Marketing, AI and app terms, in plain English.

A

A/B testing #

A controlled experiment that shows two versions of a page, ad or message to comparable audiences at the same time and measures which performs better on one agreed metric. A valid test changes one main variable, runs long enough to reach a reliable sample, and is judged on the business outcome, such as leads or sales, rather than clicks alone.

Marketing Attribution in 2026: Cookies, GA4, MMM and Incrementality

AI agent #

Software that uses a large language model to plan and carry out tasks across tools, for example qualifying a lead, updating a CRM record or booking a slot, rather than only replying to messages. Good agents work inside written limits, log what they do and hand over to a human for exceptions such as complaints, refunds or pricing.

AI Agents for Indian SMEs: What to Automate First, What to Keep Human

AI Overviews #

AI-generated summaries that Google shows at the top of some search results, built from web pages it considers relevant and reliable, with links to those sources. They can answer simple questions without a click, which is why pages now need to be the cited source as well as rank well.

Generative Engine Optimisation: How to Get Cited by AI Search in 2026

Attribution #

The method of assigning credit for a conversion to the marketing touchpoints that led to it, such as an ad, an email or an organic search visit. Common models include last click, data-driven and position-based. No model is perfect, so attribution is best checked against incrementality tests and actual sales.

Marketing Attribution in 2026: Cookies, GA4, MMM and Incrementality

B

Brand architecture #

The structure that defines how a company's brands, sub-brands and products relate to each other and to the parent name. A branded house uses one master brand everywhere; a house of brands runs separate brands; endorsed and hybrid models sit in between. The choice affects naming, design and how trust transfers between products.

Brand strategy at Old Port

Brand guidelines (brand book) #

A reference document that sets how a brand looks and sounds: logo versions and clear space, colours with print and screen values, typography, imagery, tone of voice and real examples of correct use. Its job is consistency when many people and suppliers produce materials.

Logo design and brand identity at Old Port

Brand positioning #

The specific place a brand aims to hold in its buyers' minds relative to the alternatives: who it is for, what problem it solves, how it is different and why that claim is believable. Clear positioning guides every later decision, from naming and design to ad copy and pricing.

A Brand Positioning Framework for Indian Challenger Brands

C

Click-through rate (CTR) #

The percentage of people who click a link, ad or search result after seeing it, calculated as clicks divided by impressions. CTR shows how compelling a message is in context, but a high CTR with few conversions usually means the promise and the landing page do not match.

Click-to-WhatsApp ads #

Meta ads on Facebook or Instagram whose button opens a WhatsApp chat with the business instead of a website. They suit markets like India where buyers prefer to ask questions on WhatsApp, and work best when replies are fast and conversations are tracked back to the ad.

Building a WhatsApp AI Chatbot for an Indian Business in 2026

Conversions API (CAPI) #

Meta's server-to-server connection for sending website, app or offline conversion events directly from a business's server to Meta, instead of relying only on the browser pixel. It improves measurement when browsers block tracking, and should be deduplicated with the pixel and used with proper consent.

Meta Conversions API and Server-Side Tagging, Explained

Core Web Vitals #

Google's three user-experience metrics for page loading, responsiveness and visual stability: Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), Interaction to Next Paint (INP) and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS). Google's published "good" thresholds are LCP within 2.5 seconds, INP of 200 milliseconds or less and CLS of 0.1 or less.

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Cost per acquisition (CPA) #

The average marketing cost of winning one customer or one defined conversion, calculated as spend divided by conversions. It is only meaningful when compared with what a customer is worth, so CPA targets should be set from margin and customer lifetime value, not copied from benchmarks.

How to Set a Marketing Budget in India: Methods and a Worked Example

Cost per lead (CPL) #

The average spend required to generate one enquiry or sign-up. A low CPL can hide poor lead quality, so it should be read alongside the share of leads that become qualified opportunities and paying customers.

