Ad-Tech Glossary

Plain-English definitions for every term we use in our teardowns - with real examples from scraped campaign data.

A

A paid ad written in the style of editorial content - long-form, educational, and structured like an article or email rather than a traditional advertisement.Creative & Copy

C

Collation Groups

Meta's internal grouping of related ad variants that are being tested against each other within the same campaign, visible in Ad Library data as a shared identifier across creatives.Meta Ads

Creative Testing

A structured process for running controlled experiments to identify which ad creatives - images, videos, copy, headlines - drive the best performance for a given audience and objective.Meta Ads

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): What It Is and How to Calculate ItCAC

The total cost of acquiring a single new customer, including all marketing and sales expenses divided by the number of new customers gained.Measurement & Attribution

Customer Lifetime Value (LTV): Formula, Benchmarks, and D2C ExamplesLTV

The total net revenue a business expects to earn from a customer over the entire duration of their relationship.Measurement & Attribution

D

Dynamic Creative Optimization (DCO): How It Works on Meta AdsDCO

An automated ad-serving method that assembles the best-performing combination of creative elements in real time for each individual viewer.Meta Ads

Dynamic Product Ads (DPA): Setup, Strategy, and Best PracticesDPA

A Meta ad format that automatically pulls product images, prices, and copy from your catalog to serve personalized ads to shoppers who have already shown interest in specific products.Meta Ads

L

Lookalike Audience

A Meta targeting option that finds new users who share similar characteristics to your existing customers or website visitors, used to reach cold audiences most likely to convert.Audience & Targeting

M

Meta Ad Library

A public, searchable database of all active ads running across Meta's platforms - Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and the Audience Network - available to anyone without an account.Competitive Intelligence

Meta Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns: Complete Guide for D2C BrandsASC

Meta's fully automated campaign type that uses AI to handle creative testing, audience targeting, placement, and budget allocation for e-commerce advertisers with minimal manual configuration.Meta Ads

R

A paid advertising strategy that serves ads specifically to people who have already visited your website or interacted with your brand, rather than cold audiences.Audience & Targeting

ROAS (Return on Ad Spend): How to Calculate and What's a Good ROASROAS

The revenue generated for every dollar spent on advertising, calculated as total revenue divided by total ad spend.Measurement & Attribution

S

The underlying goal a person has when they type a query into a search engine - the reason behind the search, not just the words used.Audience & Targeting

The use of other people's experiences, opinions, or actions to validate a buying decision - reviews, testimonials, user counts, and press mentions in ads and on landing pages.Creative & Copy