X Ads Glossary

Familiarize yourself with the most common terms and concepts used on the X Ads platform. Have more questions?

 
Account home

Part of "Analytics". Account home offers a high-level summary of your activity and highlights across the past month. The number of post impressions, profile visits, new followers, and mentions are displayed here, along with how those numbers compare to the previous month. Your top-performing posts and your top followers will also be shown. 

Ads editor 

A tool tailored for larger advertisers who want to manage and optimize many campaigns at scale. Learn more.

Ads Manager

A central workspace to plan, manage, and report on campaigns. You can easily view and optimize performance at multiple levels. Here, you can customize charting and metrics, see activity history on your campaigns, receive audience details, and more. 

You will automatically be brought to the ads manager as your home screen when you log in at ads.x.com. Learn more.

Amplify Pre-roll

Amplify Pre-roll is our pre-roll offering that connects your ad with premium video content at scale, shared by X's network of over 200 brand safe publishers that your audience already knows and loves. See “Pre-roll views campaigns”.

Amplify Sponsorships

Amplify Sponsorships are a customizable 1:1 alignment between you and the publisher partner of your choosing, which can include pre-roll ads on highlight clips, pre-roll ads before live video, Sponsored Moments, or integration of your brand into the publisher content.

Analytics

Data gathered from your ads, campaigns, and organic Posts available at analytics.x.com. See "Account home", "Campaign dashboard", and "Post Activity Dashboard" for more details.

App Buttons

App Buttons are a standard ad feature that can be added to Image and Video Ads, and make the creative space clickable to the app store page for a specific app download of your choice. If someone already has the app downloaded, this can be configured to bring people directly to the app. This can either be on the Android platform, iPhone / iPad platform, or iPad-only platform. They work great for app installs and app re-engagement campaigns, but can also be used organically. 

In order to use App Buttons, you first need to set up an App Card in your Ads Manager.

App installs campaign

App installs campaigns get new people to download your app. You only pay for app installs or app clicks, not any organic app activity from logged-in users.

App re-engagements campaign

App re-engagement campaigns get returning users to open or update your app. You only pay for app link clicks, not any organic app activity from logged-in users.

Attribution window 

Refers to the maximum length of time between click and conversion that you use to calculate return on ad spend.

Attribution manager 

First-click: assigns 100% of the conversion value to the click that initiates a conversion path.

Last-click: assigns 100% of the conversion value to the final click immediately preceding a sale or conversion event.

Multi-channel attribution:  Weighted model that gives the most credit to clicks closest to conversion or to the first and last touchpoints and less to the touchpoints in the middle of the funnel.

 
Bid

How much you're willing to pay for a certain campaign engagement on X Ads. Learn more

Budget

In your X Ads campaign, you can set both "total budget" and "daily maximum". We will not exceed this amount during your campaign. Learn more.

 
Campaign dashboard 

Part of "Analytics". The campaign dashboard shows you everything you need to know about how your paid ads are performing. Your impressions, results, engagement rate, and cost-per-result are displayed here. The results will be directly based on what type of campaign objective you selected.

Clicks

When someone clicks directly on a campaign or component of a campaign. We track this metric for all campaigns as it plays a significant role in the campaign’s resonance score.

  • Promoted Ads: the number of clicks on a Promoted Ad. Includes clicks on the URL (shortened or regular links), profile pic, screen name, username, detail, hashtags, and likes.
Click-through rate (CTR)

Total engagements on an ad divided by impressions.

Conversation Buttons

Conversation Buttons are standard features that can be added to Image and Video Ads that include call-to-action buttons with customizable hashtags. Once clicked, the button creates a pre-populated post that people can customize or post out; increasing your engagement and reach.

Conversion tracking
  • Conversion tracking for websites enables you to track the actions a user takes after viewing or engaging with your ads on X. Learn how to set it up.
  • Conversion tracking for mobile apps (MACT) allows you to track conversions down to the app install or re-open level after users view or engage with your ads, but requires third-party partner integration. Learn more
Cost per result: 
  • Acquisition (CPA): total campaign spend divided by the number of new customer acquisitions.
  • Click (CPC): total campaign spend divided by the total number of clicks.
  • Engagement (CPE): total campaign spend divided by the number of engagements (including likes, Retweets, and replies).
  • Install (CPI): total campaign spend divided by the number of app installs.
Curated Categories:

These are a targeting option for Amplify Pre-roll that can be used to ensure that your pre-roll ad only runs against content from a set of publishers bundled together around a specific theme. Our Curated Categories include niche topics like light-hearted contentbasketballsoccer, or health & wellness and allow advertisers to run their pre-roll exclusively against video content from publishers covering the topic of choice.

