Every term an agency might throw at you, explained in the shortest, clearest way we can. No marketing jargon, no self-important footnotes.
The inverse of CBO — budget is set per-ad-set, giving manual control over how much each audience receives. Useful when testing a new audience you want guaranteed spend on, or when splitting budget between cold and warm audiences with different expected costs.
An account-wide cap on total ad spend in a Meta ad account (in Billing and payments settings). When it's reached, every ad in the account stops delivering until you raise or reset it. It counts cumulative spend from when it was set or last reset, not per month, so set it a little above planned spend for the period and reset or raise it each month; a limit below plan cuts delivery short. Different from campaign or ad set budgets, which pace spend rather than cap the whole account.
A grouping inside a Meta campaign that defines audience targeting, budget, schedule, placements, and bid strategy. Each campaign can contain multiple ad sets; each ad set can contain multiple ads. The ad set is where you control WHO sees your ads + HOW MUCH you spend; the ad-level controls WHAT they see. Common contractor mistakes happen at the ad-set level — over-narrow audiences, too-low budgets, conflicting schedules. Healthy ad-set structure: 1-3 ad sets per campaign, each funded well enough to learn, no overlap with other ad sets in the same campaign. Avoid: running many ad sets on small budgets (none gets enough conversions to learn), overlapping audiences across ad sets (auctions against itself).
Formerly Detailed Targeting Expansion. Lets Meta show ads to people beyond your selected interests and behaviors when that's likely to improve performance. For Sales, Leads and App promotion campaigns using conversion- or value-based performance goals, Meta applies it automatically and it can't be turned off; elsewhere it's optional. Special ad categories such as Housing restrict detailed targeting anyway.
Meta's automation suite: Advantage+ campaigns hand targeting, placements and creative variations to Meta (you still set the goal and bid strategy), and individual Advantage+ settings (audience, placements, creative) can be switched on in regular campaigns. You supply the budget, creative and conversion event. It needs steady conversion volume to learn from, so low-volume accounts may do better with tighter settings; test it as a separate campaign once conversions are steady rather than switching everything at once.
Meta's system for measuring conversions from people who opt out of tracking on iOS 14.5+, by reporting them in aggregate. Until June 2025 advertisers had to verify their domain and rank up to 8 priority events per domain; Meta has since removed the limit and the manual setup, and now aggregates eligible events automatically. If a checklist still tells you to configure AEM, it's out of date.
Apple's iOS 14.5+ privacy framework requiring apps (including Facebook and Instagram) to ask permission before tracking people across other apps and websites. Many iPhone users decline, and Meta loses cross-app conversion signal for them. Meta reports those conversions in aggregate through Aggregated Event Measurement; the Conversions API helps with browser-side losses but doesn't override a person's choice. Expect some conversions to go unreported and check Meta's lead counts against your own CRM.
How long after someone interacts with your ad Meta will credit it with a conversion. Since March 2026 the default is 7-day click, 1-day engage-through (likes, shares, saves, comments and 5-second video views) and 1-day view, and only link clicks count as clicks. Wider windows capture more conversions but add noise. Long-decision jobs often convert outside the window, so Meta under-reports them; track the lead source in your CRM alongside Meta's numbers.
Meta's ad placement outside Facebook and Instagram — apps and websites that have partnered with Meta. Lead quality from it is often lower for home service lead gen; compare it in the placement breakdown and exclude it if its leads don't book.
When two or more of your own ad sets target the same users. Meta enters only one of your overlapping ad sets in each auction, so the others under-deliver and learn slowly. Check Audiences Manager → Overlap tab. Heavy overlap between ad sets usually warrants consolidation. Especially common for contractors running Lookalike + Interest audiences that secretly overlap.
Hard maximum bid on every individual ad auction. Most aggressive bid strategy — Meta won't bid above your cap even if it costs delivery. Useful when you have firm CPL ceilings and would rather underspend than overpay. Riskier than Cost Cap (which targets average) — bid cap can leave significant budget unspent in competitive auctions.
The 'Boost Post' button on your Facebook Page — NOT the same as a proper ad campaign. Boosted posts bypass the Ads Manager targeting + optimization infrastructure; for lead generation they generally cost more per lead than a proper Leads campaign. If someone tells you 'just boost the post,' they're costing you money. Use Ads Manager for any conversion-focused campaign.
