Advertising Glossary

Helpful Terminology

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Above The Fold: The upper half of the front page of a newspaper where an important news story or attention-grabbing photograph is placed; may also refer to a webpage describing the section that is visible without scrolling
Ad Flight: length of time that an advertising campaign is aired
Ad Networks: a company that connects advertisers to websites that want to host advertisements
Ad Server: a web server that stashes advertisements used in online marketing and then delivers them to website visitors
Ad Space: the space on a Web page open for potential advertisers
Advertise: Describe or draw attention to (a product, service, or event) in the hope of catching the attention of consumers in a public vicinity
Advertorial: a newspaper or magazine advertisement providing information about a product in the form of an editorial or objective journalistic article
Affiliate Marketing: a marketing practice in which a business compensates one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate’s marketing strategies
Affinity Marketing: a targeted form of marketing products and services
Agency: a business or organization that provides a distinct service, particularly one that involves arranging transactions between two other parties
Artificial Intelligence: machines that can mimic human thought processes
B2B: Business-to-Business. Commerce transactions between businesses
B2C: Business-to-Consumer. Transactions between businesses and end consumers that involve products and/or services
Backbone: the fundamental data routes between large, strategically interconnected networks and dominant routers in the Internet
Bandwidth: the transmission volume of an electronics communications device or system
Banner: a graphic featured on a web page that is usually connected to an advertiser’s website
Below The Fold: the placement of an ad that requires one to unfold or scroll to see
Billboard: an outdoor form of an advertisement on a large board usually placed in highly publicized locations
Bleed: describes an ad that is larger than the area for which it is intended
Blind Link: a text or graphical hyperlink which does not show where the hyperlink leads to
Blind Traffic: web visitor traffic that is produced using blind links
Bounce Rate: represents the percentage of initial visitors to a site who “bounce” away to another site, rather than staying within the original site
Boutique: an agency that provides a limited service, such as one that does creative work but does not offer other services such as media planning or research
Brand Identity: visual elements of a brand, including design, color, and logo, that create a unique and recognizable image for consumers
Browser: a computer software program that allows an individual to access text or graphical web pages on the world wide web
Cache: a computer memory that stores documents accessed in the past locally so that they can be accessed quicker if they are needed again
Campaign: The process of planning, creating, buying, and tracking an advertising project from beginning to end
Chatbots: computer programs created to imitate conversation with human users, particularly over the internet
ChatGPT: an AI chatbot that uses natural language processing to create human-like conversational dialogue
Click Rate: the percentage of impressions that ended in a click-through
Click Through: the action of clicking on a banner and having one's browser automatically redirected to the web page the banner is hyperlinked to
Click Through Rate: the percentage of impressions that resulted in a click-through, calculated by dividing the number of clicks by the number of impressions
Clicks: the number of click-throughs that have occurred as a result of a user clicking on a banner and being redirected to an advertiser’s web page
Clickstream: the path a visitor takes while navigating from site to site or from page to page within a website
Comp: short for comprehensive it is a layout prepared to resemble, as closely as possible, the finished project. Comps are often created for ads, brochures, packaging, etc.
