Growth Marketing Glossary
Key terms defined from an operator's perspective. No agency jargon, no fluff—just what these concepts actually mean for profitable growth.
Core Metrics
CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)
The total cost to acquire a new customer, including all marketing and sales expenses. At GrowthMarketer, we obsess over CAC because it's the most honest metric in growth marketing—it tells you exactly what you're paying for each customer. Unlike vanity metrics like impressions or clicks, CAC directly impacts your bottom line. A sustainable business requires CAC to be significantly lower than LTV.
LTV (Lifetime Value)
The total revenue a customer generates over their entire relationship with your business. LTV is the north star metric for profitable growth. We don't optimize campaigns for short-term ROAS—we optimize for LTV. A customer worth $1,000 over 12 months justifies a much higher CAC than one worth $100. This is where agencies fail: they optimize for this month's ROAS, not next year's profit.
ROAS (Return on Ad Spend)
Revenue generated divided by advertising spend. While ROAS is useful for campaign-level optimization, it's dangerously incomplete without LTV context. A 3x ROAS might look great, but if your CAC is higher than LTV, you're burning cash. We use ROAS as a diagnostic tool, not a success metric.
LTV:CAC Ratio
The ratio of customer lifetime value to customer acquisition cost. A healthy SaaS business targets 3:1 or higher. DTC brands should aim for 2:1 minimum. This is the metric that separates profitable growth from venture-funded cash burning. If your LTV:CAC ratio is below 1.5:1, you don't have a growth problem—you have a business model problem.
MER (Marketing Efficiency Ratio)
Total revenue divided by total marketing spend. MER gives you a blended view of all marketing performance, not just paid ads. It's the antidote to attribution theater—instead of arguing about which channel gets credit, MER tells you if your entire marketing engine is profitable.
Conversion Tracking
Meta CAPI (Conversions API)
Meta's server-side tracking solution that sends conversion events directly from your server to Meta, bypassing browser-based pixel tracking. CAPI is non-negotiable for accurate tracking in the post-iOS 14 world. Browser pixels miss 30-50% of conversions due to ad blockers, privacy settings, and iOS restrictions. CAPI captures what pixels miss, giving Meta's algorithm better data to optimize against.
Enhanced Conversions (Google)
Google's server-side tracking upgrade that sends hashed first-party customer data (email, phone, address) directly to Google to improve conversion measurement and attribution. Like Meta CAPI, Enhanced Conversions is essential for accurate tracking. Without it, you're flying blind—optimizing campaigns based on incomplete data.
Server-Side Tracking
Tracking conversion events from your server instead of the user's browser. Server-side tracking is more accurate, privacy-compliant, and immune to ad blockers. It's the foundation of modern performance marketing. If you're still relying solely on browser pixels, you're missing 30-50% of your conversions.
Session Enrichment
The process of capturing and attaching first-party data (email, phone, user ID) to conversion events before sending them to ad platforms. Session enrichment dramatically improves attribution accuracy and enables better audience targeting. It's the difference between telling Meta "someone converted" and "[email protected] converted after clicking this specific ad."
Conversion Tracking
The system that measures when users complete desired actions (purchases, signups, leads) after clicking your ads. Accurate conversion tracking is the foundation of profitable growth marketing. Without it, you're guessing. With it, you're optimizing. We implement enterprise-grade tracking (CAPI, Enhanced Conversions, Session Enrichment) so you know exactly what's working.
Campaign Types & Platforms
Advantage+ (Meta)
Meta's AI-powered campaign type that automates targeting, creative distribution, and budget allocation. Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns (ASC) use machine learning to find your best customers across Facebook and Instagram. When implemented correctly with proper tracking and creative testing, Advantage+ outperforms manual campaigns 80% of the time.
Performance Max (Google)
Google's AI-driven campaign type that runs ads across Search, Shopping, Display, YouTube, Gmail, and Discover from a single campaign. Performance Max uses machine learning to allocate budget to the highest-performing placements. It's powerful but requires proper conversion tracking and creative assets to work effectively.
Andromeda (Meta)
Meta's internal name for their next-generation Advantage+ Shopping campaigns. Andromeda represents Meta's push toward fully automated campaign management powered by AI. It's designed to remove manual targeting and placement decisions, letting the algorithm optimize for conversions.
GMV Max (TikTok)
TikTok's automated campaign type focused on maximizing Gross Merchandise Value (total sales). Similar to Meta's Advantage+ and Google's Performance Max, GMV Max uses AI to optimize creative distribution and audience targeting. It's TikTok's answer to automated performance marketing.
Demand Gen (YouTube)
Google's campaign type specifically designed to generate demand through YouTube video ads, Discovery ads, and Gmail ads. Unlike Search campaigns that capture existing demand, Demand Gen creates awareness and consideration among cold audiences.
Creative & Optimization
Creative Testing
The systematic process of testing different ad creatives (images, videos, copy, formats) to identify winning combinations that drive conversions. Creative is the new targeting—in a post-iOS 14 world where targeting is limited, creative performance determines campaign success. We test messaging angles, formats, and hooks to find what stops the scroll and drives action.
CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization)
The process of improving your website, landing pages, and checkout flows to convert more visitors into customers. More traffic means nothing without conversions. CRO is where you multiply the value of every dollar spent on ads—a 20% improvement in conversion rate is equivalent to a 20% reduction in CAC.
Stop the Scroll
The ability of an ad creative to capture attention and interrupt the user's feed scrolling behavior. In a world of infinite scroll, you have 0.5 seconds to earn attention. Ads that don't stop the scroll don't exist. This is why creative testing is critical—what stops the scroll changes constantly.
