When I first started running Facebook ads years ago, I felt like I needed a translator just to understand the platform. It seemed like every button, metric, and setting had its own special name.
What I’ve learned from working with dozens of clients is that understanding the terminology isn’t just about sounding knowledgeable in meetings – it’s actually important for campaign success. When you know exactly what each term means, you make better strategic decisions.
I created this alphabetical guide to help you navigate the sometimes confusing world of Facebook advertising terminology. I’ve included definitions for all the essential terms you’ll encounter, from the basic building blocks of campaigns to the detailed metrics that help you measure success.
And I want to make sure you don’t miss this – I’ve included insights from my own experience throughout, so you’ll get practical tips along with definitions.
So whether you’re confused about the difference between reach and impressions, or you’re trying to figure out what a “lookalike audience” actually is, you’ll find clear explanations here that you can immediately apply to your campaigns.
Table of Content
Core Facebook Ad Components
A/B Test
A/B testing compares different versions of your ads to see which performs better. You can test different elements like audiences, creative, or placements. It’s like a mini-experiment to improve your campaigns.
I was working with a client last year who insisted their product images worked better than lifestyle images. We ran an A/B test and guess what? The lifestyle images got 34% more conversions. Never assume – always test!
Account Settings
Account settings let you manage basic aspects of your Facebook ad account – things like your name, password, notifications, and privacy settings.
Action
An action refers to any activity users take when they engage with your ad. This includes watching videos, clicking links, liking posts, sharing content, or downloading apps.
Ad
An ad is the actual content that’s paid to appear on Facebook. It includes the creative elements (images, videos), copy (text), and a call-to-action button. This is what users will see in their feeds or other placements across the platform.
I’ll give you an example of this – if you’re a local coffee shop, your ad might include a photo of your signature drink, text about a special promotion, and a “Learn More” button that directs people to your menu page.
Ad Account
An ad account is what you need to set up before running ads on Facebook. You’ll typically create this after setting up Business Manager, and it’s where all your campaigns, billing, and ad performance data live.
Ad Auction
Facebook uses an auction system to determine which ads to show. When an ad space becomes available, Facebook runs an auction among all the ads targeting the user who will see that space.
The winner isn’t just the highest bidder – Facebook considers three key factors:
- Bid amount
- Estimated action rates (likelihood the user will take your desired action)
- Ad quality and relevance
Ad Preview
The ad preview shows you what your ad will look like in different placements before you publish it. It appears on the right side of your editing screen and lets you check how your ad will appear across Facebook, Instagram, and other placements.
Ad Relevance Diagnostics
Facebook’s system for measuring how your ads stack up against competitors targeting the same audience. It provides rankings in three categories: Quality Ranking, Engagement Rate Ranking, and Conversion Rate Ranking. Each can be “above average,” “average,” or “below average.”
I check these diagnostics weekly for all my client campaigns. When I see a “below average” rating, it’s a clear signal that we need to refresh the creative or adjust targeting.
Ad Schedule
Ad scheduling lets you choose specific days and times for your ads to run. You can only use this feature with lifetime budgets rather than daily budgets.
I’ve found this incredibly useful for B2B clients – we often pause ads on weekends and focus spend during business hours when decision-makers are actually working.
Ad Set
An ad set sits between your campaign and your ads. It controls who sees your ads (audience), where they see them (placements), when they see them (schedule), and how much you’ll spend (budget).
Ad sets are really where the magic happens. And by the way, you can have multiple ad sets within a campaign, each targeting different audiences or testing different strategies.
Aggregated Event Measurement
This system was created after Apple’s iOS14 update and limits domains to tracking a maximum of eight conversion events. These events must be prioritized in order of importance.
The interesting thing is, this actually forced me to be more strategic about which events truly matter in the customer journey. For most of my clients, we now focus on 3-4 key events rather than tracking everything.
App
In the Facebook context, apps are third-party software that add features or functionality to the Facebook experience. Facebook Messenger is one example of a Facebook app.
Attribution Setting
Attribution settings determine how long after someone views or clicks your ad that a conversion will still be credited to that ad. For example, a “7-day click, 1-day view” window means conversions will be counted if they happen within 7 days of clicking or 1 day of viewing your ad.
