Meta Ads Glossary

Context + Creative Archetype + Conversion Element. Every ad must satisfy all three.

Budget is set at the ad set level for precise control. Used in manual campaigns for testing.

Automated campaign optimized for app installs and in-app events.

Meta’s AI-expanded audience suggestion. Recommended to enable — it starts with your suggestion but expands.

AI enhancements to your creative (text, music, brightness). Enable for ASC, test for manual.

Meta’s AI ranking system that matches ads to users. Replaced the old auction system. Creatives now define targeting.

Average revenue per order. Critical for determining campaign structure and funnel type.

Automated campaign type where Meta controls audience, placements, and creative combinations. Best for e-commerce with 50+ conversions/week.

Time period for counting conversions. Default: 7-day click, 1-day view. Use 7-day click for most analysis.

Optimizes for reach and impressions. Rarely needed — most brands should skip this entirely and go straight to Sales.

Total revenue / total marketing spend. The only ROAS number that matters at scale.

The ROAS at which you neither make nor lose money. Calculated from unit economics, not guessed.

No audience restrictions — let Meta find buyers using creative signals. The default recommendation for ASC.

Server-side tracking that sends conversion data directly to Meta. Essential for accurate tracking post-iOS 14.

Product feed connected to Meta for dynamic ads. Requires structured data (title, price, image, availability).

Budget is set at campaign level and Meta distributes across ad sets. Now default in most campaign types.

Total spend / number of conversions. Your most important efficiency metric.

Spend / clicks. Derived metric — focus on CPA instead.

Cost per 1,000 impressions. Varies by industry, audience, and season.

When ad performance declines because the audience has seen it too many times.

Clicks / impressions × 100.

Audience from your data — website visitors, customer lists, engagers. Used for retargeting.

Meta tests combinations of images, headlines, descriptions. Less recommended now — use manual creative testing.

Employee-Generated Content. Team-created content that builds trust and humanizes the brand.

Optimizes for likes, comments, shares. Use only for creative testing (max 10% budget). Not a scale objective.

Score (1-10) showing how well your CAPI data matches Meta users.

Audience to exclude (e.g., recent buyers). Use sparingly — over-exclusion limits Meta’s learning.

Average times each person sees your ad.

Percentage of people who watch past 3 seconds. The most important video metric — if hook fails, everything fails.

Optimizes for lead form submissions, phone calls, or messaging conversations. Primary for service businesses.

First ~50 conversions where Meta is learning who to target. Do not edit campaigns during this phase.

Audience similar to a source (customers, leads). Less important under Andromeda — broad often outperforms.

Campaign with full advertiser control over audience, placement, and budget allocation. Used for creative testing, signal control, and retargeting.

The minimum daily budget Meta needs to exit learning phase.

Client-side JavaScript tracking code. Works with CAPI for redundant tracking. Both are mandatory.

Layered retargeting combining 30-day, 60-day, 90-day, and 180-day audiences. Blended for optimal signal.

Revenue divided by ad spend. Platform-reported ROAS is always inflated — use Blended ROAS instead.

Optimizes for purchase events. Primary objective for e-commerce. Replaces old "Conversions" objective.

Optimizes for link clicks. Almost never recommended — Meta optimizes for clickers, not buyers.

URL tags for tracking traffic sources in Google Analytics. Always use consistent UTM structure.

Running ads through a creator’s account instead of your brand page. Higher trust, often better performance.