AMA PCM Digital Marketing flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

SMART objective

An objective stated as Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound; it names one KPI, a baseline, a target, and a deadline.

LTV:CAC ratio

Lifetime value divided by customer acquisition cost; a ratio of 3:1 or higher is commonly used as a healthy benchmark for subscription or repeat-purchase businesses.

Incrementality test

A controlled experiment, such as a geo holdout or randomized audience split, that measures the lift caused by marketing rather than correlation from attribution.

Marginal ROAS

The change in revenue from the next unit of ad spend divided by that spend; budget shifts are justified while marginal ROAS exceeds the target.

Customer journey stages

Need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase, and post-purchase; content and KPIs vary by stage.

Content audit

A systematic review of existing assets scored on relevance, accuracy, traffic, conversions, and freshness to decide keep, update, consolidate, redirect, or remove.

Content brief

A document specifying audience, search intent, primary keyword, outline, proof points, internal links, call to action, and success metric for an asset.

Brand story framework

A narrative in which the customer is the hero and the brand is the guide; it presents problem, promise, proof, and plan.

Pillar-cluster model

A comprehensive pillar page linked to related cluster articles; internal links signal topical depth and help users and crawlers navigate the subject.

CPM formula

Cost per mille equals ad spend divided by impressions, multiplied by 1,000; it prices reach and is common in awareness campaigns.

Frequency

Impressions divided by reach; it estimates average exposures per person and rises as audience size or budget changes.

Lookalike audience

A platform audience modeled from a seed list of customers or high-value users; similarity and source size affect reach and performance.

Learning phase

A platform optimization period in which delivery stabilizes; Meta commonly requires about 50 optimization events per ad set per week.

Incrementality holdout

A test that withholds ads from a random or matched control group to isolate the causal lift of a paid campaign.

Robots.txt

A file that instructs crawlers which URLs they may fetch; it controls crawling, not indexing, and does not enforce removal from search results.

Noindex directive

A robots meta tag or header that tells search engines not to include a page in results; it must be crawlable to be seen.

Canonical tag

An HTML link element that identifies the preferred URL for duplicate or similar content and consolidates ranking signals.

Core Web Vitals

Google's page-experience metrics: LCP for loading, INP for responsiveness, and CLS for visual stability; thresholds are assessed at the 75th percentile.

Search intent types

Informational, navigational, commercial, and transactional; page format and content should match the dominant intent of the query.

Quality Score

A 1-10 diagnostic based on expected click-through rate, ad relevance, and landing page experience; it influences Ad Rank and costs.

Ad Rank

A value combining bid, Quality Score, and expected impact of extensions and formats; it determines whether an ad enters the auction and its position.

Impression share

Impressions divided by eligible impressions; lost impression share can be split into budget-limited and rank-limited components.

Negative keyword

A keyword or phrase that prevents an ad from matching queries containing it; match types and negative lists control waste.

Target ROAS

A bid strategy that sets bids to maximize conversion value while aiming for a specified return on ad spend.

Engaged session

A GA4 session lasting at least 10 seconds, containing a conversion, or including two or more page views.

UTM parameters

Tags appended to URLs to identify source, medium, campaign, term, and content; consistent naming prevents fragmented reports.

Data-driven attribution

An attribution model that distributes conversion credit across touchpoints based on their observed contribution to conversion paths.

Statistical power

The probability of detecting a true effect when it exists; 80% is a common design target for A/B tests.

SPF record

A DNS TXT record listing authorized sending servers for a domain; it helps receiving systems verify that email was sent legitimately.

RFM segmentation

A method that groups customers by recency, frequency, and monetary value to prioritize offers and lifecycle campaigns.

Abandoned cart flow

An automated sequence triggered when a shopper leaves items unpurchased; it typically includes reminder, objection handling, and incentive timing.

CRO hypothesis

A testable statement linking evidence to a proposed change and expected effect, measured by one primary metric and guardrails.