I want everyone to pay attention to this: attribution windows got much shorter after iOS14, which makes your conversion numbers look lower, even if actual performance hasn’t changed.
Auction Overlap
Auction overlap happens when multiple of your ads compete against each other in the same auction. This typically occurs when you have different ad sets targeting similar audiences.
Audience Definition
This feature appears on the right side of your ad set creation panel and shows you the relative size of your selected audience. It indicates whether your audience is too specific, just right, or too broad.
Audience Exclusion
Audience exclusion lets you prevent certain groups from seeing your ads. For example, you might exclude current customers when running an acquisition campaign.
I use this all the time to exclude purchasers from seeing lead generation ads – no sense in paying to generate a lead from someone who’s already bought!
Audience Fragmentation
This occurs when you have multiple ad sets with different audiences all running the same ads. It can prevent smaller audiences from exiting the learning phase due to insufficient data.
Automated Rules
Automated rules let you set up automatic actions based on conditions you specify. For example, you can create a rule to pause ads if CPA exceeds a certain amount or increase budget when ROAS hits a target.
These have saved me countless hours of manual optimization. I have rules that pause underperforming ads at midnight, so I don’t waste budget overnight.
Automatic Placements
Automatic placements let Facebook choose where to show your ads across its platforms based on where they’re likely to perform best.
Campaign
The campaign is the foundation of your Facebook advertising structure. It’s where you set your main objective – what you want to achieve with your ads.
Campaigns are like the umbrella that holds everything together. What I love about campaigns is how they organize your advertising efforts around a specific goal, whether that’s brand awareness, engagement, or driving sales.
Campaign Budget Optimization (CBO)
CBO lets Facebook automatically distribute your budget across ad sets to get the best overall results. Instead of setting budgets at the ad set level, you set one budget at the campaign level.
This has been a game-changer for most of my clients. Facebook gets smarter every day about where to allocate budget for maximum return.
Campaign ID
A unique identification number assigned to each campaign for tracking and reference purposes.
Campaign Objectives
Facebook organizes campaign objectives into three main categories:
- Awareness: Goals like Brand Awareness and Reach that focus on introducing your brand to new audiences.
- Consideration: Includes Traffic, Engagement, App Installs, Video Views, Lead Generation, and Messages objectives.
- Conversion: Focused on driving sales with objectives like Conversions, Catalog Sales, and Store Traffic.
I was working with a client last month who was completely focused on conversions when their brand was new to the market. What’s interesting is that after we switched to an awareness campaign first, their overall conversion costs dropped by almost 30% in the following conversion campaigns.
Carousel Ad
Carousel ads let you show multiple images or videos in a single ad that users can scroll through horizontally. Each card can have its own headline, description, and link.
These are fantastic for showcasing multiple products or telling a story across several images. Every time I’m on the road speaking to marketers, they ask about carousel ads for e-commerce – they really do work!
Catalog
A catalog is a container for all your product information in Facebook. It’s managed in Commerce Manager and essential for running dynamic product ads.
Call-to-Action (CTA)
The CTA button appears at the bottom of your ad, telling people what action to take next. Options include “Shop Now,” “Learn More,” “Sign Up,” “Download,” and more.
Not always an easy task to pick the right one. I’ve found through testing that sometimes the less committal options like “Learn More” outperform “Buy Now” even for e-commerce clients.
Clicks
Clicks measure when someone interacts with your ad by clicking on any part of it. This could include clicking to expand an image, clicking your profile name, or clicking the main link.
Collection Ads
Collection ads showcase products from your catalog in a grid format. When someone taps the ad, it opens into a full-screen Instant Experience where they can browse more products.
Columns
Columns are the different metrics and data points you can choose to display in Ads Manager. You can customize which columns appear to focus on the metrics that matter most to you.
I’ve created custom column sets for different campaign types – one for awareness that focuses on reach and frequency, another for lead gen that highlights lead cost and quality metrics.
Commerce Manager
Commerce Manager is Facebook’s hub for managing your product catalog, shop, and sales across Facebook and Instagram.
Conversions
Conversions are the valuable actions people take after interacting with your ad. Depending on your business, conversions might include:
- Purchases
- Form submissions
- App installations
- Add to cart actions
- Email sign-ups
Facebook tracks conversions using the Facebook Pixel or Conversions API, which you install on your website.
