What is A/A testing? A/A testing is a way of double-checking the results of any A/B testing platform by split testing between two identical versions of a webpage. Essentially, this means you’re showing the exact same webpage to two groups of people. In theory, the A/A test should result in...
Personalization Glossary
The ecommerce personalization world is full of jargons and abbreviations. We’ve put
together this glossary to help you understand all the important personalization terms
and their definitions.
A
A/A Testing
A/A testing is the practice of showing two identical versions of a page against each other. The goal of it is to check the reliability of the A/B testing tool, because in this case, there should be no difference between your control and variation versions.
A/B Testing
A/B testing is the practice of showing two or more variants of a campaign (e.g. landing page or popup campaign) to different segments of visitors and comparing which variant drives more conversions. The one that achieves a higher conversion rate is the winning variant.
A/B/n Testing
A/B testing is the practice of testing more than two versions of a campaign and comparing which variant drives more conversions. “N” refers to the number of versions being tested.
Above the Fold
The above the fold section of a website is the content that’s shown before the user scrolls down.
AdBlock
AdBlock allows users to prevent advertisements from being displayed.
Analytics
Analytics is the discovery, interpretation, and communication of meaningful patterns in data.
Annually Recurring Revenue
Annual recurring revenue (also known as ARR) shows how much recurring revenue you can expect, based on yearly subscriptions.
API
API stands for application programming interface, which is a set of routines, programmatic requests, and protocols that enable developers to build and integrate application software.
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence or AI refers to the intelligence of a machine, program, or system, in contrast to that of human intelligence.
Assisted Revenue
Assisted revenue is all revenue that is generated after an OptiMonk conversion that led a visitor to purchase on your website. We use a 5-day attribution window, meaning that if the visitor places her order within 5 days of the OptiMonk conversion, her purchase will be attributed to our assisted revenue calculation.
Attribution
Attribution in marketing helps to determine which marketing tactics are contributing to sales or conversions.
Audience
Your audience is a group of people identified as being likely customers of a business. People belonging to an audience typically share similar demographic traits, e.g. age, gender, location.
Audience Segmentation
Audience segmentation is the process of dividing a large audience into smaller groups of people, called segments. All the members of a segment have a characteristic or attribute in common, which could mean that they share a behavioral characteristic, an interest, or demographic data.
Average Order Value
Average order value (AOV) is an important ecommerce metric that measures the average dollar amount spent each time a customer places an order.
Average Revenue Per User
Average revenue per user (ARPU) is the average amount of revenue each user brings to your business. It's also known as average revenue per visitor (ARPV).
Average Time on Site
Average time on site refers to the average duration of time visitors spend viewing your site. It's also known as Session Duration in Google Analytics.
B
B2B
Business-to-business is a form of transaction between businesses, such as one involving a manufacturer and wholesaler, or a wholesaler and a retailer. Business-to-business refers to business that is conducted between companies, rather than between a company and individual consumer.
B2C
Business-to-consumer is the process of selling products directly to the consumers who are the end-users of its products.
Behavioral Segmentation
Behavioral segmentation categorizes your visitors into groups based on a shared, specific behavior pattern like their purchasing behavior, the customer journey, the awareness stage, their knowledge, or product usage.
Behavioral Targeting
Behavioral targeting is a marketing technique that uses people’s activities (online browsing and shipping behaviors) to display relevant advertisements and messages.
Below the Fold
Below the fold refers to the section of your website that visitors only see after scrolling down.
Bounce Rate
Bounce rate is a metric that shows the percentage of visitors that leave a webpage without taking an action, such as visiting another page, clicking on a link, etc.
Buyer Persona
A buyer persona is a fictionalized characterization of your best customer(s) based on information about them and how they use your product or service. It is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer.
C
Call to Action
A call to action (CTA) is a written directive that encourages visitors to do something.