Performance Creative
Ad creative specifically designed and optimized for direct-response performance (clicks, conversions, sales) rather than brand awareness. Performance creative prioritizes clear value propositions, strong hooks, and conversion-focused messaging over artistic expression.
Business Models & Strategy
Growth Marketing
The discipline of combining paid acquisition, conversion optimization, analytics, and experimentation to profitably scale businesses. Growth marketing is operator-level work—it requires understanding unit economics, financial modeling, and business strategy, not just running ads. Growth marketers are accountable to revenue, CAC, and LTV, not impressions and clicks.
Growth As A Service
The delivery model where growth marketing expertise is provided as a subscription service rather than a traditional agency relationship. Growth As A Service means operator-level strategy and execution delivered async, with no meetings, no long-term contracts, and no agency overhead. You get the expertise of a senior growth marketer without the $200K+ salary and equity.
Async (Asynchronous Communication)
Communication that doesn't require real-time interaction—email updates, Loom videos, and documented deliverables instead of meetings and calls. Async is faster, more efficient, and respects everyone's time. It eliminates calendar Tetris, meeting prep, and status call theater. Everything is documented, searchable, and reviewable on your schedule.
Operator-Level
Expertise from someone who has built, scaled, and operated companies themselves, not just worked at agencies. Operators think like owners—they care about profit, not billable hours. They've experienced the pain of climbing CAC and shrinking margins firsthand. Operator-level execution means strategic thinking combined with hands-on implementation.
Attribution & Analytics
Attribution
The process of determining which marketing touchpoints deserve credit for a conversion. Attribution is famously broken—last-click attribution ignores the customer journey, multi-touch attribution is complex and often wrong. Our approach: focus on blended metrics (MER) and incrementality testing instead of arguing about attribution models.
Incrementality
The measure of whether your marketing actually caused additional conversions or just captured demand that would have happened anyway. Incrementality testing (geo tests, holdout groups) tells you if your ads are working or if you're just paying for conversions you would have gotten organically. It's the antidote to attribution theater.
Vanity Metrics
Metrics that look impressive but don't correlate with business outcomes—impressions, reach, engagement rate, follower count. Agencies love vanity metrics because they're easy to improve and hard to connect to profit. We ignore them. The only metrics that matter are revenue, CAC, LTV, and profit.
Technical Implementation
Checkout Flow
The sequence of steps a customer goes through to complete a purchase, from cart to payment to confirmation. Optimizing checkout flow is one of the highest-leverage CRO opportunities—a 10% improvement in checkout conversion can dramatically reduce CAC. We eliminate friction, reduce form fields, and optimize for mobile to turn more carts into customers.
Landing Page
A standalone web page designed specifically for a marketing campaign, optimized to convert visitors into customers or leads. Landing pages should have one goal, one clear call-to-action, and zero distractions. Generic homepage traffic converts at 1-2%. Optimized landing pages convert at 5-15%.
Machine Learning Efficiency
The practice of structuring campaigns to give ad platform algorithms the data they need to optimize effectively. Machine learning requires volume—too many ad sets fragment data and prevent algorithms from learning. We consolidate campaigns, simplify structures, and feed algorithms quality conversion data so they can find your best customers.
Platform-Specific Terms
Meta (Facebook & Instagram)
The parent company of Facebook and Instagram, and the advertising platform that serves ads across both networks. Meta Ads is the largest performance marketing platform for B2C brands, offering sophisticated targeting, creative formats, and optimization capabilities.
Google Ads
Google's advertising platform spanning Search, Shopping, Display, YouTube, and more. Google Ads captures demand (people actively searching) while Meta creates demand (interrupting people's feed). Both are essential for a complete growth strategy.
TikTok Ads
TikTok's advertising platform focused on short-form video creative. TikTok is the fastest-growing ad platform and particularly effective for reaching younger audiences and testing creative-first campaigns.
Pricing & Business Terms
Flat Monthly Fee
A pricing model where you pay a fixed monthly amount regardless of ad spend, as opposed to percentage-of-spend pricing used by most agencies. Flat fees align incentives—we're optimized for your profit, not maximizing your ad spend. Percentage-of-spend pricing incentivizes agencies to increase your budget whether it's profitable or not.
30-Day Commitment
A subscription model with no long-term contracts—you can cancel anytime with 30 days notice. This forces us to earn your business every month through results, not lock you into 6-12 month contracts. If we're not delivering value, you shouldn't be stuck paying for it.
Ad Spend
The total amount spent on advertising across all platforms. Ad spend is an input, not an outcome. Agencies optimize for increasing ad spend (because they get paid a percentage). We optimize for profitable ad spend—sometimes the right move is to reduce spend on underperforming channels.
Emerging Concepts
Creative is the New Targeting
The principle that in a post-iOS 14 world with limited targeting capabilities, creative performance has become the primary driver of campaign success. You can't micro-target like you could in 2019. The algorithm finds the audience—your job is to create creative that converts them.
Reporting Theater
The practice of creating impressive-looking reports and dashboards that don't actually inform decision-making or correlate with business outcomes. Agencies love reporting theater because it looks like work. We focus on actionable insights, not pretty slides.
Zero Meetings
A core principle of async work—all communication happens via email and Loom videos, with no scheduled calls or status meetings. Zero meetings means zero calendar Tetris, zero meeting prep, and zero time wasted on calls that could have been an email.