Ad: A graphic image, images set or a textual placement.
An ad or set of ads for a campaign is often referred to as a “creative”. Banners and other special advertising that include an interactive or visual element beyond the usual are known as rich media .
Ad rotation: presentation of several ads within the same placement by predefined rules and parameters.
Ad space/ Placement: An area within a site that is reserved for ads.
Ad view: An ad view/impression is a single exposure that appears on a Web page when the page arrives at the viewer’s display.
Affiliate marketing: the use of outsourced, freelancers/webmasters or so ro resell or promote a website/a product, for a fee.
Banner: A banner is a graphic image advertisement that is usually placed in designated areas within a site (Ad space).
Click: the mouse click over an advertisement is the click. Please note that when referring to visitors, there might be a discrepancy, as not a 100% of the clicks actually reach your site, s users close the browser, errors occur and so on.
Click through: a “successful” click – meaning that a click did become “a visitor” for fact.
Click (through) rate/CTR: The ration between the exposures of your ads, the impressions, to the clicks counted. A good CTR essentially means that you have succeeded to attract users with your banners. Keep in mind that it is not a hard job to do that – if you do not mind user quality…(simply put a half naked lady on the banner and it will be clicked, but if you sell Tupperware, these visitors will not convert to sales…)
Cookie: A cookie is a file on a user’s hard drive (kept in the subdirectories) that is used by sites to record data about the user. Some ad rotation software uses cookies to see which ad the user has just seen so that a different ad will be rotated into the next page view.
Cost-per-action/CPA: Any action the affiliate is paid for by the contract is referred to as THE action. Cost-per-action is what an advertiser pays for predefined action in response to an ad.
Cost-per-lead/CPL: This is a more specific form of cost-per-action in which a visitor provides enough information at the advertiser’s site (or in interaction with a rich media ad) to be used as a sales lead.
CPM: CPM is the rate paid for a thousand impressions. An impression is the visual exposure of your advertisement to a single user.
Creative: Another term for ad banners and other forms of created advertising .
Impression: The count of exposures your ad received. Impressions are how most Web advertising is sold/quantified and the cost is quoted in terms of the cost per thousand impressions ( CPM ).
Insertion order/IO: A contract, stating the terms of agreement, rates, targeting and so on.
Inventory: Inventory is the arsenal of ad units or impressions or availability that a site has to sell over a given period of time (sort of a stock).
Media broker: a professional connecting between media buyers and sellers that profits from the arbitrage.
Media buyer: often referred to as the account manager, is the one within a firm in charge of searching and utilizing potential websites for advertising.
Opt-in e-mail: Opt-in e-mail is an e-mail containing information or advertising that users explicitly request (opt) to receive.
Pay-per-click/PPC: In pay-per-click advertising, the advertiser pays for each click through to the advertiser’s site. In automatic click-bidding systems, usually present at search engines, the higher you pay per click, the more chances you have to be seen at a higher spot.
Pay-per-lead/PPL: In pay-per-lead advertising, the advertiser pays for each sales lead generated. (see cost per lead)
Rich media: Rich media is advertising that contains interactive elements more than the usual banner ad. These are usually video pop ups, pop unders, flash menus and so on, that attract the user’s attention in a more aggressive way.
ROI (return on investment): Is “the bottom line” on how successful a campaign or ad was in terms of what the returns were for the money expended (cost).
Run-of-network/RON: A run-of-network ad is one that is placed to run on all sites within a given network of sites. Usually these would be cheaper ads as they are all rotated amongst numerous sites, and you will have no knowledge of where exactly within the network your ads showed (beyond your targeting that is).
Run-of-site/ROS: same idea as RON, but within a large website.
Targeting: predefining a set of rules that results in exposure to selected audience (i.e. – Germany and UK, only English speakers, above 18, Male)
Unique visitor: A unique visitor is someone who is entering a Web site for the first time within a session. A session is a very subjective term, defined by the programming of each websites, but a user will be counted only once within the same session (usually is a day/week/month)
Visit: A visit is counted when a unique user enters a site at some page for the first time that session.
