Industry References

A–C

A

Above the line (ATL)

Marketing activities that are largely non-targeted, have a wide reach, and are focused on building the brand, for example, TV, radio, or outdoor advertising.

See Also Below the line, Through the line.

Ad agency

A company that plans marketing and advertising campaigns, drafts and produces advertisements, places advertisements in the media.

Ad-based video on demand (AVOD)

A service that provides free or lower-cost on demand videos that are displayed with various types of advertising. For example, pre-roll, mid-roll, post-roll ads, or paused ads.

See Also Pre-roll, Mid-roll, Post-roll.

Ad blocker

Software on a user’s browser that stops ads from appearing.

Ad call / Ad request

A browser makes an ad call (or an ad request) when there's an open placement for an ad. The browser asks a sell-side platform (SSP) or an ad exchange to send an ad for an open placement. The ad call contains information from browser cookies and ad tag information.

See Also Ad tag, Bid/Bid response.

Ad collision

An instance when the number of ads within the user’s viewport is too high. For example, more than four ads in the viewport could count as an ad collision.

Addressable (TV or video)

TV or video that serves ads dynamically based on different deterministic factors. Addressable TV or video ads allow brands to advertise to the best-qualified audience.

See Also Connected TV, Over-the-top.

Ad formats

Ad specifications for a specific placement. For example, if the ad should contain text, audio, or graphical elements. The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has defined standard ad formats, but some websites have custom formats.

AdGap ID

A unique line item identifier that's used to minimize the effort of comparing Advertiser and Publisher reports.

Ad group

Refers to a search engine campaign for reporting purposes only.

Ad injection

Ad injection happens when someone inserts ads on apps or web pages without the consent (or payment) of the publisher or site operator. Ad injection is a form of invalid traffic (IVT) or even fraud.

Ad network

A company that serves as a broker between publishers and advertisers. An ad network collects ad inventory from publishers and sells it to advertisers.

Ad Ops

A department, team, or function within a company. They're responsible for managing ad campaigns (for example, campaign setup, delivery, monitoring, optimization, and reporting).

Ad pod / Ad podding

A group of ads that play one after another in a single ad break/placement, similar to ad breaks in traditional TV. An ad pod can be of different lengths and can be inserted at any point in a stream of content.

Ad server

A part of Adform FLOW platform where you can generate, measure, create, and serve digital advertising.

Ad tag

A piece of HTML or JavaScript code that contacts the Ad Server to ask for an ad. This piece of code is inserted within the source code of a web page where an ad is to be placed.

See Also Ad call / Ad request.

Adtech

Advertiser technology that advertisers and publishers use to achieve profit or marketing goals.

Advanced TV

A type of television that has more features than traditional television. Advanced TV may refer to connected TV, smart TV, addressable TV, and over-the-top (OTT).

See Also Connected TV, Addressable (TV or video), Over-the-top.

Ad verification

A technology that verifies if online ads appear on the intended websites and reach the target audience.

Advertiser

A business that advertises online.

Affiliate marketing

An agreement between two websites in which one website agrees to feature content or an ad designed to drive traffic to the other website in exchange for some form of compensation.

Agency trading desk (ATD)

A buy-side trading entity housed within or working for advertising agencies. ATDs usually run programmatic ad buys.

Allow list

A list of website domains, or apps that an advertiser explicitly wants to buy ad space on.

Android advertising ID (AAID)

A unique 32-digit string of characters that Android automatically assigns to each Android device.

Anonymous data

Anonymous data is any visitor data with all identifying information removed, so it cannot be associated with an identifiable person. Unlike with pseudonymous data, advertiser's can't use anonymous data to track visitors activity.

See Also Pseudonymous data.

Application programming interface (API)

An API (application programming interface) is an interface that helps two or more computer programs communicate to one another on a commonly agreed contract (API specification). The commands you use are part of that specification, and an API can be written in any programming language.

App tracking transparency (ATT)

Apple’s opt-in privacy framework that requires all iOS apps to ask users for permission to share their data.

Asset

Items such as logos, artwork, fonts, text, media files, that a brand uses in their banners or other advertising formats.

As soon as possible (ASAP)

A spending pace that spends the budget as soon as possible by bidding on every matching bid request.

Attribute

A piece of information known about a user and stored in a behavioral profile. An attribute can be used to match ad content to users. Attributes consist of demographic information (for example, a location), segment information (for example, automobile enthusiast), and retargeting information (for example, visited the website two days ago). Generally, this information is anonymous data.

Attribution

The process of connecting a consumer action to a desired action. Attribution can help understand how media impacts sales, awareness, purchase intent, and other measurable KPIs.

See Also Attribution window.

Attribution window

Attribution window determines for how long cookies will be kept in a user’s browser.

See Also Attribution.

Auction

An advertising mechanism that has three main components: an offer (for example, an ad placement for sale), a bid (one or more advertisers offering a price for the ad placement), and a winner (an advertiser that gets to serve an ad to the placement). There are two types of auctions: invitation-only and open auctions.

See Also Private marketplace, Open auction.

Audience

A group of people who visit a specific website or are reached through other channels (for example, watching a specific TV program). Also called a segment.

Audience targeting

A practice that advertisers use to show ads to specific groups of people (audiences) based on their shared characteristics (behavioral, demographic, geographic, or other). Audience targeting uses anonymous data.

Automated content recognition (ACR)

Identification technology in a device that recognizes content (using video, audio, or watermark cues), and matches it to a database for verification. Advertisers use this information to understand when a consumer saw their ad.

Autoplay

Video content that starts without a visitor clicking Play.

Auto-tagging

An automatic addition of parameters and values to the end of a URL to track visitor journey. Once the system adds the parameters to Adform tags, campaign statistics are transferred from Adform to a platform outside Adform (for example, Google Analytics).

Awareness

The first stage of a conversion funnel. The goal of awareness ads is to make people aware of the advertiser's brand.

B

Backfill

Inventory that wasn't pre-sold.

See Also Remnant inventory.

Banner ad

A form of display advertising that can range from a static graphic to a full motion video.

