7 terms in digital marketing you need to know beyond SEO, SEM & SMM

300 200 Ankita Panjwani

Since its evolution, a lot has been spoken and written about digital marketing and its terminologies, When I initially started reading about digital media it was all Greek to me until my mentor came and explained few terminologies which all beginners should be aware of if they wish to start their career in digital media.

I being a tyro in digital media would like to elucidate a few terms for those who are trying to latch onto the same field from my experience of internship of 2 months in a Inuxu Digital Media Technologies.


Remarketing is targeting consumers who have already visited your website, shown interest in your product or service, but did not make a desired action on the website.

For example-When people leave your website without buying anything/ or filling up a contact form, remarketing helps you reconnect with them by showing relevant ads as they browse the web, as they use mobile apps, or as they search it on a search engine.

The biggest advantage of remarketing is that you’re only showing your ad to people who are genuinely interested in your product.


 Affiliate marketing is performance-based marketing in which a business rewards affiliates for each sale generated by the affiliate. In affiliate marketing, advertisers pay to the ad networks and they in turn pay to the publishers for every lead generated. Payment is done on the basis of online advertising ad models, two of which are –

Cost per action (CPA)is a pricing system where advertisers pay for a specific action like form filled, purchase/sale, lead generated any similar conversion happening.

Cost per sale– is pricing system where the publisher or website owner is paid on the basis of the number of sales that are directly generated by an advertisement.


An App notification is a message that is received by the user and is sent by the app publisher. This notification is a message that pops up in the status bar in a smartphone. This message maybe regarding any latest updation, latest event/activity that might be important to the user.Getting the content primarily outside the app, paradoxically yields increased engagement inside the app.

Desktop Notification or Browser push notification is a short message that appears on the desktop of any user who has opted in to receive notifications from any site. A desktop notification is accompanied by a ‘notification sound’ to alert the user, and inform them of whatever message, update, or content a site wishes to provide.

Push notification is an eminent channel to communicate with users.They deliver the right information at the right time to the users by emerging on the lock screens of the user.He/She doesn’t have to be in the app or using their device to be receiving them.

Push notifications are promotional drivers designed to drive “open rates.” Instead, we think of notifications as a way to push a value to the user.This way businesses get hold of their customers’ interest in their products and keep the profit graph high.


Programmatic Advertising refers to an automated process of buying media online.

This basically means -use of software for buying ad slots on websites, without any human involvement and manual insertion order. Programmatic Advertising also allows “Real Time buying”. RTB refers to the purchase of ads through real-time auctions and these auctions typically happen within 100 milliseconds.


Cross-device targeting is the ability to serve targeted advertising to consumers across multiple digital devices.

If any correlation isanalyzedd in the behaviour of the browser, across multiple devices through cookies and mobile ids, “match rate” arises, which means that the separate devices are of the same individual profile. Advertisers are now able to serve targeted advertising to these uniquely identifiable users.

Whereas When we rely on cookies or mobile IDs in isolation, each device or mobile app is viewed as an individual user. Cross-device targeting helps advertisers deliver a specific offer to an individual at a given time, regardless of the device they’re using. This way it promises the reduction of wasted impressions and more effective audience engagement and attribution.


Rich media ads are pretty and their good looks attract consumer. Rich media is a digital advertising term for – an ad that includes advanced features like video, audio, or other creative elements that encourage viewers to interact and engage with the content and brand.

While text ads sell with words, and display ads sell with pictures, rich media ads offer more ways to involve an audience with an ad. The rich media ad can expand, float, etc. This is why they generate high click through rates (CTRs) and engagement rates. You can measure the success of your campaign by measuring the user engagement rate by gauging number of expansions, multiple exits, video completions etc. Rich media lets agencies create complex ads that can elicit strong user response.


Native Advertising is a type of disguised advertising, that matches the form and function of the platform upon which it appears. It matches the visual design of the content of the web page. It looks and functions just like the natural content.

It is difficult for the user to distinguish between the content and the part of it which is a native ad, only until he doesn’t click on the ad and reaches the landing page. These are known as the “sponsored content”. Native ads are catching with other formats of advertising lately because of their disguised nature and a probable solution to ad blocking.

Conclusion: A lot of individuals think that digital marketing is only about SEO, SEM & SMM, but there is more to this buzzing word. My internship is about to get over and I have learned a lot of new trends that will rule digital advertising in the coming times. These trends are changing the face of the digital marketing industry. I am thankful to my mentor and all the peers at Inuxu for the guidance and support.

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Ankita Panjwani

Ankita ardently believes that 'knowledge is the key to success'. She is pragmatic. She believes in adding value to the world. By the end, she desires to become a writer, traveler and ultimately a doer.

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