| Ad blocking | Ad blocking is the use of apps, browsers, or networks to filter advertising components from being rendered on a consumer’s device. This could include display advertising, tracking pixels or anything that can be predefined and included on a reference black-list. Ad blocking can impact a publisher’s ability to provide free or subsidised content or services. |
| Ad exchanges | Online, often highly automated auction-based marketplaces that facilitate the buying and selling of inventory across multiple parties ranging from advertisers, direct publishers, ad networks and Demand Side Platforms (DSP). Watch this explanatory video for more on how this works. |
| Ad Impression | A metric expressing each time an ad is served and displayed, whether it is seen or not, whether it is clicked on or not. |
| Ad Inventory | The amount and types of ad space a publisher has available for an advertiser to buy. |
| Ad Optimisation | A means of improving campaign performance through automated and semi-automated means, usually through a systematic approach. Ad optimisation often focuses on cost (especially prices in automated bidding), targeting or creative, gleaning performance improvements through testing. |
| Ad Rotation | The ability to show multiple ads in a single location, varying the treatment displayed on each new page load and/or within a single page load. Ads are generally rotated to either avoid consumer wear-out or as a part of ad optimisation and testing. |
| Ad Server | Technology that serves, tracks and optimises online ads for brands across digital publishers. Ad serving companies can help make online advertising more streamlined for brands by serving as a single point of contact across a number of publishers. |
| Ad Tracking | The method for recording campaign delivery metrics between adservers. Third party adserving tags or 1×1 tracking pixels are commonly used to track this data. |
| Adblocker | A piece of software that can be overlaid within a browser, app environment or operating system by consumers which will filter out requests for advertising to appear within certain digital environments. Some adblockers will also block data calls used for tracking purposes or basic user functionality where a data exchange is necessary such as flight booking systems. |
| Ads.txt | Ads.txt is a project designed by IAB tech lab to increase transparency in the programmatic advertising ecosystem. Ads.txt stands for Authorised Digital Sellers and is a simple, flexible and secure method that publishers and distributors can use to publicly declare the companies they authorise to sell their digital inventory. By creating a public record of Authorised Digital Sellers, ads.txt will create greater transparency in the inventory supply chain, and give publishers control over their inventory in the market, making it harder for bad actors to profit from selling counterfeit inventory across the ecosystem. As publishers adopt ads.txt, buyers will be able to more easily identify the Authorised Digital Sellers for a participating publisher, allowing brands to have confidence they are buying authentic publisher inventory. |
| Advertising network | Also known as “ad networks,” a company that provides a single point of contact for sales representation for multiple websites by aggregating all the sites’ advertising inventory. Ad networks are used by advertisers, agencies to reach audiences and by publishers, typically to sell remnant inventory. |
| Affiliate marketing | When a web site owner or publisher displays an advertisement (such as a promotional link) on its site for a brand or merchant and is paid for the performance of the advertisement, this is known as affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing activity generates large amounts of online sales in the UK and worldwide. |
| Aggregator | A website or computer application that pulls together information from diverse sources. There are different types of aggregators, in the advertising industry, these notably include content, data, news, social media, and/or video aggregators. |
| Algorithm | A set of rules established for making a calculation. Online, algorithms are commonly used to determine the listings shown via search engines and for automated methods of ad trading and delivery. |
| Anchor text | The words forming a text-based hyperlink in web content. In terms of best practice for user experience and for search engine optimisation (SEO), the anchor text should accurately reflect the content users will find if they click on the hyperlink. |
| Android | One of the world’s most widely used mobile operating systems smartphone platforms developed and run by Google. Android is optimised for mobile touchscreens and tablets. |
| Application Service Provider (ASP) | In the past, software was frequently stored on a physical medium and uploaded directly to specific machines. Instead, computer services and software can be hosted by a given vendor, or ASP, and accessed by clients via the internet. |
| Apps | Software solutions that allow PCs, smartphones and tablets to perform useful functions beyond the running of the computing device itself. |
| Artificial Intelligence (A.I) | A.I in digital advertising is the use of learning algorithms that adapt user feedback into improving the overall ad experience without the need for further human involvement beyond setting the restrictions of the original algorithm. |
| ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) | The Advertising Standards Authority is the UK’s independent regulator of advertising across all media. It applies the Advertising Codes, which are written by the Committees of Advertising Practice. Their work includes acting on complaints and proactively checking the media to take action against misleading, harmful or offensive advertisements. |
