Home / Glossary
Resources

The marketing glossary, minus the jargon.

503 terms across advertising, media planning, SEO, paid platforms, adtech, e-commerce, research, creative production and India-specific compliance, each explained in one or two honest sentences. Search, jump by letter, or just browse.

503 terms

3

301 Redirect
A permanent redirect that passes most ranking value from an old URL to its replacement.

4

404 Error
The response for a missing page. A branded 404 with helpful links turns dead ends into second chances.

A

A+ Content
Enhanced brand content on marketplace listings, lifting conversion with richer storytelling.
A/B Testing
Showing two variants to similar audiences and letting real behaviour pick the winner.
ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulations)
The body that certifies paid circulation figures of Indian publications.
Above the Fold
What is visible before any scrolling. Prime real estate for your core message and action.
Accessibility
Designing so people with disabilities can use your site: contrast, keyboard support, alt text and more.
Ad Cap (Broadcast)
Regulatory limits on advertising minutes per clock hour on Indian television.
Ad Exchange
The marketplace where DSPs and SSPs meet and impressions are auctioned in milliseconds.
Ad Fatigue
When performance drops because an audience has seen the same creative too often. Rotation is the cure.
Ad Fraud
Deliberate schemes that steal budgets through fake impressions, clicks, installs or spoofed apps.
Ad Frequency
How many times the average person sees your ad. Useful up to a point, wasteful beyond it.
Ad Network
An intermediary that aggregates publisher inventory and sells it in packaged buys.
Ad Pods
Grouped commercial breaks in streaming, with rules on separation and frequency.
Ad Rank
The auction value that decides whether and where your ad shows, combining bid, quality and extensions.
Ad Scheduling
Restricting delivery to chosen hours and days when response justifies the spend.
Ad Server
The system that stores creatives, decides which ad to show and counts delivery.
Adaptation
Resizing and reworking a master creative across formats, languages and media.
ads.txt
A public file where publishers list who may sell their inventory, cutting spoofed supply.
Adstock
The carry-over effect of advertising: awareness decays gradually after spend stops rather than vanishing overnight, which planning models must account for.
Advantage+ Shopping
Meta's automated shopping campaign type that consolidates targeting decisions into the algorithm.
Advertorial
Paid content styled like editorial, required to be labelled so readers know it is advertising.
Agency Commission
The traditional percentage an agency earns on media billings, increasingly replaced by fees and retainers.
AI Agent
Software that plans and executes multi-step tasks toward a goal, not just single answers.
AI Overviews
Google's generated answers atop results, reshaping click behaviour and making being cited the new ranking.
Alt Text
A written description of an image for screen readers and search engines. Accessibility and SEO in one line.
Ambient Media
Non-traditional placements woven into environments, from tea stalls to lift doors, built for surprise.
AMS/Marketplace Ads
Retailer advertising consoles, Amazon's being the template, where search terms meet purchase data.
Anamorphic DOOH
Forced-perspective 3D creative on digital billboards that appears to leap out of the screen.
Anchor Text
The clickable words of a link. Descriptive anchors help users and engines understand the destination.
Animatic
A rough animated version of the storyboard with timing and sound, used to test the film early.
AOV (Average Order Value)
Revenue divided by orders. Bundles, thresholds and add-ons push it upward.
API
A defined way for software systems to talk to each other, powering integrations and automation.
app-ads.txt
The mobile-app counterpart of ads.txt for authorised sellers.
Art Direction
The visual decision-making that gives creative its look, feel and consistency.
Artificial Intelligence
Software that performs tasks needing human-like judgement: understanding language, recognising patterns, deciding.
ASCI
The Advertising Standards Council of India, whose code governs honest, decent advertising including influencer disclosure.
ASO (App Store Optimisation)
Improving an app's store listing, keywords, creatives and ratings to win organic installs.
ATL (Above The Line)
Mass-media brand advertising: TV, print, radio, outdoor and broad digital.
ATT (App Tracking Transparency)
Apple's prompt requiring consent before cross-app tracking, which reshaped mobile advertising.
Attention Metrics
Measures beyond viewability, like eyes-on time, used to price genuine human attention.
Attribution
Deciding which touchpoints get credit for a conversion. Imperfect everywhere, but essential for budgeting.
Attribution Window
The time period after a touchpoint during which a conversion may be credited to it.
Auction Insights
Google's report showing who you compete against in auctions and how often they outrank you.
AVE (Advertising Value Equivalency)
Valuing coverage by equivalent ad cost, widely reported and widely criticised.
AVOD
Ad-supported streaming, where free viewing is funded by commercials.

B

BARC India
The Broadcast Audience Research Council, India's official television audience measurement body whose data prices the TV market.
BDI (Brand Development Index)
How strongly a brand sells in a market versus its national average, guiding where to defend.
Bid Shading
Algorithms lowering bids toward the minimum needed to win in first-price auctions.
Big Idea
The central creative concept a campaign hangs on, strong enough to stretch across media and months.
Bonus Spots
Extra unpaid airings negotiated into a deal, a standard lever in Indian TV and radio buying.
Boosted Post
An organic post given paid distribution. Quick and simple, but less precise than full campaign setups.
Bounce Rate
The share of sessions that leave without meaningful interaction. High bounce often means mismatched intent.
Brand Activation
Live experiences that let audiences interact with a brand, built for participation and content.
Brand Equity
The commercial value of being known and preferred: pricing power, loyalty and lower acquisition costs.
Brand Guidelines
The document that keeps every designer, writer and vendor on-brand.
Brand Identity
The complete expression of a brand: name, logo, colour, type, imagery and voice working as one system.
Brand Positioning
The distinct place you occupy in the customer's mind relative to alternatives.
Brand Recall
Whether customers remember you unprompted when the need arises.
Brand Safety
Keeping ads away from content that could harm the brand, from violence to misinformation.
Brand Suitability
A finer setting than safety: matching content tone to what this brand specifically accepts.
Brand Track
Ongoing surveys measuring awareness, consideration and image over time, the brand's health monitor.
Brand Voice
The consistent personality in everything the brand says, recognisable even without the logo.
Brand vs Non-Brand
Splitting search spend between queries containing your name and generic demand, judged by very different economics.
Breach Notification
The duty to inform the Board and affected users when personal data is compromised.
BTL (Below The Line)
Targeted, activation-led marketing: events, sampling, direct and trade programmes.
Budget Pacing
How evenly spend is delivered across a period, watched to avoid early exhaustion or underdelivery.
Bus Shelter Media
Street-level panels on bus stops offering eye-level frequency in city corridors.
Buy Box
The default seller position on marketplace listings that captures most orders.
Buyer Persona
A composite profile of a target customer that keeps teams designing for someone real.
Buyout
A one-time payment acquiring broad usage rights to talent or music instead of recurring royalties.

