Glossary: advertising terms in plain English

Every advertising term you're likely to meet in Snifferdog and on the ad platforms, in plain English.

A to C

Ad: what people actually see: the image or video, headline, text and button.

Ad group: Google, Microsoft and TikTok's name for a group of ads that share targeting and, on Google, keywords.

Ad set: Meta's name for a group of ads that share an audience, placements, schedule and budget.

Asset group: Performance Max's version of an ad group: a bundle of headlines, images and videos Google mixes and matches.

Bid: the most you're willing to pay for a click or result. Most campaigns now let the platform bid automatically.

Budget (daily or lifetime): how much a campaign can spend per day, or across its whole run.

Campaign: the top level of an ad account, set around one goal.

Conversion: an action you care about, such as a purchase, enquiry or sign-up.

Conversion rate: the percentage of clicks that become conversions.

CPA (cost per acquisition): what each conversion cost you. Spend divided by conversions.

CPC (cost per click): what each click cost you.

CPM (cost per mille): what 1,000 impressions cost you.

CTR (click-through rate): the percentage of people who saw your ad and clicked it.

D to L

Frequency: how many times, on average, each person saw your ad.

Impression: one showing of your ad on someone's screen.

Keyword: a word or phrase that triggers your search ads.

Landing page: the page people arrive on after clicking your ad.

Learning phase: the first few days to two weeks while a platform works out who responds best to your ads.

Lookalike audience: people who resemble your existing customers.

M to R

Match type: how closely a search must match your keyword: broad, phrase or exact.

Media plan: Snifferdog's recommendation for which platforms to use, how to split your budget and how to structure each campaign.

Performance Max: a Google campaign type that runs across all of Google's channels from one campaign.

Pixel or tag: code on your website that tells ad platforms what people do after clicking.

Placement: where an ad appears, such as Instagram Stories or the YouTube feed.

Reach: the number of different people who saw your ad.

Retargeting: showing ads to people who've already visited your site.

ROAS (return on ad spend): revenue from ads divided by ad spend. 4x means £4 back for every £1 spent.

S to Z

Spark Ads: TikTok ads that promote existing organic TikTok posts.

UTM parameters: tags added to a link so analytics tools can tell which ad a visitor came from.