// glossary

Marketing glossary

Technical terms explained — Google Ads, Meta, SEO, and GEO. Click a term to see the full definition.

Google Ads

Smart Bidding, Performance Max, Quality Score, ROAS, and other Google advertising terms.

→ Google Ads

Meta Ads

Advantage+, Lookalike, Meta Pixel, retargeting, and other Meta advertising terms.

→ Meta Ads

SEO

Organic traffic, Core Web Vitals, E-E-A-T, backlinks, and other search optimization terms.

→ SEO

GEO

Generative Engine Optimization, AI search, brand mentions, RAG, and other GEO terms.

→ GEO

Full Stack

Cross-channel, attribution, CAC, blended ROAS, and other Full Stack terms.

→ Full Stack

Marketing Director

Fractional CMO, marketing roadmap, QBR, ICP, and other marketing leadership terms.

→ Marketing Director

Google Ads

Google Ads terms

Smart Bidding: Google's machine learning automated bid strategies. The algorithm adjusts bids in every auction based on conversion probability. Includes Target ROAS, Target CPA, Maximize Conversions, and Maximize Conversion Value.
Performance Max (PMax): Google's AI-powered campaign type that automatically shows ads across all Google channels: Search, Display, YouTube, Gmail, Discover, and Maps. Requires conversion data and quality assets.
Quality Score: Google's 1–10 scale for ad, keyword, and landing page relevance. Higher Quality Score lowers CPC and improves ad visibility. Depends on expected CTR, ad relevance, and page experience.
ROAS (Return on Ad Spend): Return on ad spend: revenue ÷ ad spend. ROAS 4× means every ad euro generated €4 in revenue. The most important metric for e-commerce and direct sales campaigns.
CPC (Cost Per Click): Cost per click: ad spend ÷ clicks. In Google Ads auctions, CPC varies by competition, Quality Score, and bid. AlgoTerra optimizes CPC by improving relevance, not just lowering bids.
CPA (Cost Per Acquisition): Cost per acquisition: ad spend ÷ conversions. Key metric in lead generation and service business campaigns where conversion value is consistent.
Search Intent: User purpose in a search: informational (seeking info), navigational (seeking a specific site), commercial (comparing options), or transactional (ready to buy). Search campaign targeting is based on intent.
Conversion Tracking: Measurement system that records valuable actions (purchase, form, call) to the Google Ads account. Without accurate conversion tracking, Smart Bidding cannot optimize effectively.
Asset Group: Performance Max campaign structure containing ad materials: headlines, descriptions, images, videos, and logos. Multiple asset groups can be created for different product lines or audiences.
Insights Page: Google Ads account analytics view showing Performance Max channel distribution (Search, Display, YouTube etc.) and helping identify where budget actually goes.
Enhanced Conversions: Google conversion tracking enhancement that sends hashed customer data (email, phone) at conversion time. Improves attribution accuracy especially after iOS 14+ updates.
Negative Keywords: Keywords for which ads are not shown. Prevent irrelevant clicks and protect budget. E.g. "free" or "jobs" for a B2B service. AlgoTerra manages negatives automatically.

Meta Ads

Meta Ads terms

Meta Pixel: JavaScript tracking code installed on your website. Tracks site visits, purchases, forms, and other events for Meta campaign optimization and retargeting.
Conversions API (CAPI): Server-side conversion tracking to Meta. Complements the Pixel — especially after iOS 14+ updates and browser restrictions. Improves attribution accuracy and event match quality scores.
Lookalike Audience: Audience created by Meta's algorithm resembling an existing custom audience (e.g. best customers). 1% is most precise, 10% broadest. Effective way to find new customers.
Custom Audience: Your own audience in Meta: site visitors, customer lists, app users, video viewers, or page likers. Foundation for retargeting and lookalike source data.
Advantage+: Meta's automated campaign types (Shopping, App, Leads) where the algorithm optimizes audiences, placement, and budget automatically based on conversion goals.
Advantage+ Audience: Meta's algorithmic audience expansion that overrides manual targeting settings and finds converting users from a broader pool. Requires sufficient conversion data.
Retargeting (Remarketing): Advertising to users who already interacted with your brand — visited site, viewed product, added to cart. Highest ROI in Meta advertising.
Brand Awareness: Campaign objective optimizing for ad impressions and brand recall to maximize reach. Upper funnel strategy before conversion campaigns.
CPM (Cost Per Mille): Cost per thousand impressions. In Meta advertising, CPM varies by audience, format, and competition. Reels and Stories are often cheaper than feed.
CTR (Click-Through Rate): Click rate: clicks ÷ impressions. In Meta advertising, good CTR is 1–3% depending on format. Declining CTR signals creative fatigue.
LTV (Lifetime Value): Customer lifetime value — sum of all purchases during the customer relationship. Meta retargeting to existing customers grows LTV without new acquisition costs.
Dynamic Creative Optimization (DCO): Meta feature that automatically combines different headlines, images, descriptions, and CTAs and shows the best combination to each user.