C

CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)
Total sales and marketing spend divided by new customers won.
Campaign Toolkit
The package of masters, templates and guidelines that lets teams and partners execute consistently.
Canonical URL
A tag that tells search engines which version of a page is the original, preventing duplicate-content confusion.
Carousel Post
A multi-slide post that rewards swiping. Excellent for step-by-step value and product storytelling.
Cart Abandonment
Shoppers adding items but leaving before payment. Recovery emails and simpler checkout win many back.
Case Study
A structured story of a real client problem, your work and measurable results. Proof beats promises.
Catalogue Ads
Feed-driven ads showing products dynamically, powering remarketing for e-commerce.
Catalogue Score
Marketplace ratings of listing completeness and quality that gate visibility.
Category Entry Points
The situations that trigger category purchase, which brands must mentally own to be chosen.
CDI (Category Development Index)
How strongly a category sells in a market versus average, guiding where headroom exists.
CDN (Content Delivery Network)
Servers distributed worldwide that deliver your assets from near the visitor, speeding everything up.
CDP (Customer Data Platform)
Software unifying first-party customer data into persistent profiles usable across marketing tools.
Chatbot
An automated conversational assistant handling queries, qualification and support around the clock.
Checkout Flow
Every step between cart and confirmation. Each removed field measurably lifts completion.
Churn Rate
The share of customers or subscribers you lose in a period. Growth leaks here first.
Cinema Advertising
On-screen ads and off-screen activations in theatres, prized for captive attention and local targeting.
Circulation
Copies of a publication distributed. Related to, but smaller than, readership.
Click-to-WhatsApp Ads
Meta ads opening a WhatsApp chat with the business, a dominant lead format in India.
CLV / LTV (Customer Lifetime Value)
Total profit a customer generates over the relationship. The ceiling for what you can pay to acquire them.
CMS (Content Management System)
Software for editing site content without code. WordPress powers a large share of the web.
Co-branding
Two brands partnering on one offer so each borrows the other's trust.
Co-op Advertising
Shared advertising funds between brands and their trade partners, common in franchise and dealer networks.
COD (Cash on Delivery)
Paying at the doorstep. Still significant in Indian e-commerce, with its own return-risk economics.
Column Centimetre
The unit print advertising is measured and billed in: one column wide by one centimetre tall.
Commerce Media
The broader ecosystem of retail media extending across marketplaces, quick commerce and payment platforms.
Commercial Communication
Any promotional message to customers, regulated in India through consent and DLT frameworks.
Community Management
The daily craft of replying, moderating and nurturing your audience so followers become advocates.
Comparative Advertising
Naming competitors in ads, lawful in India within honesty and disparagement limits.
Completion Rate (Video)
The share of video ads watched to the end, a core quality signal.
Concept Testing
Checking creative ideas with real audiences before production money is committed.
Consumer Panel
A recruited group whose ongoing behaviour is tracked, powering purchase and media data.
Content Calendar
A schedule of what publishes where and when, turning content from ad-hoc effort into an operating system.
Content Decay
The gradual traffic loss of ageing content, reversed through scheduled refreshes.
Content Marketing
Earning attention and trust by publishing genuinely useful content instead of interrupting with ads.
Content Pruning
Removing or consolidating weak pages so a site's overall quality signals rise.
Content Repurposing
Turning one strong asset into many formats: a webinar becomes clips, posts, a blog and an email series.
Content Strategy
The plan behind the posts: audiences, themes, formats, cadence and how content feeds business goals.
Contextual Targeting
Placing ads based on page content rather than personal data, resurgent in the privacy era.
Continuity Scheduling
Spreading spend evenly across a period, suited to categories bought all year round.
Contribution Margin
Revenue minus variable costs per order, the number that says whether growth is worth having.
Conversion
Any valuable completed action: a purchase, a form submission, a call, a booking.
Conversion Rate
Conversions divided by visitors. The efficiency score of your traffic and pages.
Copy Deck
The document of all written content for a project, approved before design or build.
Copy Testing
Researching finished or near-finished creative for comprehension, appeal and branding before launch.
Copywriting
Writing that moves people to act: headlines, ads, landing pages and product descriptions.
Core Web Vitals
Google's user-experience metrics: loading speed, interactivity and visual stability. They influence rankings.
CPA (Cost Per Acquisition)
Total spend divided by conversions. What a customer or lead actually costs you.
CPC (Cost Per Click)
What you pay for each click on an ad. A core measure of auction competitiveness.
CPCV (Cost Per Completed View)
Payment only when a viewer finishes the video, aligning cost with genuine attention.
CPI (Cost Per Install)
The price paid for each app installation, the base metric of app campaigns.
CPL (Cost Per Lead)
Ad spend divided by leads captured. The headline metric for lead-generation campaigns.
CPM (Cost Per Mille)
The cost of one thousand ad impressions. The standard currency of awareness campaigns.
CPRP (Cost Per Rating Point)
What one rating point of your target audience costs on a channel. The efficiency yardstick used to compare TV deals.
CPV (Cost Per View)
What you pay for each counted video view, the core pricing of YouTube campaigns.
Crawl Budget
How much crawling a search engine allocates your site, wasted by duplicates and junk URLs.
Crawling
How search engine bots discover pages by following links and reading sitemaps.
Creative Brief
The single document aligning what the work must achieve, for whom, and why anyone should care.
Creative Testing
Structured rotation of concepts, hooks and formats to find winners before scaling spend.
Creator Economy
The ecosystem of independent creators monetising audiences, now a mainstream media channel for brands.
Crisis Communication
The prepared playbook for communicating fast and honestly when things go wrong.
CRM (Customer Relationship Management)
The system of record for customers and deals, the memory serious marketing runs on.
CRO (Conversion Rate Optimisation)
Systematically improving pages and journeys so more of your existing traffic converts.
CSAT
Customer satisfaction scores captured after interactions, the operational pulse alongside NPS.
CTA (Call To Action)
The specific next step you ask for: call now, book a demo, download the guide.
CTV (Connected TV)
Television streamed through internet-connected screens, bought with digital targeting and TV impact.
Custom Audience
An audience built from your own data, such as customer lists, site visitors or video viewers.

