Contrast glossary
Acquisition terms, explained twice.
Each term has two readings: first what it means for a business owner, then the precise meaning Contrast gives it in its engagements. Terms are grouped by stage: measure, attract, convert, and the specific case of real estate.
Last updated ·
Measuring what produces clients
Attribution
- In plain terms
- Knowing where each enquiry and each client comes from: which ad, which search, which channel.
- Technical meaning
- Attribution links a sales event (form, call, sale) to the source that triggered it, by combining URL parameters, click identifiers and CRM data. Contrast sets it up before the first campaign, in the browser and on the server, so that the budget is managed on signed clients rather than clicks.
MER · Marketing Efficiency Ratio
- In plain terms
- Total revenue divided by total marketing spend over a given period.
- Technical meaning
- Unlike ROAS, MER does not try to attribute each sale to an ad; it measures whether the whole setup brings in more than it costs. It is the indicator Contrast favours for companies present on several channels, because it withstands the limits of attribution and signal loss.
ROAS · Return On Ad Spend
- In plain terms
- For each franc spent on advertising, how many francs of revenue came back.
- Technical meaning
- A ratio calculated by advertising platforms from the conversions they attribute to themselves. Useful for comparing campaigns, misleading for judging a whole setup: each platform counts its own conversions and ignores margin. Contrast reads it campaign by campaign and complements it with MER and cost per client.
Cost per enquiry
- In plain terms
- What it costs, on average, for one person to contact you after a campaign.
- Technical meaning
- Ad spend divided by the number of incoming enquiries (form, call, booking). Contrast always distinguishes raw enquiries from qualified enquiries, meaning those that match the target client. A low cost per enquiry is worthless if enquiries do not become clients.
Customer acquisition cost · CAC
- In plain terms
- What you need to spend, all in, to win a new client.
- Technical meaning
- Total marketing and sales spend over a period, divided by the number of new clients signed. To be compared with the margin a client brings over the relationship. It is the figure that decides whether a campaign deserves more budget, and it is only readable with attribution connected to the CRM.
Enhanced Conversions
- In plain terms
- A way of helping Google Ads recognise that a person who clicked became a client, even when cookies are no longer enough.
- Technical meaning
- Sending Google, in hashed form, data the visitor entered themselves (email, phone) to match a conversion to a click. It improves measurement and bidding. Contrast enables it with the user's consent and in line with the Swiss nFADP.
CAPI · Conversions API
- In plain terms
- Meta's equivalent of Enhanced Conversions: sending conversions from the server rather than the browser.
- Technical meaning
- A server-to-server connection between the website (or CRM) and Meta, which complements the pixel blocked by browsers and ad blockers. It also reports events the pixel never sees, such as a confirmed meeting or a signed sale. Contrast sets it up server-side for every Meta account it runs.
GA4 · Google Analytics 4
- In plain terms
- Google's audience measurement tool, the one that tells you how many people visit the site and what they do there.
- Technical meaning
- An event-based model rather than a page-view model. Contrast uses it to read journeys and sources, never as the commercial source of truth: the number of clients comes from the CRM. Always configured with Consent Mode and a measurement plan written before implementation.
Consent Mode
- In plain terms
- The mechanism that adapts Google's measurement to the choice the visitor made on the cookie banner.
- Technical meaning
- Google tags receive the consent state (granted or denied) and adjust what they collect. If consent is denied, only signals without identifiers are sent, and Google models part of the missing conversions. Contrast connects it to the site's banner so measurement stays usable without bypassing the visitor's choice.
Attracting the right people
Google Ads · Search
- In plain terms
- The ads that appear at the top of Google when someone types a search.
- Technical meaning
- Buying visibility on keywords, billed per click, with bids adjusted to the expected value of each search. A capture channel: it addresses demand that already exists. Contrast builds it with tight ad groups, one landing page per intent and conversions reported back to the CRM.
Meta Ads
- In plain terms
- Ads shown on Facebook and Instagram to people who are not searching for anything at that moment.
- Technical meaning
- A demand-creation channel: targeting is based on profile, behaviour and similarity to existing clients, and the algorithm learns from the conversions sent back through the pixel and CAPI. Contrast uses it first for launches and offers nobody is searching for yet, such as a new residential development.
Performance Max
- In plain terms
- A Google campaign type that runs everywhere (search, YouTube, Gmail, Maps, partner sites) from a set of visuals and texts.
- Technical meaning
- A campaign driven by Google's automation, which decides alone where and to whom to show ads. Effective when conversion signals are clean and plentiful, opaque otherwise. Contrast only activates it after a stable Search campaign, with brand exclusions and quality conversions, never as a first channel.
Remarketing
- In plain terms
- Showing an ad to someone who has already visited your website without contacting you.
- Technical meaning
- Audiences built from visitors, readers of a specific page or CRM contacts, re-engaged on Google, Meta or YouTube with a message adapted to what they have already seen. Contrast uses it with a frequency cap and a short duration: a useful reminder, not a pursuit.
SEO · search engine optimisation
- In plain terms
- Making your website appear in Google's results without paying for each click.