| Attribution | Attribution is the technique used to measure the monetary impact a piece of communication has on real business goals. For example: sales (volume and total), profit, revenue and retention. The application of attribution modelling in digital advertising allows marketers to understand what events (e.g. display ad exposure, active search, search ad exposure, price comparison site) truly influence individuals to convert and thus allocate credit to different formats and tatics within the customer path to purchase. Early attribution models include first-touch and last-touch attribution. Models broadly recognised as more accurate include, but not-only, multi-touch linear, multi-touch time decay and multi-touch algorithm-based. |
| Attrition Rate | Also known as “churn rate,” this can be used to reflect the percentage of consumers who abandon each stage of the purchase process, from exposure to an ad to the point of conversion or, for subscriber-based business models, the percentage of customers who stop using the product or service. This percentage is an important part of evaluating the return on marketing investment and/or customer lifetime value modelling. |
| Audio | The audible file that may accompany ads. Advertising audio should never play without user-initiation. |
| Augmented Reality (AR) | Augmented reality (AR) is a live direct or indirect view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented (or supplemented) by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data |
| Authentication | Authentication is the process of attempting to verify the digital identity of the sender of a communication such as a request to log in. Authentication may also confirm the origin and integrity of data in an electronic form, such as the issuance of a digital certificate to attest to the authenticity of a website. The overall purpose of authentication is to reduce the potential for fraud. |
| Banner Ad | Also known as “display ads”, banner advertisements are a form of graphical ads embedded into a webpage, typically including a combination of static/animated images, text and/or video designed to convey a marketing message and/or cause the user to take an action. Banner dimensions are typically defined by width and height, represented in pixels. |
| Behavioural Retargeting | When online ads are displayed on another site (or sites) after a customer has interacted with initial ad-related content. |
| Behavioural Targeting | A form of online marketing that uses advertising technology to target web users based on their previous behaviour. Advertising creative and content can be tailored to be of more relevance to a particular user by capturing their previous decision making behaviour e.g.filling out preferences or visiting certain areas of a site frequently. |
| Between-the-page | Also known as “interstitial” ads, between-the-page ad units display as a user navigates from one webpage to the next webpage. The ad appears after the user leaves the initial page, but before the target page displays on the user’s screen. Typically, the ad is self-contained within its own browser window or app environment, but may also appear briefly as an overlay on the target page rather than in its own browser window. |
| Blacklist | A blacklist is a basic access control mechanism that allows through all elements (email addresses, users, passwords, URLs, IP addresses, domain names etc) except those explicitly mentioned. Those items on the list are denied access. |
| Blockchain | Blockchain is a distributed ledger used to record transactions between parties whereby the information contained in each small recorded block are linked together in a historical chain that is saved in multiple locations (public or private) making it almost impossible to tamper with. Records saved within the chain are therefore permanent as long as the storage and processing resources dedicated to seeing the chain continue to exist and information can be encrypted so only certain parties can write or access it. Although a relatively new technology, blockchain has the potential to allow a high degree of transparency in any sequence of transactions such as currency exchanges, contracts, records of ownership or given consent. |
| Buffering | When a streaming media player saves portions of file until there is enough information for the file to begin playing. |
| Button | A square online advert usually found embedded within a website page. |
| Byte | A unit of digital information in computing and telecommunications that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, a byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the basic addressable element in many computer architectures. |
| Cache Memory | Used to store web pages users have seen already. When users re-visit those pages they load more quickly because they come from the local cache and don’t need to be downloaded over the internet again. |
| Cached pages | Taking a snapshot of each page visited as the web is crawled. These are stored and used as a backup if the original page is unavailable and to reduce server lag for the browser requesting the page. |
| Call to Action (CTA) | The primary action an advert encourages people to take e.g. how to opt-in, get a discount or buy something on the back of a digital advertising campaign. |
| Campaign | The time period in which a series of integrated advertising messages (that share a single idea and theme) are executed. |
| CAP | CAP (The Committees of Advertising Practice) writes and maintains the UK Advertising Codes for non-broadcast advertising, which is administered by the Advertising Standards Authority (an equivalent Committee (BCAP) fulfils the same role for broadcast advertising). The CAP Executive and Copy Advice teams also provide advice and guidance on how to create campaigns that comply with the rules. The IAB sites on CAP, representing digital advertising. |
| Check-ins | Executed via a GPS enabled mobile device that allows a user to declare they are at a specific location. |
| Classified advertising | A form of advertising which is particularly common in newspapers and online which may be sold or distributed free of charge. It is generally grouped under headings classifying the product or service being offered (headings such as Auto, Clothing etc) and is grouped entirely in a distinct section away from display advertising. Display advertising typically contains graphics or other art work and which is more typically distributed throughout a publication adjacent to editorial content. |
