{"id":2228,"date":"2016-03-31T15:18:03","date_gmt":"2016-03-31T15:18:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.searchenginewatch.com\/2016\/03\/31\/dictionary-of-ad-buying-key-terms-and-acronyms\/"},"modified":"2019-03-15T13:30:55","modified_gmt":"2019-03-15T13:30:55","slug":"dictionary-of-ad-buying-key-terms-and-acronyms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2016\/03\/31\/dictionary-of-ad-buying-key-terms-and-acronyms\/","title":{"rendered":"Dictionary of ad buying: key terms and acronyms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>For beginners, buying ads can be a confusing labyrinth of jargon and acronyms.\u00a0To help you make sense of them, we&#8217;ve compiled this helpful glossary.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re new to buying ads, you may not know where to begin. There are a lot of terms; some, like targeting, are fairly obvious, while others just seem like an alphabet soup of acronyms. If you&#8217;re like, &#8220;AMP, CPC, DSP, what?&#8221; fear not. We&#8217;re here to help.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;ve separated\u00a0this glossary into three categories:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Before <\/strong>&#8211;\u00a0where\u00a0we define the different kinds of ads.<\/li>\n<li><strong>During<\/strong> &#8211; is about the terms you&#8217;ll come across while in the purchasing stage, such as &#8220;ad exchange,&#8221; which is very different from an &#8220;ad network.&#8221;<strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>After <\/strong>&#8211; breaks down some of the things that happen once your ad has made its way to the Internet.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>First, let&#8217;s go back to the beginning.<\/p>\n<h2>Before<\/h2>\n<p>The first thing you should know is the difference between the various\u00a0kinds of ads you may be buying. In case you missed our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clickz.com\/clickz\/news\/2435185\/a-beginners-guide-to-display-advertising\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">beginner&#8217;s guide to display advertising<\/a>, here&#8217;s a brief refresher.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Display ad: <\/strong>ads on webpages\u00a0that\u00a0are\u00a0obviously advertising. Display ads are measured in pixels &#8211; picture elements, or the\u00a0dots that make up pictures &#8211; and come in several forms. There are the rectangles and squares we&#8217;re not going to bother defining\u00a0because we&#8217;re confident you&#8217;ve been to first grade, as well as a few others whose names aren&#8217;t so self-explanatory.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Banner ad:\u00a0<\/strong>The horizontally long, vertically short ads most commonly placed at\u00a0the top (<strong>leaderboards<\/strong>)\u00a0or bottom of the page. According to Google, the ones that perform best are 728&#215;90 and 320&#215;110.\u00a0Banners can also take a more tall, narrow form in\u00a0<strong>skyscraper\u00a0<\/strong>ads, which<span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">\u00a0run alongside the page.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Billboard: <\/b>similar to banner ads, but a bit taller. With that extra height, billboards better lend themselves to text.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Button: <\/strong>a\u00a0small display ad. Common sizes are 120&#215;90 or 125&#215;125.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Native ads: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/sew\/opinion\/2441887\/does-native-advertising-really-work\">native ads<\/a> are designed to blend in with their surroundings,\u00a0as commonly seen on Yahoo&#8217;s digital magazines.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.clickz.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/03\/yahoo-music-nativeads.png\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-96591\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-96591\" src=\"https:\/\/www.clickz.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/03\/yahoo-music-nativeads.png\" alt=\"yahoo-music-nativeads\" width=\"600\" height=\"293\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Pop-ups:\u00a0<\/strong>ads that pop up in a new window. They can also appear underneath your window, so as not to be disruptive (<strong>pop-unders<\/strong>) or in between activities (<strong>interstitial<\/strong>). Another form of pop-ups ads are the\u00a0<strong>overlays<\/strong>, which close on their own after 15 to 30 seconds.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Responsive ads:\u00a0<\/strong>ads designed to adapt to different devices and screen sizes.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Rich media<\/strong>: ads with audio, video, or some other interactive element.<\/p>\n<h2>During<\/h2>\n<p>Now\u00a0you know the kind of ads you can buy. Here are some terms from the next stage: actually buying them.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ad exchange:\u00a0<\/strong>a technology platform that enables advertisers and publishers to buy and sell advertising space. AOL&#8217;s Marketplace, Google&#8217;s DoubleClick and Microsoft are a few\u00a0of the big ones.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ad network: <\/strong>companies that connect advertisers with the websites that want to host their ads. Networks vary based on transparency regarding where the ads will run (<strong>vertical\u00a0<\/strong>networks are transparent, while\u00a0<strong>blind\u00a0<\/strong>networks are not),\u00a0whether the advertiser is looking to reach a specific demographic, and formats, such as mobile and video.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ad serving:\u00a0<\/strong>the technology\u00a0and services that place ads on webpages: \u00a0providing the software, counting them, deciding which ads will be the most profitable, and ultimately tracking the ads&#8217; performance.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ad verification:\u00a0<\/strong>a system ensuring that an ad is a good one, from a quality standpoint.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Auction: <\/strong>the process that determines who sees ads, and\u00a0when and where they see them on a page.