The ultimate list of growth marketing terms and acronyms

This is your ultimate list of need-to-know growth marketing key terms and marketing acronyms.

AARRR: and no, we’re not talking pirate speak. It stands for Acquisition, Activation, Referral, Retention, Revenue, and it’s one of the hundreds of growth marketing acronyms and terms gracing the industry—lucky us.

If you’re not up to speed on the current growth hacking jargon, it can sometimes feel like people are speaking a foreign language in meetings, an interview, or on a call.

Whether you’re just getting started in marketing, entering a new industry like technology, or you simply want to brush up on your vocab, this cheat sheet will help you talk the (growth marketing) talk.

We’ve broken the list of acronyms and terms into key categories, so it’s easy to find what you’re looking for.

1. User Journey
2. Growth Metrics
3. Planning & Forecasting
4. Email Marketing
5. Content Marketing
6. Paid Ads
7. Technology

1. User Journey

TOFU (Top of Funnel): Marketing efforts focused on gaining awareness in a new market or of a new product, including content like:

• Blog posts
• Social media content
• Podcasts
• Infographics
• Educational videos

MOFU (Middle of Funnel): Marketing content and assets used to reach leads who are already in your database or CRM and engaging with your brand. The goal is to educate on your solution, convert and create desire and engagement. 

• Product webinars
• Detailed blog posts
• Industry reports
• Email nurture sequences
• Feature comparisons

BOFU (Bottom of Funnel): Marketing content and assets used to help demonstrate value, and persuade a prospect to purchase, such as:

• Product comparison guides
• Customer testimonials and case studies
• Free trials or demos
• ROI calculators
• Detailed pricing pages

LTV (Lifetime value): The net profit for the entire future user relationship. Calculation includes:

• Average purchase value
• Purchase frequency
• Customer lifespan
• Gross margin 

Example: Customer spending $100/month for 24 months = $2,400 LTV

NPS (Net Promoter Score): A customer satisfaction metric measured on a scale from 1-10 and typically refers to how likely the customer or audience would be to refer your company to others.

• Promoters (9-10): Likely to recommend
• Passives (7-8): Neutral
• Detractors (0-6): Unlikely to recommend 

Calculation: % Promoters - % Detractors = NPS

MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead): A potential user who has opted in to learn more about your company through marketing channels

• Downloading multiple resources
• Attending webinars
• Visiting pricing pages
• High engagement with emails 

Example scoring: 10 points for whitepaper download, 20 points for demo request

SQL (Sales Qualified Lead): A potential B2B company who has opted-in to learn more about your company through sales channels

• Budget authority (ie. Do they have the budget for your product & the ability to invest?)
• Clear need/pain point
• Purchase timeline
• Decision-making power 

Example criteria: "BANT" (Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline)

UI (User interface): Software interface that the user interacts with. Best practices include consistent styling, clear hierarchy, mobile responsiveness for elements like:

• Navigation menus
• Form fields
• Buttons and CTAs
• Icons and images 

UX (User experience): The overall user experience with the product in terms of how easy or enjoyable it is to use. Overall product interaction quality is often measured by:

• Task completion rate
• Time on task
• Error rate
• User satisfaction scores
• Navigation paths

UA (User Acquisition): The act of gaining new users for a product or service. Strategies can include:

• Paid channels (PPC, social ads)
• Organic channels (SEO, content)
• Partnerships and affiliates
• Referral programs 

Metrics: CAC (customer acquisition cost), conversion rate by channel

WOM (Word of Mouth): The passing of information from person to person about a product or service. Doesn’t just have to be in person, but could be through:

• Customer testimonials
• Social media mentions
• Review sites
• Community forums
• Brand advocacy programs

A/B Split Testing: A/B testing is when you generate two versions of a campaign, for example, an email or an ad set, to test them against one another to see which performs better. Examples:

• Email subject lines (Version A: "Limited Time Offer" vs Version B: "Exclusive Deal Inside")
• Landing page layouts (Single column vs Two column design)
• CTA button colors (Blue vs Green)
• Ad copy variations (Feature-focused vs Benefit-focused)

CTA (Call to action): A statement designed to get a response or cause an action such as clicking a button or filling out a form. Common formats:

• Buttons: "Start Free Trial", "Book Demo", "Sign Up Now"
• Forms: "Get Your Free Guide", "Join the Waitlist"
• Text links: "Learn More", "See How It Works"

Above the fold: All content that appears on a webpage before a user scrolls. You would typically put any dominant CTA's above the fold to generate further interest.