| Click | An interaction between a website visitor and the browser in which the website visitor uses a device, such as a mouse, to move the cursor (or pointer) to an active area of the screen and then deliberately interacts with that area by clicking a button on their device, triggering an event. In the case of touch-screen devices, the user “clicks” by touching the active area with their finger. |
| Click fraud | Click fraud is a type of fraud that occurs on the Internet in pay-per-click (PPC) online advertising when a person, automated script or computer program imitates a legitimate user of a web browser clicking on an ad, for the purpose of generating a charge per click without having actual interest in the target of the ad’s link. |
| Click tracking URL | The click tracking URL is generated dynamically by an ad server for the purpose of tracking clicks. A click tracker will record this click data before redirecting to the actual destination/landing URL. |
| Click-through rate (CTR) | Click-through rate, or CTR, is a digital marketing metric that measures the ratio of total impressions (number of times the ad was served) to clicks on the online advert. |
| Close X | A creative control that enables a user to close an ad (remove it from view) or to reduce an expanded panel back to its original size. |
| Confirmed Opt-in | Also referred to as Double Opt-In. The process that double-checks the desire to be included on an email list after a primary registration occurs. This is typically managed via an email asking the subscriber to click on a confirmation link, which also serves as a method of positively confirming the validity of the email address. |
| Content Management Systems or CMS | Software tools or web services for creating and amending website content. Typically, CMS are browser-based web applications running on a server. All enable users to readily add new pages within an existing page template. One of the most common CMS systems is Drupal. |
| Content marketing | Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract a clearly-defined audience. |
| Contextual advertising | Advertising that is targeted to the content on the webpage and / or locAtion someone is in, at the time of viewing. |
| Convergence | A trend in which different hardware devices such as televisions, computers and telephones merge and have similar functions. |
| Conversion rate | Measure of success of an online ad when compared to the click-through rate. What defines a ‘conversion’ depends on the marketing objective eg: it can be defined as a sale or request to receive more information. For example ten click-throughs might provide one conversion. |
| Conversions | A descriptor encompassing an end user converting to a paying user or a user that performs an action of some sort. |
| Cookie | A cookie is a piece of data that is saved, in a small text file, on a user’s device. |
| | Cookies were invented to allow publishers, or third parties a publisher works with, to remember information about a browser, e.g. items added to a shopping cart. In digital advertising, cookies are mainly used to record a user’s browsing activity, e.g. sites visited or buttons clicked. |
| | Cookies can contain all kinds of information, including non-personal data and personal data. |
| Cost per Acquisition (CPA) | Refers to the overall costs associated with acquiring one user. This can be calculated by dividing total marketing costs by total number of new users. |
| Cost per Action (CPA) | A pricing model that only charges advertising on an action being conducted eg. a sale or a form being filled in. |
| Cost per Click (CPC) | The amount paid by an advertiser for a click on their sponsored search listing. See also PPC. |
| Cost per Mille (CPM) / Cost per Thousand (CPT) | Online advertising can be purchased on the basis of what it costs to show the ad to one thousand viewers (CPM). It is a term that has been used in digital marketing as a benchmark to calculate the relative cost of an advertising campaign or an ad message in a given medium. Rather than an absolute cost, CPM estimates the cost per 1,000 views of the ad. |
| Cost per Thousand Impressions (CTI) | The revenue paid to the publisher by the advertiser for every thousand times the ad is shown. |
| Creative Dimensions | Measured in pixels, the width and height of an ad unit (WxH). The width is always the first dimension listed, followed by the height dimension (i.e. an ad that is 300×250 is 300 pixels wide by 250 pixels high). |
| CRM | Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a strategy for managing a company’s relationships and interactions with customers and prospects using data analysis of a customers’ interaction. It may involve an email programme to manage and develop relationships over time. |
| Cross-device tracking | Cross-device tracking refers to technology which enables tracking of anonymised users across multiple devices, such as smartphones, tablets and personal computers. Advertisers use this technology to understand the cumulative effect of their marketing activity across multiple different digital touchpoints. |
| Cross-device tracking | Cross-device tracking refers to technology which enables tracking of users across multiple devices, such as smartphones, tablets, and personal computers. Advertisers use this technology to understand the cumulative effect of their marketing activity across multiple different digital touchpoints. |
| Customer profiling | Using data to find out a customer’s specific interests and characteristics which could be used for future targeting. |
| D.E.A.L | D.E.A.L is a recommended approach for publishers to connect with ad blocking consumers through a step-by-step process implimented by the IAB: Detect ad blocking, in order to initiate a conversation, Explain the value exchange that advertising enables, Ask for changed behaviour in order to maintain an equitable exchange, Lift restrictions or Limit access in response to consumer choice. |
| Data exchanges | Online auction marketplace where advertisers acquire 3rd party data that helps them better reach their target audiences with display. |
