Master the language of Meta Ads Management. From basic metrics to advanced optimization concepts, this glossary covers everything you need to run successful campaigns.
Learn About Our Meta Ads Management ServicesAd Relevance Diagnostics break down your ad's performance into three components: Quality Ranking (creative quality), Engagement Rate Ranking (expected engagement), and Conversion Rate Ranking (expected conversions). They help diagnose why ads might be underperforming.
Meta's suite of AI-powered automation products that minimize manual control in favor of algorithm-driven results. The most famous is Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns (ASC), which fully automates targeting and creative combinations.
Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns (ASC) are Meta's AI-powered campaign type for ecommerce. They automate audience targeting, creative selection, and budget allocation across placements. ASC combines prospecting and retargeting in a single campaign with minimal manual controls.
Aggregated Event Measurement is Meta's protocol for measuring web events from iOS 14+ users who opt out of tracking. It limits you to 8 prioritized conversion events per domain and uses modeled data to fill attribution gaps.
The Attribution Window is the time period after a user interacts with your ad during which a conversion can be credited to that interaction. Meta offers 1-day view, 7-day click, and 28-day click options. Shorter windows show fewer but more directly attributable conversions.
Audience Exclusions prevent your ads from showing to specific groups - like existing customers, recent purchasers, or people who already converted. They're essential for separating prospecting from retargeting and preventing wasted spend on the wrong audiences.
Bid Cap sets a maximum bid Meta can place in any single auction. Unlike Cost Cap (average), Bid Cap is a hard limit that prevents any bid from exceeding your cap. It gives maximum cost control but can significantly limit delivery if set too low.
A targeting strategy where you define essentially no audience constraints (no interests, no lookalikes) other than location and age/gender. You rely entirely on your ad creative and the algorithm to find the right people.
CBO automatically distributes your campaign budget across ad sets based on performance. Instead of setting individual ad set budgets, you set one campaign budget and let Meta allocate spend to the best-performing ad sets in real-time.
Carousel Ads display up to 10 images or videos in a single ad, each with its own link. Users swipe through cards to explore products, features, or a story sequence. They typically drive higher engagement and CTR than single image ads.
The Catalog Sales objective optimizes for purchases from your product catalog. It uses Dynamic Product Ads to show users the specific products they viewed or added to cart. Required for DPA retargeting and Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns.
Collection Ads show a cover image or video with 4 product images below. Tapping opens an Instant Experience with your full catalog. They combine awareness (video) with shopping (product grid) in a single ad unit. Great for ecommerce discovery.
The Conversions API is a server-side tracking solution that sends conversion data directly from your server to Meta. Unlike the Pixel (browser-based), CAPI isn't affected by ad blockers, iOS privacy restrictions, or cookie limitations, providing more accurate attribution.
Cost Cap is a Meta bid strategy that sets a maximum average cost per result you're willing to pay. Unlike Bid Cap (hard limit per auction), Cost Cap allows individual bids to exceed the cap while keeping the average within target. Better for maintaining volume with cost control.
CPM stands for Cost Per Mille (thousand impressions). It's the amount you pay for every 1,000 times your ad is shown. Meta Ads uses an auction-based CPM system where advertisers bid against each other for ad placements.
A Custom Audience is a targeting option that lets you reach people who already have a relationship with your business. You can create Custom Audiences from customer lists (emails/phones), website visitors (via Pixel), app users, or people who engaged with your content on Meta platforms.
The Learning Phase is the period when Meta's algorithm is gathering data on how to deliver your ad set efficiently. It typically requires 50 conversions in 7 days to exit. During this phase, performance is unstable and costs may be higher.
A way to reach new people who are likely to be interested in your business because they share similar characteristics (demographics, interests, behaviors) to your existing best customers.
Actions that happen on your website that can be tracked by the Meta Pixel. Standard events include 'Purchase', 'AddToCart', and 'Lead'. Custom events can be defined for specific actions like 'Time on Site > 60s'.
Placements determine where your ads appear across Meta's surfaces: Facebook Feed, Instagram Feed, Stories, Reels, Messenger, Audience Network, and more. Advantage+ Placements lets Meta optimize automatically; Manual Placements gives you control.
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