B2B Marketing Terms Explained

Comparing two versions of an ad, landing page, or email to determine which performs better. One variable changes at a time. Results guide future creative and copy decisions.

A B2B strategy that targets specific high-value companies rather than broad audiences. Marketing and sales align on a named account list and run coordinated campaigns toward those accounts.

Google's formula for determining where your ad appears on the search results page. It factors in bid, Quality Score, expected impact of ad extensions, and auction-time signals.

The process of assigning credit to marketing touchpoints that contributed to a conversion. Last-click gives all credit to the final touchpoint. Multi-touch distributes credit across the journey.

Dividing your target market into groups based on shared characteristics — job title, industry, behavior, or funnel stage — so each group receives the most relevant message.

A historical Google Ads metric showing where your ad appeared on average. Replaced by impression share metrics. Top impression rate and absolute top impression rate are the current equivalents.

The process of attracting and converting potential business buyers into contacts for your sales team. Covers paid ads, SEO, outbound, and content. See our full guide. Full guide

The automated or manual approach used to set bids in a PPC campaign. Common strategies include Target CPA, Target ROAS, Maximize Conversions, and Enhanced CPC.

The percentage of visitors who leave a page without taking any action or visiting another page. High bounce rates on landing pages often signal a mismatch between ad message and page content.

The degree to which your target audience recognises and recalls your brand. A top-of-funnel objective measured through reach, impressions, brand search volume lift, and direct traffic.

A Google Ads keyword match type that shows your ad for searches related to your keyword, including synonyms and related terms. Highest reach, lowest precision. Requires strong negative keyword lists in B2B.

A semi-fictional profile of your ideal customer based on real data. Includes job title, responsibilities, goals, pain points, and buying triggers. Guides targeting and messaging decisions.

The process a buyer goes through from first becoming aware of a problem to making a purchase decision. Typically divided into awareness, consideration, and decision stages.

The percentage of people who click your ad after seeing it. Calculated as clicks divided by impressions. B2B search CTR benchmarks vary by industry but typically range from 2% to 8%.

The percentage of visitors who complete a desired action — filling a form, booking a demo, making a purchase. Calculated as conversions divided by total visitors or clicks.

The amount you pay each time someone clicks your ad. In Google Ads, actual CPC is determined by auction dynamics and Quality Score, not just your maximum bid.

Total ad spend divided by number of leads generated. A useful efficiency metric but incomplete without lead quality data. A low CPL with poor lead quality is worse than a higher CPL with strong ICP fit.

Total spend divided by number of acquisitions — a completed sale, signed contract, or other defined outcome. More meaningful than CPL because it accounts for the full conversion path.

Total sales and marketing spend divided by number of new customers acquired in a period. The key metric for evaluating overall go-to-market efficiency.

The total revenue a customer is expected to generate over their relationship with your business. The LTV:CAC ratio is a core indicator of business health — a ratio above 3:1 is generally strong.

The setup that records when a user completes a desired action after clicking an ad. Must be verified as firing correctly before any campaign optimization begins. Broken tracking is the single most common cause of poor PPC performance.

Creating and distributing valuable content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience. In B2B, this typically means blog posts, case studies, guides, and webinars targeted at specific ICP queries.

Outbound email sent to prospects who have not previously interacted with your brand. Effective when highly personalised and targeted to a specific ICP. Requires clean data and clear value proposition.

A full-funnel B2B marketing strategy that creates, nurtures, and converts demand. Unlike lead generation which only captures existing demand, demand gen builds awareness before buyers start searching. See our full guide. Full guide

Image, video, or rich-media ads shown across websites in the Google Display Network or programmatic exchanges. Used primarily for retargeting and brand awareness in B2B, not direct response.

Google Ads campaign type that automatically generates headlines based on your website content. Useful for covering keyword gaps but requires tight negative keyword controls in B2B to avoid irrelevant traffic.

A Google Ads keyword match type that triggers ads only for searches matching the keyword or close variants. Highest precision, lowest volume. The safest starting point for B2B campaigns.

The percentage of people who interacted with your content — liked, commented, shared, or clicked — out of total reach or impressions. A LinkedIn benchmark for B2B content performance.

A limit on how many times a single user sees your ad in a given period. Critical for display and LinkedIn campaigns to avoid ad fatigue and wasted budget on audiences already exposed.

Data collected directly from your own audience — website visitors, CRM contacts, email subscribers. More reliable and privacy-compliant than third-party data. Increasingly important as cookies phase out.

A strategy that addresses all stages of the buyer journey — awareness, consideration, and decision — with channel-appropriate content and ads. Produces shorter sales cycles and lower CPL over time than bottom-funnel-only approaches.

Optimization for AI-powered search tools including ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Claude. The goal is to appear in AI-generated answers and recommendations, not just traditional search result links. See our service. Full guide

AI-generated summaries that appear at the top of Google search results for many informational queries. They cite sources and synthesise answers from multiple pages. Appearing as a cited source requires structured content and authoritative third-party mentions.

Google's 1–10 rating of the relevance of your keyword, ad, and landing page. Higher scores lower your CPC and improve ad position. The three components are expected CTR, ad relevance, and landing page experience.

A detailed description of the type of company most likely to buy your product or service. Defined by firmographics — company size, industry, revenue, tech stack, geography. Different from a buyer persona, which describes the individual.

The percentage of total eligible impressions your ads actually received. Lost impression share is split between budget (not enough spend) and rank (not enough bid or Quality Score). A diagnostic metric, not an optimisation target.

Signals that indicate a prospect is actively researching a topic relevant to your product. Sources include search queries, content consumption, G2 reviews activity, and third-party B2B data providers like Bombora.

