IAB Glossary Flashcards
302 Redirect
The process of a server sending a browser the location of a requested ad, rather than sending the ad itself. Ad servers use 302 redirects to allow them to track activities such as ad requests or ad clicks.
3G
3G is the “Third Generation” mobile network infrastructure. As of 2007, 3G technologies were deployed by mobile operators in most of Europe, East Asia, and North America. Supports much higher data speeds than previous mobile networks, in some cases approaching wired broadband connections.
Core 3G technologies include:
EDGE
Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS)
CDMA2000
A fourth generation of mobile network infrastructure (4G) is expected to provide further improvements in speed and capacity, but standards have not yet been finalized.
AAAA
AAAA (American Association of Advertising Agencies)
Founded in 1917, the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA) is the national trade association representing the advertising agency business in the United States. See the AAAA’s official Website.
AAS
Average active sessions
The average number of streams of one minute or more that are active within a time period.
Abandonment
Abandonment is when a user leaves a shopping cart with something in it prior to completing the transaction.
Abort
When a Web server does not successfully transfer a unit of content or ad to a browser. This is usually caused by a user hitting the stop button or clicking on another link prior to the completion of a download.
Above the Fold
Above the Fold – (ATF) a term derived from newspaper print advertising, this means that an ad is placed on a website above the scroll line as the page is viewed before any scrolling occurs; in view before scrolling
Activity audit
Independent verification of measured activity for a specified time period. Some of the key metrics validated are ad impressions, page impressions, clicks, total visits and unique users. An activity audit results in a report verifying the metrics. Formerly known as a count audit.
Ad audience
The number of unique users exposed to an ad within a specified time period.
Ad banner
Ad banners (also known as banner ads) are one of the most dominant forms of advertising on the internet. Banner ads are a form of display advertising that can range from a static graphic to full motion video.
Ad blocker
Software on a user’s browser which prevents advertisements from being displayed.
Ad campaign audit
An activity audit for a specific ad campaign.
Ad click
The user activity of pressing a navigation button or hitting the enter key on the keyboard on an advertisement unit on a Web site (banner, button or text link). (See Click-through)
Ad creative pixel
A pixel request embedded in an ad tag which calls a web server for the purpose of tracking that a user has viewed a particular ad.
Ad delivery
Two methods are used to deliver ad content to the user – server-initiated and client-initiated, which are explained in the diagrams below.
Ad download
When an ad is downloaded by a server to a user’s browser. Ads can be requested, but aborted or abandoned before actually being downloaded to the browser, and hence there would be no opportunity to see the ad by the user.
Ad exchange
An ad exchange is a sales channel between publishers and ad networks that can also provide aggregated inventory to advertisers. They provide a technology platform that facilitates automated auction based pricing and buying in real-time. Ad exchanges’ business models and practices may include features that are similar to those offered by ad networks.
For the purposes of the IAB Networks & Exchanges Quality Assurance Guidelines, the definition of an ad exchange excludes technology platforms that exclusively provide tools that enable direct media buying and selling between exchange participants.
Ad family
A collection of one or more ad creatives. Also called an ad campaign.
Ad impression
Ad impressions are the count of ads which are served to a user. Ads can be requested by the user’s browser (referred to as pulled ads) or they can be pushed, such as e-mailed ads.
In a formal sense, ad impressions are a measurement of responses from an ad delivery system to an ad request from the user’s browser, which is filtered for robotic activity and is recorded at a point as late as possible in the process of delivery of the creative material to the user’s browser – therefore closest to the actual opportunity to be seen by the user.
Two methods are used to deliver ad content to the user
Server-initiated. The publisher’s web content server for making requests, formatting and re-directing content
Client-initiated. Ad counting relies on the user’s browser to perform these activities.
For organizations that use a server-initiated ad counting method, counting should occur subsequent to the ad response at either the publisher’s ad server or the Web content server. For organizations using a client-initiated ad counting method, counting should occur at the publisher’s ad server or third-party ad server, subsequent to the ad request, or later, in the process.
Ad insertion
When an ad is inserted in a document and recorded by the ad server.
Ad inventory
The aggregate number of opportunities near publisher content to display advertisement to visitors.
Ad materials
The creative artwork, copy, active URLs and active target sites which are due to the seller prior to the initiation of the ad campaign.
Ad network
Ad networks provide an outsourced sales capability for publishers and a means to aggregate inventory and audiences from numerous sources in a single buying opportunity for media buyers. Ad networks may provide specific technologies to enhance value to both publishers and advertisers, including unique targeting capabilities, creative generation, and optimization. Ad networks’ business models and practices may include features that are similar to those offered by ad exchanges.
Ad Ops
The team/function that is responsible for trafficking and optimizing digital ad campaigns.
Ad recall
A measure of advertising effectiveness in which a sample of respondents is exposed to an ad and then at a later point in time is asked if they remember the ad. Ad recall can be on an aided or unaided basis. Aided ad recall is when the respondent is told the name of the brand or category being advertised.
Ad request
The request for an advertisement as a direct result of a user’s action as recorded by the ad server. Ad requests can come directly from the user’s browser or from an intermediate Internet resource, such as a Web content server.
Ad server
An ad server is a web server dedicated to the delivery of advertisement. This specialization enables the tracking and management of advertising related metrics.
Ad serving
The delivery of ads by a server to an end user’s computer on which the ads are then displayed by a browser and/or cached. Ad serving is normally performed either by a Web publisher or by a third-party ad server. Ads can be embedded in the page or served separately.
Ad space
The location on a page of a site in which an advertisement can be placed. Each space on a site is uniquely identified. Multiple ad spaces can exist on a single page.
