Overview
This glossary defines the key terms, metrics, and concepts you'll encounter across LayerFive. Use it as a reference when exploring dashboards, building reports, or interpreting attribution data.
A
Ad Spend
The total amount spent on paid advertising across connected ad platforms (Google Ads, Meta, TikTok, Bing, etc.) for a given time period. In LayerFive, Ad Spend is pulled directly from each connected platform and is not estimated.
AOV (Average Order Value)
Total revenue divided by the number of orders in a given period.
AOV = Revenue ÷ Orders
A rising AOV with stable or declining ad spend is a strong indicator of improving marketing efficiency.
Any Click Attribution
An attribution model in which every touchpoint in the customer journey that received a click is credited with contributing to the conversion. Orders and revenue are distributed across all clicked touchpoints rather than assigned to a single channel.
Use Any Click when you want to understand the full breadth of channels influencing purchases, rather than crediting a single interaction. See also: Attribution Models.
Attribution Model
The rule that determines how credit for a conversion (order, revenue) is assigned across the marketing touchpoints in a customer's journey. LayerFive supports five models:
| Model | How Credit Is Assigned |
|---|---|
| Any Click | All clicked touchpoints share credit |
| First Click | 100% credit to the first touchpoint the customer clicked |
| Last Click | 100% credit to the most recent touchpoint before conversion |
| Equal Weight | Credit divided equally across all touchpoints |
| View-Through | Credit assigned to ad impressions (views) that preceded a conversion, even without a click |
The default model is set in Administration → System Settings. It can be changed on individual reports and dashboards without affecting the global setting.
Attribution Look Back Window
The number of days LayerFive looks back in a customer's interaction history when attributing a conversion. The default is 30 days — meaning any touchpoint within the 30 days prior to a purchase is eligible to receive attribution credit.
Brands with longer purchase consideration cycles (e.g. high-ticket products) may benefit from a longer look back window.
Attribution Coverage
See Coverage %.
B
BOF (Bottom of Funnel)
The final stage of the marketing funnel, targeting customers who are close to making a purchase. BOF campaigns typically include retargeting, abandoned cart ads, and conversion-focused messaging. Compare with TOF and MOF.
C
CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)
The total cost of acquiring a new customer, including all marketing and sales spend attributable to that acquisition.
CAC = Total Acquisition Spend ÷ Number of New Customers Acquired
Distinct from CPA, which measures cost per order regardless of whether the buyer is new or returning.
CLTV / LTV (Customer Lifetime Value)
The total revenue a customer is expected to generate over their entire relationship with your brand. High LTV customers justify higher CAC and are the primary focus of LayerFive's Cohort Analysis dashboard.
Cohort
A group of customers who made their first purchase within the same time period (e.g. all customers who first purchased in January 2026). Cohort analysis tracks how these groups behave over time — repeat purchase rates, revenue contribution, and retention.
Conversion Rate
The percentage of visits or sessions that result in a purchase.
Conversion Rate = Orders ÷ Visits × 100
In the MOAT table, Conversion Rate is calculated as Any Click Orders divided by Visits for the selected attribution model and time period.
Cost/Order (CPA)
The average ad spend required to generate one attributed order.
Cost/Order = Ad Spend ÷ Attributed Orders
Also referred to as CPA (Cost Per Acquisition). A lower Cost/Order relative to AOV indicates efficient campaign performance.
Coverage %
The percentage of your total e-commerce orders that LayerFive's pixel successfully tracked and attributed.
Coverage % = LayerFive Tracked Orders ÷ E-Commerce Orders × 100
For example, if Shopify recorded 1,461 orders and LayerFive tracked 1,235 of them, Coverage is 84.53%.
A Coverage % below 80% typically indicates the LayerFive pixel is not deployed on all pages or order confirmation flows. See Tag Management for deployment instructions.
CPA (Cost Per Acquisition)
See Cost/Order.
CPM (Cost Per Mille)
The cost of 1,000 ad impressions. A measure of paid media buying efficiency, most relevant for awareness-stage (TOF) campaigns where reach rather than direct conversion is the goal.
CTR (Click-Through Rate)
The percentage of ad impressions that result in a click.
CTR = Clicks ÷ Impressions × 100
E
E-Commerce Orders
The total number of orders recorded by your e-commerce platform (e.g. Shopify) for a given period. This is the denominator used to calculate Coverage %.
