Dotidot glossary
Know your data, ads and AI
Clear definitions for product data, paid advertising, measurement and AI commerce. Explore the meaning, see an example and check the sources.
Product data
18 terms
Custom labels
Merchant-defined product attributes used to group items by business criteria for advertising reporting and campaign organization.
Read definitionDirect-to-consumer (DTC)
A business model in which a brand sells its products directly to end customers instead of through an independent retailer or wholesaler.
Read definitionGoogle Merchant Center
Google’s service for providing and managing business and product information used in shopping experiences, including free listings and product advertising.
Read definitionGoogle Shopping Graph
Google's machine-learning-powered collection of information about products, sellers and offers that supports its shopping experiences.
Read definitionGTIN
A Global Trade Item Number is a standardized identifier for a trade item, allowing different businesses to recognize the same product.
Read definitionItem ID
A stable identifier for a particular product record in your catalog or a destination system, including an individual product variant.
Read definitionJSON-LD
A JSON-based format for expressing linked data, using a context to connect property names and values to shared meanings.
Read definitionMerchant
A person or business that sells goods or services to customers and accepts payment for them.
Read definitionProduct attribute
A named field that describes one aspect of a product, such as its color, material, price, or availability.
Read definitionProduct catalog
An organized collection of product information that describes what a business offers, including product identities, attributes, variants and commercial details.
Read definitionProduct data enrichment
The process of adding verified detail or useful structure to product records so customers and downstream systems can understand them more accurately.
Read definitionProduct feed
A structured set of product records used to send catalog information to advertising channels, marketplaces, or comparison services.
Read definitionProduct feed management
The ongoing process of preparing, transforming, delivering and checking product data for advertising channels, marketplaces and other destinations.
Read definitionProduct segmentation
The process of dividing a product assortment into groups using shared attributes, business rules or measured performance.
Read definitionProduct structured data
Machine-readable information embedded on a product page that describes the product, its offers and related details using a supported structured vocabulary.
Read definitionProduct variant
A specific version of a product that differs in an attribute such as size, color or material and can be offered separately.
Read definitionSchema.org
A shared vocabulary of types and properties used to describe entities and their relationships in structured data on the web.
Read definitionSKU (stock keeping unit)
An internal code a business assigns to a sellable product or variant to organize inventory, fulfillment and sales reporting.
Read definition
Paid advertising
32 terms
Ad fraud
Deliberate deception that generates or misrepresents advertising activity to obtain money or other unfair benefit.
Read definitionAd Rank
Google Ads values used to determine whether an advertisement can appear and how it ranks relative to other eligible advertisements.
Read definitionAmazon advertising strategy
A plan for choosing Amazon Ads products, audiences, budgets, and measurements to support a defined business goal.
Read definitionAmazon targeting
The settings Amazon advertisers use to make ads eligible for relevant searches, products, or audiences.
Read definitionBid optimization
The process of adjusting advertising bids or bidding targets to improve results against a chosen objective and budget.
Read definitionCampaign automation
The use of rules, scripts, or platform systems to create, update, or manage advertising campaigns from defined inputs.
Read definitionCross-channel advertising
The coordination of paid campaigns across multiple channels so their messages, audiences, and measurement support a shared goal.
Read definitionDayparting
The practice of restricting ad delivery or adjusting eligible bids for selected hours and days.
Read definitionDemand-side platform (DSP)
Software that lets advertisers manage and buy digital advertising inventory across multiple sources through automated processes.
Read definitionDynamic product ads
Advertisements assembled from product catalog data so the displayed items and offer details can vary by context or audience.
Read definitionDynamic Search Ads
Search advertisements that use website content to match searches and generate relevant headlines and landing-page selections.
Read definitionE-commerce advertising
Paid promotion intended to help shoppers discover products and complete purchases through an online retail business.
Read definitionGoogle Ads keyword match types
The broad, phrase, and exact settings that control how a Google Ads keyword can match the meaning of a search.
Read definitionGoogle Shopping
Google’s product discovery experience, where eligible product listings can appear through free and paid shopping placements.
Read definitionKeyword harvesting
The practice of finding useful search queries in campaign results and evaluating them for explicit keyword targeting.
Read definitionLookalike audience percentage
A size setting for a modeled audience that trades a narrower similarity match against a broader potential audience.
Read definitionMeta ads
Paid advertisements delivered through Meta’s advertising systems, including placements on Facebook and Instagram.
Read definitionMicrosoft Ads
Microsoft’s advertising platform for campaigns across its search and other eligible advertising inventory.
Read definitionOmnichannel marketing
An approach that connects a business’s marketing and customer touchpoints into a consistent experience across channels.
Read definitionPaid social advertising
Advertising purchased on social platforms to distribute messages or product offers toward a selected business objective.
