Meta advertising glossary
Short definitions of the terms that come up when you run ads on Facebook and Instagram. Each one links to the Learning Center article that explains it in full.
A
- A/B test
- A controlled experiment that shows different versions of an ad to separate groups of people to find out which performs better.
- Ad auction
- The auction Meta runs for every ad opportunity, where the ad with the highest total value of bid, estimated action rate and ad quality wins.
- Ad hook
- The opening line, image or moment of an ad that makes the right person stop scrolling and pay attention.
- Ad remake
- A new ad that keeps the structure of a proven ad but uses the advertiser's own product, photos, copy and claims.
- Ad set
- The middle level of a Meta campaign, which holds the audience, placements, schedule, bidding, optimisation goal and usually the budget for its ads.
- Advantage campaign budget
- A Meta setting, formerly campaign budget optimisation or CBO, that sets one campaign budget and moves it between ad sets in real time.
- Advantage+ creative
- Meta's set of AI tools that adjust, extend and generate variations of an ad's images, video and text for each placement and person.
- Advantage+ sales campaigns
- Meta sales campaigns that run with Advantage+ audience, placements and campaign budget switched on, and the successor to Advantage+ shopping campaigns.
- AI ad generator
- Software that uses generative AI to make ad images and copy from inputs such as a prompt, product photos and brand details.
- AI info label
- Meta's label for posts and ads that its tools or detection systems identify as created or edited with generative AI.
- Attribution window
- An attribution window is the number of days after an ad click, view or engagement in which a conversion can be credited to that ad.
B
- Broad targeting
- Running Meta ads with few audience restrictions, often only a location, so Meta's delivery system decides who sees them.
C
- Conversions API
- The Conversions API sends conversion events from an advertiser's server or CRM straight to Meta, without relying on the browser.
- CPA (Cost per acquisition)
- CPA is the average amount spent on ads to get one conversion, such as a purchase or a lead.
- CPC (Cost per click)
- CPC is the average amount spent for each click on an ad, which Meta reports per link click.
- CPM (Cost per 1,000 impressions)
- CPM is the average amount an advertiser pays for 1,000 impressions of an ad.
- Creative diversity
- Running ads that differ in concept, message, format, persona or visual style, so Meta's delivery system can match different ads to different people.
- Creative fatigue
- Creative fatigue is the drop in an ad's results after its audience has seen the same creative too often.
- CTR (Click-through rate)
- CTR is the share of an ad's impressions that led to a click, reported by Meta as CTR (all) and link CTR.
E
- Estimated action rate
- Meta's prediction of how likely a specific person is to take the advertiser's chosen action after seeing a specific ad.
F
- Flexible ad format
- A Meta ad option that puts up to 10 images and videos in one ad and lets the delivery system choose the format each person sees.
- Frequency
- Frequency is the average number of times each person, or Meta account, saw an ad over a date range.
L
- Learning phase
- The period after an ad set launches or is significantly edited, when Meta's delivery system is still learning how to deliver it.
M
- Meta Ad Library
- Meta's free, public database of the ads running across Facebook, Instagram and its other apps, with extra data for political, EU and UK ads.
- Meta Andromeda
- Meta's machine learning system for ads retrieval, which narrows tens of millions of candidate ads to a few thousand for each person.
- Meta Pixel
- The Meta Pixel is JavaScript code on a website that reports visitor actions, such as purchases, back to Meta.
R
- ROAS (Return on ad spend)
- ROAS is the revenue credited to your ads divided by the amount you spent on them.
S
- Static ad
- A paid social ad made from one still image and the copy around it, with no motion or sound.
- Statistical significance
- The judgement that a difference between test results is unlikely to be explained by chance alone, given how much data was collected.
- Swipe file
- A saved collection of ads, headlines and hooks that a marketer studies for ideas and structure before making new ads.
U
- UGC ad (User-generated content ad)
- An ad made from content that looks and sounds like it came from a real customer or creator rather than the brand.
W
- Winning ad
- An ad that has kept running profitably for weeks or months while the advertiser switched off the ads that did not pay.