Growth Marketing Glossary: 48 Terms Explained (2026)

In short: this glossary explains 48 growth marketing terms in two sentences each, grouped into seven topics: growth and strategy, acquisition and demand, paid and performance, conversion, retention, measurement and data, and technology, AI and search. Every term links to a full guide on the topic. Use it to look up a term fast, or to get a team on the same definitions.

Growth marketing has a lot of jargon, and teams often use the same word for different things. Below, every term gets a short definition you can quote, plus a link to the guide where we go deeper. If a term is missing, send it to us via contact.

Growth and strategy

Growth marketing

Growth marketing is an experiment-led way of working across the whole funnel, from first contact to retention and referral. Success is measured in revenue, retention and customer lifetime value instead of reach or clicks. Read more

Growth hacking

Growth hacking is fast, data-driven experimentation to find the quickest route to growth: find the biggest drop-off in your funnel, test small ideas there and scale what works. Sean Ellis coined the term in 2010. Read more

Growth experiment

A growth experiment tests one change against a control to see whether it moves a specific funnel metric. You start from a written hypothesis and run the test where the funnel loses the most people. Read more

A/B testing

A/B testing compares a control with one variant for the same audience to see which performs better on one primary KPI. You calculate the sample size before launch and run the test for at least a full week. Read more

Bullseye Framework

The Bullseye Framework is a three-step method from the book Traction by Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares to find your best marketing channel. You brainstorm all traction channels, test the most promising ones cheaply and then focus on the one or two that work. Read more

Pirate funnel (AAARRR)

The pirate funnel splits the customer journey into Awareness, Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Revenue and Referral. You measure every stage and improve the one where a small change adds the most paying customers. Read more

Full-funnel marketing

Full-funnel marketing connects awareness, acquisition, activation, revenue, retention and referral into one system, so each stage makes the next one easier. Every stage gets one job and a few KPIs, and you fix the biggest bottleneck first. Read more

Market segmentation

Market segmentation splits a market into groups of buyers with shared needs, behavior or value, so you can choose who to target and what to say to each group. A weak segmentation often shows up as good clicks from the wrong people. Read more

Trendwatching

Trendwatching is spotting early signals in culture, technology, the economy and consumer behavior and turning them into decisions before competitors do. It separates fads (months) from trends (3 to 10 years) and megatrends (decades). Read more

Sustainable growth

Sustainable growth is growth a company can keep up from its own operations: profitable customers who stay, instead of revenue bought with discounts or new capital. Read more

Acquisition and demand

Acquisition marketing

Acquisition marketing is everything you do to win new customers, from creating reach to converting the traffic you already have. Each tactic works best when it has one clear job in the funnel. Read more

Demand generation

B2B demand generation combines creating demand (making buyers aware they have a problem you solve) and capturing it (being there when they look for a solution). The goal is qualified pipeline, not a list of contacts. Read more

Lead generation

Lead generation captures contact details of people who already show interest, for example through forms, events or outreach. Where demand generation builds the market, lead generation harvests it. Read more

Inbound marketing

Inbound marketing attracts buyers with content they are already looking for and turns that attention into leads. It works when content, capture, qualification and sales follow-up run as one system. Read more

Account-based marketing (ABM)

Account-based marketing targets a defined list of companies instead of a broad audience, with marketing and sales working the same accounts. It comes in three levels: 1-to-1 for a handful of strategic accounts, 1-to-few and 1-to-many. Read more

Thought leadership

Thought leadership builds authority by sharing original insights, experience and opinions in your field. The goal is trust, so buyers think of you as soon as they run into the problem you solve. Read more

Sales intelligence

Sales intelligence uses signals such as website visits, job changes, funding rounds or hiring to find which accounts are ready to buy. You send fewer messages, to better-chosen accounts. Read more

Sales pipeline

A sales pipeline shows all open deals per stage, from first conversation to signed contract. Managing it means keeping deals moving, removing stuck ones and forecasting on what is really there. Read more

Revenue marketing

Revenue marketing holds marketing accountable for pipeline and revenue instead of activity metrics such as traffic or lead volume. It needs shared definitions and reporting with sales. Read more

Ecommerce marketing

Ecommerce marketing helps online shoppers discover products, persuades them to buy and brings them back for repeat orders. It covers search, paid social, email, marketplaces and the webshop itself. Read more

Paid and performance

Performance marketing

Performance marketing buys measurable outcomes now, such as clicks, leads and sales, and is judged per channel and campaign. Growth marketing looks wider, at customer value over the whole funnel. Read more

Performance media

Performance media is paid media optimized for business outcomes such as qualified leads, purchases or acquisition cost, rather than exposure. It only holds up when you can show the result would not have happened without the ad. Read more

Return on ad spend (ROAS)

