Advertising
Social advertising / paid media
This is the term used when you pay to play. So, you spend money to have your content seen on social media.
Ad / advert
The social post that is served in your advertising campaign.
Dark post/s
This can be another term people use when referring to ads. These are posts that do not appear organically on your social media channel, and only appear in paid campaigns.
Ad server
The tool where you set up your advertising campaigns so they can be delivered on the social network. Each social network has built their own ad server. There are also third-party tools you can use that have access to the native platforms, e.g. Sprinklr.
Business Manager / Business Suite
The tool used by Facebook and Instagram for businesses to manage pages, paid media, content posting and reporting.
LinkedIn campaign manager
The name of LinkedIn’s ad server.
Boosting posts
This refers to a post that appears organically on the page / channel and then has a paid budget added to extend its reach. Boosting is different from setting up ads in a paid campaign as when boosting a post, you can only select one post and there are limited targeting options.
Targeting
Targeting is the criteria that you use to tell the social media ad servers how to find your audience.
Look-a-like audience
This is a way to show your ads to new people who might be interested in your campaign because the social media networks try to find people who share similar characteristics to one of your existing audiences, for example people who are similar to visitors to your website. You can also build look-a-like audiences from your most engaged audiences, for example people who converted on your website or from your email database.
Pixel
A small snippet of code that sits on your website and talks back to social media platforms. Pixels allow you to track performance on your website and optimise campaigns towards website conversion and to build social media audiences based on behaviour on your web properties.
Retargeting
A paid targeting strategy where you send someone an ad based on their past behaviour and interactions with you. For example, by building an audience of people who visited your website and sending them ads on social media.
Social advertising / paid media
This is the term used when you pay to play. So, you spend money to have your content seen on social media.
Ad / advert
The social post that is served in your advertising campaign.
Dark post/s
This can be another term people use when referring to ads. These are posts that do not appear organically on your social media channel, and only appear in paid campaigns.
Ad server
The tool where you set up your advertising campaigns so they can be delivered on the social network. Each social network has built their own ad server. There are also third-party tools you can use that have access to the native platforms, e.g. Sprinklr.
Business Manager / Business Suite
The tool used by Facebook and Instagram for businesses to manage pages, paid media, content posting and reporting.
LinkedIn campaign manager
The name of LinkedIn’s ad server.
Boosting posts
This refers to a post that appears organically on the page / channel and then has a paid budget added to extend its reach. Boosting is different from setting up ads in a paid campaign as when boosting a post, you can only select one post and there are limited targeting options.
Targeting
Targeting is the criteria that you use to tell the social media ad servers how to find your audience.
Look-a-like audience
This is a way to show your ads to new people who might be interested in your campaign because the social media networks try to find people who share similar characteristics to one of your existing audiences, for example people who are similar to visitors to your website. You can also build look-a-like audiences from your most engaged audiences, for example people who converted on your website or from your email database.
Pixel
A small snippet of code that sits on your website and talks back to social media platforms. Pixels allow you to track performance on your website and optimise campaigns towards website conversion and to build social media audiences based on behaviour on your web properties.
Retargeting
A paid targeting strategy where you send someone an ad based on their past behaviour and interactions with you. For example, by building an audience of people who visited your website and sending them ads on social media.
Adverts
Ad format
This refers to the type of ad that you are going to use. The social networks offer a range of options, for example, website cards or videos.
Placement
This refers to where the adverts will appear across the social media networks. For example, Facebook’s newsfeed and stories are both different placements as they appear in different places on the social media network.
Post copy (or caption)
The main body of text on an ad that does not appear in a visual asset. For example, the primary text in Facebook posts.
Character count
The number of characters (including spaces) in your ad copy. Ad format specifications will often have character count limitations and it is important to check whether your copy will fit in the space available on an ad. And to communicate this limitation to medical, legal or regulatory teams for their review.
Text truncation
When copy in your ad is cut off due to the character limitations of the ad format, any additional text beyond the truncation will generally appear behind a ‘see more’ button. Or the text will be cut off at the maximum character limit.
Assets
The creative and copy combinations you plan to use on social media.
Asset variations
You will usually upload multiple asset variations to a paid campaign so the ad server can find the most effective asset for driving your desired campaign action.
A/B testing
Also known as split testing, this is where you place even spend behind two variables to test which is more effective.
Ad format
This refers to the type of ad that you are going to use. The social networks offer a range of options, for example, website cards or videos.
Placement
This refers to where the adverts will appear across the social media networks. For example, Facebook’s newsfeed and stories are both different placements as they appear in different places on the social media network.
Post copy (or caption)
The main body of text on an ad that does not appear in a visual asset. For example, the primary text in Facebook posts.
