Meta Ads Glossary

Published December 15, 2025 | By Matt

If you’ve opened Meta Ads Manager and felt overwhelmed — that’s normal.
This is the stuff people assume you know but never explain.

I’ll keep it simple.

The 3 Things Everything Is Built From

Campaign

This is the main goal of your ads.

You’re telling Meta what you want:

Leads
Sales
Video views
Traffic

Pick one. Don’t overthink it.

Ad Set

This is where you decide:

Who sees the ad
How much you spend
Where it shows up
When it runs

If your ad is doing weird things, the problem is usually here.

This is the actual thing people see:

The video or image
The words
The button

Bad creative will kill even the best targeting.

What Meta Is Actually Optimizing For

Awareness

Meta just wants people to notice you.
No clicks. No sales. Just exposure.

Good for new brands or local stuff.

Traffic

Meta looks for people who click links a lot.

That does not mean buyers.
It means clickers.

Engagement

Likes, comments, shares.

This is good for warming people up and building trust — not direct sales.

Video Views

Meta shows your video to people who tend to watch videos.

Great for:

Explainers
Storytelling
Retargeting later

Leads

Meta looks for people likely to give you their info.

Can be:

A Facebook form
Your website form

Sales

This is where money comes from.

Meta tries to find people most likely to buy — but only if tracking is set up correctly.

The Numbers You’ll See Everywhere

Impressions

How many times your ad showed up.

One person can count multiple times.

Reach

How many different people saw your ad.

Frequency

How many times the same person saw your ad on average.

If this gets too high, people start ignoring you.

CTR (Click-Through Rate)

Out of everyone who saw the ad, how many clicked.

If this sucks, your creative sucks.
Simple as that.

CPC (Cost Per Click)

How much each click costs you.

Cheap clicks are useless if they don’t turn into customers.

Conversion

The thing you actually care about:

A lead
A purchase
A signup

CPA (Cost Per Acquisition)

How much you paid to get one conversion.

This is one of the most important numbers.

ROAS

How much money you made back from ads.

Spend $100 → make $300 → that’s 3x ROAS.

Tracking (Where People Mess This Up)

Meta Pixel

A piece of code on your site that tells Meta what people do.

Without this, Meta is basically guessing.

Conversion API (CAPI)

More reliable tracking that runs from your server instead of the browser.

Helps with iOS issues and ad blockers.

Events

Actions Meta tracks:

Page views
Leads
Purchases

You tell Meta which one matters most.

Audiences (Who Sees Your Ads)

Cold Audience

People who don’t know you yet.

This is the hardest and most expensive audience.

Warm Audience

People who’ve watched your videos, visited your site, or interacted with you.

These people convert cheaper.

Hot Audience

People who almost bought or already bought.

If you ignore these, you’re leaving money on the table.

Custom Audience

An audience you build from your own data:

Website visitors
Email list
Video viewers

Lookalike Audience

Meta finds new people who act like your best customers.

Works best when your source data is solid.

Where Ads Show Up

Automatic Placements

Meta decides where your ads appear.

For beginners, this is usually fine.

Manual Placements

You pick exactly where ads show up.

Useful later. Not necessary at first.

Two Terms That Explain 80% of Problems

Learning Phase

Meta is figuring things out.

During this time:

Results jump around
Don’t touch anything unless it’s broken

Ad Fatigue

People have seen your ad too many times.

Signs:

Clicks drop
Costs rise
Frequency climbs

Fix = new creative.

If You Remember Nothing Else

Ads don’t fail because of targeting — they fail because of bad messaging
Traffic ≠ buyers
Creative matters more than settings
Meta needs data to work properly
Don’t panic over small budgets or short timeframes

Why Retargeting Is the Difference Between “Random Results” and Predictable Leads

This is the part almost no beginner understands — and it’s why most people think Meta ads are “unreliable.”

They’re not.

Most accounts just never use their data properly.

Cold Ads Are Expensive (That’s Normal)

When you run ads to people who’ve never heard of you:

Meta has less data
People are more skeptical
Costs are higher
Results swing day to day

That doesn’t mean ads aren’t working.
It means you’re only doing half the system.

Retargeting Is Where Costs Drop

Retargeting means showing ads to people who:

Watched your videos
Visited your site
Clicked your ads
Started but didn’t finish

These people already know you.

So:

Clicks are cheaper
Leads cost less
Purchases happen faster

This is how you stop paying full price for every conversion.

Meta Gets Smarter When You Let It Reuse Data

Every action someone takes feeds Meta information:

Who clicks
Who watches
Who buys
Who ignores you

When you retarget:

Meta isn’t guessing anymore
It knows who to prioritize
Delivery becomes more consistent

This is how you move from “spiky results” to something you can actually plan around.

Why This Stabilizes Leads & Sales

Accounts without retargeting usually look like this:

Some days great
Some days awful
No pattern
No confidence increasing budget

Accounts with proper retargeting:

Costs settle into a range
Leads come in daily
Purchases don’t disappear overnight
Scaling becomes possible

Not perfect — but predictable.

Predictable is what businesses need.

This Is Also How You Beat Bigger Advertisers

You don’t win by outspending big companies.

You win by:

Reusing attention
Following up intelligently
Showing the right message at the right time

Retargeting lets you compete without increasing budget.

Why Most People Never Set This Up Correctly

Common issues:

No clear funnel
No separation between cold and warm ads
No idea which events matter
No system for what to show people next
Pixel or tracking only half-working

So Meta never gets clean signals — and results stay unstable.

This Is Usually the “Aha” Moment on Strategy Calls

This is one of the big moments I usually get with my clients — they realize they’ve been missing out on SO MUCH because they’re running ice cold traffic to their offers and wondering why things collapse when they increase their budgets.

Most people already have:

Traffic
Video views
Clicks
Leads

They just aren’t using that data.

A proper strategy call usually focuses on:

What data you already have
What should be retargeted
What messaging belongs at each stage
How to stabilize results before scaling
Where money is leaking right now

That’s when ads stop feeling random — and start acting like a system.

If your ads feel inconsistent and you’re not sure what to fix first, book a strategy call.
We’ll look at what data you already have, where costs are leaking, and how to stabilize leads or sales before scaling anything.

👉 Book a strategy call with Matt