Social Media Glossary
Essential social media and ads terms, explained practically. 30 entries.
Metrics
Engagement
Engagement is every active interaction the audience has with a piece of social media content: likes, comments, shares, saves and clicks. It is the metric that shows how much your audience really cares about what you post, going beyond a simple view. A post with 10k reach and 500 interactions engages more than one with 100k reach and 200 interactions.
Reach
Reach is the number of unique people who saw your content at least once in a period. Each person counts only once, even if they saw the post several times. It is the metric that measures the real size of the audience you impacted and the basis for calculating engagement rate and frequency.
Impressions
Impressions are the total number of times a piece of content was displayed on screen, counting all repetitions. Unlike reach (unique people), impressions count every view, even if it is the same person seeing it several times. It is the metric that helps you understand frequency and brand exposure.
Engagement Rate
Engagement rate is the percentage of interactions in relation to reach or total followers. It normalizes absolute engagement so you can compare posts and accounts of different sizes. In 2026, a healthy rate on Instagram falls between 2% and 5% over reach, and 5% to 10% on TikTok.
CTR (Click-Through Rate)
CTR (Click-Through Rate) is the percentage of people who clicked a link, ad or CTA in relation to the number of times it was displayed. It is the metric that measures how attractive your creative is. On Meta Ads, average CTR sits between 1% and 2%; above 3% is considered excellent.
CPC (Cost per Click)
CPC (Cost per Click) is how much you pay, on average, every time someone clicks your ad. It is one of the most-used paid-media metrics because it lets you compare campaign efficiency regardless of total budget. In 2026, average CPC on Meta Ads in Brazil sits between R$ 0.50 and R$ 3.00 depending on the industry.
CPM (Cost per Thousand Impressions)
CPM (Cost per Thousand Impressions) is the amount paid for every thousand displays of an ad. It is the standard metric in branding and awareness campaigns, where the goal is exposure rather than direct click. Average CPM on Meta Ads Brazil in 2026 sits between R$ 8 and R$ 25, and can exceed R$ 50 in seasonal peaks like Black Friday.
ROAS (Return on Ad Spend)
ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) is the revenue return generated by each dollar invested in ads. A ROAS of 4 means for every R$ 1 invested, you earned R$ 4 in revenue. It is performance metric #1 in e-commerce and the basis for deciding whether a campaign continues, scales or gets cut.
Conversion
Conversion is any valuable action a user completes in your funnel: a purchase, a sign-up, a download, a booking. Conversion rate is the percentage of visitors who performed that action, and optimizing it (CRO) usually delivers higher return than increasing traffic.
Frequency
Frequency is the average number of times the same person saw your ad in a period. Calculated as impressions divided by reach. In conversion campaigns, frequency between 1.5 and 3 is ideal. Above 4 usually signals creative fatigue: the audience tires and performance drops.
Social Networks
Reels
Reels is Instagram and Facebook's short vertical video format, lasting between 3 seconds and 3 minutes. Launched in 2020 as a TikTok response, it has become Meta's main discovery format: in 2026, Reels posts get on average 5x more reach than static feed.
Stories
Stories are vertical posts that disappear after 24 hours, launched by Snapchat and popularized by Instagram. They appear at the top of the app, last 15 seconds each and come in varied formats (video, photo, poll, question box). It is the direct channel to engage people who already follow you, not to attract new followers.
Carousel
A carousel is a feed post with 2 to 20 swipeable images or videos. It is the format with the highest save rate on Instagram because it lets you teach step-by-step, build lists and tell stories. It typically gets high retention and gets revisited, signaling relevance to the algorithm.
Threads (network)
Threads is Meta's text-based social network, launched in July 2023 as a competitor to X (formerly Twitter). Integrated with Instagram, it allows posts up to 500 characters, photos, short videos and thread-style conversations. In 2026, it has already passed 320 million monthly active users.
