80 Media Industry Acronyms You Should Know

Last updated: October 13, 2024

At some point, we’ve all seen or heard an industry acronym we weren’t familiar with, leaving us feeling way out of the loop. Feeling lost and confused is completely understandable with so many acronyms flying around these days.

From the media industry alone, we could easily pull together a list of hundreds of acronyms and terms. Instead, we’ve narrowed it down to a slightly less overwhelming list of 80 acronyms – along with brief, high-level definitions – we thought you should know. Whether you’re new to the industry or not, take a scan through the list below to see how many you know and what new acronyms you can learn.

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Digital Marketing General Acronyms

ABM – Account Based Marketing

A marketing strategy that uses highly-targeted campaigns to communicate with individual prospects or customer accounts as markets of one.

ARM – Audience Relationship Management

This is an Omeda trademarked term. Salespeople have CRMs (Customer Relationship Management), Marketers have ARMs. ARM is a technical and strategic approach designed to maximize audience engagement. Learn more here.

BOFU – Bottom-of-Funnel

In a typical purchase or customer journey funnel, this content is aimed at moving a potential customer from the lower levels of the funnel into the purchase stage. Examples include case studies, demos, events and consultations.

CRO – Conversion Rate Optimization

Using strategy, design techniques and testing to improve the online experience for website visitors in order to increase conversions.

CTA – Call to Action

Some type of action you want a person to take that can be placed anywhere in your marketing. This could be in the form of a button, image, text link, webinar signup, and more.

LP – Landing Page

The initial webpage a user visits on a website.

MA – Marketing Automation

The automated process to manage marketing functions by automatically deploying campaigns across multiple channels, connecting with audiences based on logic, triggers and behavior. Get our Marketing Automation Best Practices Guide to learn more.

MARCOM – Marketing Communications

Also known as MCR (Marketing Communications Resources), these are various marketing messages that a brand can use on different platforms to reach specific audiences.

MOFU – Middle-of-Funnel

In a typical purchase or customer journey funnel, content in the middle of the funnel helps potential customers consider more about your brand. Examples include webinars, surveys and educational resources.

MQL – Marketing Qualified Lead

More qualified than a typical lead, an MQL has indicated some interest in a brand, but is likely not ready to be handed off to Sales (see SQL).

RTB – Real-Time Bidding

Part of programmatic media buys, it refers to the buying and selling of digital advertising inventory in real time.

PDP – Product Detail Page

The web page where a single product or service is sold.

PPC – Pay-per-Click

And advertising model where advertisers pay publishers a certain amount of money each time their ads are clicked. This is primarily done through search engine paid advertising on search results pages, but is also done on social media and specific websites.

SEM – Search Engine Marketing

Online marketing to promote websites by increasing their visibility in search engine results pages through paid advertising.

SEO – Search Engine Optimization

The process of improving the quality and volume of web traffic to a site or webpage from search engines.

SERPs – Search Engine Results Page

The pages that contain the results after you search for something on a search engine such as Google, Amazon or Bing.

SMM – Social Media Marketing

The use of social media and social networking platforms to promote a business, product or service.

SQL – Sales Qualified Lead

A lead that has been researched and vetted by Marketing and is ready to hand off to the Sales team.

TOFU – Top-of-Funnel

In a typical purchase or customer journey funnel, the purpose of content in the top of the funnel is to aid brand awareness. Examples include blog posts, infographics, newsletters and white papers.

WOM – Word-of-Mouth

The passing of information from person to person, whether orally or online.

Digital Marketing Metrics Acronyms

BR – Bounce Rate

The percentage of people who land on your website and leave without clicking or navigating elsewhere on your site; OR, the rate at which an email was not able to be delivered to a recipient’s inbox.

CPA – Cost Per Action

How much it costs for someone to take a specified action (like a click, form submit or sale).

CPC – Cost Per Click

The amount it costs to get a click on a digital advertisement.

CPL – Cost Per Lead

How much it costs you to acquire a single lead.

CPM – Cost Per Thousand

Also known as “cost per mille,” CPM is the cost of 1,000 advertising impressions.

CR – Conversion Rate

The percentage of people who completed a desired action, like filling out a form for a whitepaper download.

CTR – Click-Through Rate

The percentage of your audience that clicks through from one piece of your marketing campaign to another.