Batch

A group of banners that have a certain attribute, format, size, or other characteristic in common. You can report on the banner batch by selecting a corresponding banner attribute, format, or size as a dimension.

Behavioral data

Information about users' online actions. For example, things they've searched for and types of websites they often visited.

See Also Behavioral targeting.

Behavioral targeting

A practice advertisers use to show ads to audiences grouped based on similar online activity (for example, number of pages visited about a particular topic or interactions with content).

See Also Behavioral data.

Below the fold (BTF)

The part of a page that's not visible as soon as the page loads. A user must scroll to see content below the fold.

Below the line (BTL)

Marketing activities that directly target a specific group of potential consumers, and are focused on conversions, for example, direct mail campaigns, loyalty programs, or in-store marketing.

See Also Above the line, Through the line.

Bid/Bid response

A bid response is specific to programmatic/real-time bidding. It's an offer to pay a certain price for ad impressions that an advertiser makes at an auction.

See Also Bid request.

Bidder

A technology that uses code and algorithms to analyze bid requests and respond with bids and banners (or other ad formats) in real-time auctions.

Bid request

A bid request is information about the publisher's ad inventory sent to SSPs. This information includes specifics about the offered impressions (for example, the platform, the visitors, and the floor price). These details are sent to DSPs via the RTB system as bid requests. If the request matches the advertiser’s criteria, they can reply, via the RTB system, with a bid (a bid response).

See Also Bid/Bid response.

Bid shading

An algorithm that Adform uses to help advertisers avoid overspending on impressions. The algorithm analyzes data such as pricing and winning rates to determine the best balance between bid price and winning probability.

Bit rate

The bit rate indicates how much data is traveling from one place to another on a computer network. The bit rate is commonly measured in bits per second (bps), kilobits per second (KBps), or megabits per second (MBps). The bitrate is one of the main factors defining audio or video quality.

Block list

A list of apps or website domains that Adform blocks for the RTB on the account or advertiser level.

bn

A unique tag ID number that Adform generates. For example, <script language="javascript" src="https://track.adform.net/adfscript/?bn=$tagid;kw_gender=male;kw_country=United%20Kingdom"></script><br />

Boolean operators

The conjunction words such as AND and OR, used to combine or exclude items. In Adform, the targeting rule builder uses Boolean operators to indicate whether the targeted audience should be broadened or narrowed down.

Bot

A bot (or robot) is a computer program that automatically carries out a task without human control. There are many different types of bots, that have a range of purposes, for example, chatbots, shopbots, crawlers, spambots, and hackers.

Brand

A company's product or product line and the image and reputation of that product/line.

Brand awareness

A marketing goal designed to increase consumer familiarity with a brand.

Branding campaign

A campaign that has brand awareness as a key objective. Branding campaigns usually have the following KPIs: viewable rate, video completion rate, reach, and cost per thousand viewable impressions.

Brand lift

A tool to measure how much your ads influenced your audience's positive feelings towards your brand or product.

Brand safety

A functionality which prevents banners from being displayed on domains with undesirable, brand-incompatible content. You can enable brand safety in Brand Controls and select the undesirable domains/content categories when creating or editing a campaign. For more details, see Understand Brand Safety.

Brand suitability

Brand suitability is a tool used to determine if the context in which an ad appears is an appropriate fit for the brand. You can optimize brand suitability by setting up Brand Controls.

Budget flight

A functionality on Adform FLOW that helps you allocate campaign budget throughout the whole campaign period in advance without having to perform any calculations. For more information, see Set Up and Manage Budget Flights.

Buy

To purchase an ad space on relevant channels.

Buyer

An advertiser that purchases ad space.

C

Cache (Browser)

Memory used to temporarily store the most frequently requested content/files/pages to serve them faster when they're requested again.

Cache-busting

A process when sites or servers serve content in such a manner that would prevent (or minimize) browsers from serving content from their cache. This forces the user to get a fresh content copy for each request. Advertisers use cache busting to provide a more accurate count of the number of requests from users.

California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA)

A law in California, the United States that establishes rules around consumer data. It's similar to the GDPR in the EU.

See Also General Data Protection Regulation.

Call-to-action

A piece of interface, usually a button, that encourages a user to take a specific action on a website or application.

Campaign

A set of budget and engagement tactics an advertiser configures in Adform DSP or SSP to achieve a goal. A set of specific metrics can measure the progress. A campaign is the highest level element in Adform DSP and can contain a lot of orders or line items.

See Also Line item, Line item.

Churn (rate)

The percentage of users who have stopped using an app or visiting a website.

Click

A metric that counts the number of times someone interacts with an ad by clicking on it.

Click counter

See Click URL.

Click tag

A banner parameter which redirects the user to a site of an advertiser on a click-through action. When a visitor clicks on the banner, Ad Server records visitor data.

Click through rate (CTR)

The percentage of ad impressions that were clicked on as compared to the entire number of clicks. Calculated as total number of clicks divided by total number of ad impressions.

Click URL

An Adform tag that counts visitor clicks.

Colorado Privacy Act (CPA)

A law in Colorado, the United States that establishes rules around consumer data. It's similar to the GDPR in the EU.

See Also General Data Protection Regulation.

Comma separated values (file) (CSV)

A .csv file is a text file that has a specific format (data to be saved in a table-structured format).

Connected TV (CTV)

Any television with an internet connection (for example, a smart TV).

See Also Addressable (TV or video), Connected TV, Over-the-top.

Connecticut Data Privacy Act (CTDPA)

A law in Connecticut, the United States that establishes rules around consumer data. It's similar to the GDPR in the EU.

See Also General Data Protection Regulation.

Consent management platform (CMP)

A platform that's used by publishers for requesting, receiving, storing, and updating visitors’ consent. CMPs usually employ an interface that let's visitors allow or disallow publishers to track and share their digital footprint.

Consideration

The second stage of the conversion funnel. Consideration ads target audiences that are already aware of the advertiser's brand. The goal is to have a person consider the brand as a purchase option.

Consumer

A person or entity that purchases products or services.

Container tag

Additional scripts either from Adform, or from a third party that you can add to your tracking points.

