When I first started working in the internet industry, back in 1874, a colleague said to me that I shouldn’t be daunted by the ridiculous number of acronyms that are seemingly used on a daily basis. I’d learn them in good time, he said. There was no need for panic stations.
Sure enough, I was bombarded with seemingly random three- and four-letter acronyms, from all directions. I hunkered down and gradually learned the most important ones. I’m somewhat allergic to jargon, but sometimes there is no getting around the fact that we need to speak the right language in digital marketing circles. There is only one way to describe ‘real-time bidding’ (RTB), and no amount of Plain English is going to improve that kind of phrase.
We used to have a glossary on a much older version of Econsultancy.com, but that’s long since vanished, so I thought I’d compile a handy cut-out-and-keep guide to help newbies to get up to speed with the lingo.
So here is a list of the most common acronyms that every digital marketer should know about. I think they cover most bases, though no doubt I have missed out a few obvious ones (by all means add them in the comments area below). Some of these are very much filed under ‘marketing’, whereas others lean more towards ‘tech’ (but are included as you are likely to cross their paths at some point). For the purposes of brevity I shan’t define each one: that’s what Google / Wikipedia is for.
Ok, here goes…
AIDA – Attention, Interest, Desire, Action
AJAX – Asynchronous Javascript and XML
API – Application program interface
AOV – Average order value
AR – Augmented reality
ASP – Application service provider
ATD – Agency trading desk
B2B – Business to business
B2C – Business to consumer
CLV – Customer lifetime value
CMS – Content management system
CPA – Cost per acquisition / action
CPC – Cost per click
CPL – Cost per lead
CPM – Cost per thousand
CPV – Cost per view (see also PPV)
CR – Conversion rate
CRM – Customer relationship management
CRO – Conversion rate optimisation
CSS – Cascading style sheets
CTA – Call to action
CTR – Click-through rate
CX – Customer experience
DM – Direct mail (or ‘Direct message’, in Twitter circles)
DMP – Data management platform
DNS – Domain name system
DR – Direct response
DSP – Demand-side platform
ECPM – Effective CPM
EPC – Earnings per click
EPM – Earnings per thousand
ESP – Email service provider
FB – Facebook
FBML – Facebook Markup Language
FTP – File transfer protocol
GA – Google Analytics
HIPPO – Highest paid person’s opinion
HTML – HyperText Markup Language
HTTP – Hyper Text Transfer Protocol
HTTPS – Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure
IM – Instant Messaging
IMAP – Internet Message Access Protocol
IP – Intellectual property (or ‘Internet Protocol’)
IPTV – Internet protocol television
ISP – Internet service provider
KPI – Key performance indicator
LTV – Lifetime value
MoM – Month on month
MLM – Multi-level marketing
MVT – Multivariate testing
OEM – Original equipment manufacturer
OS – Operating system (sometimes this is used for ‘open source’)
PHP – PHP Hypertext Preprocessor
POS – Point of sale
PPC – Pay per click
PPL – Pay per lead
PPV – Pay per view
PR – PageRank
PV – Pageviews
QA – Quality assurance
QR Code – Quick response code
QS – Quality score
RFI – Request for information
RFP – Request for proposal
ROI – Return on investment
RON – Run of network
ROR – Ruby on Rails
ROS – Run of site
RSS – Really Simple Syndication
RT – Retweet
RTB – Real time bidding
RTD – Real time data
S2S – Server to server
SaaS – Software as a service
SEM – Search engine marketing
SEO – Search engine optimisation
SERP – Search engine results page
SLA – Service level agreement
SM – Social media
SME – Small / medium enterprise. (aka SMB = ‘business’)
SMM – Social media marketing
SMO – Social media optimisation
SMP – Social media platform
SMS – Short message service
SOV – Share of voice
SOW – Statement of work
SSL – Secure Sockets Layer
SSP – Supply-side platform
SWOT – Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats
TLD – Top level domain
TOS – Terms of service
UCD – User-centric design
UI – User interface
UGC – User-generated content
URL – Uniform resource locator
USP – Unique selling proposition
UV – Unique visitor
UX – User experience
VOD – Video on demand
VM – Viral marketing
WOMM – Word of mouth marketing
WYSIWYG – What you see is what you get
YOY – Year on year
YTD – Year to date
XML – Extensible Markup Language
What others are there that are worth knowing / used often?
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