Comparative: an advertising appeal that consists of explicitly comparing one product brand to a competitive brand
Console: a type of pop-up window. Pop-up windows that launch when a visitor leaves a site are often called exit consoles
Content Marketing: creating, publishing, and distributing content to a targeted audience
Contextual Advertising: Contextual advertising is also known as content-targeted advertising, which means that an advertisement is shown on a website that is “in context” to a company’s specific product or service
Conversion: term used to describe the process of getting a web visitor to accept an offer or become a paying customer
Cookies: a process by which a small file is sent from a web server to the local user’s computer to store information unique to that browser
Copy Writing: the process of writing text for an advertisement that gets the reader’s attention, generates interest and desire and prompts action
Copywriter: one who creates the words and concepts for ads and commercials
CPC: Cost Per Click is one of the online payment models by which advertisers pay for each click-through made on their investment
CPD: Cost per day (CPD) is a payment model by which advertisers pay for their ads to be shown on a daily basis
CPI: Cost per inquiry (CPI) is the same as cost per lead, CPL
CPM: Cost per thousand (CPM) is one of the online payment models by which advertisers pay for every 1000 impressions of their advertisement
CPS: One of the types of CPA, a cost per sale (CPS) method allow advertisers to pay whenever a visitor who clicked on their advertisement generates a sale
CPT: On of the types of CPA, a cost per transaction (CPT) method allows advertisers to pay whenever a visitor who clicked on their advertisement generates a transaction or a sale
CPTM: the cost per targeted thousand impressions (CMPT) is the same as CPM but used when referring exclusively to a targeted campaign
Creative: the technology used to create a banner or other type of advertising material
CRM: Customer relationship management refers to how a company manages data about its customers
Cross-Post: sharing a message, link, image, or other content on multiple online platforms
CTA: Call to action (CTA) is a marketing message that directs visitors to act in some specific manner such as requesting a brochure
CTR: abbreviation for click through rate; The rate at which viewers click on an advertisement
Customer Retention: the percentage of customers that continue to do business with a company over a specified period of time
Customer Journey: the encompassment of all the experiences a customer has when interacting with your company and brand
Dark site: A dark website is a pre-made, non-visible website, that can be activated online when a particular crisis occurs
Defaults: term used by ad networks to describe a type of banner that is served to a site when no paying banner is available
Demographics: information regarding the size and characteristics of a particular population of people of interest to advertisers such as their age, sex, income, education, etc.
Direct Marketing: the process by which an advertiser sends their advertising message directly to their customers or potential customers
Direct Response: a type of advertisement that allows recipients to respond directly to the sender to order a product/service or get more information
DMA: Direct Marketing Association is a trade association for advertisers and marketers
DNS: A Domain Name Server is a computer on the internet that helps to translate domain names into IP addresses
Domain Name: the part of an internet address including and immediately preceded by the domain extension
Drip Campaign: a communication strategy that sends pre-written messages to customers or prospects over time
Earned Media: any content featuring you or your business that you did not pay for or create yourself
Email Marketing: sending commercial messages to a group of people using email
End Date: the date on which an advertising campaign ends
Flash: software plug-in that enables browsers to play multimedia animations
Flight: the period of time in which one or more commercials air, typically used to determine any type of advertising
Forced Click: type of click-through that is forced upon a visitor without their consent
Frequency: a term used to describe the number of times the same advertisement is shown to the same visitor during a particular session or time frame
Gamification: the creation of game-like experiences to engage users
Geofence: a virtual boundary that defines a real-world geographic area
Geotargeting: showing ads or content based on the physical location a user is accessing the Internet from
GIF: The graphical interchange format is a graphical file extension
Google Discovery: visually rich ads that appear on YouTube, Google, and Gmail
Guerilla Marketing: an advertising strategy that uses unconventional and surprising interactions to promote a product or service
Hit: a term used by webmasters that refers to a request made to a web server for a page, graphic, audio or sound file
Hot Linking: process by which one links to an image stored on one site yet it appears on one or more other sites
House Ads: a type of banner advertisement that a website publisher runs in an ad space when no paying advertisement is available to fill the space
HTML: Hyper Text Markup Language is a computer programming language that helps control the format of a document’s content and design on the world wide web
Hyperlink: HTML code that when clicked on redirects one's browser to another web page
Impressions: the number of times a banner ad was requested and presumably seen by users
Influencer Marketing: a brand collaborating with an online influencer to advertise a product or service
Insertion Order: an online or printed document that specifies the details of an advertising campaign
Internet: From the term internetworking, the internet is made up of multiple interconnected networks connected using the TCP/IP protocol
Inventory: the number of ad spaces available for sale on a website during a certain time frame
IP address: the numeric address that is translated into a domain name by a domain name server
Island Position: an advertisement that is completely surrounded by editorial material with no adjoining advertisements to compete for the audience’s attention
Java: a programming language, created by Sun Microsystems, that enables developers to write software on one platform and run it on another
JavaScript: a cross-platform, object-based scripting language developed by Netscape for client and server applications
JPEG: Joint Photographic Experts Group is a graphics format that displays photographs and graphic images with millions of colors
Jump Page: special entrance page to a site
Keyword: a word or phrase entered into a search engine in an effort to get the search engine to return matching and relevant results
Keyword Density: the measurement of how frequently any given keyword appears within a web page
Landing Page: The page on a website where one is taken after clicking on an advertisement
Lead: term used to describe a person or company that has expressed interest in an offer
Lead Product: A type of product, that may be sold at a loss, that is used to help companies generate new customers
Life Time Value: Term used to describe the monetary value of a customer to a company over the customer’s lifetime
Line Item: A unit of advertising that is sold by the publisher to the advertiser
Machine Learning: a branch of artificial intelligence that utilizes data and algorithms to simulate human learning and improve its accuracy over time
Make Goods: Adjustments made by a publisher to an advertiser to make up for a shortfall in contracted ad impressions or errors
Malvertising: The use of online advertising to spread malware
Media Kit: Information offered to potential advertisers by publishers to help advertisers understand the publisher’s rates, visitor demographics, terms, etc.