SEO

SEO terms

Organic Traffic: Website traffic from search engines' free (non-paid) results. Measured in Google Analytics as "Organic Search" channel. SEO's primary metric.
SERP (Search Engine Results Page): Search engine results page — the list of results Google shows for a query. SERP includes organic results, ads, featured snippets, People Also Ask boxes, and local pack results.
Keyword Difficulty (KD): Metric (0–100) describing how hard it is to rank in the top 10 for a keyword. High KD requires more authority, content, and links. AlgoTerra prioritizes based on KD and business value.
Backlink: A link from another website to yours. One of Google's most important ranking signals — quality backlinks raise domain authority. Quality > quantity.
Domain Authority (DA/DR): Third-party metric (Moz DA, Ahrefs DR) of domain authority on a 0–100 scale. Higher DA/DR makes ranking new pages easier.
Indexation: Process where Google adds your page to its search database. A page can be crawled but not indexed — then it won't appear in search results. Indexation issues are the most common technical SEO problem.
Core Web Vitals: Google's official page quality metrics: LCP (load speed), INP (interactivity), CLS (visual stability). Affect search rankings and user experience.
E-E-A-T: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness — Google's content quality criteria. Especially important in YMYL topics (health, finance). Built through expert content, transparency, and trusted sources.
Internal Linking: Links within your site from page to page. Distributes site authority (link equity), helps Google understand site structure, and keeps users on site longer.
Featured Snippet (Position Zero): Highlighted search result in SERP before organic results. Answers the user's question directly. Achieved with structured content: lists, tables, FAQ format.
Crawl Budget: Googlebot's resources for crawling your site. On large sites (10,000+ pages), crawl budget optimization ensures most important pages get indexed.
Schema Markup (Structured Data): JSON-LD code that helps Google understand page content. Enables rich snippets (star ratings, FAQ, product info) in search results.

GEO

GEO terms

Generative Engine: AI-powered search service that generates answers to questions by synthesizing information — unlike traditional search engines that list links. E.g. ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews.
GEO (Generative Engine Optimization): Optimizing content, brand, and authority so your brand is mentioned in AI search service answers. GEO is the equivalent of SEO for the AI era.
Brand Mention: When AI mentions your brand by name in its answer. Positive mention as a recommendation is GEO's primary outcome metric.
Citation: AI's reference to a source in its answer. Perplexity always cites sources. ChatGPT Search cites selectively. Source quality affects whether your brand is mentioned.
Share of Voice (SOV): GEO metric: what share of AI answers your brand gets vs. competitors on a given question pattern. E.g. "mentioned in 40% of queries vs. competitor's 25%".
Mention Tracking: Systematic process of testing predefined questions to see if your brand is mentioned across AI platforms. Done monthly to track trends.
Google AI Overviews: Google's AI-generated summary above search results. Combines SEO and GEO — requires both traditional ranking authority and GEO-optimized content.
Entity SEO: Strategy where brand, product, or person is defined as a clear "entity" with structured data (Schema.org, Wikidata). Helps AI identify and mention your brand correctly.
Knowledge Base: Structured knowledge repository on site — FAQ, guides, definitions, comparisons. AI models favor deep, fact-based knowledge base content for citation.
Digital PR: Digital PR strategy where brand is mentioned in external trusted sources — news sites, industry publications, podcasts. Strengthens GEO authority with third-party signals.
LLM (Large Language Model): Large language model — AI foundation for generative search engines. E.g. GPT-4o (ChatGPT), Claude (Anthropic), Gemini (Google). Each with different training data and search capability.
RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation): Technique where AI fetches information from the web in real time before generating an answer. ChatGPT Search and Perplexity use RAG — your fresh content is citable.