Meta's controls (and your own preferences) for what content your ads appear next to in feeds, Reels, and Stories. Default settings allow ads to appear next to mainstream content; tighter settings exclude mature themes, polarizing news, or sensitive verticals. For home service contractors, default Brand Suitability is fine — restrict only if a specific bad placement actively hurts your brand. Over-restricting reduces reach without measurable lift on lead quality. Find these controls in Business Manager → Ads Manager → Account-level Brand Safety settings.
An audience setup with no interest, behavior, or demographic constraints besides location and age — letting Meta's algorithm find buyers. Often outperforms narrow targeting in 2026 because the algorithm has more signal from the pixel.
A Meta ad format with 2-10 swipeable cards, each with its own image + headline + link. Strong fit for contractors showing: step-by-step processes (before → during → after), service comparisons (good/better/best packages), or multi-project portfolios. Often outperforms single-image ads for consideration-phase buyers making big decisions.
Advantage campaign budget (formerly Campaign Budget Optimization): the budget is set at the campaign level and Meta distributes it across ad sets. Ad set budgets (ABO) give more manual control. On small budgets, running fewer ad sets matters more than which budget type you pick.
A Meta ad format where the CTA is 'Call Now' instead of 'Learn More' or 'Get Quote.' Directly initiates a phone call on mobile tap. Best for emergency-service trades (plumbing, HVAC, locksmith, garage door) where customers want instant human contact. Lower CPL than form-based campaigns in emergency categories but requires 24/7 phone coverage to not waste leads.
Users who have never heard of your business and aren't in your retargeting pool. Top-of-funnel prospecting traffic. CPL is higher than retargeting but volume is far larger. Most home service growth comes from cold audiences once retargeting is saturated. Optimize cold-audience creative for attention + curiosity, not direct conversion.
Umbrella term for measuring ad-driven conversions (form submits, calls, purchases). Comprises: Meta Pixel (browser-side) + Conversions API (server-side), deduplicated with a shared event ID, with Meta's Aggregated Event Measurement handling opted-out iOS users automatically. 'Set up conversion tracking' usually means connecting the Pixel and Conversions API to your website and CRM.
Meta's server-side tracking method: your server or CRM sends conversion events directly to Meta rather than relying on the visitor's browser. It can recover some conversions the browser misses because of ad blockers and tracking prevention; it doesn't override a person's iOS tracking choice. It also lets you send offline outcomes such as booked jobs. Run it alongside the Meta Pixel and deduplicate matching events. Setup options: a native CRM integration (HighLevel, HubSpot and others), a server-side tag manager, or the API directly.
A Meta bid strategy where you set a target average CPA — Meta tries to deliver conversions under that cap. Most useful once you have enough history to know your real CPL and a clear target. Aggressive cost caps starve campaigns; lenient ones waste money. A common starting point is slightly above your recent average CPL; set it too low and delivery stalls.
A Meta audience built from your own data: website visitors, a customer list, video viewers or people who engaged with your Page or ads. Used for retargeting and as a seed for lookalikes. Customer lists are uploaded through Meta's hashed matching, and website and engagement audiences update automatically as people meet the criteria.
A user-defined conversion event in Meta's Events Manager built by combining standard events + URL rules. Example: 'Lead Submitted' that fires only when a Pixel Lead event happens on /tx-roofing-thank-you. Lets you split campaigns by service-line revenue impact when standard events alone aren't granular enough. Limited to 100 custom conversions per ad account.
The average amount Meta will spend per day on a campaign or ad set. Meta may spend up to 75% above the daily budget on high-opportunity days and less on others, but won't spend more than 7 times the daily budget in a calendar week. Plan monthly spend as daily budget × days in the month, and control total spend at the monthly level (or with an account spending limit) rather than by setting daily budgets artificially low. The alternative is a lifetime budget: a fixed total over a date range.
An ad that appears to users but does NOT post on your Facebook/Instagram Page timeline. Allows advertisers to test variations or run trade-specific creative without flooding their organic followers. Default behavior for most paid Meta campaigns — created via Ads Manager rather than Page Post Boost. If you see agency Meta ads NOT in their Page's posts, those are dark posts.
