The AI marketing glossary.

Agentic AI

Also called AI agents

Agentic AI is software that pursues a goal across several steps by itself: it plans, uses tools such as a browser, a CMS or a CRM, checks its own results and decides what to do next. A chatbot answers one prompt at a time; an agent keeps working until the goal is met or a human stops it. What is an AI marketing agent?

AI citation

Also called AI mention, LLM citation

An AI citation is a link or a named mention of a business, page or source inside an answer from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Copilot or Claude. Citations are the AI search equivalent of a ranking: the business is either in the answer or it is invisible to that buyer. How to get mentioned by ChatGPT

AI CMO

Also called AI chief marketing officer, CMO agent

An AI CMO is software that does the planning half of a chief marketing officer's job: it reads the business and its market, sets priorities, writes the marketing plan and reviews results. Some products also produce and ship the work, which makes them closer to a full AI marketing agent. What is an AI CMO?

AI crawler

Also called GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, OAI-SearchBot

An AI crawler is a bot that an AI company sends to read public web pages, either to train models or to fetch live pages for answers. Common ones include GPTBot and OAI-SearchBot (OpenAI), ClaudeBot (Anthropic), PerplexityBot and Google-Extended. A site's robots.txt file decides which of them may read it. The AEO checklist

AI marketing agent

Also called marketing agent, AI agent for marketing

An AI marketing agent is software that reads your business, decides what marketing to do next, produces the work across several channels and ships it under a human's review. It holds a goal and reports what changed, instead of waiting for a person to prompt it one task at a time. Read the full definition

AI marketing transformation

AI marketing transformation is the move from marketing done in spare hours to marketing run by systems, one marketing job at a time. For a small business it usually starts with positioning and measurement, then search and content, then social and outbound, with a person approving anything that reaches a customer. The 90-day roadmap

AI Overviews

Also called Google AI Overviews, SGE

AI Overviews are the AI-written summaries Google shows above its regular results for many searches. Each overview links a small set of source pages. Google says there is no special markup for them: pages are chosen from content that is already indexed and eligible to appear in search. AEO vs SEO vs GEO

Answer engine

Also called AI search engine, AI assistant

An answer engine is a search tool that replies with a written answer instead of a list of links. ChatGPT search, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, Microsoft Copilot and Claude all work this way, and most show the sources they drew on. What is answer engine optimisation?

Answer engine optimisation (AEO)

Also called answer engine optimization, AEO

Answer engine optimisation (AEO) is the work of making a business easy for AI assistants to find, understand, trust and quote. It covers direct answers on your own pages, consistent facts about the business across the web, reviews and third-party mentions, structured data and open access for AI crawlers. Read the AEO guide

Cold email

Also called outbound email

Cold email is a first email to someone who has had no contact with the business. In New Zealand the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act 2007 requires consent (express, inferred from an existing relationship, or deemed from a conspicuously published work address where the message relates to that role), clear sender identification and a working unsubscribe. Australia's Spam Act 2003 sets similar rules. Outbound sales automation

Content engine

Also called content system

A content engine is a repeatable system that turns one source, such as an interview, a guide or a customer question, into a schedule of articles, posts and emails in the business's own voice. It replaces the blank page with a weekly process that keeps running when the owner is busy. Content marketing for small business

Cost per enquiry

Also called cost per lead, CPL

Cost per enquiry is total marketing spend in a period divided by the number of genuine enquiries it produced. It is the most useful single number for a small business, because it lets an agency, a freelancer, a hire and an AI system be compared on the same scale. What a marketing agency costs in NZ

E-E-A-T

Also called experience, expertise, authoritativeness, trustworthiness

E-E-A-T stands for experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness. It is the framework Google's search quality raters use to judge whether content is reliable. It describes what reliable content shows, such as a named author who has done the work and sources a reader can check. SEO for small business in NZ

Entity

Also called search entity, brand entity

In search, an entity is a distinct thing a search engine or AI model recognises, such as a business, a person or a product, with facts attached to it. Describing your business the same way everywhere, with the same name, address, category and links, helps engines connect every mention to one entity. How to get mentioned by ChatGPT

