App Marketing Glossary: 100 Key Terms App Growth Agency

You’re reading App Marketing Glossary: 100 Terms You Must Know. If you lead or hire an app growth agency, this compact glossary gives your team a shared language for faster planning, clearer briefs, and stronger results.

How to Use This Glossary for Faster Wins

Clarity speeds execution. When product, design, analytics, and marketing share the same terms, roadmaps move faster and meetings shrink. Therefore, use this glossary to align briefs, dashboards, and sprint goals.

In our work with clients across fintech, health, and education, we see the same hurdle. Teams debate definitions instead of solving growth constraints. Consequently, we start every engagement by standardizing vocabulary, then we map metrics to actions.

Choosing a mobile app growth partner

The right partner explains trade-offs in plain language and documents every assumption. Moreover, they connect words to numbers, and numbers to experiments. Finally, they share benchmarks, but they never promise certainties.

Red flags to avoid

Beware of vague dashboards, one-size-fits-all playbooks, and vanity metrics. Instead, ask for hypotheses, lift goals, test cadence, and decision criteria.

App Growth Agency Essentials: The Big-Picture Terms

Start with the strategy words that frame your roadmap. Importantly, these terms anchor goals, channels, and budgets. We use them in every kickoff to build a shared mental model.

1. North Star Metric — single metric that reflects long-term value.
2. Growth Loop — system where outputs feed future inputs.
3. Funnel — sequential stages from impression to revenue.
4. Pirate Metrics (AARRR) — acquisition, activation, retention, revenue, referral.
5. Activation — first moment a user experiences core value.
6. Onboarding — guided steps that lead users to activation.
7. Time to Value — how fast a user reaches meaningful outcome.
8. Value Proposition — clear promise that differentiates your app.
9. ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) — audience with highest fit and value.
10. JTBD (Jobs to Be Done) — task users hire your app to solve.
11. Cohort — users grouped by shared start date or trait.
12. Segment — audience slice based on behavior or attributes.
13. Growth Model — formula that links levers to output metrics.
14. Forecast — projection based on assumptions and constraints.
15. Experiment — structured test with a hypothesis and success metric.
16. Roadmap — prioritized experiments with owners and timelines.
17. OKRs — objectives and measurable key results for alignment.
18. KPI — key performance indicator that tracks progress.
19. Benchmark — reference performance for context and planning.
20. Attribution — method to credit a channel for conversions.
21. MMM (Media Mix Modeling) — statistical approach to budget allocation.
22. Lift — performance improvement versus a control or baseline.
23. Incrementality — conversions caused by a tactic minus natural demand.
24. Creative Strategy — framework for messages, angles, and formats.
25. Message-Market Fit — resonance between copy and audience needs.
26. Offer — incentive or package that compels action.
27. Landing Page — destination designed to drive conversions.
28. App Store Listing — metadata, screenshots, and video that convert.
29. Competition Set — apps that fight for the same demand.
30. Differentiation — unique features or benefits users can feel.

One definitional fact matters for creatives and ASO. Apple allows up to 30 characters for the App Name on product pages, as documented in Apple’s App Store product page guidance. Because of this, concise naming and front-loaded keywords often perform better.

Acquisition, ASO, and Ads: Core Metrics and Acronyms

Next, move into traffic and install language. For accuracy on ads automation, Google explains how App campaigns work across Search, YouTube, and Display in its documentation; review their overview in Google Ads App campaigns help.

31. Impression — count of ad or listing views.
32. Reach — unique users who saw your message.
33. Frequency — average impressions per unique user.
34. Click-Through Rate (CTR) — clicks divided by impressions.
35. Tap-Through Rate (TTR) — taps divided by impressions in app stores.
36. CVR (Conversion Rate) — installs divided by clicks or store visits.
37. Install — app download completed and opened.
38. First Open — first launch event recorded by analytics.
39. Cost Per Mille (CPM) — cost per 1,000 impressions.
40. Cost Per Click (CPC) — cost per ad click.
41. Cost Per Tap (CPT) — cost per store tap.
42. Cost Per Install (CPI) — cost divided by installs.
43. Effective CPI (eCPI) — blended CPI across channels.
44. Apple Search Ads (ASA) — ads shown on App Store search.
45. UAC/ACA — Google App campaigns that automate placements.
46. Keyword Match Type — exact, phrase, or broad for ASA.
47. Search Popularity — relative demand score for a term.
48. Visibility — how often your app appears for searches.
49. Share of Voice — your impression share in a channel.
50. ASA TTR — taps divided by ad impressions in search.
51. Creative Set — screenshot group targeted to a keyword.
52. Store Listing Experiments — A/B tests for Play Store assets.
53. Custom Product Page — tailored App Store page for an audience.
54. In-App Event — App Store card promoting an event or feature.
55. Promo Text — editable text on App Store; not indexed.
56. Subtitle — App Store field; indexable and visible.
57. Short Description — Play Store field that influences conversions.
58. Long Description — keyword-rich copy for Play Store indexing.
59. App Icon — primary visual identity in stores.
60. Feature Graphic — Play Store banner for promotional slots.
61. Publisher Account — developer identity that owns the app.
62. Ad Set/Ad Group — container for ads sharing targeting.
63. SKAdNetwork (SKAN) — Apple’s privacy-safe attribution framework.
64. Conversion Value — SKAN signal summarizing post-install behavior.
65. Postback — SKAN report sent to ad networks and advertisers.
66. Privacy Threshold — minimum installs before SKAN reports detail.
67. Deep Link — URL that opens to a specific in-app screen.
68. Deferred Deep Link — link that routes after install completes.
69. Universal Link/App Link — system-level deep linking standards.
70. UTM Parameters — query tags that encode campaign data.

