200 acronyms all marketing managers must know

Every industry or job roles has its own list of acronyms and abbreviations, especially within marketing, where there seems to be no shortage of them.

Almost everyone has experienced a time where we see people talking in abbreviated code online or offline and had no idea what they were referring to.

So to help you out, we have 200 acronyms all marketing directors/managers/executives must know:

• A/B- A/B tests
  A randomised experiment with two variants, A and B. it includes application of statistical hypothesis testing or "two-sample hypothesis testing" as used in the field statistics.

• ACCT- Account
  A term used by the finance department.

• AI- Artificial intelligence
  The development of computer systems able to perform tasks typically requiring human intelligence, such as visual perception, translation between languages and speech recognition.

• AIDA- Attention, interest, desire and action
  The four steps of the purchase funnel.

• AJAX- Asynchronous JavaScript and XML
  A new technique for creating better, faster and more interactive web applications with the help of XML, HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

• AMA- Ask me anything
  This can be used to call for questions but is better known as a Q&A (question and answer).

• AOV- Average order value
  This informs marketers and those in sales how much an average order is worth.

• API- Application programming interface
  An API is a set of rules, protocols and functions that dictate how other programs can integrate with a piece of software.

• AR- Augmented reality
  A technology that superimposes a computer-generated image on a user's view of the real world.

• ASP- Application Service Provider
  A business providing computer-based services to customers over a network; such as access to a particular software application using a standard protocol (e.g. HTTP)

• B2B- Business to business
  A marketing model for companies that sell to other businesses

• B2C- Business to consumer
  A marketing model for businesses that sell directly to consumers

• BDM- Business development manager
  A senior-level specialised sales role that is responsible for developing new business relationships, partners and opportunities

• BOFU- Bottom of the funnel
  The stage a user is at in their buyer's journey when they're ready to decide on which product to purchase.

• BP- Buyer persona
  A semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on market research and real data about your existing customers.

• BR- Bounce rate
  The percentage of users who visit a web page without taking action or visiting another page.

• BTS- Behind the scenes
  Offer your followers a 'behind the scenes' look at your brand with this shorthand.

• BTW- By the way
  E.g. BTW the best tool for social automation is Hootsuite.

• CAC- Customer acquisition cost
  The cost associated with convincing a customer to buy a product or service. Costs could include research, marketing and accessibility.

• CEO- Chief executive officer
  The highest-ranking executive in the company.

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• CFO- Chief financial officer
  The senior-most executive, responsible for managing the financial risks at a company, including financial planning, record keeping and reporting. They are the financial spokesperson.

• CIO- Chief information officer
  The senior-most executive responsible for the management, implementation and usability of information and computer technologies at the company.

• CLV- Customer lifetime value
  A prediction of the net profit attributed to the entire future relationship with a customer.

• CMO- Chief marketing officer
  A C-level corporate executive responsible for activities in an organisation that have to do with creating, communicating and delivering offerings that have value for customers, clients or business partners.

• CMS- Content management system
  Most websites are built using a content management system such as Wordpress, Magento and Drupal.

• COB- Close of business
  This is commonly used by people in professional settings as a designation of time.

• COO- Chief operating officer
  The senior-most executive responsible for managing and overseeing the ongoing business operations within a company.

• COS- Content optimisation system
  Take a CMS (content management system), and optimise it to deliver customers the most personalised web experience possible.

• CPA- Cost per acquisition
  An e-commerce marketing metric that measures the aggregate cost to acquire one paying customer on a campaign or channel level.

• CPC- Cost per click
  When running a PPC (Pay per click) campaign, the cost per click is how much it costs for a visitor to click on your ad.

• CPL- Cost per lead
  An online advertising pricing model, where the advertiser pays for a sign-up from a consumer interested in the advertisers offer. It's also known as lead generation.

• CPM- Cost per thousand
  Also called Cost Per Mille, is a marketing term used to denote the price of 1,000 advertisement impressions on one web page.

• CPU- Central processing unit
  Sometimes referred to as simple as the central processor, but more commonly called a processor, the CPU is the brains of the computer where most calculations take place.

• CPV- Cost per view
  Refers to the price an advertiser pays for every instance that their video ad gets played.

• CR- Conversation rate
  The number of visitors to a website that completes the desired goal out of the total number of visitors, e.g. making a purchase.

