Advertising definitions and glossary
Ad audience: The number of unique visitors exposed to an ad within a specified time period
Ad banner: A graphic image or other media object that is used as an advertisement
Ad impression: An ad that is served to a user’s browser
Ad network: An aggregator or broker of advertising inventory for numerous websites; ad networks are the sales representatives for the websites within the network.
Ad view: When the ad is actually seen by the user
Advertiser: The company paying for the advertisement
Affiliate marketing: An agreement between two sites in which one site (the affiliate) agrees to feature content or an ad designed to drive traffic to another site. The affiliate in turn receives a percentage of sales or some other form of compensation generated by that traffic.
Channel: A band of similar content
Click: A metric that measures the user’s reaction to an Internet ad
Click fraud: A type of Internet crime that occurs in pay-per-click online advertising when a person, automated script or computer program imitates a legitimate user of a Web browser clicking on an ad, doing so for the purpose of generating a charge per click without having actual interest in the target of the ad’s link
CPA (cost per action): The cost of advertising based on a visitor taking a specifically defined action in response to an ad; the term ”actions” can be a sales transaction, a customer acquisition, a click, etc.
CPC (cost per click): The cost of advertising based on the number of clicks received
CPL (cost per lead): The cost of advertising based on the number of database files (leads) received
CPM (cost per thousand): A media term describing the cost of 1,000 impressions
CTR: The act of following a link within an advertisement or editorial content to another website or to another page or frame within the website
Credits: The number of credits you’ve earned by displaying ads on your website, or the amount you’ve spent in order to display ads on other websites
Demographics: The common characteristics used for the segmented categorization of a population or audience, such as age, gender, etc.
Expandable banners: A banner ad that can expand to as large as 468 x 240 after a user clicks on it or after a user moves his/her cursor over the banner
Geotargeting: Displaying (or preventing the display of) content based on the automated calculation or assumed knowledge of an end user’s position in the real world
Pay-per-click: An advertising pricing model in which advertisers pay agencies and/or media companies based on how many users have clicked on an online ad or an e-mail message
Performance pricing model: An advertising model in which advertisers pay based on a set of mutually agreed performance criteria, such as a percentage of online revenues, deliveries or new sales leads
Publisher: An individual or organization that prepares, issues and disseminates content for public distribution or sale via one or more forms of media
Rate card: The list of advertising prices, products and packages offered by a media company
Skyscraper: A unit of ad insertion comprising a tall, slender ad outline; the IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) guidelines recommend two sizes of skyscrapers, specifically 120 x 600 and 160 x 600.