Glossary

Glossary of paid ads and WhatsApp sales terms

Updated September 28, 2026

This glossary does two jobs: it explains what each number in the dashboard means, and it helps the media buyer, the sales team and whoever handles finance speak the same language. Where there’s a formula, it’s exactly the one TraceClose calculates. The examples use Example Co., a fictional business.

One example to follow along

In one month, Example Co. spent $6,000.00 on Meta ads, got 300 conversations started and 240 paid leads, held 60 meetings and closed 20 sales worth $30,000.00 in revenue (example numbers). That gives:

“Profit” in TraceClose is revenue minus ad spend. It doesn’t deduct product costs, taxes or commissions: it’s what’s left over after media, not accounting profit.

Terms from A to Z

Attribution

Linking a lead to whatever brought it in. In TraceClose the lead stores its source type and method: “Ad click”, “Tracked link”, “Tracked link (probable)” or “Website (UTMs)”, with the Campaign → Ad set → Ad trail. The sale inherits the lead’s current source.

Average ticket

Revenue ÷ number of sales, in the reporting currency. Canceled sales don’t count.

BM and system user

BM is Meta Business Manager, where your ad accounts, pixel and WhatsApp Business account live. The “system user” is a technical BM user that generates a token that never expires; that token is what you paste into “Access token” when you create the Meta connection in TraceClose.

CAC (cost per win)

How much each won customer cost in ads. In TraceClose, CAC and “Cost per win” are the same calculation: spend ÷ wins. A win is a lead that entered a won stage of the funnel for the first time.

Click-to-WhatsApp ad (CTWA)

A Meta ad (Facebook or Instagram) whose button opens a WhatsApp conversation. The first message already arrives with the ad’s identifier, so TraceClose attributes the lead without needing a link: the inbox shows “Conversation started from the ad” and the lead shows the “Ad click” method. The campaign and ad set come from the synced structure of the ad account.

Cohort

The default analytics view. It looks at the leads that came in during the period and counts everything they’ve done up to today: if a lead arrived in March and bought in April, the sale shows up in March. Good for knowing how much the money spent in a period returned.

Conversion

An important customer step worth reporting to the ad platform: became a lead, booked, bought. In TraceClose, a conversion is an event sent to Meta when the lead enters a stage with a “CAPI event” set, or when the sale is recorded in a won stage with Purchase.

Conversions API (CAPI)

Meta’s channel for receiving events straight from the server, without relying on the browser. TraceClose uses the CAPI to send the funnel events (Lead, Contact, Schedule…) and the sale with its amount (Purchase). You turn it on in Settings › Operations › “Send conversions”, and each stage picks its own event in Settings › Pipeline.

Cost per conversation

Spend ÷ conversations started. “Conversations started” is the number Meta reports, using its own attribution window, so it can differ from the number of leads TraceClose counted.

CPC

Cost per click. The dashboard shows “Link CPC” (spend ÷ link clicks, only the clicks that led to the website or to WhatsApp) and “CPC (all)”, which includes likes, profile and video clicks.

CPL

Cost per lead: spend ÷ paid leads. Only leads with the Paid traffic source count, because only they have spend behind them.

CPM

Cost per thousand impressions: spend × 1000 ÷ impressions. It comes from Meta’s numbers.

CTR

Click-through rate. The dashboard shows “Link CTR” (link clicks ÷ impressions) and “CTR (all)” (all clicks ÷ impressions).

ctwa_clid

The click identifier Meta sends along with the first message from a click-to-WhatsApp ad. TraceClose stores this id and, if the Meta connection has the WhatsApp Business account and the dataset, uses it to send the funnel events tied to that click, for up to 7 days after it.

Dataset

In Meta, the dataset receives conversion events. For click-to-WhatsApp ads, TraceClose sends events through the dataset linked to your WhatsApp Business account: that’s the optional “WhatsApp dataset ID” field in the Meta connection.

Event (Lead, Contact, Schedule, Purchase…)

The name Meta understands for each step. In TraceClose, each funnel stage can have one: Lead, Contact, Schedule, SubmitApplication, InitiateCheckout, CompleteRegistration or Purchase. Purchase only goes on a won stage, and it’s sent with the sale amount.