Character count
The number of characters (including spaces) in your ad copy. Ad format specifications will often have character count limitations and it is important to check whether your copy will fit in the space available on an ad. And to communicate this limitation to medical, legal or regulatory teams for their review.
Text truncation
When copy in your ad is cut off due to the character limitations of the ad format, any additional text beyond the truncation will generally appear behind a ‘see more’ button. Or the text will be cut off at the maximum character limit.
Assets
The creative and copy combinations you plan to use on social media.
Asset variations
You will usually upload multiple asset variations to a paid campaign so the ad server can find the most effective asset for driving your desired campaign action.
A/B testing
Also known as split testing, this is where you place even spend behind two variables to test which is more effective.
Monitoring
Community management
This refers to managing online communities on social media. For example, through monitoring comments and activity on social media accounts, and replying to or actioning these comments.
Community Manager
The job title often given to someone who manages social media accounts for businesses.
Direct message
A direct message on social media is like a private message. This means it doesn’t appear publicly on your social media account, but instead comes through to a private inbox.
Adverse event and product complaint monitoring
The legal obligation of pharmaceutical and healthcare companies to monitor and report adverse events / product complaints about their products that appear on social media.
Community management
This refers to managing online communities on social media. For example, through monitoring comments and activity on social media accounts, and replying to or actioning these comments.
Community Manager
The job title often given to someone who manages social media accounts for businesses.
Direct message
A direct message on social media is like a private message. This means it doesn’t appear publicly on your social media account, but instead comes through to a private inbox.
Adverse event and product complaint monitoring
The legal obligation of pharmaceutical and healthcare companies to monitor and report adverse events / product complaints about their products that appear on social media.
Reporting & optimisation
Campaign optimisation
Reviewing data, gathering learnings, and adjusting a live campaign to improve performance.
Frequency
The average number of times your ad was served to each person.
Media spend
The budget allocated to purchasing media on the social media networks. Also referred to as out-of-pocket budget.
Impressions
The number of times your ad was shown on social media.
Cost per 1,000 Impressions (CPM)
Media spend divided by the total number (in thousands) of impressions.
Cost per result
Cost to achieve the desired action in your paid campaign.
Result rate
Total number of results divided by impressions as a percentage.
Engagements
Total number of interactions with your posts e.g. likes, comments, shares, retweets, hashtag clicks. In paid media campaigns this could include both paid and organic.
Engagement rate
Total number of engagements divided by impressions as a percentage.
Cost per engagement
Total spend divided by the number of engagements.
Likes
The total number of Likes on your content.
Reactions
The number of reactions on your ads. The reactions button on an ad allows people to share different reactions to its content, for example on Facebook these are Like, Love, Care, Haha, Wow, Sad or Angry.
Comments / replies
The total number of comments/replies to your posts.
Shares
The total number of times people shared your content. Note: this only includes people using the 'share' button. People may share your content in other ways too such as tagging a friend or copying a link.
Link clicks
The number of clicks on links within your post that led to an advertiser-specified destinations, on or off platform. For example, clicks on a link to your website.
Clicks
The number of clicks on your ads. This metric could include multiple types of clicks on your ad such as clicks to expand an image, to 'like' the post, or to visit a link.
Click through rate (CTR)
The number of clicks (all) divided by impressions as a percentage.
Cost per link click (CPLC)
The metric is calculated as the total amount spent divided by link clicks.
Cost per click (CPC)
Total spend divided by the number of clicks.
Social actions (LinkedIn metric)
Total number of reactions, comments, shares and new account follows.
Video view
Views of your video content. The length of time that counts as a view differs based on platform. Facebook / Instagram = 3 seconds, Twitter = 2 seconds, LinkedIn = 2 seconds.
Cost per video view
Total spend divided by the total number of video views.
Video views 25%
Number of times your video was watched to 25% of its length, including plays that skipped ahead to this point.
Video views 50%
Number of times your video was watched to 50% of its length, including plays that skipped ahead to this point.
Video views 75%
Number of times your video was watched to 75% of its length, including plays that skipped ahead to this point.
Campaign pacing
Campaign pacing refers to the cadence at which your campaign is delivered. Each social network has their own approach to how they pace your campaigns and manage daily budgets.
Tracking link (Also may be referred to as UTM links)
A tracking link, also known as a campaign link or a tagged link, is a special URL that contains tracking parameters added to the original URL. These parameters allow website analytics software to track specific information about the traffic generated by that link. When someone clicks on a tracking link, the analytics software captures information such as the source of the traffic (e.g. email, social media, paid advertisement), the medium (e.g. banner, text link, video), the campaign name, and the specific creative used (e.g. specific ad or email version). This data is then used to measure website performance and the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. By analysing this information, marketers can determine which campaigns are generating the most traffic and conversions, and which ones need to be optimised. Best practice is to use consistent naming conventions across your organisation so you can easily analyse and compare performance across campaigns.