• CR- Credit
  The ability of a customer to obtain goods or services before payment, based on the trust that payment will be made in the future.

• CRM- Customer relationship management
  An approach to managing a company's interaction with current and potential customers.

• CRO- Conversion rate optimisation
  A system that uses the scientific method to increase the number of users who convert or take some sort of trackable action.

• CSO- Chief security officer
  The senior-most executive responsible for developing and overseeing the policies and programs that protect the people, intellectual assets, and tangible property of a company.

• CSS- Cascading style sheets
  A style sheet language used for describing the presentation of a document written in a markup language like HTML.

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• CTA- Call to action
  An instruction given to the audience or customer designed to provoke a response.

• CTO- Chief technology officer
  The senior-most executive responsible for focusing on all of the scientific and technological issues within an organisation.

• CTR- Click-through rate
  The ratio of users who click on a specific link to the number of total users who view a page, email or advertisement.

• CX- Customer experience
  This is the experience the customer has with your brand.

• DA- Domain authority
  A search engine ranking score developed by Moz that predicts how well a website will rank on search engine results page.

• DM- Direct message
  On social media, you can send somebody a private message which is considered a direct message.

• DMP- Data management platform
  A centralised system for collecting and analysing large sets of data originating from disparate sources.

• DNS- Domain name system
  A hierarchical and decentralised naming system for computers, services, or other resources connected to the internet or a private network.

• DSP- Demand-side platform
  A demand-side platform is a system that allows buyers of digital advertising inventory to manage multiple ad exchange and data exchange accounts through one interface.

• ECPM- Effective cost per marketing
  The outcome of a calculation of the ad revenue generated by a banner or campaign, divided by the number of ad impressions of that banner or campaign expressed in units of 1,000.

• ELI5- Explain it to me like I'm 5
  This abbreviation calls for a straightforward explanation of something complex.

• EOD- End of day
  Means the end of the business day.

• EOM- End of message
  Signifies the end of a message, often an email message.

• EOW- End of week
  Means the end of the business week.

• EPC- Earnings per click
  This is calculated by taking the total earnings you have generated over a period, and then dividing that by the number of clicks you have produced for that same period.

• EPM- Earnings per thousand
  Also known as earnings per mille or RPM (Revenue per mille/thousand), is the estimated earnings that accrue for every 1,000 impressions received, a commonly used measurement in radio, television, newspaper, magazine, out-of-home, and online advertising.

• ESP- Email service provider
  A company that offers email marketing or bulk email services.

• EVERGREEN- Evergreen content
  Content that is always relevant – much like the way evergreen trees retain their leaves all year round.

• FAB- Features, advantages, benefits
  Reminds sales team members to focus on the benefits a customer will gain from their product or service, rather than what they're selling.

• FB- Facebook
  One of the biggest and most popular social media platforms, with over 2.37 billion monthly active users.

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• FBML- the Facebook markup language
  A subset of HTML.

• #F4F- Follow for follow (Instagram/Twitter)
  A way of communicating that you will follow back whoever follows you.

• #FBF- Flashback Friday (All)
  A look back at previous posts or memories on any given Friday.

• #FF- Follow Friday (Instagram/Twitter)
  Highlight people that you want your followers to follow.

• FOMO- Fear of missing out
  Refers to the social anxiety that occurs when you might miss out on something great.

• FTP- File transfer protocol
  A standard network protocol used for the transfer of computer files between a client and a server on a computer network.

• FUD- Fear, uncertainty, doubt
  A sales method that is used to get customers to leave or not choose to work with a competitor by giving information that triggers doubt.

• FYI- For your information
  Is often used in forwarding email or printed material to colleagues or friends.

• G+- Google+
  A social networking platform owned by Google.

• GA- Google Analytics
  A web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic.

• GDD- Growth driven design
  This is a redesign or redevelopment of a website in intentional increments making continuous data-driven adjustments.

• #GOTD- Gram of the day (Instagram)
  Your favourite or most popular Instagram post for the day.

• HIPPO- Highest paid person's opinion
  Used to describe the tendency for lower-paid employees to defer to higher-paid employees when a decision has to be made.

• HR- Human resources
  The personnel of a business or organisation, also known as 'human capital.'

• HTML- Hypertext mark-up language
  A type of code and standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser.