Ad stream
The series of ads displayed by the user during a single visit to a site (also impression stream).
Ad tag
Software code that an advertiser provides to a publisher or ad network that calls the advertisers ad server for the purposes of displaying an advertisement.
Ad targeting
Delivering an ad to the appropriate audience. This may be done through:
Behavioral Targeting
Contextual Targeting
Geographic Targeting
Ad transfers
The successful display of an advertiser’s Web site after the user clicked on an ad. When a user clicks on an advertisement, a click-through is recorded and re-directs or “transfers” the user’s browser to an advertiser’s Web site. If the user successfully displays the advertiser’s Web site, an ad transfer is recorded.
Ad unit
An ad or set of ads displayed as a result of a piece of ad code executing.
Ad view
When the ad is actually seen by the user.
Add to cart
The user activity of storing merchandise in a virtual shopping cart that the user intends to later purchase from an online e-commerce website. This enables users to continue browsing and “check-out” later or alternately delete these items from the cart.
Address
A unique identifier for a computer or site online, usually a URL for a Web site or marked with an @ for an e-mail address. Literally, it is how one computer finds the location of another computer using the Internet.
Advertiser
The company paying for the advertisement.
Banner
A graphic advertising image displayed on a Web page.
Adware
Computer software provided to the user free of charge or at a discounted price that downloads and displays advertising to support its continued development and maintenance. This software often tracks what Internet sites the user visits.
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. In return, the affiliate receives a percentage of sales or some other form of compensation generated by that traffic.
Affinity marketing
Selling products or services to customers on the basis of their established buying patterns. The offer can be communicated by e-mail promotions, online or offline advertising
Agency
An organization that, on behalf of clients, plans marketing and advertising campaigns, drafts and produces advertisements, places advertisements in the media. In interactive advertising, agencies often use third party technology (ad servers) and may place advertisements with publishers, ad networks and other industry participants.
Agency Ad Server
The ad server hosted by the advertising agency.
Aggregate Campaign Data
Data combined from several advertising campaigns to create a segment where campaign level data is not identifiable.
Alternate text
A word or phrase that is displayed when a user has image loading disabled in their browser or when a user abandons a page by hitting “stop” in their browser prior to the transfer of all images.Also appears as “balloon text” when a user lets their mouse rest over an image.
ANA
The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) leads the marketing community by providing its members insights, collaboration and advocacy. The ANA strives to promote and protect all advertisers and marketers.
Animated GIF
An animation created by combining multiple GIF images in one file. The result is multiple images,displayed sequentially, giving the appearance of movement.
Anonymizer
An intermediary which prevents Web sites from seeing a user’s Internet Protocol (IP) address.
API
An API (Application Programming Interface) is a set of commands, the language that programmers or developers use to communicate with a specific piece of software or hardware.
Applet
A small, self-contained software application that is most often used by browsers to automatically display animation and/or to perform database queries requested by the user.
Applicable browser
Any browser an ad will impact, regardless of whether it will play the ad.
Apps
Short for “applications”, these are programs on a digital device (most commonly smartphones and tablets) that provide a specific service or function; usually will connect to the internet and can be ad-supported/free or paid.
ARF
ARF (Advertising Research Foundation)
The ARF is the premiere advertising industry association for creating, aggregating, synthesizing and sharing the knowledge required by decision makers in the field. The principal mission of The ARF is to improve the practice of advertising, marketing and media research in pursuit of more effective marketing and advertising communications.
Artifacting
Distortion that is introduced into audio or video by the compression algorithm (codec). Compressed images may have stray pixels that were not present in the original image.
Aspect ratio
The width-to-height ratio of a picture or video frame. TV broadcasts at a 4:3 (1.33:1) aspect ratio; digital TV will be broadcast with a 16:9 (1.78:1) ratio; and most feature films are shot in at least a 1.85:1 ratio. IMUs have an aspect ratio of 6:5 (330x 250; 336 x 280; and 180 x 150).
Assets
Logos, artwork, fonts, etc. that a brand uses in their advertising creative.
Attribute
A single piece of information known about a user and stored in a behavioral profile which may be used to match ad content to users. Attributes consist of demographic information (e.g., age, gender, geographical location), segment or cluster information (e.g., auto enthusiast), and retargeting information (e.g., visited Site X two days ago). Segment or cluster information is derived from the user’s prior online activities (e.g., pages visited, content viewed, searches made and clicking and purchasing behaviors). Generally, this is anonymous data (non-PII).
Attribution
The process of connecting an ad event to a consumer action; or, more broadly, the process of connecting any consumer touchpoint a brand provides to a desired response.
Audience
An audience is the group of people who visit a specific web site or who are reached by a specific ad network.
Audience Measurement
The counting of unique users (i.e. audience) and their interaction with online content. At a campaign level, this service is conducted by a third party to validate that a publisher delivered what an advertiser had requested. At the industry level, this service enables media buyers to understand which brokers of online content to negotiate with to reach a specific audience.
Audience Targeting
A method that enables advertisers to show an ad specifically to visitors based on their shared behavioral, demographic, geographic and/or technographic attributes. Audience targeting uses anonymous, non-PII data.
Auditor
A third party independent organization that performs audits.
Authenticated viewing
When cable networks provide services where their customers can access television content online after logging in through a host site.
Avatar
A graphical representation of an individual in a game or other virtual world or environment.
Average active sessions
The average number of streams of one minute or more that are active within a time period.
Average view time
Refers to the average amount of time the video ad was played by users.
Backbone
High-volume, central, generally “long-haul” portion of a data network.