| | Data Exchanges were created as marketplaces where Online Data Providers could sell their data directly to DSPs and Ad Networks. Who Uses: Ad Networks, DSPs. |
| Data Management Platform (DMP) | Platforms that allow advertisers, agencies, publishers and others to control their own first-party audience and campaign data, compare it to third-party audience data, and give the ability to make smarter media buying and campaign planning decisions via behavioural targeting or extending audiences via lookalike modeling. Advertisers and agencies generally utilise DMPs in order to buy more effectively while publishers typically utilise DMPs in order to segment their audiences and sell more effectively. |
| Demand-side platform (DSP) | An advertising technology platform which allows marketers to manage their online media campaigns by facilitating the buying of auction-based display media and audience data across multiple inventory and data suppliers in a centralised management platform. |
| Direct Billing API | Can be used to customise a purchase process that does not require the user to leave where they are. |
| Discrepancy | The difference in campaign reporting numbers for key measurements such as impressions and clicks between multiple adservers. |
| Display advertising | Display advertising is a type of online advertising on web sites. It includes many different formats and contains items such as text, images, video, audio and comes in several physical format sizes. |
| Double Opt-In | Requesting the subscriber to opt-in twice, prior to engaging with the subscriber. |
| DRM | Digital Rights Management is a set of technologies used by publishers and media owners to control access to their digital content. Access can be limited to the number of times a piece of content is accessed from a single machine or user account; the number of times access permissions can be passed on; or the lifespan of a piece of content. |
| DTSG (Digital Trading Standards Group) | The industry successor to IASH, the DTSG is an independent audit of trading practices that suppliers offering extended network traffic beyond single-source premium destinations can sign up to. Suppliers agree to follow the DTSG UK Good Practice Principles and be audited regularly to ensure they are offering brand-safe environments for brands to appear against. |
| Dwell time | The amount of a time a user spends on a piece of content on a website. This could include reading an article, watching a video or looking at advertising. |
| Dynamic ad delivery | The process by which a uniquely sourced advertisement is delivered, via a campaign management platform, to a publisher’s mobile or web content. |
| Dynamic Creative Optimisation | Dynamic Creative Optimisation is a type of automated creative generation where the elements that make up a creative such as the fonts, colors, photographic elements and messaging can be changed within the frame of the creative through constant A/B testing to determine what the optimal combination is. |
| EASA (European Advertising Standards Alliance) | The European Advertising Standards Alliance (EASA) is the European body for national self-regulatory organisations (such as the ASA) and industry associations. It promotes responsible advertising in commercial communications by means of effective self-regulation. |
| Embedded format | Advertising formats that are displayed in set spaces on a publisher’s page. See also banners, skyscrapers, button. |
| European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance (EDAA) | The EDAA administers the EU self-regulatory programme aimed at providing internet users with greater transparency and control over behaviourally targeted advertising. The EDAA Board is made up of advertising trade bodies, including the IAB. The IAB currently chairs the EDAA Board. |
| Expandable Ads | Online advertising formats that appear on users’ screens on top of web content (and sometimes before web page appears) and frustrate the user experience. It is recommended that expansion be user initiated and have clearly marked close buttons and controls. |
| Expanded Dimenions | The secondary dimensions of an expanding ad unit (after the ad is expanded). Initial dimensions are fit to the dimensions of the placement. Then, either by auto-play or by user interaction, the ad unit expands to its secondary dimension. |
| Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) | The FCA regulates the financial services industry in the UK. They specifically regulate the marketing of financial products and have produced guidance on financial promotions in social media. The guidance covers character limitations, the use of images, non-intended recipients and consumers forwarding or sharing communications. The guidance is available on the FCA’s website. |
| Firewall | A firewall is a system designed to prevent unauthorised access to or from a private network. You can implement a firewall in either hardware or software form, or a combination of both. |
| Flash | Adobe Flash is a mixed software platform used for production of animations, rich Internet applications, desktop and mobile app and embedded web browser video players. |
| Freemium Model | A type of business model that works by selling basic services, or a basic downloadable digital product, for free, while charging a premium price for advanced or special features. |
| Frequency cap | Restriction on the amount of times a specific visitor is shown a particular advertisement. |
| GDPR | The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the new legal framework governing the use of personal data across EU markets from 25 May 2018. |
| Generation Y | See term ‘Millenials’ |
| Geo-targeting | Geo-targeting is the method of determining the geolocation of a user and delivering different content based on his or her location. |
| Global Positioning System (GPS) | System of satellites, computers and receivers that can determine the latitude and longitude of a person and therefore potentially provide more context and relevance for the content and messaging. |
| Gold standard | The IAB’s Gold Standard initiative was launched in October 2017 supported by all our Board members. It aims to drive up standards in the industry by committing signatories to: |