Cart Abandonment
Cart abandonment is an ecommerce term used to describe a potential customer who leaves their cart behind before completing the purchase.
Churn Rate
Churn rate is the percentage of customers or subscribers who cut ties with the company or from the services in the given period of time. So it's basically the revenue or customers lost during a specific period (typically a month), by unsubscribing from the services.
Click-Through Rate
Click-through rate (CTR) is a metric that measures the percentage of clicks you receive on an ad per number of impressions.
Client-Side Personalization
Client-side personalization uses JavaScript to personalize the site content. It means that all dynamic action is taken client-side, from the browser.
Cohort Analysis
Cohort analysis is the process of separating users into groups of people (cohorts) who share common characteristics or attributes in order to analyze their customer behavior. It usually involves tracking how the specific characteristics of a cohort change over time.
Content Management System
Content management system (CMS) is a back-end solution developed to control the content of the website which is the front-end. This software application allows you to create, edit, maintain, publish, and display content on the Internet from a single administration tool. There are many CMS systems available in the market out of which some to mention are WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, SilverStripe etc.
Conversion
A conversion happens when a visitor performs an action desirable to the company. This means getting your visitors to do what you want them to do like buy a product, sign up for a newsletter, register for a webinar, or fill out a lead/contact form.
Conversion Funnel
A conversion funnel describes the different stages of a buyer’s journey that lead up to a purchase.
Conversion Rate
Conversion rate is a metric that measures the percentage of visitors to your website that complete a desired goal (a conversion).
Cookie
A cookie is a small amount of data generated by a website given to a web browser by a web server. This piece of information is stored on the client side on the user’s own computer and is then used for future use. The main purpose of cookies is to remember information about you and record your preferences when using a particular website.
Cost Per Action Advertising
Cost per action advertising is an advertising pricing model that ensures you only pay for an ad when viewers complete the desired action.
Cost Per Click
Cost per click is an advertising pricing model that means that you pay for an ad when website visitors click on it.
Cross-selling
Cross-selling is the practice of selling additional services or products to customers who have already made a purchase. It involves encouraging existing customers to buy related or complementary products while buying the selected items.
CSS
CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets, is a style sheet language used to format the presentation of a web page or document written in markup language. CSS helps to provide uniformity across several pages of the website by defining text styles, table sizes, and other aspects of Web elements. Thus this gives web developers and users more control on the layout of web pages.
Customer
A customer is an individual or business that purchases another company's goods or services. Customers are important because they drive revenues; without them, businesses have nothing to offer.
Customer Acquisition
Customer acquisition is the process of bringing in new potential customers.
Customer Data Management
Customer data management (CDM) is the process of gathering, organizing, and analyzing data about your customers.
Customer Data Platform
A customer data platform (CDP) is a software that combines data from multiple tools to create one single customer database.
Customer Experience
Customer experience (CX) is a customer’s overall perception of your company, based on their interactions with it.
Customer Journey
A customer journey refers to the path of interactions an individual has with your brand.
Customer Lifetime Value
Customer lifetime value (CLV) is a metric that measures the total revenue a business can expect from a customer over the whole period of their relationship.
Customer Relationship Management Platform
A customer relationship management platform (CRM platform) refers to the technology a company employs to manage interactions with a customer, capturing key information generated during those engagements.
Customer Satisfaction Score
A customer satisfaction score, often abbreviated as a CSAT score, is used to measure how well a company meets or exceeds the level of expectation felt by a customer upon interacting with their products or services.
Customer Value Optimization
Customer value optimization (CVO) is the framework in which companies focus on raising the value of their customers to grow their businesses. The framework aims to create an incredible customer journey–by providing real help to visitors–and increase the ROI for entire digital marketing activities.
D
Dropshipping
Dropshipping is a type of ecommerce arrangement where the goods are directly shipped from the manufacturer to the retailer or customer. This retail fulfillment method deals in direct delivery of goods without having to store or stock them.
