B2B data & marketing terms, explained clearly.

Audience & Data Strategy

B2B Data

B2B data is information about businesses and the professionals who work within them. Marketers use it to identify target companies, reach relevant decision-makers, build audiences, enrich existing records, and create more precise marketing and sales strategies.

Audience & Data Strategy

B2B2C Data

B2B2C data connects professional information about a person — such as their company, role, or industry — with consumer-level attributes that provide a broader understanding of the individual.

Demand Generation & ABM

Intent Data

Intent data is information that indicates when a company or potential buyer is showing increased interest in a topic, product category, or business solution.

Audience & Data Strategy

Audience Enrichment

Audience enrichment is the process of adding relevant information to existing customer, prospect, or audience records to create a more complete and useful view of the people and companies a marketer wants to reach.

Audience & Data Strategy

Data Activation

Data activation is the process of turning audience or customer data into something marketers can actually use across advertising, marketing, sales, and customer engagement channels.

Audience & Data Strategy

Identity Resolution

Identity resolution is the process of connecting different identifiers and data points that belong to the same person, household, or organization to create a more consistent view of that identity.

Audience & Data Strategy

Audience Segmentation

Audience segmentation is the process of dividing a larger audience into smaller groups based on shared characteristics, behaviors, needs, or business attributes.

Audience & Data Strategy

First-Party Data

First-party data is information an organization collects directly from its own customers, prospects, users, website visitors, or other business relationships.

Demand Generation & ABM

Account-Based Marketing (ABM)

Account-based marketing is a B2B strategy that focuses marketing and sales efforts on a defined group of high-value target accounts rather than marketing broadly to an entire market.

Demand Generation & ABM

Demand Generation

Demand generation is the strategy of creating awareness, interest, and engagement for a company's products or services so that potential buyers are more likely to enter and progress through the buying process.

Digital Advertising & Activation

Programmatic Advertising

Programmatic advertising is the automated buying and selling of digital advertising inventory using technology, audience data, and predefined campaign rules.

B2B Marketing & Strategy

B2B Marketing

B2B marketing, or business-to-business marketing, is the strategy and practice of promoting products or services from one business to another business rather than directly to individual consumers.

Demand Generation & ABM

Buyer Intent

Buyer intent refers to signals or behaviors that suggest a potential customer or organization may be researching, considering, or moving toward a purchase decision.

Digital Advertising & Activation

Audience Activation

Audience activation is the process of making a defined audience available for use across marketing, advertising, sales, or customer engagement channels.

AI & Marketing Technology

Generative AI

Generative AI is a type of artificial intelligence that can create new content — such as text, images, audio, video, or code — based on patterns learned from existing data.

AI & Marketing Technology

Marketing Automation

Marketing automation is the use of technology to manage, trigger, and streamline recurring marketing activities and customer or prospect communications.

B2B Marketing & Strategy

Go-to-Market (GTM) Strategy

A go-to-market strategy is the plan a company uses to bring a product or service to a defined market. It aligns marketing, sales, and product around who the buyer is, what problem is being solved, and how the offer will reach and win that buyer.

B2B Marketing & Strategy

Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)

An Ideal Customer Profile is a description of the type of company most likely to buy a product and succeed with it. It typically includes firmographic characteristics like industry, company size, revenue, and technology use.

B2B Marketing & Strategy

Buyer Persona

A buyer persona is a semi-fictional representation of a specific decision-maker or influencer involved in a purchase, built from real data about their role, goals, challenges, and buying behavior.

B2B Marketing & Strategy

Buyer Journey

The buyer journey is the path a prospective customer takes from first recognizing a problem to making a purchase decision. It is typically broken into awareness, consideration, and decision stages.

B2B Marketing & Strategy

Marketing Funnel

A marketing funnel is a model that represents how prospects move from initial awareness of a brand through consideration and ultimately to a purchase decision, narrowing as fewer prospects advance at each stage.

B2B Marketing & Strategy

Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL)

A Marketing Qualified Lead is a prospect who has shown enough interest or engagement to be considered more likely to become a customer than a general lead, based on criteria agreed upon by marketing and sales.

B2B Marketing & Strategy

Sales Qualified Lead (SQL)

A Sales Qualified Lead is a prospect that has been vetted and accepted by the sales team as ready for direct sales engagement, typically after meeting criteria beyond initial marketing qualification.

B2B Marketing & Strategy

Revenue Marketing

Revenue marketing is an approach to marketing that ties strategy and execution directly to measurable revenue outcomes, rather than to activity metrics like impressions, clicks, or leads alone.

B2B Marketing & Strategy

Sales and Marketing Alignment

Sales and marketing alignment is the practice of coordinating both teams around shared goals, definitions, and processes so that marketing-generated demand converts efficiently into sales pipeline and revenue.

B2B Marketing & Strategy

Total Addressable Market (TAM)

Total Addressable Market is the total revenue opportunity available for a product or service if it captured 100% of its relevant market, used to size opportunity and guide go-to-market planning.

