power up your business GLOSSARY

Transcription

1 GLOSSARY

2 GLOSSARY We know that not everyone is an expert in digital, and some of the terms out there that can be a bit confusing. To help you out, we have put together a handy glossary of frequently used terms, across a wide range of topics to help bring you up to speed. 4Ps The Marketing Mix is a tool to help understand what a product or service can offer. The 4P s of marketing stand for Price, Product, Promotion, and Place. An extended 7P s model also includes People, Process and Physical evidence. A/B testing The process of comparing two variations of a single variable to determine which performs higher. The results will help inform and improve marketing efforts. Accessibility An approach to web design and digital services which seeks to ensure that users using assistive technology such as screenreaders can use your website or service. Advanced segments A subset of Google Analytics data to enable a more in-depth view at a section of your site traffic. Advocate A person who supports or promotes the interests of another. Active advocates are passionate and will respond to inquiries about your brand. AIDA Stands for attention, interest, desire and action. AIDA is a four step marketing model used to describe the different stages that a customer engages with a product/service. AND logic conditions Requires that all conditions are met to define an advanced segment. Attribution modelling The rule or set of rules that determine how credit for a sale or conversion is assigned to touchpoints in a user s journey. Audience personas Representations of your actual / ideal customers. Automation (marketing or service) Systems which will do things for you without intervention, based on rules you set up, such as sending an to a customer when they sign up to your mailing list. Avg. session duration The average length of a session. Back end The interface of a system seen by internal users, as opposed to the front end seen by the general public. Backlinks Beneficial links that can be found on other websites linking back to yours. Back office Administrative and operational activities that are carried out in order to deliver business products or services. BCG Matrix The Boston Consulting group s matrix is a four-celled matrix for portfolio analysis. Designed to help with long-term strategic planning to help a business determine growth opportunities. Behaviour flow This Google Analytics report visualises the path that users take to get from one page to the next. Can help you discover what content keeps users engaged and help identify potential content issues by analysing drop offs. Blog A regularly updated piece of content on your website. Ansoff matrix A marketing planning tool to help a business determine its product and market growth strategy.

3 Bounce rate The percentage of users who have visited your site and left without visiting another page or interacting with your site in any way, regardless of time spent on that initial entrance page. Cache Files stored by your web browser to speed up reloading of an already accessed page. Call to action An action for someone to carry out whilst online. For example, this could be clicking a button to use a contact form on your website. Campaign These are the names of your Adwords or custom advertising campaigns that you have manually tagged to be able to track effectiveness. Click through rate The percentage of users who follow a particular link on an advertisement or link. Client A software application which communicates with a server to allow users to work with back office systems. This may be a thin client, which is essentially a specialised web browser and usually cannot function without an active internet connection. Alternatively it may be a thick client which has the ability to download and store data for offline work. Cloud computing Delivery of software and services over the internet, from a server to a web browser CMS Content Management System any back office system that allows the content of a website or online store to be managed by non-expert users. Conditions (advanced segments) Conditions for advanced segments are the set of rules that allow you to create filters for any dimension or metric. Content strategy The marketing and business process for creating and distributing relevant and valuable content for the target audience with the objective of driving actions. Conversion The point at which a user reaches or completes a particular targeted action. Conversion funnel Used to describe a specific journey from an intial visit to completed sale. Commonly used in tracking e-commerce checkout processes. Conversion rate The percentage of users who have taken a specific action or reached a specific point ( newsletter, purchase etc.). Conversion rate optimisation (CRO) CRO is the optimising activity in order to increase your conversion rate. Cookie A file stored on a user s device to help identify them. Commonly used to manage access to the front end and back end of a back office system. Cost per Click (CPC) The cost of someone clicking on an advert you have set up. Cost per click varies from ad to ad. Crawler/Spider Search Engine A crawler is a program that visits Web sites and reads their pages and other information in order to create entries for a search engine index. The major search engines on the Web all have such a program, which is also known as a spider or a bot. CRM Customer Relationship Management. Often used to refer to a database or contact management system used to track and plan interactions with the customers of your business. Customer-centric approach This approach offers a great experience throughout the whole customer journey. This strategy is based on putting your customer first and at the core of the business.