D

D2C (Direct to Consumer)
Brands selling straight to buyers through their own channels instead of only via retailers.
Dark Patterns
Deceptive interface tricks now specifically prohibited by Indian consumer-protection guidelines.
Dark Store
A closed mini-warehouse serving hyperlocal delivery rather than walk-in customers.
Data Clean Room
A neutral environment where two parties match datasets for measurement without exposing raw personal data.
Data Fiduciary
Under the DPDP Act, the entity deciding why and how personal data is processed. Most businesses collecting data are one.
Data Layer
The structured information a site exposes for tags to read consistently.
Data Localisation
Requirements to store certain data within India's borders, relevant in finance and sensitive sectors.
Data Minimisation
Collecting only the personal data actually needed, compliance's answer to hoarding.
Data Principal
The individual the personal data belongs to, holder of rights under the DPDP Act.
Data Protection Board
The DPDP Act's adjudicating body for breaches and penalties.
DAU/MAU
Daily and monthly active users; their ratio signals how habit-forming a product is.
DAVP/CBC Rates
Government-fixed media rates for public-sector advertising through the Central Bureau of Communication.
Dayparting
Scheduling ads for the hours and days your buyers actually act, instead of burning budget around the clock.
DCO (Dynamic Creative Optimisation)
Automatically assembling ad variants from components and serving each person the best combination.
DEC (Daily Effective Circulation)
Estimated daily audience passing an OOH site with a real opportunity to see it.
Deliverability
Whether your email actually reaches the inbox instead of spam. Built on authentication, reputation and list hygiene.
Disavow
Telling Google to ignore specified backlinks you cannot remove.
Disclaimer Supers
The on-screen fine print qualifying claims, with readability expectations regulators actually check.
Display Ads
Visual banners across websites and apps, best for awareness, retargeting and staying top of mind.
Distinctive Brand Assets
The colours, characters, sounds and shapes that trigger brand recognition without the name.
DLT Registration
Mandatory registration of sender IDs and message templates on Distributed Ledger platforms before sending commercial SMS in India.
DMP (Data Management Platform)
A system for organising audience segments, largely cookie-era and giving way to CDPs.
Domain Authority
A third-party score estimating how strongly a domain can rank. Useful for comparison, not a Google metric.
DOOH (Digital OOH)
Digital screens in public places, bought by loop, daypart or increasingly programmatically.
Double Opt-in
Confirming a subscription by email before sending campaigns. Cleaner lists, stronger consent trail.
DPDP Act 2023
India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, governing how personal data is collected and processed, with consent at the centre.
Drip Campaign
A pre-written sequence of emails sent on a schedule or trigger, nurturing leads while you sleep.
DSA (Dynamic Search Ads)
Ads targeted from your site content rather than keywords, catching queries you never listed.
DSP (Demand-Side Platform)
Software advertisers use to bid on ad inventory across exchanges in real time from one console.
Duplicate Content
Substantially identical content on multiple URLs, which splits ranking signals and wastes crawl budget.
Dynamic Ad Insertion
Swapping ads into streams per viewer in real time, making one show carry many campaigns.

E

E-E-A-T
Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness. Google's lens for judging content quality, critical in finance and health.
Ear Panel
The small premium ad boxes beside a newspaper's masthead on page one.
eCPM
Effective cost per thousand impressions after all fees and formats are normalised, letting unlike buys be compared honestly.
Editorial Guidelines
The rulebook for style, grammar, claims and formatting that keeps content consistent at scale.
Effective Frequency
The minimum exposures believed necessary before advertising works, often planned at three or more for new messages.
Email Authentication
SPF, DKIM and DMARC records that prove your emails genuinely come from your domain.
Email Marketing
Owned-channel communication with subscribers and customers. Still the highest-ROI digital channel when done with consent.
Embargo
An agreement letting journalists prepare a story before an agreed publication time.
Endorser Liability
Indian law holding celebrities and influencers responsible for due diligence on claims they promote.
Engagement Rate
Interactions divided by reach or followers. The honest measure of whether content actually connects.
Enhanced Conversions
Hashed first-party data improving conversion measurement as cookies fade.
Entity SEO
Optimising around recognised things, people and concepts rather than strings of keywords.
ESP (Email Service Provider)
The platform that sends, automates and measures email programmes.
Estimate/PO
The approved cost quote and the purchase order that authorises it, the paperwork pair every job needs.
Event Tracking
Recording specific interactions such as clicks, scrolls, video plays and form submissions.
Evergreen Content
Content that stays relevant for years, compounding traffic long after publication.
Exclusive
Offering one outlet first rights to a story in exchange for prominence.
Experiential Marketing
Marketing designed as memorable experience first, message second.
Eye Tracking
Measuring where people actually look on packs, shelves and screens.

