Glossary

A method used to compare different versions of digital ads or website landing pages, in order to determine which performs better. 

A typical A/B test for ads involves running the two ads simultaneously and measuring which version gets a better response from the audience. When running an A/B test, only one element of the ads should be changed at a time. This is because the goal of these tests is to determine which variables generate the best responses from the audience. After a winner is selected, it is used as the next control and compared with another version to isolate and identify the ad element that causes the audience to respond favorably to the ad.

A term derived from the print advertising industry, which describes the area of a webpage that is visible before the website visitor scrolls down the page.

There is no set pixel size for the fold; it varies depending on the visitor’s screen size and resolution.

A group of display ad sizes featuring the same creative.

An online marketplace that allows internet publishers and advertisers to buy and sell advertising inventory in real-time auctions. 

Examples: Google’s AdX, Yahoo’s Right Media, Facebook Exchange, AppNexus.

Ad exchanges are a departure from the historical method of buying ad inventory, where advertisers and publishers would enter price negotiations in order to show ads on a particular website. With an ad exchange, an auction is conducted in real time, providing instantaneous bidding for ad space that is available across the internet.

See programmatic media buying.

Ad interaction includes hovers and in-banner video (IBV) plays.

Hovers are tracked when the mouse pauses over an ad on desktop devices. If IBV is included in the Display creatives, we can also track how many users clicked the Play button on the video.

Website publishers serve ads to visitors when they visit a webpage. The number of potential ads that can be served is considered their ad inventory.

For example, if The Gotham Times averages 1,000 visits to their home page in any given week, and they have space for two display ads on their home page, then their potential ad inventory is 2,000 impressions per week.

Company whose technology relays an ad buy to a website and reports on how it performed.

Example: Google’s DoubleClick for Publishers.

The delivery of an ad from a web server to the end user’s device, where the ads are displayed on a browser or on an application.

A size-and-format specification for an ad. The Interactive Advertising Bureau, a trade association promoting digital ad standards and practices, has a set of guidelines for sizes.

A code that is used to render an ad on a website.

Addressable targeting is a more advanced method than Audience targeting that enables advertisers to reach a highly specific audience by targeting individuals or households based on their known identity or contact information. It uses first-party data and/or third-party data providers to collect millions of data points to determine who matches the audience that the advertiser is trying to reach.  With Addressable, advertisers can personalize and tailor their ads to the unique interests, behaviors, and preferences of households. For instance, an advertiser could target a person who has previously purchased a product from their company, even if that person is not part of a larger audience segment. To reach specific households on various devices, we use a Data Management Platform to connect with various data sources and partner with reputable third-party data intelligence companies that collect anonymous user data and curate relevant audience segments to target. If the advertiser already has a list of first-party data, we can convert the addresses to lat/long coordinates and then use Device Graph Mapping to target all devices in that location at the household level. We leverage GPS data to target these audiences and cross-device matching technology to ensure precision. Through Addressable targeting, advertisers can reach any device within a household that accesses web or TV content.

Data and statistics about the users of a website and how they interact with the website. Analytics can be used to uncover information about how many people browse a website, how much time they spend on the website, and the specific actions they take on the website. This information can be used to target audiences, understand consumer behavior, improve user experience, and optimize ad campaigns.

The goal of attribution is to identify which touch, of the many possible, is most responsible for a conversion, so ROI can be calculated. First touch, last touch, and multi-touch are common attribution models.

Examples of attribution that we report on are offline visits for geofencing and website attribution for CTV/OTT.

A technology that allows digital publishers to generate revenue from their web traffic by allowing advertisers to reach an audience far beyond their website.

https://retargeter.com/blog/a-definitive-guide-to-audience-extension/

The extent or level to which a potential customer can recall and identify a particular product or service.

Increased brand awareness is one of the two customary important goals for a digital ad campaign (the other is conversion).

Using previous online user activity (such as pages visited, content viewed, searches, clicks, and purchases) to generate a segment that is used to match advertising creative to users. Behavioral targeting uses anonymous, non-PII data.

A bounce is a website visit in which the visitor only looked at the page they landed on, did not interact, and left the site.

The bounce rate expresses these visits as a percentage of the total visitor sessions within a single time frame.

For example, suppose that a website has 100 sessions in one day. (This is different from 100 visitors. Any visitor might visit multiple times, and each time counts as a session.) If 75% of the visits are bounces, then the bounce rate is 75%. A high bounce rate often indicates a poorly designed landing page. It can also indicate that a page completely fulfilled what the visitor was looking for, so the visitor did not need to continue clicking to learn more. More often, it means the page failed, underscoring the importance of designing landing pages for visitor engagement.

The extent or level to which a potential customer can recall and identify a particular product or service.

Increased brand awareness is one of the two customary important goals for a digital ad campaign (the other is conversion).

A phrase included within an ad, or a graphic element such as a button, that invites the audience to take a certain action.

Examples: Click to Read More, Download the Free e-book, Click Here.

A distribution method.

In advertising, a channel is an outlet used by advertisers to reach audiences, such as direct mail or radio. Digital advertising includes channels such as display advertising, social media advertising, and mobile in-app advertising. 

The action taken when a user interacts with an ad, either by clicking on it with their mouse or by pressing Enter on their keyboard.

Use “click” only in documentation, to refer to the action a user takes. When referring to UI actions, use “select” instead.

A statistic that shows how often people who are served an ad end up clicking on it, expressed as a percentage of total impressions.

The CTR of an ad is calculated by dividing the number of clicks an ad received by the number of times it was served. 

For example, if an ad received 5 clicks and was shown 1000 times, the CTR is 0.5%. The higher the CTR, the better an ad is performing.

Completions tell us how many users watched 100% of the ad.

The completion rate is the percent of video ads that are played through their entire duration to completion. Completion rates can also be referenced by quartile directly to the video timestamp.

Connected TV devices include Smart TVs, IPTVs, and gaming consoles.

Geofencing a competitor’s location to drive business to your brand instead.

Selecting audiences based on the type of content being displayed on a particular website. 

For example, placing ads for hair care products on the Vogue website.

A specific action that advertisers want audiences to take in a campaign. Each time a member of the audience takes this action, it is counted as a conversion.

For example, signing up for a newsletter or making a purchase on a website.

The term for when a user performs the specific action that the advertiser has defined as the campaign goal. Conversions are often tracked through the conversion pixel.

See conversion pixel.

A 1×1 image pixel placed on a web page (such as a thank-you page) that is triggered whenever a conversion occurs. Usually transparent.

Calculated by dividing the number of views or visits by the number of form fills, expressed as a percentage.

Monitoring how many conversions have occurred during a specific time period, and analyzing which ads led to the conversions.

Information stored on the browser of a website visitor. A cookie tracks the visitor’s movement on the website and is used to remember the visitor’s behavior and preferences. Cookies do not transfer across browsers.

Text in an ad or text written to be delivered audibly.

The cost of acquiring one customer. CPA is typically calculated by dividing the total amount spent on an advertising campaign by the number of customers acquired through that campaign.

How much an advertiser pays, on average, for each ad click. CPC is calculated by dividing the total amount spent on a campaign by the number of clicks generated.