Mind Share: The amount of attention required by something and the time spent thinking about something
Monetization: The way or ways in which money is generated from a process, resource, or service
Netiquette: The do's and don’ts of online behavior
Newbie: A term to describe someone new to the internet
NFT: non-fungible tokens are unique and valuable items that are one-of-a-kind and irreplaceable
Niche: That part of the market consisting of those people most likely to be interested in a product or service you are selling
Nurture Campaign: a marketing strategy that focuses on building relationships between a brand and its audience
Omnichannel: A business strategy that aims to create a smooth and consistent shopping experience across all channels, including in-store, mobile, and online
Opt In: A process where a user voluntarily agrees to start receiving email, usually commercial, about a topic of interest
Opt Out: A process where a user voluntarily agrees to stop receiving email, usually commercial, about a topic of interest
Page View: Occurs when a user’s browser requests a webpage
Paid Search: a digital marketing strategy that involves paying search engines to feature ads higher on relevant search engine results pages
Pay Per Click: An online payment model where advertisers pay for each click through made on their investment
Pay Per Impression: Online payment models where advertisers pay for every 1000 impressions of their advertisement
Pitch: When an advertising agency attempts to win the representation of its client usually by making a presentation as to how they could best advertise their client’s products or services
Platform: The type of computer or operating system on which a software application is designed to operate on
Point of Purchase: Point of purchase (POP) usually refers to the area in a store where the consumer is completing their purchase
Pop Up: A type of advertisement that is automatically displayed in a second smaller browser window upon loading or unloading a normal web page
Portal: A web site that offers so many resources that a visitor has little reason to go to another site for more information
PPC: Pay per click (PPC) is a method by which advertisers’ ads show for free and only pay for clicks on their ads
Preemptive: advertising that explains to customers a company’s business processes undertaken in order to deliver high-quality products or services
Press Releaset: an official statement to the media, conveying information or making an announcement to the public
Product Placement: The prominent display of commercial products in films, TV shows, and video games
Proxy Server: a web server between a website and a user’s browser that is used to cache frequently accessed data from a website so that it may be accessed quicker
Psychographics: Identification of personality characteristics and attitudes that affect a person’s lifestyle and purchasing behaviors
Publisher: This is the website operator, also referred to as an Affiliate or Partner
Rank: a website or advertisement’s standing in comparison to other websites or advertisements
Rate Card: the published rates and ad space availability for a particular media such as a website or magazine
Reach: the number of unique visitors that visited a site over the course of the reporting period, expressed as a percent of the universe for the demographic category
Real Time: a term used to describe immediate results
Referring Page: the web page that a visitor was previously at before arriving to the current page as a result of clicking a hyperlink on the previous web page
Regional: often used to describe web page requests that originated from a similar geographical area
Registration: a process by which visitors to a web site are either requested or required to register certain details about themselves in order for complete access to the site
Remnant Space: advertising space that remains unsold right before it is about to be used and thus often sold at a discount at the last minute
Request: the attempt by one’s browser to retrieve a page, including page elements such as a banner advertisement, from a server on the internet
Retargeting: an online targeted advertising method that displays ads to users based on their previous internet behavior
Return Visits: the number of times the same visitor returns to a site over a set period of time
Responsive Design: the automatic adjustment of a web page to fit a variety of devices and window or screen sizes from minimum to maximum display size
RFP: a request for proposal (RFP) is a term that may be used by an advertiser that is requesting some type of advertising arrangement
RFQ: a request for quotation (RFQ) is a term that may be used by an advertiser that is requesting a price for placing advertisements
Rich Media: a type of advertisement technology that often includes richer graphics, audio or video within the advertisement
Right Hand Read: ad placed on the right hand side of a page on the right page
