Marketing definitions

Ads that are placed on a web page where they are immediately viewable (no need to scroll down further).

The number of unique users exposed to an ad within a specified time period.

Ad banners (also known as banner ads) are one of the most dominant forms of advertising on the internet. Banner ads are a form of display advertising that can range from a static graphic to full motion video or rich media. The iab frequently updates their ad guidelines in order to assist creators and buyers of banner ads. Compared to offline forms of display advertising, banner ads allow for several enhanced types of targeting. Including geo-targeting, dayparting, and various types of behavioral targeting.

Software on a user’s browser which prevents advertisements from being displayed.

The user activity of pressing a navigation button or hitting the enter key on the keyboard on an advertisement unit on a web site (banner, button or text link).

The platform on which impressions from publishers are connected with advertisers’ campaigns. The platform makes online bidding and selling of media possible.

The time an ad was in view.

An AdWords feature that shows additional information in your ads such as your business’ location, phone number, business ratings, and links to your webpage. Manual Extensions: App Extension Call Extension, Location Extension Review Extension Sitelinks Extension Callout Extension.

Is any attempt to defraud digital advertising networks for financial gain. Scammers often use bots to carry out ad fraud, but not always – there are a number of methods that scammers can use to trick advertisers and ad networks into paying them.

The structure that contains one or more ads and a target set of keywords for Google Search, and a target set of placements for Google Display.

A business that sells ad space on behalf of multiple publishers.

Ad placements for 1 or more audio tracks within audio content.

The formula Google created to determine your ad’s position in the search results. [Formula] Ad Rank = Your Max CPC Bid x Your Quality Score. Sitelinks and use of other extensions are also factored into this equation

An indicator that lets Google know how closely related your keywords are to your ads and website landing page. Google’s Quality Score values Ad Relevance above anything else. Make sure your keyword is featured in your ad text and is somewhere on your website landing page to increase Ad relevance and thus Quality score.

As soon as the player starts showing video content, an ad request (or ad call) is made to the ad server. This request contains information about the content, the serving location and possibly the viewer. Based on this information, the ad server determines which ad fits the targeting options and can be selected.

Is a Web server that stores advertising content used in online marketing and delivers that content onto various digital platforms such as Websites, social media outlets and mobile apps. An ad server is merely the technology in which the advertising material is stored and is the means of distributing that material into appropriate advertising slots online.

The act of calling ads from a centralised server (the ad server) and delivering them to a user’s web browser.

Placing multiple ads on top of each other in a single placement, with only the top ad being viewable.

An ad tag is a snippet of code on a website that communicates with ad servers to make the correct digital ad appears on a web page or in an app.

Ad tech is a set of technologies used for managing advertisements across channels, including search, display, video, mobile and social, with functions for targeting, design, bid management, analytics, optimization and automation of digital advertising.

Ad tracking refers to a method for recording campaign delivery metrics between ad servers.

The process for setting up ads in the ad server so that when an ad request is made to the ad server, the ad is delivered to the publisher.

Ad verification is a service that offers technology to ensure that ads appear on intended sites and reach the targeted audience.

The piece of technology that lets advanced AdWords users build software applications to interact with and make changes to their campaigns. To use the AdWords API, you will need a My Client Center account and a developer token. API stands for Application Program Interface.

Is a type of targeted advertising that allows advertisers to customize the ads delivered to individual households as they watch TV.

Stands for Authorized Digital Sellers was introduced several years ago to create a more transparent and secure programmatic ecosystem. Ads.txt is a simple, flexible and secure way for publishers to let buyers know if they are authorized to sell the inventory they are offering in an easy and publicly accessible way.

Uses an advertising-based revenue model. This allows companies that advertise on broadcast and cable channels to reach people who watch shows using VOD.

This is the part of a media agency responsible for and specialised in the buying of media via a DSP, and where impressions and audiences are optimised by making use of automated trading. Trading Desks not linked to an agency are called Independent Trading Desks.

When the media buying agency, its affiliates or parent receives volume discounts, compensation or other benefits from media owners (e.g., sales networks and publishers) on media buys made by the media buying agency, this is known as an AVB.