F

Facade Wrap
Covering a building front in branded material during campaigns or construction.
Faceted Navigation
Filter-driven URL explosions on e-commerce sites that must be controlled to protect crawl and rankings.
FAST Channels
Free ad-supported streaming channels programmed like linear TV inside apps.
Favicon
The small icon representing your site in browser tabs and bookmarks.
FCT (Free Commercial Time)
The seconds of commercial airtime bundled to a sponsor within a programme deal.
Festive Season Marketing
India's Diwali-to-New-Year peak, when categories can earn an outsized share of annual revenue.
Fill Rate
The share of a publisher's ad requests that actually got filled with a paid ad.
First-party Data
Data you collect directly with consent: your lists, your analytics, your CRM. The asset that survives privacy shifts.
Flash Sale
A short, steep discount window engineered for urgency and volume.
Flighting
Running advertising in bursts with silent gaps between, concentrating budget when it matters most.
Floor Price
The minimum price a seller will accept for programmatic inventory before a bid is considered.
Focus Group
Moderated small-group discussions revealing the language and feelings behind behaviour.
Frequency
The average number of times a person is exposed to a campaign. Reach gets you known; frequency gets you remembered.
Frequency Capping
Limiting how many times one person sees a campaign to prevent waste and irritation.
Funnel
The staged journey from first touch to conversion, showing exactly where people drop off.

G

GA4 (Google Analytics 4)
Google's current analytics platform, event-based and built for cross-device journeys.
Gantry
An arch structure spanning a road carrying advertising visible to oncoming traffic.
Generative AI
AI that creates new text, images, audio or video from prompts, now embedded across marketing workflows.
GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation)
Optimising content to be retrieved and cited by AI answer engines, the emerging layer above classic SEO.
Geo Experiment
Measuring true lift by comparing matched regions with and without campaigns.
Geo-targeting
Serving ads only in chosen locations, from a whole state down to a radius around one outlet.
Ghostwriting
Professional writing published under an executive's name, standard practice in thought leadership.
GMV (Gross Merchandise Value)
Total value of goods sold before returns and discounts, impressive and easily misleading.
Google Business Profile
Google's free business listing that powers your presence in Maps and local results, including reviews and hours.
Grievance Officer
The named contact organisations must provide for privacy and platform complaints in India.
GRP (Gross Rating Point)
The basic currency of TV and media buying: reach percentage multiplied by frequency. One hundred GRPs equals the audience-weight of everyone seeing the ad once.
GSTIN
Your Goods and Services Tax identification number, required on invoices including those for advertising services.

H

Hashtag Strategy
Using a deliberate mix of branded, category and trending tags to widen discovery without looking spammy.
Header Bidding
Publishers offering each impression to many exchanges simultaneously before the ad server decides, lifting yield.
Headless CMS
A CMS that stores content behind an API so any frontend, site or app can consume it.
Heatmap
A visual overlay of where users click, move and scroll, revealing what your analytics numbers cannot.
Hinglish
The Hindi-English blend of everyday Indian speech, often the most natural register for mass-market copy.
Hoarding
India's word for a billboard, the workhorse of outdoor advertising.
Hold Rate
How much of the audience a video retains through its length, separating scrollers from watchers.
Holdout Group
An audience deliberately excluded from marketing to reveal its real incremental effect.
Hook Rate
The share of viewers surviving a video's first three seconds, the first gate of creative performance.
Host-Read Ad
Sponsor messages delivered in the host's own voice and style, audio's highest-trust format.
Hreflang
Tags telling search engines which language or regional version of a page to show each user.
HSM (Hindi Speaking Markets)
The planning shorthand for India's Hindi-belt audiences, distinct from metro and southern market strategies.
HUT/PUT
Households or Persons Using Television in a time band, the ceiling within which programme ratings compete.
Hyperlocal Marketing
Targeting within neighbourhood radiuses, where delivery economics and relevance meet.

I

Identity Resolution
Linking a person's many devices and identifiers into one recognisable customer.
Illumination (FL/BL)
Whether an outdoor site is front-lit or back-lit, changing its night visibility and price.
Image SEO
Optimising file names, alt text, compression and structured data so images rank and drive traffic.
Impression Cap
Hard limits on delivery volume used in reach-based buys.
Impression Share
The percentage of eligible auctions where your ad actually appeared. Lost share signals budget or rank limits.
Impressions
Total times content was displayed, including repeat views by the same person.
In-App Events
Tracked actions inside an app, from registration to purchase, that campaigns optimise toward.
Incrementality
The sales that would not have happened without the marketing, the only number that truly matters.
Indexing
When a discovered page is stored in the search engine's database and becomes eligible to rank.
Influencer Disclosure
ASCI-mandated labels such as #ad or #sponsored whenever material connection exists between brand and creator.
Influencer Marketing
Partnering with creators whose audiences trust them, to borrow attention and credibility.
Information Architecture
How content is organised and labelled so people find things without thinking.
Install Attribution
Deciding which touchpoint gets credit for an app install, within strict privacy windows.
Internal Linking
Links between your own pages that spread authority and guide both visitors and crawlers to what matters.
IRS (Indian Readership Survey)
India's large-scale readership study for print, the currency for planning newspaper and magazine buys.
IVT (Invalid Traffic)
Bot and non-human activity that pollutes delivery numbers and must be filtered before billing.