Running ads only at chosen hours or days. On Meta this is ad scheduling, which requires a lifetime budget. Call-driven work (emergency plumbing, HVAC) can suit business-hours scheduling when phones are answered. For form leads it rarely helps, since people submit overnight and an automated reply can go out immediately; narrow windows can also raise costs.
Process of proving to Meta that you own the domain you're sending ad traffic to. Done via DNS TXT record, HTML file upload, or meta tag in Business Manager. It used to be required before configuring Aggregated Event Measurement events; since Meta retired that manual setup in June 2025 it no longer is, but it's still recommended because it proves ownership of your site and lets you control how your links preview. Takes a few minutes.
A Meta ad format where you upload multiple headlines, images, videos, and CTAs — and Meta auto-combines them into the best-performing variations per viewer. Useful for testing but can make reporting messy.
Meta's score (out of 10) for how well the customer information in your Pixel + CAPI events can be matched to Meta accounts. A low score means more conversions go unmatched, which gives delivery less to optimise on. Boost EMQ by passing more user data in each event (email, phone, first/last name, city, zip — all hashed). Check in Events Manager → Overview → 'Event Match Quality' column.
When Pixel + CAPI both fire the same conversion, Meta needs to know they're the same event — not double-count them. Achieved by passing identical `event_id` parameters in both calls. Without dedup, the same lead can be counted twice, inflating reported results. Most modern CAPI integrations (Meta Gateway, Shopify, GTM Server) handle this automatically; custom server backends need to implement it manually.
URL parameter Meta automatically appends to ad-click destination URLs, e.g. ?fbclid=AbC123. Works as a cross-session click identifier — useful for matching website visitors back to specific Meta ads even when cookies are blocked. Important for CAPI implementations: pass the captured fbclid value in the server-side event payload to dramatically improve Event Match Quality (EMQ). Most CAPI integrations capture it automatically; custom backends need to read it from the URL on landing and forward it with each conversion event. Without the fbc value (built from fbclid) passed to CAPI, Meta matches fewer server events to ad clicks.
A limit on how many times one person sees your ad in a given period. There's no official right number; as a rule of thumb, awareness campaigns stay lower and retargeting can run higher because people are further down the funnel. Available in Reach and Frequency (reservation) buying, or as frequency control in an auction Awareness campaign optimized for reach.
Existing customers + leads who have requested a quote. Highest-intent group; usually has the lowest CPL. For home services, a hot-audience retargeting campaign can run continuously at a low budget for repeat-service offers and win-back campaigns.
A full-screen mobile ad format that opens natively inside Facebook/Instagram (no website visit needed). Pre-loads instantly for fast-tap experiences: image carousels, videos, product showcases, form fills. Works for visual trades (remodeling before/afters, custom pools, landscape portfolios) where a long scroll-experience beats a website click.
The decline in trackable conversions caused by Apple's iOS 14.5+ privacy changes (April 2021), which require apps including Facebook to ask users whether to allow tracking. Many iOS users decline, so Meta can tie fewer of their conversions to ads; together with browser tracking prevention and ad blockers, a share of conversions never reaches Meta, and how large depends on your audience. Meta then optimizes on the conversions it can still see. The Conversions API recovers some browser-side losses and lets you send offline outcomes such as booked jobs; comparing Meta's counts with your CRM shows the gap.
Meta's Instant Form: a lead form that opens inside Facebook or Instagram, with no landing page. It pre-fills contact details from the person's profile. Form types include More volume (quick to submit) and Higher intent (adds a review screen before submitting), and you can add qualifying questions to either. Compared with a landing page they tend to bring more leads at a lower cost per lead, often with a lower booking rate, so compare the two on cost per booked job in your own account.
An ad set delivery status shown when the ad set isn't getting enough optimization events to exit the learning phase (Meta: about 50 in the 7 days after the last significant edit). Results are less stable while it lasts; it's common at small budgets and isn't a penalty. Options: combine small ad sets, raise the budget, or optimize for an event that happens more often (a lead rather than a purchase).
