Ad-Tech Glossary
Plain-English definitions for every term we use in our teardowns - with real examples from scraped campaign data.
A
Advantage+ Catalog Ads
Meta's AI-powered ad format that pulls from a connected product catalog to automatically assemble and personalize ads for each viewer based on browsing history and purchase signals.Platform Features
Advertorial
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
AI Max for Search
A suite of Google AI features within Search campaigns that automatically expands keyword matching, generates ad headlines, and routes traffic to the most relevant landing page.Platform Features
Andromeda Algorithm
Meta's AI-powered ad retrieval engine that matches ads to users based on creative signals rather than audience targeting settings.Platform Features
Attribution Window
The look-back period after a click or impression during which a platform claims credit for a conversion — changing the window changes reported ROAS without changing actual sales.Attribution & Tracking
Audience Signals (Performance Max)
First-party and interest-based inputs D2C brands feed into Google Performance Max campaigns to guide the AI toward likely converters—without restricting who can see the ads.Campaign Structure
B
Blended ROAS
Total revenue divided by total ad spend across all channels, giving a single efficiency number that no individual platform can inflate through its own attribution model.Measurement & Attribution
Brand Lift Study
A controlled experiment that measures whether an ad campaign changed how target customers think about a brand, by comparing survey responses from people who saw the ads against a matched group that didn't.Measurement & Attribution
C
CAC Payback Period
The number of months it takes a brand to recover its customer acquisition cost through the gross profit generated by that customer.Measurement & Attribution
Campaign Total Budget
A Google Ads budget type that sets a single fixed spending cap over a campaign flight of 3 to 90 days, letting Google's AI manage daily pacing without a per-day limit.Campaign Structure
Click-to-WhatsApp AdsCTWA
A Meta ad format where tapping a Facebook or Instagram ad opens a WhatsApp conversation with the business instead of loading a landing page.Platform Features
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
Contribution Margin
The revenue remaining after subtracting all variable costs per order — COGS, shipping, payment fees, and returns — that D2C brands use to set CAC ceilings and profitability floors for paid media.Measurement & Attribution
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
Cross-Channel Attribution
A measurement method that distributes conversion credit across every paid touchpoint in the customer journey, so a single purchase isn't claimed in full by Meta, Google, and email simultaneously.Attribution & Tracking
Customer Acquisition CostCAC
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 ValueLTV
The total net revenue a business expects to earn from a customer over the entire duration of their relationship.Measurement & Attribution
Customer Match
A Google Ads tool that lets brands upload hashed customer data — emails, phone numbers, or addresses — to reach known buyers and find similar audiences across Search, Shopping, YouTube, and Gmail.Audience Targeting
D
Dayparting
The practice of restricting or adjusting ad delivery to specific hours or days of the week based on when historical data shows conversions are most likely to occur.Campaign Structure
Demand Gen Campaigns
Google's AI-powered campaign type that serves visual and video ads across YouTube, YouTube Shorts, Discover, and Gmail to reach in-market audiences before they search.Campaign Structure
Demand-Side PlatformDSP
Software that lets advertisers buy ad inventory across multiple publishers and exchanges through a single interface, using real-time bidding to reach audiences beyond Meta and Google.Platform Features
Dynamic Creative OptimizationDCO
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 AdsDPA
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
E
Engage-Through Attribution
A Meta attribution bucket that counts conversions driven by non-link ad interactions — likes, shares, saves, comments, and 5-second video views — within a 1-day window, separate from click-through.Attribution & Tracking
Evergreen Ads
Ads, offers, or creative that aren't tied to a season, event, or promotion window - designed to run continuously without a hard end date.Paid Media
F
First-Party Data
Customer and behavioral data collected directly from a brand's own channels-email signups, purchase history, on-site events-owned by the brand and used to power paid media targeting and measurement.Audience Targeting
Flexible Creative
A Meta ad format where advertisers upload multiple images, videos, and copy variants in one ad unit, with Meta's AI assembling and serving the best-performing combination to each user.Creative
I
In-Platform Commerce
Completing a full purchase transaction inside a social platform — without leaving the app — as offered by TikTok Shop, Meta Shops, and YouTube Shopping.Platform Features
Incrementality Testing
A controlled experiment that measures conversions actually caused by an ad, by comparing an exposed group against a withheld holdout group, to separate true lift from sales that would have happened organically.Measurement & Attribution
M
Marketing Efficiency RatioMER
Total revenue divided by total marketing spend across all channels, measured off back-end revenue rather than platform-reported conversions.Measurement & Attribution
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 CampaignsASC
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
P
Partnership Ads
A Meta ad format that runs a creator's post as a paid ad under the creator's handle, combining the social proof of influencer content with Ads Manager's targeting and measurement.Creative
Performance MaxPMax
A Google Ads campaign type that runs ads across all Google surfaces — Search, Shopping, YouTube, Display, Gmail, and Discover — from a single campaign, using AI to allocate budget and optimize toward a conversion goal.Campaign Structure
Predictive Budget Allocation
An AI-driven system that moves ad spend across campaigns in real time based on forecasted performance signals, acting before results change rather than after.Campaign Structure
R
Reels Trending Ads
A Meta placement that inserts brand video immediately after creator Reels ranked in the top 5% of engagement on Instagram and Facebook, giving advertisers adjacency to trending content without producing it themselves.Platform Features
Retargeting
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
Return on Ad SpendROAS
The revenue generated for every dollar spent on advertising, calculated as total revenue divided by total ad spend.Measurement & Attribution
S
Search Intent
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
Shoppable CTV
A connected TV ad format that adds a product carousel and QR code to video ads, letting viewers browse and purchase directly from their television screen.Platform Features
Smart Bidding
Google's family of AI-powered bid strategies - Target CPA, Target ROAS, Maximize Conversions, and Maximize Conversion Value - that automatically set bids for each auction based on predicted conversion probability.Campaign Structure
Smart Bidding Exploration
An opt-in Google Ads feature that directs the bidding algorithm to pursue queries it would normally skip — signals within your eligible set that previously fell below its confidence threshold — by accepting a bounded ROAS reduction in exchange for reaching new converting users.Platform Features
Social Commerce
Selling products directly inside social media apps - Instagram Shops, TikTok Shop, Facebook Shops, WhatsApp checkout - so a buyer completes a purchase without leaving the platform.Platform Features
Social Proof
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