Advertising Term Glossary

A/B Testing or Split Testing - Testing different versions of ads or audiences to see what works best and improve future campaigns.

Break-even Point - The point at which the total value of costs is equal to the total value of revenue.

Budget Optimization - The process of shifting budget away from low-performing to high-performing campaign attributes.

Clicks - The total number of clicks an ad has received.

Conversion - An action completed after seeing an ad.

Core Audience - Target audience using Facebook data (i.e., interests, behaviors, demographics, etc.).

Cost Per Purchase - The cost at which your ads convert a purchase.

CPM - The average cost for 1,000 impressions.

Creative - Pictures, videos or text contained within the ad.

Custom Audience - Target audience using data from your CMS, website, or other sources to target Facebook ads to people you already know.

Engagement - All actions that people take involving your ads. Engagements can include actions such as reacting to, commenting on, or sharing the ad; viewing a photo or video; or clicking a link.

Frequency - The average number of times each person sees your ad.

Goal - What you'd like your campaign to optimize for and see more of.

Impressions - The number of times your ads are on screen.

Lookalike Audience - An audience of people with similar characteristics to a data source that you define, such as past purchasers or your email list.

Objective - What you want people to do when they see your ads.

Pixel - A snippet of code placed on a website designed to record conversions from Facebook ads and build targeted audiences for future ads.

Reach - The number of people who see your ads at least once. Reach is different from impressions, which may include multiple views of your ads by the same people.

Relevancy Score - A rating from 1 to 10 that estimates how well your target audience is responding to your ad. This score is shown after your ad receives more than 500 impressions.

Retargeting Audience - Target audience of people who've already expressed interest in your product by visiting your website or checking out a product.

Return on Ad Spend - The total purchases conversion value divided by total amount spent.

Target Audience - An audience of people you'd like to advertise to, usually based on your ideal customer.