1 Learn the concept
Marketers use a specific vocabulary, and learning it is the fastest way to follow conversations, read reports and write clear briefs. Many terms sound similar but mean different things, such as impressions and reach or clicks and conversions. This lesson walks through the most common terms across email, social media and search so that you can talk about your work with confidence.
2 See it in action
- Reach and impressions: how many people saw it, and how many times.
- Click-through rate: the share of people who saw something and clicked.
- Conversion: a visitor taking the action you wanted, such as buying or signing up.
- Open rate, engagement and bounce rate: common measures for email, social and websites.
Worked example
Reading a one-line report
Report: "Last week: 12,000 impressions, 3,000 reach, 240 clicks and 12 purchases."
Frequency: 12,000 impressions divided by 3,000 reach means each person saw the ad about four times.
Click-through rate: 240 divided by 12,000 is 2%.
Conversion rate: 12 divided by 240 is 5%.
Takeaway: knowing the terms turns a line of numbers into a story about where people dropped off.
3 Study an example
Example scenario
A manager says, "Impressions are up but conversions are flat." A marketer who knows the terms understands that more people saw the ad but not more people bought, and starts looking at the landing page.
4 Apply it and download
- Pick ten terms from this lesson and write each in your own words.
- Find one example of each in a real report or campaign.
- Save them in your marketing glossary template.
Worksheet Marketing glossary templateOpen, print or save as PDF