KPI – Key Performance Indicator

Used to evaluate the success of marketing efforts. A KPI could be many things, including how many leads a campaign generated or how many clicks an email received.

LTV – Lifetime Value

A prediction of the net profit between a customer and a product.

PV – Page View

Used to evaluate audience size and content engagement, a page view is a request to load a single webpage online.

ROI – Return on Investment

How efficient and/or profitable an action is. ROI is calculated by the Current Value of Investment minus the Cost of Investment, divided by the Cost of Investment.

SOV – Share of Voice

Used to measure brand awareness against your competitors by showing what percentage of media spend you have compared to the total media expenditure.

UV – Unique Visitor

How many individuals have visited your website in a given time period. For example, one person visiting your homepage five times in one day would be counted as one unique visitor instead of five.

Data & Analytics Acronyms

CDP – Customer Data Platform

CDPs create a unified customer database, primarily of first-party data, that is accessible to other marketing systems. Get Omeda’s CDP Playbook to learn all about CDPs, including the 7 plays needed to take your audience strategy to the next level.

DMP – Data Management Platform

Software that collects and organizes primarily third-party data to provide targeted segments to help with marketing efforts. A DMP is used to collect and manage web browser cookies.

EDA – Exploratory Data Analysis

The process of investigating data to gain a better understanding of the dataset, including any trends and anomalies, before any transformations are made.

GA – Google Analytics

Provided by Google, GA provides detailed website stats, including anonymous users, sessions and page views.

MDM – Master Data Management

The technology, tools and processes that ensure master data is coordinated across a company to ensure uniformity.

OSM – Omeda Sales & Marketing

The name for Omeda’s internal database. Learn about Omeda’s platform here.

SQL – Structured Query Language

A programming language used to communicate with databases and perform various operations on the data.

Data Privacy Acronyms

CCPA – California Consumer Privacy Act

Effective since 2020, the CCPA enhances privacy rights for California residents by giving consumers more control over the personal information that businesses collect about them.

CDPA – Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act

Effective in 2023, this law will increase the protection of consumer data and expand consumer privacy rights for Virginia residents.

CIPM – Certified Information Privacy Manager

An IAPP certification accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) under the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standard 17024:2012 that certifies an individual as a leader in privacy program administration so they can effectively establish, maintain and manage an organization’s privacy program.

CPRA – California Privacy Rights Act

This upcoming state privacy law, effective in 2023, will amend the CCPA and will expand on definitions and requirements related to consumer data.

DPA – Data Protection Authority

General: Independent public authorities that supervise the application of data protection laws in the EU. DPAs provide advice on data protection issues and field complaints from individuals alleging violations of the GDPR. Each EU member state has its own DPA. Under GDPR, DPAs have extensive enforcement powers, including the ability to impose fines that total 4% of a company’s global annual revenue.

EU-Specific: A term often used to refer to a supervisory authority, which is an independent public authority responsible for monitoring the application of the General Data Protection Regulation in order to protect the fundamental rights and freedoms of natural persons and to facilitate the free flow of personal data within the EU. DPAs oversee other data protection-related laws, such as the ePrivacy Directive and other local member state laws.

DPO – Data Protection Officer OR Data Privacy Officer

DPO designations/roles are becoming more common as data privacy regulations pop up all over the world. The requirements to appoint a DPO has been defined under the GDPR for companies operating in the EU that process personal data as part of their business model or those who process special categories of data as outlined in Article 9 of the GDPR. The DPO has a variety of mandated tasks, including communication with the supervisory authority, conducting DPIAs (Data Protection Impact Assessments), and advising the organization on the mandates of the GDPR and how to comply with it.

GDPR – General Data Protection Regulation

A legal framework adopted by the European Union (EU) in 2018 that sets the guidelines for the collection and processing of personal information within the bloc.

IAPP – International Association of Privacy Professionals

The world’s largest and most comprehensive global information privacy community, IAPP is a resource for professionals who want to develop and advance their careers by helping their organizations successfully manage privacy risks and protect their data. This year, Omeda has become a full and active member of IAPP – read more about this update here.

PI – Personal Information

General: A synonym for “personal data.” It is a term with particular meaning under the California Consumer Privacy Act, which defines it as information that identifies, relates to, describes, is capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer.

EU-Specific: A synonym for “personal data,” which is any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person; an identifiable person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly — in particular by reference to an identification number or to one or more factors specific to their physical, physiological, mental, economic, cultural or social identity.