| | 1. Reducing ad fraud by implementing ads.txt |
| | 2. Improving digital advertising experiences by adhering to the Coalition for Better Ads principles and the ‘Better Ads Standards’ |
| | 3. Increasing brand safety by working with JICWEBS with a view to becoming certified or maintaining certification |
| | GSM |
| | Global Standard for Mobiles. The set of standards covering one particular type of mobile phone system. |
| Hard Bounces | Email non-delivery notifications that are generated as a result of messages being sent to invalid, closed or nonexistent email accounts |
| Header Bidding | Header Bidding is a process that allows marketers a first-look at inventory that publishers would normally hold back for direct bookings. If the publisher can make a better price selling an impression programmatically then their ad server will make the decision automatically rather than fulfilling direct bookings first. |
| Hit | A single request from a web browser for a single item from a web server. |
| Holding Company | A parent company that owns other companies’ stocks. Examples include Omnicom, WPP, Interpublic and Publicis Groupe, that each control a large number of different operating agencies across the globe. |
| Hot Spot | A “hot spot” is an area of an ad unit, which when rolled-over/rolled-on by the user’s cursor, such rollover triggers an event (i.e. expand ad). |
| HTML | HyperText Markup Language, the set of commands used by web browsers to interpret and display page content to users. |
| HTML5 | HTML5 is the new rendition of HTML (hypertext markup language) and includes features like video playback and drag-and-drop functionality. |
| IAB Europe | IAB Europe is the Trade Association representing National IAB’s across Europe to European decision-makers. IAB UK is represented on the Board of IAB Europe. |
| IAB Tech Lab | The IAB Technology Laboratory is an independent, international, research and development consortium charged with producing and helping companies implement global industry technical standards. Comprised of digital publishers and ad technology firms, as well as marketers, agencies, and other companies with interests in the interactive marketing arena, the IAB Tech Lab’s goal is to reduce friction associated with the digital advertising and marketing supply chain, while contributing to the safe and secure growth of the industry. The organisation’s founding member companies include AppNexus, Google, Hearst Magazines Digital Media, PubMatic, Tremor Video, Yahoo, and Yahoo! JAPAN. Established in 2014, the IAB Tech Lab is headquartered in New York City with an office in San Francisco. |
| IASH | Established in 2005 (now defunct), IASH was an independent audit conducted on usually blind networks who aggregated supplier inventory and sold it on at a lower cost. Buyers would request IASH-accredited traffic to ensure that their brands were appearing on verified sites appropriate to their brand’s values. IASH was succeeded by the DTSG |
| Impressions | Metric for counting the number of times users have viewed a particular element (such as an ad) on a desktop website, mobile website or app or an image embedded within a text message such as a mass-market email. |
| Instream mobile video | When you view video content in a dedicated player and, whilst watching, you are served a video ad within that video content, this is known as instream. |
| | Instream mobile video comes in 3 formats, both in-app and on mobile web … |
| | • Pre-roll before content |
| | • Mid-roll during content |
| | • Post-roll after video content |
| | Instream video is generally targeted, and relevant, to the video content it is served against, rather than the page content. |
| Intelligent Personal Assistant (IPA) | An Intelligent Personal Assistant (IPA) is a software agent that can perform tasks or services for an individual. These tasks or services are based on user input, location awareness, and the ability to access information from a variety of online sources (such as setting the clock, weather or traffic conditions, look at the news, stock prices, user schedules, retail prices, etc.) Amazon Alexa is an example of an IPA. |
| Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) | The use of a broadband connection to stream digital television over the internet to subscribed users. IPTV services are classified into groups such as Live Televison, Time shifted media and VOD. |
| Internet Service Provider (ISP) | A company which provides users with the means to connect to the internet. |
| Interruptive formats | Online advertising formats that appear on users’ screens on top of web content (and sometimes before web page appears – Prestitial) and frustrate the user experience. |
| JICWEBS | JICWEBS (The Joint Industry Committee for Web Standards in the UK and Ireland) was created by the UK and Ireland media industry to ensure independent development of standards for measuring performance online and benchmarking best practice for online ad trading. |
| Keyword marketing | The purchase of keywords (or ‘search terms’) by advertisers in search listings. |
| L.E.A.N | The L.E.A.N principles are an industry initiative to improve the overall quality of the consumer’s experience by focusing on Lighter creative, Encrypted ad calls, Ad Choices supported user feedback and Non-intrusive experiences that don’t rely on tactics such as auto-play or sound-enabled creative. The LEAN principles are intended as guidance for all participants in the production of the digital ecosystem to follow to address the core reasons for installing an ad blocker. |
| Location Based Services (LBS) | A range of services that are provided to mobile subscribers based on the geographical location of their handsets, e.g. local deals and sat nav. |
| Location Information | Information that enables a mobile marketer to identify the specific location of a particular wireless device. |
| Locator | An advertisement or service through which an advertiser’s bricks and mortar location can be identified based on proximity of the consumer or their preferred location). |