Content delivery network (CDN)

A system of servers that are in various locations and are used to provide web content to a browser or other recipient. Files are strategically pulled from a server on the network based on the location of the user to provide the best performance.

Contextual targeting

A technique that targets ad placements on websites based on content. This way an advertiser can display ads to groups of people based on their shared interests and digital content.

Conversion

Conversion is the third stage in the conversion funnel. The goal of conversion ads is to have people purchase a product, or complete other desired action.

Conversion rate

The percentage of conversions (visits, subscriptions, purchases, or other defined valuable events) per ad interaction (click).

Cookie

Also known as an HTTP cookie, web cookie, or browser cookie. It's a piece of text sent from a web server to a user’s browser that the browser is expected to send back to the web server. Cookies generally store a unique identifier and may contain information like what ads were recently seen (for frequency capping), when the cookie was created, and other simple attributes about the user's digital behavior.

Cost per action (CPA)

The amount an advertiser spends for a consumer's action, for example, a purchase. Calculated as total cost divided by total number of conversions. Effective CPA (eCPA) is the average CPA for a campaign.

Cost per click (CPC)

The average price an advertiser pays for each click. Calculated as total cost divided by total number of clicks.

Cost per install (CPI)

The amount an advertiser spends for an app install. Calculated as total cost divided by total number of app installs.

Cost per lead (CPL)

The price an advertiser pays for a lead. For example, completion of a form that provides the visitor's contact information. Calculated as total cost divided by total number of leads.

Cost per mille (CPM)

The cost an advertiser pays for 1,000 impressions. Effective CPM (eCPM) is the average CPM for a campaign.

Cost per order (CPO)

The average price an advertiser pays for each order. Calculated as total cost divided by total number of orders.

Cost per point (CPP)

A pricing model based on the cost of a campaign divided by each full percentage rating point of a targeted demographic that the campaign successfully reaches.

Cost per sale (CPS)

The cost to generate one sales transaction. Calculated as total cost divided by total number of sales.

Cost per video completion (CPCV)

The price an advertiser pays every time a video ad runs to completion. Instead of paying for all impressions, an advertiser pays for the ads that were completed only.

Cost per view (CPV)

A pricing model where the advertiser only pays for a video to start. Typically sold at 1,000 impressions.

Creative agency

Agencies that create ads and campaign content.

Creative approval

A tool that publishers use to approve and reject advertisements for their inventory. This gives more control and may be especially useful for brands with strict guidelines.

Customer data platform (CDP)

Customer data platform is similar to data management platform (DMP), but usually collects more first-party data, and personally identifiable information (PII) (for example, name, email address). CDPs focus more on known audiences, social or search campaigns, and walled garden activation, while DMP's focus is reach and frequency on the open internet.

Customer journey

The journey a customer takes when interacting with a company and brand.

Customer relationship management (CRM)

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.

D–F

D

Data management platform (DMP)

Adform DMP is a platform that data providers, advertisers, and ad agencies use to collect, manage, analyze, and share first-party and third-party audience data. For more information, see Learn About Data Management Platform.

Data provider

A business that collects data about visitors and shares the information with advertisers in a safe and privacy-compliant way. Advertisers use this data to serve ads to specific audiences.

Deal

An agreement between advertiser and publisher to buy a specific number of impressions for an specific price. There are two types of deals: programmatic guaranteed deal and standard deal.

Deal ID

A number that is assigned to a deal, used by both the publisher and advertiser to transact on prearranged parameters in private market places.

Deduplication

The action of removing duplicate entries or events in a data set. For example, if a visitor clicks on a banner twice, but it leads to only one conversion. The number of clicks could be deduplicated to get more accurate data. Sometimes this action is referred to as "deduping".

Demand side platform (DSP)

Adform DSP is a platform that advertisers and ad agencies use to buy media from multiple sources including ad exchanges, ad networks, and sell-side platforms, leveraging real-time bidding capabilities of these sources.

Demographic data

Characteristics of a population or audience, such as age, gender, or household income.

Deprecation

The gradual process of removing or phasing out an older product, feature, or service. This is typically done when the product, feature, or service is no longer needed or used by most users, or a newer, more efficient alternative has been introduced.

Designated Marketing Area (DMA)

The geographic areas in the United States in which the Nielsen Company measures local television viewing. These regions can be applied to digital marketing as well as traditional TV. For a list of regions, see DMA Regions (USA).

Destination

An external platform, a DSP or a DMP, to which you export audience data. For more information, see Manage Destinations.

Deterministic data

Data that's known to be true and accurate. If a set of data matches a user based on a unique identifier (such as email address, or cookie ID), it's considered deterministic.

Device

Hardware that has an internet connection and that people use to interact with digital media.

Digital Ad Rating (DAR)

DAR is a tag created by the Nielsen Company. The tag is placed on a web page or within a CTV app and measures the reach and frequency of ads across Nielsen’s demographic audiences.

Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA)

An independent non-profit organization led by leading advertising and marketing trade associations that creates and enforces responsible privacy practices across the advertising industry.

Digital out of home (DOOH)

An ad platform that's dynamic and experienced outside of the home, for example, on billboards. The screen of DOOH can rotate and show different banners. Some DOOHs are interactive and react to touch or movement.

Display ads

Display ads focus on images, commonly referred to as banners. They usually have a standard size and may include pictures, logos, text, or rich media.

Domain

A unique name that identifies a website. Every domain name consists of one top or high-level and one or more lower-level parts. Top-level domains are either generic or geographic. Generic top-level domains include a descriptive ending, for example, .com (commercial), .net (network), .edu (educational). Geographic domains indicate countries of origin, such as .us (United States), .fr (France), .uk (United Kingdom). Lower-level parts are all parts that go after and are separated by a slash, for example, topleveldomain.com/lower-level-part. These parts often refer to sections or categories within the website.

Dynamic ad insertion (DAI)

Campaign optimization technology that allows advertisers to dynamically change ads within video-on-demand content. Dynamic ad insertion can change specific ads placed on a page based on any data available to the placement program. At its simplest, dynamic ad placement can rotate multiple ads through one or more spaces. In more sophisticated examples, ad placement could be influenced by demographic data or usage history for the current user.

