Terms You Should Know
22 terms — each one a mini-lesson: what it means, an example with numbers, a real-world scenario, and why it matters. Every term has a direct link you can share.
CAC(Customer Acquisition Cost)
تكلفة اكتساب العميلEverything you spent on marketing ÷ number of new customers = how much it cost you to bring in one customer.
Example with numbers
You spent 5,000 SAR on ads this month and got 100 new customers from it → cost per customer = 50 SAR.
Real-world scenario
The owner of a perfume shop judged her profits 'by feel' and the sales looked great. When she calculated her CAC it came out to 80 SAR, while her profit on a first order was only 45 SAR — meaning she was losing 35 SAR on every new customer, and the sales that made her so happy were only growing the loss.
Why it matters — and when
This number decides whether your marketing is an investment or a hemorrhage. Calculate it monthly and compare it to your profit per customer: if a customer brings back more than three times what they cost, you're fine; if it's less than one time, stop and shut off the tap before you scale.
ROAS(Return On Ad Spend)
العائد على الإعلانFor every SAR you paid for ads — how many SAR in sales came back? Campaign revenue ÷ campaign spend.
Example with numbers
You paid 1,000 SAR and the campaign brought 3,000 SAR in sales → ROAS = 3x.
Real-world scenario
A burger place owner was thrilled his campaign hit a ROAS of 2x. But his gross margin is 40%, so his real break-even point is 100÷40 = 2.5x — his 'successful' campaign was selling a lot while losing money, and the numbers exposed it in a minute.
Why it matters — and when
The most important number to read after any campaign, but on its own it lies: you must compare it to your break-even point derived from your margin. Use it after every campaign and before raising the budget of any 'winning' ad — its impact is that you stop losing campaigns while you still think they're profitable.
CTR(Click-Through Rate)
نسبة النقرOut of every 100 people who saw your ad, how many clicked it? Clicks ÷ impressions × 100.
Example with numbers
Your ad was shown 10,000 times and 150 people clicked it → CTR = 1.5%.
Real-world scenario
An abaya store had been spending on an ad for two weeks with a CTR of 0.4%. They swapped the opening visual from a product shot on a white background to a real try-on video — CTR jumped to 1.8% on the same budget, meaning four times the visitors without one extra SAR.
Why it matters — and when
CTR measures how attention-grabbing your ad is: a low one means the image or headline isn't stopping the scroll. Watch it during the first 3 days of any campaign — if it's weak, change the creative (image/video) before blaming the targeting or the platform.
Reach
الوصولHow many different people saw the content — not how many times it was displayed (that one is called Impressions).
Example with numbers
A reach of 20,000 with 60,000 impressions means 20 thousand people saw your content, and on average each one saw it 3 times.
Real-world scenario
A café posted a reel that hit 100 thousand views and they celebrated — but the reach was only 15 thousand people, most of them outside their city anyway. The high view count brought in zero customers because the people who saw it couldn't come.
Why it matters — and when
It separates 'real spread among new people' from 'the same people seeing you on repeat.' Track it when your goal is awareness, and always compare it with engagement: big reach with dead engagement means the content reached the wrong people.
Conversion
التحويلThe moment a viewer turns into a paying customer — or completes the goal you want (sign-up, order, contact).
Example with numbers
1,000 people visited your store and 25 of them bought → your conversion rate is 2.5%.
Real-world scenario
An online store was getting excellent traffic but its conversion rate was 0.8%. They discovered the checkout page forced customers to create an account — they removed it and allowed guest checkout, and conversion rose to 2.1% on the same traffic: more than double the sales without one extra SAR of marketing.
Why it matters — and when
Conversion rate is your 'shop efficiency' — improving it by even half a percent multiplies your sales without extra spend. Monitor it weekly, and when it drops suddenly, look for the problem in your site (speed, checkout, sizes) before blaming the ads.
Targeting
الاستهدافYou define exactly who sees your ad: age, city, interests, behavior.
Example with numbers
Instead of advertising to everyone in Saudi Arabia, you advertise to 'women 25-40, Riyadh, interested in skincare' — the same budget on a smaller, sharper audience.