Bandwidth
The transmission rate of a communications line or system, expressed as kilobits per second (kbps) or megabits per second (Mbps) for digital systems; the amount of data that can be transmitted over communications lines in a given time.
Bandwidth contention
A bottleneck that occurs when two or more files are simultaneously transmitted over a single data line. Unless the system is able to prioritize among the files, the effect is to slow delivery of each.
Banner
A graphic advertising image displayed on a Web page.
Barter
The exchange of goods and services without the use of cash. The value of the barter is the dollar value of the goods and services being exchanged for advertising. This is a recognized form of revenue under GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles).
Beacon
A web beacon, also known as a web bug, 1 by 1 GIF, invisible GIF, and tracking pixel, is a tiny image referenced by a line of HTML or a block of JavaScript code embedded into a web site or third party ad server to track activity.
The image used is generally a single pixel that is delivered to the web browser with HTML instructions that keep it from affecting the web site layout. The web beacon will typically include user information like cookies on the HTTP headers, and web site information on the query string.
Web beacons are used to collect data for web site and ad delivery analytics, and also specific events such as a registration or conversion:
Ad Creative Pixel - A web beacon embedded in an ad tag which calls a web server for the purpose of tracking that a user has viewed a particular ad.
Conversion Pixel - A web beacon that transmits to a third-party server that a user has successfully completed a process such as purchase or registration.
Piggyback Pixel – A web beacon that embeds additional web beacons not directly placed on the publisher page.
Secure Pixel - A web beacon that is delivered over HTTPS.
Behavioral event
A behavioral event is a user-initiated action which may include, but is not limited to: searches, content views, clicks, purchases, and form-based information.
They are generally anonymous and do not include personally identifiable information (PII).
Behavioral targeting
Using previous online user activity (e.g., pages visited, content viewed, searches, clicks and purchases) to generate a segment which is used to match advertising creative to users (sometimes also called Behavioral Profiling, Interest-based Advertising, or online behavioral advertising). Behavioral targeting uses anonymous, non-PII data.
Below the Fold
Below the Fold – (BTF) a term derived from newspaper print advertising, this means that an ad is placed on a website below the scroll line as the page is viewed before any scrolling occurs; out of view before scrolling
Beta
A test version of a product, such as a Web site or software, prior to final release.
Bit rate
Bit rate is a measure of bandwidth which indicates how much data is traveling from one place to another on a computer network. Bit rate is usually expressed in kilobits per second (kbps) or megabits per second (Mbps).
The bit rate of an audio or video stream indicates how much data must be transferred concurrently in order to properly receive the stream. Buffering can help mitigate variance in available bandwidth.
Note that bit rate does not describe how long is takes to get from one part of the network to another, only how many bits can be transferred concurrently. See latency for a measurement of delay.
Blog
A blog (a portmanteau of the term web log) is a web-published journal consisting of discrete entries (“posts”) typically displayed in reverse chronological order so the most recent post appears first. Blogs are usually the work of a single individual, although corporate blogs often have multiple staff contributors. Blog can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.
The emergence of blogging has been attributed to the advent of easy to use web publishing tools like Open Diary, LiveJournal, and Blogger.com. The modern blogging landscape includes advanced and customizable blogging platforms like WordPress, Movable Type, and Drupal.
Successful blogs tend to focus on one topic, building a community of interested readers who interact through comments on posts. This targeted, engaged audience can drive additional value to advertisers, both during traditional campaigns and through sponsored content.
Blog Metrics
There are two concepts that surface when targeting media plans to blogs: conversations and conversation phrases. A conversation is a collection of authors/sites and their audience linked by relevant content. A conversation phrase is a combination of keywords and keyword phrases used to associate an author/site, its content and audiences to a conversation.
Bonus impressions
Additional ad impressions above the commitments outlined in the approved insertion order.
Bot
Software that runs automatically without human intervention. Typically, a bot is endowed with the capability to react to different situations it may encounter. Two common types of bots are agents and spiders. Bots are used by companies like search engines to discover Web sites for indexing. Short for “robot.”
Bounce
An e-mail that cannot be delivered to the mailbox provider and is sent back to the e-mail Service Provider that sent it. A bounce is classified as either “hard” or “soft.” Hard bounces are the failed delivery of e-mail due to a permanent reason, such as a non-existent address. Soft bounces are the failed delivery of e-mail due to a temporary issue, such as a full inbox or an unavailable ISP server.
Bounce rate
Figured as a percentage, this compares the number of visitors to a website who arrive and immediately leave vs. those who stay and spend time on the site; can be used to measure the effectiveness of a website, a search campaign or an ad campaign.
Brand Awareness
Research studies can associate ad effectiveness to measure the impact of online advertising on key branding metrics.
Brand metrics
Measurable KPIs associated with branding objectives, such as brand lift, affinity, or favorability.
Broadband
An Internet connection that delivers a relatively high bit rate - any bit rate at or above 256 Kbps. Cable modems and DSL all offer broadband connections.
Broadband Video Commercials
TV-like advertisements that may appear as in-page video commercials or before, during, and/or after a variety of content in a player environment including but not limited to, streaming video, animation, gaming, and music video content. Broadband video commercials may appear in live, archived, and downloadable streaming content.
Browser
A software program that can request, download, cache and display documents available on the World Wide Web.
Browser Sniffer
Software that detects capabilities of the user’s browser (looking for such things as Java capabilities, plug-ins, screen resolution, and bandwidth).
BtoB/B2B (Business-to-Business)
Businesses whose primary customers are other businesses.
BtoC/B2C (Business-to-Consumer)
Businesses whose primary customers are consumers.
Buffering
When a streaming media player temporarily stores portions of a streaming media (e.g., audio or video) file on a client PC until there is enough information for the stream to begin playing.