Algorithm
The algorithm is the AI system that decides what content each user sees, in what order and with what frequency. It considers hundreds of signals: interaction history, screen time, saves, shares and relevance. Each network has its own, and all change constantly.
Hashtag
A hashtag is a word or phrase preceded by the # symbol used to categorize content and ease discovery. Though once the main organic reach tool on Instagram, in 2026 it carries less weight — it works more as labeling for the algorithm to classify the post than as a search entry point for users.
Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is the strategy of partnering with content creators to promote products or brands based on their audience and credibility. In 2026, the Brazilian market moves about R$ 6 billion/year, with strong growth in nano and micro influencers who deliver higher ROI than big names.
UGC (User Generated Content)
UGC (User Generated Content) is any content created by customers, fans or users about a brand, not produced by the company itself. It includes reviews, photos, videos, testimonials and spontaneous posts. It is one of the most powerful forms of social proof and in 2026 it underpins most performance ad creatives.
Ads
Lookalike Audience
A lookalike audience is an audience created by an ad platform (Meta, Google, TikTok) from an original base of customers or interactors, finding people with similar profiles. In 2026, it is one of the most efficient ways to scale campaigns without losing quality, especially on Meta Ads.
Retargeting
Retargeting (or remarketing) is the strategy of showing ads to people who already interacted with the brand: visited the site, watched a Reel, abandoned a cart or clicked an earlier ad. It is the funnel phase with the highest conversion rate and the best ROAS in paid media.
Facebook Pixel
The Facebook Pixel (now "Meta Pixel") is a small JavaScript snippet you install on your site to track visitor behavior and send that data to Meta's ads manager. Without it, it is impossible to optimize campaigns for conversion, create custom audiences or measure ROAS accurately.
Bid
A bid is the value you are willing to pay in an ad auction to win a display. Platforms like Meta Ads, Google Ads and TikTok Ads run as real-time auctions: every impression is contested and the algorithm picks the winner based on bid, ad quality and user relevance.
Cost per Acquisition (CPA)
CPA (Cost per Acquisition) is the average amount invested in media to generate a conversion — a lead, a purchase, a sign-up. It is the metric that tells whether the campaign fits the business financial model. Acceptable CPA always depends on the average ticket and the margin of the product or service sold.
Strategy
Sales Funnel
The sales funnel is the model that describes the journey a person takes from first brand contact to becoming a customer. Traditionally divided into top (discovery), middle (consideration) and bottom (decision), each stage has different content, offers and metrics. On social media, feeding the whole funnel is what sustains predictable growth.
Persona
A persona is the semi-fictional and detailed representation of the ideal customer, based on real data and interviews. It goes far beyond a target audience: it includes name, age, profession, pains, goals, habits and cultural references. It serves as a compass for content, copy, offers and media channel decisions.
Brand Voice
Brand voice is the verbal personality and unique tone of a brand across all its communications. It defines how it speaks: formal or relaxed, technical or simple, serious or playful. A well-defined brand voice makes the brand recognizable even without the logo and generates consistent emotional connection with the audience.
Editorial Calendar
An editorial calendar is the document that organizes every planned social-media post by day, format, theme, channel and owner. It can range from a simple spreadsheet to dedicated tools. It is the basis for maintaining consistency, capitalizing on strategic dates and balancing formats across Reels, carousels and stories.
Technical
API
API (Application Programming Interface) is the set of rules that lets different systems talk to each other in a standardized way. In digital marketing, APIs connect tools: Mais Social uses the Instagram API to schedule posts, the Meta API to pull ad data, and the OpenAI API to suggest captions.
Webhook
A webhook is the mechanism by which one system automatically notifies another when an event happens, in real time. Unlike a traditional API (where you have to ask), the webhook pushes information as soon as it exists. It is the backbone of real-time integrations: new comment, completed sale, confirmed payment.
OAuth
OAuth is the authorization protocol that lets an app access your account on another service without you handing over the password. When you connect Mais Social to your Instagram, that's OAuth at work: you grant specific access, with limited permissions, and can revoke it anytime.