Audience & Data Strategy

Second-Party Data

Second-party data is another company's first-party data, shared or licensed directly through a partnership. It gives marketers access to audience insight collected by a trusted source, without the scale or ambiguity of open third-party marketplaces.

Audience & Data Strategy

Third-Party Data

Third-party data is information collected by an entity that has no direct relationship with the individual or company it describes, then aggregated and sold or licensed to marketers through data providers and marketplaces.

Audience & Data Strategy

Audience Data

Audience data is any information used to define, understand, and reach a specific group of people or companies. It combines firmographic, demographic, behavioral, and intent-based attributes to describe who a marketer is trying to reach.

Audience & Data Strategy

Data Append

A data append is the process of adding missing information to an existing record by matching it against an external data source, filling in gaps such as job title, company details, or contact information.

Audience & Data Strategy

Data Hygiene

Data hygiene is the ongoing process of keeping a database accurate, current, and free of duplicates or errors, so the information it contains can be trusted and used effectively.

Demand Generation & ABM

Lead Generation

Lead generation is the process of identifying and capturing interest from potential buyers, typically by collecting contact information through content, forms, events, or outreach so sales and marketing teams can begin a relationship.

Demand Generation & ABM

Account-Based Experience (ABX)

Account-Based Experience (ABX) is an evolution of account-based marketing that extends personalized, coordinated engagement across the entire buyer journey — spanning marketing, sales, and customer success — rather than confining it to early-stage campaigns.

Demand Generation & ABM

Lead Scoring

Lead scoring is a method of ranking prospects by assigning numerical values to their attributes and behaviors, helping marketing and sales teams prioritize the leads most likely to convert into customers.

Demand Generation & ABM

Lead Nurturing

Lead nurturing is the ongoing process of building relationships with prospects who aren't yet ready to buy, delivering relevant content and touchpoints over time to move them closer to a purchase decision.

Demand Generation & ABM

Pipeline Generation

Pipeline generation is the process of creating qualified sales opportunities — not just leads — by identifying, engaging, and advancing prospects to a point where sales can actively work to close them.

Demand Generation & ABM

In-Market Accounts

In-market accounts are companies showing active buying signals — such as intent data, research behavior, or engagement patterns — that indicate they are currently evaluating solutions like the one being marketed.

Digital Advertising & Activation

Addressable Advertising

Addressable advertising is the practice of delivering different ads to different households or individuals based on known data, rather than showing the same ad to an entire audience. It lets marketers target specific accounts, decision-makers, or segments with relevant messaging.

Digital Advertising & Activation

Display Advertising

Display advertising is a form of digital advertising that uses visual ad formats — such as banners, images, and rich media — placed on websites, apps, and other digital properties to build awareness and drive engagement.

Digital Advertising & Activation

Connected TV (CTV)

Connected TV (CTV) refers to any television that streams content over the internet, including smart TVs and devices like streaming sticks and consoles. CTV advertising delivers targeted video ads to viewers through these internet-connected streaming environments.

Digital Advertising & Activation

Over-the-Top (OTT) Advertising

Over-the-top (OTT) advertising refers to video advertising delivered through streaming content that bypasses traditional cable or satellite providers, reaching viewers directly over the internet across a range of devices.

Digital Advertising & Activation

Paid Social

Paid social refers to advertising placed on social media platforms, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, or X, to reach a targeted audience based on demographic, firmographic, behavioral, or interest-based data.

Digital Advertising & Activation

Retargeting

Retargeting is a digital advertising tactic that serves ads to people who have previously interacted with a brand, such as visiting a website or engaging with content, in order to bring them back and move them further along the buyer journey.

Digital Advertising & Activation

Lookalike Audience

A lookalike audience is a group of prospects generated by identifying people or accounts that share similar characteristics with an existing, known audience, such as current customers or a target account list.

Digital Advertising & Activation

Media Activation

Media activation is the process of putting audience data to work across advertising channels, connecting a defined audience to the media buys, platforms, and campaigns that reach them.

Measurement & Performance

Marketing Attribution

Marketing attribution is the practice of identifying which marketing touchpoints and channels contributed to a conversion or sale, so marketers can understand what is actually driving results.

Measurement & Performance

Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)

Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) is a metric that measures the revenue generated for every dollar spent on advertising, giving marketers a direct read on media efficiency.

Measurement & Performance

Return on Investment (ROI)

Return on Investment (ROI) measures the overall value generated by marketing activity relative to its total cost, providing a broad view of profitability rather than just media efficiency.

Measurement & Performance

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is the total sales and marketing cost required to acquire a single new customer, calculated by dividing total acquisition spend by the number of customers gained.

Measurement & Performance

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV/LTV)

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV or LTV) is an estimate of the total revenue a business can expect from a single customer over the entire course of their relationship.

Measurement & Performance

Conversion Rate

Conversion rate is the percentage of people who take a desired action, such as filling out a form, requesting a demo, or making a purchase, out of the total number who had the opportunity to do so.

