There is no getting around it… digital marketing has a lot of acronyms. *
When you’re in a meeting and someone uses an acronym you don’t understand, it’s awkward. Do you take the time to look up the offending acronym, disrupting the flow of listening? Or worse yet, in F2F (face to face) meetings where you can’t look things up, do you ask what an acronym means and risk looking like a newbie, or do you cling to the hope that context will come to the rescue?
Why take chances? We spent a lot of time and made the ultimate list of digital marketing acronyms. Everything you need to avoid acronym embarrassment in meetings and breeze through acronym-laden digital marketing articles.
Acronym – Meaning
3PAS – Third-Party Ad Serving
ABC – Always Be Closing
ABM – Account Based Marketing
ACCR – Annual Customer Churn Rate
ACoS – Advertising Cost of Sale
ACV – Annual Contract Value
AE – Account Executive
AI – Artificial Intelligence
AIDA – Attention, Interest, Desire, Action
AJAX – Asynchronous JavaScript and XML
AM – Account Manager
AMA – Ask Me Anything
AMP – Accelerated Mobile Pages
AOR – Agency of Record
AOV – Average Order Value
API – Application Programming Interface
APV – Average Percentage Viewed
AR – Augmented Reality
ARPA – Average Revenue Per Account
ARPU – Average Revenue Per User
ARR – Annual Recurring Revenue
AS – Article Submission
ASO – App Store Optimization
AVD – Average View Duration
B2B – Business to Business
B2C – Business to Consumer
BANT – Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline
BDR – Business Development Representative
BH – Black Hat (SEO)
BI – Business Intelligence
BIMI – Brand Indicators for Message Identification
BL – Backlink
BMM – Broad Match Modifier (deprecated)
BOFU – Bottom Of The Funnel
CAC – Customer Acquisition Cost
CAGR – Compound Annual Growth Rate
CAGR – Compound Monthly Growth Rate
CAN-SPAM – Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing
CAPTCHA – Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart
CASL – Canadian Anti-Spam Law
CCPA – California Consumer Privacy Act
CCR – Customer Churn Rate
CDN – Content Delivery Network
CDP – Customer Data Platform
CF – Citation Flow
CLTV – Customer Lifetime Value
CMA – Census Metropolitan Area
CMGR – Community Manager
CMI – Content Marketing Institute
CMO – Chief Marketing Officer
CMP – Content Marketing Platform
CMRR – Committed Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)
CMS – Content Management System
COI – Confirmed Opt-In
CPA – Cost Per Action
CPC – Cost Per Click
CPD – Cost Per Download
CPE – Cost Per Engagement
CPO – Cost Per Order
CPG – Consumer Packaged Good
CPL – Cost Per Lead
CPM – Cost Per 1000 Impressions (technically: Cost Per Mille)
COGS – Cost of Goods Sold
CPP – Cost Per Phone Call
CPS – Cost Per Sale
CPV – Cost Per View
CR – Conversion Rate
CRM – Customer Relationship Management
CRO – Conversion Rate Optimization
CSE – Comparison Shopping Engine
CSS – Cascading Style Sheets
CTA – Call To Action
CTOR – Click-To-Open-Rate
CTR – Click-Through Rate
CTV – Connected TV
CVR – Conversion Rate
CX – Customer Experience
DA – Domain Authority (Moz)
DAI – Dynamic Ad Insertion
DAM – Digital Asset Management
DAU – Daily Active Users
DFO – Data Feed Optimization
DLR – Deep Link Ratio
DR – Direct Response
DR – Domain Ranking (Ahrefs)
DKI – Dynamic Keyword Insertion
DKIM – DomainKeys Identified Mail
DM – Direct Mail
DM – Direct Message
DMA – Designated Market Area
DMARC – Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance
DMCA – Digital Millennium Copyright Act
DMP – Data Management Platform
DNS – Domain Name System
DOI – Double Opt-In
DS – Directory Submission
DSA – Dynamic Search Ad
DSP – Demand Side Platform
DTC – Direct To Consumer
EAT – Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness
ECPC – Enhanced Cost Per Click
eCPM – Effective CPM (Cost Per Mille)
EMD – Exact Match Domain
EPC – Earnings Per Click
EPM – Earnings Per Thousand
ERP – Enterprise Resource Planning
ESP – Email Service Provider
ESP – Emotional Selling Proposition
ETA – Expanded Text Ads (deprecated)
F2F – Face To Face
F4F – Follow For Follow
FAB – Features Advantages Benefits
FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions
FB – Facebook
FBML – Facebook Markup Language
FCP – First Contentful Paint
FID – First Input Delay
FFA – Free-For-All (Link List)
FTP – File Transfer Protocol
GA – Google Analytics
GA4 – Google Analytics 4
GAP – Google Advertising Professional
GAS – Guaranteed Article Submission
GCLID – Google Click Identifier
GDN – Google Display Network
GDPR – General Data Protection Regulation
GDS – Google Data Studio
GIS – Google Image Search
GMB – Google My Business
GSC – Google Search Console
GTM – Go To Market
GTM – Google Tag Manager
GWT – Google Webmaster Tools
H1 – Level 1 Heading Markup
H2 – Level 2 Heading Markup
HIPPO – Highest Paid Person’s Opinion
HTML – Hypertext Markup Language
HTTP – Hyper Text Transfer Protocol
HTTP – Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure
IAB – Interactive Advertising Bureau
IBL – Inbound Link
IBV – In-Banner Video
ICP – Ideal Customer Profile
