Internet and Online Businesses Industry Terminology

A/B Testing

A controlled experiment comparing two (or more) variants to determine which performs better on a chosen metric (e.g., CTR, conversion rate, revenue).

We A/B tested the checkout button color to lift conversion; Run an A/B test on the pricing page before changing plans; The B variant beat A with a 7% higher signup rate at 95% confidence

Ad Network

An intermediary that aggregates publisher ad inventory and matches it with advertiser demand, typically selling on a CPC, CPM, or CPA basis.

We used an ad network to monetize remnant inventory; The ad network’s eCPM improved after we enabled header bidding; We diversified spend across two ad networks to reduce risk

Affiliate Marketing

A performance-based channel where partners (affiliates) promote a product and earn commissions for referred conversions.

Our affiliate program pays 20% per subscription; Influencers drive sales via affiliate links and UTM tags; We tightened attribution rules to prevent duplicate affiliate credit

API (Application Programming Interface)

A set of rules and endpoints enabling software systems to communicate and exchange data.

Integrate the payments API to accept cards and wallets; Our public API lets merchants sync inventory; We rate-limit API calls to preserve reliability

Attribution Modeling

Methods for assigning credit for a conversion across marketing touchpoints (e.g., last-click, first-click, data-driven).

We moved from last-click to data-driven attribution; Attribution shows paid search assists 40% of signups; Model comparison changed our channel budget mix

Bounce Rate

The percentage of sessions where a user views one page and leaves without further interaction.

Blog bounce rate fell after improving internal links; High bounce on mobile suggests slow load; We segment bounce rate by traffic source

CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)

The fully loaded cost to acquire a new customer, typically marketing and sales cost divided by new customers.

Our blended CAC is $64 per subscriber; We target LTV/CAC > 3x; CAC spiked after iOS privacy changes

Churn Rate

The percentage of customers who cancel or stop using a service over a given period.

Monthly churn is 2.1% for annual plans; Onboarding improvements reduced day-30 churn; We track gross vs net churn separately

CLV/LTV (Customer Lifetime Value)

The net present value of the profit a customer generates over their entire relationship with a business.

Paid LTV is 3.5x higher than organic; We use cohort-based LTV forecasts for budgeting; Discounting impacts LTV assumptions

Conversion Rate

The percentage of users who complete a desired action (e.g., purchase, signup, trial start).

Checkout conversion rose after adding PayPal; We measure micro-conversions along the funnel; AB test improved homepage conversion by 12%

CPA (Cost Per Acquisition)

The average cost to drive one conversion (e.g., signup, sale), often used as a bidding and optimization goal.

Our target CPA is $25 for trials; Smart bidding stabilized CPA despite volatility; CPA inflated due to attribution lag

CPC (Cost Per Click)

An ad pricing model where advertisers pay for each click; also the average cost per click achieved.

CPCs spiked during the holiday auction; We lowered CPC by improving ad relevance; Shift to long-tail keywords reduced CPC

CPM (Cost Per Mille)

The cost per 1,000 impressions, common in display and video advertising.

Video CPMs are 40% higher than display; We negotiated a fixed CPM for the sponsorship; Header bidding increased average CPMs for publishers

CTR (Click-Through Rate)

The percentage of impressions that result in a click (clicks divided by impressions).

New creative lifted CTR by 0.6 points; Low CTR signals weak ad-message fit; We track CTR by audience segment

DAU/MAU

Daily Active Users and Monthly Active Users; the DAU/MAU ratio (stickiness) shows how often monthly users return daily.

DAU/MAU improved from 18% to 22%; Feature notifications lifted DAU without hurting retention; We align DAU definition to meaningful activity

Demand-Side Platform (DSP)

Software used by advertisers to buy digital ad inventory programmatically across exchanges and publishers.

We centralized buying through one DSP; Frequency caps in the DSP reduced ad fatigue; Private marketplaces in the DSP improved quality

First-Party Data

Data collected directly from users (e.g., site behavior, transactions, surveys), with user consent and higher reliability than third-party data.

