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Demystifying the digital industry’s dizzying jargon

As an industry, digital is prone to dazzling technical jargon and endless evolution. Just as we grasp a new digital trend, another one crops up. Yet if we take away the smokescreen of complex terms, we find that digital is essentially about connecting and learning about our audiences, customers and our businesses.

As a result, the IAB SA team has translated the key digital terms to English.

CLF - Closed loop feedback empowers companies and employees to have an ongoing conversation with customers. This usually means identifying key customer touch points and asking for feedback.

CLV - Customer lifetime value. How much someone spends with you, from their first purchase, to now.

Content Marketing - This is information that has editorial integrity and does not punt a product. When you hear this, think about issues and topics on your audience’s mind, not product features!

CPA - Cost per acquisition. How much it costs in total to get a customer to commit. It is calculated by dividing the marketing cost, but the number of customers.

CPI - Cost per install. How much it costs to get your customer to install your app. This data is relevant when in-app subscription is live.

Data management platform (DMP) - A centralised platform used by agencies, marketers and publishers to manage and fuse data. A variety of sources can be merged in the platform to generate audience segments for improved targeting.

Demand-side platform (DSP) - Enables advertisers and agencies to automate the purchase of display, video, mobile and search ads. It assesses the attributes of ad impressions and can assign a bid based on those attributes.

Earned media - This means mentions and exposure of your brand/product/business/company/opinion in the (not only digital) media space, by others. It is not necessarily something you publish or post, and certainly not space that you buy!

First-party data - First-party data is information collected by digital publishers about their visitors' behaviour. First-party data often includes CRM, subscription/survey and social media data. This type of data is often seen as more valuable as it typically has higher degrees of accuracy.

Optimise our media spend - Make sure your business isn’t wasting money.

Creating engaging content - Create stuff that doesn't bore the people you’re speaking to. Illustrate value through digital - Show your clients or shareholders how digital makes money.

OTT or Over-The-Top - In broadcasting, over-the-top content (OTT) refers to delivery of audio, video, and other media over the internet without the involvement of a multiple-system operator in its control or distribution.

Independent self-regulation - This is the process whereby an organisation monitors its own adherence to legal, ethical, or safety standards, rather than have an outside, independent agency such as a third party entity monitor and enforce those standards.

UX - User experience. Not to be confused with just having pretty pictures, or UD (user design), UI (user interface) or IA (information architecture), but certainly dependent on each of these!

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