Meta ads glossary

Every Meta ads term, made plain.

80 terms from ROAS to the Conversions API — each with a one-line definition, the formula where there is one, a worked example and the mistakes to avoid.

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Account spending limitAn account spending limit is a ceiling you set on the total amount your Meta ad account can spend. When spend reaches it, all ads in the account stop until you raise, reset or remove the limit. It doesn't reset by itself each month.Campaign setup
Ad auctionThe ad auction is how Meta decides which ad to show each time someone could see one. The ad with the highest total value wins: a combination of the advertiser's bid, Meta's estimate of how likely the person is to act and the ad's quality.Auction & bidding
Ad fatigueAd fatigue is the decline in an ad's performance as the same people see it too often. The classic pattern is rising frequency, falling click-through rate and rising cost per purchase. The usual fix is new creative, not a new audience.Creative
Ad relevance diagnosticsAd relevance diagnostics are three Ads Manager rankings, quality, engagement rate and conversion rate, that compare your ad with ads competing for the same audience. They replaced the old relevance score in 2019 and appear after 500 impressions.Auction & bidding
Ad setAn ad set is the middle level of a Meta campaign. It holds the settings that decide delivery: audience, placements, schedule, optimisation event, bid strategy and, with ad set budgets, the budget. Each ad set contains one or more ads.Campaign setup
Ad set budget (ABO)An ad set budget — often called ABO — is a daily or lifetime budget set on each ad set rather than on the campaign. You decide exactly how much each ad set can spend, which makes it the usual choice for controlled creative and audience tests.Campaign setup
Add-to-cart rateAdd-to-cart rate is the percentage of visitors who add a product to their cart. For Meta ads it is usually measured as AddToCart events divided by landing page views or link clicks, and it shows how well the product page persuades.Metrics
Advantage+ audienceAdvantage+ audience is Meta's automated targeting. Meta finds the people most likely to convert using its own signals, treating any age, interest or custom audience you add as a suggestion rather than a limit. Locations, minimum age and exclusions stay as hard controls.Audiences
Advantage+ campaign budget (formerly CBO)Advantage+ campaign budget — formerly campaign budget optimisation (CBO) — sets one budget at campaign level and lets Meta shift it between ad sets in real time, towards the ones getting the best results for your goal.Campaign setup
Advantage+ catalog ads (formerly dynamic product ads)Advantage+ catalog ads, formerly dynamic product ads, automatically show products from your catalogue to the people most likely to buy them. They combine a product feed with pixel or app events, so one template can retarget viewers or reach new buyers.Campaign setup
Advantage+ creativeAdvantage+ creative is a set of automatic enhancements Meta can apply to your ads, such as adjusting brightness, adding music, animating images, expanding images to fit placements and varying your text. You switch each one on or off per ad.Creative
Advantage+ placements (formerly automatic placements)Advantage+ placements, formerly automatic placements, let Meta show your ads wherever they're likely to perform best across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Audience Network and Threads where available, shifting delivery between placements automatically.Campaign setup
AEMAggregated Event Measurement (AEM)Aggregated Event Measurement (AEM) is Meta's privacy-preserving way of measuring conversions from people who opted out of tracking, introduced for Apple's iOS 14.5 changes. Its old eight-event limit for web events has been removed in most accounts.Tracking & attribution
AOVAverage order value (AOV)Average order value (AOV) is the average amount a customer spends per order: total revenue divided by the number of orders. A higher AOV spreads per-order costs such as shipping over more revenue, so you can afford to pay more for each sale.Metrics
ASCAdvantage+ sales campaigns (ASC)Advantage+ sales campaigns are Meta's automated campaigns for the Sales objective. You set the budget, conversion event and creative. Meta's AI picks the audience, placements and budget split. They replaced Advantage+ shopping campaigns.Campaign setup
ATTApp Tracking Transparency (ATT)App Tracking Transparency (ATT) is Apple's rule, introduced with iOS 14.5 in April 2021, that apps must ask permission before tracking people across other companies' apps and websites. Many users decline, which reduced the data Meta receives about iPhone users.Tracking & attribution
Attribution windowAn attribution window is the period after someone clicks, engages with or views an ad during which Meta credits a conversion to that ad. Meta's standard for sales campaigns is 7-day click and 1-day view, now with a separate 1-day engage-through window.Tracking & attribution

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NC-ROASNC-ROAS (new customer ROAS)NC-ROAS (new customer ROAS) is revenue from first-time customers divided by ad spend. It strips out repeat buyers, so it shows how efficiently your ads are growing the customer base rather than re-selling to people you already have.Metrics

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Outbound CTROutbound CTR is the percentage of impressions that led to an outbound click, a click that takes someone off Facebook or Instagram to your website or app. It measures how well an ad sends traffic to your store.Metrics

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