Dynamic ads

An ad that's based on one or more banners, customized in advance, and able to transform itself upon delivery to target relevant audience segments. For more information, see Introduction to Dynamic Ads.

Dynamic budget allocation

Automated adjustments among various strategies within a campaign’s predefined budget.

Dynamic Creative Optimization (DCO)

A tool offered by Adform to personalize ads based on your visitors’ preferences, to optimize your campaign performance, and to automate banner creation. For more information, see Introduction to Dynamic Ads.

E

Engagement

A general term used to classify interaction a consumer has with brand content, whether it's in an ad, on a brand’s site, or via a brand’s social media profile page.

Even pacing

Budget pacing when the money is distributed evenly throughout the campaign period.

See Also Pacing.

Expandable ad

Rich media ads that a user can enlarge beyond the initial dimensions.

Extended ID

A visitor ID that Adform adds to the audience after applying ID Fusion, or lookalike modeling. Extended IDs are additional entities in the audience, that Adform adds programmatically, based on the seed audience.

F

First look

A situation in which the publisher gives certain buyers first-priority access to their inventory. For example, a publisher gives a specific buyer a chance to buy the inventory first. If the first network doesn't want it, the publisher will pass it on to the second buyer, and so on.

First-party data

Information that a company collects about its audience, customers, or visitors via its own sources, both online and offline. This information is owned by the company.

See Also Second-party data, Third-party data.

First-price auction

A type of auction in programmatic advertising, where buyers bid for ad impressions and the highest bid wins.

See Also Private marketplace, Open auction.

Fixed price

A set price for impressions that the seller and buyer agree on in advance.

Floor price

The minimum bid required to buy an ad impression in an auction.

FLOW

Adform's award-winning platform covering the whole campaign life cycle. For more information, see Adform's official website.

Frequency

The number of times an ad is delivered to the same browser in a single session or a defined time frame.

Frequency capping

A functionality offered by Adform. With Frequency Capping you can limit how many times a given ad will be shown to a unique cookie during a session or within a specified time frame. For more details, see Understand Frequency Capping.

G–I

G

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

A law that establishes rules to enforce data protection and privacy in the European Union (EU) and European Economic Area.

General invalid traffic (GIVT)

Non-human digital traffic generated by, for example, known/declared search engine crawlers, bots, or data-center traffic, that are typically non-malicious.

See Also Invalid traffic.

Geofencing

A defined virtual area used by mobile advertisers to promote certain ads to potential customers within a specified geographic area. Advertisers mark a virtual area, or geofence using GPS, WiFi, cellular data, and other technology.

Geotargeting

A method used by advertisers to target customers based on geographical location.

Global Privacy Control (GPC)

Global Privacy Control (GPC) is a specification that enables users to express their preference to opt out of data tracking and sharing across websites via a browser setting or an extension. It’s designed to enhance user privacy by automatically communicating this preference to websites in compliance with data protection regulations like GDPR and CCPA. For more details, visit official GPC website.

Global Privacy Platform (GPP)

The Global Privacy Platform is a framework designed to help the industry solve for the challenges that come with the need to address differing and evolving privacy regulations worldwide. 

The GPP is a protocol designed to streamline the transmission of privacy, consent, and consumer choice signals from sites and apps to ad tech providers. It enables advertisers, publishers and technology vendors in the digital advertising industry to adapt to regulatory demands across markets.

See Also General Data Protection Regulation.

Google Advertising ID (GAID)

A unique device identifier that enables app developers and advertisers to measure campaign performance and user behavior.

Gross average audience (GAA)

The sum of the percentage of households or persons tuning in during the average minute of each telecast of the program during the report interval.

Gross rating point (GRP)

A metric that measures the impact of an ad campaign or the size of an audience reached. To calculate the rating, multiply the total campaign reach (% of addressable population reached) by the frequency (the number of times a single person viewed an ad). For example, if your campaign reached 3% of the population, and the average person viewed the ad 2 times, your GRP is equal to 6.

Guaranteed inventory

The inventory that the publisher dedicates to a specific advertiser based on the terms agreed upon.

H

Hashed email

An encrypted email. Encrypted emails can be used to target customers in a privacy-compliant way. Advertisers add a salt to the hashing mechanism to transform the email into more privacy-by-design pseudonymous identifier. Usually referred to as HEM. MD5 and SHA256 are the most used hashing methods.

Header bidding

An advanced programmatic technique where publishers offer inventory to multiple ad exchanges simultaneously with the aim to increase publisher yield and revenue.

House ads

An advertisement placed on a website or other media that's owned by the company who runs the advertisement.

Hybrid ad

An ad that combines dynamic ad and product retargeting to offer different ad versions for specific product groups.

Hybrid broadcast broadband TV (HbbTV)

HbbTV is a global initiative aimed at combining the broadcast and broadband delivery of entertainment services to consumers. What it means in practical terms is that you can get both standard broadcast TV and IPTV (internet delivered) TV services all in one place.

Hyperlink

A clickable link, for example, on a web page or within an email, that sends the user to a new URL when activated.

Hyper text markup language (HTML)

A set of codes called markup tags in a plain text file that determine what information is retrieved and how a browser renders it. There are two kinds of markup tags: anchor and format. Anchor tags determine what's retrieved, and format tags determine how it's rendered. Browsers receive HTML pages from the internet and use the information to display text, graphics, links and other elements as they were intended by a website’s creator.

Hyper text transfer protocol (HTTP / HTTPS)

The format most commonly used to transfer documents on the web.

I

Identifier for advertiser (IDFA)

The Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) is a unique, random identifier assigned to iOS mobile devices that advertisers use to serve personalized ads on iPhones and iPads. The IDFA is anonymous, so it doesn't reveal any personal information. By using IDFA advertiser can identify specific mobile devices, collect information about their use, and serve customized, targeted ads.

Identity

In the context of digital advertising, identity is the digital representation of a person, and is independent of any identifiers.

