Marketing terms, in plain English.
Ads, tracking and retention terms with formulas and examples.
Ad Fatigue
Ad fatigue happens when the same people see your ad so often that they stop paying attention, so results drop and costs rise.
Advantage+ (Meta)
Advantage+ is Meta's set of automated ad features that use its AI to choose audiences, placements and creative combinations for you.
Attribution Model (First Touch vs Last Touch)
An attribution model is the rule for deciding which ad or channel gets credit for a sale when a customer interacted with several before buying.
Churn Rate
Churn rate is the percentage of customers or members who leave in a given period.
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
Click-through rate, or CTR, is the percentage of people who click your ad after seeing it.
Conversion Rate
Conversion rate is the percentage of people who take the action you want, such as filling in a form, booking or buying, out of everyone who had the chance.
Conversions API (CAPI)
The Conversions API, or CAPI, sends conversion events from your server or CRM directly to Meta, instead of relying only on the browser pixel.
Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)
Cost per acquisition, or CPA, is how much you spend on ads to get one conversion, such as a booking or a sale.
Cost Per Click (CPC)
Cost per click, or CPC, is the average amount you pay each time someone clicks your ad.
Cost Per Lead (CPL)
Cost per lead, or CPL, is how much you spend on ads to get one lead.
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
Customer acquisition cost, or CAC, is the total cost of winning one new customer, including ads and the other sales and marketing costs involved.
Customer Lifetime Value (LTV)
Customer lifetime value, or LTV, is the total revenue you can expect from one customer over the whole time they stay with you.
Customer Retention
Customer retention is how well a business keeps its existing customers coming back or staying subscribed over time.
Lead Generation
Lead generation is the process of attracting people who are interested in what you sell and capturing their contact details so you can follow up.
Lead Nurturing
Lead nurturing is the follow-up that keeps a lead engaged, through texts, emails and calls, until they are ready to buy.
Lookalike Audience
A lookalike audience is a group of people Meta finds who resemble a source list you provide, such as your existing customers.
Marketing Attribution
Marketing attribution is working out which ads and channels led to each lead and sale, so you know what's actually working.
Meta Pixel
The Meta Pixel is a piece of code on your website that tells Meta when people who saw your ads take actions like viewing a page, filling in a form or booking.
Quality Score (Google Ads)
Quality Score is Google's 1 to 10 rating of how relevant your keyword, ad and landing page are to the people searching.
Retargeting
Retargeting means showing ads to people who have already interacted with your business, such as visiting your website or watching your videos.
ROAS (Return on Ad Spend)
ROAS, or return on ad spend, is the revenue your ads bring in for every dollar you spend on them.
Sales Pipeline
A sales pipeline is the set of stages a lead moves through on the way to becoming a customer, such as new, contacted, booked, proposal and won.
Speed to Lead
Speed to lead is how quickly your business responds to a new lead after they reach out.
UTM Parameters
UTM parameters are tags added to the end of a link that tell your analytics where a visitor came from, such as the platform, campaign and ad.
Win-Back Campaign
A win-back campaign is a series of messages aimed at customers who have stopped buying or visiting, to bring them back.