Whether you’re a GM, an internet manager, a BDC manager, or involved in your dealerships’ marketing strategy in some other way – knowing the basics of digital marketing is essential. It’ll help you understand marketing reports, allow you to optimize your marketing strategy, and most importantly –  help you demand what you deserve from vendors and suppliers. The list below consists of key marketing terms and definitions. But this is just the beginning. Feel like you’re up to speed? Check out ‘How to Leverage Google’s micro-moments for the best marketing strategy.’

Digital Marketing Terminology & Jargon Every Internet Manager Should Know

1. Organic Traffic

Organic traffic is traffic on your website you didn’t pay for (always a good thing!).
These are visitors who’ve reached your dealerships’ website through a search engine like Google or Bing, through social media or a link from any external source. This is opposed to paid traffic in which visitors get to your website by clicking on an ad. While organic traffic might seem preferable for obvious reasons, it requires a lot of hard work and behind the scenes resources (mostly great content marketing and superb SEO) – so much so, that often paid traffic ends up being cheaper.

2. Paid Traffic

Visitors who reach your website (or landing pages, which are stand-alone web pages designed specifically to collect leads) through paid ads are considered paid traffic. These ads can be placed on search engines, social media, in banners on different websites and even on some email platforms. 

3. SEM – Search Engine Marketing

SEM is a variety of techniques and strategies designed to increase your website’s visibility on search engines. While most Search Engine Marketing consists of paid ads, it may also include organic strategies such as SEO.

4. SEO – Search Engine Optimization

Ever look for something on Google and get billions of results across thousands of pages? Imagine being search result number 34,837,132 – not so great, right? That’s why many website managers invest in SEO. SEO stands for “search engine optimization” – a way to optimize websites, allowing them to rank higher on a search engine’s results page (SERP). The higher the ranking, the more traffic generated. (Learn more about SEO here.)

5. PPC (Pay Per Click)

PPC is an advertising strategy in which you pay advertising platforms (such as Google Ads, Bing, Facebook, Twitter, etc) any time a visitor clicks on your ad. Some people confuse PPC with CPC (cost per click), and understandably so. But while PPC is the advertising technique, CPC is the pricing model. Though CPC is probably the most common pricing model, there are others – such as cost per impression, cost per lead and cost per conversion. Learn more here. 

6. Keywords

Keywords are words or phrases that enable the targeting of ads to the right audiences on search engines. For example, you can add the words, “dealership in new york” to the list of keywords in your Google Ads campaign. When people search for a dealership and use search terms similar to that phrase (ex: “the best dealership in new york”, “new york dealership,” etc), they’ll potentially see the ads in your ad campaign. If your campaign is also targeting Google’s display network, then your ad will also appear on relevant websites.

7. Negative Keywords

Negative keywords prevent your ads from being shown to people searching for a certain word or phrase. For example, if you add “used” as a negative keyword to your ad campaign, people searching for “used car dealership near me” or “used cars” won’t see your ads. This is a great way to exclude unwanted search terms and save money on irrelevant clicks.

8. Quality Score (Google Ads) & Relevance Score (Facebook)

These are scores given by Google and Facebook to rate each one of your ads. Many different factors can affect your score – whether it’s the relevancy of the audience you’ve targeted, the ad copy or the images and links added. Ads with a higher score get more exposure and lower your cost per click (CPC), so it’s important to build ads according to Google and Facebook’s suggested guidelines.

Learn more about Google’s quality score

Learn more about Facebook’s relevance score

9. CTR ( Click-Through-Rate)

This identifies the percentage of people who clicked on an ad or link. It’s calculated by dividing the total number of clicks by the number of opportunities that people had to click (ex: number of people who clicked an ad, divided by the number of people who saw the ad). Note that CTR does not measure the percentage of leads that converted, which is why this metric is less substantial.

10. Conversion Rate

This is the percentage of people who completed a desired action, such as filling out a form, scheduling a meeting, leaving contact details, etc. Optimizing ads for conversions is much more effective than optimizing for CTR, as not all shoppers who click on an ad actually leave their contact information.

11. Bounce Rate

The percentage of visitors who reach your website and leave immediately, without converting or navigating to other pages on your site. If this number is high, you will need to make some adjustments to your website’s user experience, or to the ads leading there.

12. Remarketing

If you are shopping online and are viewing a pair of shoes, this pair of shoes will most likely show up again on another website you visit. Remarketing is a tactic used to get customers who did not make a purchase back on your site.

13. CRM remarketing

A tactic used to advertise to past customers based on lists in your CRM. This tactic is a great way to suggest new deals to customers who bought a car a few years ago, to remind them of service options, etc.