ONLINE MARKETING DICTIONARY ( A -I )

1. (Online) Advertising --> This has a variety of forms of advertising, most popular being banner advertising, though text advertising is getting importance now. Google adwords and Overture / Yahoo! Interstitials are the more common forms of internet advertising.

2. Adware --> Adware is advertising-supported software.

3. Affiliate Program --> An affiliate program is a form of advertising, on the web, that rewards the affiliates (self-selected advertisers) for driving traffic to the advertiser (PPC) or for subsequent transactions (CPA). An affiliate program uses a multi-level marketing concept where consumers (affiliates) attract additional consumers. Some affiliate programs are multi-tiered, thus increasing the income earning opportunities for the affiliates (rewarded for their traffic and the traffic of affiliates they recruit). Affiliate links also have a positive branding effect for the sponsoring site.

4. Aggregator --> (News Reader) Aggregator is an application, either for the web, any
operating system, that aggregates dynamic content (RSS or Atom files) for the subscriber to view. The dynamic content is typically generated by blogs, news organizations or other sources interested in distributing news to subscribers, using the XML format to generate the RSS feed. Aggregators are one of the web 2.0 technologies. Examples of web-based aggregators include bloglines and NewsIsFree.

5. Auction Pricing System --> Using an auction pricing system, sellers are not constrained by having to fix a price without knowing what the market will bare traditional pricing methodology). If a seller sets a very low price using a classified advertisement, then the demand will definitely be very high, but the seller will not get the most revenue and also that the buyer who wanted the product most (willing to pay the highest price) would not automatically receive the product. Conversely if the price is too high then many people who have bid low will be excluded, and only the high bidders get a chance. The auction pricing system is a dynamic pricing model, much like the reverse pricing model. Game Theory can impact the strategies involved in setting a starting price (for the seller) and bidding strategies for the buyers. Ex: Ebay and QXL.com.

6. Average Costs --> The average cost of a unit of product is made up of its fixed costs / # units produced, and the variable cost per unit. With digital products, where the variable costs are very small (and in some instances zero), the average cost of the product declines as more units are produced and sold. Thus the market leader for a product typically has the lowest average cost per unit. This allows the leader to have increased margins, and increased flexibility to lower price.

7. (Shopping) Bots --> Bots are software programs developed to help the user search the web to identify and compare products for purchase. Examples include: Froogle, MySimon, DealPilot.com etc.

8. Break Even Analysis --> Break Even Analysis refers to the calculation to determine how much product a company must sell in order to break even on that product (revenue = costs). It is an effective analysis to measure the impact of different marketing decisions. It can focus on the product, or incremental changes to the product to determine the potential outcomes of marketing tactics. The formula for a break even analysis is:
Break even point ($) = (Total Fixed Costs + Total Variable Costs).
Total Variable Costs = Variable cost per unit x units sold
Unit contribution (contribution margin) = Price per unit - Variable cost per unit.
If making changes to fixed costs (changing advertising expenditure etc.):
Incremental break even volume = change in expenditure / unit contribution.
Thus if a company increased its advertising expenditure by $1 million, and its unit
contribution for the specific product is $20, then the company would need to sell an
additional 50,000 units to break even on the decision.

9. Burn-Rate --> Burn-rate refers to the amount of money a company spends from month to month (money burnt) in order to survive. Thus a burn-rate of $50,000 would mean the company spends $50,000 a month above any incoming cash flow to sustain its business.

10. Call to Action --> Call to Action is the action that is requested by a marketer's
content (either from an internet advertising or web-site copy for example). This may be to click-through to enter a contest, enter a survey to win a free prize, or purchase a product.

11. Click Fraud --> Click fraud comprises clicking on a link that either provides monetary gain for the clicker or adds cost to the marketer whose link is being clicked (a competitor of the 'clicker' for example).