| Meta-tags/ descriptions | HTML tags that identify the content of a web page for search engines. |
| Millennials | A term used to refer to the generation born from 1980 until mid 2000’s onward, brought up using digital technology and mass media. |
| MMS Message | A message sent via a Multimedia Messaging Service that contains multimedia objects. |
| Mobile Advertising | Any form of advertising that is communicated to the consumer/target via a handset. |
| Mobile Messaging Programming | Multiple mobile messages, usually delivered as part of a coordinated campaign. |
| MPEG | File format used to compress and transmit video clips online. |
| MRAID | MRAID or ‘Mobile Rich Media Ad Interface Definitions’ is the common API (Application Programming Interface) for mobile rich media ads that run in mobile apps. Basically, what it means is that MRAID compliant apps all talk the same creative language where things like ad expansion, ad resizing, and getting access to device functionally such as the accelerometer are concerned. This makes it much easier for developers to create rich media ads that will work across multiple apps. For more info about MRAID see here. |
| Multiple Purpose Units (MPU) | A rectangular online advert. MPU stands for mid-page unit as it appears mid way down the page. |
| Native advertising | Digital advertising that works as part of the main content flow of a media owner’s site and, typically, provides audiences with a ‘content experience’. Native ad formats include content curation units, discovery and recommendation units. Some people also describe content marketing such as sponsored or advertising features as native advertising. |
| Natural search results | The ‘natural’ search results that appear in a separate section (usually the main body of the page) to the paid listings. The results listed here have not been paid for and are ranked by the search engine (using spiders or algorithms according to relevancy to the term searched on. |
| Non-personal data (anonymous data) | Non-personal data is any information that falls outside the scope of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This kind of information is also called anonymous data. |
| Non-Personally Identifiable Information (Non-PII) | Information that may correspond to a particular person, account or profile, but is not sufficient to identify, contact or locate the person. |
| OBA | Acronym for Online Behavioral Advertising. The collection of data from a particular computer or device regarding Web viewing behaviors over time and across non- Affiliate Web sites for the purpose of using such data to predict user preferences or interests in order to deliver advertising to that computer or device based on the preferences or interests inferred from such Web viewing behaviors. Online Behavioral Advertising does not include the activities of First Parties, Ad Delivery or Ad Reporting, or contextual advertising (i.e. advertising based on the content of the Web page being visited, a consumer’s current visit to a Web page, or a search query). Definition from page 10 of the Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising: |
| OBA Self- Regulation | Developed by leading industry associations to apply consumer-friendly standards to online behavioral advertising across the Internet, the Self-Regulatory Program consists of seven Principles that correspond with the “Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising” proposed by the Federal Trade Commission in February 2009 that also address public education and industry accountability issues raised by the Commission. Definition from page 10 of the Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising. |
| Online data providers/data aggregator | The definition of an “Online Data Provider” is broad and includes a number of players and data types, such as companies like Experian (Financial data), Nielsen (demographics and psychographic data) and OwnerIQ (purchase history). Who Uses: Advertisers and their agencies, Ad Networks, DSPs, Data Exchanges. |
| Online Video Advertising | Online video advertising is any a/v advert watched via the internet. In its basic form, this can be TV ads run online, but adverts are increasingly adapted or created specifically to suit online. Video advertising can be placed before (pre-roll), during (mid-roll) and after (post-roll) video content – as well as ‘outstream’ in socical environments and on content sites. |
| Open Rate | The number of HTML message recipients who opened your email, usually as a percentage of the total number of emails sent. |
| Opt-in | The process where a subscriber provides explicit consent, after receiving notice form the mobile marketer. |
| Opt-out | The process where a subscriber revokes consent, after receiving notice from the mobile marketer. |
| Optimisation | Process of refining an advertising campaign so that it will perform more effectively i.e. extending reach, increasing response rate or creating more awareness. |
| OTT (Over the Top) | Access to premium content through any device that connects to the Internet, often marketed as TV Anywhere/TV Everywhere; offers subscribers the ability to watch programming on any device they own |
| Out-stream impressions | Out-stream impressions are video ad units unaccompanied by content. While a pre-roll or mid-roll ad requires a publisher’s video to wrap around, an out-stream ad is a video ad unit not tied to any piece of publisher video content. |
| Page View | Unit of measure that tracks the number of times a user loads a particular page. |
| Paid for listings | The search results list in which advertisers pay to be featured according to the PPC model. This list usually appears in a separate section to the organic search results- usually at the top of the page on the right hand side. |
| Pay for performance program | Also called Affiliate Marketing, Performance-based, Partner Marketing, CPA, or Associate Program. Any type of revenue sharing program where a publisher receives a commission for generating online activity (e.g. leads or sales) for an advertiser. |
| Pay per lead | The commission structure where the advertiser pays the publisher a flat fee for each qualified lead (customer) that is referred to the advertiser’s website. |