Best practices include:

• Primary value proposition
• Main CTA button
• Key benefits or features
• Social proof elements (logos, testimonials

Buyer Persona: A semi-fictional character who represents your ideal customer based on research and data surrounding your existing customers. It helps marketers define their target audience and help sales reps qualify leads.

• Demographics (age, location, job title)
• Pain points and challenges
• Goals and motivations
• Preferred communication channels Example: "Marketing Mary: 35-45 year old marketing director at a B2B SaaS company"

Customer Segmentation: The practice of dividing customers into groups based on shared characteristics. Key dimensions:

• Behavioral (usage patterns, purchase history)
• Demographic (age, location, company size)
• Value-based (spending level, lifetime value) 

Example: Enterprise customers who use feature X weekly and spend >$10k/year

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2. Growth Metrics

CR or CVR (Conversion Rate): The percentage of people who completed the desired action on a single web page, such as filling out a form or purchasing an item.

• Website: Visitor to lead rate
• Email: Open to click rate
• Landing page: Visit to form completion
• Trial: Free to paid conversion

AARRR (Pirate Metrics): Framework for measuring growth (and demand!):

• Acquisition: Channel performance (CAC [customer acquisition cost] by channel, conversion rates)
• Activation: First value moment (account creation, first purchase)
• Retention: Ongoing engagement (DAU/MAU [daily/monthly active users], churn rate)
• Referral: Viral growth (referral rate, K-factor)
• Revenue: Monetization (ARPU [average revenue per user], LTV [lifetime value])

ROI (Return on Investment): ROI is a performance measure used to measure the amount of return on a particular investment, relative to the investment's cost.

• Formula: (Gain - Cost) / Cost x 100
• Applications: Evaluating how a campaign or a channel is performing compared to others

Example: $1000 spent generates $3000 = 200% ROI

ARPU (Average Revenue Per User): A metric defined as the total revenue divided by the number of subscribers. Could include segments like:

• Monthly ARPU vs Annual ARPU
• ARPU by customer segment
• ARPU trends over time 

Example: SaaS company with $100,000 MRR and 1,000 users = $100 ARPU

CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost): The total cost associated with acquiring a new customer, including marketing and sales expenses, like:

• Marketing spend (ads, content, events)
• Sales team costs (salaries, commissions)
• Tools and software 

Example: $100,000 spent to acquire 100 customers = $1,000 CAC

Churn Rate: A metric that measures how many customers you retain over a reporting period.

• Calculation: Lost Customers / Total Customers
• Prevention: Early warning systems, engagement monitoring

CLTV (Customer Lifetime Value): The total predicted revenue a customer will generate over their entire relationship with a business. The rule of thumb is that CLTV should be 3x CAC. Learn how to calculate CLTV here. 

MOM (Month over Month) growth: The percentage change in a specific metric when comparing one month to the previous month.

YOY (Year over Year) growth: The percentage change in a specific metric when comparing one year to the previous year.

NRR (Net Revenue Retention): A metric that measures the total revenue retained from existing customers, including expansions and contractions, over a specific period.

• Expansion revenue (upgrades, add-ons)
• Contraction (downgrades)
• Churn (cancellations) 

Target: >100% indicates growing customer value

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3. Planning and Forecasting

OKRs (Objectives and Key Results): Objectives are where you want to go, and key results are deliverables you define for each objective in order to get you there. Structure:

• Objective: "Increase market penetration in enterprise segment"
• Key Results (how you know you’ll reach the objective above!):
  
  1. Close 20 enterprise deals worth $100k+ each
  2. Achieve 95% customer satisfaction score
  3. Reduce enterprise sales cycle by 20% 
• Time frame: Usually quarterly or annual

KPIs (Key performance indicators): Type of performance measurement to evaluate the success of the project, employee or business. Common examples:

• Revenue growth rate
• Customer acquisition cost
• Net promoter score
• Employee satisfaction

MRR (Monthly Recurring revenue): Income that a business can count on receiving every single month.

• New MRR from new customers
• Expansion MRR from upgrades
• Contraction MRR from downgrades
• Churned MRR from cancellations 

Example calculation: Starting MRR + New MRR + Expansion MRR - Churned MRR - Contraction MRR = Ending MRR

GTM (Go to market): An action plan used to specify how a company will reach target customers and achieve a competitive advantage.