Dynamic Ads
Dynamic ads are marketing messages that automatically change to target each user who sees them online. This allows brands and marketers to show people a version of the campaign that’s as relevant (and effective) as possible.
Dynamic Content
Dynamic content lets you display a highly targeted message to your visitors by altering the text on your campaigns based on any variable you wish. For example, you can use dynamic content if you want to address customers by their name or display the total value of their current cart.
Dynamic Text Replacement
Dynamic text replacement (DTR) is used when you want to customize the content of your messages based on custom variables or cart attributes. For example, when you want to address customers by their name, or display the total value of their current cart in your message.
E
Email Service Provider
An email service provider (ESP) is the technology a business employs to manage and deliver email marketing communications. MailChimp or Klaviyo are examples of email service providers.
Embedded Content
Embedded content is a message type in OptiMonk. Using it, you can insert a wide variety of different content to your website easily, like opt-in or feedback forms, CTAs, banners, personalized copies, and product recommendations. You can personalize the content based on their source, country, number of visited pages, and the pages they visited.
Exit-Intent Technology
Exit-intent technology refers to tracking your visitors’ mouse movements from the moment they land on your website and detecting when they’re about to leave your page.
Exit Rate
Exit rate is a website metric that measures the percentage of exits on a webpage.
F
Faceted Search
Faceted search is a navigation technique used by ecommerce brands to help users analyze, organize, and filter products on search results.
First-Party Data
First-party data is any data you collect directly from your customers and visitors based on their interactions with your business.
Follow Up Message
A follow up message is a message sent in response to an action of your visitors. Follow-ups can be used to remind visitors of something, e.g. a coupon code, they can also be a great source to ask customers, “How was their experience” or “What do they want/expect next."
Fullscreen
Fullscreen is a message type in OptiMonk. Fullscreen messages are similar to popups, but – as its name implies – they cover the entire screen. A fullscreen brings focus to your offer. It works like a mini landing page, but it’s much easier to create than a landing page.
G
Gamification
In marketing, gamification means applying elements from games to your website. Gamified popups are a popular way to gamify the user experience. Lucky wheels, scratchcards, or pick a gift popup are all types of gamified popups.
GDPR
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a privacy and security law that enhances how people can access information about them and places limits on what organizations can do with personal data.
Geo-targeting
Geo-targeting is a type of advertising that uses consumers' locations to reach them with relevant messages.
Gross Merchandise Value
Gross merchandise value (GMV) refers to the total value of merchandise sold over a given period of time (usually a quarter or a year). It’s used to measure a business’ growth.
Gross Profit
Gross profit is the profit a company makes after subtracting all the costs that are related to manufacturing and selling its products.
H
Hero Banner
A hero banner (or hero image) is an oversized picture at the top of a website. It’s the first thing a visitor sees when your homepage loads.
HTML
Also commonly referred to as "the code" of a website, HTML is a language that structures a web page or application. HTML can adjust syntax, font, layout, images or links throughout the page. Thus it is a system for tagging text files to achieve font, colour, graphic, and hyperlink effects on World Wide Web pages.
Human-Based Marketing
Human-based marketing is a strategic approach to marketing in which marketers target individual people, rather than groups, with relevant messaging across different channels and touchpoints.
I
Ideal Customer Profile
An ideal customer profile (ICP) describes the perfect customer of your business that has all of the qualities that would make them the best fit for the solutions you provide.
Impression
Impression refers to the number of times your content was displayed, no matter if it was clicked or not.
J
JavaScript
JavaScript is an object-oriented computer programming language commonly used in web development for creating interactive effects within web browsers.
K
Key Performance Indicator
It is a value that helps organizations to evaluate the success of achieving the key business objectives. There are 2 types of KPIs, high-level KPIs that focuses on the overall performance of the enterprise and low-level KPIs that look at processes in departments such as sales, marketing or a call center.
