them. Identity stitching Linking the different identifiers a single person generates across devices, sessions, and platforms into one profile. Multivariate testing (MVT) An experiment that varies several page or product elements at once, to measure each element's individual effect and how elements interact. North star metric The single metric a team chooses as the best proxy for the core value a product delivers to customers. Novelty effect A temporary spike in engagement with a new feature or design that fades once users stop reacting to its newness and it becomes routine. Overall evaluation criterion (OEC) The single metric or composite formula a team agrees in advance will determine whether an experiment's treatment is judged a success. Path analysis Examining the sequences of actions users take through a product to find common, high-value, or drop-off routes. Product-led growth (PLG) A go-to-market approach where the product itself, often via free trials or freemium use, drives acquisition and expansion. Product-qualified lead (PQL) A free or trial user whose in-product behavior signals they are ready to be approached about a paid plan. Recommendation system A system that predicts and ranks the items a specific user is most likely to want, such as products, content, or actions. Retention analysis The study of how many users keep returning to and engaging with a product after their first use. Session length How long a single continuous visit or usage period lasts, from a user's first action until the session ends. Split URL testing An A/B test that sends visitors to entirely separate page URLs for each variant, instead of changing content dynamically on one shared URL. Stickiness The ratio of daily to monthly active users, showing how often the average monthly user returns in a day. Time to value (TTV) How long it takes a new user, from signup, to first experience a product's core value. Tracking plan The document specifying every analytics event a product should fire, its properties, and who owns it. User journey analytics Analyzing the ordered sequence of touchpoints and actions a user takes across sessions and channels toward a goal. User properties Attributes describing a user, such as plan tier or signup date, attached to their profile rather than to a single event. Viral coefficient The average number of new users each existing user brings in, used to measure whether growth is self-sustaining. App store optimization (ASO) Improving a mobile app's visibility and conversion rate within app store search and browse listings. Crash rate The share of app sessions, or the rate per active user, in which the app crashed or force-closed unexpectedly. Deep linking A link that opens an app directly to a specific piece of content or screen, instead of the app's default landing page. In-app purchase (IAP) A purchase of digital content, currency, or a subscription made from within a mobile app. Install attribution Determining which marketing channel, campaign, or ad is responsible for a given app install. Mobile measurement partner (MMP) A third-party platform that attributes app installs and in-app events to the marketing source that drove them. SKAdNetwork (SKAN) Apple's privacy-preserving framework for attributing iOS app installs without identifying individual users or devices. Ad viewability A measure of whether an ad impression had the actual opportunity to be seen, based on standardized on-screen thresholds. Attribution modeling A method for assigning credit for a conversion across the marketing touchpoints a customer encountered beforehand. Attribution window The fixed period after an ad click or view during which a resulting conversion is still credited to that ad. Blended CAC (blended customer acquisition cost) Total customer acquisition cost calculated across all marketing channels combined, including organic and unpaid efforts. Brand lift The measurable increase in brand awareness, favorability, or purchase intent caused by an ad campaign. Click ID A unique parameter appended to a URL when an ad is clicked, used to match that click to a later conversion. Conversion API (CAPI) A method of sending conversion and event data directly from a business's own servers to an ad platform, bypassing the browser. Conversion rate The proportion of sessions, users, or clicks that complete a defined goal, such as a purchase or signup. Cost per acquisition (CPA) The average amount spent on advertising to generate one conversion, such as a sale, lead, or signup. Cost per click (CPC) The amount an advertiser pays, on average, each time a user clicks on a paid ad. Cost per mille (CPM) The price an advertiser pays for one thousand ad impressions, regardless of clicks or conversions. Customer acquisition cost The average total sales and marketing spend required to acquire one new paying customer. Customer data platform (CDP) Software that unifies customer data from multiple sources into persistent profiles usable by marketing teams. Customer journey mapping The practice of visualizing every touchpoint a customer has with a brand, from first awareness through purchase and beyond. Data-driven attribution (DDA) An attribution model that uses statistical analysis of historical conversion paths to assign fractional credit to each touchpoint. Email deliverability The rate at which sent emails actually reach a recipient's inbox rather than being blocked, filtered, or bounced. Email open rate The share of delivered emails recorded as opened, a metric increasingly distorted by privacy features that pre-fetch images. First-click attribution An attribution model that gives all credit for a conversion to the very first marketing touchpoint that introduced the customer. Frequency capping Limiting the number of times a single user is shown the same ad within a defined time period. Geo experiment An experiment that randomizes treatment by geographic region rather than by individual user, often to measure marketing's incremental impact. Impression One instance of an ad being served and rendered on a page or app, whether or not anyone noticed or clicked it. Invalid traffic (IVT) Ad impressions, clicks, or conversions that do not represent genuine human interest, from bots, click farms, or tracking errors. Last-click attribution An attribution model that gives all credit for a conversion to the final marketing touchpoint before it happened. Lead scoring A method of ranking leads by assigning points for behaviors and attributes that correlate with a likelihood to buy. Lookalike audience A group of new prospects an ad platform selects because their profile statistically resembles an advertiser's existing customers. Marketing efficiency ratio (MER) Total revenue divided by total marketing spend, a single blended measure of