12. Contextual Marketing --> Contextual marketing is marketing that occurs in the context of when a person is more likely to be interested in the product/industry. Thus, a page sponsorship can be considered contextual, as the viewer has elected to view the page, and assuming the sponsorship is for a product that is related to the content of the page, the product has the right context (the viewer self-selected to view the content). Text advertisements that are relevant to the content of the web page on which they appear are another example of contextual marketing. An example of this is the advertising programs run by search engines that have advertisements served based on the keywords that the user uses to search.
Contextual Marketing is becoming more popular with increasing use of search engine marketing, and will only gain greater strength with the evolution of wireless marketing (m-commerce). Wireless marketing will take advantage of knowing where the consumer is located using GPS. This can then translate into marketing messages that have direct relevance to the consumer as the messages relate to the context of the consumer at the point in time they are being delivered.

13. CPM, PPC, CPC, CPA --> CPM (Cost per 1,000), PPC (Pay per Click), CPC (Cost per Click) and CPA (Cost per Action) are types business models for calculating the charge for pages (advertisements) being served. PPC and CPC refer to a cost (payment) associated with each click on the advertisement to the target page. CPA is a cost associated with each lead created from a click on the advertisement (CPL), or each sale (CPS). Both PPC / CPC and CPA are much more accountable means of developing a price for the advertisement, and either are also used for affiliate programs and text advertisements on search engines.

14. CTR (Click-Through Rate) --> is the number of times an advertisement is clicked upon over the number of times the advertisement is served. Typical click-through rates have been declining (a click through rate of 1% would be very high). While click through rates help determine the effectiveness of the online advertisement, advertisements also contain a branding impact. The click-through rate will determine the cost of an advertising campaign that was based on PPC / CPC and CPA.

15. Impressions --> Impressions refers to the number of times a page is accessed over a fixed period of time. Thus if a page receives 1,000 impressions per day, then that page is accessed 1,000 over the course of the day. This term is often confused with hits, which is actually an incorrect use of this term (hits and number of impressions would be the same if the page was simply a text page with no additional files associated with it). Page impressions also equals the number of times an advertisement is served, assuming a banner is served each time the page is accessed. Impressions are a metric used in web analytics.

Quality Vs Quantity

This is to explain how the quality matters more than quantity. Let’s say your website has 5,000 pages of content. Let’s say that the total cost for publishing each page is USD100.

Thus, the total cost is USD500,000. Let’s say that you have 100,000 visitors over the
lifetime of these 5,000 pages. Let’s say that the top 20 percent of pages get 80 percent of visitors (just as an approximate example of reality, if it existed).
That means that 1,000 pages are getting 80,000 visitors, and 4,000 pages are getting 20,000 visitors. The ‘cost’ per page for the top 20 percent of pages is USD1.25 per visitor.

The cost per page for the bottom 80 percent of pages is USD20 per visitor. You need to focus on how much each page is costing you and what value each page is delivering. To maximize value, you want to focus on your power-filled content. At a very
basic level, content is judged based on volume of sales. Harry Potter is a huge success because it sells a lot of copies.
If you focus your energies on your killer content and applications, you will be able to show much more value. We come across many websites where people are spending as much time on the low quality, filler content, as they are on the high quality, power-filled content. In fact, we come across quite a few websites where managers are not aware which is the killer and filler content.

Filler content also has hidden costs. A 5,000 page website is more difficult to navigate than a 1,000 page website. It’s harder for the reader to find what they need. Speed and convenience are critical to the success of self-service. The more you clutter your website, the more you slow the reader down.People are more impatient when working on web. If they don't find the information they are searching for, they either press the BACK button, or cut the page, or skip to another topic. This is when your website doesn't fetch what the person wants.

The core objective of content is to drive an action. You need to know that the top 20 percent of your content is really delivering a return. Just because people read a page is not enough. Did they understand it? Did they act the way you wanted them to after reading it?
To get a web page right demands a lot of time and effort. Let’s say you delete 2,000 of those pages I mentioned earlier. Let’s say you invest USD300 per page for the 1,000 killer content, and USD100 per page for the other 2,000 pages. You’re still spending the same budget, but are likely to deliver far more value because you’re focusing on getting the content right that your reader wants.
To maximize value on your website, focus on your killer content and delete your filler content.

Also that a website must speak in a common man's language than in a organization's language. Endless debates about what should and shouldn't be on your website. Remove all the compelling data or any of those things that makes the readers offended.
Remove all the filler content from the website. create a clean website that focuses exactly on what is needed and what the customers need.

SO QUALITY MATTER THAN QUANTITY.