Fractional CMO

Also called part-time CMO, outsourced CMO

A fractional CMO is an experienced marketing executive who works for a business part time, often a few days a month, to set strategy, lead a team or agency and report to the owner. It buys senior judgment without a full-time executive salary, but usually not the hands that do the work. Fractional CMO vs AI CMO

Fractional marketing manager

Also called part-time marketing manager

A fractional marketing manager is a marketer who runs a business's marketing for a set number of days or hours each month. Compared with a fractional CMO the role is more hands-on: planning plus doing the campaigns, content and reporting, at a lower day rate. Fractional marketing manager in NZ

Generative engine optimisation (GEO)

Also called generative engine optimization, GEO

Generative engine optimisation (GEO) is the practice of shaping content so generative AI systems include and cite it in their answers. The term comes from a 2024 Princeton and Georgia Tech study that found methods such as adding statistics and quotations lifted visibility in AI answers by up to 40%. AEO vs SEO vs GEO

Google Business Profile

Also called GBP, Google My Business

Google Business Profile is the free listing that shows a business on Google Maps and in local search, with hours, location, photos, services and reviews. For a local business it is often the most-seen page it owns, and the reviews on it feed both local rankings and AI answers. SEO for small business in NZ

Human in the loop

Also called human review, HITL

Human in the loop means a named person approves an AI system's work at set points before it takes effect. In marketing that usually covers anything published under the business's name, any customer contact, any spend and any change to prices or claims. Where the human sits

llms.txt

llms.txt is a plain text file at the root of a website that gives AI tools a short, curated map of the site's most useful pages. It was proposed in September 2024 as an open convention. Major AI search providers have not said they rely on it, so treat it as a cheap extra and keep expectations modest. The AEO checklist

Marketing automation

Marketing automation is software that runs marketing steps a person has designed in advance, such as sending a welcome email when someone signs up or a reminder three days after a quote. It handles delivery well. Deciding what to send and writing it still sits with a person or an AI agent. AI marketing automation for small business

Marketing retainer

Also called agency retainer

A marketing retainer is a fixed monthly fee paid to an agency or freelancer for an agreed scope of ongoing work, such as SEO, social media or paid ads management. The fee buys time and access. A good retainer also states what gets delivered each month and how results are reported. What a marketing agency costs in NZ

NAP consistency

Also called name, address, phone

NAP consistency means a business's name, address and phone number appear in exactly the same form on its website, Google Business Profile, directories and social profiles. Matching details make it easier for search engines and AI systems to trust that every listing describes the same business. How to get mentioned by ChatGPT

Outbound sales automation

Also called sales automation, outbound automation

Outbound sales automation is software that helps a business find likely buyers, research them and send personalised first contact and follow-ups on a schedule, by email or LinkedIn. Done well, it keeps follow-up consistent. Done badly, it sends volume that damages the sender's reputation. Outbound sales automation

Pillar page

Also called topic cluster, hub page

A pillar page is a long guide that covers a whole topic and links out to shorter articles, each answering one specific question within that topic. The shorter articles link back. Together they form a topic cluster, which helps readers, search engines and AI systems see the depth of a site's coverage. See the Flow AI topics

Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG)

Also called RAG, grounding

Retrieval-augmented generation is the method most AI search tools use to answer: they first fetch relevant pages from a search index or the live web, then write an answer based on what they fetched and cite those pages. It is why being findable and quotable on the open web matters for AI visibility. What is answer engine optimisation?

Schema markup

Also called structured data, JSON-LD

Schema markup is code added to a web page, usually in JSON-LD format, that labels facts in a way machines read reliably: the business name, address, opening hours, prices, reviews, authors and questions answered. Search engines use it for rich results, and it makes a page's facts easier for any system to extract. The AEO checklist

Search engine optimisation (SEO)

Also called search engine optimization, SEO

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the work of helping a website appear in search results for the questions its customers ask. It covers technical health, useful pages that match what people search, a well-kept Google Business Profile and links or mentions from other trusted sites. SEO for small business in NZ

Zero-click search

A zero-click search is one that ends without the searcher clicking any result, because the answer appeared on the results page itself, in a snippet, a map pack or an AI Overview. As more searches end this way, being named in the answer matters as much as ranking for the click. AEO vs SEO vs GEO