Glossary

PPC & Meta Ads terms, explained properly

42 definitions written for operators — what the term means, why it matters and what to do about it.

Metrics

6 terms

Conversion Rate (CVR): The percentage of clicks that result in a conversion.
Cost Per Purchase: Meta's term for the cost of a single purchase event.
CPA (Cost Per Acquisition): The average cost of acquiring one conversion.
CPC (Cost Per Click): The average amount you pay each time someone clicks your ad.
CTR (Click-Through Rate): Clicks divided by impressions — how often your ad earns a click when shown.
ROAS (Return On Ad Spend): Revenue generated per dollar of ad spend.

5 terms

Bid Strategy: How Google or Meta sets your bids on your behalf.
Maximise Conversions: A bid strategy that spends your budget to get the most conversions possible.
Smart Bidding: Google's machine-learning bid strategies that optimise per auction.
Target CPA: A bid strategy that aims for a set average cost per acquisition.
Target ROAS: A bid strategy that aims for a set return on ad spend.

3 terms

DSA Negative Keyword Automation: Automatically blocking bad queries from Dynamic Search Ads.
Negative Keywords: Queries you exclude so your ads never show for them.
Search Terms: The actual queries people typed that triggered your ad.

7 terms

Ad Extensions (Assets): Extra information that expands your ad — sitelinks, callouts, prices and more.
Ad Rank: The value Google uses to decide ad position and whether your ad shows at all.
Impression Share: The percentage of eligible impressions you actually received.
Landing Page Experience: Google's assessment of how useful your landing page is.
Performance Max: A goal-based campaign type that runs across all Google channels.
Quality Score: Google's 1–10 estimate of your ad, keyword and landing page relevance.
Responsive Search Ads (RSA): Search ads that mix and match multiple headlines and descriptions.

9 terms

Ad Relevance Diagnostics: Meta's quality, engagement and conversion rankings for your ads.
Advantage+: Meta's automated campaign and audience optimisation suite.
Conversions API: Server-side event reporting that complements the pixel.
Creative Fatigue: When an audience has seen your ad so often it stops responding.
Custom Audience: An audience built from your own data — customers, visitors, engagers.
Dynamic Creative Optimization: Automatically combining creative elements to find winners.
Frequency Cap: A limit on how often one person sees your ad.
Lookalike Audience: An audience modelled on your best existing customers.
Meta Pixel: The tracking code that reports website events back to Meta.

3 terms

Attribution Model: The rule that decides which touchpoints get credit for a conversion.
Conversion Tracking: The setup that records which ad actions led to valuable outcomes.
Conversion Window: How long after a click a conversion can still be credited.

4 terms

Audience Segmentation: Splitting your market into groups with shared behaviour or intent.
Dayparting: Adjusting bids or scheduling ads by time of day and week.
Geo Targeting: Limiting or adjusting ads by location.
Remarketing: Advertising to people who already interacted with your business.

5 terms

A/B Testing: Comparing two variants to see which performs better.
Ad Automation: Rules and AI that manage campaigns without manual work.
Ad Copy Optimization: Improving ad text to raise CTR and conversion rate.
Cross-Platform Advertising: Coordinating campaigns across Google and Meta.
Model Context Protocol (MCP): An open standard for connecting AI assistants to external tools.

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