Glossary of Ad Metrics

Quick answer

ROAS is revenue from your ads divided by ad spend. Higher is better. MER is ad spend divided by total store sales, shown as a percentage. Lower is better. Break-even ROAS is 1 divided by your gross margin. Every other term you'll see in Agency AI is below, A to Z.

Want a number explained for your own account? Ask your AI Strategist: "What was my MER last month, and is it above my break-even?"

A to Z

Ad Spend, Cost, Spend. What you paid Meta and Google in the selected period. Shown as Ad Spend on Stats, Cost in Manage ads and Spend on recommendation cards.

AOV (Average Order Value). Total sales divided by the number of orders. Shown as Average Order Value on Stats on the Agency AI home page, and as AOV on Performance in the AI Dashboard.

Blended ROAS. ROAS across all your connected ad accounts: the total revenue Meta and Google attribute to your ads, divided by your total ad spend. It's a total, not an average of each platform's ROAS. Each platform credits its own ads, so an order that both Meta and Google claim counts twice here. MER doesn't have that problem. Shown as ROAS on Stats and as Blended ROAS on Performance in the AI Dashboard.

Break-even MER. Your gross margin as a percentage. With a 40% margin, break-even MER is 40%. Above it, ad spend is eating more than your gross profit.

Break-even ROAS. The ROAS at which an ad pays for itself. Divide 1 by your gross margin: a 40% margin gives 2.5. It lives on Brand Info and recommendations use it. See Where your break-even ROAS and target ROAS come from.

CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost). What it costs to win one new customer. Unlike CPA, it leaves out repeat buyers. For a new-customer view in Agency AI, use NC-ROAS.

Clicks. On the Meta Ads tab: all clicks on the ad in the selected period, not only clicks through to your store.

Conv. (Conversions). Purchases the platform attributes to a campaign or ad. Meta and Google count these their own way, so they won't match your Shopify orders exactly.

Conv. Value. On Google campaigns: the purchase value Google attributes to the campaign.

Cost Per Result. On Meta campaigns: cost divided by conversions.

CPA (Cost Per Acquisition). Cost divided by conversions. Shown on Google campaigns and on recommendation cards.

CPC (Cost Per Click). Cost divided by clicks. Shown on Google campaigns.

CPM (Cost Per Mille). Cost per 1,000 impressions. Rising CPM with steady CTR usually means more competition for the same audience.

CTR (Click-Through Rate). Clicks divided by impressions. A falling CTR on an ad that used to do well is an early sign people are tired of the creative.

Engage-through. Meta's category for conversions that follow a non-link interaction: a like, share, save, comment or a video view of 5 seconds or more. Fixed 1-day window. See Why your numbers don't match.

Frequency. The average number of times each person saw your ad. When frequency climbs and CTR falls, the audience has seen the creative too often and it's time for new ads.

Impressions. The number of times your ad was shown.

Learning phase. The period after a launch or a big edit while Meta or Google gathers data. Results swing more during it. See Understanding the learning phase.

MER (Marketing Efficiency Ratio). Ad spend divided by total store sales, organic and repeat orders included, shown as a percentage. Lower is better. 1,000 in ad spend and 5,000 in total sales is an MER of 20%. Every order counts once, so Meta and Google can't double-count it. Shown on Stats and on Performance in the AI Dashboard, for the whole account only. Compare it with your break-even MER.

NC-ROAS (New Customer ROAS). Revenue from first-time customers divided by ad spend. Shown on Stats.

Optimization event. The action you tell the platform to optimize for, usually a purchase. Meta needs about 50 of these in 7 days for an ad set to leave the learning phase.

Revenue. In Manage ads: the purchase value attributed to that campaign, ad set or ad.

ROAS (Return On Ad Spend). Revenue from your ads divided by ad spend. A ROAS of 4.0 means 4 back for every 1 spent, before product costs. On Stats it covers all your connected ad accounts. In Manage ads it's Revenue divided by Cost for each row.

Target ROAS, Google (tROAS). The return you tell Google's bidding to aim for on a Performance Max campaign. A higher target makes Google bid more selectively, so it usually spends less. A lower target brings more volume and spend. Recommendations can suggest raising or lowering it, and you can apply those in one click. Or message your AI Strategist: "Lower the target ROAS on my Google campaign to 3." See Why is Google spending so little?

Target ROAS, your goal. The return you gave in your brand questionnaire. Recommendations are judged against it and your break-even ROAS. It isn't shown in the app after onboarding, and it's a different number from a Google campaign's target ROAS.

Total Sales, Total Orders. Your store's sales and number of orders for the selected range, shown on Stats.

Questions? hello@agencyai.app.