F
First Click Attribution
An attribution model that assigns 100% of the conversion credit to the first marketing touchpoint a customer interacted with. Useful for understanding which channels initiate customer journeys and drive top-of-funnel awareness.
Funnel Stage
A classification of where a customer is in their journey from awareness to purchase. LayerFive recognizes three stages:
-
TOF (Top of Funnel) — Awareness and discovery
-
MOF (Middle of Funnel) — Consideration and engagement
-
BOF (Bottom of Funnel) — Intent and conversion
Funnel stages can be applied as Custom Dimensions in Performance Reports to segment campaign performance by funnel position.
L
Last Click Attribution
An attribution model that assigns 100% of the conversion credit to the most recent touchpoint before the conversion. This is the default model used by most ad platforms (Google Ads, Meta), which is why LayerFive's numbers often differ from platform-reported figures.
LayerFive Tracked Orders
The number of orders LayerFive's pixel successfully captured and attributed during a given period. Displayed alongside E-Commerce Orders on the Attribution Analytics dashboard. Used to calculate Coverage %.
M
MER (Marketing Efficiency Ratio)
A blended measure of total marketing performance, calculated as total revenue divided by total ad spend across all channels.
MER = Total Revenue ÷ Total Ad Spend
Unlike ROAS, MER does not attempt to attribute revenue to specific channels. It gives a top-level view of how efficiently your entire marketing investment is generating revenue. MER is visible on the Executive Summary dashboard.
MOF (Middle of Funnel)
The consideration stage of the marketing funnel, targeting customers who are aware of your brand but haven't yet purchased. MOF campaigns typically include educational content, testimonials, and comparison ads.
MOAT
The multi-channel attribution performance table in LayerFive's Attribution Analytics dashboard. MOAT displays attributed performance broken down by Media Source, Campaign, Ads, and Keywords — showing Visits, Orders, Conversion Rate, Revenue, ROAS, CPA, and AOV for each. It supports switching between attribution models and filtering by customer type (New vs. Returning).
N
New Customer
A customer making their first-ever purchase from your store. In LayerFive Attribution Analytics, you can filter the MOAT table by New Customer to isolate acquisition performance and see which channels are most effective at bringing in first-time buyers.
R
Returning Customer
A customer who has previously purchased from your store. Filtering the MOAT table by Returning Customer isolates retention performance — showing which channels drive repeat purchases. Compare with New Customer.
Revenue %
Each media source's share of total attributed revenue for the selected period. In the MOAT table, Revenue % columns sum to approximately 100% across all sources.
ROAS (Return on Ad Spend)
Revenue generated per dollar of ad spend.
ROAS = Attributed Revenue ÷ Ad Spend
ROAS is channel-specific and attribution-model-dependent. LayerFive's ROAS will often differ from the ROAS reported inside Google Ads or Meta Ads Manager because LayerFive uses first-party data and a consistent attribution model across all channels, whereas each ad platform uses its own attribution logic and counts only its own conversions.
T
TOF (Top of Funnel)
The awareness stage of the marketing funnel, targeting new or cold audiences who have not yet engaged with your brand. TOF campaigns typically prioritize reach, impressions, and CPM efficiency over direct conversion.
U
UTM Parameters
Tags appended to URLs to identify the source, medium, and campaign driving traffic to your website. LayerFive uses UTM parameters to classify traffic into media sources, channels, and types in Attribution reporting.
Standard UTM parameters:
| Parameter | Example | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
utm_source |
google, facebook |
Identifies the traffic source |
utm_medium |
cpc, email, social |
Identifies the marketing medium |
utm_campaign |
brand-search-q2 |
Identifies the specific campaign |
UTM mappings are configured in Administration → System Settings → UTM Param Config.
V
View-Through Attribution
An attribution model that credits ad impressions (views without clicks) that preceded a conversion. Useful for measuring the influence of awareness campaigns that may not generate direct clicks but contribute to purchase decisions. Should be used carefully — it tends to inflate the attributed performance of high-impression channels like display and video.
Visits
The number of sessions recorded on your website by LayerFive's pixel for a given period and source. In the MOAT table, Visits represents the traffic LayerFive observed from each media source, which may differ slightly from sessions reported in Google Analytics due to differences in session counting methodology.
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