Have you thought about Facebook Ads but gotten discouraged by a bunch of terminology you're not familiar with? Do you not have time to spend researching and studying Facebook Ads? Well I'd like to formally apologize we haven't done this sooner. Here are 25 Facebook Ad terms that you need to know before you get started. I haven't given you the definitions Facebook does. Instead I've given you definitions that make sense to the layman, definitions with connotation (and even some tips!) Check it out.

1. Wishpond’s
Dictionary

3. An individual ad is defined as both its ‘creative’ (the
body copy, headline and image) and the audience
you’ve targeted for that ad.

4. Actions are the number of actions Facebook users took
on your ad even if they didn't click through it. For
instance, if your Sponsored Post receives 2 Shares and 2
comments, it counts as 4 actions. Other actions include
Page Likes, app installs, clicks, etc.
Actions are calculated (and displayed in your ad
analytics) every 24 hours and 28 days after the first click
on your ad.

5. All Facebook Ads go through the ad auction before
they are made live on the newsfeed. Facebook pits ads
against each other and determines which are most likely
to be successful based on ad budget and targeted
audience.
Facebook only charges your ad the amount necessary
to win the auction. This may be less than your maximum
bid.

6. Bid (or, more accurately, maximum bid) is the maximum
amount you’re willing to pay per click (if bidding with
CPC) or per thousand impressions (if bidding with CPM).
Your maximum bid determines (along with your
targeted audience) how often you’ll win the ad auction
(see above).

7. A campaign is a group of Ads with the same ad
budget that are generally focused around the same
subject or product promotion.
A campaign is extremely useful when split testing the
effect of different variables on ad performance, as it
makes comparing results simple.

8. Average Cost Per Click: The amount you pay every
time someone clicks on your Ad. Calculated by…
The number of times your ad is clicked on
Cost for that ad during the same time period

9. Average cost per thousand impressions: The amount you’
re paying for every thousand views of your Ad (including
multiple views).
CPM is calculated as:
The # of thousands of times your ad is displayed
Cost for that ad during the same time period

10. Cost per mille, or (in other words) cost per thousand
impressions: There’s no reason to use CPM since CPC
and oCPM have been integrated into the ad tool.

11. Cost Per Click: CPC is the optimal bid type if you’re
looking for a click-through. You’ll pay each time
someone acts on your ad’s call-to-action.
Remember to set your click budget manually. We
recommend a click budget between 20 and 40
cents.

12. Optimized cost per mille (oCPM): This bid type is best
for showing your ad to the people who are most likely
to take action on your ad. For example, liking your
Page or clicking a link.

13. Click-Through-Rate is the number of clicks your
Facebook Ad received divided by the number of
times that ad was shown to Facebook users
(Clicks over Impressions).

14. Clicks are the total number of clicks on your ad.
Depending on what you're promoting, this can include
Page likes, event responses or app installs.

15. Conversions are the number of times people Liked your
Page, RSVPed to your event or took an action on your
website within 28 days of clicking on your ad.
Conversions can be seen in your analytics dashboard
only if your Facebook ad links to a Facebook Page,
event or App - otherwise we recommend you track
conversions with another analytic program.

16. Cost Per Action is the amount you’re paying (on
average) for each action people take on your ad.
Provided you’re paying by CPM, Facebook ads that
are well targeted and engage better will have a lower
CPA than ads that don’t.

17. Frequency is the average number of times each
Facebook user saw your ad.
We recommend you rotate your ad’s creative or
targeted audience when your frequency reaches a
maximum of 5. Test your own optimal frequency.

18. Impressions are the number of times your ad was
viewed (including multiple views). For example, if 50
people saw your ad 5 times, it would be reported as
250 impressions.
This also means your ad’s Frequency metric would be
around 5.

19. Interest targeting let you target your ad based on what
Facebook users have included on their timelines as well
as what other Pages, groups and other content they’ve
engaged with.
This information includes everything from favorite books
and movies to relationship status, changes in job title
and car ownership.

20. PTA is the number of unique people who took an
action (Liking your Page, installing your App, etc) as a
result of your Facebook ad.
Remember this is a metric based on people: if one
person Likes, comments and shares your promoted post
this will count as only one PTA.

21. Potential Reach is the approximate number of people
your ads or sponsored stories can be seen by based
on your targeting criteria.
The amount of Facebook users who actually see your
ad (the percent of your potential reach) is determined
by your ad budget.

22. Social Ads are different from normal ads as they
include social information (i.e. “Jane Smith Likes This”).
These ads perform better across the board than
antisocial ads (though they are also more expensive).

23. Suggested bid is based entirely on the ad auction
currently running for your targeted audience. The
suggested bid range is determined by the CPC or
CPM bids that have won the ad auction recently.
You can check the current range of suggested bid at
any time to see when it’s at its most cost effective.

24. Targeted Audience is the number of people your
targeted ad can be seen by.
Test for yourself the results your ad gets from a
specifically targeted audience (less than 100,000
people) or a more general audience (more than
1,00,000).

25. A custom audience is an ad targeting strategy in
which you import your existing business contacts
(merchants, email subscribers, etc) into Facebook’s ad
tool.
Facebook will find the Facebook user that corresponds
to the email you’ve provided. This list of users can then
be targeted with a Facebook Ad.

26. Available only through the Power Editor plugin, a
lookalike audience is created from a custom audience list.
Facebook finds users similar to your existing custom
audience.
Lookalike audiences can be generated with either 1% or
5% similarity. 1% similarity gives you a tighter targeting
strategy, while 5% gives you a larger, but less specific,
audience.

27. Website custom audience targeting is a new
development in which Facebook provides you with a
pixel (code) which you can place anywhere within your
website.
All web traffic that triggers this pixel will be tracked on
Facebook and an audience is generated.
This means you can target your web traffic on Facebook
without first receiving their email address.

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