J

Jacket Ad
A full false-cover advertisement wrapping a newspaper's front page, print's loudest placement.
JavaScript SEO
Ensuring content rendered by JavaScript is still crawlable and indexable by search engines.
Jingle
A short branded musical piece built for memory, an Indian advertising tradition that still works.
JTBD (Jobs To Be Done)
Framing demand as the job a customer hires a product to do, sharper than demographics.

K

Key Visual
The one hero image a campaign is recognised by across every adaptation.
Keyword Cannibalisation
Multiple pages competing for the same query, splitting signals until neither ranks well.
Keyword Match Types
Broad, phrase and exact settings deciding how loosely a search must relate to your keyword to trigger ads.
Keyword Research
Finding and prioritising the words and questions your buyers actually type, so content targets real demand.
Knowledge Panel
The entity information box on results pages, fed by structured data and authoritative sources.
KPI (Key Performance Indicator)
The handful of numbers that define success for a campaign or business, chosen before work begins.

L

Landing Page
The dedicated page an ad sends people to, built for one action rather than general browsing.
Lazy Loading
Deferring images and media until they are about to be seen, cutting initial load weight.
Lead Ads
In-platform forms that capture enquiries without a landing page, prized for mobile friction removal.
Lead Magnet
A valuable free resource exchanged for contact details, such as a checklist, template or audit.
Lead Routing
Automatically sending each new lead to the right person or sequence within seconds.
Lead Scoring
Ranking leads by fit and behaviour so sales time goes to the likeliest buyers first.
Learning Phase
The unstable period after campaign changes while algorithms recalibrate, when judging performance misleads.
LLM (Large Language Model)
The engine behind modern AI assistants, trained on vast text to understand and generate language.
llms.txt
An emerging convention letting sites signal how AI models may use their content.
Local SEO
Optimising to appear for nearby searches such as 'dentist near me', including maps and local listings.
Log-File Analysis
Reading server logs to see what search bots actually crawl, revealing indexing problems analytics cannot.
Long-tail Keyword
A longer, more specific query such as 'CA firm website cost in Pune'. Lower volume, far higher buying intent.
Look-Up Media
Formats placed above eye level like overbridges and skywalks, planned for long-distance visibility.
Lookalike Audience
An ad platform's model of new people who resemble your best existing customers.
Loyalty Programme
Structured rewards for repeat purchase, valuable mostly for the first-party data it earns.

M

Machine Learning
Algorithms that improve from data without being explicitly programmed for every case.
Makegood
Free replacement inventory a publisher owes when promised spots or impressions failed to deliver.
Marketing Automation
Software executing repetitive marketing tasks on triggers: emails, scoring, routing, reporting.
Marketing Operations
The discipline of running marketing's systems, data, processes and governance so campaigns can actually ship.
Marketplace
A platform hosting many sellers, such as Amazon or Flipkart. Reach comes with fees and rules.
Media Audit
An independent review of media buying to verify rates, delivery and value against market benchmarks.
Media Kit
The ready pack of company facts, images and spokespeople that makes journalists' jobs easy.
Media Mix
How a budget is split across channels such as TV, digital, print, OOH and radio to balance reach, cost and role.
Media Mix Modelling (MMM)
Statistical analysis of historical spend and sales to estimate each channel's true contribution, regaining favour as cookies fade.
Media Monitoring
Tracking mentions across press, broadcast and online to measure and manage reputation.
Media Training
Preparing spokespeople to deliver messages and survive hard questions on record.
Mental Availability
How easily a brand comes to mind in buying situations, built through reach and distinctive assets.
Merchandising
The craft of product presentation at retail, where availability turns into purchase.
Meta Description
The short summary under your title in results. It does not rank you, but it wins or loses the click.
Meta Verified for Business
Paid verification signalling authenticity on Meta platforms, increasingly a trust baseline.
MFA (Made For Advertising) Sites
Low-value pages built purely to harvest programmatic spend, now actively excluded by serious buyers.
Micro-influencer
A creator with a smaller but highly engaged following, often 10k to 100k. Better trust per rupee for niche brands.
Misleading Advertisement
Claims that deceive on material facts, actionable under the Consumer Protection Act with personal liability possible.
MMP (Mobile Measurement Partner)
Independent platforms attributing installs and in-app events across ad networks.
Mobile Van Advertising
Branded vehicles that take the hoarding to markets, events and neighbourhoods on planned routes.
Moment Marketing
Riding a live cultural moment, a cricket final or festival, with fast, relevant creative.
Mood Film
A stitched reference video conveying the intended tone of a campaign before anything is shot.
Moodboard
A curated collage of references that aligns everyone on look and feel before design starts.
MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead)
A lead showing enough interest to hand deeper nurturing, but not yet ready for sales.
MRC Standards
The Media Rating Council's definitions that decide what legitimately counts as viewable or valid.
MSME
Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, the registration that unlocks benefits and the segment powering India's growth.
MTA (Multi-Touch Attribution)
Splitting conversion credit across the journey's touchpoints, elegant in theory, fragile under privacy.

N

NAP Consistency
Keeping your Name, Address and Phone identical across the web so local search trusts your identity.
Native Advertising
Paid content matching a platform's editorial form, disclosed as sponsored.
NDR (Non-Delivery Report)
The failed-delivery workflow whose handling decides how much RTO you actually eat.
Negative Keyword
A term you exclude so ads stop showing on irrelevant searches, protecting budget and relevance.
NPS (Net Promoter Score)
Likelihood-to-recommend scoring that splits customers into promoters, passives and detractors.

