Jargon-buster

Online advertising may seem like a jargon minefield but we have pulled together the main terms to help you understand the basics:

  • Ad dimensions: the pixel and file size specification of an ad.
  • Ad trafficker: the person responsible for loading ads on to an ad server.
  • Banner ads: a horizontal advertising graphic shown on a web site. These can be animated.
  • Behavioural ads: advertising that's served up according to a person's recent online web surfing, matching their interest even if they are not currently on a relevant site.
  • Buttons: these are small advertising slots in the shape of a rectangular box. These can contain text, or images.
  • C.P.L.: Cost Per Lead (eg. lead, download, sales etc.) calculated by dividing the total cost of the campaign by the number of leads generated.
  • Click through rates (CTR): the percentage of times that a person seeing an ad online clicks on an ad. For example if 1,000 people see the banner, and 17 click on the banner, the CTR is 1.7%.
  • Cookie: an anonymous number that is stored on a computers browser, generally used to aid the effectiveness and measurement of online advertising.
  • Cost per action (CPA): a type of ad in which the advertiser only pays each time someone completes a transaction, whether that's registering for a site or buying a product.
  • Cost per thousand (CPM): Cost per Thousand Impressions (M=Thousand).
  • Cost per conversion (CPC): describes the cost of acquiring a customer, typically calculated by dividing the total cost of an ad campaign by the number of conversions. The definition of conversion could be a lead, a sale, or a purchase.
  • Domain name: an internet web site address.
  • Expandable ads: an advert which changes size when hovered over.
  • Flash ads: used for creating high class animated and rich media ads.
  • Floating adverts: an ad which moves across the user's screen or floats above the content.
  • Frequency: the number of times an ad is seen by a user
  • GIF: Graphics Interchange Format - the most common type of online image which can be static or animated.
  • Hits: are often confused with Page Impressions but hits also include images on a page. So a web page with 3 images will record 4 hits. Page impressions are more accurate to measure traffic.
  • HTML: Hypertext Mark Up Language - embedded tags which are translated by browsers to display content and images.
  • Hyperlink: a text link that links to another page or web site.
  • Inventory: the available ad impressions from a publisher.
  • Landing page: the destination page that an ad clicks through to.
  • Leaderboard: is a long, thin advertising slot that sits above the webpage masthead.
  • MPU: Message Plus Unit. A square advertising slot that can show rich media such as video. An MPU will often sit in the middle of the webpage.
  • Page impression: 1 impression is the display of 1 advertisement (usually a banner) to 1 person.
  • Page view: 1 Page View is the display of 1 HTML page to 1 person.
  • Pay-per-click (PPC): an ad in which the advertiser only pays for each click made by viewers, with the price set by bidding against other advertisers online.
  • Reach: the number of unique users who have been served an ad.
  • Rich media: ads that allow for users interaction and can include sound, video and/ or animation.
  • ROS: Run of Site ads are run across the site in any available open position.
  • SEM: Search Engine Marketing. Advertising a product or service on search engine results pages. These are usually listed as "sponsored links" or "advertisement" on the results pages of popular engines.
  • SEO: Search Engine Optimisation. It is the process of improving the volume and quality of users coming to a website from search engines via natural (organics) searches.
  • Skyscraper: is a tall, narrow advertising banner ad usually placed to the right hand side of the webpage.
  • Third party ad server: an independent server which hosts ads not belonging to the publisher, advertiser or its agency. These servers are often used for richmedia ads where file sizes are an issue.
  • Unique user: one individual who has either visited a site or viewed an ad.
  • URL: Uniform Resource Locator - the web site address of a web site.
  • User: an individual who uses a computer.
  • Visits: measures the total number of times users come to a website. If the user if idle for approximately 30 minutes then they are counted as another visit when they proceed.
  • Web analytics: measure a visitor's journey once on a website to track performance of a website in a commercial context. This data is used to improve a website or marketing campaign's audience response.