overall marketing performance. Marketing mix modeling A statistical technique estimating how much each marketing channel and external factor contributes to results. Marketing qualified lead (MQL) A lead that marketing activity has judged likely enough to convert that it gets handed to sales for follow-up. Multi-touch attribution An attribution method that splits conversion credit across every touchpoint in a customer's path, not just one. Programmatic advertising The automated, auction-based buying and selling of digital ad inventory using software instead of manual insertion orders. Reach and frequency Reach is how many unique people saw an ad; frequency is how many times, on average, each of them saw it. Retargeting Showing ads to people who have already interacted with a brand's website, app, or content, based on tracked prior behavior. Share of search A brand's share of total category search volume, used as a fast-moving proxy for market share and brand awareness. Share of voice (SOV) A brand's advertising presence, such as spend or impressions, expressed as a percentage of the total for its category. Touchpoint Any single point of contact between a customer and a brand, on or off the path to purchase, across any channel. UTM parameters Tags added to a URL that record which source, medium, and campaign sent a visitor to a site. View-through conversion (VTC) A conversion credited to an ad a user saw but did not click, within a defined attribution window. Attention metrics Measures of how much genuine human attention content receives, going beyond impressions to viewability, scroll depth, and time in view. Click-through rate The percentage of people who click a link, ad, or search result out of everyone who saw it. Conversion lift study A randomized test comparing a holdout who saw no ads against an exposed group, to measure advertising's true incremental effect on conversions. Earned Media Value (EMV) An estimate of what organic social mentions, shares, and coverage would have cost if purchased as paid advertising. Gross Rating Point (GRP) A measure of total advertising exposure, calculated as reach multiplied by frequency, expressed against a target population. Incrementality testing An experiment measuring the true causal lift of a marketing activity by comparing it against a held-out control. Retail media network (RMN) An advertising platform run by a retailer that sells ad placements on its own site, app, or in-store screens using its shopper data. Return on ad spend A ratio of revenue earned for every unit of currency spent on advertising. Backlink A hyperlink from one website to a page on another, treated by search engines as a signal of authority or relevance. Crawl budget The number of pages a search engine's crawler will fetch from a site within a given period before moving on. Domain authority A third-party score predicting how well a domain is likely to rank, based largely on its backlink profile — not a Google metric. Generative engine optimization (GEO) Optimizing content to be cited or summarized by AI-generated answers, rather than only to rank in a list of links. Keyword research Identifying and evaluating the search terms an audience uses, to guide what content to create and how to target it. PageRank An algorithm that scores a node's importance by the number and importance of other nodes linking to it. Search engine results page (SERP) The page a search engine returns after a query, containing organic listings alongside ads, snippets and other features. Search intent The underlying goal behind a search query, commonly classified as informational, navigational, commercial or transactional. Brand health A composite view of how a brand is perceived and performing, combining awareness, sentiment, consideration, and loyalty metrics. Content engagement The volume and rate of likes, comments, shares, and other interactions a piece of content receives relative to its reach. Creator economy The ecosystem of independent content creators who monetize an audience directly through platforms, sponsorships, and subscriptions. Follower growth rate The percentage change in an account's follower count over a period, used to track audience-building momentum on social platforms. Influencer marketing Paying or partnering with individuals who have an engaged social media following to promote a product to their audience. Net sentiment The share of positive mentions minus the share of negative mentions in a set of analyzed text, summarized as one score. Sentiment analysis Using NLP to classify text as positive, negative, or neutral, so large volumes of comments or reviews can be scored automatically. Social listening Continuously tracking social platforms and public online conversations for mentions of a brand, topic, or competitor, then analyzing themes. Average order value (AOV) The average amount spent each time a customer places an order, revenue divided by number of orders. Cart abandonment rate The share of shopping carts that are created but never converted into a completed purchase. Gross merchandise value (GMV) The total value of goods sold through a platform over a period, before fees, discounts, and returns are deducted. Market basket analysis Finding which products are frequently bought together, to inform bundling, placement, and recommendations. Price elasticity How much the quantity demanded of a product changes in response to a change in its price. Product affinity A measure of how strongly two or more products relate to each other in customer interest or purchase behavior. Repeat purchase rate The share of customers who buy more than once within a given period, a core signal of loyalty. Audience measurement Quantifying how many people are exposed to media content and who they are, across TV, streaming, print, and digital. Audience retention curve A chart showing what percentage of viewers are still watching a video at each point in its runtime. Content velocity The rate at which an organization or creator publishes new content over time, tracked to sustain audience growth and visibility. Paywall conversion rate The share of visitors who hit a paywall and go on to subscribe or pay for access, a core metric for publishers. Podcast downloads The number of times a podcast episode's audio file has been requested from a hosting server, the industry's standard audience metric. Subscriber churn The rate at which paying subscribers cancel a service over a given period, the mirror image of subscriber retention. Video analytics Extracting quantitative insight from video, whether audience behavior around published video or automated analysis of video frames. Watch time The total minutes viewers spend watching a piece of video content, a key ranking and monetization signal on video platforms.