IG – Instagram
IM – Instant Messaging
IM – Internet Marketing
IMAP – Internet Message Access Protocol
IoT – Internet Of Things
IP – Internet Protocol
IS – Impression Share
ISP – Internet Service Provider
ITP – Intelligent Tracking Prevention
JS – JavaScript
KPI – Key Performance Indicator
KW – Keyword
LB – Link Building
LCP – First Contentful Paint
LI – LinkedIn
LMS – Learner Management System
LP – Landing Page
LPO – Landing Page Optimization
LTKW – Long Tail Keywords
LSA – Local Services Ads
LSEO – Local SEO
LSI – Latent Semantic Indexing
LTKW – Long-Tail Keyword
LTV – Lifetime Value
LVR – Lead Velocity Rate
MA – Marketing Automation
MAP – Marketing Automation Platform
MAU – Monthly Active Users
MCC – My Client Center
ML – Machine Learning
MoM – Month Over Month
MOFU – Middle Of The Funnel
MQL – Marketing Qualified Leads
MRAID – Mobile Rich Media Ad Interface Definitions
MRR – Monthly Recurring Revenue
MSN – Microsoft Network
MTD – Month To Date
MTO – Meta Tags Optimization
MUA – Mail User Agent
MVP – Minimum Viable Product
MVT – Multivariate Testing
NAP – Name, Address, Phone Number
NM – Niche Marketing
NPS – Net Promoter Score
NRR – Net Revenue Retention
NSEO – Negative SEO
NTB – New To Brand
OBL – Outbound Link
ODP – Open Directory Project
OKR – Objectives & Key Results
OOO – Out Of Office
ORM – Online Reputation Management
OS – Open Source
OS – Operating System
OTT – Over-The-Top
OWBL – One-way Backlink
PA – Page Authority (Moz)
PBN – Private Blog Network
PECR – Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations
PDF – Portable Document Format
PESO – Paid, Earned, Shared, Owned
PFI – Pay For Inclusion
PFP – Pay For Performance
PII – Personally Identifiable Information
PLA – Product Listing Ads (deprecated)
POP – Post Office Protocol
PPC – Pay Per Click
PPL – Pay Per Lead
PPS – Pay Per Sale
PPV – Pay Per View
PR – PageRank
PR – Press Release
PR – Public Relations
PV – Page View
QA – Quality Assurance
QDF – Query Deserves Freshness
QoQ – Quarter Over Quarter
QR (code) – Quick Response Barcode
QS – Quality Score
QTD – Quarter To Date
RD – Referring Domains
RDA – Responsive Display Ad
RFI – Request For Information
RFP – Request For Proposal
RLSA – Remarketing List for Search Ads
ROAS – Return On Ad Spend
ROI – Return on Investment
ROMI – Return On Marketing Investment
RON – Run Of Network
ROS – Run Of Site
RSA – Responsive Search Ad
RSS – Real Simple Syndication
RSS – Rich Site Summary
RT – Retweet
RTB – Real-Time Bidding
RTD – Real-Time Data
SaaS – Software As A Service
SAL – Sales Accepted Lead
SE – Search Engine
SEM – Search Engine Marketing
SEO – Search Engine Optimization
SEP – Search Engine Positioning
SERP – Search Engine Results Page
SKAG – Single Keyword Ad Group
SLA – Service Level Agreement
SM – Social Media
SMART – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-Bound
SMB – Small-to Medium-sized Business
SME – Small To Medium Enterprise
SMM – Social Media Marketing
SMO – Social Media Optimization
SMP – Social Media Platform
SMTP – Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
SMS – Short Messaging Service
SNS – Social Networking Service
SoLoMo – Social, Local, Mobile
SOV – Share Of Voice
SPF – Sender Policy Framework
SQL – Sales Qualified Lead
SQL – Structured Query Language
SQR – Search Query Report
SSP – Sell Side Platform
SWOT – Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats
TAM – Total Addressable Market
tCPA – Target CPA
tCPM – Target CPM
TCV – Total Contract Value
TLD – Top Level Domain
TL;DR – Too Long; Didn’t Read
TOFU – Top Of The Funnel
TOS – Terms Of Service
tROAS – Target ROAS
TTFB – Time To First Byte
UA – Universal Analytics
UBE – Unsolicited Bulk Email
UCE – Unsolicited Commercial Email
UGC – User Generated Content
UI – User Interface
URI – Universal Resource Identifier
URL – Universal Resource Locator
USP – Unique Selling Proposition (or Point)
UTM – Urchin Tracking Module
UV – Unique Visitor
UX – User Experience
VA – Virtual Assistant
vCPM – Viewable Cost Per 1000 Impressions
VM – Viral Marketing
VOD – Video On Demand
VTR – View Through Rate
WH – White Hat (SEO)
WIIFM – What’s In It For Me
WMT – Webmaster Tools
WOM – Word of Mouth
WP – WordPress
WWW – World Wide Web
WYSIWYG – What You See Is What You Get
XML – Extensible Markup Language
Y! – Yahoo!
YMYL – Your Money or Your Life
YoY – Year Over Year
YT – YouTube
YTD – Year To Date
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Are these actually acronyms? What’s the difference between an acronym and an abbreviation?
Technically, an acronym is a type of abbreviation that uses the first letter or letters of each word make a pronounceable word. Classic examples include NASA, RADAR and SCUBA, while modern slang has FOMO and YOLO. Most of the entries on this page are actually initialisms. They are like acronyms, but you pronounce each latter indvidually. Both acronyms and initialisms fall under the umbrella of abbreviations, along with simple shortenings such as “Jan” for January.
For this page, we ignore the technical distinctions and focus on what you need to know.