O

Off-page SEO
Signals earned outside your site, mainly backlinks and brand mentions, that build authority and trust.
Offline Conversion Import
Uploading store or CRM outcomes back into ad platforms so algorithms learn from real sales.
On-page SEO
Optimising elements you control on the page itself: titles, headings, copy, internal links and images.
ONDC
India's Open Network for Digital Commerce, an interoperable protocol connecting buyers and sellers across apps.
OOH (Out Of Home)
Advertising that reaches people outside their homes: hoardings, transit, street furniture and ambient formats.
Open Rate
The share of delivered emails that were opened. Directional since privacy changes, but useful for subject-line testing.
Organic Reach
The audience you reach without paying, earned through relevance, timing and platform algorithms.
Organic Traffic
Visitors who arrive from unpaid search results rather than ads, social posts or direct visits.
OTS (Opportunity To See)
A counted chance for someone to see an ad, whether they noticed it or not. Media buys are sold in OTS; attention is earned separately.
OTT (Over The Top)
Streaming platforms delivering video over the internet, India's fastest-shifting screen.

P

Packaging Design
The physical brand experience on shelf and unboxing, often the cheapest media you own.
Page Speed
How fast your pages load and respond. Every extra second costs conversions, especially on mobile data.
Pagination SEO
Handling multi-page listings so deep items stay discoverable without duplicate-content mess.
Parasite SEO
Publishing on high-authority third-party domains to ranch rankings, an aggressive tactic under crackdown.
Pass-Along Rate
How many people read each printed copy beyond the buyer, multiplying print's true audience.
Payment Gateway
The service that securely processes online payments, such as Razorpay, PayU or Cashfree.
PBN (Private Blog Network)
A network of sites built to manufacture backlinks, a penalty-magnet scheme serious brands avoid.
PDP (Product Detail Page)
The single-product page where e-commerce conversion is actually won or lost.
People Also Ask
Google's expandable question boxes, a map of related intent worth answering directly in content.
Performance Max
Google's automated campaign type that serves across Search, YouTube, Display, Maps and Gmail from one feed.
Personalisation
Tailoring content to the individual, from first names to dynamic offers based on past behaviour.
Physical Availability
How easy a brand is to find and buy, the distribution twin of mental availability.
Pillar Page
A comprehensive page on a broad topic that anchors a cluster of related articles.
Pitch
The competitive presentation through which agencies win accounts.
Placement Exclusions
Blocking specific apps, sites or surfaces where performance or suitability fails.
Planogram
The mapped arrangement of products on shelves that retail teams execute and audit.
Platform Ad Policies
Each platform's own rulebook above the law, where most ad rejections actually come from.
Playable Ads
Interactive ad units letting users try a slice of an app before installing.
PLP (Product Listing Page)
Category and search results pages whose sorting and filters shape what sells.
PMP (Private Marketplace)
An invitation-only programmatic auction where selected buyers access premium inventory.
Podcast Advertising
Ads within podcasts, led by host-read endorsements that borrow the host's trust.
POEM (Paid, Owned, Earned Media)
The classic split of channels you buy, channels you own and coverage you earn.
POSM (Point of Sale Material)
In-store branding and displays, from danglers to standees, that fight the last metre.
Post-Click vs Post-View
Crediting conversions after clicks versus after mere impressions, a distinction that changes every report.
Post-Production
Everything after the shoot: edit, colour, sound, music and effects.
PPC (Pay Per Click)
Advertising where you pay only when someone clicks, most commonly on Google Ads and Meta platforms.
Predictive Analytics
Using historical data to forecast outcomes such as churn risk or purchase likelihood.
Preferred Deal
A fixed-price, first-look programmatic arrangement between one buyer and one publisher.
Prepaid Share
The portion of orders paid online versus COD, pushed upward to protect margins.
Press Release
The structured announcement issued to media, still the standard unit of corporate news.
Prime Time
The evening band where television audiences peak and rates follow, roughly 7 to 11 pm in India.
Privacy Sandbox
Google's replacement stack for third-party cookies and mobile identifiers.
Product Feed
A structured file of your catalogue that powers Shopping ads, marketplaces and comparison engines.
Production House
The company that physically produces films, from direction to crew to post.
Programmatic Advertising
Automated, data-driven buying of ad inventory across the open web in real time.
Programmatic DOOH
Buying digital outdoor screens through automated platforms with audience and daypart targeting.
Programmatic Guaranteed
Reserved inventory at a fixed price executed through programmatic pipes, blending certainty with automation.
Programmatic SEO
Generating many templated pages from structured data to capture long-tail queries at scale, quality permitting.
Progressive Web App
A website that behaves like an app: installable, fast and useful even on weak connections.
Promotional vs Transactional SMS
India's regulatory split between marketing messages and service messages, with different rules and delivery.
Prompt Engineering
Writing instructions that reliably get high-quality output from AI models.
Prototype
A clickable simulation of a product used to test flows before engineering time is spent.
Public Relations
Earning credibility through media coverage, reputation management and stakeholder communication.
Puffery
Obvious exaggeration no reasonable person takes literally, tolerated where factual claims are not.
Pulsing
A hybrid schedule: continuous low-level presence with heavier bursts around peaks such as festivals or launches.
Purpose Limitation
Using personal data only for the purpose consented to, a core DPDP principle.
Push Notification
Direct app messages that revive usage, powerful and easily abused.

Q

Qual vs Quant
Depth of understanding versus statistical confidence; serious insight programmes need both.
Quality Score
Google's 1 to 10 rating of your keyword, ad and landing page relevance. Higher scores lower your costs.
Quick Commerce
Sub-30-minute delivery from dark stores, rewriting impulse categories in Indian metros.