Bug
A persistent, graphical element that appears in the video environment. Clicking on it will take the user to a website.
Bulk E-mail Folder/ Junk E-mail Folder
A folder within an e-mail client or on an E-mail Service Provider server that stores e-mail messages that are identified, either by the user or by an automated spam filter, as undesired or undesirable.
Bumper Ad
Usually refers to a linear video ad with clickable call-to-action; format is usually shorter than full linear ads (i.e. 3-10 seconds) and call-to-action usually can load another video or can bring up a new site while pausing the content.
Business Visitor
A user that accesses online content in furtherance of their employment.
Button
1) clickable graphic that contains certain functionality, such as taking one someplace or executing a program; 2) buttons can also be ads.
Cable modem
A device that permits high speed connectivity to the Internet over a cable television system.
Cache
Memory used to temporarily store the most frequently requested content/files/pages in order to speed its delivery to the user. Caches can be local (i.e. on a browser) or on a network. In the case of local cache, most computers have both memory (RAM), and disk (hard drive) cache.
Cache busting
The process by which sites or servers serve content or HTML in such a manner as to minimize or prevent browsers or proxies from serving content from their cache. This forces the user or proxy to fetch a fresh copy for each request. Among other reasons, cache busting is used to provide a more accurate count of the number of requests from users.
Cached ad impressions
The delivery of an advertisement to a browser from local cache or a proxy server’s cache. When a user requests a page that contains a cached ad, the ad is obtained from the cache and displayed.
Caching
The process of copying a Web element (page or ad) for later reuse. On the Web, this copying is normally done in two places: in the user’s browser and on proxy servers. When a user makes a request for a Web element, the browser looks into its own cache for the element; then a proxy, if any; followed by the intended server. Caching is done to reduce redundant network traffic, resulting in increased overall efficiency of the Internet.
Campaign
In traditional marketing, an campaign is a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme. In digital advertising, a campaign will refer to a set of ad buys from a specific ad network or publisher.
CARU
(The Children’s Advertising Review Unit)
Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus that reviews advertising and promotional material directed at children in all media.
CDN
Content delivery network
A service that hosts online assets and provides content management via servers located around the globe to reduce the latency of downloads to users.
CGI script
(Common Gateway Interface)
CGI’s are used to allow a user to pass data to a Web server, most commonly in a Web-based form. Specifically, CGI scripts are used with forms such as pull-down menus or text-entry areas with an accompanying submit button. The input from the form is processed by a program (the CGI script itself) on a remote Web server.
Chat
Online interactive communication between two or more people on the Web. One can “talk” in real time with other people in a chat room, typically by typing, though voice chat is available.
Chat room
An area online where people can communicate with others in real-time.
Click
A click can denote several different things.
It can be a metric that measures the reaction of a user to an Internet ad. In this context, there are 3 types of click:
click-throughs
in-unit clicks
mouseovers
It can be the opportunity for a user to download another file by clicking on an advertisement, as recorded by the server.
It can be the result of a measurable interaction with an advertisement or key word that links to the advertiser’s intended Web site or another page or frame within the Web site.
It can be a metric that measures the reaction of a user to linked editorial content.
Click Fraud
Click fraud is 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, for the purpose of generating a charge per click without having actual interest in the target of the ad’s link.
Click rate
Ratio of ad clicks to ad impressions.
Click through rate
Click through rate – (CTR) the percentage of ad impressions that were clicked on as compared to the entire number of clicks [CTR% = (Clicks ÷ Imps) x 100]
Click-stream
1) the electronic path a user takes while navigating from site to site, and from page to page within a site; 2) a comprehensive body of data describing the sequence of activity between a user’s browser and any other Internet resource, such as a Web site or third party ad server.
Click-through
The measurement of a user clicking on a link that re-directs the user’s web-enabled device to another Web destination.
Click-within
Similar to click down or click. But more commonly, click-withins are ads that allow the user to “drill down” and click, while remaining in the advertisement, not leaving the site on which they are residing.
Clickstream Data
A Clickstream is the recording of what a computer user clicks on while web browsing. As the user clicks anywhere in the webpage or application, the action is logged on a client or inside the web server, as well as possibly the web browser and ad servers. Clickstream data analysis can be used to create a user profile that aids in understanding the types of people that visit a company’s website, or predict whether a customer is likely to purchase from an e-commerce website.
Client
A client can refer to either a computer or a software program running on a computer that contacts a server over a network, generally the Internet. A client typically establishes connections to servers in response to activities or configurations made by a human operator.
Internet Explorer and other web browsers, Microsoft Outlook and other e-mail programs are all examples of software clients.
Client side
Client side refers to activities taking place on the client as opposed to on the server. Examples are client side counting and client side redirects.
Client-initiated ad impression
One of the two methods used for ad counting. Ad content is delivered to the user via two methods - server-initiated and client-initiated. Client-initiated ad counting relies on the user’s browser for making requests, formatting and re-directing content. For organizations using a client-initiated ad counting method, counting should occur at the publisher’s ad server or third-party ad server, subsequent to the ad request, or later, in the process. See server-initiated ad impression.
Cloud
A term used by web-based companies offering users the ability to access files or services from devices that are connected to the internet (the opposite of storing files or programs on a hard or external drive).
Co-op advertising
Co-op advertising is the creation of advertisements by one party (usually retailers) that include the specific mention of a second party (usually manufacturers) where the second party will pay some or all of the advertising cost.
For example, a hair salon that mentions specific hair care products in their copy in order to receive some form of payment from the product manufacturer.