Identity graph

A database that stores all identifiers that represent individual customers (even the ones that aren't yet customers or shoppers), for example, usernames, addresses, email, phone, cookies, device IDs, and IP addresses. The graph links identifiers across devices, browsers and apps.

ID Fusion

Adform's identity solution that can put data points from along the digital advertising chain into the context of identity signals. It recognizes relationships between different identifiers without compromising their autonomy and respects key considerations (such as privacy signals). It gives a dynamically generated and flexible identity solution in which your Adform-facilitated campaigns get delivered to the desired target groups without media waste. For more details about ID Fusion, see Learn About ID Fusion.

iframe

An area on a website designated for an ad to appear. Short for "inline frame".

Impression

A single display of online content to a user’s web-enabled device, also called a view. Many websites sell advertising space by the number of impressions displayed to visitors. An online advertisement impression is a single appearance of an advertisement on a web page.

Each time an ad loads onto a user’s screen, the Ad Server may count that load as one impression. However, the Ad Server may be programed to exclude from the count certain non-qualifying activity, such as a reload, internal user actions, and other events that the advertiser and ad serving company agreed to not count.

As per MRC guidance, an impression is counted once the ad starts to download or “render” via the user's browser.

See Also Tracked ad.

Impression counter

An Adform tag used to count impressions.

Incident

An unplanned disruption or reduction in the quality of an IT service.

Incrementality

An advanced method to measure advertising effectiveness that seeks to show that the customers that purchased a merchandise, did so because they were exposed to advertising content.

See Also Attribution.

Insertion order (IO)

A formal, printed order to run an ad campaign between a seller of interactive advertising and a buyer (usually an advertiser or its agency). Typically, the insertion order identifies the campaign name, website receiving the order, planner or buyer giving the order, individual ads to be run (or who will provide them), ad sizes, campaign beginning and end dates, CPM, total cost, discounts to be applied, reporting requirements, and possible penalties or stipulations relative to failure to deliver the impressions.

In-stream video

When a video ad is served alongside (before/mid/after) video content.

Interactions

A wide variety of metrics that indicate how many users acted in response to an ad message, and the depth of that interaction.

Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB)

An association focused on the development of the advertising industry that helps set standards and guidelines for digital advertising.

Interstitial ad

An ad that fills the browser window or device screen.

Invalid traffic (IVT)

Advertising impressions that are generated by machines, data centers, bots, or any other form of non-human activity.

See Also General invalid traffic.

Inventory

The amount of ad space (or the number of advertisements/impressions) that a publisher has available to sell.

Invitation-only auction

See Private marketplace.

IP address

An IP address is the numerical address assigned to each computer on the internet so that its location and activities can be distinguished from those of other computers.

J–L

J

JavaScript

A programming language designed for building applications on the internet.

K

Key performance indicator (KPI)

The target or result that you want to achieve. Use KPIs to measure the success of a campaign. Common KPIs are ROAS, COS, and CPL and CPV . For more details about campaign goals and KPIs, see Plan Your Campaign Goals and KPIs.

Key-value pair

A key-value pair is two related data elements, where the key defines or categorizes the related data value, such as city=Boston or ID=123.

Keyword

A specific word entered into a search engine by the user that results in a list of websites related to the keyword. Keywords can be purchased by advertisers to embed ads linking to the advertiser’s site within search results.

See Also Search engine marketing.

Kiosk

A kiosk is a standalone, interactive digital display or terminal placed in high-traffic public locations, designed to provide users with various services, such as wayfinding, ticketing, and information. A kiosk also engages users with dynamic content, including advertisements.

L

Customer lifetime value (CLV)

A prediction of the net profit that a current relationship between a customer and business may generate, that helps set campaign budgets and pursue the most effective users.

Landing page

A web page that visitors reach by clicking on a link or a banner.

Lift

The increase in performance, that's measured in KPIs such as ROI, CPC, CPA.

Limit ad tracking (LAT)

A feature allowing people to opt-out of having an identifier for advertiser. With this setting enabled, the user’s IDFA appears blank when tracked. People who opt-out, won’t see specific ads targeted at them.

See Also Identifier for advertiser.

Linear TV

The traditional TV type that's delivered in a live broadcast.

Line item

The most granular unit of a campaign in the Adform ecosystem. For example, a single DSP campaign can have one or more orders, and orders can contain one or more line items. There are two types of line items: programmatic line items and direct line items.

Log level data

See Master data.

Long tail

Ad inventory that has low exposure or the audience has low financial potential. For example, a personal blog might have a low number of visitors. This inventory can be difficult to monetize.

Lookalike

An AI-driven process identifies similar identities based on an initial set of identities (called a "seed” audience). The seed audience is often derived from first-party customer or converter data (advertisers).

Lookback window

A timeframe considered when collecting data to be used for attribution. For example, 14 days or 30 days.

See Also Attribution.

M–O

M

Macro

Macro is a variable that expands automatically into a set of instructions to perform a particular task and only works on that level where it's defined. For example, Adform macro %%ADFRND%% only works in the Adform system.

MAID

A sequence of alphanumeric characters assigned to a mobile phone or tablet by the device's operating system, either iOS or Android.

Maintenance

A planned temporary service interruption to perform maintenance tasks, such as software upgrades or system updates. Maintenance is typically planned and communicated to users in advance to minimize disruptions.

Managed services

A service provided by Adform, that offers consulting and managed services for programmatic and direct advertising. As part of this service, you can outsource tasks to have Adform handle any (or all) tasks from the planning stage to creating reports. For more details, see Request Managed Services Support.

Marketer

See Advertiser.

Master data

Data files on the Adform server that have raw data from online transactions.

Media agency

An agency responsible for an advertising campaign of a client. The agency submits all the necessary information to run the campaign via the Adform system. Most of the time, a media agency is the main contact.

Media plan

A plan that determines the campaign: what audience to engage, how often and where to reach it to maximize engagements and return on investment (ROI).

Media Rating Council (MRC)

An organization that works across all forms of media and guarantees the validity, reliability, and effectiveness of audience measurement services. It also determines the minimum disclosure and ethical criteria for measurement services.