\u00a0In Google&#8217;s AdSense auction, for example, advertisers determine the maximum amount they&#8217;re willing to pay for an impression, and the winner is chosen based on a combination of targeting, format, and <a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2017\/12\/20\/how-to-improve-your-adwords-conversion-rate\/\">Quality Score<\/a>. That determines how useful someone is likely to find an\u00a0ad, taking into consideration its relevance, keywords and predicted <strong>click-through rate (CTR)<\/strong>. This can be done instantly, on a per-impression basis, known as\u00a0<strong>real-time bidding (RTB)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Addams Family $20,000 Auction Scene\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/LyXbfGyM2IE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Audience buying:\u00a0<\/strong>Using data to target specific groups of consumers.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Cost per click (CPC):\u00a0<\/strong>how much an advertiser earns each time <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clickz.com\/clickz\/news\/2360447\/mastering-the-ppc-challenge-break-even-cpc-and-more-czlsf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">someone clicks on one of their ads<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Cost per mille (CPM): <\/strong>a unit of measurement that refers to the price of advertising. The name can be confusing; &#8220;mille&#8221; is the Latin word for 1,000, and doesn&#8217;t mean 1 million.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Data aggregation:\u00a0<\/strong>the practice of pulling together different kinds of data &#8211; ad-serving, conversion, third-party &#8211; without attaching anyone&#8217;s personal information.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Demand-side platform (DSP):\u00a0<\/strong>the technology that allows advertisers to purchase ads automatically via real-time bidding exchanges.\u00a0The publisher version of this is known as a\u00a0<strong>supply-side\u00a0<\/strong><strong>platform (SSP)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Dynamic creative:\u00a0<\/strong>segment-based advertising that changes automatically, depending on who&#8217;s seeing it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Inventory:\u00a0<\/strong>the number of ads or the amount of space a publisher has available to sell.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Management platform: audience management platforms (AMP)\u00a0<\/strong>automate the process of segmentation, while a\u00a0<strong>data management platform (DMP)\u00a0<\/strong>serves as a one-stop shop for all of an advertiser&#8217;s data.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Programmatic buying:\u00a0<\/strong>an automated way to purchase ad inventory. This is a particularly hot topic now, as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clickz.com\/2016\/02\/02\/how-well-do-agencies-really-understand-programmatic\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">agencies beef up their programmatic capabilities<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>After<\/h2>\n<p>You&#8217;ve purchased your ads. Here are some helpful terms for what comes next.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ad blockers<\/strong>: browser-enabled software <a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2018\/12\/21\/guide-google-analytics-confusing-terms\/\">users<\/a> use in order to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clickz.com\/2016\/03\/09\/what-does-the-iabs-deal-plan-mean-for-ad-blocking\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">avoid seeing ads<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ad fraud:\u00a0<\/strong>the practice of serving ads that will never be seen by human eyes, in order to illegally profit off the clicks.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Banner blindness:\u00a0<\/strong>the idea that there users see so many banner ads that they don&#8217;t even notice them.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conversion:\u00a0<\/strong>when a clicks leads to something valuable for the advertiser, such as a purchase, sign-up or pageview.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Cookie:\u00a0<\/strong>small files\u00a0passed from a web server to a browser, allowing\u00a0advertisers to track people throughout the internet.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Frequency capping:\u00a0<\/strong>a restriction limiting the number of times someone will see the same ad.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Impression:\u00a0<\/strong>the measure of ad views.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Viewability: <\/strong>a metric\u00a0regarding ads actually being seen by people. The current rate is inadequate, according to senior leadership from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clickz.com\/2015\/09\/16\/50-of-senior-digital-execs-believe-iab-mrc-online-ad-viewability-standards-are-inadequate\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and Media Ratings Council (MRC)<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em>This article was originally published on our sister site <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clickz.com\/\">ClickZ<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For beginners, buying ads can be a confusing labyrinth of jargon and acronyms. To help you make sense of them, we&#8217;ve compiled this helpful glossary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":96,"featured_media":2229,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1477,307,450,1086,1008],"content_type":[27095],"class_list":["post-2228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ppc","tag-adsense","tag-advertising","tag-display-advertising","tag-native-advertising","tag-programmatic","content_type-news"],"acf":{"tad_independentcommercial":false,"tad_content_format":false},"post_info":{"name":"Mike Obrien","title":"","thumbnail_url":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/mad-men-drinking-and-smoking-120x90.jpg","category":"PPC","timeago":"10y"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/96"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2228"},{"taxonomy":"content_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content_type?post=2228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}