PII – Personal Identifiable Information

Any information about an individual, including any information that can be used to distinguish or trace an individual’s identity, such as name, social security number, date and place of birth, mother’s maiden name, or biometric records; and any other information that is linkable to an individual, such as medical, educational, financial, and employment information.

Business Acronyms

BANT – Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline

A tool for sales reps, this represents the four criteria used to qualify prospects. Do they have the Budget? What about the Authority to make a purchasing decision? Is there a real business Need? What is the Timeline to implement?

B2B – Business-to-Business

A transaction (the exchange of products, services or information) conducted between businesses.

B2C – Business-to-Consumer

A business transaction conducted between a business and consumers who are end-users of the products, services or information.

BI – Business Intelligence

Also known as BI&A (Business Intelligence & Analytics), BI represents the strategies and technologies used to collect, store and analyze the data produced by a company’s activities.

CoCA – Cost of Customer Acquisition

Also known as CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost), CoCA refers to the price a business pays to acquire a new customer. Basically, it is determined by dividing total spend by the number of new customers acquired.

MRR – Monthly Recurring Revenue

The amount of revenue received each month by a subscription-based business.

NPS – Net Promoter Score

Derived from a survey, NPS is a customer satisfaction metric that measures the degree to which customers will recommend a company to others.

OKR – Objectives and Key Results

A framework for setting goals that is frequently used by organizations to define measurable goals and to track outcomes.

QBR – Quarterly Business Review

A quarterly meeting with customers to discuss their business, review the customer’s success plan, and to see how you can add more value.

SLA – Service Level Agreement

Defines the level of service a company expects from a vendor and the penalties that will occur should a service level not be achieved.

SMB – Small-to-Medium Business

Typically, a business with 100 or fewer employees is considered small, and one with 100-1,000 is considered medium.

SWOT – Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats

A method for identifying and analyzing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats related to business competition or project planning.

Engineering & Software Acronyms

AI – Artificial Intelligence

Intelligence demonstrated by machines which combines computer science and datasets to enable problem solving.

API – Application Programming Interface

A software intermediary that allows two applications to transmit data between each other.

ASP – Application Service Provider

A business that provides computer-based services to customers over a network.

CMP – Consent Management Platform

A platform that can be used by publishers to legally document and manage a user’s consent choices.

CMS – Content Management System

Software used to create, manage and modify digital content on a website.

CRM – Customer Relationship Management

The technologies, practices and strategies for managing a company’s relationships and interactions with customers and prospects.

CSR – Client Side Rendering

One of the reasons a website may appear or function differently across browsers. CSR is a rendering mode where the request to access a page is processed by the browser. The older and heavier method is called SSR (Server-Side Rendering).

CSS – Cascading Style Sheets

A computer language that manages the design and presentation of web pages, including the fonts, colors and general layout of the page.

CX – Customer Experience

Closely aligned with UX, CX is the journey a user takes when they interact with a particular business.

DFP – DoubleClick for Publishers (now Google Ad Manager)

An ad management tool that allows publishers to sell, schedule, deliver and manage their ad inventory. An integration with Omeda allows users to deliver highly targeted ads using known first-party data to engage subscribers.

DNS – Domain Server Name

A server that translates internet domain names into one or more Internet Protocol (IP) addresses.

DSP – Demand Side Platform

Software used to purchase advertising across a range of inventory made available by publisher websites.

ESP – Email Service Provider

Software used to run email marketing campaigns at scale. Check out Omeda’s ESP Playbook to get the full scoop on all things ESP.

ML – Machine Learning

A technique used by computer systems where they are able to learn and adapt from patterns in data in order to improve automatically.

SaaS – Software as a Service

Software that is hosted by another company that stores your information (databases, servers, applications, etc.) in the cloud so any user in your company has access at any time.

SSP – Supply Side Platform

Software that allows a publisher to sell ad impressions via automated online auctions. SSPs are often used by agencies to buy into DMPs for programmatic buys.

UI – User Interface

The platform or digital environment that a user encounters.

UX – User Experience

The involvement a user has with specific digital products and services. The purpose of UX design is to create a positive interaction for the user.

Did we miss any essential acronyms that should be added to our list? Send us a note to let us know!

To learn more about how you can grow, engage and monetize your audience while simplifying your MarTech stack with Omeda, reach out to us at Sales@Omeda.com.

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