• HTTP- Hypertext transfer protocol
  The underlying protocol used by the World Wide Web and this protocol defines how messages are formatted and transmitted, and what actions Web servers and browsers should take in response to various commands.

• HTTPS- Hypertext transfer protocol secure
  An extension of HTTP which is used for secure communication over a computer network and is widely used on the internet.

• IAAS- Infrastructure as a service
  This is where hardware is provided by an external provider and managed for you.

• IAM- In a meeting
  A phrase to use when you're in a meeting

• IBL- Inbound link
  A hyperlink back to your site from another website.

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• ICP- Ideal customer profile
  A buyer persona that is created using actual data and inferred knowledge.

• IG- Instagram
  A social media platform based around image and video sharing which is owned by Facebook.

• #IGERS- Instagrammers
  Reference to those who use Instagram.

• IM- Instant messaging
  A written form of communication online that allows you to send messages from one computer to another. The messages are sent and received instantly.

• IMAP- Internet message access protocol
  An internet standard protocol used by email clients to retrieve email messages from a mail server over to a TCP/IP connection.

• IP- Internet protocol
  (IP Address) A numerical label assigned to each device connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication.

• IP- Intellectual property
  Intangible property that is the result of creativity, such as patents, copyrights, etc.

• IPTV- Internet Protocol television
  The delivery of television content over internet protocol (IP) networks.

• ISP- Internet service provider
  A company that provides customers with internet access.

• JGI- Just google it
  A phrase you use when you tell somebody just to google it so they can find out the answer to their questions.

• KEI- Keyword effectiveness index
  This metric refers to the most effective keyword phrases and terms that you can use to optimise your webpage.

• KPI- Key performance indicator
  A performance indicator that measures and evaluates the success of an organisation or a particular activity.

• KPM Key performance metric
  The trackable metric that includes clicks, conversions, page views, time on page, reduced bounce rate etc.

• LI- LinkedIn
  One of the most popular professional social networking platforms.

• LPO- Landing page optimisation
  This focuses specifically on making your landing pages perform at the top of their game.

• LTV- Lifetime value
  An estimate of the average revenue that a customer will generate throughout their lifespan as a customer.

• MAP- Marketing automation platform
  A technology that assists marketers to convert prospects into customers by removing high touch, manually repetitive processes with automated solutions.

• #MCM- Man crush Monday (Instagram)
  Post pictures of your favourite man-crush on Mondays.

• MLM- Multi-level marketing
  A strategy some direct sales companies use to encourage existing distributors to recruit new distributors who are paid a percentage of their recruits' sales

• #MM- Music Monday (Instagram/Twitter)
  Post pictures about your favourite music artists on Mondays.

• MMS- Multimedia messaging service
  A standard way to send messages that include multimedia content to and from a mobile phone over a cellular network.

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• MOF- Middle of the funnel
  The stage a user is in at their buyer's journey when they're considering various vendors on which product to purchase.

• MOM- Month on month
  Used to compare financial results, sales etc. for one month with those in previous months.

• MSN- Microsoft network
  A collection of web applications and online content services.

• MT- Modified tweet
  A courtesy to inform of changes made when retweeting.

• MTD- Month to date
  A time period starting at the beginning of the current month and ending at the current date.

• MQL- Marketing qualified lead
  Any individual that has engaged with your firms marketing efforts and indicated they have a greater interest in your offerings and may become a customer is an MQL.

• MRR- Monthly recurring revenue
  The amount of revenue a subscription-based business receives per month.

• MVT- Multi-variate testing
  A technique for testing a hypothesis in which multiple variables are modified.

• NIM- No internal message
  Used when the entire content of the email is contained in the subject, and the body remains empty.

• NPS- Net promoter score
  A simple scale from 1-10 that calculates customer satisfaction.

• NS- Network solutions
  A subsidiary of we.com, the 4th largest .com domain name registrar.

• OBL- Outbound link
  Links that take you away from your current website.

• OEM- Original equipment manufacturer
  Traditionally defined as a company whose goods are used as components in the products of another company, which then sells the finished item to users.

• OOO- Out of office
  A term that means you're physically not present in the office. Whether you're on holiday, at a meeting or if it's after office hours.

• #OOTD- Outfit of the day (Instagram)
  Share a picture of your favourite outfit.

• OS- Operating system
  The software that supports a computer's basic functions. E.g. iOS, Windows, Linux.