4 Customer lifecycle The process a user goes through when researching, considering, purchasing, using and maintaining engagement with a particular product, service or brand. Customer segmentation The practice of dividing a customer base into groups of individuals that are similar in terms of marketing aspects, such as age, gender, interests, location and buying habits. Custom parameters Non-sensitive identifiable data that you can implement in custom-built URLs to filter out campaign traffic in Google Analytics. Custom reports A report you can create that includes dimensions and metrics that you choose and how they should be displayed depending on their importance to your objectives. Database A store of information, in a format that allows it to be manipulated by a given system. Some database types are proprietary and will only work with a given type of software, while others are open source or are a de facto standard and will work with multiple types of system. Destination URL The URL address of the webpage when a user clicks on an ad, or where they end up after filling out a form. Digital assets Classified as images, multimedia and textual content files that can be used in your marketing activity. Digital marketing strategy Provides a foundation for all online marketing activities and will assist in making the right decisions to make a company successful online. Display advertising A type of online advertising which includes: banner ads, video and logos on a website or search engine. DNS Domain Name System. The worldwide network of specialised servers that translate human-readable web addresses (such as into machine-readable IP addresses. Changes to DNS allow websites to change IP location but keep the same URL. Domain Part of a URL, which allows users to find a website or online tool. Top Level Domains (TLDs) such as.com, co.uk and so on are used to group websites and online resources. Earned media Media generated for your brand. This is unpaid media and can include Twitter retweets, Facebook likes, online reviews and word of mouth. ecommerce Buying and selling products and services online, including online shop hosting, sales processing, order fulfilment, inventory management and tracking. marketing marketing is directly marketing based campaigns to a targeted list of recipients. Encryption A security measure which allows two or more computers or servers to communicate with each other securely. Engagement rate A metric that measures the level of interaction from a piece of content receives from an audience. ERP Enterprise Resource Planning a category of business processes and associated software that helps businesses to organise and run themselves more efficiently. Event Helps you to measure activity that is not captured by the original tracking code and is usually used to track specific actions and on-site interactions such as when a user plays a video, downloads a document or clicks on a button.

5 Exit page The last page users visited before leaving the site. Exit rate Is the percentage of site visitors who actively click away to a different site from that specific page. Visitors just exited on that specific page. Facebook pixel A line of unique code that is used to track conversions, build audiences and get insights about how people use your website. Filter Allow you to limit and modify the data that is included in a view. Firewall A security measure which monitors and prevents unauthorised access to servers and systems inside the firewall. First interaction (attribution model) The first touchpoint in a customer s conversion journey would receive 100% credit for a conversion. Floodlight tags An HTML tag that you place on your site to track conversions. Front end The interface that an end user/member of the public sees when interacting with your website or online service. FTP File Transfer Protocol a method of uploading, downloading and sharing files directly over the internet. Goal Goals measure how well your site fulfils target objectives. Goal hierarchy A hierarchical structure that links high-level business objectives to more details goals and KPIs. Goal funnel Shows the path your traffic took to get to a specific goal, destination or conversion point. Goal type (destination) A specific URL location loads. Goal type (duration) Sessions that lasts a specific amount of time. Goal type (event) An action defined as an Event (video play, download, button click etc.) is triggered. Goal type (pages/screens per session) A user views a specific number of pages. Goals Marketing goals are measurable short-term goals and long-term goals. They describe how your digital marketing will contribute to you business in order to increase growth. Geo-location data Information that is used to determine where a user s physical location is. Google Analytics The web analytics service that tracks and reports on website traffic. Google Tag Manager (GTM) Allows you to manage tags on your site without the need for IT or coding involvement. Google URL builder Assists in the building of custom URLs for use in ad campaigns to be able to better track and identify incoming traffic. Handle Your username on social media. Hashtag # Public links that anyone can create and use on social media. Data is collected under the title of that hashtag specifically and this makes it easier for users to view all content relating to the hastag at the same time. Impression An impression is a single display of a particular ad on a web page. Some search engine advertising fees are based upon the number of impressions, while the majority are based upon the number of clicks (PPC).

