Glossary
B2B marketing glossary: ads, SEO and AI search, in plain words
B2B marketing has more jargon than it needs. These are the terms I use most with clients, explained the way I would explain them on a call. Each one links to a longer guide where there is one.
- Account-based marketing (ABM)
- A B2B approach where marketing and sales agree on a list of target companies and run ads, content and outreach aimed at those accounts specifically, instead of chasing any lead that comes in. Read more
- AI Overviews
- The AI-generated summaries Google shows above some search results. They cite a handful of web pages, which is why being a quotable, trusted source now matters as much as ranking. Read more
- Attribution
- The method used to give credit for a sale or lead to the marketing touchpoints that came before it. In B2B, with long cycles and many people involved, no single model is perfect, so it is best treated as a guide rather than a verdict. Read more
- Bottom of funnel (BOFU)
- Content and keywords for buyers who are close to a decision, such as pricing, comparisons, alternatives and vendor-specific searches. In B2B SEO these pages usually deserve attention first. Read more
- Buying committee
- The group of people involved in a B2B purchase: users, technical evaluators, budget holders, procurement and the final approver. Good B2B marketing speaks to each of them. Read more
- Canonical tag
- A tag in a page's code that tells search engines which URL is the main version of a page, so duplicate or near-duplicate pages do not compete with each other. Read more
- Click-through rate (CTR)
- The share of people who clicked after seeing an ad or search result. Useful for judging relevance, but a high CTR from the wrong audience is still waste. Read more
- Conversions API (CAPI)
- A server-to-server connection that sends conversion events, such as qualified leads, from your systems directly to an ad platform like LinkedIn or Meta, making measurement less dependent on browser cookies. Read more
- Cost per lead (CPL)
- Ad spend divided by the number of leads. In B2B, cost per qualified lead or cost per opportunity is far more useful, because cheap leads that sales rejects are expensive in the end. Read more
- Customer acquisition cost (CAC)
- The total sales and marketing cost of winning one new customer. Comparing it with customer lifetime value shows whether growth is healthy.
- Enhanced conversions for leads
- A Google Ads feature that matches hashed lead details, like an email address, with later offline outcomes, so Google can learn which clicks became qualified leads or sales. Read more
- Entity
- A clearly defined thing that search engines and AI models recognise, such as a company, person, product or place. Consistent facts about your company across the web make it a stronger, clearer entity. Read more
- GCLID
- The Google Click Identifier added to your URL when someone clicks a Google ad. Saving it with a lead in your CRM lets you report that lead's later outcome back to Google Ads. Read more
- Generative engine optimization (GEO)
- The practice of improving how often and how accurately AI tools such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews mention and cite a brand in their answers. Read more
- Ideal customer profile (ICP)
- A description of the type of company that gets the most value from what you sell and is most valuable to you: industry, size, region, tech stack and the problem they have.
- Keyword intent
- What a searcher is trying to do: learn something, compare options, or buy. Matching each keyword to the right page and offer depends on reading intent correctly. Read more
- Lead gen form
- A form inside a LinkedIn or Meta ad that opens prefilled with the user's profile details. It usually lowers cost per lead, but lead quality needs careful checking. Read more
- Marketing qualified lead (MQL)
- A lead that marketing judges likely to become a customer, based on fit and behaviour, before sales has spoken to them. Read more
- Match type
- The Google Ads setting that controls how closely a search must match your keyword for your ad to show: broad, phrase or exact. Read more
- Negative keyword
- A word or phrase you tell Google Ads to exclude, so your ads do not show for searches like jobs, free, courses or anything your buyers would never type. Read more
- Offline conversion import
- Sending outcomes that happen after the click, such as a qualified lead, meeting or closed deal, from your CRM back into Google Ads or LinkedIn so bidding can optimise for them. Read more
- Performance Max (PMax)
- A Google Ads campaign type that uses automation to show ads across Search, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail and Maps from one campaign. Powerful, but it needs strong conversion signals to work well for B2B. Read more
- Pipeline
- The total value of open sales opportunities. For B2B marketing it is often the most honest single measure of whether campaigns are working. Read more
- Programmatic SEO
- Creating many useful pages from a structured template and data set, such as one page per integration or location. It works only when every page genuinely helps the searcher.
- Quality Score
- Google Ads' 1 to 10 estimate of how relevant your ads, keywords and landing pages are. It influences how much you pay per click and where your ad shows. Read more
- Retargeting
- Showing ads to people who have already visited your website or engaged with your content. In B2B it keeps you in front of a buying committee during a long decision. Read more
- Sales qualified lead (SQL)
- A lead that sales has accepted as a real opportunity worth pursuing. Optimising ads for SQLs instead of raw leads is one of the biggest wins in B2B paid media. Read more
- Schema markup
- Structured data added to a page, in a vocabulary from schema.org, that tells search engines exactly what the page is about: an organisation, a service, an article, an FAQ. Read more
- Search terms report
- The Google Ads report showing the actual searches that triggered your ads. Reading it weekly is the simplest way to find wasted spend. Read more
- UTM parameters
- Tags added to a link, such as utm_source and utm_campaign, that tell your analytics where a visit came from. Consistent UTMs make channel reporting trustworthy. Read more
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