 

 
Daily maximum

The maximum amount of money you allocate to spend in a day on a Promoted campaign. Learn more about budgets.

Direct response (DR)

A type of marketing designed to generate immediate actions from consumers. This can include clicks, site visits, or purchases. Each of these actions can be measured and attributed to an individual ad or advertising campaign.

 
Engagements

Engagement quantifies how much user interaction there is with your campaign. Engagements include all clicks on your post, including reposts, replies, likes, poll votes, and hashtag clicks — and earned clicks you're not billed for.

  • Promoted Ads: the number of clicks, reposts, likes, follows,  and replies on a Promoted Ad.
Engagements campaign

Engagements campaigns start conversations and attract more engagement to your Promoted Ads. You only pay for initial engagements (replies, likes, reposts, and reposts with comment), not any organic engagements that follow.

 
Follow

To follow someone on X means to subscribe to their posts or updates on the site. Learn more.

Follow rate

The number of users who start following your Promoted Ad, compared to the number of impressions.

 
 
 
Hashtags (#)

The # symbol was created organically by X users and is used to mark keywords or topics in posts. Learn more.

Home timeline

Your home timeline displays a stream of posts from accounts you have chosen to follow on X. Learn more.

 
IAB category

An IAB category selection is required to run website traffic campaigns. This is used by our supply partners within the X Audience Platform (XAP) to determine which ads will show on their sites. This does not affect targeting. Choosing multiple categories will limit scale.

Impressions

The number of users who see a campaign. We only count impressions on promoted content, so any impressions generated organically are not counted.

  • Promoted Ads: the number of users who see a Promoted Ad either in their home timeline or search results.

Insertion order (IO)

If you have a X Account Manager, you’ll need to fill out this document before you can set up your campaigns. The budget listed on your IO will likely be different than the amount you select for each or all of your individual campaigns. To adjust, add value to, or launch a new IO, click here

 
 
 
 
Maximum bid

The highest amount of money you will pay per engagement. You will never be charged more than your maximum bid and you usually pay less. Learn more about budgets.

Moments

Moments are curated stories showcasing the very best of what’s happening on X. Learn more.

Mentions

Including the "@" sign followed directly by their username is a mention. Mentions also refers to posts in which your username was included. Learn more.

Multi-user login

Multi-user login allows you to grant access to other users for your X Ads account, helping you manage campaigns effectively and securely. You can grant different levels of permissions to multiple users, who will be able to then access your X Ads account while logged into their own personal handle. Learn more.

 
 
Organic 

Not promoted. An example of an organic post is one created on x.com and is not promoted. Organic also refers to impressions and engagements that were not garnered through paid media efforts (i.e., people finding your content and following on their own).

 
Pinned post

You can pin a post to the top of your profile to keep it above the flow of time-ordered posts. We recommend refreshing this every quarter and representing what you want your audience to focus on. 

Pre-roll views campaigns

Pre-roll videos are advertisements played at the beginning of a premium video from one of our 200+ content partners. Your video will have an "Ad by your handle" message while it is playing, and a "Tap to skip" button will appear after six (6) seconds for ads that run longer. Learn more.

Profile

Your profile displays information you choose to share publicly. The fields are editable at any time, from here. This includes your bio, website, header and profile photos, name, and more.

Promoted Ads

Promoted Ads are ordinary posts purchased by advertisers who want to reach a wider group of users or spark engagement from their existing followers. Learn more.

Promoted-only posts

Promoted-only posts are only shown to users targeted in your ad campaigns. Unless specifically targeted, they do not show up on your followers' timelines and are not visible in search results. Learn more.

 
 
Reach campaign

Reach campaigns put your posts in front of as many people as possible. You only pay for every thousand impressions (CPM), not any interactions with the post (likes, reposts, detail expands, etc).

Reply

A post in response to another post, usually posted by clicking the reply button next to their post in your timeline. A reply always begins with @username. Learn more.

