Resources

Marketing & AI glossary

Straight definitions for the terms that come up across our services — no marketing fluff, just what each one actually means.

A

ABM (Account-Based Marketing)

ABM is a B2B marketing strategy that targets a defined list of named companies with coordinated advertising, content, and outreach, rather than casting a wide net for individual leads.

AEO (Answer Engine Optimization)

AEO is the practice of structuring content so answer engines — AI assistants and featured-snippet-style search results — can extract and present it as a direct answer.

AIO is the broader discipline of making a business's digital presence discoverable, understandable, and citable across all AI-driven surfaces — search, chat assistants, and AI-powered recommendations.

Attribution Modeling

Attribution modeling is the process of determining which marketing touchpoints get credit for a conversion when a customer interacts with multiple channels before buying.

C

CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)

CAC is the total sales and marketing cost required to acquire one new customer, calculated by dividing total acquisition spend by the number of customers gained.

Chatbot

A chatbot is a software program that simulates conversation with users, ranging from simple scripted flows to AI-powered systems that understand natural language.

Core Web Vitals

Core Web Vitals are a set of Google metrics measuring real-world page loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability, used as a ranking factor in search results.

CRM (Customer Relationship Management)

A CRM is software that tracks every contact, deal, and interaction a business has with leads and customers, keeping sales and follow-up organized in one place.

CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization)

CRO is the systematic process of testing and improving a website or funnel to increase the percentage of visitors who take a desired action.

F

Fractional CMO

A Fractional CMO is an experienced marketing executive who works with a company part-time or on retainer, providing senior strategic leadership without the cost of a full-time hire.

G

GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)

GEO is the practice of structuring a website's content and technical setup so generative AI systems like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews can accurately extract, cite, and recommend it.

I

ICP (Ideal Customer Profile)

An ICP is a detailed description of the type of company or customer that gets the most value from a product and is most likely to become a profitable, long-term customer.

L

Lead Scoring

Lead scoring is the practice of ranking leads by likelihood to convert, based on signals like source, engagement, and fit, so sales reps know who to call first.

LLM (Large Language Model)

An LLM is an AI model trained on large amounts of text data to understand and generate human-like language, powering tools like ChatGPT and the AI models behind chatbots and calling agents.

P

Programmatic Advertising

Programmatic advertising is the automated buying and placement of digital ads through real-time bidding, rather than manually negotiated placements.

R

RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation)

RAG is a technique that lets an AI model pull information from a specific, verified knowledge base before generating an answer, reducing incorrect or made-up responses.

ROAS (Return on Ad Spend)

ROAS measures the revenue generated for every dollar spent on advertising, calculated as revenue divided by ad spend.

S

Sales Pipeline

A sales pipeline is a visual representation of where every deal sits in the buying process, organized into stages from first contact to closed won or lost.

Schema Markup (Structured Data)

Schema markup is code added to a webpage that explicitly labels its content for search engines and AI systems, using a shared vocabulary defined by schema.org.

SDR (Sales Development Representative)

An SDR is a sales team member focused on outbound prospecting and qualifying leads, typically responsible for booking meetings rather than closing deals directly.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

SEO is the practice of improving a website's technical health, content, and authority so it ranks higher in unpaid, organic search engine results.

U

UGC (User-Generated Content)

UGC is authentic, unpolished content created by real customers or creators rather than a brand's own marketing team, commonly used in ads because it tends to outperform polished brand content.

W

WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines)

WCAG is the international standard defining how to make web content accessible to people with disabilities, covering things like screen reader compatibility, color contrast, and keyboard navigation.