Codec
Short for compressor/decompressor. Codecs are computer algorithms that are used to compress the size of audio, video, and image files for streaming over a data network or storage on a computer. Apple’s QuickTime, Microsoft’s Windows Media Video, and MP3 are examples of common codecs.
Communication
The activity of conveying information by or to people or groups. Examples of online communication include email, instant messaging, text-messaging, group-messaging.
Communication error
The failure of a Web browser/Web server to successfully request/transfer a document.
Companion Ad
Both Linear and Non-linear Video ad products have the option of pairing their core video ad product with what is commonly referred to as companion ads. Commonly text, display ads, rich media, or skins that wrap around the video experience, can run alongside either or both the video or ad content. The primary purpose of the Companion Ad product is to offer sustained visibility of the sponsor throughout the video content experience. Companion Ads may offer click-through interactivity and rich media experiences such as expansion of the ad for further engagement opportunities.
Completes
Completes refer to whether the video played to completion.
Connected TV
A television set that is connected to the internet and is able to access Web-based content.
Content (Site/Page)
Site content is the textual, visual or aural content is encountered as part of the user experience on a website. It may include, among other things: text, images, sounds, animations and videos. Web content is dominated by the “page” concept, with multiple pages of related content typically forming a site.
Content delivery network/ distribution network
A service that hosts online assets and provides content management via servers located around the globe to reduce the latency of downloads to users.
Content integration
Advertising woven into editorial content or placed in a contextual envelope. Also known as “Web advertorial”.
Content marketing
Content Marketing Any marketing that involves the creation and sharing of media and publishing content in order to acquire and retain customers.
Contextual Ads
Existing contextual ad engines deliver text and image ads to non-search content pages. Ads are matched to keywords extracted from content. Advertisers can leverage existing keyboard-based paid search campaigns and gain access to a larger audience.
Contextual targeting
Targeting content that deals with specific topics, as determined by a contextual scanning technology.
Control group
A term used in ad effectiveness measurement; the collection of consumers who were not exposed to an ad (their actions are then compared to the “exposed group” – the group that did see the ad – and the difference between the two groups should show the effectiveness of the ad campaign).
Conversion
A conversion occurs when the user performs the specific action that the advertiser has defined as the campaign goal. Conversions are often tracked by a web beacon, called a conversion pixel.
Conversion pixel
A conversion pixel is a specific type of web beacon that is triggered to indicate that a user has successfully completed a specific action such as a purchase or registration. This user action is considered a conversion.
Conversion Rate
The percentage of users who complete a desired action (e.g., purchase or registration) compared to all users who were exposed to an online ad.
Cookie
A cookie, also known as an HTTP cookie, web cookie, or browser cookie, is a string of text sent from a web server to a user’s browser that the browser is expected to send back to the web server in subsequent interactions.
A cookie has a few core attributes - the cookie value, the domain and path within which it is valid, and the cookie expiry. There are other attributes as well that limit the cookie to HTTPS-only transactions, or hide it from JavaScript.
The domain and path define the scope of the cookie - they tell the browser that cookies should only be sent back to the server for the given domain and path.
Cookies that do not have a specific expiration date and time are automatically deleted when the web browser is next closed. Cookies with a set expiry time are considered persistent cookies, while cookies without set expiry times are considered session cookies.
In online advertising, cookies generally store a unique identifier, and may contain information like what ads were recently seen (for frequency capping), when the cookie was created (to discover short duration identities), and other simple attributes.
Cookie buster
Software that blocks the placement of cookies on a user’s browser.
Cookie Matching
A method of enabling data appending by linking one company’s user identifier to another company’s user identifier.
COPPA
(Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act)
Congress enacted the COPPA in 1998 to prohibit unfair or deceptive acts or practices in connection with the collection, use, or disclosure of personally identifiable information from and about children on the Internet. Section 6502(b)(1) of the Act sets forth a series of general privacy protections to prevent unfair or deceptive online information collection from or about children, and directs the Commission to adopt regulations to implement those protections. The Act requires operators of Web sites directed to children and operators who knowingly collect personal information from children to: (1) Provide parents notice of their information practices; (2) obtain prior verifiable parental consent for the collection, use, and/or disclosure of personal information from children (with certain limited exceptions for the collection of “online contact information,” e.g., an e-mail address); (3) provide a parent, upon request, with the means to review the personal information collected from his/her child; (4) provide a parent with the opportunity to prevent the further use of personal information that has already been collected, or the future collection of personal information from that child; (5) limit collection of personal information for a child’s online participation in a game, prize offer, or other activity to information that is reasonably necessary for the activity; and (6) establish and maintain reasonable procedures to protect the confidentiality, security, and integrity of the personal information collected.
COPPR
(Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule)
Issued by the FTC in October 1999 the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule went into effect on April 21, 2000, and implements the requirements of the COPPA by requiring operators of websites or online services directed to children and operators of Web sites or online services who have actual knowledge that the person from whom they seek information is a child (1) to post prominent links on their Web sites to a notice of how they collect, use, and/or disclose personal information from children; (2) with certain exceptions, to notify parents that they wish to collect information from their children and obtain parental consent prior to collecting, using, and/or disclosing such information; (3) not to condition a child’s participation in online activities on the provision of more personal information than is reasonably necessary to participate in the activity; (4) to allow parents the opportunity to review and/or have their children’s information deleted from the operator’s database and to prohibit further collection from the child; and (5) to establish procedures to protect the confidentiality, security, and integrity of personal information they collect from children. As directed by the COPPA, the Rule also provides a safe harbor for operators following Commission-approved self-regulatory guidelines.
Core ad video
The essential video asset, often repurposed from offline. Can be displayed directly in the player, or in a more customized presentation.
