Digital Marketing Glossary
Online Display
Advertisements shown on a web page or mobile app. Ad formats include text, static, animated, video and social.
Programmatic Advertising
Advertising campaigns that are automatically deployed according to a set of rules applied by software and algorithms.
RTB (Real Time Bidding)
The practice of bidding on ad impressions the moment users arrive at a web page or mobile app based on targeting metrics including demographics, contextual information, or previous web behavior.
CPM
Cost per thousand impressions (cost of campaign divided by total impressions x 1000)
CPC
Cost per click
CPA
Cost per Acquisition
CPI
Cost per inquiry
KPI
Key performance indicator
CTR
Click Through Rate (amount of clicks divided by the amount of impressions x 100)
Conversion
Any action deemed valuable by an advertisers (e.g. Purchase or Inquiry)
Conversion Rate
Percentage of clicks or views that become a conversion
Cost Per Conversion
The cost of the total campaign divided by the number of conversions
Prospecting
RTB targeting strategy referring to the use of demographic, contextual, and behavioral information to find new prospects.
Re-Targeting or Re-Marketing
Targeting strategy that prioritizes prospects who have visited an advertisers website recently. Many marketers will add a filter to this strategy to weed out users who have taken a conversion action.
Demo Targeting
Targeting strategy that chooses an audience based on age, geo, gender, income, etc.
Behavioral Targeting
Targeting strategy that chooses an audience based on their browsing history.
Contextual Targeting
Targeting strategy that chooses an audience based on specific content types or keywords on the web page the user is currently visiting.
Direct Placements
Online advertising purchased directly from a web publisher.
Social Advertising- Advertising on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN, and Youtube
Pre-Roll Video
A:15, :30 or :60 second video that airs before online video content
In-Banner Video
A standard banner ad that plays a video ad inside of it
Impression
When an advertisement (display, text, or video) is loaded on a page (an impressions can be below the fold and not necessarily seen)
Viewability
A measurement of how many users actually see a particular online ad. For example for an ad impression below the fold to be considered viewed it must not only load onto the page, but the user must scroll until the ad is within the frame of their screen
Recency
A measure of the time between a user’s visit to a brand’s website and that user being served a re-marketing ad impression. Data suggests the sooner after a web visit a user sees an ad, the more likely they are to take a conversion action.
Post Click Conversion
A conversion that occurs after a click
Post View Conversion
A conversion that occurs after a view, but not a click
Look-a-like Modeling
Targeting strategy referring to the use of current converting users’ to build a demographic and behavioral profile to apply to a prospecting audience.
DSP
Demand-Side Platform. A system that allows agencies to utilize and manage multiple ad exchanges from one platform. Agencies can optimize their campaigns on the platform for better performance.
Ad Network
A group of websites aggregated by a single provider to offer advertising space (AOL, Google, Yahoo all have ad networks)
ROS
Run of site (ads can show up on any page of the website)
Rich Media
An online advertisement that includes user interaction. An example would be a smaller ad that users expand by clicking on it
Homepage Takeover
Direct media buy where one advertiser “owns” the homepage of a website for a portion of or full day. Often the advertiser combines regular online display ad sizes with Rich Media
Road Block
Direct media buy where all advertisements on one page of a website are purchased
Ad Exchange
A platform where online advertisements from multiple ad networks are bid on by advertisers
Above the Fold
An ad shown within the first screen view of a website
Below the Fold
An ad shown below the first screen view of a website
Static Ad
An ad with no animation and a single frame
Flash Ad
Ads with animation and multiple frames
Retargeting Pixel
A piece of code that is put on a users IP address after they visit your website so you can further advertise to this user
Conversion Pixel
A piece of code that is put on a users IP address after they take the action you consider a conversion
Pixel
A piece of code (a cookie) that is put on a users IP address to track that they have either seen your ad, clicked on your ad, used to retarget, or converted.