Real-world scenario
A training institute was advertising to 'everyone 18-65' with a cost per registration of 90 SAR. They narrowed the targeting to high-school graduates in just two cities — cost per registration dropped to 32 SAR, because the ad now showed only to people who could actually enroll.
Why it matters — and when
Broad targeting burns your budget on people who will never buy. Before any campaign, write down exactly who your ideal customer is — and if you don't know, that's your first problem to solve, before any ads.
Retargeting
إعادة الاستهدافYou follow the person who visited and looked but didn't buy with your ad — gently reminding them they were interested.
Example with numbers
Out of every 100 visitors who add to cart, 70 leave it without buying. A retargeting ad with a 10% discount typically brings back 15-20 of them.
Real-world scenario
A furniture store noticed people visit the sofa page many times before buying (an expensive decision). They ran a campaign following sofa-page visitors with a customer-testimonial video — it became their cheapest campaign per order, because it works on people who are already convinced and halfway there.
Why it matters — and when
The cheapest customer is the one who reached your door and came back. A retargeting campaign usually costs several times less per conversion than cold-audience campaigns — keep it always running on a small budget, especially if your product takes time to decide on.
CTA(Call To Action)
دعوة لاتخاذ إجراءThe line that tells the customer exactly what to do right now: 'Order now,' 'Book your appointment,' 'Save this post.'
Example with numbers
A post ending with 'Order before Thursday and delivery is free' brings clearly more orders than a beautiful post that ends with nothing.
Real-world scenario
A content creator's videos were spreading nicely but her sales were weak. She added a single line at the end of every video: 'Link in bio — order before it sells out' and pinned a comment with the link. Without any change to the content, her bio started getting daily clicks that turned into orders.
Why it matters — and when
People don't guess what you want from them — they need explicit direction. Every piece of content, post, and ad must end with one clear call (not three). Review your last 10 posts: how many have a CTA? That is often the gap behind the sales difference.
Branding
الهوية التجاريةYour look, voice, and feel that set you apart from everyone else — not just the logo: the colors, the way you speak, the packaging, even how you reply.
Example with numbers
You see a yellow delivery box with no name on it and recognize the store from the color alone — that's an identity they spent years building.
Real-world scenario
Two stores sell the same dates at the same price: the first with plain packaging and supplier photos, the second with a name in distinctive Arabic calligraphy, a story about their grandfather's farm, and the same tone in every post. The second sells more and can raise its prices — people buy the feeling, not just the dates.
Why it matters — and when
Identity is what makes a customer pay more, come back, and recommend you — without it you compete on price alone, and that's a race to the bottom. Lock in 3 things starting today: your colors, your way of speaking, and the one promise you repeat in everything.
UGC(User-Generated Content)
محتوى العملاءPhotos and videos your customers make about you themselves — the most honest advertising because it comes from a real person, not from you.
Example with numbers
A video of a customer opening her order and trying the product spontaneously convinces more than a studio-shot ad at ten times the cost.
Real-world scenario
A restaurant set up a pretty photo corner and wrote on the table: 'Snap a photo, tag us, and get a free dessert.' It now has a daily stream of stories from real customers — free, trusted ads working while the owner sleeps.
Why it matters — and when
People believe people; they don't believe ads. Ask for the content explicitly (after every successful order), make it easy (photo corner, hashtag), and reward it (discount, repost). Then reuse it in your ads — UGC ads usually convert at a lower cost.
Organic
الأورجانيكFree, natural spread — people reaching you through content, search, and recommendations, as opposed to 'paid' where you buy your reach.
Example with numbers
A TikTok video went viral and brought you 50 orders without one SAR of ads = organic sales.
Real-world scenario
Two stores: the first got all its sales from paid ads — the day the ads stopped, sales stopped. The second spent a full year building content and a strong account, so it now has a steady stream of sales even without ads, and when it does run ads, they work on top of a solid foundation.
Why it matters — and when
Organic is an asset you own; paid is rent you keep paying. Paid is faster but stops when the payment stops — the healthy path is building both: consistent content that compounds into an asset, and ads that accelerate growth. If your sales are 100% paid, you're more fragile than you feel.
AOV(Average Order Value)
متوسط الفاتورةHow much the average customer pays you per single order — total sales ÷ number of orders.
Example with numbers
Your sales are 30,000 SAR from 400 orders → your average order value is 75 SAR.