CPCV
Cost Per Completed View – (CPCV) the price an advertiser pays every time a video ad runs through to completion; rather than paying for all impressions, some of which may have been stopped before completion, and advertiser only pays for ads that finished [CPCV = Cost ÷ Completed Views ]
Cost per Download
Cost per Download – (CPD) the price an advertiser pays every time a desired download (such as a coupon download) occurs via an ad unit; rather than paying for all impressions, and advertiser only pays when the desired outcome occurs[CPD = Cost ÷ download]
Cost per Engagement
Cost per Engagement – (CPE) the price an advertiser pays every time a consumer interacts with a rich media ad unit; rather than paying for all impressions, and advertiser only pays when the desired interaction occurs [CPE = Cost ÷ Engagement]
Cost Per Unique Visitor
Total cost of the placement or application, divided by the number of unique visitors.
Count audit/ Activity audit
Independent verification of measured activity for a specified time period. Some of the key metrics validated are ad impressions, page impressions, clicks, total visits and unique users. An activity audit results in a report verifying the metrics. Formerly known as a count audit.
CPA
(Cost-per-Action)
Cost of advertising based on a visitor taking some specifically defined action in response to an ad. Examples of “Actions” include such things as completing a sales transaction, or filling out a form.
CPC (Cost-per-Click)
CPC or cost-per-click is the cost of advertising based on the number of clicks received.
CPC (Cost-per-Customer)
CPC or Cost-per-customer is the cost an advertiser pays to acquire a customer.
CPL
(Cost-per-lead)
Cost of advertising based on the number of database files (leads) received.
CPM
(Cost-per-thousand)
Media term describing the cost of 1,000 impressions. For example, a Web site that charges $1,500 per ad and reports 100,000 impressions has a CPM of $15 ($1,500 divided by 100).
CPO
(Cost-per-Order)
Cost of advertising based on the number of orders received. Also called Cost-per-Transaction.
CPS
(Cost-per-Sale)
The advertiser’s cost to generate one sales transaction. If this is being used in conjunction with a media buy, a cookie can be offered on the content site and read on the advertiser’s site after the successful completion of an online sale.
CPT
(Cost-per-Transaction)
same as cost per order
CPTM
(Cost per Targeted Thousand Impressions)
Implying that the audience one is trying to reach is defined by particular demographics or other specific characteristics, such as male golfers age 18-25. The difference between CPM and CPTM is that CPM is for gross impressions, while CPTM is for targeted impressions.
Web crawler
A web crawler (also known as an automatic indexer, bot, Web spider, Web robot) is a software program which visits Web pages in a methodical, automated manner.
This process is called Web crawling or spidering, and the resulting data is used for various purposes, including building indexes for search engines, validating that ads are being displayed in the appropriate context, and detecting malicious code on compromised web servers.
Many web crawlers will politely identify themselves via their user-agent string, which provides a reliable way of excluding a significant amount of non-human traffic from advertising metrics. The IAB (in conjunction with ABCe) maintains a list of known user-agent strings as the Spiders and Bots list. However, those web crawlers attempting to discover malicious code often must attempt to appear to be human traffic, which requires secondary, behavioral filtering to detect.
Most web crawlers will respect a file called robots.txt, hosted in the root of a web site. This file informs the web crawler which directories should and shouldn’t be indexed, but does not enact any actual access restrictions.
Technically, a web crawler is a specific type of bot, or software agent.
Creative Retargeting
A method that enables advertisers to show an ad specifically to visitors that previously were exposed to or interacted with the advertisers’ creative.
CRM
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is the set of business practices that guide a company’s interactions with current and future customers in all areas, from sales, marketing, and loyalty programs, to customer service, and technical support.
Cross-device targeting
The ability to serve sequential ad messages to the same consumer from one device to the next (e.g. first on a person’s desktop then again on his/her smartphone).
Cross-site Advertiser Analytics
Software or services that allow an advertiser to optimize and audit the delivery of creative content on pre-bought publisher inventory. Data can range from numbers of pages visited, to content visited, to purchases made by a particular user. Such data is used to surmise future habits of user or best placement for a particular advertiser based on success
Cross-site analytics
Cross-site analytics are statistics that span multiple web sites. In the interactive advertising industry, there ware two main consumers for cross-site analytics - large publishers, who want to understand traffic behavior over multiple properties, and advertisers, who want to understand inventory before a campaign and success metrics afterwards.
Cross-Site Publisher Analytics
Services that provide normative metrics about and estimates of multiple publishers’ inventory.
Crowdsourcing
Taking a task that would conventionally be performed by a contractor or employee and turning it over to a typically large, undefined group of people via an open call for responses.
Case Study Road Show
The IAB’s Case Study Road Show (CSRS) brings a day of cross-platform, cross-objective digital case studies to media professionals in various cities.
CSS
(Cascading Style Sheet)
A stylesheet language used to describe the presentation of a document written in a markup language. CSS provides a more elegant alternative to straight HTML to quickly specify the look and feel of a single Web page or a group of multiple Web pages.
Cyber Cafe
A public venue like a bar or cafe which contains computers with access to the Internet.
Data
In interactive advertising, the computer science definition of data is most often used - that is, information in a form suitable for use with a computer. Most commonly, three types of data are associated with cookies for interactive advertising:
Observed Facts
An interaction that is recorded directly. This includes:
Browser information (User Agent, Operating System, installed plug-ins, for example).
Ad impressions, clicks, and conversions.
Searches, pages viewed.
Declared Facts
Information generally recorded as part of site registration or use that is provided directly from a human. This includes:
Demographic information like Age, Gender, and Occupation.
Social connections.
Geographic information like State and ZIP.
