Glossary: Key terms to know
Essential marketing measurement terms explained. Master the language of modern attribution.
AOV (Average Order Value)
The average revenue generated per order in a given period, calculated as Total Revenue ÷ Number of Orders.
Read more ➞App Tracking Transparency (ATT)
Apple's privacy framework, introduced in iOS 14.5, that requires apps to get explicit user permission before tracking people across other apps and websites.
Read more ➞Bayesian MMM
A modern form of Media Mix Modeling that applies Bayesian statistical methods.
Read more ➞Bayesian Modeling
A statistical framework that combines prior beliefs (evidence-based assumptions about how a system behaves) with observed data to continuously update estimates.
Read more ➞Brand Lift
The incremental increase in brand awareness, consideration, or purchase intent directly attributable to advertising exposure.
Read more ➞Brand Measurement
The process of tracking and analyzing specific metrics to evaluate how well a brand is performing across channels and over time.
Read more ➞Brand Search
Paid search campaigns targeting queries that include a brand's own name (e.g., "Nike running shoes" vs. generic "running shoes").
Read more ➞Calibration
The process of aligning a model's statistical estimates with validated external evidence, such as incrementality test results or benchmark studies, to improve accuracy and trust.
Read more ➞CLV (Customer Lifetime Value)
The predicted total net revenue a business can expect from a customer across their entire relationship.
Read more ➞Confidence Interval
A range of values within which the true value is expected to fall with a specified level of certainty (e.g., 95%).
Read more ➞Contribution Margin
Revenue minus variable costs (including cost of goods sold and variable marketing spend).
Read more ➞Conversion Rate (CVR)
The percentage of visits or sessions that complete a desired action (e.g., a purchase). Calculated as: Conversions ÷ Total Sessions × 100.
Read more ➞Cookie Deprecation
The phasing out of third-party browser cookies, driven by privacy regulations and browser policy changes.
Read more ➞Correlation vs. Causation
Correlation means two variables move together (ad spend and sales both increase, for example). Causation means one directly influences the other.
Read more ➞Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)
The total advertising cost incurred to achieve one conversion or acquisition event. Calculated as: Total Spend ÷ Number of Conversions.
Read more ➞Cost Per Click (CPC)
The amount paid per click on a paid media ad. A primary efficiency metric in paid search and social, calculated as: Total Spend ÷ Total Clicks.
Read more ➞Cost Per View (CPV)
The cost of a single video view, used as an efficiency metric for YouTube view-based campaigns (particularly VVC).
Read more ➞CTR (Click-Through Rate)
The percentage of ad impressions that result in a click. Calculated as: Clicks ÷ Impressions × 100.
Read more ➞CTV / Connected TV
Streaming television content delivered via internet-connected devices (smart TVs, streaming sticks, Apple TV, Roku, etc.).
Read more ➞Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
The cost to acquire one new customer, calculated as Total Cost ÷ New Conversions. Distinct from CPP (cost per purchase across all conversions, including repeat customers), CAC isolates the cost of growing the customer base specifically - the more relevant metric when evaluating whether upper-funnel or new-channel investment is expanding reach rather than recycling existing buyers.
Read more ➞Customer Match
A Google Ads feature that lets advertisers upload their own first-party customer data (email, phone, address) to target or exclude those specific people across Google's properties, and to build Lookalike Segments from them.
Read more ➞Daily MMM
A Media Mix Model that refreshes on a daily cadence, enabling faster optimization cycles compared to traditional quarterly or annual models.
Read more ➞Data-Driven Attribution (DDA)
A machine learning-based attribution model that algorithmically assigns fractional credit across touchpoints based on their actual contribution to conversion, rather than using predetermined rules (like last-click).
Read more ➞Decay Rate
In MMM modeling, the rate at which the effect of advertising spend diminishes over time after the campaign runs.
Read more ➞Demand Gen
Google's mid-funnel campaign type that creates and converts demand across Discover, Gmail, and YouTube Shorts using AI-driven targeting and creative.
Read more ➞Diminishing Returns
The economic principle that increasing spend on a given channel eventually yields progressively smaller incremental gains.
Read more ➞DTC Ad Spend
Total advertising spend on DTC channels, including Meta, Google, TikTok, Pinterest, affiliates, and other channels that drive traffic to a brand's owned properties.
Read more ➞DTC (Direct-to-Consumer)
A business model in which brands sell directly to end consumers via their own website, app, or physical stores, bypassing third-party retailers or marketplaces.
