A/B Testing: When you compare different versions of digital ads or website landing pages to see which one performs better. An A/B test for digital ads would be running two different versions of ad creative and then measuring which version gets a higher engagement from viewers.
Above The Fold: This is a term from the print advertising industry. In digital, it refers to the area of a web page that’s visible before the website visitor scrolls down the page. If an ad is “above the fold” it means the ad widget is placed on the website in an area before the user has to scroll.
Ad Exchange: Technology platforms that allow website publishers and advertisers to buy and sell advertising inventory in real-time auctions known as real-time-bidding.
Ad Inventory: This refers to the number of potential ads that a website publisher can serve on their website.
Ad Targeting: Showing ads to a specific audience based on criteria such as geography, demographics, keywords, psychographics, web browsing behavior and past behaviors.
Analytics: Google Analytics is the most common type of analytics program. Analytics programs compile data and statistics about the users of a website and how they interact with the website. This data can include how many people browse a website, how much time they spend on the website, the pages they visit and the specific actions they take on the website.
Behavioral Targeting: Targeting an ad audience based on their previous online behavior, websites visited, online searches, what they’ve clicked on and purchases.
Bounce Rate: This measures how many visitors to a website only looked at the single page they landed on, did not interact with it, and then left the site. The “bounce rate” is the percentage of total visitor sessions who left after visiting one page.
Brand Awareness: Typically an ad campaign is either for branding awareness or direct response. Brand Awareness is the extent in which a potential consumer can recall and identify a particular product or service.
Browser: The program a person uses to browse the internet. Examples include Safari, Firefox, Chrome, and Internet Explorer.
Call To Action (CTA): The part of an ad designed to compel the viewer to take a certain action. Examples include phrases such as “Click to Read More,” “Download Now,” or “Learn More.”
Click Through Rate (CTR): This statistic shows how often people who are served an ad end up clicking on it. It is a percentage of clicks versus total impressions. An ad’s CTR is calculated by dividing the number of clicks an ad received by the number of times it’s been served, then converting that into a percentage. For example, if an ad received 5 clicks and was shown 1000 times, the CTR is 0.5%. The national CTR average is .07%.
Contextual Targeting: Selecting audiences based on the type of content being displayed on a particular webpage. Keyword Targeting is a form of Contextual Targeting.
Conversion: The specific action advertisers want the audience for their ad to take. Conversions include actions such as signing up for a newsletter, making a purchase on a website, filling out a Contact Us form, downloading an offer, etc.
Conversion Tag/Pixel: A pixel placed on a web page which is triggered whenever a conversion occurs allowing the advertiser to track the number of people who “converted” from an ad campaign.
Conversion Rate: The number of users who completed the conversion divided by the total number of impressions served, expressed as a percentage.
Cookie: A cookie tracks a visitor’s movement on websites and is used to remember the visitor’s behavior and preferences. This Information is stored on a website visitor’s browser.
Cost per Thousand (CPM): The cost to serve 1,000 ad impressions. It is used as a standard measure for buying display ads, as inventory is generally sold on a CPM basis. A $10CPM means the cost is $10 for every 1,000 impressions sold or 1 cent per impression ($10 divided by 1,000)
Cross-Device Targeting: Serving targeted ads across multiple devices.
Demand-Side Platform (DSP): A platform that allows advertisers to bid for and purchase inventory from multiple ad exchanges, through one single interface.
Direct Response: Typically an ad campaign is either for branding awareness or direct response. A Direct Response campaign is an ad specifically created to encourage the audience to take immediate action.
Display Advertising: A digital advertising format where graphic ads are shown on a web page. The most common sizes are: Banner: 728 x 90, Rectangle: 336 x 280, Skyscraper: 160 x 600, Square: 250 x 250 & 300 x 250. If you would like a visual of these sizes and others, click here.
Frequency: The number of times an ad is delivered to a particular device’s browser.
Frequency Capping: Setting a limit on the number of times an ad will be shown to a consumer within a specific time period.
Geo(graphic) Targeting: Selecting a targeted audience (i.e. Women 21-34) for a campaign based on a radius around a location, zip codes, designated marketing area (DMA), cities, states and countries.
Geo Fencing: Selecting a radius around a location and showing the ad to anyone within that area regardless of who they are and not using any targeted criteria other than location.
IP Address: (Internet Protocol Address) the string of numbers assigned by an Internet Service Provider (ISP) that identifies a household’s internet connection.
(Household) IP Targeting: a form of ad targeting where a database of names and physical street addresses is matched to their corresponding IP addresses and then the advertiser’s ads are only shown to those households.
Impressions: The number of times an ad has been served.
In-Stream Video Ads: Video ads played before, during or after the video content the publisher is delivering to the consumer. In-Stream Video Ads that play before the content are called Pre-Roll Ads.
Interstitial Ads: Ads that appear between two different content pages, served when a website visitor navigates from one page on a website to another.
Keyword: A specific word or phrase chosen by advertisers to trigger the showing of their ad to the person interested in those keywords. This can be done through Pay-Per-Click ads (ads shown on search engine results) or as contextual keyword display advertising where the advertiser’s ad will show up within pages that contain those keywords.
Landing Page: The advertiser’s website page users are directed to (land on) after they click on an ad.
Lookalike Audience: A Lookalike Audience targets people who are similar to your existing customers.
Mobile Search: Any Internet search conducted on a mobile device.
Native Advertising: Paid advertising that runs as sponsored content within a website’s articles, posts or other content. Examples of native advertising include sponsored content on news websites and Facebook News Feed ads.
Paid Search: The placement of ads (usually text ads) within search engine results. This is also referred to as SEM or pay-per-click advertising.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC): Ads where advertisers pay based on the number of clicks received in a campaign. The most common example being Google AdWords pay-per-click text ads that appear on the Search Engine Results Page.
Programmatic Buying: An automated method of buying digital ads based on targeted criteria desired by the advertiser. Programmatic advertising uses data to make decisions about which ads to buy in real time.
Retargeting/Remarketing: Serving ads to people who have previously visited your website, as the surf other websites on the Internet and show them your ads. This is done by dropping a tracking cookie on the person’s web browser before they leave the advertisers website.
Rich Media: This is broadly defined as interactive media and usually refers to ads that have video, animation or special effects.
Search Advertising: Another term for “Paid Search” and “Pay-Per-Click” ads.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM): The umbrella term for marketing a website on a search engine. Both Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay-Per-Click (PPC) are forms of Search Engine Marketing (SEM) as is Online Reputation Management (the process of optimizing and managing what is said about your business online).
Search Engine Optimization (SEO): The process of maximizing the number of visitors to a website by utilizing “on the page” and “off the page” tactics to ensure that the website appears high on the list of results returned by a search engine.
Search Retargeting: Targeting people who have NOT been to your website but have previously searched for keywords or phrases you are targeting. The cookies of those people are purchased and then they are shown the advertiser’s ad on websites they visit.
Social Media Advertising: Running paid ads on online social networking platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
View Through: This metric measures a consumer’s behavior after they’ve been served an ad. If a person sees your ad, doesn’t click, but comes back on their own later to your website, that can be tracked as a “view through.”