A free tool Google created to help you better understand the types of customers that visit your website, how much time they spend there, where they come from, and other important metrics that AdWords cannot provide in as much detail.

An extension of ads.txt, which has been developed by IAB Tech Lab, to support both the CTV and mobile app environments. App-specific inventory is improved upon regarding its transparency, mainly due to the similar information found in a standard ads.txt file. The app’s sellers that are authorized and data for CTV that is specified, think of inventory partners, are listed in the apps-ads.txt.

Assigns credit to touchpoints across channels based on their contribution to an action.

Is a measurement of the percentage of impressions where the ad was visible and audible on completion and delivered to a human.

Creating a group of users that we don’t want to target. We are creating this audience to exclude them from targeting.

Audience Segmentation is the process of dividing a group of users into subgroups using specific characteristics such as product usage, intent, demographic, life stage and more.

Refers to the grouping or segmenting of audiences beyond standard demographics such as age, gender and income. For example, audiences can be segmented by:
• Location (e.g. postcode, proximity to a store)
• Behaviour (e.g. fashionista)
• Attitude (e.g. early technology adopter)
• Intention (e.g. travel intender)
• Ownership (e.g. dog owner)
• Lifestyle (e.g. gym junkie)

Refers to the practice of promoting products, services or brands through audio content. It uses various audio channels such as radio, music streaming services, podcasts and smart speakers to reach and engage target audiences.

Is about understanding and analyzing audio signals captured by digital devices, with numerous applications in enterprise, healthcare, productivity and smart cities.

Is when a company uses a sound to define or reinforce its identity. It can be used at any point in the customer experience to reinforce the brand. Audio branding can include jingles, sound logos, a specific voice or sound style.

Is a set of optimization best practices that help audio files (podcasts) rank higher in search engines and podcast listening platforms

The bidding strategy that lets Google automatically adjust your maximum bids across keywords. This is a good option for advertisers that are willing to give up a little control to free up some time.

A stage in the purchase funnel where users are not aware of an advertisers brand or product.

Ads that are placed further down a page that require a consumer to scroll down in order to see it.

The minimum bid a publisher is willing to accept for an impression it is selling.

If an SSP is connected, a bid request will be made along with the ad request. A bid request is simply a request from the SSP to the different DSPs to show an ad. The bid request is a piece of script that contains information about the website making the request. Besides the website, the URL and the format of the video, the bid request contains a bid floor, the minimum CPM an advertiser has to bid in order to be eligible to win the auction. Also, the bid request contains a unique code that the SSP uses to identify the site when it contacts the DSPs. This code, the Deal ID, allows each party to know what is being bid on.

When a bid is prevented from competing in an auction, this is referred to as bid throttling. Due to header bidding and the increase in the number of queries sent to advertisers (QSP), a technology was developed (bid throttling) that only sends ad opportunities relevant to specific DSPs. As a result, the traffic becomes more appealing to buyers.

Represents the number of bits per unit time and is used to indicate the quality of the ad or video. By default, this is indicated by bits per second (bit/s). The bit rate can vary across the entire video, for example, because it contains fewer colors or because the quality of the video is not the same everywhere. In general, the following applies here: the higher the bit rate, the better the quality. Because not every combination of device and internet connection can handle all bitrates equally well, it is wise to have several renditions (versions of the spot) available varying in bitrate, with a minimum size of 1500 kbps.

The rate of visitors to your website who leave without visiting more than 1 page of your site.

A campaign in which an advertiser is looking to engage customers to enhance the market awareness or understanding of their brand/product.

Brand safety is defined as keeping a brand’s reputation safe when they advertise online. In practice, this means avoiding placing ads next to inappropriate content.

Is based on perception. It is customized media buying that ensures that the surrounding content matches the image and customer base of the brand. 

The keyword setting that allows your ads to be triggered when any type of similar variation, synonym, or phrase is searched. It will have the largest reach (impressions) compared to all other match types but will be far less targeted.