Total dollars allocated for a campaign or ad set across its full date range; Meta paces spend over the period. Use it for time-bound pushes (a seasonal promotion, storm response) where the end date matters. Ad scheduling (dayparting) requires a lifetime budget; the budget scheduling feature for daily budgets is something different. For evergreen campaigns a daily budget is usually simpler.
An audience Meta builds from people similar to a source audience, such as your customer list or lead list. A 1% lookalike is the narrowest; larger percentages are broader. Meta needs a source of at least 100 people in one country and recommends 1,000 to 50,000. Meta refreshes lookalikes automatically while they're in use, but an uploaded customer-list source is only as fresh as your last upload. Not available in the Housing (which includes housing repairs) or financial products special ad categories.
The similarity setting on a Meta Lookalike Audience, from 1% (the people in the chosen country most similar to your source audience: smaller, closer match) to 10% (larger, looser). Not available for ads in special ad categories such as Housing (which includes housing repairs) or Financial products. Where allowed, a common approach is to start near 1% and widen as spend grows; Meta may also expand beyond the lookalike when that's likely to improve performance.
Default Meta bid strategy — Meta tries to deliver the most conversions per dollar without a cap. Best at launch when you don't yet have a CPL target. A sensible default until you have a stable CPL benchmark; consider Cost Cap once you have one and a clear scaling target.
Meta ad format where the CTA opens a Messenger/Instagram DM conversation instead of a form or website. Works for trades where customers want questions answered before committing (complex service quotes, fixture selection in remodeling). Requires 24/7 chat coverage or chatbot routing to not waste leads. CPL sits between lead-form and landing-page formats.
A tracking snippet installed on your website that reports user actions (page views, form submissions, purchases) back to Meta. Powers retargeting, conversion tracking, and lookalikes. Pair it with the Conversions API for fuller data.
The specific event Meta optimizes your ad set toward (Lead, Schedule, Purchase, etc.). Set at the ad-set level. Picking the wrong one is a common DIY mistake — optimizing for 'PageView' will give you cheap clicks but few conversions, optimizing for 'Purchase' on a low-volume account stays Learning Limited forever. 'Lead' or 'Schedule' is usually the right choice for a home service contractor.
The actions the Meta Pixel reports from your website. Standard events include PageView, ViewContent, Lead (form submitted), Contact (call or chat click), Schedule and Purchase; custom events cover anything else (for example EstimateRequested). The event you optimize for decides what Meta looks for, so fire Lead only on a completed form, not on a page view or button click. A contractor can usually start with a few: PageView, Lead and a Contact or call-click event, plus offline outcomes such as booked jobs sent through the Conversions API. Check that events fire correctly in Events Manager's Test Events tool.
Meta's free Chrome extension (chrome.google.com/webstore → search 'Meta Pixel Helper'). Shows a badge on any website indicating whether Meta Pixel is installed, which events are firing, and any errors. Essential for verifying Pixel setup in under 30 seconds — faster than Events Manager's Test Events tab for quick diagnosis.
Meta's Advantage+ placements (automatic placements) let delivery spread across Meta's placements (Feeds, Stories, Reels, Marketplace, Messenger, search results, Audience Network and more) where Meta predicts the best results for your budget; manual placements let you choose. Automatic is a sensible default. Then check the placement breakdown in Ads Manager: if one placement, often Audience Network, brings leads at a much higher cost or lower quality, exclude it.
Where your ads appear: Facebook Feed, Instagram Feed, Reels, Stories, Audience Network, Marketplace, etc. Auto-placements let Meta distribute; manual placements give you control. Check the placement breakdown to see which work in your account.
Meta's internal score for how your ad quality compares to ads competing for the same audience (Above Average / Average / Below Average). Meta says the rankings are diagnostics, not auction inputs, and that below-average rankings can point to lower performance. Drivers: post-click user satisfaction (low bounce), ad content quality, negative feedback signals (hiding, reporting).
Vertical video ads shown in Facebook and Instagram Reels. 9:16 aspect ratio; see Meta's ad specs for allowed lengths. Worth including in video campaigns by default, since excluding it narrows the inventory Meta can use; check the placement breakdown for how it performs in your account.