Measurement & Performance

Engagement Rate

Engagement rate measures how actively an audience interacts with marketing content, typically calculated as the percentage of clicks, likes, comments, shares, or other interactions relative to total reach or impressions.

Measurement & Performance

Marketing Performance Measurement

Marketing performance measurement is the ongoing process of tracking, analyzing, and reporting on marketing metrics to evaluate effectiveness and guide strategic decisions.

AI & Marketing Technology

Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Marketing

Artificial intelligence in marketing refers to the use of machine learning, natural language processing, and predictive models to analyze data, automate decisions, and personalize marketing at a scale and speed manual processes cannot match.

AI & Marketing Technology

Predictive Analytics

Predictive analytics uses historical data, statistical models, and machine learning to forecast future outcomes, such as which accounts are most likely to buy, churn, or respond to a given campaign.

AI & Marketing Technology

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is software that stores and organizes information about prospects and customers, tracking interactions across sales, marketing, and service to manage relationships over time.

AI & Marketing Technology

Customer Data Platform (CDP)

A Customer Data Platform (CDP) is software that unifies customer data from multiple sources into a single, persistent profile, making that data accessible to marketing, sales, and other systems for segmentation and activation.

AI & Marketing Technology

Marketing Technology (MarTech)

Marketing technology, or MarTech, refers to the software and tools marketers use to plan, execute, measure, and optimize marketing activities, spanning categories like CRM, automation, analytics, advertising, and content management.

AI & Marketing Technology

Data Clean Room

A data clean room is a secure environment that allows two or more parties to match and analyze their data together for insights or audience activation, without either party directly accessing the other's raw, identifiable data.

Content, Brand & Customer Experience

Content Marketing

Content marketing is the practice of creating and distributing valuable, relevant content — such as articles, videos, guides, and reports — to attract, engage, and build trust with a target audience over time.

Content, Brand & Customer Experience

Thought Leadership

Thought leadership is content and communication that positions an individual or organization as a credible, informed voice on topics relevant to their industry, often by offering original perspective rather than promotional messaging.

Content, Brand & Customer Experience

Brand Awareness

Brand awareness is the degree to which a target audience recognizes and recalls a company or brand, typically measured by familiarity, visibility, and top-of-mind recall within a category.

Content, Brand & Customer Experience

Brand Positioning

Brand positioning is how an organization defines and communicates its distinct place in the market relative to competitors, shaping how target audiences perceive its value and differentiation.

Content, Brand & Customer Experience

Personalization

Personalization is the practice of tailoring marketing messages, content, or experiences to the specific attributes, behaviors, or needs of an individual or account, rather than delivering a generic, one-size-fits-all experience.

Content, Brand & Customer Experience

Omnichannel Marketing

Omnichannel marketing is a strategy that delivers a consistent, connected experience to buyers across multiple channels — such as email, social, display, and in-person events — rather than treating each channel as an isolated effort.

Content, Brand & Customer Experience

Customer Experience (CX)

Customer experience (CX) is the overall impression a customer forms based on every interaction they have with a company, from initial marketing touchpoints through sales, onboarding, and ongoing support.

Content, Brand & Customer Experience

Customer Journey

The customer journey is the complete path a buyer takes from first becoming aware of a company through consideration, purchase, and ongoing use, including every touchpoint along the way.

Leadership & Growth

Marketing Leadership

Marketing leadership is the practice of setting strategic direction for a marketing organization, aligning it to revenue and business goals, and building the team, technology, and processes needed to execute that strategy consistently over time.

Leadership & Growth

Growth Marketing

Growth marketing is a data-driven approach to marketing that focuses on continuous experimentation across the entire customer lifecycle — from acquisition to retention and expansion — rather than optimizing a single channel or campaign in isolation.

Leadership & Growth

Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)

A Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) is the senior executive responsible for an organization's overall marketing strategy, brand, and revenue contribution, overseeing the people, budget, and technology needed to turn that strategy into results.

Leadership & Growth

Marketing Transformation

Marketing transformation is the deliberate process of rebuilding a marketing organization's strategy, technology, and operating model to meet changing customer expectations, competitive pressure, or business goals — rather than making incremental adjustments to what already exists.

Leadership & Growth

Digital Transformation

Digital transformation is the process of integrating digital technology across an organization's operations, culture, and customer experience to fundamentally change how the business creates and delivers value.

Leadership & Growth

Revenue Operations (RevOps)

Revenue Operations (RevOps) is a business function that aligns marketing, sales, and customer success around shared processes, data, and technology to drive predictable revenue growth across the entire customer lifecycle.

Leadership & Growth

Marketing Innovation

Marketing innovation is the deliberate pursuit of new strategies, technologies, channels, or approaches that give an organization a meaningfully different — and more effective — way of reaching and engaging its audience than existing methods.

Leadership & Growth

Customer-Centric Marketing

Customer-centric marketing is an approach that builds strategy, messaging, and experiences around the specific needs, behaviors, and preferences of customers rather than around internal product priorities or generic broad-market messaging.