The keyword setting that will give you reach (impressions) similar to broad match keywords, but also give you more control over who you are serving your ads to. They tell Google certain words in your keywords phrase need to be present in the search term of your customers. Broad match keywords are indicated by a ‘+’ sign.

An ad (with a duration of up to 6 seconds) played in the player, preceding the video content.

A subset of AVOD, BVOD is ad-supported streaming content from traditional broadcasters. For example, NBCUniversal offers free, ad-supported versions of some NBC and Bravo shows on its Peacock streaming service.

Additional text that appears with your ad that calls out some piece of value for your customer. Basic examples of Callouts include: 24/7 Support, Free Shipping, and Cancel Anytime.

A campaign brief is usually produced by an advertiser to allow their partners to understand what the high-level objectives of a campaign are, ahead of a campaign plan being produced.

Measurement based on the number of consumers who click on digital content. Includes metrics like clickthroughs and click-through rates.

The percent of people that click on your ad after viewing it. The formula to determine your CTR is the total number of clicks divided by the total number of impressions.

Client-side header bidding involves adding a piece of JavaScript to a publisher’s website in between the tags. The code then executes each time a page loads, and sends an ad request(s) to a number of demand partners.

Is a device that connects to—or is embedded in—a television to support video content streaming. Different types of CTVs include Xbox, PlayStation, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, and more.

A form of digital advertising that appears within streaming content. This includes, for example, ads shown alongside TV shows or livestreams viewed on streaming devices.

Showing ads on a similar topic as the product-service.

A programmatic targeting tactic which look to place ads on web pages with particular contexts that are relevant for a given advertiser/product.

Randomly assigns a group of people to test and control groups to quantify the impact of a change.

A stage in the purchase funnel where users have interacted with a brand or are very likely to be in market to purchase.

The average number of conversions you will see per click on your ad.

The method of tracking the important actions your customers make (sales, sign-ups, etc.) that come as a result of Google AdWords ads.

Is an unauthorized technique to generate revenue using affiliate marketing.

This is a message containing information about a user that is sent by a web server to a browser and then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a web page from that server. That way, the server collects valuable information about the user.

The price you pay Google each time someone clicks on your ad.

The price an advertiser pays every time an online video ad runs through to completion. cost per completed view (CPCV) can be used as a measurement of inventory efficiency, or as a currency for trading video.

The price you pay Google every time your Display ad sees 1,000 impressions.

The price you pay Google every time someone views one of your video ads.

Creative ID stands for the unique code of the creative expression itself. With the help of this identifier, an expression can be identified in reports and analyses.

Cross-domain embedding takes place when two sites are coupled together – one with low-quality content and high traffic and one with safe content and low traffic. This tactic is seen as a domain spoofing tactic.

A connected TV app is a software application that runs on a smart TV or on a streaming device such as a tablet.

CTV measurement is the ability to track and analyze the success of performance TV advertising campaigns. CTV attribution is the ability to identify where consumers are coming from when they take an intended action, whether it’s a specific channel or an individual advertising campaign.

A Custom Audience is created from a larger customer list and can be based on behavioural, location or demographic data depending on the response required.

With the usage of bots, the fraudster is able to modify the URL of any site to appear as a different premium site. As a result, the ad reports back the higher value URL that has been ”spoofed”.

The unique number that’s assigned to your Google AdWords account. It’s a 3-part number that can be found on the top right corner of your AdWords.

CRM data is data collected by a business to manage the relationship with their customers. It is rich data that can also be used in advertising.

The aggregation of thousands of ads.txt lines covering thousands of domains is done by dark pool sales houses. The traffic can be put at risk when one misstates RESELLER traffic as DIRECT, because the misrepresentation is being presented to demand partners. Blocked traffic or reputational damage can be the eventual result of working with these dark pool sales houses.

Information about consumers that includes, but is not limited to, buying behaviour, personal interests or psychographics. Data can be owned by an advertiser or sourced from external providers.

A data layer is built to ensure data collection is detailed and consistent across all pages of a site, greatly aiding tag management.

A Data Management Platform collects, segments, analyses and distributes user data. It is typically integrated with multiple ad technologies and acts as a single customer view for marketers.