A reusable audience definition built from Meta's interest, demographic, and behavioral targeting filters. Different from a Custom Audience (built from your own data) and a Lookalike Audience (built from a seed). Saved audiences are useful for cold prospecting when you have no first-party data yet — e.g., 'Adults 35-65 in the Dallas area interested in home improvement' (outside special ad categories). (Meta no longer offers homeowner targeting.) Meta's current direction is broad targeting with an Advantage+ audience, which many advertisers find works better than narrowly defined saved audiences; compare them in your own account. Saved audiences, like lookalikes, aren't available in special ad categories such as Housing, which covers housing repairs, so for most home service ads the audience is a location radius plus the creative.
The source list Meta uses to build a Lookalike Audience. Common seeds: customer email lists, website visitors (Pixel-tracked), Lead form completers, video viewers, and engaged Facebook/Instagram followers. Seed quality dictates Lookalike quality — a seed of 1,000 high-LTV closed customers typically produces a sharper Lookalike than a seed of 5,000 random page-likers. Lookalikes aren't available in special ad categories such as Housing (which covers housing repairs); the same seed still works as a custom audience for retargeting. Best practice for contractors: build a customer-list seed from your best past customers (Meta needs at least 100 matched people from one country and recommends 1,000 to 50,000), then create Lookalikes at 1%, 3% and 5% sizes. Refresh the seed quarterly with new customers so it reflects who is buying from you now.
An event sent from your server or CRM to Meta through the Conversions API instead of from the visitor's browser, so ad blockers and browser tracking prevention don't stop it (it doesn't override a person's iOS tracking choice). If the Pixel sends the same event, deduplicate them with a shared event ID so conversions aren't counted twice.
Full-screen vertical ads shown between people's Stories on Facebook and Instagram. 9:16 aspect ratio; see Meta's ad specs for length limits. Costs versus Feed vary by account, so compare in the placement breakdown. Suits short, direct creative such as a time-limited offer. Pairs with Reels: both are vertical, so one 9:16 video can serve both.
Meta's video view goal — counts as a 'view' if someone watches 15+ seconds (or the whole video if shorter). Cheap placement signal for top-of-funnel brand awareness, not a conversion metric.
Tracking tags appended to URLs (utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, utm_content, utm_term) that tell your analytics where traffic came from. Example: ?utm_source=meta&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=roofing_spring. Essential for attributing revenue back to specific campaigns, especially when Meta's native attribution is imperfect (iOS/ad blockers). Add UTMs to every paid ad destination URL.
Users who have already engaged with your business — visited your site, watched a video, clicked an ad, opened your email. Sits between cold (never heard of you) and hot (existing customers). Warm-audience CPL is usually lower than cold, but the audience is smaller. Build via Pixel-tracked website visitors, video viewers (75%+ completion), and engagement-based custom audiences.
Informal name for Meta's learning phase: the period after an ad set launches or is significantly edited while delivery is still being worked out. Meta says an ad set usually needs about 50 optimization events in the 7 days after its last significant edit to exit it, and significant edits restart it. Judge results after it, not during, and avoid unnecessary edits.
Running ads through someone else's Instagram or Facebook account (with permission). Common for agency-run contractor ads that use an influencer's or owner's personal account for credibility. Increases trust signals.
Google's pay-per-lead ad format for service businesses. Triggered by 'near me' searches; ads appear above traditional search. Lead cost is set by Google; you only pay when someone calls or messages. Requires Google Business Profile verification + background check.
Google's 1-10 rating of your ad's relevance + landing page experience + expected CTR. Higher Quality Scores generally mean lower costs per click for the same position. Three drivers: (1) ad relevance — does the ad copy match the keyword? Use the keyword in the headline; (2) landing page experience — page load speed, mobile-responsive, content matches ad promise; (3) expected CTR — historical CTR for the keyword + ad combination. A common way to hurt quality score is sending paid traffic to the homepage instead of a service-specific landing page. Fixing it usually improves Quality Score over the following weeks.
Advertising Cost of Sale — the percentage of revenue spent on advertising. If you earn $10,000 in revenue from $2,000 in ad spend, ACoS is 20%. Used interchangeably with cost-of-goods in e-commerce but less common in home services; ROAS is more typical here.
