Digital Marketing Terms, Explained Simply.
Digital marketing can feel unnecessarily complicated. This glossary explains the most common terms you may hear when managing social media, running paid advertising, building a website, or reviewing marketing results.
Search or filter by category.
Social Media Management
The terms you'll hear when planning, publishing and measuring organic content across Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and beyond.
The plan behind what you post, why you post it, and how it supports your business goals — covering topics, formats, tone, and posting frequency.
A monthly schedule of posts, captions and reels planned in advance so your brand stays consistent and never goes dark.
Any post, reel or story you publish for free — as opposed to paid ads. Organic content builds trust and brand recognition over time.
The number of unique people who saw a piece of content at least once.
Example — If 1,000 different people scrolled past your reel, your reach is 1,000.
The total number of times a piece of content was displayed — including repeat views from the same person. Impressions are always equal to or higher than reach.
Any interaction with your content: likes, comments, shares, saves, or profile taps.
Engagement divided by reach or followers, expressed as a percentage. A higher rate usually means your content is resonating with the right audience.
The people who have subscribed to see your posts in their feed. Followers are a long-term audience — not a guarantee of sales.
The net gain of followers over a set period. Steady, qualified growth matters more than large spikes from a viral post.
A short-form vertical video on Instagram or Facebook, usually 15–90 seconds. Reels currently get the widest organic reach of any post type.
A vertical post that disappears after 24 hours. Best used for day-to-day updates, polls, behind-the-scenes moments and driving traffic.
A single post with multiple swipeable images or videos — great for step-by-step tips, before/afters, or telling a longer story in one post.
A clear instruction telling the viewer what to do next.
Example — "Book your free consultation today" is a call to action.
The first 1–3 seconds of a video or the first line of a caption — designed to stop the scroll and pull the viewer in.
The text underneath a post that adds context, tells the story, and drives the viewer to take action.
A keyword prefixed with # that helps categorize a post and, on some platforms, helps new audiences discover it.
Responding to comments, DMs and mentions so your audience feels heard and your brand stays approachable.
The full process of planning, creating, scheduling, publishing and reporting on social content on behalf of a business.
Content created by your customers — reviews, tagged photos, testimonial videos — that you can share on your own channels.
How familiar your target market is with your business. Consistent content raises awareness so you're the first name people think of when they're ready to buy.
Paid Advertising
Terminology used across Meta Ads (Facebook & Instagram), Google Ads and any paid campaign that runs against a budget.
Any advertisement you pay a platform (like Meta or Google) to show to a targeted audience.
The money paid directly to the ad platform to actually run your ads. Ad spend is separate from any management fee.
Example — A $600 management fee plus $1,000 in ad spend = $1,600 total for that month.
The top level of an ad account — where you choose the overall goal (leads, sales, traffic, awareness) and set a budget.
The middle level of a Meta campaign, where you define audience, placements, schedule and budget.
The image, video, headline and copy the viewer actually sees. Strong creative is usually the biggest driver of ad performance.
The group of people an ad is being shown to, defined by demographics, interests, behaviours or location.
The specific type of customer your ads are trying to reach — the people most likely to buy your service.
An audience built from your own data — like website visitors, past customers, or an email list uploaded to the ad platform.
A new audience the platform builds by finding people who resemble a custom audience you already have.
Showing ads to people who already interacted with your business — visited your site, watched a video, or engaged with a post.
The result you're telling the platform to optimize for — leads, sales, traffic, engagement, or awareness.
A meaningful action a user takes — filling out a lead form, booking a call, buying a product, or calling your business.
The setup that tells the ad platform when a conversion happens, so it can optimize toward more of them.
The average amount you pay each time someone clicks your ad.
The average amount spent to generate one new lead.
Example — If you spend $500 and receive 10 leads, your cost per lead is $50.
The average amount spent to acquire one paying customer — a step further than cost per lead.
The percentage of people who clicked your ad after seeing it. Calculated as clicks ÷ impressions × 100.
The cost to show your ad 1,000 times. Used to compare ad efficiency across audiences and platforms.
Revenue generated divided by ad spend. A ROAS of 4x means $4 in revenue for every $1 spent on ads.
The average number of times each person in your audience has seen your ad. Too high and audiences tune out; too low and they don't remember you.
The specific web page a visitor lands on after clicking your ad. A focused landing page usually converts far better than sending traffic to a homepage.
A short form (often built directly inside Meta) that lets people submit their contact details without leaving the platform.
A small piece of tracking code installed on your website that lets Meta measure ad results and build retargeting audiences.
The newer name for the Meta Pixel setup — a single data source combining pixel, offline conversions and app events.
Google's paid advertising platform — includes Search, Display, YouTube and Performance Max campaigns.
Text ads that appear at the top of Google search results when someone searches a relevant keyword.
Image or banner ads shown across millions of partner websites and apps in the Google Display Network.