Dayparting is an advertising tactic by which you schedule ads for certain times of day or certain days of the week in order to more effectively target audiences.

A deal ID is used to identify a programmatic deal which a publisher has sent to a given advertiser, such as a PMP or PG deal.

Deduplication, or deduping for short, is the process of removing two or more records of the same conversion in marketing reporting.

An entity such as an advertiser, an agency or a trading desk that buys the inventory of a publisher.

A technology platform that allows buyers of digital advertising inventory to manage multiple ad exchanges and data exchange accounts through one interface.

Where the demand for an impression is coming from. Typically advertisers.

Reaching a certain gender or age (demographic).

Reaching only certain devices.

A campaign in which an advertiser is looking for users to undertake a specific action, such as purchasing a product.

This model refers to an arrangement where an agency purchasing media on an advertiser’s behalf does disclose the actual closing/winning bid prices of media purchased, instead providing only a final price, which includes margin and fees.

Display advertising is defined as banner ads (graphic or text), that appear in designated areas of a website.

One of the internet’s largest content networks. It contains more than a million websites and apps that can serve your ads.

Data Management Platform. This is a data warehouse: a piece of software that collects and stores information and splits it in a way that is useful for marketers, publishers, etc. It allows them to control their own first-party audience and campaign data and compare it to third-party audience data.

Consists of a specific ad fraud type. The ad fraud in question uses low-quality inventory and passes it off as high quality or a premium site. There are multiple ways in which domain spoofing can take place, such as URL substitution, custom browsers, fake human browsers, and cross-domain embedding.

Demand Side Platform. This is a platform through which the advertiser can buy impressions via the Ad Exchange.
Dynamic Ad Insertion (DAI): The ability to place a particular advertisement within a video stream to target an individual depending on its audience segment requirements. DAI is often a component of addressable advertising.

Stands for the length of the advertisement. Often the ad has one of the following standard lengths: 6 seconds, 10 seconds, 15 seconds, 20 seconds or 30 seconds. Because video consumption is high on mobile and therefore more volatile, most video ads in the market now have a length of 15 and 20 seconds.

Dynamic creative optimisation (DCO) is an ad technology that creates personalised ads based on data about the viewer at the moment of ad serving. These ads show dynamic content based a person’s website browsing, such as products viewed or added to a shopping cart.

Effective cost per thousand impressions.

It is important for both publishers and advertisers that it can be traced what a video is doing and what interactions the user has had. All events are registered by the player and forwarded to the ad server. In the ad server, event trackers can be set up to share them with the advertiser.

This is a list of blocked items, terms or URLs to be used when an advertising campaign is delivered

This is a targeted advertising service that allows businesses to import user e-mail addresses for retargeting on the social media platform. Custom Audiences are an effective way for online businesses to interact with relevant users across multiple channels.

This type of domain spoofing consists of malware, which makes use of premium sites and places an ad inside of those sites. However, the premium site in question is not paid for the ad, but the fraudster is able to collect said revenue.

Free to the consumer and ad-supported streaming services. FAST platforms offer a combination of linear and on-demand programming and the main players are Pluto, Samsung TV Plus and The Roku Channel.

First party data is company-owned data about consumers that is collected by companies through their interactions with consumers.

An auction type where if your bid wins, you pay exactly what you bid.

Credits the first channel which generated a click before conversion with being responsible for the conversion taking place (if there are no clicks in the purchase journey, then attribution looks at the first impression).

An HTTP cookie is a small piece of data stored on the user’s computer by the web browser while browsing a website. First-Party cookies are cookies that are being placed by the website the user is visiting.

The price that is set by the publisher as the minimum for that impression.

Definition from Google – “the average number of times a unique user sees your ad in a position of “1” over a given time period”. Google will, by default, continue to show your ad even if a user has seen it before. *Note* an ad is counted as viewable/impressionable when 50% or more of the ad shows for one second or longer for display ads and two seconds or longer for video ads.

A feature that lets you control the number of times your ad appears to the same person on the Display Network.

See Location Targeting.