Mediation

The use of technology to maximize the ad monetization of publishers by increasing their display ad fill rates and eCPM rates.

Medium rectangle

An advertising space that's directly integrated into the editorial content of a website.

Metadata

Data that provides information about other data. This includes descriptions of the characteristics of information, such as quality, origin, context, content and structure.

Mid-roll

An ad appears in the middle of the video content.

See Also Pre-roll, Post-roll.

Mobile ads

Standardized ads designed for mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets.

Mobile rich media ad interface definition (MRAID)

A protocol used for ad servers, ad units, and mobile devices that enables communication between an ad and a mobile application to execute interactions such as geolocation, ad resizing, and accelerometer functions among others.

Monetization

The process of turning an asset (placements, for example) into revenue.

Multi-State Privacy Agreement (MSPA)

The IAB Multi-State Privacy Agreement is an industry contractual framework intended to aid advertisers, publishers, agencies, and ad tech intermediaries in complying with five state privacy laws that will become effective in 2023 (in California, Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah).

See Also General Data Protection Regulation.

N

Native ad

A form of paid media where the ad experience follows the natural form and function of the user experience in which it's placed. These paid ads aspire to be so cohesive with the page content, assimilated into the design, and consistent with the platform behavior that the viewer simply feels that they belong.

Network Advertising Initiative (NAI)

A cooperative group of network advertisers, which has developed a set of privacy principles in conjunction with the federal trade commission. The NAI provides consumers with explanations of internet advertising practices and how they affect both consumers and the internet. For more details, visit thenai.org.

O

Offline data

Data obtained from offline sources, such as loyalty card registrations or shipping.

Online data

Data obtained from online events, for example, cookies from various websites.

Online video (OLV)

A video ad format commonly referred to video advertising on web and mobile app devices (as opposed to CTVdevices).

See Also Connected TV.

Open auction

A programmatic auction where real time bidding (RTB) occurs, and any advertiser or publisher can participate. Also referred to as open marketplace, or open exchange.

See Also Private marketplace.

Open internet

A digital publishing and advertising environment outside the walled gardens, namely the search and social platforms.

Operating system (OS)

An operating system (OS) is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software.

Opt-in

Refers to an individual giving a company permission to use data collected from or about the individual for a particular reason, such as to market the company’s products and services.

Opt-out

When a company states it's intent to market its products and services to an individual and the individual asks to be removed from the company’s mailing list.

Outstream

A video ad placed in any web content. Outstream ads are often set to play automatically once a visitor scrolls and reaches the ad.

Over-the-top (OTT)

Services that allow access to TV-like content delivered over the internet, bypassing traditional terrestrial TV formats. OTT services can be accessed via CTV, as well as through apps on other devices with an internet connection, such as smartphones and tablets.

See Also Addressable (TV or video), Connected TV.

Owned and operated (O&O)

A type of publisher that both owns and operates its inventory sources.

P–S

P

Pacing

Pacing defines how the campaign, order, or line item budget will be spent.

Page view

Adform tracks a page view when the page is actually seen by the visitor (excluding repeated views such as refreshing the page, or viewing the page repeatedly within 15 minutes).

Pay per click (PPC)

An advertising pricing model in which advertisers pay agencies or publishers based on how many users clicked on an online ad or an e-mail message through to their website. The amount paid per click-through is arranged at the time of the insertion order and varies considerably.

Pay per impression (PPI)

An advertising pricing model in which advertisers pay based on how many users were served their ads.

Personally identifiable data (PII)

User data that can be used to contact the user, either directly or through a lookup. For example, user data that can be used to contact the user directly includes postal address and email address. User data that can be used through a lookup to contact the user includes SSN, and other government-issued ID numbers.

Piggyback pixel

A piggyback pixel is a third-party pixel (code or image tag) that is attached to Adform pixel (tracking pixel or container tag) and fires when Adform pixel fires. A piggyback pixel allows to add code or tag to a website where it's not originally implemented.

Pixel

A tiny image referenced by a line of HTML, or a block of JavaScript code embedded into a website. When the pixel loads, the third-party ad server can record visitor data, such as the IP address, the time of a visit, or a URL.

See Also Click tag, Impression counter, Invisible tag.

Placement

A spot/place of an advertisement on the publisher's website.

Post-bid measurement

A Brand safety feature, that screens the publisher after the bid has already been won in the real-time bidding auction. Post-bid measurement is a secondary safety measure to prevent the ad from showing on websites that don't match the Brand Controls setup. For more details, see Understand Post-Bid Measurement..

Post-click

Post-click interactions record visitors who click on a banner and land on a designated advertiser’s page with tracking points implemented on it.

Post-impression

Post-impression interactions record visitors that see a banner ad, don't click on the banner at the time, but later visit the advertiser’s page with tracking points implemented.

Post-roll

An ad appears after the video content.

See Also Mid-roll, Pre-roll.

Prebid

A free and open source suite of products (Prebid.js, Prebid Server, and Prebid Mobile) that help publishers implement header bidding on their websites and from within their apps. For more information, see prebid.org.

See Also Header bidding.

Pre-bid measurement

A Brand safety feature, that screens publishers when a bid enters the real-time bidding auction. This is a primary safety measure to prevent the ad from showing on websites that don't match the Brand Controls setup.

Preferred deal

A feature that publishers use to create certain inventory for certain advertisers, usually at a fixed minimum price.

Premium inventory

Ad inventory that's special or better (for example, appearing on the homepage), and, therefore, more expensive. This inventory is often sold through direct channels.

See Also Remnant inventory.

Pre-roll

An ad is served before the video content.

See Also Mid-roll, Post-roll.

Privacy Sandbox

A set of technologies developed by Google to address privacy concerns in online advertising. For more details, see The Privacy Sandbox.

Private marketplace (PMP)

A programmatic marketplace where real time bidding (RTB) occurs, but only select advertisers are allowed to bid on a publisher’s inventory.

See Also Open auction, Auction.

Probabilistic data

Data about a visitor's online behavior collected anonymously (by gathering browser cookies or tracking website clicks). The information is then aggregated to create a model of a customer.

