The Ultimate Glossary of Marketing Words and Phrases for 2025

The marketing world evolves rapidly, with new trends, tools, and terminology emerging each year. If you’re publishing a blog, that means you’re performing some form of marketing.

And as part of that, you need to have a solid understanding of the latest marketing words and phrases to ensure you’re staying on top of your game.

This 2025 Marketing Glossary covers essential digital marketing, advertising, content marketing, and social media terms. So even if you’re focused on just one of those areas, it’ll help you decode industry jargon and apply it effectively to your marketing strategies!

Why Understanding Marketing Terminology Matters

Marketing is a fast-moving industry, and unfamiliar terminology can create barriers to success. Keeping up with the latest marketing jargon helps with…

• Better communication with teams and clients

• Improved decision-making when investing in marketing strategies

• Greater confidence in executing digital campaigns

• Staying competitive in an ever-changing marketing landscape

Now, let's dive into the most important marketing words and phrases you need to know in 2025.

Marketing Words and Phrases You Need to Know in 2025

1. AI-Driven Marketing

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is now a key player in marketing. AI-driven marketing refers to automation, data analysis, and personalisation powered by machine learning. For example, chatbots that provide instant customer support or AI-powered content creation tools.

2. Account-Based Marketing (ABM)

A highly targeted marketing strategy focusing on specific businesses or decision-makers rather than broad audiences. It’s widely used in B2B marketing to improve conversion rates.

3. Attention Economy

A concept that recognises consumer attention as a limited resource. In 2025, marketers focus on grabbing and retaining attention amid a crowded digital landscape.

4. Behavioural Targeting

Using consumer behaviour data (browsing history, past purchases) to deliver highly relevant ads and content. Personalisation based on behaviour increases conversion rates significantly.

5. Brand Storytelling

Consumers connect with stories, not sales pitches. Brand storytelling focuses on crafting emotional narratives that resonate with audiences and build long-term loyalty.

6. Cookieless Advertising

With third-party cookies disappearing, marketers rely on first-party data and contextual advertising to personalise user experiences while maintaining privacy compliance.

7. Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO)

The process of improving website or landing page design to increase the percentage of visitors who take a desired action (e.g., making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter).

8. Customer Data Platforms (CDP)

A centralised database that collects and organises customer data from multiple touchpoints, enabling highly targeted marketing campaigns.

9. Dark Social

Traffic and content sharing that occurs through private channels like messaging apps, email, and direct messaging, making it harder to track in analytics tools.

10. Engagement Rate

A key social media marketing metric measuring interactions (likes, shares, comments) relative to reach or followers. High engagement indicates a strong audience connection.

11. Gamification Marketing

Integrating game-like elements into marketing campaigns (e.g., rewards, challenges) to boost engagement and customer retention.

12. Hyper-Personalisation

Beyond basic personalisation, hyper-personalisation uses real-time data and AI to deliver uniquely tailored content, recommendations, and ads.

13. Influencer Whitelisting

Allowing brands to run paid advertisements using an influencer’s social media account, increasing credibility and reach.

14. Micro-Moments

Google defines micro-moments as instances when consumers turn to their devices for quick information or decision-making. Optimising for micro-moments improves customer engagement.

15. Omnichannel Marketing

A strategy that ensures a seamless customer experience across multiple platforms—websites, social media, email, and in-store. To help with omnichannel marketing, be sure to make use of content calendars.

16. Programmatic Advertising

The automated buying and selling of online ads using AI and real-time bidding, ensuring efficient ad placements.

17. Retargeting vs. Remarketing

• Retargeting uses paid ads to re-engage visitors who didn’t convert.

• Remarketing focuses on email marketing to re-engage previous customers.

18. Search Intent Optimisation

Moving beyond keywords, this focuses on matching content with user intent (e.g., informational, navigational, transactional) to improve SEO performance. To help with SEO, be sure to use our FREE, 25-point checklist for online articles!

19. Shoppable Content

Content that allows direct product purchases, reducing friction in the buying journey—especially on Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest.

20. User-Generated Content (UGC)

Authentic customer-created content that brands leverage for marketing. UGC increases trust and engagement.

21. Call to Action (CTA)

This is the final message of a communication, be that a social media post, ad, or online article, that encourages the reader to do something.

Conclusion: Master Marketing Language in 2025

Marketing is a super-fast-paced industry, and keeping up with new marketing phrases and terminology is crucial for success.

Whether you're a business owner, marketer, or content creator, understanding these terms will help you navigate the evolving digital landscape.

Make sure to bookmark this page so you can always keep the marketing glossary handy! We’ll be sure to update it as/when more words and terms emerge.

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