Glossary
Definitions for the vocabulary of modern reporting.
64 terms across SaaS metrics, marketing, product, finance, reporting frameworks, and SEO/AEO/GEO vocabulary. Short definitions for fast reference, deeper context on each entry page.
SaaS
- ARPA (Average Revenue Per Account)Revenue per account.
- ARPU (Average Revenue Per User)Revenue per user in the period.
- ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue)MRR multiplied by twelve.
- CAC Payback PeriodMonths to recover a customer's acquisition cost.
- Committed ARRContracted ARR minus churn risk.
- Contracted ARRARR under signed contract.
- Expansion MRRMRR growth from existing customers.
- Gross ChurnAll revenue lost, excluding expansion offsets.
- GRR (Gross Revenue Retention)NRR without the expansion offset.
- Logo ChurnPercentage of customers lost per period.
- LTV (Lifetime Value)Expected revenue per customer before churn.
- LTV/CAC RatioA health ratio for subscription economics.
- Magic NumberNet new ARR over prior-period S&M spend.
- MoM GrowthMonth-over-month percentage change.
- MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue)Predictable monthly subscription revenue.
- Net ChurnGross churn minus expansion.
- NRR (Net Revenue Retention)Revenue retained from a starting cohort including expansion.
- Quick Ratio (SaaS)Growth over loss.
- Revenue ChurnPercentage of revenue lost per period.
- Rule of 40Growth rate plus profit margin should exceed 40%.
- YoY GrowthYear-over-year percentage change.
Marketing
- AttributionAssigning conversion credit to touchpoints.
- Attribution WindowTime range for crediting touchpoints.
- Blended CACAll S&M spend over all new customers.
- CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)Sales and marketing spend per new customer.
- CPA (Cost Per Acquisition)Ad cost per acquired customer.
- CPC (Cost Per Click)Advertising cost per paid click.
- Paid CACPaid S&M spend over paid-acquired customers.
- ROAS (Return on Ad Spend)Revenue from ads divided by ad spend.
Product
- Activation RateShare of new users who hit the activation event.
- Cohort RetentionShare of a starting cohort still active later.
- DAU (Daily Active Users)Unique users active in a single day.
- DAU/MAU (Stickiness)Daily active divided by monthly active users.
- Funnel Conversion RateEnd-to-end completion rate of a funnel.
- MAU (Monthly Active Users)Unique users active in a rolling month.
- MCP (Model Context Protocol)Open protocol for AI tool use.
- North Star MetricThe single metric that captures delivered value.
- NPS (Net Promoter Score)Promoters minus detractors, on an 11-point scale.
- RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation)LLM pattern with retrieval grounding.
- WAU (Weekly Active Users)Unique users active in a rolling week.
Finance
- Bookings vs RevenueSigned contracts vs delivered revenue.
- Burn MultipleNet burn divided by net new ARR.
- Burn RateNet monthly cash consumption.
- Deferred RevenueRevenue collected but not yet recognized.
- Gross MarginRevenue minus COGS, divided by revenue.
- Payback PeriodTime to recover an investment.
- RunwayMonths of cash remaining at current burn.
SEO & AEO
- AEO (Answer Engine Optimization)Optimization for direct answers.
- ai.txtA machine-readable AI dataset usage policy.
- AIEO (AI Engine Optimization)Umbrella for AI visibility.
- Canonical URLPreferred URL for duplicate content.
- Core Web VitalsGoogle's page experience metrics.
- E-E-A-TExperience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness.
- GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)Optimization for generative AI answers.
- JSON-LDJSON format for structured data.
- llms.txtA plain-text site summary for LLMs.
- Schema.orgVocabulary of structured data types.
- SEO (Search Engine Optimization)Optimization for classical search engines.
- SGE (Search Generative Experience)Google's AI-generated answer layer.
Reporting
- Input MetricAn action the team controls directly.
- KPI (Key Performance Indicator)An ongoing metric tied to a business outcome.
- Lagging IndicatorA metric that reflects historical performance.
- Leading IndicatorA predictive signal for future outcomes.
- OKR (Objectives and Key Results)Goal framework pairing objective with measurable results.