A/B testing
Comparing two versions of a page, ad or email with real users to see which performs better against a defined goal.
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The glossary
30 marketing, branding, SEO and GEO terms explained in plain English.
ACoS
Advertising Cost of Sales on Amazon: ad spend divided by ad-attributed sales, expressed as a percentage.
Brand architecture
How a company organises and names its brands, sub-brands and products, and how they relate to each other.
Brand equity
The commercial value a brand adds through recognition, trust and associations, allowing premium pricing and lower acquisition costs.
Brand guidelines
A documented system of rules for using a brand's logo, colours, typography, imagery and tone of voice consistently.
Brand positioning
The distinct place a brand occupies in customers' minds relative to alternatives, defined by audience, category, difference and proof.
CAC
Customer Acquisition Cost: total sales and marketing cost divided by the number of new customers acquired.
Canonical URL
The preferred version of a web page declared to search engines to avoid duplicate content issues.
Contribution margin
Revenue minus variable costs such as product cost, fees, shipping and marketing; shows whether growth is profitable.
Conversion rate
The percentage of visitors or recipients who complete a desired action, such as a purchase or form submission.
Core Web Vitals
Google's user-experience metrics for loading (LCP), interactivity (INP) and visual stability (CLS).
CRO
Conversion Rate Optimization: improving a website or funnel so a higher share of visitors take the desired action.
Customer journey
The full set of stages and touchpoints a customer goes through from first awareness to loyalty and advocacy.
Entity SEO
Optimising how search engines and AI systems understand a person, organisation or thing as a distinct entity with consistent facts.
Gamification
Applying game design elements such as goals, progress, rewards and play to non-game contexts like learning, loyalty or wellbeing.
GEO
Generative Engine Optimization: improving the likelihood that AI assistants mention, accurately describe and cite a brand or content.
JSON-LD
A JavaScript-based format for adding structured data (schema markup) to web pages, recommended by Google.
Lead magnet
A valuable resource, such as a guide or checklist, offered in exchange for contact details.
llms.txt
A proposed plain-text file at a website's root that summarises key information and links for large language models.
LTV
Customer Lifetime Value: the gross profit a customer generates over their relationship with a business.
MER
Marketing Efficiency Ratio: total revenue divided by total marketing spend, independent of platform attribution.
Performance Max
A Google Ads campaign type that uses automation to serve ads across Search, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail and Maps.
ROAS
Return on Ad Spend: revenue generated from advertising divided by the cost of that advertising.
Schema markup
Structured data vocabulary from schema.org that describes page content to search engines and AI systems.
Share of voice
A brand's share of total visibility or conversation in its category compared with competitors.
TACoS
Total Advertising Cost of Sales on Amazon: ad spend divided by total sales, showing advertising's effect on overall growth.
Tone of voice
The consistent personality expressed through a brand's words, from vocabulary to sentence style.
UGC
User-Generated Content: photos, videos, reviews and posts created by customers rather than the brand.
UTM parameters
Tags added to URLs so analytics tools can attribute traffic to specific campaigns, sources and media.
Zero-click search
A search where the user gets an answer directly on the results page or in an AI answer without clicking through to a website.
