When you are new to advertising with Meta Ads Manager, it is easy to get tripped up on the terminology used. Ads Manager comes with a number of great tools and many powerful features and settings, but the vocabulary that comes with it can be a bit overwhelming at first. That is why we have compiled a glossary of the most common terms that you will come across as a Meta marketer. 

• A/B test: A randomized experiment where you choose a variable and select two variations of that variable to test.

• Account spending limit: Controls your total ad costs by pausing your ads when the limit is reached. Ads remain paused until you change this limit.

• Ad auction: Meta uses an ad auction to determine the best ad to show to a person at a given point in time. The winning ad maximizes value for both people and businesses.

• Ad level: The third level of a campaign structure where you define your creative—photos, videos, copy, links, and more.

• Ad placements: Where your ads will appear.

• Ads: The media you create for your audience including images, videos, text, links, and call-to-action buttons.

• Ad set level: The second level of a campaign structure where you choose your audiences, schedule, placements, and budget.

• Ads Manager: A tool for full control over ad types, formats, audiences, scheduling, and budgeting.

• Advantage+ placements (Ads Manager): Automatically runs ads across all Meta platforms to optimize budget usage.

• Amount spent: The estimated total spent on a campaign, ad set, or ad.

• Audience Network: Extends Facebook and Instagram campaigns to external apps using the same targeting and measurement systems.

• Audience size: Indicates whether your audience is too broad or too specific.

• Automatic payments: Charges occur automatically after a spending threshold is reached using PayPal or a card.

• Awareness: Objectives focused on generating interest in your business, product, or service.

• Banner, interstitial and native (Audience Network ad placement): Ad formats supported in apps within the Audience Network.

• Bid: Represents what you're willing to pay for a result from someone in your target audience.

• Bid strategy: Meta’s approach to spending your budget and getting results via ad auctions.

• Billing threshold: The spend amount that triggers automatic billing before your monthly bill date.

• Budget: The max you’re willing to spend daily or over the campaign's lifetime.

• Call-to-action button (CTA): Prompts people to act—like book, download, contact, or purchase.

• Campaign: A set of ad sets and ads with a single objective.

• Campaign budget optimization: Centralized budget management to distribute funds to top-performing ad sets.

• Campaign level: The first level in a campaign structure where you select your objective.

• Campaign objective: The desired outcome from your ad campaign.

• Campaign structure: Composed of three levels: campaign, ad sets, and ads.

• Carousel ad: Multiple images or videos, each with its own headline, link, or CTA.

• Collection ad: Combines a visual with product images from your catalog for a rich experience.

• Confidence level: Likelihood that A/B test results would remain consistent if repeated.

• Consideration: Objectives that encourage people to learn more about your business.

• Conversion: Objectives aimed at getting people to take action (buy or use a service).

• Copy: The text accompanying your ad creative.

• Cost per result: The cost-efficiency metric calculated as total spend divided by number of results.

• Custom Audience: Targets people who already interact with your business.

• Custom Conversions: Lets you track conversions based on specific URLs or custom event parameters.

• Customer files: CRM or POS data like email lists used to build audiences.

• Custom events: Website actions that are not part of Meta's standard events, defined by custom code.

• Daily budget: The average daily spending limit for a campaign or ad set.

• Daily reach estimate: Predicted number of people your ads will reach each day.

• Daily results estimate: Estimated number of daily outcomes based on your objective and performance.

• Delivery: Shows the current delivery status of your campaign, ad set, or ad.

• Edit placements (Ads Manager): Manually choose ad locations across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, or WhatsApp.

• Ends: The end date of your campaign, or "Ongoing" if none is set.

• Errors: Issues in your ads or settings that require fixing.

• Events received: The total number of events your pixel has tracked.

• Facebook Page: Your business's digital storefront on Facebook.

• Facebook engagement: Targets people who have interacted with your Facebook content.

• Facebook News Feed ad placement: Ad appears in desktop or mobile News Feed.

• Facebook Right Column ad placement: Ad appears in the right-hand column for desktop Facebook users.

• Hashing: Converts customer data into anonymized fingerprints for secure uploading.

• Impressions: The total number of times your ad was shown on screen.

• Instagram business account: Enables insights and ad creation for businesses on Instagram.

• Instagram Feed ad placement: Ad appears in Instagram's main feed.

• Instagram Stories ad placement: Ad appears within Instagram Stories.

• Instant Articles ad placement: Ad shown within Instant Articles on Facebook’s mobile app and Messenger.

• Instant Experience: A full-screen landing page format designed to showcase products or services.

• In-stream video (Audience Network): Video ads that appear before/during/after video content in apps.

• In-stream video Facebook ad placement: Ads within Facebook Live or Video on Demand content.

• Landing pages: The webpage users land on after clicking an ad.

• Lifetime budget: Total budget to be spent over the life of an ad set or campaign.

• Lookalike Audience: New people similar to your existing customers, identified via demographic or behavioral similarities.

• Highest Volume: A bid strategy focused on maximizing results at the lowest cost.

• Manual payments: Add funds upfront; charges are deducted as ads run.

• Marketplace Facebook ad placement: Ad appears on Facebook Marketplace.

• Messenger Inbox ad placement: Ad appears in the Messenger Home tab.

• Messenger Stories ad placement: Ad appears in Messenger Stories.

• Mobile app activity: Targets users based on actions taken within your app.

• Name: Identifier you assign to your campaign, ad set, or ad.

• New Audience: Default targeting based on demographics, interests, behaviors, and location.

• Organic reach/content: Unpaid reach driven by user interaction and sharing.

• Paid reach/content: Reach generated through ad spend, including boosted posts.

• Pixel: Meta code added to your website to track actions and optimize ads.

• Placement (Ads Manager): The chosen platform(s) where your ad appears.

• Potential reach: The estimated number of users who could see your ad.

• Reach: The number of unique users who saw your ad at least once.

• Results: Number of outcomes achieved based on your objective.

• Rewarded video (Audience Network): Video ads users watch in exchange for in-app rewards.

• Single image ad: A clean, simple ad featuring one image.

• Slideshow ad: An animated format using 3–10 images, videos, and effects.

• Source audience: The base Custom Audience used to generate a Lookalike Audience.

• Sponsored messages ad placement: Ads delivered directly to people you’ve previously messaged in Messenger.

• Standard events: Predefined actions like "add to cart" or "complete registration" used to track conversions.

• Stock images: Free Meta-provided high-quality images for ad creation.

• Stories: Fullscreen mobile media that disappears after 24 hours.

• Stories Facebook ad placement: Ad shown in Facebook or Instagram Stories.

• Toggle: Switch to turn a campaign, ad set, or ad on or off.

• Video ad: Uses motion and sound to promote a product or service.

• Website activity: Targets people based on their behavior on your site.

• Winning ad set: The top-performing variation in an A/B test, selected based on cost per result simulations.