Repost

A post by another user, forwarded to you by someone you follow. Often used to spread news or share valuable findings on X. You can also repost any post to add to your own stream and share with your followers.

Repost with comment

You have the option to add your own comments, photos, or a GIF before reposting someone's post to your followers. Please note these are not promotable via ads by default. 

 
Search results

A real-time list of posts containing the search term entered in the search box. Promoted Ads with the highest bid and resonance score for that particular search term will appear at the top of the search results.

Serving / serve

When you launch an X Ads campaign, your ads will appear to users on their home timeline as "impressions". A campaign that is gaining impressions is known as "serving" or "gaining serve". 

 
Targeting

Targeting is the criteria that you choose for your campaigns to get your ads in front of the right audience. You can target your audience by the following features:

  • Demographic targeting: age range, gender, language, geo-location, device
  • Keyword targeting
  • Follower and follower look-alike targeting
  • Interest targeting — choose from 350+ pre-set interests across 25+ categories
  • Movies and TV show targeting
  • Event targeting
  • Conversation targeting — choose from 25+ categories and 10,000+ topics
  • Post engager targeting, a unique re-targeting capability that displays your ad(s) to people who have already seen or previously engaged with your past posts

Find a full list of targeting criteria here.

Thread

A series of connected posts from one person. You can provide additional context, an update, or an extended point by connecting multiple posts together.

Trend Takeover

Trend Takeover is a 24-hour high-impact takeover of the Trends list on X — where people go to see what’s happening in real-time. Learn more.

X Pro

X Pro offers a more convenient X experience with managing multiple X accounts, scheduling posts for posting in the future, and more.

  • Collections on X Pro allow you to organize posts according to topics, events, interests, conversations, and more, all in real-time. Add your collections as columns, and post the URL to share it with others. Similar to "X Lists". Learn more.
  • Teams on X Pro allows multiple people to share a X account without having to share the password. Similar to "multi-user login". Learn more
Post Activity Dashboard

Part of "Analytics". The Post Activity Dashboard displays impressions and engagements on all of your organic posts and Promoted Ads, as well as charts that outline month-to-month performance. You can see the performance of a single post by clicking on it, which breaks down the metrics by reposts, likes, replies, and more. 

X Amplify

X Amplify is our video advertising solution that allows you to align your brand with premium video content from the top, most relevant publishers that your target audience is already watching. You can run pre-roll across a range of publishers using Amplify Pre-roll or create a custom 1:1 pairing with a single publisher using Amplify Sponsorships.

X Lists

You can create a group list of other X accounts by topic or interest (e.g., a list of friends, coworkers, celebrities, athletes). X lists also contain a timeline of posts from the specific accounts that were added to the list, offering you a way to follow individual accounts as a group on X.

X Polls

X Polls allow you to post a question with pre-set answers and allow your audience and followers to weigh in. You can easily create your own poll and see the results instantly.

 
 
Unfollow

To stop following another X user. Their posts will no longer show up in your home timeline.

User fatigue

This occurs when a user sees the same component of a promoted campaign repeatedly over a short time period. We consider user fatigue when serving X Ads in order to prevent a disruptive experience.

 
Verified accounts

A verified X account receives a blue check icon to indicate that the creator of these posts is a legitimate source. Verified accounts include public figures and businesses.

Video Ads

Video Ads are videos within Promoted Ads that are paid for by advertisers. Learn more.

All Promoted content can appear in your home timeline, at the top of search results on X, and elsewhere on the platform — and are clearly marked as "Promoted”.

Video views campaign

Video views campaigns get a larger audience to see your video. You only pay for the number of views on your Video Ads, not organic videos or any click-throughs. 

 
Website Buttons

Website Buttons are a standard ad feature that can be added to Image and Video Ads, and make the creative space clickable to a specific landing page. They work great for website traffic campaigns, but can also be used organically. They also support a customizable headline and CTA. In order to use Website Buttons, you first need to set up a Website Card in your Ads Manager.

Website traffic campaign

Website traffic campaigns drive traffic to your site or optimize towards conversions. You only pay for the number of link clicks on your ad(s).

Who to follow

Featured in the details pane that recommends new accounts to follow based on who you are already following. Learn more.

 
 
 

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