Growth terms, defined plainly.

Also called material connection

A clear statement that you earn something when people buy or sign up through your link. In the US, the FTC expects a disclosure of any material connection, placed with the recommendation itself rather than only on a profile or About page.

Social Engine's referral program: share your link and earn 10% of your referrals' deposits for 12 months, paid as wallet credit. Disclose the relationship when you share the link.

Also called ranking signals

The behaviors a platform's recommendation system takes into account when deciding what to show, such as whether people finish a video, share it, comment or follow. Platforms publish broad overviews but not exact formulas or weights, and they change them often, so most advice about signals is informed observation rather than confirmed fact.

Also called SMM panel API, API v2

An SMM panel that places its orders through another provider's API instead of by hand. Most panels share a common format (often called API v2) with actions such as services, add, status, refill, cancel and balance, so adding a new provider usually takes an API URL and a key.

Also called average view duration

How much of a video viewers keep watching, usually shown as a graph of the share of viewers still watching at each moment. Average view duration is the average time watched per view. Both show where a video loses people.

An account run by software rather than a person, often with no profile photo, no posts and an automated pattern of follows or likes. Bot engagement is the kind platforms most readily detect and remove.

The share of people who saw a thumbnail, post or link and then clicked it. On YouTube, impressions click-through rate measures how often viewers watched a video after seeing a registered impression.

A topic an account returns to again and again, such as "beginner sourdough mistakes". Two or three pillars make an account easy to describe and make ideas easier to find.

Also called cost per mille

Cost per 1,000 ad impressions: what advertisers pay. On YouTube, CPM is measured before YouTube's revenue share, so it is always higher than what a creator earns per 1,000 views.

Also called drops

The share of delivered engagement that disappears after an order completes, for example when a platform removes accounts or likes. If 1,000 followers are delivered and 50 later disappear, the drop rate is 5%.

Social Engine's top quality tier: the best source available when you order, routed for retention, with country targeting where the service supports it, priority support and a 90-day refill window.

Interactions relative to audience size, usually expressed as a percentage. A common method is average likes and comments per post divided by followers, times 100; methods differ, so compare figures calculated the same way.

Also called inauthentic engagement, artificial engagement

Views, likes, followers or comments that platforms consider not genuine. Platforms prohibit it in their policies and say they remove it; YouTube, for example, does not count traffic it finds artificial and can issue strikes.

Also called country targeting

Choosing the country or region an order's engagement comes from, so an audience matches a local business or a single market. It is only available on some services.

The first line, second or slide of a post, written to make people stay for the rest. On short-form video it is often the single biggest factor a creator controls.

The number of times content was shown, including repeat showings to the same person. Each platform has its own rules for what counts; on YouTube, not every time a thumbnail appears counts as an impression.

Also called count snapshot

The account counts captured around an order, such as the start count when delivery begins and the count at completion. Imprints let you and us check a refill against the same numbers; we also suggest taking your own screenshot before and after.

Also called concurrent viewers

The number of people watching a live stream at the same moment. Live viewer services are delivered during the stream itself, so there is nothing to refill afterwards.

Also called the Spark to Icon ladder

Social Engine's rewards ladder, set by order spend over a rolling 12 months: Spark (from the first order, 3% off), Surge (from $501, 5% off), Momentum (from $1,001, 7% off), Apex (from $2,501, 9% off), Icon (from $10,001, 12% off). Higher tiers also multiply points, add to the wallet bonus and extend refill windows.

Also called drip-feed

Spreading an order over several days in small batches instead of delivering it all at once, so growth looks closer to the way accounts normally grow. On Social Engine it is a switch on every tier, with a spread of 2 to 14 days.

Audience growth that comes from content, conversations and word of mouth rather than ads or purchased engagement. It is slower to start and the only kind that brings people who actually watch, buy and come back.

Also called loyalty points

Rewards earned on every Social Engine order: one point per dollar, multiplied by your loyalty tier and rounded down. 100 points convert to $1 of wallet credit.

Social Engine's middle quality tier: higher-quality accounts, steadier delivery and a 60-day refill window. The recommended balance of price and staying power for accounts you plan to keep building.

The number of unique accounts that saw a piece of content. Unlike impressions, one person seeing a post three times counts once.

An account with a profile photo, posts and activity that looks like a person's at a glance. Growth services use the term for higher-quality sources; it describes appearance, not a promise that a real person is behind every account.

Instagram's short vertical video format, shown in a dedicated Reels feed as well as on profiles. Instagram says Reels ranking looks closely at whether people reshare a reel, watch it all the way through, like it or open its audio page.

Redelivering engagement that dropped after an order completed, at no extra cost. A refill replaces only what the order delivered, never more.

Also called refill window

A promise to refill drops for a set number of days after an order completes. On Social Engine every tier has one: Standard 30 days, Premium 60 days and Elite 90 days, with up to 30 extra days from loyalty tiers.

A business that sells growth services to its own clients under its own brand, buying them from a supplier. Good resellers compete on understanding a niche and on support rather than on price alone.

Social Engine's API for panels and developers, in the common SMM panel API v2 format. Orders are priced linearly (rate times quantity divided by 1,000) and paid from your wallet.

Also called revenue per mille

Revenue per 1,000 views: what a creator actually earns, after the platform's revenue share. On YouTube, RPM includes ads, memberships, YouTube Premium revenue, Super Chat and Super Stickers, and it varies widely by niche and audience location.

YouTube's short vertical video format, shown in the Shorts feed. Shorts views have their own route into the YouTube Partner Program, and watch hours from the Shorts feed don't count toward the long-form watch-hour threshold.

Also called social media marketing panel

A website that sells social media engagement (followers, likes, views, members) in bulk, usually with a catalog of services, a wallet and an API. Many panels resell services from larger suppliers.

The tendency to judge something by whether other people already seem to trust it. Follower counts, views, likes and reviews act as social proof: they can earn a second look, but they don't make weak content good.

Social Engine's entry quality tier: the lowest price and the fastest start, usually within the hour, from basic accounts, with a 30-day refill window. A sensible pick for tests and short-lived posts.

The public count (followers, likes, views) recorded when delivery of an order begins. Start count plus the quantity delivered is the number a refill is measured against.

A Telegram broadcast feed where admins post and members read and react. Channels can be public with a permanent link, show a view counter on each post and can have unlimited subscribers, while Telegram groups support conversations of up to 200,000 members.

How Social Engine honors a refill when the source's own free refill doesn't cover it: we place a new order for the shortfall at our own cost.

Also called funding bonus, bonus balance

Extra balance added when you fund your Social Engine wallet: +30% on every deposit, plus up to +7% more at Icon. Bonus balance is spent first and can't be withdrawn.

Also called watch time

Total time viewers spent watching a channel's videos. YouTube counts qualified watch hours toward Partner Program eligibility and does not count traffic it considers artificial, so purchased watch time is not a reliable route to monetization.

A one-way broadcast feed inside WhatsApp, where admins send text, photos, videos, stickers and polls to followers. Channels can be found through a searchable directory, and followers don't see the admin's phone number.

YouTube's program for sharing ad and other revenue with creators. The full program requires 1,000 subscribers plus either 4,000 qualified watch hours in the last 12 months or 10 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days.