• Target market definition
• Pricing strategy
• Distribution channels
• Marketing tactics 

Example: SaaS company launching new product with freemium model targeting SMB customers

North star metrics: The one metric that matters (you should only have 1 of these per company). Examples by industry:

• E-commerce: Gross Merchandise Value
• SaaS: Weekly Active Users
• Marketplace: Successful Transactions
• Social: Daily Active Users

Health metrics: A metric that checks against the health of your north star metric. Examples:

• DAU/MAU ratio for engagement
• Customer support ticket volume
• System uptime
• Feature adoption rates 

Customer Retention: A strategic process to retain existing customers. Example metrics could be 90-day retention rate, annual renewal rate, expansion revenue, and include strategies around:

• Onboarding programs
• Regular check-ins and reviews
• Loyalty programs
• Product education

Customer Engagement: The way a customer reacts or interacts with the product or marketing activities, as well as the overall customer experience, which takes place online and offline.

• Product usage metrics (daily active users, feature adoption)
• Communication engagement (email open rates, response rates)
• Social engagement (likes, shares, comments)
• Support interaction (ticket volume, satisfaction scores)

Lagging indicators: Typically "output" oriented, easy to measure but hard to improve or influence, and tend to be used to measure past outcomes and inform long-term strategy. Best practice is to pair with leading indicators for a complete picture. Examples:

• Revenue
• Customer churn rate
• Market share
• Customer satisfaction scores

Leading indicators: Typically "input" oriented, hard to measure and easy to influence, and can help guide adjustments in your day-to-day actions. Leading indicators are metrics that predict future performance, and are used as an early warning system for any potential issues. Examples:

• Sales activity (calls, meetings)
• Website traffic
• Email engagement
• Trial signups 

Attribution: The process of identifying which marketing channels drive conversions. Some models include:

• First-touch attribution (what the eventual customer saw/engaged with first)
• Last-touch attribution (what the eventual customer saw/engaged with last before buying)
• Multi-touch attribution (what the eventual customer touched throughout their journey)

Example: 60% from organic search, 30% from ads, 10% from email

Growth Loops: Self-reinforcing systems where the output of one action feeds the input of the next. Core elements:

• Input (users, content, data)
• Action (share, create, engage)
• Output (new users, content, value)

Example: User creates content → Others discover it → They become users → They create content

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PLG (Product-led growth): A growth strategy that relies on using your product as the main vehicle for acquiring, activating, and retaining customers. Key elements:

• Free trial or freemium model
• Self-service onboarding
• In-product education
• Usage-based expansion 

Example: Zoom's free tier leading to enterprise adoption.

PMF (Product Market Fit): The degree to which a product satisfies strong market demand and meets the needs of its customers. Indicators for PMF:

• High retention rates (>80%)
• Strong word-of-mouth growth
• Rapid organic adoption
• Low sales friction 
• Simplified measurement: Survey responses, usage metrics, growth rate 

PLS (Product-led sales): A sales approach that leverages product usage data and in-product behaviors to identify and convert high-intent users into paying customers. Key signals:

• Feature usage patterns
• Team collaboration activity
• Integration adoption
• Usage frequency 

Example workflow: Track free users who reach 80% feature usage to trigger sales outreach.

SLG (Sales-led growth): A traditional growth strategy where sales teams drive customer acquisition and revenue growth through direct outreach and relationship building. Components of a SLG strategy:

• Outbound prospecting
• Solution selling
• Account management
• Custom pricing 

Example process: SDR qualification → Demo → Technical review → Negotiation → Close

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4. Email Marketing

List segmentation: Breaking up your email lists by demographics (age, location), behaviour (past purchases, engagement), or customer lifecycle stage ("Active subscribers who purchased in last 30 days"), can help you with email deliverability, impact, and conversion rates.

Bounce rate: The percentage of emails not delivered in a campaign (includes hard bounce and soft bounce). Example: 3% bounce rate = 97 delivered emails per 100 sent

• ‍Hard bounce: Emails that were not delivered due to incorrect email address or being blocked. Remove these emails immediately.‍
• Soft bounce: The campaign email was delivered but bounced back because the user's inbox was full, the server is down, or the message is too large. Try again after 48-72 hours.

Open rate: How many unique users opened your email

• Total open rate: The total amount of times users opened your email, including multiple opens by one user. Use cases:
  
  • Content engagement analysis
  • Email forwarding tracking
  • Newsletter performance 

Example: 20% unique open rate but 35% total open rate

Attachment open rate: The percentage of people who click to open the attachment sent with an email, like:

• PDF downloads
• Presentation views
• Document access rates 

Best practice: Keep attachments under 5MB.

Auto Follow-up: When an email is automatically sent in response to an action taken by a customer.