Meta Ads in India 2026: Advantage+, Creative Testing and Lead Quality

CRM (customer relationship management) #

Software that keeps every contact, conversation, deal and task with customers and prospects in one place, so a team can follow up on time and see its pipeline. A CRM only works if the team uses it consistently and it connects to the channels where leads arrive, such as forms, calls and WhatsApp.

Choosing a CRM in India: Zoho, HubSpot, Salesforce and 2 More Compared

Customer lifetime value (LTV or CLV) #

The total gross profit a business expects from a customer over the whole relationship. Comparing lifetime value with acquisition cost shows how much a business can afford to spend to win a customer and which channels bring the most valuable ones.

D

Data fiduciary #

Under India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, the person or organisation that decides why and how personal data is processed. A business that collects leads or customer data is usually the data fiduciary and is responsible for valid consent, security, breach notification and honouring people's rights, even when a vendor does the processing.

DPDP Act and Rules: What Indian Marketers Must Change Before May 2027

DPDP Act #

India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, the national law on processing digital personal data, implemented through rules notified by the government. For marketers it means clear notices, specific and freely given consent, purpose limits, easy withdrawal of consent, reasonable security and care with children's data.

DPDP Act and Rules: What Indian Marketers Must Change Before May 2027

E

E-E-A-T #

Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness: the qualities Google's search quality rater guidelines describe for judging content, with trust at the centre. It is not a single ranking factor, but pages that show first-hand experience, named authors, sources and accurate information tend to align with what search systems reward.

Topical Authority: Building a Content Strategy That Ranks in 2026

F

Fine-tuning #

Further training of an existing AI model on a smaller, specific dataset so it follows a particular style, format or behaviour more reliably. Fine-tuning shapes how a model responds; facts that change often are better supplied at answer time through retrieval rather than trained in.

AI solutions and automation at Old Port

First-party data #

Information a business collects directly from its own customers and audiences, such as purchases, enquiries, app activity and email subscriptions, with their permission. It is the most reliable basis for targeting and measurement as third-party tracking becomes less dependable.

Marketing Attribution in 2026: Cookies, GA4, MMM and Incrementality

G

Generative engine optimisation (GEO) #

The practice of making a brand and its content easy for AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews to find, understand, trust and cite. It builds on SEO with answer-first writing, consistent facts about the organisation across the web, structured data, original information and clear sourcing.

Generative Engine Optimisation: How to Get Cited by AI Search in 2026

Google Business Profile #

The free listing that controls how a business appears in Google Maps and local search results, with its address, hours, phone number, photos, reviews and posts. A complete, accurate and active profile is one of the strongest signals for "near me" and city searches.

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L

Large language model (LLM) #

An AI model trained on very large amounts of text to predict and generate language, which lets it answer questions, summarise, draft and follow instructions. LLMs can state wrong information confidently, so business uses need grounding in reliable data, clear limits and human review for important outputs.

AI solutions and automation at Old Port

Lead scoring #

A method of ranking leads by how likely they are to buy, using who they are (fit, such as industry or budget) and what they do (engagement, such as pages viewed or replies). Sales teams use the score to decide who to call first and when to hand a lead from marketing to sales.

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llms.txt #

A proposed plain-text file placed at a website's root that gives AI tools a short, structured guide to the site's most important pages, written in Markdown. It is a voluntary convention, not a standard every AI system reads, so it complements good pages, sitemaps and structured data rather than replacing them.

Generative Engine Optimisation: How to Get Cited by AI Search in 2026

Lookalike audience #

An ad audience that a platform such as Meta builds by finding people who resemble a source list, for example existing customers or high-value leads. The quality of the source list matters more than its size, and lookalikes work best combined with strong creative and accurate conversion tracking.

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M

Marketing automation #

Software and rules that send the right message or task at the right moment without manual work, such as a welcome sequence, a reminder after an abandoned enquiry or an alert to sales when a lead is ready. Automation amplifies whatever process it runs, so the journey must be designed before it is automated.

