If you don’t know your acronyms, the world of IT or information technology can be endlessly confusing.

Have you ever tried to follow a conversation about “PPC improving visibility on SERPs through well-planned SEM, and ultimately decreasing the CPA”?

It gets worse and if you’re privy to one of those conversations, you’d be forgiven for wondering if they are even happening in English.

This is a guide to some of the jargon.

1. SEM – Search Engine Marketing: this is a marketing method specifically designed for the internet. It includes paid placements, Google Adwords and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) that work to promote websites by increasing their ranking by search engines 

2. SERPS – Search Engine Result Pages: These are the pages returned by search engines showing the list of results found for a keyword queried by a user

3. CPC – Cost Per Click: The amount that advertisers have to pay the publisher every time a user clicks on an ad

4. PPC – Pay per Click: This is an online advertising model where advertisers pay only when their ad is clicked on.

5. CR – Conversion Rate: The rate at which an exploratory click leads to a desired action like a product sale, a subscription or a “like” on Facebook, among others.

6. CTR – Click-Through Rate: This is the amount of times that an ad is clicked on, divided by the amount of times that the advert has been viewed. “For example, if a banner ad is delivered 100 times and receives one click, then the click-through rate for the advertisement would be 1%”

7. AIDA – Attention, Interest, Desire, Action: These are the drivers advertisers use to move the user towards a conversion 

8. CPA – Cost per Action: Sometimes referred to as cost per acquisition, this refers to an online advertising pricing model that attributes a price per action linked to an advertisement. An advertiser would pay for actions like a user’s submission of a form or even a purchase 

9. PPA – Pay Per Action: Also known as cost per action

10. PPL – Pay Per Lead: The advertiser is only required to pay for leads generated on his site and this can mean as little as sharing contact information or filling in a form