We built a CDP to unify first-party data; Email capture increased our first-party audience; Lookalikes from first-party seed lists perform best

GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)

EU data protection law governing personal data processing, consent, rights, and cross-border transfers.

We implemented a CMP for GDPR consent; Data minimization aligned with GDPR principles; SCCs cover our EU–US data transfers

KPI (Key Performance Indicator)

A specific, measurable metric that indicates performance against goals (e.g., CAC, NRR, conversion).

NRR and gross margin are our North Star KPIs; We review KPI dashboards weekly; Each OKR has 2–3 KPIs

MVP (Minimum Viable Product)

The smallest feature set that validates a core hypothesis with real users to learn quickly.

We shipped an MVP to test demand in one city; The MVP used manual ops behind the scenes; MVP feedback informed our roadmap

Multi-Sided Marketplace

A platform serving two or more distinct user groups (e.g., buyers and sellers) where cross-side network effects drive value.

We balanced marketplace liquidity by city; Take rate rose after adding seller tools; Subsidies attracted the supply side first

Net Revenue Retention (NRR)

Revenue from existing customers over a period including expansions and downgrades, net of churn; >100% indicates growth from the base.

NRR is 118% for enterprise segment; Upsell playbooks improved NRR; We monitor logo vs revenue retention separately

Network Effects

A phenomenon where a product becomes more valuable as more people use it (direct or indirect/cross-side).

Messaging exhibits strong direct network effects; Marketplace liquidity improved as supply grew; We fight negative congestion effects with curation

OKR (Objectives and Key Results)

A goal-setting framework linking qualitative objectives to quantitative key results.

Quarterly OKRs align teams on outcomes; Each KR has an owner and baseline; We scored OKRs at quarter end to learn

Personalization Engine

Technology that tailors content, offers, or experiences to individual users using rules, segmentation, or ML.

Personalized recommendations lifted AOV; We built a real-time personalization layer; Cold-start users see rule-based defaults

Product-Market Fit

The degree to which a product satisfies strong market demand, reflected by retention, organic growth, and willingness to pay.

Waitlists and NPS suggested PMF; Churn analysis showed PMF in SMB, not enterprise; We delayed scaling until PMF signals improved

Programmatic Advertising

Automated buying and selling of digital ads via real-time auctions and private deals using DSPs/SSPs.

Programmatic accounts for 80% of display spend; We shifted budget to PMPs for brand safety; Algorithmic bidding beat manual line items

Progressive Web App (PWA)

A web application that uses modern web capabilities (service workers, manifests) to deliver app-like experiences, offline support, and installability.

PWA improved mobile conversion and speed; Add to Home Screen boosted returning users; We cached key routes with a service worker

Retargeting/Remarketing

Serving ads to users who previously interacted with your site or app to bring them back to convert.

Cart-abandon retargeting lifted sales 12%; We excluded recent purchasers from retargeting; Frequency caps prevent retargeting fatigue

ROAS (Return On Ad Spend)

Revenue generated per dollar of ad spend (revenue/spend); often compared across channels and campaigns.

ROAS target is 4x for paid search; Creative refresh increased ROAS on social; We moved to value-based bidding to raise ROAS

ROI (Return On Investment)

Net return from an investment relative to its cost; broader than ROAS and includes all costs and benefits.

Feature ROI included support and infra costs; We prioritize projects by ROI and payback; ROI improved after reducing refunds

SaaS (Software as a Service)

Software delivered over the internet on a subscription basis, often multi-tenant and usage metered.

Our SaaS pricing has per-seat tiers; Churn reduction is critical in SaaS; SaaS gross margins target 70%+

SEM (Search Engine Marketing)

Paid search engine advertising (e.g., Google Ads) to capture intent-based demand.

SEM branded terms have highest quality score; We split campaigns by match type; RSAs improved SEM performance

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Practices to improve organic search visibility and traffic via technical, content, and link strategies.