The process of identifying the search queries your target buyers use. In B2B PPC, focus on bottom-of-funnel commercial keywords first. Segment by intent: informational, navigational, commercial, transactional.

Google Ads settings that control how closely a search query must match your keyword to trigger an ad. Types are broad match, phrase match, and exact match. Each offers a different precision-to-volume tradeoff.

A standalone web page designed for a specific campaign objective — usually lead capture. Should match the message and intent of the ad that drove the click. A mismatched landing page is among the top causes of high CPL.

The process of building relationships with prospects who are not yet ready to buy. Typically done through email sequences, retargeting, and content that addresses objections at each funnel stage.

Assigning numerical values to leads based on firmographic fit and behavioral signals. Helps sales prioritise outreach toward the highest-value prospects. Reduces time wasted on leads unlikely to convert.

The primary B2B paid social platform. Unique ability to target by job title, seniority, company size, and industry simultaneously. Higher CPCs than other platforms, justified by precision for B2B ICPs.

A prospect that marketing has determined shows sufficient buying intent to pass to sales. Definition varies by company but typically requires ICP fit plus a meaningful engagement signal — demo request, pricing page visit, or high-intent content download.

An attribution model that distributes conversion credit across multiple touchpoints in the buyer journey. More accurate than last-click for B2B, where buyers interact with 6 to 10 touchpoints before converting.

Paid advertising across Facebook and Instagram. In B2B, primarily used for retargeting website visitors and lookalike audience campaigns. Lower CPCs than LinkedIn but less precise targeting for professional audiences.

Keywords that prevent your ads from showing on irrelevant searches. One of the highest-ROI optimisation tasks in B2B PPC. Common exclusions: "free", "jobs", "salary", "template", competitor employee queries. Should be reviewed weekly.

Website traffic that comes from unpaid search engine results. Driven by SEO. Produces lower cost per lead than paid over time but requires 6–12 months to build meaningful volume.

Proactively reaching prospects who have not expressed intent — cold email, cold calling, LinkedIn outreach, display advertising. Higher volume, lower conversion rate than inbound. Works best combined with inbound so prospects recognise the brand.

An advertising model where you pay each time someone clicks your ad. Covers Google Ads, Bing Ads, LinkedIn Ads, and Meta Ads. Budget is consumed only when clicks occur, not on impressions.

A Google Ads campaign type that runs across all Google channels — Search, Display, YouTube, Gmail, Maps — using automated bidding. Requires careful asset configuration and audience signals in B2B to avoid irrelevant placements.

The collection of active sales opportunities at various stages of the buying process. Marketing's primary job in B2B is to source and influence pipeline. Pipeline value is a more meaningful marketing metric than lead volume.

A Google Ads keyword match type that shows ads for searches containing the keyword phrase in the correct order, with words before or after. A middle ground between exact match precision and broad match reach.

Google's 1–10 rating of the relevance of your keyword, ad, and landing page. Higher scores lower your CPC and improve ad position. The three components are expected CTR, ad relevance, and landing page experience.

A prospect that meets predefined criteria indicating they are a realistic potential customer. Qualification criteria typically include ICP firmographic fit and a demonstrated buying signal.

Revenue generated divided by ad spend. A ratio rather than a percentage. A 4x ROAS means every dollar spent returned four dollars in revenue. The right ROAS target depends on your margins.

Net profit from a marketing activity divided by the cost of that activity. Broader than ROAS because it accounts for margin, not just revenue. The most meaningful long-term measure of marketing efficiency.

Showing ads to people who have previously visited your website or interacted with your brand. One of the highest-converting PPC tactics in B2B because the audience is already warm. Should be running across Google Display and LinkedIn.

A Google Ads feature that lets you adjust bids or show different ads to previous website visitors when they search on Google. Allows you to bid more aggressively for warm audiences on high-intent search terms.

The practice of optimising a website to rank higher in organic search results. In B2B, focuses on technical health, authoritative content, and backlink acquisition. Produces compounding returns over time.

A lead that sales has reviewed and confirmed meets ICP criteria with clear buying intent. Typically a prospect who has requested a demo, responded to outreach, or asked for a proposal.

The underlying goal behind a search query. The four types are informational (learning), navigational (finding a specific site), commercial (comparing options), and transactional (ready to buy). Matching content to intent is the foundation of both SEO and PPC.

Google's automated bid strategies that use machine learning to optimise for conversions or conversion value. Includes Target CPA, Target ROAS, Maximize Conversions, and Enhanced CPC. Requires sufficient conversion data to function effectively.

A Google Ads smart bidding strategy that sets bids to achieve your desired cost per acquisition. Requires at least 30 to 50 conversions per month to learn effectively. Below that threshold, manual or enhanced CPC typically performs better.

A Google Ads smart bidding strategy that sets bids to achieve your desired return on ad spend. Best suited for ecommerce or businesses with clear revenue tracking. Requires sufficient conversion value data to function.

The awareness stage of the marketing funnel. Prospects are becoming aware of a problem or category but are not yet evaluating solutions. Channels include LinkedIn awareness campaigns, content marketing, and SEO targeting informational queries.

Tags added to URLs that allow analytics platforms to track the source, medium, campaign, and content of traffic. Essential for accurate attribution. Format: ?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=brand.

A conversion recorded when a user saw your display or video ad but did not click it, then later converted through another channel. Often over-counted. Should be weighted lower than click-through conversions in B2B attribution.

Budget consumed by clicks that have no realistic chance of converting — wrong job titles, wrong industries, irrelevant search queries. Eliminated through negative keywords, audience exclusions, and geographic targeting. Reviewing wasted spend weekly is one of the highest-ROI PPC habits.