The rule deciding which ad gets credit for a conversion. Last-click gives full credit to the last ad clicked. Data-driven (in Google Ads and GA4) splits credit across touchpoints. First-touch gives all credit to the first ad. Meta's Ads Manager reports by attribution window instead of choosing among these models: since March 2026 the default is 7-day click, 1-day engage-through and 1-day view. Compare the platform's numbers with your CRM rather than treating any one model as the truth, because a view-through or engage-through conversion isn't the same as a click.
The total cost to win one paying customer, counting all marketing and sales spend: ads on every channel, agency or management fees, software and sales time, divided by new paying customers. Narrower CPA usually counts paid ad spend only. It differs from cost per lead: in a hypothetical, a $25 lead that closes 10% of the time means $250 of ad spend per customer before any other costs. CAC should sit comfortably below the gross profit of a first job, or of a customer's lifetime for recurring services; an LTV:CAC ratio of 3:1 or better is a common rule of thumb. Track it quarterly so creeping costs show early.
The percentage of impressions that resulted in a click (clicks ÷ impressions × 100). Meta's auction includes an estimated action rate (how likely people are to engage or convert), so ads people respond to can win auctions at lower cost. WordStream's 2026 Google Ads benchmark puts Home & Home Improvement search CTR at 6.47%; on Meta, compare CTR across your own ads and against their history, since a falling CTR on the same ad is an early sign of creative fatigue. A high CTR that doesn't produce leads is a warning, not a win.
The percentage of ad clicks that convert (a form submit, call or whatever conversion event you track): conversions ÷ clicks × 100. WordStream/LocalIQ's 2026 benchmarks put Home & Home Improvement at 5.32% on Facebook and 8.05% on Google Search. A low rate despite a normal CTR points to the landing page or form (speed, mobile layout, form length, trust signals). A higher rate isn't always better: an unusually high one can mean unqualified leads that won't close, so judge it alongside booking rate.
Total ad spend divided by the number of acquired customers (booked or closed jobs, not just leads); for contractors, the same idea as cost per booked job. It folds in close rate: in a hypothetical, an $80 cost per lead with 18% of leads closing is about $444 per customer. What's healthy depends on your margin: CPA should sit comfortably below the gross profit a job earns, so track it rather than cost per lead alone.
The average amount paid per ad click (total spend ÷ clicks). WordStream/LocalIQ's 2026 benchmark puts Home & Home Improvement Facebook CPC at $2.18; WordStream's 2026 Google Ads benchmark puts the same category at $8.33 on search, higher because the searcher wants the service now. Rising CPC with a steady CTR usually means impressions got more expensive (CPM rose). CPC matters less than cost per booked job: a cheap click is worthless if the visitor leaves.
Amount spent to generate one lead. Published 2026 averages for home services: $42.95 on Facebook (WordStream/LocalIQ, Home & Home Improvement), $90.92 on Google Search (WordStream), and $53 on Local Services Ads, which bill per lead rather than per click (SearchLight Digital, 888 contractors). CPL alone isn't enough — always measure cost per booked job.
Cost per 1,000 impressions (total spend ÷ impressions × 1,000; 'mille' is Latin for thousand). It varies by trade, market, season and audience, and is usually higher in large, expensive metros and in peak season, so compare it with your own history. Rising CPM can mean more competition for the same people (peak season, holidays), a narrow or saturated audience, or low engagement; creative fatigue shows mainly as falling CTR with rising frequency. A higher CPM isn't a problem on its own if cost per booked job holds.
The percentage of impressions that led to any interaction: likes, comments, shares, saves or link clicks (engagements ÷ impressions). For contractor ads it's diagnostic rather than predictive: high engagement on an ad that doesn't convert means the creative resonates but the offer or landing page isn't closing. Don't judge ads on engagement alone; follow it through to cost per booked job.
The average number of times each person saw your ad in a period (impressions ÷ reach). Rules of thumb for a 7-day window on prospecting audiences: under about 2.5 is fresh; at 2.5, have the next creative ready; above about 3.5 with CTR falling, replace it. Retargeting audiences can run higher. Always read frequency alongside CTR.
The percentage of viewers who watch past the first 15 seconds of a video ad. Compare it across your own ads; a rising hold rate means the middle of the video is doing its job. Measures how well your mid-video storytelling works after the hook caught attention. Weak hold rate usually means the value proposition is slow or unclear.