Conversions API
The Conversions API lets you send web events directly from your server to Facebook rather than relying solely on the browser-based Pixel. It helps improve data accuracy, especially with iOS14 privacy changes.
Conversion Event Location
This setting tells Facebook where your conversion events will take place – on your website, in Messenger, in an app, etc.
Conversion Rate Ranking
One of Facebook’s ad relevance diagnostics that compares your ad’s expected conversion rate to others competing for the same audience. Rankings include “above average,” “average,” or “below average.”
Cost Control
Cost control features let you manage how much you spend at the ad set level. Options include bid caps, cost caps, and target cost bidding.
Cost Per Click (CPC)
CPC measures how much you pay, on average, for each click on your ad. It’s calculated by dividing your total spend by the number of clicks.
This metric matters most when your goal is driving traffic to your website. But it’s only part of the story – you also need to track what happens after the click.
Cost Per Thousand Impressions (CPM)
CPM represents the cost to show your ad to 1,000 people. It’s calculated by dividing your total spend by the number of impressions, then multiplying by 1,000.
Higher CPMs usually mean more competitive audiences. I track this closely because significant changes can indicate market shifts or targeting problems.
Cost Per Action (CPA)
CPA measures how much you spend, on average, for each desired action (like a purchase or lead). It’s calculated by dividing your total spend by the number of actions.
This is ultimately what most businesses care about most – how much it costs to get a customer or lead. But remember that sometimes a higher CPA is worth it if the customer lifetime value is also higher.
Cost Per Result
Similar to CPA, this measures how much you spend, on average, to achieve each result based on your campaign objective.
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
CTR shows what percentage of people who saw your ad clicked on it. It’s calculated by dividing the number of clicks by the number of impressions, then multiplying by 100.
This is one of my favorite diagnostic metrics. A low CTR usually means either your creative isn’t compelling or you’re targeting the wrong audience.
Creative Reporting
This feature gives you insights on creative performance across your campaigns, helping you identify which images, videos, or copy perform best.
Custom Audience
Custom audiences are created from your own sources, such as:
- Customer lists (email, phone numbers)
- Website visitors (via the Pixel)
- App users
- Engagement with your content on Facebook
These are some of your most valuable audiences because they already know your brand. I always recommend having a campaign dedicated to your custom audiences.
Custom Event
Custom events are conversion events you define yourself when Facebook’s standard events don’t fit your needs. They require custom code implementation on your website.
Customer List
A file containing customer information like emails or phone numbers that you upload to Facebook to create a Custom Audience.
Customer List Audience
A type of Custom Audience created from a customer list you upload to Facebook.
Audience Targeting Terms
Badges
Visual indicators next to Facebook group members’ names that show their role or level of contribution to the group. Examples include Admin, New Member, or Conversation Starter badges.
Behaviors
Behaviors are a targeting category based on activities people take, like purchasing behavior, device usage, or travel patterns.
With behaviors, you’re targeting based on what people do rather than who they are or what they like. I find this especially powerful for high-intent purchasing behaviors.
Bid
Your bid tells Facebook how much you’re willing to pay to achieve your ad objective in the auction.
Bid Strategy
Your bid strategy determines how Facebook will bid in the auction. Options include lowest cost (automatic), cost cap, bid cap, or target ROAS.
Boost Post
Boosting is a simplified way to create an ad from an existing organic post. It pushes your post higher in the Feed and allows basic targeting options.
I’m going to be honest – I used to look down on boosted posts as “Facebook Ads Lite.” But for local businesses with limited time, they can be quite effective for building local awareness and engagement.
Breakdowns
Breakdowns let you segment your ad data by different dimensions like age, gender, placement, or time to uncover insights.
These are absolute gold for finding optimization opportunities. I once broke down a client’s campaign by age and discovered that 90% of purchases came from just two age brackets – we immediately shifted budget there.
Budget
The amount you’re willing to spend on your Facebook ads. You can set budgets at the campaign level (with CBO) or ad set level.
Buying Type
The method by which you purchase ad space on Facebook. The main options are auction (most common) or reach and frequency buying.