Inferred Facts
By aggregating observed facts and comparing against other sets of observed and declared facts, a third type of data can be generated. Examples of inferred facts include:
Friend suggestions.
Demographic information, when it hasn’t been declared.
Market segment.
Data Aggregator
A data aggregator is an organization that collects and compiles data from various sources, often offering results or access for resale. There are three primary types of data aggregators:
Offline Data Aggregators
Generally establishing an interest in managing data from sources prior to the proliferation of the internet, companies like Acxiom and ChoicePoint have offered data acquired through both public record and private sources (like customer loyalty cards) for sale. This data is primarily sold to advertisers at the ZIP or ZIP+4 level, in order to maintain anonymity. Increasingly, the offline data is migrated for use in online campaign targeting.
Online Data Aggregators
Most often called Data Management Platforms (DMPs), companies like Lotame and BlueKai establish relationships with a large number of websites in order to gain a big-picture view of cookied users that would be inaccessible to individual sites.
Personal Data Aggregators
Used primarily for either investigation of an individual or reputation management, companies like Spokeo and Chi.mp allow information for an individual to be collected in one place. This has little use for digital advertising.
Data Append
User data from one source is linked to a user’s profile from another source.
DMP
Data Management Platform
A Data Management Platform (DMP) is a system that allows the collection of audience intelligence by advertisers and ad agencies, thereby allowing better ad targeting in subsequent campaigns.
Daughter window
An ad that runs in a separate ad window associated with a concurrently displayed banner. In normal practice, the content and banner are rendered first and the daughter window appears thereafter.
Deal ID
A number that is assigned to a programmatic ad transaction used by both the buyer and seller to transact on prearranged parameters; in invitation-only auctions (aka private marketplaces).
Deep packet inspection
A form of computer network packet filtering that examines the data and/or header part of a packet as it passes an inspection point. In the context of online advertising, it is used to collect data, typically through an Internet Service Provider, which can be used to display targeted advertising to users based on previous web activity.
DSP
Demand side platform
A demand side platform (DSP), also called buy side optimizer and buy side platform is a technology platform that provides centralized and aggregated media buying from multiple sources including ad exchanges, ad networks and sell side platforms, often leveraging real time bidding capabilities of these sources.
Demographic Targeting
A method that enables advertisers to show an ad specifically to visitors based on demographic information such as age, gender and income which may come from, site registration data or an inference-based mechanism.
Demographics
Common characteristics used for population or audience segmentation, such as age, gender, household income, etc.
DMA
Designated Market Area – (DMA) as defined by Nielsen on nielsen.com, “DMA (Designated Market Area) regions are the geographic areas in the United States in which local television viewing is measured by The Nielsen Company. The DMA data are essential for any marketer, researcher, or organization seeking to utilize standardized geographic areas within their business.” (Note: these regions can be applied to digital marketing as well as traditional TV)
Desktop Application
Software that is installed on a computer.
DHTML
(Dynamic Hypertext Markup Language)
An extended set of HTML commands which are used by Web designers to create much greater animation and interactivity than HTML.
Digital signatures
Signatures for electronic documents. They establish identity and therefore can be used to establish legal responsibility and the complete authenticity of whatever they are affixed to – in effect, creating a tamper-proof seal.
Digital Video Server
A robust, dedicated computer at a central location that receives command requests from the television viewer through a video-on-demand application. Once it receives this request, it then instantly broadcasts specific digital video streams to that viewer.
Direct Response
Direct Response – (DR) an ad that is designed to have the viewer take immediate action; for example, in digital advertising, this often means a click, sign up, download, or purchase
Display Advertising
A form of online advertising where an advertiser’s message is shown on a destination web page, generally set off in a box at the top or bottom or to one side of the content of the page.
DMP
A Data Management Platform (DMP) is a system that allows the collection of audience intelligence by advertisers and ad agencies, thereby allowing better ad targeting in subsequent campaigns.
Domain name
The unique name that identifies an Internet site. Every domain name consists of one top or highlevel and one or more lower-level designators. Top-level domains (TLDs) are either generic or geographic. Generic top-level domains include .com (commercial), .net (network), .edu (educational), .org (organizational, public or non-commercial), .gov (governmental), .mil (military); .biz (business), .info (informational),.name (personal), .pro (professional), .aero (air transport and civil aviation), .coop (business cooperatives such as credit unions) and .museum. Geographic domains designate countries of origin, such as .us (United States), .fr (France), .uk (United Kingdom), etc.
DPO
(Distinct Point of Origin)
A unique address from which a browser connects to a Web site on the Internet.
Drill down
When an online user accesses more and more pages of the Web site, i.e., he or she goes deeper into the content of the site.
DSL
Digital subscriber line
A digital subscriber line (DSL) connection is a high-speed dedicated digital circuit from a given location to the telephone company’s central office, using normal copper telephone lines. DSL is the main form of consumer broadband worldwide. DSL is a general term that includes several variations:
ADSL - Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line, ranging up to 1.5 Mbps
HDSL - High-bit-rate Digital Subscriber Line, 1.5 Mbps
SDSL - Single-line Digital Subscriber Line, 1.5 Mbps
VDSL - Very high-data-rate Digital Subscriber Line, ranging up to 2.3 Mbps
RDSL - Rate Adaptive Digital Subscriber Line, various speeds.
DVR
(Digital Video Recorder)
A high capacity hard drive that is embedded in a set-top box, which records video programming from a television set. DVRs enable the viewer to pause, fast forward, and store TV programming.
Dwell Rate
The percentage of users exposed to a given piece of rich media content or advertising who interact with that content moving their cursors over it (but not clicking).
