The Real Estate Pro’s Dictionary of Marketing Vocab

Master these terms to get a better understanding of digital marketing.We sling marketing jargon all day, every day, like it’s our job. Because it is our job.

But we understand that most people don’t know their CPCs from their ABCs. So we’ve put together some of the most frequently used phrases, abbreviations, and keywords you might find throughout The Hot Sheet. These terms are also in the backend of Google Analytics, Ads, Facebook and many other digital marketing platforms.

A/B Testing - using different versions of an ad, email subject, or landing page to determine which works best.

B2B - business to business (ie, a Realtor marketing to a property manager).

B2C - business to consumer (ie, a Realtor marketing to a home buyer or seller).

Bounce Rate - the percentage of people who leave after seeing only one page. They don’t take any other action before they exit.

Conversion - when a user takes a desired action such as purchasing, submitting a contact form, signing up, watching a video, downloading a file, etc.

CPC - cost per click. This is when you pay a small amount (usually cents or dollars) every time someone clicks on your ad.

CPI - cost per impression. What you’ve paid per person to see your ad.

CPM - cost per mille, or cost per thousand. Instead of estimating fractions of a penny, you’ll sometimes see cost per thousand views or impressions.

CTA - call to action. What you tell the person to do at a certain point on your website, ad or social post (contact me, request more info, find out more).

CTR - click through rate. The percentage of users who click on an ad, link, or webpage to go to another webpage.

Engagement Rate - a percentage found by comparing the amount of interaction - likes, shares, comments - a piece of content receives with the total number of impressions or reach.

IDX - Internet data exchange. Allows brokers (and agents, in most markets) to pull in the MLS feed and show active listings on their website.

Impressions/Reach - the number of eyeballs your ad, or social media account, gets in front of. Usually interchangeable.

KPI - key performance indicator. How you measure your goals and objectives, such as likes, clicks, sign-ups or contact form submissions.

Mobile-friendly - when website resizes, or reformats, to fit different browsers or devices. This is standard practice nowadays.

Pages Per Session - the average number of pages people viewed during a single session.

Page Views - the number of pages people visited on your site

PPC - pay per click. A variation on CPC, when you pay for each click your ad gets.

ROI - return on investment. What you get back per dollar.

Remarketing - delivering ads to people who have previously been on your website.

SEM - search engine marketing. Using paid search ads (like Google or Bing Ads) to gain website traffic.

SEO - search engine optimization. Developing web pages, copy, and online content that encourages search engines to show your website more often (and higher) in search results.

Sessions - the number of visits to your site (one user can visit multiple times, which is why these numbers are different).

Session Duration - the average time people spend on your website.

Users - the number of different people who have come to your site.

Did we miss one? Hubspot has a full glossary here. Happy marketing!