Daily Active Users (DAUs)
A metric showing how many people actively use your Facebook page each day.
Daily Budget
A daily budget sets how much you want to spend on average each day on your campaign or ad set.
Daily Page Activity
A metric measuring the level of activity on your Facebook page each day.
Delivery
The delivery column in Ads Manager shows the status of your ads – whether they’re active, in review, rejected, etc.
This is one of the first things I check when logging into Ads Manager. If an ad isn’t being delivered properly, everything else is irrelevant.
Demographics
Demographics are targeting options based on who people are – their age, gender, education, job title, relationship status, and more.
Description
The description appears below the headline in your ad and provides additional details. It’s optional but gives you more space to convey your message.
Detailed Targeting
Detailed targeting lets you define audiences based on:
- Demographics (age, gender, education, job title)
- Interests (hobbies, entertainment preferences, favorite brands)
- Behaviors (purchase behaviors, device usage)
You can include, exclude, or create combinations of these parameters to reach exactly who you want.
Display Link
A text version of your URL that appears in your ad. It doesn’t have to match your actual URL exactly and can be simplified for better appearance.
Draft
Drafts are unpublished changes to your campaigns, ad sets, or ads that aren’t yet live.
I’ve saved myself countless headaches by creating drafts of major campaign changes and reviewing them with clients before pushing them live.
Dynamic Creative
Dynamic creative lets you upload multiple images, videos, headlines, descriptions, and CTAs, and Facebook will automatically mix and match them to find the best combinations.
Dynamic Experiences
Similar to dynamic creative but more limited – it lets you upload multiple text elements (headlines, descriptions, etc.) to mix with a single image or video.
Dynamic Product Ads
Dynamic product ads automatically promote products to people who have shown interest in them on your website or app. They pull from your product catalog and show the most relevant items to each person.
These are powerful for e-commerce because they’re personalized and timely. I had a client who saw a 3x improvement in ROAS after implementing these compared to standard ads.
Budget and Bidding Terms
End Date
The date when your campaign or ad set will automatically stop running.
Engaged Users
The number of people who have interacted with your Facebook page or posts in some way.
Engagement
Engagement includes all interactions people have with your ad, such as:
- Likes, comments, and shares
- Photo views
- Clicks on your profile
- Saves
High engagement often correlates with good ad relevance and can help boost your organic reach as well.
Engagement Rate Ranking
One of Facebook’s ad relevance diagnostics that compares your ad’s expected engagement rate to others competing for the same audience.
I’ve found this to be a good early indicator of ad performance. If your engagement rate ranking is “below average” within the first day, it’s usually worth pausing and revising the creative.
Estimated Daily Results
A prediction of how many results (based on your campaign objective) Facebook expects your ad set to generate each day.
Event Setup Tool
A tool that helps you configure standard events on your website without needing to manually add code. It lets you point and click to define which page loads or button clicks should count as conversion events.
External Referrals
Traffic that comes to your Facebook page from sources outside of Facebook, like Google searches or website links.
Facebook Ads Manager
The main tool for creating, managing, and analyzing your Facebook ad campaigns.
This is basically my second home. I’ve spent more time in Ads Manager than I care to admit, but that’s where all the magic happens.
Facebook Algorithm
The system that determines what content appears in users’ Feeds and in what order. It considers hundreds of factors to prioritize content it thinks will be most relevant to each user.
The algorithm changes constantly, but I want to make sure you don’t miss this – the most important factors have consistently been engagement rates and user connections.
Facebook Business Suite
An interface that lets businesses manage their pages, messages, and some ads across Facebook and Instagram from one place.
Facebook Events Manager
The central hub for managing your Facebook Pixel, Conversions API, and offline events. This is where you configure and troubleshoot event tracking.
Facebook Insights
A tool that provides analytics and data about your Facebook page performance, audience, and content.
Facebook Marketplace
A platform within Facebook where users buy and sell items locally. Ads can appear in Marketplace as one of your placements.
Facebook Messenger
Facebook’s messaging app that lets users communicate with friends, family, and businesses. Ads can appear in Messenger, or you can create campaigns that open Messenger conversations.
Facebook Pixel
The Facebook Pixel is a piece of code you install on your website to track visitor activity and conversions. It’s essential for measuring ad performance and building website custom audiences.
