Digital Advertising Glossary
A
| A/B testing | A method you use to compare different versions of digital ads (or website landing pages) in order to determine which version performs better. A typical A/B test for ads involves running the two ads simultaneously and then measuring which version gets a better response from the audience. |
| Above the fold | Term used to describe the area of a web page that’s visible before the website visitor scrolls down the page. There is no set pixel size for the fold; it will vary depending on the visitor’s screen size and resolution. |
| Agency Holding Company | Term used to describe a parent holding agency that owns or directly controls smaller agencies, with examples such as Dentsu, Omnicom, IPG, Publicis, WPP, and Havas. |
| Agency Trading Desk | Programmatic media buying and planning entity operating internally within an Agency Holding Company. |
| Account based advertising | One tactic in an account-based marketing (ABM) strategy. It’s the practice of serving advertisements only to specified titles at the target accounts of your choosing. |
| Affiliate Advertising | Term used to describe an instance of a website owner promoting advertisement for an advertiser on their website. |
| Ad | An announcement to the public about a service, product, event, etc. |
| Ad audience (also see Audience) | Total number of people (or households) that have been exposed to or could possibly be exposed to an ad during any specific time period. |
| Ad banner (also see Banner) | Most common form of digital advertising which includes static graphics, videos, and interactive rich media, and is displayed on a web page or in an application. |
| Ad click (also see Click) | The action taken when a user interacts with an ad by either clicking on it with their mouse or by pressing enter on their keyboard. |
| Ad copy (also see Copy) | Text within an advertisement. |
| Advertiser | Manufacturer, service company, retailer, agency, trade desk, enterprise, or supplier who advertises their product or service. |
| Advertising | A paid, mediated form of communication from an identifiable source, designed to persuade the receiver to take some action, now or in the future. |
| Advertising budget (also see Budget) | Money set aside by the advertiser to pay for advertising. There are a variety of methods for determining the most desirable size of an advertising budget. |
| Advertising channel (also see Channel) | The routes used by an advertiser to distribute the ads, e.g., native, video, CTV, display, and audio. |
| Ad exchange | Computerized marketplace for the buying and selling of ad space and connecting Supply Side Platforms (SSPs) and Demand Side Platforms (DSPs). |
| Ad network | Bundles inventory from different publishers and offers them for sale. |
| Ad inventory | The total amount of space held by the publisher that is available for advertising purposes. |
| Ad server | A platform that distributes ads to end-devices (ie. your computer or mobile phone) and record different performance metrics. |
| Ads.txt | Term describes “Authorised Digital Sellers”, and is a text file within which a publisher records who can sell inventory through their system. |
| Allow List | Referenced in terms of enabling chosen and specific publishers (or marketers) to serve on a publisher page or within a campaign. |
| Artwork | The visual components of an ad, usually considered without the ad copy (ad text). |
| Audience (or Ad audience) | The total number of people (or households) that have been exposed to or could possibly be exposed to an ad during any specific time period. |
| Audience Extension | Expands your target audience by purchasing unique or similar audiences from external sources. |
| Algorithm | A set of rules or predetermined processes which lets computers solve complex calculations or perform other problem solving operations. |
| Application Programming Interface (API) | Allows and enables connections to external applications which then transfer data to a unified dashboard. |
| Automated guranteed | Automated transaction taking place within a Private Marketplace where an advertiser will buy placements at a fixed price, usually over a period of time. |
| Artificial Intelligence | Ability of computers to perform tasks that are usually performed by humans due to them requiring human intelligence and discernment. |
B
| Banner (or Ad banner) | Most common form of digital advertising which includes static graphics, videos, and interactive rich media, and is displayed on a web page or in an application. |
| B2B advetising (Business-to-business advetising) | Advertising directed to other businesses, rather than to consumers. |
| B2C advertising (Business-to-consumer advertising) (also see Consumer advertising) | Advertising directed at a person who will actually use the product for their own benefit, rather than to a business or dealer. |
| Block List | Referenced in terms of blocking either publishers (or marketers) from serving on a publishers page or within a campaign. |
| Brand Safety | Set of rules and measures aimed at protecting the image and reputation of a particular brand. |
| Brand | A brand is an intangible marketing or business concept that allows potential customers to easily identify a company or a product. |
| Brand Manager | Individual who has marketing responsibilities for a specific brand. |
| Behavioral Targeting | Technology used to analyze consumer activities in order to determine which advertisements are most suitable for a particular individual consumer. |
C
| Call-to-action (CTA) | A button or hyperlink used within ads and other content to drive users to a specific URL (website). |
| Channel (or Advertising channel) | The routes used by an adverisier to distribute the ads, e.g., native, video, CTV, display, and audio. |
| Clip | A short and to the point video. |
| Click | Refers to an event of a user clicking on an advertisement. |
| Commercial advertising | Advertising that involves commercial interests rather than advocating a social or political cause. |
| Consumer advertising (or B2C advertising) | Advertising directed at a person who will actually use the product for their own benefit, rather than to a business or dealer. |
| Copy | The text in an advertisement. |
| CPC (Cost-per-click) | Sometimes known as Pay-per-click and refers to the cost of each click on your ad. |
| CPC bidding | Cost-per-click bidding is the way you set up your campaign in terms of what you pay for each click on your ads. You usually set a maximum cost-per-click bid (max. CPC) which is the highest amount that you’re willing to pay for a click on your ad. You can also use bid adjustments, or Enhanced CPC. |
