Digital Media 101 Glossary

Designated Market Area (DMA)

A geographic area of the US as determined by Nielson Media Research.

Demand Side Platform (DSP)

A technology platform that allows buyers (agencies and advertisers) to manage multiple Ad Exchange accounts through a single interface. Used to automate media buying across multiple sources with unified targeting, data, optimization and reporting. Data is treated like media in that it is layered across the buy and becomes just another part of the cost. DSPs do not own, purchase, represent or resell inventory from publishers. As John Montgomery, chief operating officer of mOne puts it: "A DSP is simply the plumbing that plugs into real-time inventory sources, such as real-time exchanges, and participates in a public auction on behalf of its clients." In contrast, ad networks own or represent inventory from or on behalf of publishers. Ex. Include MediaMath, TubeMogul, Turn, DataXu

Placement

A unit of purchase for media space between an agency and a publisher. Advertisements are placed in traditional media such as newspapers, magazines, television, radio and outdoor signs, and in new media such as websites, text messages and social media. Placing is the buying of specific space in print and online or time on the air. Placement is where the ad is positioned or delivered within a medium. This term is often also used to refer to the ad tag used for a Direct Media Buy; each placement has a designated format, publisher, impression levels and timeline for ad serving.

Ad Call/Ad Request

A user's browser asks an ad exchange or ad server to send an ad. The ad call includes information from browser cookies and ad tag information such as publisher ID, size, location, referring URL, etc.

In-Banner Video

A video delivered inside of a display ad creative for a given placement rather than initiating the use of a video player.

Display Ads

Also known as 'Banners.' A form of graphical ads embedded into a webpage, typically including a combination of static/animated images, text and/or video. Banner dimensions are typically defined by width and height, represented in pixels.

Overlay

An ad unit that displays briefly over webpage or video content when initiated.

Companion Ads

Display Ads intended to appear on a page simultaneous to an In-Stream (Video) advertisement. The In-Stream and Companion are often considered one Ad unit.

Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB)

Industry trade group that develops online ad standards and guidelines. (http://www.iab.net/about_the_iab)

IP Address

Internet Protocol address; a numerical label assigned to each device (e.g., computer, printer) participating in a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. An IP address serves two principal functions: host or network interface identification and location addressing.

Terms & Conditions (T&Cs)

Legal guidelines by which a signed IO is governed

RFP

Request for Proposal

Horizontal Ad Network

Sells a wide base of inventory available, i.e., not specialized

Mobile Ad Network

Sells ads onto wireless devices including phones and now tablets. There's more to it than just sales, as it takes work to get one ad to appear on phones across multiple platforms (e.g., Android and Apple). There are three big ones: Google (AdMob), Apple (formerly Quattro) and Millennial, plus some focused on rich media or various verticals

Geo Targeting

Serving ads based on a specific location as determined by the user's IP address

Contextual Targeting

Serving ads based on the content on a page

Demo Targeting

Serving ads based on the demographics (age/gender/etc)

Behavioral Targeting

Serving ads based on the users web browsing actions and history

Vertical Ad Network

Specialized. There are women's networks, sports networks, networks of people in the market to buy a car, etc

Supply-Side Platform (SSP)

Technology platform that allows publishers to access multiple sources of advertiser revenue by connecting to many different ad networks or ad exchanges through a single interface. Ex. LiveRail, FreeWheel.

Ad Exchange

Technology platform that facilitates automated buying and selling of online media. Publishers designate inventory and buyers can access it. Ad exchanges are based on the notion of rational marketplace that automates the tedious buying process, allowing publishers to set a "floor," or minimum bid, for what types of ads they will accept, while buyers bid for varying types of inventory available but rarely know in advance where those ads will show up. Ex. Google AdExchange (AdX), SpotExchange (SpotX), Brightroll Exchange (BRX.) Some publishers also have their own exchanges, known as 'private exchanges.'

Video Ad Network

The combo of sight, sound and motion is hot (and generates the highest CPMs). Recently this space has been a land grab for more generalized networks that are snapping up or merging with video networks. They don't only aggregate video inventory against which to run ads -- some also syndicate video content across a range of sites, as there is not enough video inventory at the right price to meet demand. Ex. Include YuMe, Tremor, Videology.

Frames Per Second (FPS)

The metric used to indicate the frame rate of animated or video creative content, e.g. 24-fps.

Real-Time Bidding (RTB)

The technical protocol by which buying and selling impressions instantaneously takes place. The highest bidder "wins" the right to place a display ad to a specific end user with certain audience characteristics.

Below The Fold (BTF)

The website screen made visible by scrolling below the initial screen image. Industry Fact: Different screen sizes will impact the percentage of an ad that falls below the fold.

User Initiation

The willful act of a user to engage with an ad by clicking on the ad, and/or rolling over an ad (or a portion of an ad).

Performance Ad Network

These networks have a wide range of inventory available and are all about driving direct response at the lowest possible price.

Audience Based Ad Network

They sell with the idea of aggregating users based on either demography or intent (to purchase something)

UGC

User Generated Content

In-Stream Video Ads

Video Ads played before, during or after (pre-roll, mid-roll or post-roll) a website's streaming video content, within the publisher's video player. These ads cannot typically be stopped from being played. This format is the most frequent method publishers use to monetize their video content.

Video Player-Ad Interface Definition

a common communication protocol between ad units and video players that enables rich ad experiences and detailed event reporting back to advertisers

Publisher

a company that owns media space. Advertisers gain access to Consumers through Publishers, by purchasing media space.

Agency

a company that plans, distributes, and manages advertising on behalf of an Advertiser.

Data Management Platform (DMP)

a company whose core offering is a very smart, very fast cookie warehouse with the analytical firepower to crunch, de-duplicate, and integrate advertiser data with any technology platform

Advertiser

a company with a product to sell.