Read definitionPerformance Max
A Google Ads campaign type that uses goals, creative assets, and other advertiser inputs to optimize delivery across eligible Google inventory.
Read definitionPinterest advertising
Paid promotion on Pinterest using supported ad formats and campaign objectives to reach people discovering ideas and products.
Read definitionProgrammatic advertising
The automated buying and selling of digital advertising inventory using software and predefined campaign parameters.
Read definitionRetail media
Advertising connected to a retailer’s inventory, shopping environment, or data, across onsite, offsite, and in-store placements.
Read definitionRetail media network
A retailer’s advertising business and supporting infrastructure for offering placements, audience access, and campaign measurement to brands.
Read definitionRetargeting
Advertising aimed at people who have already interacted with a business, such as visiting its website or using its app.
Read definitionSearch advertising
Paid advertising that becomes eligible to appear in response to searches relevant to the advertiser’s offering.
Read definitionSearch engine marketing (SEM)
Marketing that increases a business’s visibility in search results, commonly used to describe paid search campaigns.
Read definitionShopper marketing
Marketing designed around how people choose and buy products within a shopping journey or retail environment.
Read definitionSmart Bidding
Google Ads bidding strategies that use auction-time prediction to optimize for conversions or conversion value.
Read definitionWalmart advertising
Advertising offered through Walmart Connect to reach shoppers using supported search, display, and other retail media placements.
Read definitionYouTube advertising
Paid advertising on YouTube using eligible video and other placements through Google’s advertising systems.
Read definition
Measurement and analytics
25 terms
A/B testing
A controlled experiment that compares alternatives by assigning eligible participants to different versions and measuring a predefined outcome.
Read definitionAd tracking
The collection of information about ad delivery, interactions and subsequent actions so advertising activity can be measured and analyzed.
Read definitionAOV (average order value)
The average value of an order, calculated by dividing the specified order revenue by the number of included orders during the same period.
Read definitionAttribution
The process of assigning credit for a conversion or its value to eligible marketing interactions according to a defined model and measurement scope.
Read definitionBrand awareness
The extent to which people in a defined audience recognize or recall a brand.
Read definitionClick ID
An identifier attached to an advertising click so a measurement system can associate that interaction with related activity or conversions.
Read definitionConversion rate
A percentage that relates recorded conversions or converting units to the eligible interactions, sessions or users defined by the measurement method.
Read definitionConversion tracking
The measurement of defined business actions, such as completed purchases or qualified leads, and their connection to eligible advertising interactions.
Read definitionConversion window
The period after an eligible ad interaction during which a subsequent outcome can be counted as a conversion under the selected measurement settings.
Read definitionCPA (cost per action)
Advertising cost divided by the number of recorded actions chosen as conversions, using a consistent outcome definition and reporting scope.
Read definitionCPC (cost per click)
The cost of an advertising click; average CPC divides the total cost of clicks by the number of clicks in the same reporting scope.
Read definitionCPM (cost per thousand impressions)
The advertising cost associated with 1,000 impressions, calculated by dividing spend by impressions and multiplying by 1,000.
Read definitionCTR (click-through rate)
The percentage relationship between recorded clicks and impressions for an ad, listing or other measured item in a defined reporting scope.
Read definitionEnhanced conversions
A Google Ads measurement feature that supplements conversion data with first-party customer information, using supported matching methods including hashed identifiers.
Read definitionGCLID (Google Click Identifier)
The Google Click Identifier used in supported Google Ads auto-tagging and conversion workflows to connect an ad interaction with subsequent measurement.
Read definitionGoogle Analytics 4 (GA4)
Google’s analytics system for measuring website and app activity through events and using that data in reports, explorations and connected measurement workflows.
Read definitionGoogle Tag Manager
A tag management system for configuring and deploying measurement and other supported tags through containers, triggers and variables.
Read definitionIncrementality testing
A controlled measurement approach that estimates the additional outcomes caused by an intervention compared with what would have happened without it.
Read definitionKPI (key performance indicator)
A selected measure used to evaluate progress toward a defined business objective over an agreed period.
Read definitionLead
A potential customer identified through an expression of interest or another relevant business contact, before a purchase is confirmed.
Read definitionMulti-touch attribution (MTA)
An attribution approach that distributes conversion or revenue credit across multiple observed marketing interactions in a customer journey.
Read definitionROAS (return on ad spend)
Attributed conversion value divided by advertising spend, commonly expressed as a ratio or percentage for a defined reporting scope.
Read definitionShare of voice
A measure of a brand’s visibility relative to a defined set of opportunities or competing visibility, using an explicitly chosen metric and scope.
Read definitionTracking pixel
A measurement mechanism embedded in a digital experience that sends information about a page view or other supported event to a receiving service.
Read definitionUTM tracking
The use of UTM query parameters on campaign links to describe where traffic came from and how it should be categorized in analytics.