I can’t stress enough how important proper Pixel implementation is. Without it, you’re flying blind with your Facebook ads.
Facebook Shops
A feature that lets businesses create online stores on Facebook and Instagram where customers can browse and purchase products.
Feed
The Feed (formerly called News Feed) is the primary placement on Facebook where people scroll through content from friends, family, and brands. It’s usually the highest-performing placement.
Feed ads typically have the highest visibility and engagement rates but can also have higher costs than other placements. I always recommend testing multiple placements to find the best balance of cost and performance.
Frequency
Frequency measures how many times, on average, each person in your audience saw your ad. It’s calculated by dividing impressions by reach.
I always tell clients to watch this number carefully. Too low (under 1.5) and people might not remember your message. Too high (above 5 for most campaigns) and you risk ad fatigue and annoying your audience.
Groups
Facebook Groups are spaces where people with common interests can connect and share. Businesses can create and manage groups related to their industry to build community.
I’ll give you an example of this – one of my SaaS clients created a group for marketing professionals using their software. It’s now their most valuable channel for customer retention and word-of-mouth growth.
Headline
The headline appears below your ad image and is typically the largest text in your ad. It should be short, attention-grabbing, and value-focused.
Ad Formats and Placements
Image Ad
Image ads use a single static image along with text to convey your message. They’re simple to create but still effective for many objectives.
Despite all the newer formats, I still see great results with simple image ads when the visual is strong and the message is clear.
Impressions
Impressions count the total number of times your ads were shown. If the same person sees your ad multiple times, each view counts as a separate impression.
This is a volume metric that helps you understand your ad’s reach and frequency. By itself, impressions don’t tell you much about performance.
Instant Experience
Formerly known as Canvas, Instant Experience is a full-screen mobile experience that opens after someone taps your ad. It lets you combine videos, images, and call-to-action buttons in an immersive format.
These are great for storytelling and showcasing multiple products in a single ad. They load extremely quickly, which helps keep people engaged.
Interests
Interests are a targeting category based on topics, pages, and activities people have shown interest in on Facebook.
Interest targeting can be surprisingly effective. Just last month, I tested targeting coffee enthusiasts versus a lookalike audience for a specialty coffee brand, and the interest targeting delivered a 15% lower cost per purchase.
iOS14
Refers to Apple’s iOS14 update that introduced App Tracking Transparency, requiring apps (including Facebook) to get user permission before tracking them across other apps and websites.
This update dramatically changed Facebook advertising in 2021. Many advertisers saw significant drops in reported performance as users opted out of tracking.
Lead Ad
Lead ads allow people to submit their contact information directly within Facebook, without leaving the platform. The form pre-fills with information users have already shared with Facebook, making it easy to complete.
These ads remove friction from the lead generation process. For local businesses especially, I’ve seen these perform really well for consultation bookings.
Lead Generation
The process of collecting potential customer information through forms or other means. It’s also a campaign objective in Facebook.
Lifetime Budget
A lifetime budget is the total amount you’re willing to spend over the entire duration of your ad set or campaign. Facebook will pace your spending over the scheduled time period.
This gives Facebook more flexibility to spend when it sees the best results. If Monday performs better than Tuesday, for instance, Facebook might spend more of your budget on Mondays.
Link Clicks
The number of clicks on links in your ad that take people to destinations on or off Facebook.
What I love about link clicks is they’re a purer engagement metric than overall clicks. They tell you how many people actually clicked to learn more or take your desired action.
Lookalike Audience
A lookalike audience is a way to reach new people who are similar to your existing customers. Facebook analyzes the characteristics of your “source audience” (like your customer list or website visitors) and finds users with similar patterns.
This has been a game changer for so many of my clients. Just last quarter, I tested a 1% lookalike audience against our standard interest targeting for a SaaS client, and the lookalike brought in leads at a 22% lower cost.
Manual Placements
A setting that lets you choose exactly where your ads will appear instead of using Facebook’s automatic placements.
I tend to start with automatic placements for new campaigns, but once I have data, I often switch to manual placements focusing on the 3-4 top performing locations.
Meta
The parent company of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and other products. Facebook rebranded as Meta in October 2021.