Cookie

a file on a Web user's browser or hard drive used to record data about the user

Insertion Order (IO)

a formal, printed or electronic order to run an ad campaign. This order or contract governs the digital buy. Typically, the insertion order identifies the campaign name, the Web site receiving the order and the planner or buyer giving the order, the individual ads to be run (or who will provide them), the ad sizes, the campaign beginning and end dates, the CPM, the total cost, discounts to be applied, and reporting requirements and possible penalties or stipulations relative to the failure to deliver the impressions.

Trading Desk

a managed service layer within an Agency holding company that provides a 'center of excellence' dedicated to managing programmatic, bid-based media buys

HTML5

a markup language for structuring and presenting content for the World Wide Web. Its core aims have been to improve the language with support for the latest multimedia while keeping it easily readable by humans and consistently understood by computers and devices (web browsers, parsers, etc.).

Consumer

a person with money to buy advertised products.

Run-of-Network (RON)

a placement that can appear on all sites within a given network of sites.

Run-of-Site (ROS)

a placement that can rotate on all non-featured ad spaces on a site.

Video Multiple Ad Playlist (VMAP)

a protocol that allows content owners to describe where ad breaks should be placed in their content when they do not control the video player or the content distribution outlet

Ad Server

a system that provides creative, technology and analytics for online ads; used by advertisers and web publishers for rapid and reliable display of online advertisements. An important component of ad servers is independent tracking of ad display and click information. Often referred to as 'third party ad servers' because they provide an independent source of reporting, Ad serving companies include, but are not limited to, DoubleClick (Google), DG MediaMind, and Atlas (Facebook).

Creative

ad banners and other forms of online advertising; generally these items are images, Flash files and HTML5.

Above the Fold (ATF)

ads that appears on a site without scrolling

Ad Networks

advertising companies that aggregate ad space supply from publishers and sell it to advertisers in exchange for a share of the ad revenue. Ad Networks also administer ad sales, billing, serving and collection on behalf of web sites

Impression

also called exposure or ad view. A single ad appears on a Web page when the page arrives at the viewer's display. Impressions are what most Web sites sell or prefer to sell.

Creative Shop

an Agency that designs and builds advertising the creative for an Advertising campaign

Media Agency

an Agency that plans and purchases where advertising will appear

Video Ad-Serving Template (VAST)

an XML protocol mandated by the IAB, for serving in-stream video ads, permitting ad servers to use a single ad response format across multiple compliant publishers/video players

Third-Party Tracking

an entity that is not the site provides code to enable advertisers to track the performance of the campaigns and record metrics associated with the ad on a web page. Examples of how third-party tracking is used include: • To affirm that the ad server's impression and click data match the ad server's data. • When an agency is using multiple vendors, and the agency wants to use the same counting methodology. • Brand surveys, audience management, brand verification, privacy issues, and so on.

Synced/Tandem Ads

animation and/or interactive elements between two or more ads are linked together on a web page.

Roadblock

appear in two or more places at the same time for the same advertiser on a web page; advertisers will often buy the roadblocks on home pages for 24 hours at a time.

Ad Tag

code on a site that will "call" an ad server and deliver the advertiser's content on a page.

Cost Per Click/Pay Per Click (CPC, PPC)

cost per click/pay per click. The cost of a single click on a listing, keyword, banner or similar item for which you would pay each time someone selects/clicks.

Cost Per Lead/Cost Per Action (CPL, CPA)

cost per lead/cost per action (typically defined in the Insertion Order)

Cost Per Thousand (CPM)

cost per thousand impressions. The acronym CPM is used an industry standard measure for selling advertising on Web sites. The amount charged is for displaying an ad impression 1000 times on a website

Rich Media

display ads that contain perceptual or interactive elements more elaborate than the a standard banner, may include video and/or interactive elements.

Content Networks

groups of websites that have jointly agreed to show ads on their site in exchange for a share of the collective revenue generated by those ads. Ex. Grab Media could be classified as a Content Network.

Cache

is a component that transparently stores data on your hard drive or a network so that future requests for that data can be served faster.

Clickthrough

is counted by the sponsoring site as a result of an ad click. In practice, click and clickthrough tend to be used interchangeably.

Portals

online services that bring content from diverse sources together in combination with services like email, news, entertainment and search capabilities. Ex. AOL, Yahoo!, MSN.

Unique Visitor

someone with a unique address who is entering a Web site for the first time that day (or some other specified period). Thus, a visitor that returns within the same day is not counted twice. A unique visitors count tells you how many different people there are in your audience during the time period, but not how much they used the site during the period.

Click Through Rate (CTR)

the percentage of ad views that resulted in clickthroughs.

Inventory

the total number of ad views or impressions that a Web site has to sell over a given period of time.

Analytics

tools and reports that provide insight into the success of each campaign. Analytics are typically provided by the advertiser's / publisher's ad server. Clients may use an additional third-party vendor for brand surveys, audience management, brand verification, and data integration from other sources.

Conversion Tag

tracking that allow you to gather reports on post-click activity to any ad network configured with the tag. When the tag is called, the 3rd party tag associated with the last ad will be called.

Frequency Capping

using cookies to manage the number of times a user sees a specific ad creative.

Media Buyer

usually at an advertising agency, works with a media planner to allocate the money provided for an advertising campaign among specific print or online media (magazines, TV, Web sites, and so forth), and then calls and places the advertising orders, which often includes requesting proposals and negotiating the final cost.

Aggregators

web sites that aggregate a specific type of content from multiple online sources. For example, you could say that YouTube is the world's largest video aggregator

Web Properties (ex. of Publisher)

websites owned by large media companies like CBS, ABC, etc.