R

RAM (Radio Audience Measurement)
The listenership measurement used to plan and trade radio in Indian metros.
Rate Card
The published list price of ad inventory, in practice the starting point for negotiation rather than the ending.
Rate of Sale
Units sold per store or listing per period, the velocity metric retail decisions run on.
Ratings Velocity
How fast fresh reviews accumulate, weighted by algorithms over stale totals.
RCS Messaging
Rich, verified business messaging in the default Android inbox, the branded upgrade to SMS.
Re-Engagement Campaign
Ads bringing lapsed app users back, cheaper than acquiring strangers.
Reach
The number of unique people who saw your content at least once.
Readership
Total people who read a copy, including pass-along readers, usually several times circulation.
Rebranding
Deliberately changing identity or positioning to match where the business is going.
Recommendation Engine
Systems suggesting the next product or content a user is most likely to want.
Reels
Instagram's short vertical videos, currently the highest organic-reach format for most Indian consumer brands.
Referral Programme
Systematic incentives for customers to bring customers, the cheapest acquisition when the product deserves it.
Regional GEC
General Entertainment Channels in Indian regional languages, where much of the country's viewing actually happens.
Residuals
Recurring payments to talent for continued use of work beyond the original term.
Responsive Design
A site that adapts cleanly to every screen size. In India, mobile is the first screen, not the second.
Retail Media
Advertising sold by retailers on their own properties, powered by purchase data, the fastest-growing ad category.
Retainer
An ongoing monthly engagement for continuous work, versus one-off project fees.
Retargeting
Showing ads to people who already visited your site or engaged with you. Warm audiences convert cheaper.
Return Rate
The share of orders sent back. A product, sizing and expectation-setting metric as much as a logistics one.
Rewarded Video
Ads users watch voluntarily for in-app rewards, high completion by design.
RFP (Request For Proposal)
A client's formal invitation for agencies to propose approach, team and commercials.
Rich Result
An enhanced search listing with extras such as ratings, prices or FAQs, earned through schema markup.
Right to Erasure
A data principal's right to have personal data deleted once its purpose is served.
Roadblock
Buying all ad positions across a property or time slot at once so an audience cannot miss the message.
ROAS (Return on Ad Spend)
Revenue generated per rupee of advertising. A ROAS of 5 means five rupees back for every one spent.
Robots.txt
A file that tells crawlers which parts of your site they may or may not visit.
RSA (Responsive Search Ads)
Google's format assembling headlines and descriptions dynamically, now the default search creative.
RTB (Real-Time Bidding)
The per-impression auction underlying open programmatic buying.
RTO (Return To Origin)
COD orders returned undelivered, the silent margin-killer of Indian e-commerce.

S

Sampling
Putting the product itself in hands, still among the highest-converting tactics for the right categories.
Scatter Market
Buying TV inventory close to airtime rather than in advance commitments, trading certainty for flexibility.
Schema Markup
Structured data code that labels your content so engines can show rich results like stars, FAQs and events.
Scope Creep
Unpaid expansion of work beyond the agreed scope, the silent killer of project margins.
Search Ads
Text ads shown against specific queries. High intent, measurable, and the fastest route to demand capture.
Search Intent
The goal behind a query: to learn, to compare, to find a place, or to buy. Matching intent is what ranks.
Search Terms Report
The actual queries that triggered your ads, the raw material of negative keywords and new opportunities.
Second Screen
Audiences using phones while watching TV, the behaviour synced campaigns exploit.
Segmentation
Splitting your list by behaviour, interest or lifecycle stage so each group gets relevant messages.
Sell-In vs Sell-Through
Stock sold into trade versus stock actually bought by consumers; confusing the two flatters everyone briefly.
sellers.json
The transparency file letting buyers see who the selling entities in the supply chain are.
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
The practice of improving a website so it earns more visibility and traffic from unpaid search results on Google and other engines.
SERP
Search Engine Results Page. Everything a user sees after a search: ads, organic listings, maps, snippets and more.
SERP Features
Everything beyond blue links on results pages: maps, snippets, videos, shopping and answer boxes.
Server-Side Tagging
Routing tracking through your own server for control, speed and resilience against blockers.
Session
One visit to your site, containing everything a user does until they leave or go idle.
Share of Voice
Your slice of the total conversation in your category compared with competitors.
Shopping Ads
Product listings with image and price shown directly in search results, driven by your feed.
Shorts
YouTube's short vertical format, a strong discovery engine that feeds subscribers to long-form content.
Significant Data Fiduciary
A DPDP category of larger data handlers carrying extra obligations like audits and impact assessments.
Single Customer View
One unified profile per customer across systems, the prerequisite for personalisation that is not embarrassing.
SKAdNetwork
Apple's privacy framework attributing iOS campaigns without user-level identifiers.
SKU
Stock Keeping Unit, the unique identifier for each distinct product variant you sell.
Smart Bidding
Automated bid strategies that optimise toward conversions or value using machine learning signals.
SMS Header
The registered sender ID appearing on commercial SMS in India.
Social Listening
Monitoring conversations about your brand, category and competitors to find insight and respond early.
Social Media Marketing
Building brand, community and demand through platforms such as Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube and Facebook.
Social Proof
Evidence that others trust you: reviews, counts, logos, testimonials. It lowers the perceived risk of buying.
Solus Ad
An ad positioned alone, without competing ads beside it, sold at a premium for exclusivity.
SOW (Scope of Work)
The written definition of deliverables, timelines and boundaries an engagement is judged against.
SPO (Supply Path Optimisation)
Buyers trimming duplicate and murky routes to inventory to cut fees and fraud.
Sponsorship (Media)
Attaching a brand to a programme or property with title billing, integrations and secondages beyond plain spots.
Spot Buy
Purchasing individual commercial airings on chosen channels and time bands rather than packages.
SSL / HTTPS
Encryption between browser and site. The padlock users expect and search engines reward.
SSP (Supply-Side Platform)
Software publishers use to offer their inventory to many buyers and maximise yield.
Story
Full-screen content that disappears in 24 hours. Ideal for behind-the-scenes moments, polls and urgency.
Storyboard
Frame-by-frame sketches of a film before shooting, where cheap changes happen.
Storytelling
Framing facts inside narrative so audiences feel something and remember you.
Streaming Audio Ads
Ads on music and audio apps, targeted like digital and heard like radio.
Street Furniture
Ad-carrying public installations such as benches, kiosks and pole panels.
Surrogate Advertising
Advertising restricted products through lookalike brand extensions, an Indian regulatory flashpoint.
SVOD
Subscription streaming without ads, reached instead through sponsorships and integrations.