Read more ➞DTC Revenue
Net revenue generated from direct-to-consumer sales on a brand's website or app.
Read more ➞eCommerce Platform
The software infrastructure enabling online sales, such as Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce, or BigCommerce.
Read more ➞First-Click Attribution
A single-touch attribution model that assigns 100% of conversion credit to the first marketing touchpoint a customer interacted with.
Read more ➞First-Party Data
Data collected directly from a brand's own customers and audience, through their website, app, CRM, or purchase history.
Read more ➞Frequency
The average number of times a unique user is exposed to an ad within a given time period.
Read more ➞Full-Funnel Measurement
A measurement approach that tracks a customer's complete path across every stage of the funnel, not just the final touchpoint before conversion.
Read more ➞Geo Test (Geographic Holdout Test)
An incrementality test that uses geography as the unit of randomization.
Read more ➞Ghost Bidding
An incrementality testing technique where an algorithm bids on ad placements for a control group but deliberately doesn't win those placements, creating a matched control audience without actually exposing them to ads.
Read more ➞GMV (Gross Merchandise Value)
The total value of merchandise sold over a period, before deducting returns, discounts, or seller fees.
Read more ➞Google Wallet
The proportion of a brand's total Google ad spend allocated to a specific channel (e.g., "10–20% of Google wallet in Demand Gen").
Read more ➞Halo Effect
The additional impact one marketing channel has on sales through another surface, beyond what direct attribution captures.
Read more ➞Holdout Test
An incrementality test in which a portion of the target audience is withheld from marketing exposure (the holdout group), allowing the causal lift of advertising to be measured against an unexposed control.
Read more ➞Incremental Forecasting
A forward-looking measurement approach that models marginal return on investment across channels to generate budget allocation recommendations.
Read more ➞Incrementality
The true causal lift in business outcomes (revenue, conversions, new customers) attributable to a specific marketing activity, beyond what would have happened without it.
Read more ➞Incrementality Test (or Randomized Controlled Trial, RCT)
An experimental technique that isolates true causal impact. It randomly splits audiences into a test group (exposed to marketing) and a control group (not exposed) to measure lift — the difference directly caused by advertising.
Read more ➞Last-Click Attribution
A single-touch attribution model that assigns 100% of conversion credit to the final marketing touchpoint before a conversion event.
Read more ➞Learning Phase
The initial period after a campaign launches or its settings change materially, during which an ad platform's bidding algorithm gathers conversion data to optimize targeting and bids.
Read more ➞Lift
The incremental increase in a metric (e.g., conversions, revenue, brand awareness) caused by a specific marketing activity, compared to what would have occurred without it.
Read more ➞Lookalike Segments
Audiences Google's algorithm builds by finding new users who share characteristics with an existing seed audience, such as a Customer Match list, used to extend reach to new, likely-to-convert people beyond a brand's known customer base.
Read more ➞Lower Funnel
The final stages of the purchase journey: intent, consideration, and conversion.
Read more ➞Marketing Efficiency Ratio (MER)
Total revenue divided by total marketing spend, across all channels, including non-digital. MER gives a holistic, channel-agnostic view of media efficiency that isn't distorted by attribution model choice.
Read more ➞Maximize Conversions
An automated Google Ads bid strategy that sets bids to generate the highest possible number of conversions within a given budget, using machine learning rather than manual bid-setting.
Read more ➞Media Mix Modeling (MMM)
A statistical approach that uses historical, aggregated data to estimate the contribution of different marketing channels and non-marketing factors (seasonality, promotions, price, and so on) to business outcomes like revenue or conversions.
Read more ➞Mid-Funnel
The middle stage of the purchase journey, between awareness (upper funnel) and conversion (lower funnel) - where a brand turns audience attention into active interest.
Read more ➞ML Attribution
A machine-learning-based attribution approach that allocates conversion credit at the visit and session level, modeling the contribution of lower-funnel and direct channels.
Read more ➞Multi-Touch Attribution (MTA)
An attribution methodology that distributes conversion credit across multiple marketing touchpoints in the customer journey, rather than assigning all credit to a single touch. MTA models include linear, time-decay, position-based, and data-driven variants.
Read more ➞New Customer Acquisition (NCA)
Marketing investment specifically targeted at acquiring first-time customers, rather than retaining or re-engaging existing ones.
Read more ➞Observational Data
Data collected passively from real-world behavior, including ad spend logs, site visits, and revenue, rather than through controlled experiments.
