Digital Technology & Marketing (AQA A Level Business): Flashcards

Content can be designed for each stage of the purchase process. Awareness-building blog posts attract new visitors, in-depth guides build consideration, and case studies and testimonials drive conversion.

A single piece of content, such as a video, can be adapted into blog posts, social media clips, email newsletters and podcast episodes. This maximises the value of the original investment.

When AI sends a returning customer a targeted email featuring content about a product they have viewed, this is an example of personalisation.

AI tools can draft blog posts, newsletters, captions and product descriptions quickly and in large volumes. This reduces the time and cost of content production, which helps businesses with limited marketing teams.

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the process of improving a website's visibility in organic (non-paid) search engine results, so that it appears higher when users search for relevant keywords or phrases.

Off-page SEO is building backlinks, which are links from other reputable websites pointing to the business's site. These signal to search engines that the site is trustworthy and authoritative.

Making sure a website loads quickly, works well on mobile devices and is secure is known as technical SEO.

Users searching for a specific term are actively looking for related information, products or services. These high-intent customers are more likely to buy than audiences reached through untargeted advertising.

False.

Google's AI works out the intent behind a search query, not just the individual keywords. It rewards quality and relevance, so businesses must create genuinely useful, well-written content.

Website cookies are small text files stored on a user's device when they visit a website, recording information about the visit.

Cookies that remain after the browser is closed, remembering preferences and login details for future visits, are persistent cookies.

Third-party cookies are set by external advertisers to track users across multiple websites.

Cookies identify users who visited the site without purchasing. The business can then show targeted adverts to those users elsewhere online, keeping the brand in front of interested consumers.

True.

UK GDPR requires explicit user consent before non-essential cookies are placed, so businesses use consent management tools to automate this process.

Pay per click (PPC) is a form of paid digital advertising in which a business pays a fee each time a user clicks on one of its adverts.

A quality score is a search engine's assessment of the relevance of an advert and its landing page. A higher score achieves a better position at a lower cost.

Unlike SEO, PPC places the business at the top of search results from the moment a campaign launches. This immediate visibility suits time-sensitive promotions.

AI that identifies and filters invalid clicks from bots or competitors, protecting the advertising spend, is known as click fraud detection.

Search performance is how well a business's website appears in search engine results and how many visitors arrive through organic (unpaid) searches.

True.

Algorithm changes by search engines are outside the business's control, so rankings can drop suddenly.

The click-through rate (CTR) is the percentage of people who see a link, advert or search result and actually click on it.

CTR = Number of clicks ÷ Number of impressions × 100

The click-through rate is 2.5% (500 ÷ 20,000 × 100).

On mobile devices, accidental clicks can inflate the click-through rate and give a misleadingly positive result.

A visitor may leave a page open without reading anything, which makes the visit look long. For some websites, a very short visit is a sign of success, such as when someone quickly finds a phone number.

The conversion rate is the percentage of website visitors who complete a specific goal, such as buying a product or signing up to an email list.

Conversion rate = Number of conversions ÷ Total number of visitors × 100

False.

The conversion rate does not show how much each conversion is worth. A low rate made up of high-value purchases may be more profitable than a high rate of small, low-value ones.

Subscriber/user numbers measure the size of the business's audience, such as email subscribers, app users or social media followers. They are often tracked as a growth rate.

A list of thousands of inactive subscribers is less valuable than it looks, because a big audience is not the same as an engaged one.

Advertising revenue is money earned by selling advertising space on a digital platform, such as a website, app or online publication.

Too many adverts can frustrate users and cause them to stop visiting the site. This reduces the very audience the business is selling to advertisers.

Data analytics means collecting and analysing information about customers and marketing activity to make smarter decisions.

Dynamic pricing is when analytics is used to adjust prices automatically in real time based on factors such as current demand, competitor prices and stock levels. This helps maximise revenue.

Customer relationship management (CRM) involves a business focusing its marketing efforts on building a deep understanding of customers, consistently meeting their needs and developing long-term customer loyalty.

Centralising customer information gives every team a complete picture of each customer's history, preferences and behaviour. This helps sales, marketing and customer service teams work more efficiently and consistently.

False.

Keeping loyal customers is usually more cost-effective than attracting new ones. CRM's focus on long-term relationships with existing customers therefore reduces marketing costs.

CRM requires significant investment in staff training, so that employees can use the system and meet customer expectations. It also needs ongoing, expensive customer research to collect, update and analyse customer data.

Attracting interested consumers and converting them into customers is known as customer acquisition.

Customer retention involves encouraging customers to remain loyal to a business and its brands over time.

Happy, loyal customers can refer new customers through word-of-mouth marketing, which is a form of free marketing for the brand.

Customer expansion is the process of encouraging existing customers to increase the value and frequency of their spending over time.

Upselling encourages customers to upgrade to premium products. Cross-selling offers customers a related product or service.

Reaching out to customers who previously showed interest in or bought a product, but have since become disengaged, is customer reactivation.

Lead generation is the process of identifying and attracting potential customers who have shown some interest in a product or service but have not yet made a purchase.

True.

Leads can be scored on their likelihood to convert, so the sales team can prioritise higher-scoring leads.

Pipeline management involves tracking all potential sales opportunities through each stage of the sales process, from initial contact to a completed purchase.

It suggests there is a problem at that stage, such as a price proposal that puts people off or a follow-up process that is too slow. The business can then address the problem.

A business is competitive when it can attract and retain customers more effectively than its rivals.

Digital tools direct marketing spending towards the customers most likely to buy, rather than a mass audience. Businesses that use them well can attract customers more cheaply than rivals relying on traditional advertising.

True.

This speed and flexibility lets a business respond to trends immediately, giving it an advantage over slower-moving rivals.

Digital marketing has levelled the playing field by allowing small businesses to compete with much larger ones without large advertising budgets.

Businesses that use data analytics make better decisions than those relying on instinct. Real-time insight means problems are spotted quickly and opportunities are identified before competitors notice them.

False.

Customers who feel genuinely understood and well-served, through CRM and personalised marketing, are less likely to switch to a competitor, even one offering a slightly lower price.

Digital marketing removes many geographical barriers. A strong e-commerce presence and good SEO can attract customers nationally or internationally without the cost of physical retail expansion.