Event date

The other analytics view (cohort is the default). It counts each thing on the date it happened: an April sale shows up in April, no matter when the lead came in. Good for closing the month’s books. Spend always goes by delivery date, in both views.

Lead source

Where the lead came from: “Paid traffic” (identified ad), “Organic” (arrived without an identified ad) or “Outbound” (the team started the conversation). Only Paid traffic leads count toward CPL and campaign reports.

Meetings and wins goals

Monthly goals for the team and for each salesperson, only for meetings held and wins. The expected pace is proportional to the month’s business days (Monday to Friday, excluding holidays). There’s no revenue goal.

Operation (organization)

Each operation is an organization in TraceClose, with its own WhatsApp numbers, funnel, team, currency and time zone. A billing account can have more than one, depending on the plan, and people who belong to several switch between them with the selector at the top of the sidebar.

Organization time zone

The time zone in which your operation closes the day (Settings › Operations › Region and language). Reports, goals, alerts and scheduling follow this time zone. An ad account in a different time zone is excluded from totals, because the days don’t line up.

Pixel

A Meta identifier that receives conversion events from the website and from the Conversions API. In the Meta connection, the “Pixel ID” field tells TraceClose where to send conversion events (with click-to-WhatsApp ads, some events go through the dataset). Email, phone and name are sent hashed (SHA-256).

Profit

In TraceClose, revenue − ad spend, in the reporting currency. It doesn’t deduct product costs, taxes or commissions.

Reporting currency

The currency in which analytics adds up spend and revenue. By default it’s the organization’s currency. Amounts in other currencies show up separately and are never added together: TraceClose doesn’t convert currencies.

ROAS

Return on ad spend: revenue ÷ spend. A ROAS of 5 means each $1 in ads brought in $5 in recorded sales.

ROI

(Revenue − spend) ÷ spend. It’s ROAS minus 1: a ROAS of 5 gives an ROI of 4, or 400% on spend.

Rotation

Automatic distribution of new leads among active, unpaused salespeople. “Simple rotation” sends to whoever received one the longest time ago; “By weight” follows each person’s weight from 1 to 10. A tracked link with a fixed salesperson overrides the rotation.

SLA (maximum time without a reply)

How long, in minutes (1 to 1440, default 10), a customer can wait for a reply. Past that, the manager and the assigned salesperson get an on-screen alert, and the wait counts as an “SLA breach” in reports. The clock runs 24 hours a day.

Tracked link

A TraceClose link (/w/your-link) that opens WhatsApp with a ready-made message and a unique code per click (#XXXXX). When the message arrives, the code ties the conversation to the click, with its UTMs and ad. The code is valid for 7 days. Use it on your website, in your bio and in ads that aren’t click-to-WhatsApp.

UTM

Parameters at the end of a link (utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, utm_content, utm_term) that say where the click came from. TraceClose stores the UTMs from tracked link clicks and from website leads, and the UTM and links tab groups leads, wins and revenue by them.

Visits tag

A snippet you paste into your website’s <head> to count visits and clicks on contact buttons, and to link the visitor to the lead. Without cookie consent it only counts entries; with consent, it recognizes the visitor for 180 days. Visits are kept for 90 days.

WABA

The WhatsApp Business account in Meta’s BM (WhatsApp Business Account). “WhatsApp Business account ID (WABA)” is an optional field in the Meta connection, needed, together with the dataset, to send click-linked events for click-to-WhatsApp ads.

Won stage and lost stage

Funnel stage types. Every funnel needs at least one of each. Moving a lead to a won stage opens the sale form and counts as a win; moving it to lost asks for a reason (3 to 300 characters).

How the numbers connect in the dashboard

Spend, impressions and clicks come from Meta, through the ad account connection. Leads, meetings, wins and sales are born in TraceClose: the conversation lands in the inbox, the lead moves through the funnel and the sale is recorded with its amount. What ties both ends together is attribution: every paid traffic lead carries the campaign, ad set and ad it came from, and that’s how the dashboard can show the ROAS of each ad.

Two choices change how you read the numbers: the view (cohort or event date) and the reporting currency. See cohort or event date and currencies and time zone.

Can’t find the term? Check this

• How ROAS and cost per sale show up by campaign: ROAS and cost per sale.
• All 24 analytics cards, one by one: analytics overview.
• How the sale goes back to Meta: send conversions to Meta.
• Still have questions? Talk to us.