| Client | The ad agency’s term for the advertisers it represents. |
| Content Recommendations | Content pieces recommended to internet users on the webpage that they are visiting. |
D
| Discovery (moment) | A period of time when a consumer’s attention is focused on engaging with new things. |
| Discovery platform | Implemented software recommendation platform which uses different recommendation system tools. A typical representative is Outbrain. |
| DMP – Data Management Platform | DMPs pull data from in-house systems and third parties, and use that data to build detailed customer profiles that drive targeted advertising and personalization initiatives. |
| DSP – Demand-side platform | Demand Side Platforms allow advertisers to buy advertisements automatically . |
| Display Advertising | A form of paid advertising where the advertiser pays the website owner for ad impressions or user clicks of the display advertisement or banner ads. |
| Display Ad Network | Platforms that maintain a network of different websites in which to promote paid advertisements . |
F
| Feed | The user interface that creates an endless feed of content, products & services. |
| Fraud prevention | Implementation of frameworks designed to prevent fraudulent advertising materials. |
| First-party data | Data obtained directly from consumers such as website visitors and is often used for advertising and marketing purposes. |
| First price auction | Winner of the bidding contest for an ad impression who pays the price actually offered. |
| Floor price | The minimum price as defined by the publisher for which inventory, can be sold. |
H
| Header bidding | Header bidding allows publishers to host unified auctions where all demand partners compete simultaneously in real-time. |
M
| Media (owners) (also called Publishers) | Companies that produce and distribute news, content and information. |
| Mobile Advertising | Paid advertising that occurs on mobile devices that are connected to the internet. |
| Mobile Ad | Advertisements that occur on mobile devices are optimized for smaller screens and come in different ranges and sizes. |
N
| Native Advertising | Paid ads that are so cohesive with the page content, assimilated into the design, and consistent with the platform behavior that the viewer simply feels that they belong there. |
| Native DSP | Demand Side Platforms which are developed for the specific purpose of Native advertising. |
O
| Open Auction | Auction with real-time bidding, where all advertisers and publishers are able to participate. |
| Open Web | A globally accessible, public internet, not owned or operated by one company or government. |
| Online Advertising | Any type of advertising which occurs on the internet. |
P
| Platforms | Mobile Carriers; Apps; Third-Party Aggregators & Technology Firms. |
| Post-Click Engagement | Crucial metric which is used by performance marketers to optimize campaigns, and uses different KPIs which are then analyzed in order to bid on new users who are likely to bring the most engagement. |
| Publishers | Companies that produce and distribute news, content and information. |
| Pre-Bid Targeting | Allows advertisers to target visible, fraud-proof, brand-safe, and contextually relevant inventory which meets the advertisers pre-defined requirements. |
| Preferred Deal/Unreserved Fixed Rate | Deals which are negotiated in the private marketplace between a specific buyer and a publisher for a fixed price. |
| Private Auction | Deals which are offered to only pre-selected bidders. |
| Private Marketplace | Higher-value ad groups that are grouped together by a publisher or SSP and are not available in an open auction, but only to selected advertisers. |
| Programmatic Advertising | Automated sale and purchase of online impressions, based on software that implements real-time bidding on behalf of advertisers and publishers |
| Programmatic Direct | A transaction between a publisher and advertiser takes place through a programmatic ad buying system, where inventory is guaranteed and sold directly. |
| Paid Advertising | Any type of advertising that is paid for by the advertiser. |
| PPC – Pay per Click | Advertising model that is used to generate traffic for a website. |
| PPC Advertising Networks | Advertising ecosystems designed to publish ads via the Pay per Click model. |
R
| Real-Time Bidding | Consist of a bid request and a bid response and is triggered when a consumer visits a page. |
S
| Smartfeed | Smartfeed is the open web’s personalized feed experience that drives deeper discovery, longer sessions and better engagement. |
| Smartads | Outbrain native advertising formats, powered by true interests. |
| Smartcards (also called Listings) | Individual placements within the widget, made up of paid or organic advertisements. |
| Search platform | Platform designed for searching about different content on the internet. typical representative is Google |
| Social platform | Interactive digital channels that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. Typical representative is Facebook |
| Second-party data | Data about consumers that is obtained by other trusted parties and is used for marketing and advertising. |
| Second Price Auction | The winner of the bidding contest for an ad impression pays one cent more than the next highest bidder. |
| SSP – Supply-side platform | Supply Side Platforms allow web publishers and digital media owners to manage their advertising inventory. |
| Search Advertisements (PPC) | Advertisements that appear in the search listing or on the sidebar of a results page of different search engines such as Google or Yahoo. |
| Social Media Advertisements (PPC) | Advertisements in the form of display or banner ads, published on different advertising networks. |
T
| Third-party data | Data about consumers that is obtained by third-parties which have no affiliation to the consumer. |
| Tech Tax | Term describing third-party costs incurred by the use of the different technological solutions and aids for programmatic buying and selling of advertisements. |
U
| User-generated platform | Closed websites, such as Facebook & YouTube, that consist primarily of content created and uploaded by the public. |
V
| VAST – Video Ad-Serving Template | A uniform template used to structure tags and metadata transferred from an ad server to a video player. |
W
| Walled Gardens | Advertising dominants that gather and control usage of consumer data for various purposes, as well as campaigns and ad experiences, kept within their respective platforms (Google, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, etc.). |
| Widget | Outbrain placement on a page, made up of a card-based architecture. |