Real-world scenario
A specialty coffee store had an average order of 60 SAR. They added 'a cup + the roast of the week at 15% off when bought together' and free shipping above 90 SAR — the average rose to 85 SAR. Same number of customers, 40% higher sales.
Why it matters — and when
Raising your average order value is the easiest and cheapest way to grow sales — it needs no new customers and no ads. Use it to set your free-shipping threshold, and design bundles and add-ons that 'complete the order.' Watch it monthly: a drop means your offers are attracting discount hunters.
Retention
الاحتفاظ بالعميلYour ability to make a customer come back and buy a second and third time — its opposite is 'Churn': customers who try you once and disappear.
Example with numbers
Of 1,000 customers at the start of the month, you lost 80 → your churn rate is 8% monthly, meaning a customer stays with you ~12 months on average.
Real-world scenario
A car wash was spending its whole budget attracting new customers while its old customers quietly leaked away. They launched a monthly subscription and a WhatsApp reminder message — the return rate climbed, and it turned out a retention SAR pays back multiples of an acquisition SAR.
Why it matters — and when
Acquiring a new customer costs several times more than keeping an existing one, yet most budgets go to acquisition. Calculate your monthly churn rate and how many SAR 'evaporate' with it — the number usually shocks you and reorders your priorities between ads and customer service.
Funnel
قمع التسويقThe customer journey step by step: they see you → get interested → start an order → buy. People leak out at every step — that's why it's shaped like a funnel.
Example with numbers
10,000 visits → 1,500 added to cart → 900 started checkout → 300 bought. Overall conversion is 3%, and the biggest leak is from visit to cart.
Real-world scenario
A store kept spending more for 'more traffic' while its sales stood still. When they mapped the funnel, the real leak was at the checkout step (60% fleeing it) because of surprise shipping fees — they fixed one single step and sales rose 40% on the same traffic.
Why it matters — and when
The funnel turns the vague 'sales are weak' into the fixable 'this specific step is broken.' Map it with your own numbers every month, and focus your effort on the weakest step — fixing it automatically lifts everything after it.
Engagement
التفاعلEvery like, comment, save, and share — a signal the content touched people, and the platforms boost content people engage with.
Example with numbers
An account with 20 thousand followers getting 1,000 interactions per post → a 5% engagement rate — excellent. An account with 100 thousand getting 500 → 0.5% — a cold or bought audience.
Real-world scenario
A brand was choosing between two influencers: the first with 200 thousand followers and 0.6% engagement, the second with 30 thousand and 7% engagement plus genuine comments asking about the products. They picked the second at a quarter of the price — and she brought more sales, because her audience is alive and trusts her.
Why it matters — and when
Engagement is more honest than follower count — it measures the relationship, not the size. Use it to evaluate your content (repeat what works) and to vet any influencer before you pay, and saves and shares weigh more than likes because they mean 'this is worth coming back to.'
Local SEO(Local Search Engine Optimization)
الظهور المحليRanking among the top results when someone near you searches Google or Maps for your service: 'car wash near me,' 'best burger in the neighborhood.'
Example with numbers
Someone types 'men's salon near me' — Google shows three profiles above the map. Whoever is inside those three takes most of the calls; the rest get crumbs.
Real-world scenario
An auto repair shop's Google profile was neglected: old photos, wrong hours, reviews with no replies. Its new competitor completed their profile, replied to every review, and asked customers for reviews — within two months the competitor ranked first and pulled in all the calls without one SAR of ads.
Why it matters — and when
The highest purchase intent in the world: someone near you searching for your service right now. Optimizing your business profile is completely free and its impact rivals paid campaigns — audit your profile today; the common gaps (replying to reviews, fresh photos, correct hours) can be fixed in an hour.
A/B testing
اختبار A/BYou run two versions that differ in only one thing (image, headline, price) and let the numbers decide — not your taste or your partner's.
Example with numbers
The same ad with two images: the first converted at 1.2% and the second at 1.9% on the same audience — the second wins, move the budget to it.
Real-world scenario
A marketing team spent a week arguing: the product photo or a photo of someone using it? They ran both for 5 days on a small budget — the numbers settled it with 97% statistical confidence. The debate ended and the rule became: 'We don't argue, we test.'