T

Tag Manager
A container system deploying tracking scripts without code releases.
Tagline
A short phrase that captures the promise, built to be remembered.
Take Rate
The percentage a marketplace keeps of each transaction.
TCCCPR
TRAI's commercial-communication regulations governing consent, headers and templates for SMS and calls.
tCPA Bidding
Automated bidding toward a target cost per acquisition.
Technical SEO
Making a site easy for search engines to crawl, render and index: speed, structure, sitemaps and clean code.
Template Message
A pre-approved WhatsApp message format required for business-initiated conversations.
Thumb-Stopper
Creative built to interrupt the scroll in the first moment, social's price of entry.
Tier-2 and Tier-3 Cities
India's fast-growing non-metro markets, where vernacular content and UPI-first commerce win.
Title Tag
The clickable headline of your page in search results. The single most influential on-page element.
Tone of Voice
The consistent personality in your words, from playful to precise, defined so any writer sounds like the brand.
Topic Cluster
A pillar page plus interlinked supporting articles, signalling deep topical authority to search engines.
Trade Scheme
Incentives offered to distributors and retailers to push stock and visibility.
Traffic Count
Measured vehicle and footfall numbers used to justify and price an outdoor site.
TRAI
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, whose rules govern commercial SMS and voice communication.
Transcreation
Recreating a message for another language and culture so it lands as intended, beyond translation.
Transit Media
Advertising on and inside buses, metros, autos, trains and stations, sold on routes and dwell time.
tROAS Bidding
Automated bidding toward a target return on ad spend using conversion values.
TRP (Television Rating Point)
India's household term for programme ratings, measuring what share of the measured audience watched. Campaigns are still planned and traded on TRPs.
TTL (Through The Line)
Integrated campaigns combining mass reach with activation and response.
TVR (TV Rating)
The percentage of a target universe watching a channel or programme in a time band, the building block behind GRP maths.

U

U&A Study
Usage and Attitude research mapping how a category is bought, used and thought about.
UGC (User-Generated Content)
Content made by customers rather than the brand: reviews, unboxings, reels. The most believable creative there is.
UI (User Interface)
The visual and interactive layer users touch: layout, buttons, type, colour and states.
Uninstall Rate
The share of installs removing the app in a window, the quality check on acquisition.
Unipole
A large hoarding mounted on a single pole for highway and junction visibility.
Unsubscribe Rate
The share of recipients opting out per send. A rising rate is early warning of relevance or frequency problems.
Upfront Buying
Committing media budgets in advance for better rates and guaranteed inventory around big properties like the IPL.
UPI
India's instant real-time payment system, now the default way much of the country pays online.
Usage Rights
The licence defining where, how long and in which media creative assets and talent may be used.
UTM Parameters
Tags added to URLs so analytics can attribute traffic to the exact campaign, channel and creative.
UX (User Experience)
How easy and satisfying a product or site is to use, end to end.

V

Value-Add
Extra inventory, integrations or services negotiated on top of a paid media deal.
Value-Based Bidding
Feeding purchase values back to platforms so bids chase revenue, not just conversions.
Vernacular Marketing
Marketing in regional languages. Most of India's next hundred million internet users prefer their own language.
Video SEO
Optimising titles, chapters, transcripts and schema so videos surface in search and on YouTube.
Viewability
Whether an ad had a real chance to be seen, commonly half the pixels for one second on display.
Visibility Drive
Concentrated retail pushes for shelf share, displays and branding in a market.
Visual Identity
The visible system of logo, palette, typography and graphic language.
Voice-Over Artist
The professional voice performing narration, a casting decision that changes a film's character.
VTR (View-Through Rate)
Views divided by impressions, showing how often served video actually got watched.

W

Wallscape
Large painted or printed advertising on building walls, a long-duration city landmark format.
Waterfall
The older sequential method of offering inventory to buyers one at a time in priority order.
WCAG
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, the global standard your accessibility efforts are measured against.
Wearout
The point where an audience has seen a creative so often that response declines. Rotation and fresh executions are the cure.
Web Analytics
Measuring what visitors do on your site so decisions rest on behaviour, not opinion.
Webhook
An automated message one system sends another when an event happens, the glue of real-time workflows.
Welcome Series
The automated first emails a new subscriber receives. Your highest-attention window, use it well.
WhatsApp Business API
The programmatic layer for sending approved template messages and support conversations at scale in India's favourite channel.
WhatsApp Opt-In
The documented consent required before businesses initiate WhatsApp conversations.
Whitepaper
A longer, research-driven document that builds authority with considered B2B buyers.
Win Rate
The share of auctions your bids actually win, a health check on bid strategy.
Wireframe
A low-fidelity blueprint of a page's structure before visual design begins.
Workflow Automation
Connecting tools so multi-step processes run themselves, using platforms such as n8n, Zapier or Make.

X

XML Sitemap
A machine-readable list of your important URLs that helps engines find and refresh your pages faster.

Z

Missing a term you keep hearing? Ask us and we will add it.

Chat on WhatsApp