Glossary

Marketing in plain English.

Short explanations of the words you meet when buying advertising, leads or growth help.

Lead

A person who has shown interest and left contact details, for example through a form, a call or a message. A lead is not a customer until the deal is done.

Pay per lead

An engagement where you pay for each lead that meets agreed criteria instead of a fixed fee. Keeps startup costs low.

CPL (cost per lead)

Ad spend divided by the number of leads in the same period.

CPA (cost per acquisition)

Cost per completed goal, such as a booking or a purchase.

ROAS

Revenue from advertising divided by ad spend. A ROAS of 4 means 4 dollars of revenue per ad dollar, before other costs.

Conversion tracking

Measuring what visitors do after a click, such as submitting a form, calling or buying, so ads can be optimized toward real results.

Conversion rate

The share of visitors who take the action you want, such as booking or buying.

Google Business Profile

A business's free profile in Google Search and Maps with address, hours, photos and reviews. Key for local searches.

Local SEO

Work to appear in local searches and the map pack, through your business profile, reviews and local content.

Revenue share

An engagement where the agency receives a share of the revenue its work contributes to. Requires clear tracking and usually a longer agreement.

Retention

Work to get existing customers to come back and buy again, for example through email and offers.

AEO

Answer Engine Optimization: making content clear enough for AI assistants like ChatGPT and Gemini to cite it.