Internet Marketing and Other Related Industry Acronyms’
This list is by no means definitive. It has been curated from sources across the web, far too numerous to mention. As well as terms associated with Internet Marketing – or in keeping with the subject, this should be abbreviated to IM – the list also contains acronyms from other disciplines that are related, in the sense that Internet Marketers may come across them when talking with web hosting providers and/or software writers, programmers/developers that may be commissioned for product creation or other development/maintenance tasks .
For the average Internet Marketer, it does no harm to at least know what their abbreviated speech or acronym riddled documents actually stand for, even if the technology itself is far beyond comprehension! But after all, that’s precisely the reason why such individuals are hired in the first place.
Some acronyms stand for more than one meaning, such as IM, which can be Internet Marketing or Internet Marketer or Instant Messaging. Those with more than one meaning are represented in the list by separating them with a Forward Slash ‘/’ – or Oblique if you prefer the proper English name.
I’ve also found a useful acronym finder, for any others you may come across.
.NET Framework | Software Framework For Microsoft Servers (Also See ASP.NET, FCL, CLR) |
AIDA | Attention Interest Desire Action (Now Defunct – Original Sales Funnel Process Description) |
AJAX | Asynchronous Javascript And XML |
AOV | Average Order Value |
API | Application Program Interface |
AR | Augmented Reality |
ASCII | American Standard Code For Information Interchange |
ASP | Application Service Provider / Active Server Pages (Also See ASP.NET & .NET Framework) |
ASP.NET | Active Server Pages Server Side Scripting Technology (Endemic To Microsoft Servers & Uses .NET Framework) |
ASV | Average Subscriber Value |
ATD | Agency Trading Desk |
B2B | Business To Business |
B2C | Business To Consumer / Business To Customer |
BAL | Bodacious Acronym List (Like This One!) |
BANT | Budget Authority Need Timeline (Four Criteria Sales Reps Use To Qualify Prospects) |
BIPPO | Best Informed Person’s Opinion |
BL | Backlink |
BMP | Bitmap |
BO | Business Owner |
BoFu | Bottom Of The Funnel |
BR | Bounce Rate (Also See EBR) |
CAC | Customer Acquisition Cost |
CAN-SPAM | Controlling The Assault Of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing |
CASL | Canadian Anti Spam Legislation |
ccTLD | Country Code TLD (Also See TLD) |
CFML | Coldfusion Markup Language |
CGI | Common Gateway Interface |
CLR | Common Language Runtime (Also See ASP.NET, FCL & .NET Framework) |
CLV | Customer Lifetime Value |
CMS | Content Management System (Also See WP) |
CoCA | Cost Of Customer Acquisition (Also See CAC) |
CPA | Cost Per Action / Cost Per Acquisition |
CPC | Cost Per Click |
CPCV | Cost Per Completed View |
CPD | Cost Per Download |
CPE | Cost Per Engagement |
CPI | Cost Per Impression |
CPL | Cost Per Lead |
CPM | Cost Per Thousand |
CPR | Cost Per Registration |
CPS | Cost Per Sale / Cost Per Subscription |
CPV | Cost Per View (Also See PPV) |
CR | Conversion Rate / Conversion Ratio |
CRM | Customer Relationship Management |
CRO | Conversion Rate Optimisation |
CSS | Cascading Style Sheets |
CTA | Call To Action |
CTOR | Click To Open Rate |
CTR | Click Through Rate |
CX | Customer Experience (Also See UX) |
DAM | Digital Asset Management |
DM | Direct Mail / Direct Message |
DMP | Data Management Platform |
DNS | Domain Name System |
DR | Direct Response |
DSP | Demand Side Platform |
ECPM | Effective CPM (Also See CPM) |
eDM | Electronic Direct Marketing |
EBR | Email Bounce Rate (Also See BR) |
EMV | Emotional Marketing Value |
EPC | Earnings Per Click |
EPM | Earnings Per Thousand |
ESP | Email Service Provider |
ETLA | Extended Three Letter Acronym (Like Some On This List – Also See TLA & BAL) |
FAQ | Frequently Asked Questions |
FB | |
FBML | Facebook Markup Language |
FCL | Framework Class Library (Also See ASP.NET, CLR & .NET Framework) |
FF | Follow Friday (#ff – Hashtag On Twitter) |
FFA | Free For All Links |
FRS | Functional Requirement Specification |
FTP | File Transfer Protocol (Also See SFTP) |
FUD | Fear Uncertainty Doubt |
GA | Google Analytics |
GIF | Graphics Interchange Format |
GNU | Gnu’s Not Unix |
GOAT | Gone Off At A Tangent |
gTLD | Generic TLD (Also See TLD) |
GUI | Graphical User Interface (Also See UI) |
H1 | Main Heading Tag In HTML |
HIPPO | Highest Paid Person’s Opinion |
HTML | Hypertext Markup Language |
HTTP | Hyper Text Transfer Protocol |