• Post-purchase confirmation
• Abandoned cart recovery
• Trial expiration reminder
• Renewal notification

Automation: The technology in which a process or procedure is performed with minimal human assistance. Workflow examples:

• Welcome series for new subscribers
• Lead nurture sequences
• Re-engagement campaigns
• Birthday/anniversary emails 

5. Content Marketing

Backlink: An incoming hyperlink from one web page to another website. Quality of backlinks depend on factors like domain authority, relevance, and anchor text. Types:

• Editorial links (natural mentions)
• Guest post links
• Directory listings
• Resource page links 

Bounce Rate: The percentage of visitors to a website who leave after only viewing one page. Better content relevance, clearer CTAs, and faster load times can help improve bounce rate, among other things like better product-market-fit and intent matching.

Buyer Journey: The process a buyer goes through as they research a product or service. Stages:

1. Awareness: Problem recognition
2. Consideration: Solution research
3. Decision: Vendor evaluation 

CMS (Content Management System): Software that hosts content websites, such as blogs. Features:

• Content creation tools
• Asset management
• User permissions
• SEO optimization 

Content Syndication: Reposting content on a third-party site to garner a wider audience. Channels could include:

• Industry publications
• Content platforms
• Partner websites
• Social media

Distribution Plan: A strategy and process for sharing content through various marketing channels. Channels can include, but are not limited to:

• Email newsletters
• Social media platforms
• Industry forums
• Partner networks

Domain Authority (DA): A search engine ranking score that predicts how likely a website is to rank in search results. Components:

• Backlink quality and quantity
• Site age and history
• Content quality
• Technical health

Earned Media: PR exposure organically earned by a company, measured by share of voice and sentiment analysis. Can include:

• Press mentions
• Product reviews
• Industry awards
• Expert interviews

Editorial/Content Calendar: The schedule used to plan content creation and publication on a quarterly basis (and track monthly). Components:

• Content themes
• Publication dates
• Channel allocation
• Team assignments

Gated Content: Content that requires user action before access, such as filling out a form. Typical content includes:

• Whitepapers and ebooks
• Research reports
• Templates and tools
• Video courses

Infographics: A visual image that typically includes charts or diagrams to communicate information. Includes easy-to-process data visualization, statistics, and some brand elements. 

Landing Page: A one-page website containing a form to generate new leads. Best practices include A/B testing headlines, minimizing navigation, and optimizing for mobile experiences. Essential elements for a landing page are:

• Compelling headline
• Clear value proposition
• Social proof
• Lead capture form

Organic Distribution: Content shared naturally among an audience, using things like social media sharing, email forwarding, forum discussions, and word of mouth.

Paid Distribution: Content distributed through paid promotion, like with social media ads, content discovery platforms, native advertising, or sponsored content.

Sales Enablement: The process, tech, and content used to empower sales teams to sell! Usually includes things like:

• Case studies
• Product sheets
• Competitor analysis
• Email templates

SEM: A form of paid marketing to optimize website visibility in search engine results pages. Based on your strategy and budget, you can measure things like CTR, conversion rate, and ROAS. In order to do SEM, you’ll need to do:

• Keyword research
• Ad copy creation
• Bid management
• Landing page optimization 

SEO: Influencing website visibility in organic search results using various tactics. Success is measured by rankings, organic traffic, and conversion rate. Includes:

• On-page optimization
• Technical SEO
• Content strategy
• Link building 

UVM (Unique Visitor Per Month): A person who visits a site at least once in a reporting period. For analysis of this metric, you could look at:

• Traffic sources
• Geographic location
• Device types
• Time periods 

Webinar: An online seminar hosted to educate and engage the audience (using Q&A, polls, chat) and generate leads. Usually includes:

• Registration page
• Reminder emails
• Live presentation
• Follow-up content 

Whitepaper: Long-form gated content that educates the audience on solutions to problems, and is typically 6-12 pages long.

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6. Paid ads

Ad: One distinguishable piece of content within an ad set, defined by its creative and copy.

• Headlines (primary and secondary)
• Ad copy (body text)
• Visual assets (images, videos)
• CTA button Best practices: Clear value proposition, compelling visuals, strong CTA

Ad Impressions: Number of times an ad has been served.

Ad Set: Different groupings within one campaign, typically for each audience segment. Campaign structure example:

• Geographic targeting (US, UK, Australia)
• Age groups (25-34, 35-44, 45-54)
• Interests (Technology, Marketing, Business)
• Behaviors (Past purchasers, Website visitors)

Ad Targeting: Serving ads to a pre-selected audience based on various attributes. Key targeting types:

• Demographics (age, gender, location, income)
• Behavioral (interests, past purchases, browsing history)
• Contextual (webpage content, time of day) 

Example: Fashion retailer targeting women 25-34 interested in luxury brands

Affiliate Marketing: Agreement between publisher and advertiser for commission-based promotion. Core components:

• Commission structure (% of sale or fixed amount)
• Tracking system for attribution
• Creative assets and guidelines 

Example: Fashion blogger earning 10% commission on referred sales.

