Glossary
D2C marketing glossary
Plain-English definitions of the terms that show up in every ads report, Shopify dashboard and WhatsApp flow.
- Add-to-cart rate
- The share of visitors who add at least one product to their cart. A low rate usually points to the landing page, not the ads. Learn more
- Advantage+ Shopping campaigns
- Meta's automated campaign type for e-commerce, which handles audiences and placements with minimal manual targeting. Learn more
- AOV (average order value)
- Total revenue divided by number of orders. Raising AOV with bundles lets you afford higher ad costs.
- Attribution window
- The period after a click or view during which a purchase is credited to an ad.
- Blended ROAS
- Total revenue from all channels divided by total ad spend. Harder to inflate than platform-reported ROAS. Learn more
- Break-even ROAS
- The ROAS at which ad spend uses up your entire contribution margin. Below it, every order from ads loses money. Learn more
- BSP (Business Solution Provider)
- A Meta-approved company that provides access to the WhatsApp Business Platform, usually for a platform fee on top of Meta's message charges. Learn more
- CAC (customer acquisition cost)
- Total cost of acquiring a new customer, including ad spend and related costs.
- Cart abandonment
- When a shopper adds products to their cart but leaves without completing the purchase. Learn more
- Click-to-WhatsApp ads
- Meta ads that open a WhatsApp chat with the brand instead of a website — useful for high-consideration products. Learn more
- COD (cash on delivery)
- A payment method where the customer pays the courier on delivery. Popular in India, but carries a higher risk of returns. Learn more
- Contribution margin
- Revenue from an order minus product cost, fees, shipping and returns — the money available to pay for ads and profit. Learn more
- Conversion rate (CVR)
- The share of visitors or sessions that complete a purchase.
- Conversions API (CAPI)
- Meta's server-side tracking, which sends events from your server so conversions blocked in the browser are still counted. Learn more
- CPA (cost per acquisition)
- Ad spend divided by the number of purchases (or another chosen action).
- CPC (cost per click)
- Ad spend divided by the number of link clicks.
- CPM (cost per mille)
- The cost of 1,000 ad impressions — a measure of how expensive it is to reach your audience.
- Creative fatigue
- Declining ad performance as the same audience sees the same creative too often. Learn more
- CTR (click-through rate)
- Clicks divided by impressions. A falling CTR on a stable audience is an early sign of creative fatigue.
- D2C (direct-to-consumer)
- Brands that sell directly to customers through their own website and channels rather than only through retailers or marketplaces.
- Event deduplication
- Matching the same conversion sent by both the browser pixel and the Conversions API so it is counted once. Learn more
- Frequency
- The average number of times each person has seen your ad in a given period.
- Full-funnel marketing
- Planning and running every stage of the customer journey — ad, offer, landing page, checkout and follow-up — as one system. Learn more
- Landing page
- The page a shopper reaches after clicking an ad. The best ones continue the exact promise the ad made. Learn more
- LTV (lifetime value)
- The total revenue or margin a customer generates over their relationship with your brand.
- Marketing message (WhatsApp)
- A WhatsApp template message that promotes products or offers. Billed at a higher rate than utility messages. Learn more
- Meta Pixel
- A browser-based tracking code that reports website events like purchases to Meta. Learn more
- Opt-in
- A customer's permission to be contacted on a channel such as WhatsApp. Required before sending business-initiated messages.
- Retargeting
- Showing ads or messages to people who have already interacted with your brand, such as site visitors or cart abandoners.
- ROAS (return on ad spend)
- Revenue attributed to ads divided by ad spend. Only meaningful compared with your break-even ROAS. Learn more
- RTO (return to origin)
- A shipment that is returned to the seller undelivered — common with COD orders — costing shipping both ways. Learn more
- UGC (user-generated content)
- Photos and videos of real customers or creators using a product, often the best-performing ad creative.
- Utility message (WhatsApp)
- A transactional WhatsApp template such as an order confirmation or delivery update. Cheaper than marketing messages. Learn more
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