AI, lead, and marketing terms, defined plainly

AEO vs GEO vs SEO

AEO, GEO, and SEO all get you found, but on different surfaces. Here is what each means and how they fit together.

Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)

Answer engine optimization (AEO) is the practice of getting your business named and cited in AI answers from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews.

Appointment Setting

Appointment setting is the work of turning an interested lead into a confirmed meeting on a sales calendar, so salespeople spend their time in meetings rather than chasing.

BANT

BANT stands for Budget, Authority, Need, and Timeline. It is a classic framework for qualifying whether a lead is worth pursuing.

Click Through Rate (CTR)

Click through rate (CTR) is the percentage of people who click a link out of everyone who saw it. It measures how compelling an ad, search result, or email is.

Conversational AI

Conversational AI is software that understands and responds in natural language, by chat or voice, so it can hold a real back and forth instead of following a fixed menu.

Cost Per Lead (CPL)

Cost per lead (CPL) is how much you spend on marketing to generate one new lead. It shows what you are paying to fill the top of your pipeline.

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

Customer acquisition cost (CAC) is the total sales and marketing spend it takes to win one new paying customer. It tells you whether growth is actually profitable.

Do Not Call Registry (Singapore)

Singapore's Do Not Call (DNC) Registry lets people opt out of marketing messages. Under the PDPA, organisations must check it before sending marketing calls, texts, or faxes.

Does llms.txt Help?

As of early 2026, no major AI engine confirms using llms.txt, and Google says Search does not read it. It is low cost to add but should not be expected to lift AI rankings.

Drip Campaign

A drip campaign is a series of pre written messages sent automatically on a schedule or in response to what someone does, to nurture a lead toward a decision.

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)

Generative engine optimization (GEO) is the off-page work of building the authority and mentions that make AI answer engines trust and cite your business.

Getting Cited by Perplexity

Perplexity retrieves live from the web and generates answers with citations. Clear, current, on-topic pages that directly answer the query tend to surface.

Lead Qualification

Lead qualification is deciding which leads are worth your sales team's time before anyone calls, so you spend effort only on the ones likely to buy.

Lead Qualification vs Lead Scoring

Lead scoring ranks leads with a number. Lead qualification decides yes or no on whether to pursue them. Here is how the two work together.

Lead Scoring

Lead scoring ranks leads with points based on who they are and what they have done, so your team can prioritise the ones most likely to buy.

Marketing Automation

Marketing automation is software that runs repetitive marketing tasks on their own, such as follow up emails, lead scoring, and routing, based on rules and triggers you set once.

MQL vs SQL

An MQL (marketing qualified lead) has shown interest. An SQL (sales qualified lead) is ready for a sales conversation. Here is where the line sits.

No-Show Rate

No-show rate is the percentage of booked appointments where the person does not turn up. For any business that runs on booked calls or visits, it is a direct drain on revenue.

PDPA (Singapore)

The PDPA is Singapore's Personal Data Protection Act. It governs how businesses collect, use, and disclose personal data, including outbound marketing and the Do Not Call registry.

Product Qualified Lead (PQL)

A product qualified lead (PQL) is a user who has experienced real value in your product, usually via a free trial or freemium tier, and is likely to convert.

PSG Grant (Singapore)

The Productivity Solutions Grant (PSG) helps Singapore SMEs adopt approved digital solutions, commonly with up to 50 percent support, subject to approval.

Ranking in ChatGPT

ChatGPT search retrieves from the Bing index, so a page Bing has not indexed cannot be cited. Get indexed, answer the exact question up top, and earn trusted mentions.

Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG)

Retrieval augmented generation (RAG) is when an AI retrieves relevant documents first, then writes its answer from them. It is how ChatGPT search and Perplexity ground and cite answers.

Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)

Return on ad spend (ROAS) is the revenue you earn for every dollar you spend on advertising. It shows whether a campaign pays for itself.

Sales Development Representative (SDR)

A sales development representative (SDR) qualifies leads and books meetings for the closers, bridging marketing's interest and the account executive's sales conversation.

Speed to Lead

Speed to lead is how fast you respond to a new enquiry. The faster the first credible reply, the more likely the lead books with you.

WhatsApp Business API

The WhatsApp Business API is Meta's official interface for teams to send and receive WhatsApp messages at scale through their own software, with automation and multiple agents on one number.