Search terms you tell Google NOT to show your ad for — used to filter out irrelevant traffic and save budget.
Google's 1–10 rating of how relevant your keywords, ads and landing pages are to a searcher. Higher scores usually mean lower costs.
How the platform decides how much to bid for clicks or conversions — manual, maximize conversions, target CPA, and so on.
Website & Lead Generation
Everything to do with your website, funnels and turning visitors into qualified leads.
A single-purpose page built to drive one specific action — usually filling out a form or booking a call.
The percentage of visitors who take the desired action.
Example — If 100 people visit and 5 book a call, your conversion rate is 5%.
A person who has expressed interest in your service — usually by filling out a form, calling, or sending a message.
A lead that matches your ideal customer profile and has a real chance of becoming a paying client.
A form on your website where a visitor can send their details or a message. The main way most service businesses collect leads.
The steps a prospect goes through from first hearing about you to becoming a customer — awareness, interest, decision, purchase.
The full path a customer takes with your business, including every touchpoint from an ad or Google search all the way to a repeat purchase.
The practice of improving your website so it ranks higher in Google's unpaid search results for relevant keywords.
The word or phrase someone types into a search engine. Both SEO and Google Ads are built around choosing the right keywords.
The number of people visiting your website in a given period. Traffic can come from search, ads, social, referrals, or direct visits.
The percentage of visitors who leave your site without interacting. A high bounce rate can signal a slow or off-target page.
A system that assigns unique phone numbers to your ads so you can see exactly which campaign or ad generated each phone call.
Software that stores your leads and customers, tracks conversations, and helps you follow up consistently.
Emails, texts or tasks that trigger automatically based on a lead's behaviour — like sending a booking confirmation the moment someone fills a form.
Your website's address, like gameplangrowth.ca. You own it separately from your website hosting.
The service that stores your website files and serves them to visitors. Every live website needs hosting of some kind.
Reporting & Performance
The metrics and language used in monthly reports so you always know exactly what you're paying for.
A metric that tells you whether your marketing is actually working — like cost per lead, ROAS, or number of booked calls.
The tools and data used to measure what's happening on your website, ads and social channels — most often Google Analytics.
How credit is assigned to different channels for a conversion. Attribution helps answer: which ad or post actually drove that lead?
The total value you got back from marketing divided by what you spent. Broader than ROAS because it can include lifetime value and repeat business.
A generic version of cost-per-lead — the average cost of whatever result your campaign is optimizing for (message, video view, booking, etc.).
How closely leads match your ideal customer. High-volume, low-quality leads are usually more expensive than fewer high-quality ones.
Running two versions of an ad, page or email at once to see which one performs better, then rolling with the winner.
The ongoing process of adjusting audiences, creative, bids, keywords and pages based on what the data shows is working.
A summary sent every month showing what was posted or advertised, what it cost, and what it produced — leads, calls, sales, and next-step recommendations.
A lead that has shown enough interest through marketing (form fill, download, repeated visits) to be worth passing to sales.
A lead that sales has spoken with and confirmed as ready — the right fit, budget and timing to move forward.
The total revenue you can expect from a single customer over the entire time they do business with you.
Common questions.
- /01How much should a small business spend on advertising?
It depends on your industry, market and goals. As a starting point, most small service businesses see reliable results with $750–$1,500/month on Meta or $1,000–$2,500/month on Google. Highly competitive industries or larger service areas often need more.
- /02Is ad spend included in the management fee?
No. Our management fee covers strategy, setup, monitoring, testing, optimization and reporting. Ad spend is paid directly to Meta and/or Google and is always separate from what you pay us.
- /03What is the difference between reach and impressions?
Reach is the number of unique people who saw your content. Impressions is the total number of times your content was displayed, including repeat views. Impressions are always equal to or higher than reach.
- /04What is the difference between organic content and paid advertising?
Organic content is what you post for free to build trust, brand recognition and long-term audience. Paid advertising uses a budget to put your business in front of a targeted audience quickly. The two work best together.
- /05How long does it take for advertising campaigns to generate results?
Most campaigns start generating leads within 2–4 weeks. The first 30 days are typically a learning phase where the platform gathers data before it can be scaled efficiently.
- /06What is considered a good cost per lead?
Cost per lead varies by industry — anywhere from $10–$80 on Meta and $25–$150 on Google is common for service businesses. What matters more is lead quality and how many of those leads become paying customers.
- /07Do I need both Meta Ads and Google Ads?
Not always. Meta is great for reaching people while they scroll and for offer-driven lead gen. Google captures high-intent buyers already searching. Most businesses see the best results when both run together, but starting on one platform is completely valid.
- /08What information will be included in my monthly report?
A summary of everything published or advertised that month, spend versus results (leads, calls, conversions), key performance metrics, and clear recommendations for the next month.
Still Not Sure What Your Business Needs?
We'll review your goals, market, current marketing, and available budget to recommend the right strategy for your business.