| Pay per sale | The commission structure where the advertiser pays a percentage or flat fee to the publisher based on the revenue generated by the sale of a product or service to a visitor who came from a publisher site. |
| Pay per view (PPV) | An ecommerce model that allows media owners to grant consumers access to their programming in return for payment. Micro payments may be used for shorter programming whist feature films may attract larger sums. |
| Personal data | Personal data is covered by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and comprises any information relating to a person who can be directly or indirectly identified in particular by reference to an identifier, including name, identification number, location data or online identifier. |
| Personally-Identifiable Information (PII) | Information that can be used to identify or contact a person, including name, address, telephone number, or email address. Can also include demographics or behavioural data. |
| Pharming | An illegal method of redirecting traffic from another company’s website (such as a bank) to a fake one designed to look similar in order to steal user details when they try to log in. |
| Phishing | An illegal method whereby legitimate looking e-mails (appearing to come from a well-known bank, for example) are used in an attempt to source personal information that can be used to steal a user’s identity. |
| Pixel | The smallest unit of measure for graphical elements in digital imagery, used as the standard unit of measure for ad creative (i.e. 300×250 pixels). Pixels may also represent x/y coordinates relevant to a given space, such as the browser window, an application workspace or the user’s computer screen. (See also “Tracking Pixel”) |
| Podcasting | Podcasting involves making an audio file of content that is available to download and stream. |
| Polite File Load | Withholding a portion of the total ad creative file size (besides any initial file load size) from loading on a page until publisher content has loaded. |
| Pop-up | Any advertising experience where visiting a website in an initial browser window initiates a secondary browser window to deliver an ad impression directly above the initial browser window. These are currently discouraged for desktop web and mobile web experiences due to consumer feedback. |
| Post-roll | The screening of a video ad after viewing video content. |
| PPC | Pay per click. The payment method used on search engines to enable adverts to appear under keyword searches. |
| Pre-roll | The screening of a video ad before viewing video content. |
| Prestitial | Any advertising that appears before requested content has loaded, blocking the consumer from progressing until either a countdown has elapsed or the duration of an ad experience has been achieved. These are currently discouraged for desktop web and mobile web experiences due to consumer feedback. |
| Programmatic | The buying and selling of online ad inventory through automated methods rather than human actions. This includes but is not limited to Real-Time Bidding (RTB). |
| Progress Bar | A video or animation control that shows users the progression of the video or animation in relation to its total duration. |
| Progressive Load Video | A distribution method for serving video files in which the video file downloads over time into the cache of a user’s computer, much the same way images and other content elements are downloaded. |
| Publisher | A web property providing content for consumers. Business models range from subscription services to advertising monetisation. |
| Reach | The number of unique web users potentially seeing a website one or more times in a given time period expressed as a percentage of the total active web population for that period. |
| Real time | Information, data or content delivered immediately with no delay in the processing of requests, other than the time necessary for the data to travel over the Internet. |
| Real-time bidding (RTB) | RTB is a protocol that enables the valuation and bidding on individual ad impressions in real time. The buying takes place through online media exchanges – basically media marketplaces – which connect sellers (publishers) and buyers (advertisers). |
| Relevance | The likelihood that a given page or content will be of interest or useful to a search engine user for a keyword search. |
| Rich media | The collective name for online advertising formats that use technology to deliver interactive and audio-visual elements to give richer content and a richer experience. |
| Rollover | The willful pause of the user’s cursor on the target portion of the creative (the “hot spot”), such pause lasting at least one second in duration, before an action may be initiated by the ad (i.e. trigger an expand event, etc.). This one-second pause/delay requirement prevents unwanted, user-initiated actions and false reporting of user engagement. |
| Run of network (RON) | An ad buying option in which ad placements may appear on any pages on sites within an ad network. |
| Run of site (ROS) | An ad buying option in which ad placements may appear on any pages of the target site. |
| Search engine marketing (SEM) | Form of marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in search engine results pages. |
| Session | The time spent between a user starting an application, computer or website and logging off or quitting. |
| Short Message Service (SMS) | A messaging system that allows sending messages between devices that consist of short code. Otherwise know as a text message. |
| Simulcast | watching an existing TV service over the internet at the same time as normal transmission. |
| Site analytics | The reporting and analysis of website activity – in particular user behaviour on the site. All websites have a weblog which can be used for this purpose, but other third party software is available for a more sophisticated service. |
| Site Tagging | A tag is a keyword or term assigned to a piece of information. This kind of metadata helps describe an item and allows it to be found again by browsing or searching. |