Social listening
Social listening refers to actively tracking and analysing online mentions and conversations amongst your target audience, which could be about your company or brands, or a disease area or topic in a disease area. These conversations need to take place in public social networks, like Twitter, or forums, or in the news to be able to be picked up by social listening tools.
Campaign optimisation
Reviewing data, gathering learnings, and adjusting a live campaign to improve performance.
Frequency
The average number of times your ad was served to each person.
Media spend
The budget allocated to purchasing media on the social media networks. Also referred to as out-of-pocket budget.
Impressions
The number of times your ad was shown on social media.
Cost per 1,000 Impressions (CPM)
Media spend divided by the total number (in thousands) of impressions.
Reach
The number of unique users who saw your content at least once. Reach is different from impressions. Impressions may include multiple views of your ads by the same people.
Cost per 1,000 user accounts reached (Meta specific)
The metric is calculated as the total amount spent, divided by reach, multiplied by 1,000. This metrics measures user accounts reached across Meta technologies, such as Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Audience Network.
Results
The number of actions that fulfill your campaign objective.
The number of unique users who saw your content at least once. Reach is different from impressions. Impressions may include multiple views of your ads by the same people.
Cost per 1,000 user accounts reached (Meta specific)
The metric is calculated as the total amount spent, divided by reach, multiplied by 1,000. This metrics measures user accounts reached across Meta technologies, such as Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Audience Network.
Results
The number of actions that fulfill your campaign objective.
Cost per result
Cost to achieve the desired action in your paid campaign.
Result rate
Total number of results divided by impressions as a percentage.
Engagements
Total number of interactions with your posts e.g. likes, comments, shares, retweets, hashtag clicks. In paid media campaigns this could include both paid and organic.
Engagement rate
Total number of engagements divided by impressions as a percentage.
Cost per engagement
Total spend divided by the number of engagements.
Likes
The total number of Likes on your content.
Reactions
The number of reactions on your ads. The reactions button on an ad allows people to share different reactions to its content, for example on Facebook these are Like, Love, Care, Haha, Wow, Sad or Angry.
Comments / replies
The total number of comments/replies to your posts.
Shares
The total number of times people shared your content. Note: this only includes people using the 'share' button. People may share your content in other ways too such as tagging a friend or copying a link.
Link clicks
The number of clicks on links within your post that led to an advertiser-specified destinations, on or off platform. For example, clicks on a link to your website.
Clicks
The number of clicks on your ads. This metric could include multiple types of clicks on your ad such as clicks to expand an image, to 'like' the post, or to visit a link.
Click through rate (CTR)
The number of clicks (all) divided by impressions as a percentage.
Cost per link click (CPLC)
The metric is calculated as the total amount spent divided by link clicks.
Cost per click (CPC)
Total spend divided by the number of clicks.
Social actions (LinkedIn metric)
Total number of reactions, comments, shares and new account follows.
Video view
Views of your video content. The length of time that counts as a view differs based on platform. Facebook / Instagram = 3 seconds, Twitter = 2 seconds, LinkedIn = 2 seconds.
Cost per video view
Total spend divided by the total number of video views.
Video views 25%
Number of times your video was watched to 25% of its length, including plays that skipped ahead to this point.
Video views 50%
Number of times your video was watched to 50% of its length, including plays that skipped ahead to this point.
Video views 75%
Number of times your video was watched to 75% of its length, including plays that skipped ahead to this point.
Campaign pacing
Campaign pacing refers to the cadence at which your campaign is delivered. Each social network has their own approach to how they pace your campaigns and manage daily budgets.
Tracking link (Also may be referred to as UTM links)
A tracking link, also known as a campaign link or a tagged link, is a special URL that contains tracking parameters added to the original URL. These parameters allow website analytics software to track specific information about the traffic generated by that link. When someone clicks on a tracking link, the analytics software captures information such as the source of the traffic (e.g. email, social media, paid advertisement), the medium (e.g. banner, text link, video), the campaign name, and the specific creative used (e.g. specific ad or email version). This data is then used to measure website performance and the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. By analysing this information, marketers can determine which campaigns are generating the most traffic and conversions, and which ones need to be optimised. Best practice is to use consistent naming conventions across your organisation so you can easily analyse and compare performance across campaigns.
Social listening
Social listening refers to actively tracking and analysing online mentions and conversations amongst your target audience, which could be about your company or brands, or a disease area or topic in a disease area. These conversations need to take place in public social networks, like Twitter, or forums, or in the news to be able to be picked up by social listening tools.
Paid Social Media Glossary
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