- Technical meaning
- Work on three levels: the site's technical readability, content that answers searches with commercial value, and authority (links, mentions, local listings). Contrast measures it by the enquiries generated, not by rankings, and connects it to local SEO for an SME whose clients are in one canton.
GEO · Generative Engine Optimization
- In plain terms
- Being cited in the answers of assistants such as ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google's AI Mode when someone asks them a question about your field.
- Technical meaning
- These engines favour pages that answer a question directly, with dated, sourced facts, a clear entity (who writes, where, for whom) and mentions on third-party sites. GEO extends SEO: the same foundations, but content structured as short answers, definitions, verifiable figures and a visible author identity.
Local SEO
- In plain terms
- Appearing when someone searches for your service with the name of a town or region, including on the map.
- Technical meaning
- It relies on the Google Business Profile, consistent name and contact details across the web, reviews, and pages that genuinely talk about the area. For an SME in French-speaking Switzerland, it is often the fastest visibility lever, before any content work.
Turning a visit into a client
Landing page
- In plain terms
- A page built for a single campaign, with a single message and a single thing to do.
- Technical meaning
- It repeats the ad's promise on the first screen, provides proof (results, reviews, guarantees), handles objections and leads to one action: form, call, booking. Contrast builds one per campaign intent rather than sending traffic to the home page.
Conversion rate
- In plain terms
- Out of a hundred visitors to a page, how many do what you expect of them.
- Technical meaning
- Conversions divided by visits, read by source and by page, never as an overall average. A low rate on well-targeted traffic signals a page problem; a high rate on vague traffic means nothing. Contrast tracks it at each stage of the journey to find where visitors stop.
Qualification
- In plain terms
- Sorting incoming enquiries to spend time on those that can become clients.
- Technical meaning
- A set of questions asked in the form, by email or by an automated assistant, that establish the need, budget, timing and decision-making power. Answers flow into the CRM and feed attribution: you know which channel brings qualified enquiries, not just enquiries.
Automated follow-up
- In plain terms
- Messages sent automatically to someone who asked for something but has not yet decided.
- Technical meaning
- A sequence of emails, text messages or messages triggered by an action (form, brochure download, missed appointment) and stopped as soon as a person takes over or a decision is made. Contrast designs it so that no enquiry stays unanswered for more than a few hours, whatever the team's workload.
CRM
- In plain terms
- The tool where your contacts, enquiries and the status of each sales conversation live.
- Technical meaning
- It is the source of truth for acquisition: that is where Contrast gets the real number of signed clients to calculate acquisition cost and MER. A CRM not connected to the campaigns makes attribution impossible; connected, it lets you send the platforms the conversions that really count.
Real estate development terms
PPE · Swiss condominium ownership
- In plain terms
- The Swiss system that lets you own an apartment in a shared building (propriété par étages).
- Technical meaning
- Each unit carries a share of the common parts. In a new development, selling the PPE units often conditions the financing of construction: the developer must reach a pre-sale threshold before the bank releases the construction loan.
Pre-sale threshold
- In plain terms
- The share of units that must be reserved or sold before construction can start.
- Technical meaning
- A requirement set by the lender financing construction, expressed as a percentage of units or of sales volume. Every month below the threshold costs the developer financing charges and delay. That is why Contrast measures a real estate campaign in reserved units and time saved, not in website visits.
Brochure request
- In plain terms
- A potential buyer's first concrete sign of interest in a real estate development.
- Technical meaning
- The main conversion event of a launch campaign: a contact who leaves their details to receive the documentation, plans and prices. Contrast qualifies it immediately (financing, timing, type of unit sought) and sends it to the developer's or broker's CRM for a same-day call back.
Property portals
- In plain terms
- The listing sites where most buyers look for property, and where most developers publish their units.
- Technical meaning
- An effective but shared demand-capture channel: a development is compared with all the others on the same criteria, and the buyer belongs to the portal, not the developer. Contrast does not replace them; it builds an owned channel alongside (development website, campaigns, contact base) that belongs to the developer and serves the next development.
Referrer
- In plain terms
- A person who, without being a client, recommends you to their own clients: architect, notary, bank adviser, engineer.
- Technical meaning
- In real estate development, the referrer is involved before sales start and sees developments twelve to twenty-four months before they reach the market. It is an acquisition channel distinct from direct sales, with its own relationship and pace.
The Swiss framework
nFADP · Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection
- In plain terms
- The Swiss law governing what a company may collect about people, and how it must inform them (nLPD in French).
- Technical meaning
- In force since 1 September 2023. It requires transparent information, a privacy notice and particular care for data transfers abroad, which directly concerns measurement and advertising tools. Contrast configures tracking with these constraints built in from the start, not added afterwards.
UCA · Swiss Federal Act against Unfair Competition
- In plain terms
- The Swiss law that forbids misleading clients or disparaging competitors in communication (LCD in French).
- Technical meaning
- It governs in particular comparative advertising and claims about one's own results: a comparison must be accurate and verifiable, an announced performance must be provable. That is why Contrast publishes no figure without a source and never compares a client by name with a competitor.