Mobile App Installs
A metric showing how many people installed your mobile app after seeing your ad.
Monthly Active Users (MAUs)
The number of unique users who have interacted with your Facebook page in the past 30 days.
Performance Metrics
Net Likes
The total number of new page likes minus any unlikes during a specific period.
Objective
The primary goal you set for your advertising campaign. Facebook organizes objectives into awareness, consideration, and conversion categories.
And I’ll give you an example of this – if you’re a new bakery, your objective might be brand awareness. If you’re an established e-commerce store, your objective might be conversions.
Offer
A special promotion you can create and share via Facebook. Offers can be redeemed online or in-store.
Offline Event
Actions that occur outside of Facebook but are attributed to your Facebook ads, like phone calls or in-store purchases.
This is something many advertisers miss, but tracking offline events can completely transform your understanding of ad performance. I had a client in home services who thought their Facebook ads were failing until we started tracking phone calls.
Optimization Goal
What you want Facebook to prioritize when delivering your ads. Options include link clicks, impressions, conversions, and more.
Always align your optimization goal with your business objective. If you optimize for clicks but really care about purchases, you’ll get lots of cheap clicks that don’t convert.
Organic Reach
The number of people who saw your non-paid Facebook content in their Feed.
Organic reach has declined over the years, but I still find it valuable for certain types of content. Behind-the-scenes posts and customer stories still get decent organic visibility.
Page Admin
A person who has full control over a Facebook page, including managing settings, content, and other admins.
Page Engagement
The total number of actions taken on your Facebook page, including likes, comments, shares, and clicks.
Page Likes
The number of people who have liked your Facebook page.
Page Roles
Different levels of access you can assign to people who help manage your Facebook page. Roles include Admin, Editor, Moderator, Advertiser, and Analyst.
Paid Reach
The number of people who saw your content because of paid promotion.
Payment Method
The credit card, PayPal account, or other form of payment you use to pay for your Facebook ads.
Placement
The specific location where your ad appears within Facebook’s network. Placements include Facebook Feed, Instagram Stories, Messenger, and many more.
Post Attribution
How Facebook credits specific posts with actions or results. It determines which post gets “credit” when someone takes an action after seeing multiple posts.
Post Engagement
The total number of actions people take on your organic posts or ads, including likes, comments, shares, and clicks.
Post Reach
The number of people who saw a specific post in their Feed.
Primary Text
The main copy that appears above your ad image or video. It’s the first text people see when they encounter your ad.
Quality Ranking
One of Facebook’s ad relevance diagnostics that measures your ad’s perceived quality compared to ads competing for the same audience.
Marketing Funnel Terminology
Reach
Reach counts the unique number of people who saw your ads. While impressions count total views, reach counts unique viewers.
What’s interesting is comparing reach to impressions gives you frequency (how many times, on average, each person saw your ad). For awareness campaigns, I aim for high reach. For conversion campaigns, some frequency is needed for people to take action.
Reports
Custom data views you can create in Ads Manager to analyze your advertising performance across different metrics and dimensions.
I create different reports for different stakeholders – executive reports that focus on ROAS and overall performance, and tactical reports that dig into creative and audience performance for my team.
Result
A result is the specific action you’re optimizing for in your campaign. The definition varies based on your campaign objective.
Result Rate
The percentage of people who saw your ad and completed your desired action. It’s calculated by dividing results by impressions.
Retargeting
Retargeting (sometimes called remarketing) lets you show ads to people who’ve already interacted with your business. This could be people who visited your website, engaged with your Instagram profile, or took some action with your previous ads.
And I’ll give you an example of this – a retail client was seeing about a 0.8% conversion rate on cold traffic, but when we retargeted people who had viewed products but not purchased, that jumped to 4.2%. The Facebook Pixel makes this possible by tracking user activity on your site.
Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)
Return on ad spend measures how much revenue you generate for every dollar spent on advertising. It’s calculated by dividing your total revenue from ads by your total ad spend.
For example, a 3.0 ROAS means you’re making $3 for every $1 spent on ads. Each business has a different break-even ROAS depending on margins and overhead.
Saved Audience
A targeting configuration you’ve saved for reuse across multiple campaigns. It includes your detailed targeting, location, age, and gender selections.