L
Lead
It is a marketing classification used to describe a prospective consumer or organization that expresses interest in a business’s product or service. Businesses gain access to sales leads through advertising, trade shows, direct mailings, and other marketing efforts.
Landing Page
A landing page is a standalone web page, created specifically for a marketing campaign, with a single focus or goal.
Lead Generation
Lead generation is the process of attracting prospects to your business in order to increase future sales.
Lead Nurturing
Lead nurturing is the process of developing and reinforcing relationships with customers at every stage of their journey.
Lead Qualification
Lead qualification is the process of categorising a qualified sales or marketing lead as a customer who has been contacted and has engaged with your sales and marketing team, and so is further along the sales process than other leads.
Lead to Paid Rate
It's the percentage of leads that turn into customers.
M
Macro Conversion
Macro conversion refers to the end goal of your website (e.g. for an ecommerce website, it's likely to be makign a purchase).
Message Type
There are seven message types available in OptiMonk that you can use to display personalized messages to your visitors. These message types are popup, fullscreen, side message, sticky bar, embedded content, survey and gamification.
Micro Conversion
Micro-conversions are smallers steps a user can take to show initial interest in your brand or product. They are a strong indicator of the effectiveness of your funnel.
Monthly Recurring Revenue
Any revenue or income that a business expects to receive monthly counts as Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR). Recurring revenue is usually the result of a monthly subscription business that bills its customers each month.
Multi-Step Popup
A multi-step popup is a popup that has at least two steps before visitors can take the final action. It helps to decrease the noise of having way too much info on one popup since you break it into multiple steps.
N
Net Promoter Score
Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a customer loyalty metric that measures customer experience and predicts business growth. It asks customers how likely they are to recommend your product or service to others on a scale of 0-10.
O
Omnichannel Retailing
Omnichannel retailing is a business model referring to transacting across multiple channels (e.g. marketplaces, social channels, brick-and-mortar stores, etc.) to offer customers a seamless shopping experience.
Onsite Messages
Onsite messages give you a second chance to communicate with your visitors and convince them to take the desired action. Using onsite messages, you can display tailored messages on your website with a popup, sticky Bar, side message, or fullscreen.
Open Rate
The open rate is a percentage representation of the number of people on the email list that opened a particular email campaign. This percentage is calculated by dividing the number of email messages opened by the total number of email messages sent.
Organic Traffic
Visitors who find a website through a search engine query.
Overlay
Overlay is a message type that is placed on your website by covering some parts of it. Overlays are also commonly referred to as popups.
P
Pageview
A pageview is a website metric that tracks the instance of a page being loaded (or reloaded) in a browser.
Pay Per Click Advertising
“Pay per click” or “PPC” is a method of payment referring to when website visitors click on a featured ad. As opposed to other cost models, the ad owner must pay per click each time his or her ad is selected, which is owed to the website owner who agreed to host the ad. Also referred to as “cost per click (CPC),” pay per click (PPC) advertising is highly reliant on keyword searches within web browsers to deliver the most relevant traffic to their ad spaces.
Popup
Popup is an onsite message that is displayed in the middle of your site, in an overlay. A well-timed popup gives you a second opportunity to connect with your visitors, effectively doubling your chances of converting them.
Product Recommendation
Product recommendation is an ecommerce personalization strategy. It is a filtering system that automatically recommends a list of relevant products to every single user to increase their demand to purchase as many items as possible. These suggestions can be the most popular products, recently viewed items, others also bought these, etc.
Profit Margin
Profit margins are expressed as a percentage of selling price turned into profit. It is used to measure how well the company can control its cost. The higher the profit margin is, the better the company is thought to control costs.
R
Recommendation Engine
A recommendation engine is a tool that analyzes available data to make suggestions for items that a website user might be interested in.
Remarketing
Remarketing is a common form of digital marketing in which you serve targeted ads to people who have already visited or taken action on your website.