Simply put, a bid request is a request from the SSP to the different DSPs to show an ad. A piece of code ensures that the request is executed as soon as a web page is loaded up by a visitor.

An advertising campaign that uses all available ad space, and potentially other specialized inventory, to “take over” a website’s index page. “Takeover” is a bit misleading because it’s rarely every ad slot on a page; it’s often a masthead or rich media creative plus a companion or two. This is also known as roadblocking.

A core performance metric that tells you how many times your ad has been shown/ displayed.

In mobile advertising, in-app refers to ads that are delivered to a consumer through an app on their mobile device (phone or tablet).

In mobile advertising, in-browser refers to ads delivered to a consumer through the mobile browser (Chrome, Safari, etc.) rather than an in-app environment.

Video ads that play before (pre-roll), during (mid-roll), or after (post-roll) the publisher’s video content.

Impressions that are measured as viewable or that can be seen by a consumer.

This is a list of approved items, terms or URLs to be used when an advertising campaign is delivered.

Instream video adverts are those videos which are streamed before during or at the end of a video a viewer is already viewing. This means that the audience is already captive and receptive to video material.

Measures the interactions with the player. Think here of the use of the pause or mute button. Also, sound on or off. With interactive videos there are even more tracking possibilities. Think of click to cart or opening different clickable elements in a video.

These ads are shown to a specific audience. They include actions that the viewer can take.

Reaching a particular interest of consumer.

Is a collective name for services and applications that enable TV viewing over the Internet protocol. A wide range of different techniques are used for this, such as (de)compression algorithms for image and sound, multicast routing and p2p protocols.

Full-screen or pop-up ads that cover the interface of their host application or a web page. They’re typically displayed at natural transition points in the flow of an application or web page, such as between activities or during the pause between levels in a game. When an app or web page shows an interstitial, the consumer has the choice to either tap on the ad and continue to its destination, or close it and return to the app or web page.

IVT is the percentage of total unfiltered impressions delivered to a non-human endpoint. This may include General IVT (Spiders, Excessive Activity, and/or Data Center Traffic categories) and Sophisticated IVT (Invalid Proxy, Automated Browser, and/or Incongruous Browser Traffic categories).

Consists of media agencies buying media in bulk at their own risk and, consequently, resell this bulk to their customers with a margin. A consequence is the lack of objectivity that is to be expected of the media agency and its “independent” advice. When it comes to inventory media it is difficult to preserve an objective stance, because media agencies are inclined to recommend their so called media inventory. The agency could lose their objectivity and this may not be in the best interest of the advertiser.

Ads are not placed or are excluded from a browser.

An ID number for every computer or device connected to the internet. You can exclude certain IP addresses from seeing your ads like your co-workers, family, and friends.

iROAS is a measure of any given marketing effort’s impact on revenue. A high iROAS figure indicates that a marketing tactic is effectively driving growth. On the other hand, a low iROAS figure indicates that a tactic may be targeting people who aren’t willing to buy a brand’s product—or that they would have bought it regardless of marketing.

A feature that updates your ad text to include one of your keywords that matches a customer’s search terms. This requires the use of a simple code line in your ad text. If you are selling all types of hats and are bidding on “wool hats” “tweed hats” and “women’s hats” you can enter {KeyWord: hats} into your ad text. The text will show hats unless the searcher used one of your keywords (wool hats, tweed hats, or women’s hats).

Also known as Keyword Match Types, these are the different setting for each keyword to control how closely the search term must be to the keyword in order to trigger your ad.

The gathering of keywords for your business and ads. You can mine keywords using the Keyword Planner or Search Terms Report.

Words or phrases describing youror service that you choose to trigger your ads. The keywords determine when your ads show. When your keyword matches what people search on Google, your ad will appear. (for more information see: Quality Score, Page Rank, Top of Page Bid Estimate).

Key Performance Indicator. Used as a measure of a campaigns’ success. KPI – Key Performance Indicator. Used as a measure of a campaigns’ success.

Credits the final channel which generated a click before conversion with being responsible for the conversion taking place (if there are no clicks in the purchase journey, then attribution looks at the last impression).