The share of impressions where people watched at least the first 3 seconds of a video ad (3-second video plays ÷ impressions). As a rule of thumb, aim for 30% or more; well below that, the opening isn't working and the rest of the video barely matters.
Total number of times your ad was displayed (one person can see it multiple times). Different from reach, which is unique viewers.
The total a customer is worth over the whole relationship: repeat jobs, maintenance plans and referrals, not just the first ticket. It varies widely by trade (maintenance-plan and recurring-service trades earn far more over time than one-off installs), so work yours out from your own repeat history, ideally on gross profit rather than revenue. Paired with customer acquisition cost it gives the LTV:CAC ratio; 3:1 is a widely used rule of thumb for healthy, and under 1:1 on gross profit means you're acquiring customers at a loss.
Conversions Meta estimates statistically when direct attribution isn't possible — primarily for iOS users who opted out of tracking. Meta uses machine learning to model the likely conversion rate of opted-out users based on similar tracked users, then attributes those modeled conversions to specific ads. Marked with a small 'i' icon next to the conversion count in Ads Manager. The modelled share depends on how much of your audience Meta can't track directly. They're directionally correct but not exact — cross-reference Meta's reported conversions against your CRM source-of-truth weekly to gauge how accurate the modeling is for your specific account.
Unique number of people who saw your ad at least once (vs. impressions which counts repeat views). Tracks audience coverage.
Reach = unique people who saw your ad at least once. Impressions = total times your ad was shown (one person can generate multiple impressions). The relationship: Impressions ÷ Reach = Frequency. Example: 10,000 reach + 25,000 impressions = 2.5 frequency (each person saw the ad 2.5 times on average). Why it matters: REACH measures audience-saturation (are you running out of new people to show?); IMPRESSIONS measure delivery volume; FREQUENCY measures saturation depth. Rules of thumb for 7-day prospecting frequency: under 2.5 = fresh audience; 2.5-3.5 = prepare replacement creative; above 3.5 = replace it. If reach plateaus while impressions climb, your audience is burned through — refresh creative or expand audience.
Return on ad spend: revenue earned per dollar of ad spend (a 4x ROAS is $4 of revenue per $1). There's no reliable published ROAS benchmark for home services; judge it against your gross margin and cost per booked job. ROAS leaves out management fees and job costs, and a high ROAS on a tiny budget can mean less revenue than a lower ROAS on a larger one.
A conversion Meta attributes to an ad the user saw (but didn't click) within the attribution window, usually 1 day. High-noise signal — most view-through conversions would have happened anyway. Don't over-weight these; they inflate reported ROAS. Some agencies hide weak ad performance behind view-through numbers.
When an audience has seen the same ad so often that it stops responding: CTR falls, cost per lead climbs and CPM can rise. There's no fixed impression count, and small local audiences fatigue sooner. As a rule of thumb, have a replacement ready when 7-day frequency on a prospecting audience reaches about 2.5 and swap the ad around 3.5 if CTR is falling; retire the weakest creative in each ad set regularly.
The visual and copy elements of an ad — video, image, headline, body, CTA. 'Creative is the new targeting' — because audiences are now algorithmic, creative is one of the biggest performance levers left.
The first 2–3 seconds of a video ad. If the hook doesn't land, most viewers scroll past before the message arrives. Great hooks use pattern interrupts, direct callouts, numeric claims, or curiosity. 'Your roof might be leaking and you don't even know it' > 'Hi, I'm Mike.'
Ad creative that looks and feels like it was made by a real customer, not a brand — phone-shot, unpolished, first-person. It often costs less per lead than polished brand ads because it blends into the organic feed; test both.
Instant SMS, email, or call workflows triggered when a new lead comes in. Critical for home services: in research published in Harvard Business Review (2011), firms that tried to contact a web lead within an hour were nearly 7 times as likely to qualify it as those that waited longer. Tools: GoHighLevel, Zapier, HubSpot, Twilio.
When a user starts filling out a form but doesn't submit. Track starts against submits for each form; a high abandonment rate usually means too many fields or a surprise question. For home service contractors, abandonment usually spikes at the phone-number field (privacy concern) or 'project budget' fields (qualification anxiety). Reduce abandonment by minimizing fields (3-5 max), offering a low-stakes alternative ('Just want a quote? Skip the form'), and triggering retargeting ads to abandoners.