Return on Investment
Return on investment (ROI) measures the gain or loss generated on an investment relative to the investment’s cost. It is usually expressed as a percentage and is used for personal financial decisions to compare a company’s profitability or to compare the efficiency of different investments.
S
Segment
Segment refers to a group of people lumped together based on one or more similar characteristics (their needs, lifestyles, demographics, etc.)
Server-side Personalization
Server-side personalization uses REST API to personalize site content, so all dynamic action is taken server-side.
Session
A session is a period of time wherein a visitor interacts with your website. A single session can contain multiple page views, events, ecommerce transactions, etc.
Side message
Side message is an onsite message that is displayed on the right or left side of your webpage and sticks there while people are browsing the site. It is a good solution if you feel that popups are too pushy, and you would rather use an effective and elegant way to capture email addresses.
Sign-up
Sign-up is the action of enrolling for something, usually an email, Messenger or SMS newsletter list.
Statistical Significance
Statistical significance refers to the claim that a result from data generated by testing or experimentation is likely to be attributable to a specific cause and it's not due to random chance. It allows you to be confident in your decision making.
Sticky Bar
A sticky bar is an onsite message that appears at the top or bottom of your website and sticks there as visitors browse the pages on your site. They are less “intrusive” than standard popups. They don’t cover the content or cause a major disturbance to visitors who are browsing.
Survey
A survey is an easy way to collect data from your visitors or customers in order to gain information and insights into various topics of interest.
T
Targeting
Targeting is the process when you identify users that you would like to reach with your messages. You choose who to show your message to. With OptiMonk’s targeting options, you can reach visitors by location, visited pages, traffic source, and more.
Teaser
A teaser helps to grab visitors’ attention before or after seeing your popup. You can show visitors a preview before displaying a popup, or you can give a second chance to visitors who close the popup and don’t subscribe, so it works like a minimized reminder.
Third-Party Data
Third-party data is any information collected by companies that don't have a direct relationship with the user the data is being collected on.
Top of Funnel
Top of funnel refers to the process of marketing to a wide audience to generate leads. This is the first stage of the buyer’s journey and audiences are mainly searching for information at this stage, so the primary goal of marketing at the top of the funnel is building brand awareness and capturing leads.
Triggering
Triggering is the process when you identify when to show your messages. With OptiMonk’s triggering options, you can display your message when a visitor is about to leave your site, after x seconds of browsing your site, when a visitor has scrolled down on your page, and more.
U
Unique Value Proposition
A unique value proposition (or unique selling proposition) is a unique aspect of a company’s products and/or services that sets them apart from what competitors offer.
Upsell
Upselling is a sales technique that persuades a customer for buying something additional or expensive while making a purchase. This business strategy makes the customer get exposed to other options that he perhaps had not considered, with an attempt to make a more profitable sale. Upselling includes selling better features or specifications of the selected product, an upgrade or more expensive version of what they are buying or any add-ons.
Use Case
A use case shows you how you can achieve certain goals in OptiMonk. An example use case in OptiMonk is: “Promote a special offer when visitors are about to leave your website.”
User Experience
This refers to the visitor's overall experience about using a particular product, system or service especially in terms of how easy or pleasing it is to use it.
V
Visitor
A visitor is an individual who has visited your website and hasn't subscribed yet, so we don’t know his/her name.
W
Website Personalization
Website personalization is a strategy used by marketers to create tailored experiences for visitors based on their interest, need and onsite behavior.
Wizard
The Wizard is a setup assistant that helps new OptiMonk users create their first campaigns by answering a few simple questions. The goal of the Wizard is to simplify the onboarding process and make it easier to create an OptiMonk campaign.
Z
Zero-Party Data
Zero-party data is the information that users share with a brand willingly and intentionally to improve their shopping experience or obtain some other kind of value. It usually comes from questions that you ask your users directly.
Product updates: Introducing OptiMonk AI