• OS- Open source
  A type of computer software in which source code is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the right to study, change, and distribute the software to anyone and for any purpose.

• OTP- One-time password
  A password that is valid for only one login session or transaction.

• PA- Performance appraisal
  Also referred to as a performance review, performance evaluation, development discussion, or employee appraisal is a method by which the job performance of an employee is documented and evaluated.

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• PAAS- Platform as a service
  A platform is provided by a third-party vendor that allows customers to develop, run and manage applications without them having to build and maintain the platform infrastructure themselves.

• PFI- Pay for inclusion
  A search engine marketing product where the search engine company charges fees related to the inclusion of websites in their search index.

• PFP- Pay for performance
  A pay strategy that uses salary, bonuses, or other incentives based upon employee performance.

• PM- Project manager
  The person in overall charge of the planning and execution of a particular project.

• POC- Point of contact
  A person or department that can be approached for information or assistance on a specific topic.

• POS- Point of sale
  The place at which a retail transaction is carried out.

• #POTD- Photo of the day (Instagram)
  Share your favourite or most popular photo for the day.

• PPC- Pay per click
  An internet advertising model used to drive traffic to websites. A company that has placed an advertisement on a website pays a sum of money when a visitor clicks on their advertisement.

• PPL- Pay per lead
  An internet advertising payment model in which payment is based solely on qualifying leads.

• PPV- Pay per view
  An internet advertising model where you pay the advertising network every time your website or advertisement is displayed to a viewer.

• PR- Public relations
  The practice of deliberately managing the spread of information between the organisation and the public.

• PR- Page rank
  A value assigned to a web page as a measure of its popularity or important, used to determine the order in which search engine results are presented.

• PTO- Paid time off
  A time-off policy some companies have that give employees flexibility in how they use their allotted holiday and sick days.

• PV- Page view
  A view from a visitor on your website.

• QA- Quality assurance
  The maintenance of a desirable level of quality in a service or product, especially by means of attention to every stage of the process of delivery or production.

• #QOTD- Quote of the day (Instagram)
  Share your favourite quote.

• QoQ- Quarter over quarter
  Changes in levels expressed with respect to the previous quarter. QoQ numbers tend to be more volatile than 'year over year', but less volatile than 'month over month'.

• QR- Quick response code
  A machine-readable code consisting of an array of black and white squares, typically used for storing URLs or other information for reading by the camera on a smartphone.

• QS- Quality score
  A metric used by Google, Yahoo!, and Bing that influences ad rank and cost per click of ads.

• QTD- Quarter to date
  A time period starting at the beginning of the current quarter and ending at the current date.

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• RAM- Random access memory
  A type of computer memory that can be accessed randomly; that is, any byte of memory can be accessed without touching the preceding bytes.

• R&D- Research and development
  Innovative activities taken by businesses in developing new services or products, or even improving existing ones.

• RFI- Request for information
  A common business process whose purpose is to collect written information about the capabilities of various suppliers.

• RFP- Request for proposal
  Businesses send RFPs to certain agencies asking them to bid on a project.

• RSS- Rich site summary
  A summary of different websites compiled into one feed or channel.

• ROAS- Return on ad spend
  A marketing metric that measures the efficacy of a digital advertising campaign.

• ROI- Return on investment
  The ratio between net profit and cost of investment.

• RON- Run of network
  A form of internet marketing where an online advertising campaign is applied to a wide collection of websites without the ability to choose specific sites.

• ROS- Run of site
  This means that an online advertising campaign targets all pages of a given website.

• RT- Retweet
  An action taking on Twitter where you can retweet a post by pressing the button or you can add a comment alongside.

• RTB- Real-time bidding
  A means by which advertising inventory is bought and sold on a per-impression basis, via instantaneous programmatic auction, similar to financial markets.

• RTD- Real-time data
  Information that is delivered immediately after collection.

• S2S- Server to server
  An evolution of the principle of header bidding, just using different technology and processes.

• SAL- Sales accepted lead
  An MQl who has been passed to the sales team, has been reviewed by a rep for quality and is determined to be worthy of pursuing.

• SAAS- Software as a service
  Software hosted by another company and used in a web browser via the Cloud, HubSpot, Dropbox, Google Drive and more.

• SDLC- System development lifecycle
  Used to describe the planning, creating, testing and deployment process of an information system.