Full Stack

Full Stack terms

Marketing Engine: AlgoTerra term for unified marketing system managing multiple channels as one algorithmic whole — data, optimization, and reporting together.
Cross-channel: Marketing strategy where multiple channels (Google, Meta, SEO, GEO) are managed as one whole rather than separate silos. Enables synergy and correct attribution.
Attribution: Process of crediting a conversion to the correct marketing channel or channel combination. Cross-channel attribution is critical for Full Stack optimization.
CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost): Customer acquisition cost: total marketing spend ÷ new customers. Full Stack algorithm optimizes CAC across all channels together — not per channel.
LTV (Lifetime Value): Customer lifetime value. LTV:CAC ratio is the most important Full Stack optimization metric — target is at least 3:1.
Blended ROAS: Overall ROAS across all channels combined: total revenue ÷ total ad spend. Key summary metric on Full Stack dashboard.
Full-funnel: Marketing strategy covering the entire purchase journey: awareness (Meta), consideration (SEO/GEO), conversion (Google Ads), retention (retargeting). Full Stack optimizes the entire funnel.
Marketing Mix: Distribution of channels and budget. Full Stack algorithm continuously optimizes marketing mix based on data — not fixed 25/25/25/25 split.
Unified Dashboard: Single view for all marketing channels. AlgoTerra Full Stack dashboard combines Google Ads, Meta, SEO, and GEO data in real time.
Senior Account Manager: Dedicated contact for Full Stack clients. One contact for all channels — strategy, reporting, optimization. Included in Full Stack package.
Channel Synergy: Phenomenon where combined channel impact exceeds their individual sum. E.g. SEO + Google Ads = dominant SERP visibility. AlgoTerra measures synergy as +35% return contribution.
Incrementality: Metric describing how much additional value a channel produces compared to others. Cross-channel incrementality testing is part of Full Stack optimization.

Marketing Director

Marketing Director terms

CMO (Chief Marketing Officer): The company's marketing director — responsible for marketing strategy, brand, budget, and channels. A full-time CMO is typically an executive team member.
Fractional CMO / Outsourced Marketing Director: An experienced marketing director in a part-time or project-based role — brings CMO-level strategic leadership at a fraction of full-time salary cost. With AlgoTerra, combined with algorithmic execution.
Marketing Roadmap: A scheduled plan of marketing actions, goals, and KPIs — typically on a 90-day, quarterly, or annual scale. AlgoTerra delivers the roadmap after audit.
QBR (Quarterly Business Review): Quarterly business review with leadership: goals achieved, learnings, next quarter strategy, and budget proposals.
Marketing Mix: Distribution of channels and budget. The marketing director optimizes marketing mix based on data — not fixed splits, but continuous allocation to winning channels.
Incrementality: Metric showing how much additional value a channel or investment produces compared to others. The marketing director uses incrementality in budget allocation decisions.
Blended ROAS: Overall ROAS across all channels: total revenue ÷ total ad spend. The marketing director's key summary metric for leadership.
LTV:CAC Ratio: Customer lifetime value (LTV) divided by acquisition cost (CAC). Target at least 3:1. The marketing director tracks this across the full funnel.
Attribution: Process of crediting a conversion to the right channel or channel combination. The marketing director ensures correct cross-channel attribution — not last-click bias.
ICP (Ideal Customer Profile): Ideal customer profile — demographics, needs, purchase decision process. Foundation of marketing strategy: all channels target the ICP.
Board-ready reporting: Performance report ready to present to the board or investors — plain language, KPI-based, without technical jargon.
Marketing Engine: AlgoTerra's term for the unified marketing system — strategy, channels, algorithm, and reporting as one whole. The marketing director owns the engine.

Can't find a term? Contact us — we're happy to help.

// start today

Free
audit

We analyze your campaigns, identify growth opportunities, and present an action plan — free, no commitment. We respond within 24 hours.

Request a free audit

Takes less than 2 minutes to complete

First name

Last name

Work email

Company & industry

Current ad budget / mo

What do you need help with?

🔒 No spam. No commitment. We respond within 24h.

✓

Thank you!

We have received your request and will be in touch within 24 hours. Please check your email as well.

Marketing glossary

Google Ads

Meta Ads

SEO

GEO

Full Stack

Marketing Director

Google Ads terms

Meta Ads terms

SEO terms

GEO terms

Full Stack terms

Marketing Director terms

Freeaudit

Free
audit