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Marketing Analytics terms
Attribution, mix modeling and ROI: proving what marketing did.
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. Engagement rate The share of sessions that meet a minimum bar for meaningful interaction, GA4's replacement for bounce rate. 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.