We fixed crawl issues and improved Core Web Vitals; Topic clusters lifted SEO traffic 30%; Backlinks from PR supported SEO authority

Social Proof

Evidence that others value a product (reviews, ratings, testimonials, usage counts) to build trust and increase conversion.

Adding reviews increased conversion 8%; Logos of well-known clients serve as social proof; UGC galleries provide powerful social proof

SSP (Supply-Side Platform)

Software used by publishers to manage, price, and sell ad inventory programmatically to multiple demand sources.

We onboarded new SSPs to boost fill rates; Floor price tuning raised eCPM; Header bidding across SSPs reduced dependency

TAM/SAM/SOM

Framework for market sizing: Total Addressable Market, Serviceable Available Market, and Serviceable Obtainable Market.

Our TAM is $10B; SAM $2B; SOM $200M; We updated SOM after segmenting by company size; Investors probed our TAM assumptions

Third-Party Cookies

Cookies set by domains other than the one the user is visiting, historically used for cross-site tracking; being deprecated in major browsers.

We shifted from third- to first-party data; Chrome’s phase-out changed retargeting tactics; We implemented server-side tracking as a workaround

Two-Sided Marketplace

A marketplace with two distinct user groups (e.g., riders and drivers) whose interactions create cross-side value; a subset of multi-sided platforms.

We balanced demand and supply to avoid cold starts; Price incentives kick-started the demand side; We measure liquidity by time-to-match

Unit Economics

Revenue and costs associated with one unit of product or customer, used to assess scalability and profitability.

Positive contribution margin at the order level; Payback period is 5 months on a CAC basis; We model unit economics by cohort

Upsell/Cross-sell

Tactics to increase average order value or revenue per user by selling higher-tier products (upsell) or complementary items (cross-sell).

Bundle cross-sells raised AOV 9%; Upsell to annual plans boosted cash flow; Contextual add-ons at checkout perform best

User-Generated Content (UGC)

Content created by users (reviews, photos, posts) that can drive engagement, authenticity, and SEO benefits.

UGC contests increased submissions 3x; Moderation policies keep UGC brand-safe; UGC snippets enhanced product pages

UTM Parameters

URL tags (e.g., utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign) used to attribute traffic and conversions in analytics tools.

Add UTMs to newsletter links for tracking; We standardized UTM naming for reporting; Mis-tagged UTMs broke our channel attribution

Value Proposition

A clear statement of the unique value and benefits a product provides to a specific customer segment.

Revise the value prop to emphasize speed; User interviews clarified our value proposition; Our homepage headline communicates the value prop

Viral Coefficient (K-Factor)

The average number of new users each existing user brings in; K>1 implies exponential growth.

Referral loops raised K from 0.6 to 0.9; Reducing invite friction improved K; We measure viral K by cohort and channel

Web Analytics

Collection and analysis of website/app data to understand behavior and optimize outcomes.

We moved to event-based web analytics; Cohort reports revealed retention dips; We instrumented key funnel events

Willingness to Pay (WTP)

The maximum price a customer is willing to pay; informs pricing and packaging decisions.

Van Westendorp survey estimated WTP ranges; We A/B tested plans to validate WTP; WTP varies by segment and job-to-be-done

XML Sitemap

An XML file listing site URLs (and metadata) to help search engines discover and crawl content efficiently.

We submitted the XML sitemap in Search Console; Dynamic sitemaps update with new products; Separate sitemaps by locale improved crawling

Yield Optimization

Techniques used by publishers and marketplaces to maximize revenue per impression or unit of supply.

Floor price experiments improved yield; We prioritized high eCPM demand sources; Dynamic allocation increased overall yield

Zero-Party Data

Data that customers intentionally and proactively share (preferences, intents), often via surveys or preference centers.

Preference centers collected zero-party data; Zero-party data powered personalized offers; We store zero-party data with explicit consent