Lazy loading is the practice of delaying load or initialization of resources or objects until they’re actually needed to improve performance and save system resources.

Attribution is credited equally between all touch points in the journey.

Television content that is broadcast and delivered to viewers at specific scheduled times. This type of television programming has been the traditional mode of delivering shows, news, and other content to audiences.

An addition to your ad that shows your business’ address. This is essential for businesses trying to drive in-store traffic. Check out this 1-minute tutorial video to setting up a location extension.

Places of interest: select the places of interest within a certain area (I.e. airports in the UK or Universities in the UK.

Targeting relevant messages based on a user’s location, driven largely by mobile location services.

Target audiences based on where they are in the world. You can also choose areas to avoid.

A programmatic targeting tactic which looks to reach users who have a similar profile to other users, such as those who have previously bought a product.

A stage in the purchase funnel where users have previously bought a product from a brand.

MFA sites are created for the sole purpose of simultaneously buying and selling advertising inventory. MFA sites typically use sensational headlines, clickbait and provocative content to attract visitors and generate page views, which in turn generate advertising revenue for the site owner. MFA sites tend to feature low-quality content and may use tactics such as pop-up ads, auto-play videos or intrusive ads to maximise ad revenue.

Is a compound of “malicious” and “software,” or malicious software. It is a piece of code written with the purpose of stealing, damaging or disrupting data, networks or hosts.

Select the maximum cost-per-click bid amount for your ad group’s default bid. When you identify certain placements, keywords, audiences, and times of day that have the best returns, you can use manual bidding to increase returns of investment.

This is software that is a part of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) which aims to ease a marketers’ task by planning, managing, coordinating and measuring all the digital marketing campaigns. This way, marketing automation helps the marketers and business owners in automating their marketing processes and get the maximum benefits.

The rate at which a given vendor can measure ads for viewability.

Impressions that can be measured for viewability. Not all ads served can actually be measured for viewability. This is because some ad environments can prevent measurement technology from accessing the information needed.

A piece of code added to the creative in order to send data to the measurement provider so viewability can be determined.

One or more advertisements displayed during the video content. The content is paused during the display of the ad(s) and resumes after it is played.

A common API developed to enable rich media advertising in mobile in-app environments. MRAID is a standardized set of commands, designed to work with HTML5 and JavaScript, that developers creating rich media ads use to communicate what those ads do with the apps they are being served into – expand, resize, get access to device functionalities such as calendar events, etc. MRAID is only relevant for mobile rich media creatives that run in an in-app environment, not mobile web.

(Mid-page Unit), also sometimes called a medium rectangle, is a banner ad that is 300 pixels wide and 250 pixels high.

This model refers to an arrangement where an agency purchasing media on an advertiser’s behalf does not disclose the actual closing/winning bid prices of media purchased, instead providing only a final price, which includes margin and fees.

This is a commercial audiovisual expression that can be shown before, during and after video content (Instream) or next to other content (Outstream). Nowadays you can also see more and more video ads in banners.

An ad marketplace which contains inventory from multiple publishers where all buyers have opportunities to bid programmatically (real-time bidding) to purchase ad impressions via an auction through a Demand Side Platform (DSP).

Stands for “Over The Top” and refers to any streaming service that delivers content over the Internet. The service is delivered “over the top” of another platform, hence the name.

impressions that are measured as non-viewable or that cannot be seen by a consumer.

An ‘outstream’ video ad unit, also commonly referred to as ‘in-read’ or ‘native video’, is a new video advertising unit that autoplays in a large format player whenever a user navigates to it within text content (typically an article), even if the publisher doesn’t have their own video content.

Personal Identifiable Information Data such as an email address or name.

A tracking or re-targeting pixel is a small piece of code contained in a single clear pixel on a website or specific ad unit that drops a cookie on the user’s browser. That cookie is used for tracking purposes.

The location where an ad will be placed. Different ad placements will have different viewability rates based on consumer activity, such as above the fold vs. below the fold.