6 Internal site search Only applicable if you have search functionality on your site, internal site search in Google Analytics allows you to detect the exact search queries that users are entering to locate content on your site. Integration The process of tailoring software for specific business needs, including creating interfaces and plugins for specific sources of data and specialist applications. Custom integrated systems can be heavily adapted for the requirements of your organisation, but require ongoing support and maintenance relative to the degree of customisation. Intranet A limited access network between computers and servers without your organisation. IP address A numerical label assigned to a computer that uses the Internet. Keyword A keyword, in the context of search engine optimisation, is a particular word or phrase that describes the contents of a Web page. Keywords are intended to act as shortcuts that sum up an entire page. KPI Key Performance Indicator something you choose to measure in order to gauge the effectiveness of a business process or attainment of a goal. This is relevant when working with third party online services as agreed KPIs will form part of how you specify and measure the usefulness of back office systems. LAN Local Area Network physical hardware that allows your intra-office systems to communicate with each other. Landing page The most popular pages listed by URL that users entered your site on. You will tend to find the most popular landing page is normally the homepage, identified in all GA reports as /. Landing page optimisation The activity of optimising your site s pages to increase conversions. Last Adwords click (attribution model) The last Adwords click would receive 100% credit for the conversion. Last interaction (attribution model) The last touchpoint in a customer s conversion journey would receive 100% credit for that conversion. Last non-direct click (attribution model) Direct traffic is ignored and 100% of the credit for a conversion goes to the last channel the customer clicked through from before converting. Lead generation The process of collecting names and contact information about qualified prospects to be contacted by sales teams. Linear (attribution model) Each touchpoint in a customer s conversion journey would share equal credit for the conversion. Long-tail Keywords are the three or four keyword phrases which are specific to whatever you are selling. Whenever a customer uses a highly specific search phrase, they tend to be looking for exactly what they are actually going to buy. Loyalty programme An incentive plan to gather customers data. This may give a customer free merchandise, advanced access to new products or discounts. Macro conversion Those conversions that deliver on the business s main objectives and are the primary desired actions you should be looking for a user to take. Malware An intrusive software that intends to cause harm to a user or device. These can include computer viruses, worms, Trojan horses, ransomware, or spyware.

7 Map overlay A feature in Google Analytics that allows you to see on a map where in the world traffic to your site comes from. Marketing KPIs The metrics that are tracked in order to ensure a more successful marketing campaign and attain the highest ROI possible. Medium Describes how users arrived at your site. For example, traffic that comes from a search on Google, Yahoo! or Bing is all grouped as Organic. If you are running an advertising campaign across various sites, this traffic might be tagged as Display, although the Source would change depending on which site the user came from. If users come directly to your site, this is identified as (none). Micro conversion Micro conversions provide a part of the overall conversion journey, but taken in isolation to the overall journey they generally do not drive revenue at their own point of conversion. Mobile strategy Relates business goals with how mobile devices, products and services engage with users. Navigation summary Use to determine how visitors actually navigate your site and how clicks are distributed over different areas or site sections. On-page optimisation Refers to all the activity taken within the website in order to improve its position in the search rankings. Open Source Open source software is any software whose source code can be viewed by anyone who wishes to improve on or supplement the software. Note that open source does not always mean free; some commercial software is open source but still a commercial product. The open source nature of the product usually has benefits in the availability of plugins and the reduced likelihood of undetected security issues. OR logic conditions Requires that any of the specified conditions are met to define an advanced segment. OTS Off The Shelf a description of back office systems which are usable with minimal customisation or setup. Off The Shelf systems tend to be less flexible, but are usually cheaper to run and manage compared to custom integrations. Some OTS systems can also be integrated and customised. Owned media Media which belongs to your brand which you control, such as: your website, blogs, social media channels and brochures. Paid media Any paid for advertising. This can include print ads, TV ads, display ads, paid search, promoted posts on Facebook and sponsored tweets, among others. PageRank An algorithm created by Google. It measures the quality of links and link equity; a site with a higher quality of incoming links in a higher number will have a better PageRank. Pages/session The average number of pages viewed during a session. Repeated views of a single page are also counted within this metric. Page view The total number of pages viewed. Repeated views of a single page are counted. This is why your page view count will almost always be higher than sessions. PESTLE A framework used to scan an organisations external macro environment. The letters stand for Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Environment. Phishing An online scam that attempts to obtain sensitive information from users via malicious means; can often include attempts to gain usernames, passwords, credit card details and indirectly, money.

8 Pixel tracking Code that is inserted into a custom or third party creative to determine performance such as conversions driven by that creative. Plugin A small, usually optional addition to a software product or service, which usually allows it to be connected to other services or offers a particular piece of functionality. For example, an ecommerce service might have the option of a plugin for managing different shipping rates to different parts of the country. Porter s five forces A framework that models an industry by five forces to show competitive positioning. These are: Supplier Power, Buyer Power, Competitive Rivalry, Threat of Substitution and Threat of New Entry. Position based (attribution model) 40% credit for a conversion is assigned to each the first and last touchpoint in a customer s conversion journey, with the remaining 20% distributed evenly to each touchpoint in between. Property Google Analytics understands a property as a resource associated with you unique tracking ID code. Performance data under this ID is collected into the corresponding property in GA. This is why each owned platform/website should have its own unique GA ID. Proprietary Systems, formats or data which is owned by an entity and not available for development or use (except under license) by other organisations. Proprietary systems can offer specific benefits, but often involve a degree of lock-in. QA Quality Assurance the process of testing and confirming whether a new product or service is working and is suitable for the requirements of an organisation. Qualitative data Exploratory research used to gain an understanding and insight into customer problems, motivations and pain points. Quantitative data Used to quantify the problems highlighted in qualitative research by way of generating numerical data or data that can be transferred into actionable stats. Referrals Are an extension of the Source. External/ third party websites that direct traffic to your site are known as Referrals. Requirements Gathering A step in the usual process of integration or setup of an OTS system, where the things an organisation wants to achieve using a back office system are recorded, prioritised and agreed. This is a necessary prelude to effective customisation and integration work. Retweet When someone shares your Tweet on Twitter. SaaS Software as a Service a category of software which is primarily delivered via a web browser or via thin client software. SaaS vendors primarily offer their products and services on a subscription basis. Search algorithms The computer algorithm that enables search engines to rank the importance of webpages according to relevancy and popularity. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) SEO is the process improving a site s ranking within the organic results of a search engine results page for a chosen set of keywords. Search Engine Results Page (SERP) A SERP is the page returned by a search engine in response to a search query. Search pay-per-click (PPC) An Internet advertising model used on search engines in which advertisers pay their host only when a user actually clicks on an ad to visit the advertiser s website.