Programmatic advertising

Advertising model that uses technology to automate and optimize the ad buying process in real time. The technology serves targeted and relevant ads to consumers across different channels. On the back end, algorithms filter ad impressions derived from consumer behavioral data, which allows advertisers to define budget, goal, and attribution and optimize for reduced risk while increasing return on investment (ROI).

Programmatic direct

A form of programmatic advertising. With programmatic direct, publishers and advertisers agree on a guaranteed number of impressions at a fixed price, but the ads are distributed programmatically through a DSP which uses data and algorithms to help identify the best ad placements. Programmatic direct includes programmatic guaranteed deals, preferred deals, private marketplaces.

See Also Programmatic guaranteed deal, Preferred deal, Private auction.

Programmatic guaranteed deal

A fixed price deal only available for the Adform DSP. These deal types have priority on both SSP and DSP sides. Adform SSP informs the DSP about the deal type being a programmatic guaranteed deal, and, in turn, the DSP prioritizes the inventory based on the targeting for that deal type and submits any available, eligible bids. For more details, see About Deals in Adform SSP or Create Programmatic Guaranteed Deals for DSP.

Prospecting

The process of identifying prospective customers.

Pseudonymous data

To create pseudonymous data, Adform swaps individual identifiers with an artificial identifier, or pseudonym, to create data that can’t be linked to real visitors. However, unlike with anonymous data, online events and behaviors can be attributed to a single visitor.

Publisher

An individual or an organization that prepares, issues, and disseminates content for public distribution or sale via one or more media.

Q

Queries per second (QPS)

A metric reflecting how many times a server is contacted to provide a certain output. For example, how many times a DSP gets called to make a bid on an ad placement to reach a user.

Query

A request for information, usually to a search engine.

R

Real-time bidding (RTB)

A way of transacting ads that places an individual ad impression up for bid in real time. This is done through a programmatic on-the-spot auction, which is similar to how financial markets operate. RTB allows for addressable advertising — serving ads to consumers directly based on their demographic, psychographic, or behavioral attributes.

Recency

In Data Management Platform (DMP), recency setting defines how recently (in days) an identifier, such as a visitor, should qualify for the defined criteria to be added to the audience list.

Remnant inventory

Inventory that hasn't been pre-sold. Publishers usually sell the remnant inventory through real-time bidding (RTB) auctions or other programmatic buying methods.

Reporting

An Adform tool that you can use to monitor campaigns, analyze website traffic, and evaluate banner performance. For more details, see Understand Reporting Data.

Response rate

The percentage of people who saw an ad, and then completed the desired action.

REST

Representational state transfer (REST) is an architectural style for providing standards between computer systems on the web, making it easier for systems to communicate with each other.

Retail media

Publishers that are also retailers and serve ads on their e-commerce website.

Retargeting

The use of a pixel tag or other code to enable a third-party to recognize particular users outside of the domain from which the activity was collected.

Retention

A marketing goal to engage and encourage previous or current customers so that they continue using the company's products or services.

Return on ad spend (ROAS)

A metric that advertisers use to measure how much revenue they earned in relation to the expense of an ad campaign.

Return on investment (ROI)

A metric advertisers use to calculate revenue: ROI = Revenue/Cost.

Revenue

The total income that a company's sales of goods and services generate.

Revenue per mille (RPM)

A metric that shows revenue per thousand impressions.

Rich media

Advertisements with which users can interact in a web page format that are more elaborate than the usual banner ad. These advertisements can be used either singularly or in combination with various technologies, including but not limited to sound, video, or flash, and with programming languages such as Java, JavaScript, and DHTML.

Rotator

An ad type with a single ad tag sends one banner from a list of banners. After a certain time, the ad tag sends a second banner from the list, and the process continues. Some publishers may have limits in place for how many banners can rotate in a single ad space.

Run of exchange (ROE)

Inventory available for purchase on an ad exchange.

Run of network (RON)

Ads that run on all websites within a given network of websites at the ad networks own discretion, and according to the available inventory.

Run of site (ROS)

Run-of-site ads are placed to rotate on all non-featured ad spaces across an entire site. CPM rates for run of site ads are usually less than rates for purchase of specific site sub-sections or sponsorships.

S

Search engine marketing (SEM)

A form of paid internet media that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in the search engine result pages.

Search engine optimization (SEO)

The process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a website from search engines via natural (organic or algorithmic) search results.

Second-party data

Data that's similar to first-party data, but comes from a source other than your own audience.

See Also First-party data, Third-party data.

Second-price auction

An auction in which the bidder who had the highest bid pays a price equal to the second-highest bid.

Server-side ad insertion

See Dynamic ad insertion.

Server-to-server (S2S)

A data (web or app activity) sharing method from one server to another.

Session

A sequence of internet activity made by one user at one website. If a user makes no request from a website during a 30-minute period of time, the next content or ad request would then constitute the beginning of a new visit. A session can also refer to a series of transactions performed by a user that can be tracked across successive web sites. For example, in a single session, a user may start on a publisher’s web site, click on an advertisement and then go to an advertiser’s web site and make a purchase.

See Also Visit.

Site tracking

With Adform's Site Tracking tool, you can collect information about your visitors following the highest privacy and security standards. For more details, see Learn About Adform Site Tracking.

Skippable video ad

Video ads that viewers can skip after a predetermined number of seconds.

Skyscraper

A tall, thin online ad unit.

Standard deal

An agreement between a publisher and an advertiser on the type of inventory, price, and schedule for the transaction to happen.

Sticky ad

Ads that are anchored to the bottom or top of the screen and follow the user as they scroll.

Streaming

Technology that permits continuous audio and video delivery to a device from a remote website. Also, streaming can refer to an internet data transfer technique that allows the user to see and hear audio and video files. The host or source compresses, then streams small packets of information over the internet to the user, who can access the content as it's received.

Studio

Adform Studio is a free tool that you can use to build banners that are suitable for the Adform platform. For more details, see Access Adform Studio.

Subscription video on demand (SVOD)

A video content service for which the user pays a subscription for, such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, or other.

