If you’ve ever been stuck in a meeting where someone says, “We’re waiting on the MQLs to hit our MAP before triggering the TOFU nurture for the SDR handoff,” you’re probably deep in marketing acronym territory—and this one’s for you.

In Episode 11 of the Misadventures in Marketing podcast, hosts Peter and Steve  dive into the murky (and mildly maddening) world of marketing acronyms—complete with a game show twist. From PPC and CTR to LTV, CRM, and all the way down the funnel to TOFU and BOFU, this episode is both a crash course and a cathartic laugh for anyone who’s ever nodded along while secretly Googling what someone just said.

Acronyms Are Supposed to Clarify… But Often Confuse

Marketing acronyms are meant to save time—but in practice, they often create confusion, especially for marketers navigating across functions like sales, product, and engineering. Peter sums it up best: “You’re the patient zero. You’re the typhoid Mary of marketing acronyms.”

The problem? Definitions shift. Context matters. And half the room might be pretending they know what you mean when they don’t. “TOF?” “It’s TOFU, Steve.”

The Game Show Breakdown (Yes, Really)

Steve puts Peter through a lightning round of acronym decoding, testing everything from basic metrics to full-blown marketing ops concepts. Marketing acronyms for $800, anyone? See how many you would know before needing to phone a friend.

• PPC – Pay Per Click: An online ad model where advertisers pay for each user click on their ad
• CTR – Click Through Rate: The percentage of users who click on a link out of total impressions
• SEO vs. SEM – Search Engine Optimization (organic) vs. Search Engine Marketing (paid)
• CRM – Customer Relationship Management: Tools like Salesforce or Attio used to track and manage customer interactions
• MAP/MAS – Marketing Automation Platform/System: Platforms like Marketo, HubSpot, and Eloqua used for managing marketing campaigns and lead nurturing
• LTV / CAC – Lifetime Value vs. Customer Acquisition Cost: Measures how much a customer is worth to you over time versus how much it costs to acquire them
• MQL → SQL → SQO – Marketing Qualified Lead, Sales Qualified Lead, and Sales Qualified Opportunity: The handoff stages in a lead lifecycle
• TOFU, MOFU, BOFU – Top of Funnel, Middle of Funnel, Bottom of Funnel: No, it’s not lunch. It’s your funnel:
  • TOFU (Top of Funnel): Leads at this stage are early in their journey—still researching, still unsure of the solution, and definitely not ready to buy. Your job? Build trust. Use blog posts, research, and educational content to qualify and inform.
  • MOFU (Middle of Funnel): Now your leads know they have a defined problem. They’re not evaluating vendors yet, but they’re actively comparing types of solutions. This is the time for webinars, solution guides, and nurturing sequences that continue the relationship.
  • BOFU (Bottom of Funnel): These leads are ready to decide. They’ve done their homework and are comparing vendors. Now’s the time for case studies, live demos, and consultations—not a hard sell, but a helpful close.

Strategy Gets Lost in the Alphabet Soup

Peter and Steve reflect on how this overload doesn’t just make meetings harder—it makes strategy harder too. When your team is obsessed with optimizing a TOFU sequence or calculating CAC-to-LTV ratios, it’s easy to lose sight of the bigger picture: why you’re doing the work in the first place.

“Acronyms are terms with specific meaning,” Peter says. “But if you don’t know how to use them—or if everyone uses them differently—they become noise.”

The Real Job: Make Meaning

This episode is a reminder that marketers are translators—bridging the gaps between product and sales, brand and metrics, and what we want to say versus what customers actually hear.

So if you’re using acronyms, slow down. Define them. Better yet, drop them when you can. Because clarity, not jargon, builds trust.

The real work of marketing isn’t decoding acronyms. It’s reaching and persuading the right audience to consider—and buy—what you’ve built.

🎧 Want to laugh and learn? Listen to Episode 11: “Marketing Acronym Hell” for decoding, debating, and demystifying the buzzword soup we all swim in.

👉 Listen to the podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

📚 Check out summaries from other episodes:

• Can Marketing Awards Support Brand Strategy?
• Reference Customers Are a B2B Marketing Must
• Product-Led. What Now?

Misadventures in Marketing is a weekly podcast by the AMA San Francisco chapter. Veteran Silicon Valley marketing execs Peter Farago and Steve Haney explore the messy, rewarding, and occasionally absurd world of high-tech marketing — especially in early-stage startups. Each episode covers real-world challenges, trends, and lessons from the front lines.