The players play video content on the website of the publisher concerned. In addition, the player also plays the video advertisement. There are various player variants, but the market standard is that the player is VAST 3.0-or 4.0-and VPAID-compliant. The player can also function as a content management platform, combining several editorial functionalities. The player therefore has an important position in the online video story for a publisher.

The commercial audio ads are placed within podcasts (on-demand internet radio talks).

This is the same as the pop-up, but instead of seeing the ad appear on top of the web page, it appears below the web page.

An Ad that plays at the end of the video content.

Occurring before the advertising media purchase takes place. In some programmatic environments, ad buying resembles an auction in which potential buyers place “bids” on desirable advertising inventory. A brand or agency may want to know the likelihood that inventory will meet certain criteria (such as viewability) before bidding on it – that is, pre-bid. Pre-bid viewability is a best estimate that an ad will be viewable but does not guarantee it.

An Ad (of typically 15 to 30 seconds) that plays in the player, preceding the video content.

These are transactions where the price is fixed in advance, but the volume purchase is flexible. In other words, the buyer can ignore an impression. Again, logically, a one-to-one relationship is needed for this.

This model is similar to the open market in terms of flexibility with regard to price and volume, but is only made available to a set of buyers that are limited in advance by the broadcasters and publishers. It requires a one-to-one relationship.

An ad marketplace which utilise invitation only auctions to buy ad impressions between one publisher and a select few advertisers.

Programmatic is the use of data & technology to enable the buying & selling of advertising.

This is a general term that only covers the side of the advertiser who buys the media through an automated system.

In terms of transaction, programmatic guaranteed is similar to a direct deal, but with the benefits of programmatic advertising. In fact, a programmatic guaranteed deal of video is also done through a fixed price and volume agreement between the demand side and the supply side, with the transaction being executed by an SSP and a DSP. The programmatic benefits, adding audience data and applying frequency management on the buying side and the management benefits on the selling side make this a more efficient solution.

Uses data-driven technology to automate and optimize the buying and delivery of TV ads, enhancing efficiency and targeting.

This term refers to the advanced TV inventory that can be bought programmatically such as connected TV, VOD and linear addressable TV. It is often used interchangeably with advanced TV however some advanced TV inventory can be bought non-programmatically through networks or providers directly.

This is all the event tracking fired by the player during playback of the video. It registers, among other things, which quarters of the video have been shown and whether it has been played completely.

A website owner.

Used to visualise or map out where certain users are in the customer lifecycle for a given advertiser/product. This can then inform targeting strategies to reach different users.

Measures the effectiveness of video ads by determining what percentage of a given video was viewed by users on average. Each viewing is reported in increments of 25% and averaged across users. For example, if five users viewed a video up to 50%, 50%, 50%, 75% and 75%, the average would appear as 60%.

This is reaching an audience that was reached before with a previous message.

The buying of media space per impression in real time. The impression is sold once it is shown to the surfer.

A metric used to calculate the return that an advertiser gets in terms of revenue from sales vs their adspend.

15-60 sec-long in-game audio ad track that provides an in-game bonus to the user upon audio completion.

An ad that includes advanced features like video, audio, or other elements that encourage viewers to interact and engage with the content. The ad can expand, float, peel down, etc.

Ads that are delivered across multiple different websites within a network.

Second Party Data is basically first party data that advertisers have purchased directly from the source.

An auction type where if your bid wins, you pay $0.01 above the second highest bid in the auction.

When inventory is sold to differing companies in the ad tech ecosystem, this is being done by the entity known as ”seller”. Due to the different types of sellers, from ad networks and ad exchanges to publishers and ad-ops, there is no clear definitive description. The aformenetioned entities possibly have differing capabilities and services on a technological level when one takes a look at the essence of their activities.

Is the exact opposite of ads.txt. Regarding ads.txt files, buyers have the insights to the relationships between the publishers and their sellers representing them, because of the publishers reporting to the buyers. In the case of sellers.json files, the sellers report to the buyers regarding the relationship between the sellers and the publishers. These methods ensure a certain level of transparency when it comes to the supply path and the most efficient route of acquiring available impressions.