I create saved audiences for my most successful targeting combinations and use them as starting points for new campaigns. This saves tons of time and ensures consistency.
Social Proof
Visible signs of approval from other users, like likes, comments, and shares, that help build trust in your brand or content.
Never underestimate the power of social proof. I always try to get early engagement on ads (even asking team members to engage) because ads with existing engagement tend to perform better.
Special Ad Category
A classification for ads related to housing, employment, credit, social issues, elections, or politics. These categories have restricted targeting options to prevent discrimination.
Special Ad Audience
A modified version of lookalike audiences for use with Special Ad Categories. These don’t use demographic factors like age, gender, or zip code that could lead to discrimination.
Standard Event
Pre-defined conversion events recognized by Facebook, such as Purchase, Lead, Add to Cart, etc. These are easier to implement than custom events.
Status
Indicates whether your campaign, ad set, or ad is active, paused, or completed.
Targeted Audience
A targeted audience is a group of people who share common characteristics that make them more likely to be interested in your business. Getting your targeting right is crucial for ad performance and ROI.
I want everyone to pay attention to this: the best targeted audiences balance reach (size) with relevance. Too broad and you waste money, too narrow and you limit your potential growth.
Timeline
The space on a Facebook profile or page where posts appear in chronological order.
Top of Funnel (TOFU)
TOFU focuses on creating awareness among people who don’t know your brand yet. Content at this stage should be educational and engaging rather than sales-focused.
The goals here are usually reach, impressions, and engagement. TOFU campaigns cast a wide net to find potential customers.
Middle of Funnel (MOFU)
MOFU targets people who are aware of your brand but haven’t converted yet. Content at this stage should nurture interest and build consideration.
Lead magnets, more detailed product information, and comparisons work well here. The goal is to collect leads or move people closer to a purchase decision.
Bottom of Funnel (BOFU)
BOFU targets people who are ready to make a purchase decision. Content at this stage should focus on conversion and address any final objections.
Special offers, free trials, demos, and testimonials work well here. The goal is to convert interested prospects into customers.
Total Reach
The combined organic and paid reach of your Facebook content over a specific period.
Trending Topics
Popular subjects currently generating high levels of engagement on Facebook.
URL Parameters
Tags you can add to your destination URLs to track where traffic comes from. Common parameters include UTM source, medium, and campaign.
This is essential for accurate tracking in Google Analytics. I always add unique UTM parameters to every ad so I can cross-reference performance data between Facebook and my other analytics tools.
Value
The monetary amount associated with a conversion event, like the value of a purchase or the lifetime value of a lead.
Verified Page
A Facebook page that has been confirmed as the authentic presence of the public figure, brand, or entity it represents. Verified pages have a blue checkmark badge.
Video Ad
An ad format that uses video as the primary creative element, along with text elements like headline and description.
Video continues to outperform static images in most of my tests. And I want to make sure you don’t miss this – you don’t need a huge production budget. Authentic, simple videos often perform better than overproduced ones.
Video Views
Video views measure how many times your video ad was viewed. Facebook counts a view when someone watches for at least 3 seconds.
Videos have become essential. But I want to make sure you don’t miss this – you don’t need Hollywood production quality. Authentic, helpful videos often outperform glossy productions.
Website URL
The destination link where people will go when they click your ad.
Conclusion
Understanding Facebook’s terminology is like learning the language of a new country – it seems overwhelming at first, but once you get the basics down, everything starts to make sense.
What I’ve found in my 8 years of running Facebook ads is that the platforms and terms change, but the fundamental principles stay the same. Focus on creating relevant, engaging ads for well-defined audiences, and you’ll see success regardless of what Facebook calls its metrics.
I recommend bookmarking this glossary and referring back to it whenever you encounter unfamiliar terms. The Facebook advertising landscape evolves constantly, but having this foundation will help you adapt to whatever changes come next.
And I want to make sure you don’t miss this final thought – behind all these technical terms are real people. Never lose sight of the humans you’re trying to reach with your ads. Understanding their needs and creating genuine value will always outperform any technical optimization trick.
What Facebook ad terms do you find most confusing? Drop a comment below and I’ll help clarify!