Read definition
AI commerce
17 terms
Agentic commerce
Commerce in which an AI agent carries out shopping steps on a person’s behalf, within the capabilities and permissions of the service.
Read definitionAgentic Commerce Protocol (ACP)
An open specification for programmatic commerce interactions between buyers, AI agents, merchants, and payment providers.
Read definitionAI commerce
The use of artificial intelligence in commerce, including product discovery, recommendations, customer service, and business operations.
Read definitionAI product recommendations
Product suggestions selected using AI models and available signals, such as product attributes, customer interactions, or a stated shopping need.
Read definitionAI shopping
Using AI-powered experiences to explore products, compare options, and receive help with a purchase decision or supported shopping step.
Read definitionAI shopping agent
An AI system that uses connected tools to carry out shopping tasks for a user, such as finding offers or preparing an authorized purchase.
Read definitionAI shopping assistant
An AI-powered interface that helps shoppers research products, answer questions, and compare options, without necessarily placing orders.
Read definitionAlexa for Shopping
Amazon’s shopping assistant, formerly called Rufus, which helps customers research products and use supported shopping actions.
Read definitionChatGPT product feed
Structured merchant catalog data supplied to OpenAI under its product-feed specification for shopping-related product discovery in ChatGPT.
Read definitionChatGPT Shopping
Shopping-related experiences in ChatGPT that help users discover products and evaluate available product information within a conversation.
Read definitionConversational commerce
Using a back-and-forth conversation to help customers discover products, resolve purchase questions, or progress through an order.
Read definitionGoogle AI Mode
A Google Search experience that provides AI-generated responses and supports follow-up questions with links to information on the web.
Read definitionGoogle AI Overviews
AI-generated summaries shown for some Google searches, with key information and links that let users explore supporting material.
Read definitionInstant checkout
A shortened purchase flow that lets a buyer complete a supported order within the interface where they discovered the product.
Read definitionPerplexity Shopping
Perplexity’s shopping experiences for researching products, comparing information, and using supported purchase options within its interface.
Read definitionProduct feed optimization for AI shopping
Improving the accuracy, completeness, and destination-specific formatting of product data supplied to AI shopping experiences.
Read definitionUniversal Commerce Protocol (UCP)
An open commerce protocol for discovering and using compatible capabilities across platforms, businesses, and payment-related services.
Read definition
Search and AI visibility
14 terms
AI brand mention
An identifiable reference to a brand in an AI-generated answer, whether or not the answer links to the brand or recommends it.
Read definitionAI citation
A reference in an AI-generated answer that identifies a source, commonly through a clickable link to a supporting page.
Read definitionAI crawlability
The ability of the intended AI-related crawler to discover and retrieve a website’s relevant content under its access rules.
Read definitionAI crawler
An automated client that retrieves web content for an AI-related service, such as search indexing or potential model training.
Read definitionAI share of voice
A measure of a brand’s presence relative to other brands within a defined sample of AI-generated answers.
Read definitionAI traffic attribution
Identifying visits from AI services and assigning conversion credit using the traffic data and attribution rules available to an analytics system.
Read definitionAI visibility
How a brand, product, or website appears in the AI-generated answers and search experiences being observed.
Read definitionAnswer engine optimization (AEO)
Work aimed at making useful content discoverable and suitable for direct answers in search and AI-powered answer experiences.
Read definitionGenerative engine optimization (GEO)
Work intended to improve how content or brands are discovered, represented, and cited in answers produced by generative search systems.
Read definitionllms.txt
A proposed Markdown file format for providing concise website guidance and links that AI applications can use when accessing a site.
Read definitionPrompt monitoring
Repeatedly collecting and reviewing AI responses to selected prompts to track changes in mentions, citations, and other outcomes.
Read definitionPrompt research
Research into the questions and instructions people use, or are likely to use, when exploring a topic through AI systems.
Read definitionrobots.txt
A website file that communicates path-based crawling rules to automated clients that follow the Robots Exclusion Protocol.
Read definitionSearch engine optimization (SEO)
Improving a website so search engines can understand its content and people can discover relevant pages through unpaid search results.
Read definition
Practical AI foundations
6 terms
Agentic AI
AI systems that select and carry out steps toward a task, using available tools and feedback within defined permissions.
Read definitionGrounding
Connecting an AI response to identifiable information sources so its factual claims can be checked against evidence.
Read definitionModel Context Protocol (MCP)
An open protocol that gives AI applications a common interface for accessing external tools, data, and other capabilities.
Read definitionPrompt
The input that tells an AI system what to produce or do, including a question, instructions, context, or supplied material.
Read definitionQuery fan-out
A search technique that generates several related queries from one request to retrieve information across its different aspects.
Read definitionRetrieval-augmented generation (RAG)
A method that supplies retrieved information to a generative model so its response can use relevant external material.
Read definition