9 Search query parameter Appear at the end of URL following a question mark. It could be q or s for example. This enables you to filter out internal search queries when this search query parameter is known. Sequences (advanced segments) Sequences filters allow you to determine whether the sequence begins with the first user interaction or with any user interaction. Server A computer connected to the internet which serves files on demand, which are usually used to display webpages and other online content. Session An active visit or use of a website or online tool by a single user. Relevant for back office systems as a user session often corresponds to a specific set of actions by a user, such as logging in and creating a new item in the system. Sessions Also known as Visits, are the individual periods of time that users spend actively engaged on your site. A session includes all activity that is taken in a single visit, i.e. page views, completing goals etc. SLA Service Level Agreement an agreed minimum for a specific aspect of a service offered by you or a third party supplier. SLAs should be defined and enforced by a contract in most cases. Examples might be time that your system should be available (known as uptime ) or time until customer support tickets are normally resolved (for example responding within 24 hours, resolving within 72 hours). SMART Refers to Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant and Time-bound objectives. Spam Unsolicited messages sent online, often advertisements and generally not relevant/ of interest to the receiving party. Solutions gallery Allows you to share or import custom built reporting tools and assets like dashboards and pre-determined advanced segments into your Google Analytics reporting. SOSTAC A planning model that stands for: Situation, Objectives, Strategy, Tactics, Action and Control. Source The place users are before arriving on your site, like Google, Facebook or bbc.co.uk for example. Source code The computer code used to deliver a piece of software, whether it is on desktop or online. Not usually available to non-expert users, but may be available if the software is open source. SSL Secure Socket Layer a type of encryption that allows webpages to be delivered securely. When you access a webpage whose URL begins you are accessing a page secured with SSL. SWOT A structured planning method that evaluates the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats for a company, product, place or industry. Time after search (internal site search) The amount of time users spend on your site after performing a search. Time decay (attribution model) The touchpoints closest in time to the conversion itself will receive more credit for that conversion than those that occur earlier in a customer s conversion journey. Tracking ID The uniquely generated line of code that is placed on every page on your website that enables traffic data to be tracked and recorded in Google Analytics.

10 UAT User Acceptance Testing a period where genuine end users of a back office system are given the opportunity to extensively test a back office system and confirm that it meets their requirements. Unique searches (internal site search) The total number of times your site search was used, excluding multiple searches on the same keyword during the same session. Urchin Tracking Module (UTM) Is a tracking marker appended to a URL, and is recognized by Google Analytics as a dimension, just like average time on site, for example. URL Uniform Resource Locator a humanreadable web address that allows a customer or staff member to reach a website or other online tool. User experience A person s overall experience in using a particular site, product, service or system. It should always be the aim to meet and exceed the needs of the user when it comes to using your platform or process. Users Those that have had at least one session. This includes both new and returning users. Vanity URL A unique web address configured and branded for marketing purposes to help users remember and find a specific page of your website. View A reporting view is the level in a Google Analytics account where you can access reports and analysis tools. Virtual page view Is just like a regular page view but are used where content is loaded on a webpage with the reload of that page. Visitor (new) A user arriving on a site with no previous Google Analytics cookie data. If a visitor deleted their cookie data and arrived on a site, this will count as a new visitor. Visitor (returning) A user returning to a site with existing Google Analytics cookies data from a previous session. User path The defined journey that a user takes through a site, service or system. CONTACT YOUR LOCAL BUSINESS GATEWAY OFFICE Get expert advice on this and a wide range of topics for free at your local Business Gateway office. bgateway.com/local-offices