If you’re new to working with a marketing or advertising agency, understanding the jargon can be a real challenge. We’ve put together this list of ad, design and marketing terms so you can better work with your agency partner.
A/B testing: Trying out two versions of a campaign on users to determine which is the most effective.
Above the fold: The part of a website that is visible before a user scrolls down.
Brand-building: Increasing awareness of a product or service.
Brief: A detailed outline for a planned marketing campaign.
Call to action: A specific request for the audience to do something.
Campaign: A coordinated marketing effort that may have many components in various media.
Circulation: How many people receive a publication, such as a magazine or newspaper.
Concept: A proposed plan for a marketing strategy.
Conversion: Getting users to complete a desired action, such as scheduling an appointment, making a request for more information, signing up for a newsletter or making a purchase.
Copy: The text of an ad, email or other campaign.
CPC: Cost per click, referring to an online ad campaign.
CPM: Cost per thousand (mille), a rate often used in describing the cost of advertising impressions.
CTR: Click-through rate, determined by dividing the number of users who click on a link by the number of impressions.
Creative: All content created for a campaign, including images, text and video.
Demographics: Qualities of the audience, such as age, location, education, income, interests and ethnicity.
Focus group: An interview or discussion with a group of people representing the targeted demographic.
Headline: The biggest copy in an ad or email.
Impressions: How many times consumers are exposed to an ad, email or campaign.
Mobile: Referring to cell phones and tablets.
Penetration: A measurement of popularity, this refers to the percentage of a demographic that uses the product or service.
Pitch: As opposed to a sales pitch, a pitch can refer to a marketing firm’s proposal for a new creative direction.
PPC: Pay per click, when an advertiser pays the publisher each time its ad is clicked on.
Promotion: A portion of a campaign that might be time-limited or product-specific.
Reach: The total number of people or households exposed to a campaign in a certain medium.
SEO: Search engine optimization, or making sure that your website is capable of being indexed by search engines such as Google.
SEM: Search engine marketing, or paying to show up on the results page when users search for certain terms that you select.
Storyboard: Sketches to depict every shot of a video or commercial.
Targeting: Selecting specific audience demographics for a campaign.
Typography: The design, treatment and layout of text elements.
Viral marketing: When a campaign becomes so popular that it is shared far beyond the intended reach.
White space: The unused portions or “negative space” in a design. White space helps direct the viewer’s attention when it’s used on an image or page.
Any other questions? Talk to us. We’re experts when it comes to finding your answers.