CAC payback period: The time it takes to recover the cost of acquiring a customer through revenue. Essential metrics:

• Calculation: Customer acquisition cost (CAC) / (Monthly Revenue per Customer)
• Monthly revenue per customer
• Retention rate 

Copy: The text in an ad, landing page or other asset aimed at conversion. Key elements include a clear value proposition, a compelling call-to-action (CTA), and some sort of social proof.

Example: "Save 50% Today | Trusted by 10,000+ Companies | Start Free Trial"

CPA (Cost per acquisition): Cost to acquire a new customer through paid marketing channels. Critical factors:

• Total marketing spend
• Number of acquisitions
• Channel efficiency 

CPC (Cost per click): The cost paid for a single ad click. 

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CPM (Cost-per-thousand): The cost per 1,000 ad impressions.

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CTR (Click-through rate): How often users click through to your website. Very general benchmarks:

• Search ads: 1.5-3%
• Display ads: 0.1-0.3%
• Email marketing: 2-5%

Conversion Pixel: A tracking pixel placed on a web page to monitor conversions. Essential tracking:

• Purchase completion
• Form submissions
• Key page views

Display Advertising: Digital advertising format showing graphic ads on web pages. Primary formats:

• Banner ads (standard sizes)
• Rich media (interactive elements)
• Native placements (matches platform design)

Frequency: Number of times an ad is served to the same user in a specific time period—monitored for engagement decline. Best practices:

• Daily cap: 2-3 impressions
• Weekly cap: 5-7 impressions

Lookalike audience: Lookalike Audiences are a powerful advertising tool that platforms like Facebook, Google, and LinkedIn offer to help advertisers find new customers who share characteristics with their existing successful customers. These should be your "best" customers (e.g., high-value purchasers, loyal users, or engaged subscribers)

Native Advertising: Paid content that matches the form and function of the platform it appears on. Main formats:

• In-feed content
• Sponsored articles
• Recommended content widgets

Reach: Total number of unique people who see your ad or message.

Retargeting/Remarketing: Serving ads to people who have previously visited your website (excluding recent purchasers). Essential segments:

• Cart abandoners
• Product viewers
• Past customers 

ROAS (Return on Advertising Spend): Metric measuring digital advertising campaign efficiency. To get ROAS, you have to divide the revenue from ads by the cost of ads. The result can be expressed as a ratio or as a percentage. 

Example: If you spent $500 on a Facebook ad campaign and it generated $1500 in sales, your ROAS would be 3. This means you made $3 for every $1 you spent on ads. 

‍Seed size: The size of the targeted audience (should be above 1000 for success).

SKAGs (Single Ad Keyword Groups): A Google Ads strategy that uses a single keyword per ad group. This can help improve ad performance by: 

• Increasing CTR
• Lowering CPC
• Improving your ad qulaity score
• Increasing ad relevance (you're only writing copy for one keyword, not many)

‍Social proof: Evidence that other people have used, trust, or endorse your product or service. Key elements:

• Customer testimonials and reviews
• Usage statistics and customer counts
• Trust badges and certifications 

Example: "Trusted by 500+ Fortune 1000 companies" or "⭐️4.8/5 from 10,000+ reviews"

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7. Technology

AI (Artificial Intelligence): The simulation of human intelligence in machines programmed to think and learn, often used in marketing for personalization, automation, and predictive analytics. Marketing applications of AI:

• Content generation
• Customer segmentation
• Predictive analytics
• Chatbots 
• Brainstorming and ideation
• Editing
• Data analysis

CDP (Customer Data Platform): A unified customer database that collects, organizes, and makes accessible data from multiple sources to create comprehensive customer profiles. Use cases:

• Personalization
• Campaign targeting
• Customer journey mapping
• Analytics and reporting

CRM (Customer Relationship Management): A tool to manage and host conversations with clients. Core features:

• Contact management
• Deal tracking
• Email integration
• Task automation 

MAP (Marketing Automation Platform): Software that automates repetitive marketing tasks and workflows, enabling more efficient campaign management and customer engagement. Automation types:

• Email sequences
• Lead scoring
• Social media posting
• Campaign tracking 

ML (Machine Learning): A subset of AI that enables systems to learn and improve from experience without being explicitly programmed, used in marketing for predictive analytics and personalization. Marketing applications:

• Churn prediction
• Lead scoring
• Content recommendations
• Attribution modeling