| Skyscraper | A long, vertical, online advert usually found running down the side of a page in a fixed placement. |
| Sniffer software | Identifies the settings and permissions of a user’s browser to determine compatibility with ad formats and serves an advert they will be able to see/fully interact with. |
| Social Media | Sites, applications and platforms that enable the sharing and generation of user content in real time and enable social networking. Facebook, Instagram & Twitter are examples of social media platforms. |
| Soft Bounces | Email non-delivery notifications that are generated as a result of emails being sent to active (live) addresses but which are turned away before being delivered. |
| Spider | Also known as a bot, robot or crawler. Programs used by a search engine to discover, download and index web content. |
| Standard Ad Units | A set of ad specifications for standard image or animated in-page ad units that establish a framework for advertising inventory and webpage design. |
| Stickiness | Measure used to gauge the effectiveness of a site in retaining its users. Usually measured by the duration of the visit. |
| Streaming media | Compressed audio/video which plays and downloads at the same time. The user does not have to wait for the whole file to download before it starts playing. |
| Superstitials | A form of rich media advertising which allows a TV-like experience on the web. It is fully pre-cached before playing. |
| Supply-side platform (SSP) | An advertising technology platform which represents the suppliers of online ads (Publishers) SSPs give publishers the ability to increase their website advertising revenues by engaging with multiple demand-side channels (Ad Networks, Ad Exchanges and DSP’s) through a single vendor. Who Uses: Publishers. |
| Targeting | Various criteria to make the delivery of an advertisement more precise (age, geographical location or behavioural cues etc.) |
| Text Ad | A static appended text attached to an advertisement. |
| Third party adserving | The technology used to deliver creative assets from one adserver into another, allowing advertisers to track the performance of the campaigns and recording impressions and clicks amongst other campaign metrics. |
| Tracking | The ability to assess the performance of an ad campaign. |
| Tracking Pixel | A 1×1 pixel-sized transparent image that provides information about an ad’s placement. In many cases, a tracking pixel is used to notify an ad tracking system that either an ad has been served (or not served, in some cases) or that a specific webpage has been accessed. Also knownas: beacon, web beacon, action tag, redirect, etc. |
| Trading desk | An agency branch trading entity known as the expert operators in their use of new technology. These entities can be independent or operate within an agency holding company. This group of people (known as traders) play the day-to-day campaign management role. Who uses: Agency holding companies, operating agencies, advertisers. |
| Traffic | Number of visitors who come to a website. |
| Unique visitors | Unique visitors refers to the number of distinct individuals requesting pages from a website during a given period, regardless of how often they visit. Visits refer to the number of times a site is visited, no matter how many visitors make up those visits. |
| User | An anonymous person who uses a web browser to access web content. |
| User generated content (UGC) | Online content created by website users rather than media owners or publishers – either through reviews, blogging, podcasting or posting comments, pictures or video clips. |
| VAST | VAST or ‘Video Ad-Serving Template’ provides a common ad response format for video players that enables video ads to be served on all compliant video players. This means that advertisers don’t need to integrate lots of different ad tags to be able to serve their video across multiple publishers. |
| Video On Demand (VOD) | Allows users to watch what they want, when they want. This can be either ‘pay per view’ or a free service usually funded by advertising. All major broadcasters offer VOD such on platforms such as 40D or BBC iplayer. |
| Viewability | Viewability is an online advertising metric that aims to determine only impressions that had the opportunity to be seen by users. For example, if an ad is loaded at the bottom of a webpage but a user doesn’t scroll down far enough to see it, that impression would not be deemed viewable. Viewability is not a measure of ad effectiveness. |
| Viewable impressions | A digital ad that had the opportunity to be seen, sometimes referred to through the traditional print media term of being “above the fold”. The current industry criteria for a standard ad unit to be considered viewable is that 50% of the canvas was within the consumer’s rendered window for a minimum of 1 second – the time required for a consumer to understand that the unit is a piece of advertising. Viewability is not a measure of ad effectiveness. |
| Virtual reality (VR) | Virtual reality or virtual realities (VR), also known as immersive multimedia or computer-simulated reality, is a computer technology that replicates an environment, real or imagined, and simulates a user’s physical presence and environment. |
| Voice Search | A method to search by speaking, rather than typing which can save time on doing tasks or allow the user to multi task. Intelligent assistants such as Siri and Alexa offer voice activated search results. |
| VPAID | VPAID or ‘Video Player Ad-Serving Interface Definition’ establishes a common interface between video players and ad units, enabling a rich interactive instream ad experience. The two main areas that VPAID covers are providing consumers a rich ad experience and capturing ad playback and user interaction details. |
| White-list | An accepted list of contacts to receive email from (and should not be filtered or sent to the trash or spam folder) or a list of websites that ad advertiser will permit their ads to be placed on. |
| Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) | The ability to connect to the internet wirelessly. |
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