Apple’s SKAdNetwork continues to evolve. Notably, SKAN 4 introduced multiple postbacks and coarse conversion values, as described in Apple’s SKAdNetwork documentation. Therefore, marketers should map conversion windows to early, mid, and late signals.

When to work with an app growth agency

Bring in an app growth agency when experiments stall, metrics confuse teams, or paid media scales faster than analytics maturity. In addition, partner when you need cross-functional execution, from ASO to creative iteration to measurement.

Retention, Monetization, and Analytics: Speak in Outcomes

Acquisition matters, yet durable apps win with retention and revenue. As a result, your glossary must cover cohorts, LTV, and monetization mechanics.

71. DAU — daily active users who trigger a key event.
72. WAU/MAU — weekly or monthly active users.
73. Stickiness — DAU divided by MAU, signals habit strength.
74. Retention Rate — percent of users active after N days.
75. Churn Rate — percent of users who stop being active.
76. Reactivation — returning lapsed users to active use.
77. Session — continuous period of app usage.
78. Session Length — duration from open to close.
79. Engagement Rate — share of users who complete key actions.
80. Feature Adoption — percent using a new capability.
81. Push Opt-In — share allowing push notifications.
82. Open Rate — percent opening a push or email.
83. Click Rate — percent tapping a message CTA.
84. Uninstall Rate — share removing the app in a window.
85. ARPDAU — average revenue per daily active user.
86. ARPU — average revenue per user in a period.
87. ARPPU — revenue per paying user; excludes non-payers.
88. LTV — total revenue forecast from a user or cohort.
89. Payback Period — time until revenue covers acquisition cost.
90. Subscription — recurring revenue model with renewal cycles.
91. Trial — time-limited access that converts to paid.
92. Intro Offer — discounted period for first-time subscribers.
93. Freemium — free tier with optional paid features.
94. In-App Purchase (IAP) — one-time or consumable purchase.
95. Ad Monetization — revenue from in-app advertising.
96. eCPM — effective revenue per 1,000 ad impressions.
97. Waterfall — prioritized ad network serving order.
98. Bidding — real-time auction for ad impressions.
99. Fill Rate — served ads divided by ad requests.
100. Viewability — percent of ad pixels in view for time.
101. Mediation — platform optimizing across multiple ad networks.
102. Predictive LTV — machine learning estimate of future value.
103. Event Taxonomy — standardized names for tracked actions.
104. Source/Medium — acquisition labels used in analytics.
105. Funnel Drop-off — stage where users stop progressing.
106. Path Analysis — sequence of events before a goal.
107. RFM — recency, frequency, monetary segmentation model.
108. Radar Chart — visual comparing features or segments.
109. Anomaly Detection — flagging unusual metric shifts.
110. Experiment Scorecard — template that records test outcomes.

For ad measurement, use a reliable definition. The IAB viewability standard defines a viewable display impression as 50% of pixels in view for one second, and two seconds for video. Consequently, align your mediation rules with that baseline to avoid miscounting performance.

From term to tactic: turning language into action

Words only help when you connect them to decisions. First, choose one growth model and one North Star Metric. Next, tag every experiment with inputs, outputs, and expected lift. Then, centralize reporting in a single dashboard.

A quick checklist to apply the glossary

• Translate KPIs into weekly targets and owners.
• Map events to revenue for clean LTV math.
• Design creative tests that isolate message and format.
• Run ASO updates alongside paid bursts for compounding effects.
• Review cohorts every week, and cut weak channels fast.

Additionally, pair this glossary with deep-dive reading on platforms. For instance, compare the Google overview above with Apple’s SKAdNetwork guides to understand privacy constraints. Then, decide what to track inside your MMP and what to estimate with modeling.

If you need a hands-on partner to operationalize these ideas, our team at AppFillip builds AI-powered acquisition, ASO, and analytics systems. Importantly, we adapt playbooks to your model, whether you monetize by ads, IAP, or subscriptions.

Finally, remember that every app and market behaves differently. Results vary because creatives, ICPs, and algorithms shift. Therefore, keep testing, record learning, and tie every win back to one or more glossary terms so your organization scales knowledge.

When you are ready to streamline briefs, unify dashboards, and accelerate outcomes with an experienced app growth agency, talk to us. As practitioners, we turn language into lift across acquisition, retention, and monetization with measured, data-driven steps. Visit the AppFillip homepage to explore how we support sustainable growth.