The dedicated page users land on after clicking an ad. Separate from your homepage; designed around one offer and one conversion goal. A great contractor landing page loads in under 2 seconds, has social proof, shows pricing or the offer clearly, and has a single CTA.
A free downloadable resource (checklist, guide, calculator, video) given in exchange for contact info. For home services: 'Free Roof Inspection Checklist,' '5 HVAC Warning Signs PDF,' 'Pre-Hire Contractor Questions.' Lower-friction conversion path than 'Get a Quote' for top-of-funnel traffic. Builds an email list you can nurture into booked appointments later.
How fast you contact a new lead after they submit. The MIT/InsideSales Lead Response Management study found the odds of qualifying a lead fell 21 times between responding in 5 minutes and in 30 minutes, and a 2011 study published in Harvard Business Review found firms that tried to contact web leads within an hour were nearly 7 times as likely to qualify them. Automate the first response rather than relying on someone's speed.
Running two versions of an ad, creative, or landing page simultaneously to see which performs better. On Meta, this is built into the platform as 'Experiments'. Test one variable at a time — headline, image, or audience — never all at once.
Meta's public tool at facebook.com/ads/library showing every ad currently running from any Facebook Page. Free competitor research goldmine — look up your top 3 local competitors weekly to see their creative, offers, and ad variations. Particularly useful for contractors spying on what's working in their trade/market without paying for SaaS tools.
How an ad platform decides how much to bid for your ad. Meta's options include highest volume (lowest cost), a cost-per-result goal (cost cap), bid cap and ROAS goal; Google's include maximize conversions, target CPA, target ROAS and manual CPC. A common starting point on Meta is highest volume, to gather data. A cost cap makes sense only once you know your real cost per lead, and a cap set too low can stop delivery.
Customer information you collect directly from your own website, forms, CRM, or transactions — as opposed to third-party data purchased from external providers. Examples: email addresses from form submits, phone numbers from booked appointments, purchase history from your CRM. In 2026, first-party data is the most valuable asset for Meta ads because it powers Custom Audiences, fuels Lookalikes, and improves CAPI Event Match Quality. Customer lists and CRM outcomes you collect with consent give Meta better signal than interest targeting alone. Build the discipline: every customer interaction should generate first-party data points; every quarter that data should refresh your audiences.
The multi-step path from first ad impression to booked job: awareness → interest → lead → appointment → close. Each step has its own conversion rate; track them separately so you know which step leaks.
How likely a lead is to convert into a paying customer. Often confused with lead volume (how many you get) or cost per lead (what each costs). Lead quality is measured downstream — close rate, average job value, and lifetime value. Two accounts can have identical CPL but radically different lead quality: hypothetically, $15 leads that close at 5% cost $300 per booked job; $25 leads that close at 25% cost $100 per booked job. For contractors, optimizing for quality (better targeting, more qualified offers, higher-friction forms) usually beats optimizing for cheap leads.
The specific deal in your ad — 'free roof inspection', '$50 off first service', 'price match guarantee'. A strong offer beats a weak one even with the same creative. Ad agencies often underestimate how much the offer matters vs. the media.
Advertising to cold audiences who have never heard of your business. It usually takes most of the budget, because retargeting audiences are small. Opposite of retargeting. Goal: introduce your brand, capture interest, drive first-time leads.
Showing ads to people who already interacted with your business: site visitors, video viewers, people who opened or submitted a lead form, past customers. Usually cheaper per conversion than prospecting because the audience knows you, but it's small, so it can't carry an account alone. Useful audiences: recent site visitors who didn't convert, lead-form openers who didn't submit, people who watched most of a video, and past customers (for reviews, referrals and maintenance offers). Website retargeting needs a working Pixel (plus the Conversions API for fuller data).
See A/B Test — same concept, different name.
The sequence of offers a prospect moves through — from low-commitment (free inspection) to high-commitment (full roof replacement). Every home service ad campaign benefits from a clear value ladder rather than one giant offer.
Benchmarks and platform rules in these definitions come from the sources below. Other figures are rules of thumb or hypothetical examples, and say so.