Dwell Time
The amount of time that a user keeps his or her cursor stationary over a given icon, graphic, ad unit, or other piece of Web content. Often used in the context of expandable ads, where the ad increases in size only when users roll over it with their mice. Usually calculated and reported as an average across all viewers of a piece of content.
Dynamic ad insertion
The process by which an ad is inserted into a page in response to a user’s request. Dynamic ad placement allows alteration of specific ads placed on a page based on any data available to the placement program. At its simplest, dynamic ad placement allows for multiple ads to be rotated through one or more spaces. In more sophisticated examples, the ad placement could be affected by demographic data or usage history for the current user.
Dynamic IP address
An IP address (assigned by an ISP to a client PC) that changes periodically.
Dynamic rotation
Delivery of ads on a rotating, random basis so that users are exposed to different ads and ads are served in different pages of the site.
E-commerce
The process of selling products or services via the Web.
E-mail Advertising
Banner ads, links or advertiser sponsorships that appear in e-mail newsletters, e-mail marketing campaigns and other commercial e-mail communications. Includes all types of electronic mail (e.g., basic text or HTML-enabled).
E-mail Bounce
An e-mail that cannot be delivered to the mailbox provider and is sent back to the e-mail Service Provider that sent it. A bounce is classified as either “hard” or “soft.” Hard bounces are the failed delivery of e-mail due to a permanent reason, such as a non-existent address. Soft bounces are the failed delivery of e-mail due to a temporary issue, such as a full inbox or an unavailable ISP server.
E-mail Inbox
Within a mailbox provider, the default, primary folder that stores delivered e-mail messages.
E-mail Mailbox Provider
The e-mail program, and by extension the server, that hosts the targeted e-mail address.
E-mail Preview Pane
A small window within a mailbox provider that allows the user to view some e-mail content without opening the e-mail.
E-mail Service Provider (ESP)
A business or organization that provides the e-mail campaign delivery technology. ESPs may also provide services for marketing, advertising and general communication purposes.
Effective CPM
Effective CPM – the average CPM of a campaign [eCPM = Total Cost ÷ Total Imps x 1000];
EPG
An electronic programming guide is an application that allows the viewer to interactively select television programming.
Encoder
A hardware or software application used to compress audio and video signals for the purpose of streaming. See codec.
Encoding
The process of compressing and separating a file into packets so that it can be delivered over a network.
Encryption
Securing digital information so that it is unreadable without the use of digital keys.
Engagement
A general term used to classify interaction a consumer has with brand content, whether it be in an ad, on a brand’s site, or via a brand’s social media profile page.
Ethernet
A networking technology that links computers together in local area networks.
ETV (Enhanced Television)
A type of interactive television technology which allows content producers to send data and graphical “enhancements” through a small part of the regular analog broadcast signal called the Vertical Blanking Interval. These enhancements appear as overlays on the video and allow viewers to click on them if they are watching TV via special set-top box/software services.
Event trackers
Primarily used for click-through tracking today, but also for companion banner interactions and video session tracking (e.g. 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%).
Expandable banners
Expandable banners are Rich Media Ads that expand in size when a user rolls over or clicks on them. They reveal more advertising information and are designed to grab the attention of the user.
Explicit Profile Data Targeting
Explicit data is “registration quality data” collected either online or offline. For online registration data, the user has certain attributes in his or her registration profile at a particular site or service, and that data is associated with the user’s Web cookie or some sort of audience database when the user next logs in. Offline registration data includes the sorts of data held in the massive offline direct response industry databases built up over the last several decades. These are then matched to a user online when that user logs in somewhere that is a partner of the data company. The site at which the user logs in, usually an online mail or similar site, sends the name/email combination to the data company, which then makes the match and sends back data. Ethical data providers do not put personally-identifiable data into the cookie or audience database, but rather anonymize the data (e.g., “male” rather than a name or address).
Exposed group
A term used in ad effectiveness measurement; the collection of consumers who were exposed to an ad (their actions are then compared to the “control group” – the group that did not see the ad – and the difference between the two groups should show the effectiveness of the ad campaign).
Extranet
An intranet that is partially accessible to authorized outsiders via a valid username and password.
Eyeballs
Slang term for audience; the number of people who view a certain website or advertisement.
Failure to transfer
Content requested by a browser can fail to transfer if the page is abandoned by the browser which requested it (see abandonment) or if the server is unable to send the complete page, including the ads (known as an error or a communications error).
FAQ
Frequently asked questions.
Fiber optic cable
Strands of glass used to transmit data—encoded as light—at extremely high data rates. Fiber optics is widely deployed in backbone data networks today and is beginning to be used for “lastmile” broadband connections as well.
Fiber to the home
Data networking infrastructure base on fiber optic cables being deployed by some telcos and other ISPs to provide faster broadband internet connectivity and other services.
Filtering
The process of removing robotic activity and error codes from measurement records to make the remaining records representative of valid human Internet actions.
Filtration guidelines
IAB voluntary guidelines for removing non-human activity in the reported measurement of ad impressions, page impressions, unique visitors and clicks. See the IAB’s Ad Campaign Measurement Guidelines.
Firewall
A security barrier controlling communication between a personal or corporate computer network and the Internet. A firewall is based on rules which allow and disallow traffic to pass, based on the level of security and filtering a network administrator wishes to employ.
Flame
An inflammatory opinion or criticism distributed by e-mail or posted on a newsgroup or message board.
Flash
Adobe’s vector-based rich media file format which is used to display interactive animations on a Web page.
Flighting
A term borrowed from television advertising that means the timing around when a commercial will air, this can be used to talk about laying out the parameters of a digital ad campaign.