Roadblock: an ad roadblock provides an advertiser with the ability to “own” 100% of the page views on an online ad network, blog, website, or other online property for a specified period of time
ROC: run of category (ROC) means a banner will appear anywhere within a category on a website or ad network
ROI: return on investment (ROI) is the process used to determine whether the monetary benefits from an expenditure, such as an advertising campaign, are above or below the amount of money spent on the campaign
RON: run of network (RON) means a banner will appear on any page of any site that is part of an ad network
ROS: run of site (ROS) means a banner will appear anywhere on a website as opposed to run of category which would appear only on pages within a specific category
Rotation: a banner that is in rotation on a page or group of page, will not be the only banner shown when any of the pages are reloaded
RSS: really simple syndication (RSS) is a lightweight XML format designed for sharing headlines and other web content
SEM: search engine marketing (SEM) is the practice of promoting a website through a search engine
SEO: search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of promoting a website through a search engine’s organic listings
Session: a series of page requests by a visitor without 30 consecutive minutes of inactivity
Shockwave: a software plug in that enables browsers to play multimedia animations
Skyscraper: a type of ad unit that is much taller than it is wide
Slogan: a short, memorable advertising phrase that often appears in advertisements
Social Media Management: regular creation and scheduling of content on social media platforms to increase engagement and grow an audience
Snackable Content: a term for easily consumable content designed to convey an idea quickly and effectively
Snail Mail: a term for traditional land and air mail services
Soft Sell: technique of using low pressure appeals in advertisements to generate a sale or response
Spam: the sending of unsolicited emails or news group posts in bulk often containing commercial advertising messages
Spider: a software program that automatically follows links on the world wide web
Splash Page: also known as a “jump page”, a splash page is a special entrance page to a site
Split-Run: the testing process of sending the same advertisement to two or more groups with different headlines or copy to determine effectiveness of each
Sponsorships: a form of advertising in which an advertiser pays to sponsor a section of a website
Standards: a set of voluntary standards created by the Interactive Advertising Bureau for online advertisement sizes, dimensions and names
Start Date: the date on which an advertising campaign starts
Statistics: the records that an ad serving software keeps each time it serves an ad and the ad is clicked on
Sticky: a term used to describe a website on which visitors stay at for longer than normal
Subliminal: subliminal persuasion is the use of an advertising message presented below the presence of consciousness
Tag Line: a slogan or phrase that conveys the most important product attribute or benefit that the advertiser wishes to convey
Targeted: refers to advertisements that are aimed, on the basis of demographic analysis, at one specific subsection of the market
Testimonial: a statement, often given by a celebrity or satisfied customer, affirming the value of a product, event or service
Text Ads: a marketing tool to promote a product or service on the Google Network
Traffic: general term used to describe a quantity of requests for web pages or other downloadable content by website visitors
Unique Visitors: a term used to describe the total number of visitors to a site over a certain time period
Up Sell: the process of making an additional offer for related products/services to a customer after they have committed to a sale but before they have completed the transaction
User-Generated Content: any type of content, such as text, videos, images, reviews, and more, that is created by an individual
Virual: type of advertising, usually online, that encourages viewers to pass along the ad or link to it, to others
Virual Marketing: advertising that propagates itself by a web visitor’s use of a websites feature or service
Visit: a series of page requests by a visitor without 30 consecutive minutes of inactivity
Volume Discount: a price discount often offered to advertisers willing to commit to a certain quantity of page impressions at a certain rate
Web Page: a document that can contain text, graphics, sound or video and displayed in a browser window accessible on the world wide web
Web Server: a computer connected to the internet for the purpose of serving a website’s web pages to visitors on the world wide web
Web Site: a collection of hyperlinked web pages organized at the same domain name
Webcasting: a process where sound and/or video is broadcast online
Webmaster: a term used loosely to describe an individual assigned to administering a website
Word-of-Mouth: when satisfied customers share information about a company's product or service with others