Online Marketing Glossary

There are plenty of confusing online marketing terms and acronyms. Following are some of the most frequently used terms in internet marketing:

• CPA – Cost Per Acquisition. a.k.a. Cost Per Action or CPL / Cost Per Lead. The amount spent on SEM required to generate a lead or sale.
• CPC – Cost Per Click. The actual cost incurred every time a searcher clicks an ad. Advertisers are only charged if an ad is clicked.
• CPM – Cost Per Million. Another way to run PPC ads in which advertisers are charged per thousand impressions, rather than per click. Generally used for brand exposure rather than transactional or ecommerce applications.
• CTR – Click Through Rate. % of displayed ads which attract clicks. If every 100 impressions receives a click, your CTR is 1%
• Impression – When an ad is triggered via a search term, this is considered an impression.
• MCC – Master Client Centre. A holding account which manages various AdWords accounts (for multiple clients).
• PPC – Pay Per Click marketing. Synonymous with SEM and AdWords. If an ad is displayed but not clicked, no cost is incurred.
• ROI – Return On Investment. Self-explanatory.
• SEO – Search Engine Optimisation. a.k.a. Organic results. Google’s main search engine results which don’t allow paid placements.
• SEM – Search Engine Marketing. An umbrella term encompassing all ‘paid’ search marketing (i.e. excluding SEO). Synonymous with Google’ s AdWords paid placement program. a.k.a. the ‘sponsored listings’ on the right hand side of any Google search results page.

• SERPS – Search Engine Results Pages. The results you see after Googling a word or phrase.