Why it matters — and when
Most of your marketing decisions are guesses — testing turns them into science. Test only one thing at a time, and beware: a small difference on a small sample is usually coincidence, so confirm statistical significance before you adopt the winner.
Offer
العرضThe deal you put in front of the customer — and it doesn't have to be a discount: a gift with the order, free delivery, a bundle, a guarantee, or exclusivity.
Example with numbers
Instead of the 20% discount that eats your profit, try 'a gift worth 30 SAR with every order above 150' — its actual cost to you is lower and it feels bigger to the customer.
Real-world scenario
A sweets shop ran a 25% discount every time sales slowed, and customers learned to wait for the discount, so no one bought at the original price anymore. They switched to gift offers and limited seasonal bundles — sales came back without breaking the price or training the customer to wait.
Why it matters — and when
The right offer moves sales and protects your margin; random discounting teaches your customers to wait and erodes your product's value. Before any offer: run its numbers (how much extra sales do you need for it to come out profitable?) and give it an explicit end date.
Seasonal
التسويق الموسميYou tie your campaigns to the seasons when people are already buying: Ramadan, the Eids, National Day, White Friday, back-to-school.
Example with numbers
An oud store makes 3 normal months' worth of sales in the last ten nights of Ramadan — same products; the season is the difference.
Real-world scenario
A gift shop noticed National Day 3 days before it: they designed in a rush, launched ads at double the prices (everyone advertises then), and their stock arrived late. The competitor who started 6 weeks early took the whole season — early preparation is the difference, not the ideas.
Why it matters — and when
In season, the customer is looking for someone to sell to them — the opposite of the rest of the year when you're chasing them. The rule: prepare at least a month before the season (inventory, content, offers), and start your ads two weeks before the peak, before the auctions get expensive.
CPM(Cost Per Mille — cost per 1,000 impressions)
تكلفة الألف ظهورHow much you pay for your ad to be shown 1,000 times — the price of 'reaching eyeballs' on the platform.
Example with numbers
A CPM of 15 SAR means every 1,000 times your ad appears costs you 15 SAR — a 300 SAR budget gets you 20 thousand impressions.
Real-world scenario
An advertiser complains: 'Costs went up and I didn't change a thing.' The reality: it's November (White Friday season), everyone is advertising, so the auction heats up and CPM doubles — the fix is either starting before the peak or preparing stronger creative that offsets the pricier reach with higher pull.
Why it matters — and when
CPM measures how expensive reach is, not how good your ad is. A sudden rise means seasonal competition or a narrow, expensive audience; but the final verdict always belongs to the outcome numbers: an expensive CPM on an ad that converts brilliantly beats a cheap CPM with no sales.
CPC(Cost Per Click)
تكلفة النقرةHow much you pay for every click on your ad — the price of 'one visitor' to your site or account.
Example with numbers
You spent 500 SAR and the ad brought 400 clicks → cost per click is 1.25 SAR.
Real-world scenario
A store pays 3 SAR per click, happy that visitors are pouring in. But its conversion rate is 1% and its profit per order is 40 SAR — meaning every 100 visitors cost 300 SAR and bring back 40. Every click was digging the loss deeper, and the fix was knowing his 'ceiling' before bidding.
Why it matters — and when
Every business has a click ceiling it must not cross: profit per order × conversion rate. Know your number before any campaign and make it your red line in the bidding — paying above it means you're working for the platform, not for yourself.
Break-even
نقطة التعادلThe moment your revenue exactly covers your costs — before it you're paying out of your own pocket; after it, real profit begins.
Example with numbers
A campaign costing 3,000 SAR with 50 SAR profit per unit → you need 60 sales to break even. Sale number 61 is your first actual profit.
Real-world scenario
The owner of a home sweets business counts 'I brought in 8,000 this month' and calls it profit. When she calculated her break-even (ingredients + packaging + delivery + ads) it came to 7,400 — a whole month of work with a real profit of 600 SAR, and she finally understood why her bank account never grows.
Why it matters — and when
The most important number to know before any campaign, project, or offer: how many sales do you need to get out of the losing zone? If the number is unrealistic (you need 500 orders and you're bringing in 50), the math warned you before you burned the budget — that's the whole point of calculating upfront.