• SEM- Search engine marketing
  The paid ads you see at the top and bottom of search results. SEM is bidding on keywords and showing your ads to be able to bring clicks back to your site.

• SEO- Search engine optimisation
  The process of optimising a website to increase exposure in organic search results.

• SERP- Search engine results pages
  The pages displayed by search engines in response to a query by the searcher.

• SLA- Service level agreement
  A commitment between a service provider and a client.

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• SM- Social medi
  Websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking.

• SMB- Small/medium business
  Also known as SME, a company that maintains revenues, assets, or number of employees below a certain level.

• SME- Small/medium enterprise
  Also known as SMB, a business that maintains revenues, assets, or number of employees below a certain level.

• SMM- Social media marketing
  The use of social media networks to promote your business, product or service.

• SMO- Social media optimisation
  The use of several outlets and communities to generate publicity to increase the awareness of a product.

• SMP- Social media platform
  A social media platform is a web-based technology that enables the development and management of social media solutions and services. E.g. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram

• SMS- Short message service
  A text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardised communication protocols to enable mobile devices to exchange short text messages.

• SOV- Share of voice
  An ad revenue model that focuses on weight or percentage among other advertisers.

• SOM- Statement of work
  A document routinely employed in the field of project management.

• SWOT- Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats
  A strategic planning technique used to help a person or a business identify their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats related to project planning.

• SQL- Sales qualified lead
  An SQL who has demonstrated a high level of intent to become a customer and who fits the predetermined criteria for a high-quality lead.

• SSOT- Single source of truth
  This is the single place where your business data is stored.

• SSP- Supply side platform
  A technology platform to enable web publishers and digital out-of-home media owners to manage their advertising space inventory, fill it with ads and receive revenue.

• #TBT- Throwback Thursday (All)
  A version of Flashback Friday but dedicated to Thursday instead.

• #TGIF- Thank goodness it's Friday (All)
  A phrase used on social media to indicate the relief of it being Friday.

• TLD- Top-level domain
  One of the domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the internet.

• TOFU- Top of funnel
  The stage a user is in at their buyer's journey when they're aware that a problem exists, but do not quite have it defined.

• TOS- Terms of service
  A legal agreement between a service provider and a person who wants to use the service.

• UCD- User-centric design
  A framework of processes in which usability goals, user characteristics, environment, tasks and workflow of a product, service or process are given extensive attention at each stage of the design process.

• UI- User interface
  The look and feel of your website or application.

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• UGC- User-generated content
  A form of content that has been posted by users on online platforms such as social media.

• URL- Uniform resource locator
  An address to a resource on the internet.

• USP- Unique selling point
  Your USP helps you to determine what makes your product or service better than your competitors.

• UV- Unique visitor
  A person who visits a website more than once within a specific timeframe.

• UX- User experience
  A person's emotions and attitudes about using a particular product, system or service.

• VM- Viral marketing
  A business strategy that uses existing social networks to promote a product.

• VOD- Video on demand
  A video media distribution system that allows users to access video entertainment without a traditional video entertainment device and without the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule.

• VPN- Virtual private network
  Enables the users to send and receive data across shared or public networks as if their devices were directly connected to the private network.

• #WCW- Woman crush Wednesday (Instagram)
  Post a picture of your woman crush on Wednesdays.

• WIIFM- What's in it for me?
  A question that may be asked about a new idea or method where the benefits are not obvious.

• WMT- Webmaster Tools
  A free service that helps you evaluate and maintain your website's performance in search results.

• WOM- Word of mouth
  Passing information from person to person.

• #WOTD- Word of the day (Instagram/Twitter)
  Share your favourite word with this hashtag.

• WWW- World wide web
  An information system where documents and other web resources are accessible over the internet.

• WYSIWYG- What you see is what you get
  A way of designing electronic documents so that the content such as text and graphics is displayed on screen during editing in a way that corresponds exactly to its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product.

• XML- Extensible markup language
  A markup language that defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable.

• Y!- Yahoo!
  An internet portal that incorporates a search engine and a directory of World Wide Web sites organised in a hierarchy of topic categories.

• YoY- Year over year
  Changes in levels expressed with respect to the previous year.

• YT- YouTube
  A video-sharing platform where people can watch and upload, like, comment and share videos. YouTube is one of the largest search engines, along with Google.

• YTD- Year to date
  A time period starting at the beginning of the current year and ending at the current date.