ROAS is the revenue attributed to ads divided by what you spent on them. A rising ROAS does not prove profit: platforms can claim sales that would have happened anyway, and revenue is not margin. Read more

Customer acquisition cost (CAC)

Customer acquisition cost is what you spend in sales and marketing to win one new customer. Whether a CAC is good depends on margin, customer lifetime value and how long it takes to earn it back. Read more

Conversion and customer insight

Conversion rate optimization (CRO)

Conversion rate optimization improves the share of visitors who take the action you want, such as a demo request, trial or order. It starts with research into where and why people drop off, followed by tests. Read more

Personalization

Personalization adapts messages, offers and pages to what you know about a person, such as what they bought or where they are in the journey. Done badly, it shows up as an ad for something they already own. Read more

Neuromarketing

Neuromarketing uses brain and body measurements, such as EEG, fMRI, eye tracking and skin response, to see how people react to ads and prices. Its main lesson: what people say about an ad is a weak predictor of what they do. Read more

Voice of customer (VoC)

A voice of customer program collects and connects what customers say in reviews, support tickets, sales calls, surveys and cancellation reasons. The value is in one owner and one system, not in more feedback. Read more

Product adoption

Product adoption is the point where new users start using a product regularly because it solves their problem. You improve it like acquisition: find the friction, test a fix, measure behavior. Read more

Retention and customer value

Retention marketing

Retention marketing is everything you do to keep existing customers buying, spending more and recommending you. Levers include loyalty programs, personalization, subscriptions, community and win-back campaigns. Read more

Churn rate

Churn rate is the share of customers who stop buying or cancel in a given period. Reducing it is usually a matter of pricing, onboarding and segmentation more than of reporting. Read more

Customer lifetime value (CLV)

Customer lifetime value is the revenue or margin a customer brings in over the whole relationship. It links acquisition, retention and pricing decisions to one number finance also understands. Read more

Lifecycle marketing

Lifecycle marketing sends the right message at each stage of the customer relationship, from onboarding to win-back. It depends on connected data and a clear owner per stage more than on extra automation. Read more

Referral marketing

Referral marketing turns satisfied customers into a repeatable source of new customers. It works when the incentive fits the buyer, the ask comes right after a clear moment of value and sharing takes little effort. Read more

Measurement and data

Marketing analytics

Marketing analytics turns data from ads, website, CRM and sales into decisions about where to spend time and budget. Its job is to find the one constraint that holds growth back, not to produce more charts. Read more

Marketing attribution

Marketing attribution assigns credit for a conversion to the touchpoints in the customer journey. It shows which channels were involved, not whether they caused the sale; that takes an incrementality test. Read more

Multi-touch attribution

Multi-touch attribution spreads credit across several touchpoints instead of giving it all to the last click. Common models are linear, time decay, position-based and data-driven. Read more

Marketing mix modeling (MMM)

Marketing mix modeling is a statistical method that estimates how each channel and outside factor drove sales over time. It uses aggregated data instead of tracking individual users. Read more

Marketing ROI

Marketing ROI compares the return marketing generates with what it costs. One ratio can make a channel look strong while pipeline barely moves, so read it next to pipeline and customer value. Read more

Data-driven marketing

Data-driven marketing means making marketing decisions based on a small set of reliable data instead of gut feeling. More data is not the goal; better decisions are. Read more

First-party data

First-party data is information customers share with you directly, through your website, app, CRM, email or purchases. It is the most reliable basis for targeting and measurement, because you control how it is collected and with which consent. Read more

Server-side tracking

Server-side tracking moves data collection from the visitor's browser to your own server, which then sends events to platforms such as Google, Meta and LinkedIn. It makes measurement less dependent on ad blockers and browser limits. Read more

Cross-channel marketing

Cross-channel marketing connects channels such as ads, email, search and sales into one journey for the buyer, with shared data and reporting. The opposite is every channel manager seeing a different version of the same customer. Read more

Technology, AI and search

Marketing automation

Marketing automation uses software to send messages, score leads and route contacts based on rules or behavior. It pays off when it fixes a specific gap in the funnel, not when it adds more workflows. Read more

Martech stack

A martech stack is the set of connected software you use to attract, convert, retain and measure customers, such as CRM, marketing automation, analytics and ad platforms. It only works as a system, with a clear data flow and an owner per tool. Read more

Marketing operations

Marketing operations is the layer between strategy and execution: the people, processes, data and technology that make campaigns measurable and repeatable. Read more

Generative engine optimization (GEO)

Generative engine optimization is the work of getting your brand cited or recommended in answers from AI systems such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot and Google AI Overviews. Where SEO aims for a high ranking, GEO aims for a mention in the answer itself. Read more

AI SEO agent

An AI SEO agent is a system that does SEO work itself, such as keyword research, technical audits, content and internal linking, using live data from tools like Search Console. People still set the strategy and check the quality. Read more