Read more ➞Omnichannel
A commerce and marketing approach in which brands engage customers seamlessly across multiple surfaces (DTC, marketplace, retail, social, in-store) with an integrated experience.
Read more ➞Optimized Targeting
A Google Ads feature that lets the algorithm find additional high-value users beyond a brand's manually selected audiences, based on campaign performance signals.
Read more ➞Paid Search (SEM)
Advertising on search engines (primarily Google and Bing) through pay-per-click auction models.
Read more ➞Paid Social
Advertising delivered through social media platforms, including Meta (Facebook, Instagram), TikTok, Pinterest, Snapchat, and LinkedIn.
Read more ➞Performance Max (PMax)
Google's automated, goal-based campaign type that serves ads across all Google inventory (Search, Display, YouTube, Shopping, Discover, Gmail, Maps) using machine learning to optimize toward a specified conversion goal.
Read more ➞POAS (Profit on Ad Spend)
A profitability-adjusted alternative to ROAS that accounts for cost of goods sold. Calculated as: (Revenue − COGS) ÷ Ad Spend.
Read more ➞Post-Purchase Survey
A survey presented to customers immediately after completing a purchase, asking how they first heard about the brand.
Read more ➞Priors
In Bayesian modeling, evidence-based beliefs about how a variable is likely to behave before new data is analyzed. In MMM, priors might encode expected ROAS ranges for a given channel, informed by past experiments, industry benchmarks, or validated test results.
Read more ➞Prospecting
Advertising activity targeting new, previously unexposed audiences with the goal of building awareness and driving first-time consideration.
Read more ➞Remarketing / Retargeting
Advertising directed at users who have previously interacted with a brand's website, app, or content. Retargeting captures existing demand rather than generating new interest.
Read more ➞ROAS (Return on Ad Spend)
Revenue generated for every unit of advertising spend. Calculated as: Revenue ÷ Ad Spend.
Read more ➞Saturation Curve
A representation of the relationship between advertising spend and incremental output, like revenue.
Read more ➞Search Lift
The measurable increase in branded search volume following exposure to upper-funnel media like YouTube - one of the ways an awareness campaign's impact becomes visible beyond its own platform reporting.
Read more ➞Server-Side Tracking
A data collection method in which event tracking is processed on the server rather than in the user's browser.
Read more ➞Signal Loss
The degradation of marketing measurement data caused by privacy regulations, browser policy changes (e.g., cookie deprecation), and platform restrictions (e.g., ATT).
Read more ➞Statistical Significance
A measure of whether an observed result, like a lift in conversions, is likely to be real or due to random chance.
Read more ➞Third-Party Cookie
A tracking identifier set by a domain other than the one the user is currently visiting, used to track behavior across websites for advertising and attribution.
Read more ➞TikTok Shop
TikTok's native commerce feature enabling brands to sell products directly within the TikTok platform via shoppable videos, livestreams, and product pages.
Read more ➞Time-Decay Attribution
A multi-touch attribution model that assigns greater credit to touchpoints closer in time to the conversion event.
Read more ➞Total Commerce ROAS
Total revenue, spanning DTC, Amazon, TikTok Shop, and other tracked commerce surfaces, divided by total advertising spend.
Read more ➞Traditional MMM
A legacy form of Media Mix Modeling, typically refreshed quarterly or annually using linear regression on large historical datasets.
Read more ➞tROAS (Target ROAS)
A Smart Bidding strategy in Google Ads that automatically adjusts bids to maximize conversion value while achieving a specified ROAS target.
Read more ➞Upper Funnel
The early stages of the purchase journey: awareness, discovery, and consideration.
Read more ➞Video Reach Campaigns
A YouTube campaign type built to maximize reach, ensuring an ad is seen by as many unique users as possible.
Read more ➞Video View Campaigns
A YouTube campaign type built to efficiently deliver a message to the audiences most likely to engage, prioritizing views and consideration over raw reach.
Read more ➞View-Through Attribution (VTA)
An attribution model that credits a conversion to an ad impression that was seen but not clicked, prior to the conversion event.
Read more ➞Walled Garden
A closed digital ecosystem, such as Meta, Google, TikTok, or Amazon, in which the platform controls the data, advertising inventory, and measurement tools.
Read more ➞Zero-Party Data
Data that customers proactively and intentionally share with a brand, such as preferences, purchase intentions, or survey responses.
Read more ➞