Supply path optimization (SPO)

A process in which many factors are considered to find the most efficient way of buying. The aim of this process is to reduce the number of intermediaries in the supply-chain until each is adding value.

Supply side platform (SSP)

The Adform Supply Side Platform (SSP) is a solution for publishers to get the best demand and the maximum value for every impression. It works for all types of digital inventory in a safe and straightforward way through accessible dashboards. Dashboard widgets provide useful information for publishers to make decisions based on their criteria. For more details, see Learn About Supply Side Platform and the Publisher Ad Server.

T–V

T

Tags

Software code that an advertiser provides to a publisher that calls the Ad Server to display an advertisement. For more details about tags, see Create Tags.

Target audience

The intended audience for an ad, usually defined in terms of specific demographics (such as age, sex, or income), online behavior, product usage, or media usage.

Targeting

The practice of serving an ad to the appropriate audience based on data.

Third-party data

Data that is sold by third-parties who aren't the original collectors of that data. Data aggregators pay publishers and other data owners for their first-party data, collect it into one large data set and sell it as third-party data.

See Also First-party data, Second-party data.

Through the line (TTL)

Marketing activities that combine the wider audience of ATL and direct approach of BTL, to both raise brand awareness and get conversions, for example, digital marketing or 360 marketing.

See Also Above the line, Below the line.

Timestamp

The date and time of a specific event (such as a click, conversion, or view).

Time to live (TTL)

The number of days after which Adform should remove inactive unique IDs from the audience (Maximum: 120 days).

Tracked ad

A metric terminology given to digital ad instances recorded at a point in the delivery chain prior to "begin to render content" (the qualification for the recording of an impression event).

See Also Impression.

Tracking point (TP)

A script implemented on a website of an advertiser's website to track user visits and actions.

Traffic

The flow of data over a network, or visitors to a web site.

Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF)

A combination of resources that helps digital advertising companies to make sure they meet all regulatory requirements when processing, accessing, or storing personal data or device-specific information. For more details, visit iabeurope.eu.

Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG)

A global initiative fighting to stop criminal activity and increase trust and transparency in digital advertising. For more details, visit tagtoday.net.

U

Unique user

A unique user refers to a certain unique customer profile. The profile includes data about the tracked customer, but can't include any personally identifiable information. Due to certain technical difficulties (cookie clearing, using different devices, using mobile devices), sometimes one customer profile may refer to more than one individual.

See Also Personally identifiable data, Unique user ID.

Unique user ID (UUID)

An identifier used to refer to a user profile. UUID can be stored on a user's browser or a server-side cookie store. Advertisers and data providers aren't allowed to link these identifiers to any personally identifiable information.

See Also Personally identifiable data, Unique user.

Universal ID

A unique user ID that allows adtech companies to identify users across different websites and devices. Universal IDs were introduced as an alternative to third-party cookies. Universal IDs perform the same functions as third-party cookies, but the difference is in how they're created.

User agent

A software program that can request, download, cache, and display documents available on the web.

User-Agent Client Hints (UA-CH)

An HTTP header-based mechanism introduced to address privacy and performance concerns related to the traditional User-Agent header. It is an extension of the HTTP protocol that allows browsers to provide more limited and standardized information about the user agent without compromising compatibility. For more details, see Chrome Developers and web.dev.

User generated content (UGC)

Web content (either written or recorded as a photo, audio, or video) by people who are not professional content creators. For example, reader comments, amateur or home videos, music, and photos.

Utah Consumer Privacy Act (UCPA)

A law in Utah, the United States that establishes rules around consumer data. It's similar to the GDPR in the EU.

See Also General Data Protection Regulation.

V

Video ad completion rate (VCR)

The percentage of all video ads that play through their entire duration to completion. Also known as view through rate (VTR) and video completion rate (VCR).

Video multiple ad playlist (VMAP)

A protocol used for ad servers, ad units, and publishers to communicate with each other, and to serve multiple video ad breaks within streaming video on desktop.

Video on demand (VOD)

A service that customers use to watch video content wherever and whenever they choose, rather than at the scheduled broadcast time.

Video player ad interfcace definition (VPAID)

Protocol used for ad servers, ad units, and publishers to communicate with each other, and to to serve video ads with interactive capabilities on desktop.

Viewability

A term used to describe whether or not an ad ever appeared in view to the viewer. For example, when a viewer opens his browser and goes to a website, most often the webpage is longer than the browser window, so the viewer must scroll to continue reading down the page. If the viewer never scrolls to the ad, the ad isn't considered viewable. For more details, see Understand Viewability Measurement.

Viewable impressions

Impressions recorded when an ad is fully loaded based on the default or customized settings.

See Also Viewability.

Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (VCDPA)

A law in Virginia, the United States that establishes rules around consumer data. It's similar to the GDPR in the EU.

See Also General Data Protection Regulation.

Visit

A session on a tracked website. There are several criteria defining the end of a session. Session is considered ended (a new session is started) if:

• The pages that have tracking points implemented weren’t viewed for 30 minutes since the last page view.

• The visitor clicked on a banner or keyword.

• 100 different pages that have tracking points implemented were viewed in the session.

• It’s midnight.

Visitor

An individual who visits pages on a website and is identified by a cookie ID.

W–Z

W

Walled gardens

A closed online ecosystem where advertisers have less access to customer data and have less control over how to measure success.

Waterfall

The order of priority in which advertisers have the opportunity to buy inventory. Demand sources could include direct sales, networks, or exchanges.

Y

Yield

The percentage of clicks versus impressions on an ad within a specific page.

YourAdChoices icon

This icon, technically known as Advertising Options Icon, is a part of Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) Self-Regulatory Program for Online Behavioral Advertising. If placed on a banner, the icon can give customers more control over the ads they're viewing. Also, it can give a better understanding of how their online behavior affects those ads.

Z

Z-index

Numerated layers of elements and content on a publisher’s webpage. Consideration of the z element in page content design such as navigation, imagery, and ads are important for providing a seamless experience when page content overlaps. For example, if an expanding ad with a lower score in the z-index scale than navigational elements might appear behind that page navigational elements.