Twitter Ads Glossary
Familiarize yourself with the most common terms and concepts used on the Twitter 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 Tweet impressions, profile visits, new followers, and mentions are displayed here, along with how those numbers compare to the previous month. Your top-performing Tweets 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.twitter.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 Twitter'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 Tweets available at analytics.twitter.com. See "Account home", "Campaign dashboard", and "Tweet 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 Twitter Ads. Learn more.
Budget
In your Twitter 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.
Follower Ads: the number of clicks on a Follower Ad username or avatar. A click on the follow link or the hide link on the "Who to follow" panel does not record a click.
- 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 Tweet that people can customize or Tweet 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 Twitter. 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.
- Follow (CPF): total campaign spend divided by the number of new followers.
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 content, basketball, soccer, 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 Tweet, including Retweets, replies, likes, poll votes, and hashtag clicks — and earned clicks you're not billed for.
Follower Ads: Instead of engagement, we measure follow rate, or the number of follows on a Follower Ad compared to number of impressions. Clicks will still factor into the resonance score, but you'll only be charged when a user actually follows you. Also see follow rate or CPF.
- Promoted Ads: the number of clicks, Retweets, likes, follows, and replies on a Promoted Ad.
Engagements campaign
Eengagements campaigns start conversations and attract more engagement to your Promoted Ads. You only pay for initial engagements (replies, likes, Retweets, and Retweets with comment), not any organic engagements that follow.
Follow
To follow someone on Twitter means to subscribe to their Tweets 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.
Follower Ads
Drive customers to follow your Twitter account by showcasing your bio, images, and @name. These are auto-generated for follower campaigns and cannot be created organically.
Folower Ads suggest Twitter accounts that people don't currently follow and may find interesting. They help introduce a wider variety of accounts people may enjoy. Follower Ads are the result of creating a Followers campaign.
Followers campaign
Followers campaigns grow an engaged audience, through Follower Ads. You only pay for new followers who converted through your ads.
Hashtags (#)
The # symbol was created organically by Twitter users and is used to mark keywords or topics in Tweets. Learn more.
Home timeline
Your home timeline displays a stream of Tweets from accounts you have chosen to follow on Twitter. Learn more.
IAB category
An IAB category selection is required to run website traffic campaigns. This is used by our supply partners within the Twitter Audience Platform (TAP) 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.
Follower Ads: the number of users who see your Follower Ad.
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 Twitter 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 Twitter. Learn more.
Mentions
Including the "@" sign followed directly by their username is a mention. Mentions also refers to Tweets in which your username was included. Learn more.
Multi-user login
Multi-user login allows you to grant access to other users for your Twitter 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 Twitter Ads account while logged into their own personal handle. Learn more.
Organic
Not promoted. An example of an organic Tweet is one created on twitter.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 Tweet
You can pin a Tweet to the top of your profile to keep it above the flow of time-ordered Tweets. 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 Tweets purchased by advertisers who want to reach a wider group of users or spark engagement from their existing followers. Learn more.
Promoted-only Tweets
Promoted-only Tweets 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 Tweets in front of as many people as possible. You only pay for every thousand impressions (CPM), not any interactions with the Tweet (likes, Retweets, detail expands, etc).
Reply
A Tweet in response to another Tweet, usually posted by clicking the reply button next to their Tweet in your timeline. A reply always begins with @username. Learn more.
Retweet
A Tweet by another user, forwarded to you by someone you follow. Often used to spread news or share valuable findings on Twitter. You can also Retweet any Tweet to add to your own stream and share with your followers.
Retweet with comment
You have the option to add your own comments, photos, or a GIF before Retweeting someone's Tweet to your followers. Please note these are not promotable via ads by default.
Search results
A real-time list of Tweets 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 a Twitter 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
- Tweet engager targeting, a unique re-targeting capability that displays your ad(s) to people who have already seen or previously engaged with your past Tweets
Find a full list of targeting criteria here.
Thread
A series of connected Tweets from one person. You can provide additional context, an update, or an extended point by connecting multiple Tweets together.
Trend Takeover
Trend Takeover is a 24-hour high-impact takeover of the Trends list on Twitter — where people go to see what’s happening in real-time. Learn more.
Tweetdeck
Available on tweetdeck.com or Mac app store, Tweetdeck offers a more convenient Twitter experience with managing multiple Twitter accounts, scheduling Tweets for posting in the future, and more.
- Collections on TweetDeck allow you to organize Tweets according to topics, events, interests, conversations, and more, all in real-time. Add your collections as columns, and Tweet the URL to share it with others. Similar to "Twitter Lists". Learn more.
- Teams on TweetDeck allows multiple people to share a Twitter account without having to share the password. Similar to "multi-user login". Learn more.
Tweet Activity Dashboard
Part of "Analytics". The Tweet Activity Dashboard displays impressions and engagements on all of your organic Tweets and Promoted Ads, as well as charts that outline month-to-month performance. You can see the performance of a single Tweet by clicking on it, which breaks down the metrics by Retweets, likes, replies, and more.
Twitter Amplify
Twitter 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.
Twitter Lists
You can create a group list of other Twitter accounts by topic or interest (e.g., a list of friends, coworkers, celebrities, athletes). Twitter lists also contain a timeline of Tweets from the specific accounts that were added to the list, offering you a way to follow individual accounts as a group on Twitter.
Twitter Polls
Twitter 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 Twitter user. Their Tweets will no longer show up in your home timeline.
Follower Ads: when a user sees a Follower Ad, follows the account, and then directly unfollows it within four (4) hours. All other cases will not be attributed to an "unfollow" in campaign analytics.
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 Twitter Ads in order to prevent a disruptive experience.
Verified accounts
A verified Twitter account receives a blue check icon to indicate that the creator of these Tweets 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 Twitter, 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. This is also where Follower Ads show up predominately in. Learn more.
Didn't find what you're looking for? Check out our consumer Twitter Glossary here.