HTTPS | Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure |
I/O Error | Idiot Operator Error |
IIS | Internet Information Server (Microsoft) |
IM | Internet Marketing / Internet Marketer / Instant Message / Instant Messaging |
IMAP | Internet Message Access Protocol |
IMC | Integrated Marketing Communications |
IO | Insertion Order / Input Output (In This Context, Usually Written As I/O) |
IP | Internet Protocol / Intellectual Property |
IP Address | Internet Protocol Address |
IPTV | Internet Protocol Television |
ISP | Internet Service Provider |
JPEG | Joint Photographic Experts’ Group |
JPG | Joint Photographic Experts’ Group |
JSON | Javascript Object Notation |
KML | Keyhole Markup Language |
KPI | Key Performance Indicator |
LAMP | Linux Apache Mysql Perl/Php/Python |
LP | Landing Page (Also See SP) |
LTV | Lifetime Value |
LTV-CAC | Ratio Of Lifetime Value To Customer Acquisition Cost (Also See LTV & CAC) |
MLM | Multi Level Marketing |
MoFu | Middle Of The Funnel |
MoM | Month On Month / Month Over Month |
MPEG | Moving Picture Experts Group |
MQL | Marketing Qualified Lead |
MRR | Master Resell Rights / Monthly Recurring Revenue |
MT | Modified Tweet (Also See RT) |
MTD | Month To Date |
MVT | Multivariate Testing |
NFC | Near Field Communication |
NPS | Net Promoter Score |
OEM | Original Equipment Manufacturer |
OLA | Operational Level Agreement (Also See SLA) |
OS | Operating System / Open Source |
Portable Document Format (Adobe) | |
PEBKAC | Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair |
PERL | Practical Extraction And Report Language |
PFI | Pay For Inclusion |
PHP | PHP Hypertext Preprocessor (Recursive Acronym) |
PICNIC | Problem In Chair Not In Computer |
PIM | Product Information Management / Personal Information Manager |
PNG | Portable Network Graphict |
POS | Point Of Sale |
PPA | Pay Per |
PPC | Pay Per Click |
PPCSE | Pay Per Click Search Engine |
PPI | Pay Per Impression |
PPL | Pay Per Lead |
PPS | Pay Per Sale |
PPV | Pay Per View |
PR | Page Rank |
PSD | Photoshop Document |
pURL | Personalised URL (Also See URL) |
PV | Page Views |
QA | Quality Assurance |
QoQ | Quarter On / Over Quarter |
QR Code | Quick Response Code |
QS | Quality Score |
QTD | Quarter To Date |
REST | Representational State Transfer |
RFC | Request For Comment |
RFI | Request For Information |
RFP | Request For Proposal |
RFQ | Request For Quotation |
ROI | Return On Investment |
RON | Run Of Network |
ROR | Ruby On Rails |
ROS | Run Of Site |
RSS | Really Simple Syndication / Rich Site Summary |
RT | ReTweet |
RTB | Real Time Bidding |
RTD | Real Time Data |
RTIs | Retweet (When Someone Shares One Of Your Tweets With Their Followers) |
rURL | Response URL (Also See URL) |
S2S | Server To Server |
SaaS | Software As A Service |
SE | Search Engine |
SEM | Search Engine Marketing |
SEO | Search Engine Optimisation |
SEP | Search Engine Positioning |
SERP | Search Engine Results Page |
SFTP | Secure FTP (Also See FTP) |
SLA | Service Level Agreement (Also See OLA) |
SM | Social Media |
SMB | Small / Medium Business (Also See SME) |
SME | Small / Medium Enterprise (Also See SMB) |
SMM | Social Media Marketing |
SMO | Social Media Optimisation |
SMP | Social Media Platform |
SMS | Short Message Service |
SOAP | Small Objects Access Protocol |
SoLoMo | Social Local Mobile |
SOV | Share Of Voice |
SOW | Statement Of Work |
SP | Squeeze Page (Also See LP) |
SQL | Structured Query Language / Sales Qualified Lead |
SSH | Secure Shell |
SSI | Server Side Include |
SSL | Secure Sockets Layer |
SSP | Supply Side Platform |
sTLD | Sponsored TLD (Also See TLD) |
SWOT | Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats |
TLA | Three Letter Acronym (Like The Majority On This List – Also See ETLA & BAL) |
TLD | Top Level Domain |
ToFu | Top Of Funnel |
TOS | Terms Of Service |
UCD | User Centric Design |
UGC | User Generated Content |
UI | User Interface (Also See GUI) |
URI | Uniform Resource Indicator (Also See URL) |
URL | Uniform Resource Locator (Also See URI) |
USP | Unique Selling Proposition/Point |
UV | Unique Visitor |
UX | User Experience (Also See CX) |
VM | Viral Marketing / Virtual Machine |
VOB | Video Object |
VOD | Video On Demand |
VOIP | Voice Over IP |
vTLD | Vanity TLD (Also See TLD) |
W3C | World Wide Web Consortium |
WIMP | Windows Icons And Mouse Pointing (Pejorative Form Of GUI) |
WOM | Word Of Mouth |
WOMM | Word Of Mouth Marketing |
WP | WordPress (Also See CMS) |
WWW | World Wide Web |
WYSIWYG | What You See Is What You Get |
XML | Extensible Markup Language |
YOY | Year On Year/ Year Over Year |
YTD | Year To Date |
s