Is the process of improving the quality and quantity of website traffic to a website or a web page from search engines.

Pre-roll and mid-roll tracks in the audio file feature different benefits.

Stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. SMART are criteria to guide in the setting of goals and objectives that are assumed to give better results.

Supply Side Platform. This is the platform that is used by the publishers and which makes it possible for them to sell online media automatically. This is connected to either DSPs or Ad Exchanges and makes sure that the publisher always receives the highest turnover.

The delivery of video or audio content over the internet, stored in bits which enables it to be played in real time and without viewers having to wait for all the data to download.

Are online video ads delivered to a highly targeted audience over the internet via TV streaming. STV ads are very similar to linear or traditional TV ads.

Refers to video streaming services that require users’ subscriptions for authorized access to content.

Is the process of buyers gaining more control over the ad supply chain and the corresponding costs. This is done by a reduction of the quantity of intermediaries needed to acquire the same impression.

Streaming services such as Netflix, Disney+, HBOmax and Amazon Prime Video that require a monthly subscription to view their content.

A tag is a block of code generated by an ad technology to track user behavior. It is also known as a pixel as early version of tags were built using a 1×1 image.

A variable is a part of a tag that collects more specific data from a page such as a product id or price.

Information about consumer behaviour that is collected and aggregated by third party providers, such as Experian, Quantium or Acxiom, that is available to any party to buy.

An HTTP cookie is a small piece of data stored on the user’s computer by the web browser while browsing a website. Third-Party cookies are cookies that are being placed by a website other than the one the user is visiting.

Takes into account the amount of time elapsed since a user was exposed to an impression or click and the time when they converted. The closer a touch point to the point of sale, the more influence it is considered to have on the conversion.

A media agency providing its advertisers with technology platforms that include a certain set of services, is also known as an agency trading desk (commonly used as ATD). Designing, buying, managing, and optimizing programmatic ad campaigns in the name of the advertiser are the services that the trading desk provides. Human oversight regarding automated processes, reporting and analytics are usually included in the additional services of a trading desk.

Trafficking is the process of creating tracking tags and uploading creative assets to an adserver, allowing for the measurement of all campaign activity in one central location.

Is a distribution method by which customers pay for each piece of video-on-demand content.

The IAB Europe Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF) is the global cross-industry effort to help publishers, technology vendors, agencies and advertisers meet the transparency and user choice requirements under the General Data Protection Regulation.

Ad spend that is spent on impressions that meet
the criteria for being a TrueImpression.

The cost paid per a thousand TrueImpressions for total ad spend (total ad spend divided by TrueImpressions x 1000).

Impressions that meet a set of quality requirements. The default definition for a TrueImpression is that it must have matched data from the DSP and ad verification provider, and be non-IVT, measurable, and viewable according to MRC standards.

Sometimes impressions cannot be measured due to a lack of information. 

Short for ”uniform resource locator”, otherwise known as a web address. A URL provides a unique internet address regarding a website or a file that exists on the internet.

When a fraudster deceives an advertiser by using an ad network or exchange to substitute a fake URL at bid time. This means that the ad goes to a different site altogether instead of the site that was bid on.

The mechanism used to recognise a user across the internet.

A script that gives video players information for serving ads.

VCR focuses strictly on the percentage of people who make it through the entire video.

Can be delivered either through the household’s TV platform operator (BVOD) or via Streamed OTT services (mainly AVOD).

A definition that establishes a common interface between video players and ad units, enabling a rich interactive ad experience.

Is the number of completed views of a skippable ad over the number of initial impressions.

Is an online advertising metric that aims to determine whether an ad impression had the opportunity to be seen or not. It doesn’t guarantee that an ad was seen by a consumer in the same way you cannot guarantee someone turns to the page showing your advert in a magazine or newspaper.

The consumer’s visible area of a web page. It varies by device.

Is the process of optimizing your website pages so that they appear at the top of the results when users perform verbal searches.

The waterfall is a process used by a publisher to sell their inventory. This process prioritises the way in which ad space is sold. The higher the demand source in the waterfall, the higher its priority.