18 SaaS Marketing Terms Every Founder Should Know

Hey IH 👋
Spent 3 years in SaaS growth, and honestly? Half the jargon is just dressed-up common sense. Here's what these terms actually mean when you're bootstrapping:

1. AI SDR
   That thing we all tried in 2024. Spoiler: It mostly annoyed prospects and tanked reply rates. Still seeing people pitch this as "the future" though.

2. AEO (Answer Engine Optimization)
   SEO, but cooler sounding (and way more expensive). It's optimizing for ChatGPT/Perplexity instead of just Google. Worth exploring, but don't abandon traditional SEO yet.

3. MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead)
   A warm body with a VP title. In reality? Someone who downloaded your PDF and might ghost you forever.

4. TAM (Total Addressable Market)
   Pick a number that's comically large. VCs love this. "The project management market is $50B!" Sure, but you're competing with Asana and Monday.com, so...

5. ICP (Ideal Customer Profile)
   Your TAM, but specific. The 100 companies you'd actually close vs the 10,000 you won't.

6. Target Account List
   I swear it's around here somewhere. That spreadsheet you made once and never updated.

7. ABX (Account-Based Experience)
   When you add their company name to the automated email. "Hi {{First_Name}} at {{Company}}!" They definitely can't tell it's automated.

8. Intent "I see you spent 5 seconds on my website." Now prepare for 47 follow-up emails.

9. Retention When customers wish they knew how to quit you. The metric that actually matters but everyone obsesses over sign-ups instead.

10. CAC Payback Period Why you can't run a Super Bowl ad. How long until a customer's revenue covers what you spent to acquire them.

11. Sign-ups People who won't pay you. Ever notice how many "users" never convert? Yeah, that.

12. Gross Margin What you can't ask an AI company. They're spending $3 to make $1 and calling it "growth."

13. LTV:CAC Fun with numbers. The ratio VCs want to see above 3:1. You're probably at 1:1 and calling it "investment phase."

14. Reverse Trial A free trial, but make it sound innovative. Give them full access, then downgrade. Conversion rates are better, churn's worse.

15. GTM Engineer Pretending you know how to use Clay. Reality: You're watching YouTube tutorials at 2am trying to figure out webhooks.

16. Clay What everyone's using but still doesn't know how to use. It's powerful. It's confusing. You'll spend a week on one workflow.

17. Orchestration I don't know, but it sure sounds fancy. Something about coordinating tools/data/emails. Mostly it means "we have too many subscriptions."

18. AI Slop Whatever ChatGPT just hallucinated. That obviously-AI-written cold email you got. The generic blog post that says nothing. We're drowning in it.

The Real Talk: Most of these terms exist so consultants can charge $15k/month to "implement your GTM strategy."
Reality? You need:

A clear ICP – Actually know who buys (not just who might buy)
Content that doesn't suck – Answers real questions. Gets shared by humans, not bots. Example: "How we reduced churn by 30%" beats "10 SaaS metrics to track" every time.

A way to reach them – Could be SEO, could be cold email, could be carrier pigeon. Whatever works for your ICP.
Product people actually want – Retention > sign-ups. Always. A leaky bucket stays leaky no matter how much water you pour in.

Everything else is commentary.

Question for IH:
Which of these terms do you actually use vs which make you roll your eyes? And has anyone cracked Clay without wanting to throw their laptop?
Drop your "honest translations" below—what jargon drives you nuts?