7 Marketing Automation Workflows Every Service Business Should Run

MarTech stack #

The set of marketing technology a business uses together, typically a CRM, email and WhatsApp messaging, analytics, ad platforms, a website system and automation tools. A good stack is small, connected and owned by someone; a bad one is a pile of subscriptions that do not share data.

The Minimum Viable MarTech Stack for Indian SMEs in 2026

P

Performance Max (PMax) #

A Google Ads campaign type that uses automation to place ads across Search, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail and Maps from one campaign, driven by the advertiser's goals, assets and audience signals. It depends heavily on accurate conversion tracking and good creative inputs.

Performance Max for Small Businesses: When It Works, When It Burns Cash

Progressive web app (PWA) #

A website built with modern web technology so it can be installed on a phone's home screen, load quickly and work partly offline, without going through an app store. PWAs suit many content and commerce use cases; native apps remain stronger for deep device features and store discovery.

PWA vs Native App: When Is a Web App Enough in India?

Prompt injection #

An attack in which text given to an AI system, typed directly or hidden in an email, web page or document, tries to override its instructions, for example to reveal private data or say something false. Defences include treating pasted content as data, limiting what the AI can do, filtering outputs and keeping humans in charge of risky actions.

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R

Retargeting (remarketing) #

Showing ads to people who have already interacted with a brand, such as visiting a page, watching a video or adding to cart. It usually converts better than cold targeting but needs frequency limits, fresh creative and consent-aware tracking to avoid wasting budget or annoying people.

Meta Ads in India 2026: Advantage+, Creative Testing and Lead Quality

Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) #

A technique in which an AI system first retrieves relevant passages from a trusted source, such as a company's own documents or website, and then generates its answer from them. It keeps answers current and grounded without retraining the model, and lets the system cite where an answer came from.

AI solutions and automation at Old Port

Return on ad spend (ROAS) #

Revenue attributed to advertising divided by the money spent on it; a ROAS of 4 means four rupees of revenue per rupee of spend. Because it ignores product costs and other expenses, a campaign needs a ROAS above its break-even point, which depends on margin, to be profitable.

How to Set a Marketing Budget in India: Methods and a Worked Example

S

Schema markup (structured data) #

Code added to a web page, usually as JSON-LD using the Schema.org vocabulary, that states facts in machine-readable form: what an organisation is, who wrote an article, what a product costs or which questions a page answers. It helps search engines and AI systems understand pages and can enable rich results.

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Search engine optimisation (SEO) #

The work of making a website easy for search engines to crawl, understand and trust, and genuinely useful for the people searching, so it earns visibility for relevant queries without paying per click. It spans technical health, content that answers real questions, internal linking and reputation across the web.

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Server-side tracking #

Sending analytics and conversion events from a server the business controls, rather than only from scripts in the visitor's browser. It improves data reliability and control over what is shared with ad platforms, and must still respect consent and privacy law.

Meta Conversions API and Server-Side Tagging, Explained

T

Topical authority #

The degree to which a website covers a subject thoroughly and reliably enough that search engines and readers treat it as a go-to source. It is built through connected, well-sourced content that answers the full range of questions in a topic, linked together sensibly, rather than through isolated posts.

Topical Authority: Building a Content Strategy That Ranks in 2026

U

UTM parameters #

Tags added to the end of a link, such as utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign, that tell analytics tools where a visit came from. Consistent, lowercase naming across the team is what makes UTM data usable for comparing channels and campaigns.

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W

WhatsApp Business Platform (WhatsApp API) #

Meta's business messaging service for medium and large companies, used through a provider or directly, that supports automated replies, chatbots, CRM integration and approved template messages at scale. Meta charges per message for template messages and, since October 2026, for some messages inside the customer service window too; rates change often, and messages need the customer's opt-in.

Building a WhatsApp AI Chatbot for an Indian Business in 2026

Definitions reviewed 5 Nov 2026. Figures and platform rules change; the linked guides carry dated sources.