Provided by advertisers or digital media companies, 2nd party data refers to the information previously aggregated (either by permission or anonymously) from both online and offline sources. This data is then segmented into targetable audience groups based on certain characteristics.

Highly descriptive data that can be collected by an outside vendor to create broad sets of segments. Ultimately, 1st party data can be enriched by 2nd party data from advertisers, which in turn can be even more enriched by data aggregators or data management platforms.

Any area of a web page that is viewable without the viewer having to use the vertical scroll bar. Ad space in this area is usually more expensive since it is more likely to be viewed by the visitor. Information compiled about visitors’ relationships with a particular site, which can be shared explicitly (i.e., signing up for an email list, filling out a form or survey, etc.) or implicitly (i.e., information about past web surfing habits, site visits, etc.).

The execution of the marketing mix as part of the marketing process. The activation phase typically comes after the planning phase during which managers plan their marketing activities and is followed by a feedback phase in which results are evaluated with marketing analytics.

Software enabled through a person’s web browser or mobile device which can prevent ads from being displayed.

Advertising effectiveness pertains to how well a company’s advertising accomplishes the intended. Small companies use many different statistics or metrics to measure their advertising effectiveness. A company’s advertising effectiveness usually increases over time with many messages or exposures. But certain advertising objectives can be realized almost immediately using measuring techniques such as reach, sales and profits, brand awareness, and testing advertising effectiveness

Exchanges are like open and transparent marketplaces that aggregate buyers and sellers of online display advertising, creating a large pool of global inventory with extensive reach. Ad impressions are traded in an auction-like setting in real time, providing a yield management solution for publishers and immediate access to inventory that meets agencies’ goals.

An ad impression is an ad which is served to a user’s browser. Ads can be requested by the user’s browser (referred to as pulled ads) or they can be pushed, such as e-mailed ads. Two methods are used to deliver ad content to the user. Server-initiated ad counting uses the publisher’s Web content server for making requests, formatting and re-directing content. Client-initiated ad counting relies on the user’s browser to perform these activities.

The technical process of defining and making available ad slots within a publisher’s site or app.

An intermediary in the process of digital media trading that sells publisher inventory to advertisers on a pre-sale basis. On behalf of multiple independent websites, the Ad Network relies on 3rd party data to package the websites’ inventory based on certain characteristics. The packaged inventory, which is typically remnant rather than premium, is then sold to advertisers at a price determined by the network and/or negotiated between the buyer and seller.

Ad ops is short for ad operations and usually refers to the many technical tasks needed for running online advertising campaigns. Ad ops ensure smooth delivery for insertion orders and good inventory management.

The request made to an ad server to display an advertisement. The request doesn’t always result in an ad displayed for a variety of reasons, including mobile network latency.

The technology and service that places advertisements on websites. Ad serving technology companies provide software to web sites and advertisers to serve ads, count them, choose the ads that will make the website or advertiser most money, and monitor the progress of different advertising campaigns.

Refers to a space in an app that has been reserved for advertisement.

Any predefined advertising vehicle that can appear in an app or on a mobile website. For example, a rectangular banner is considered to be a common type of ad unit

Tools that advertisers use to determine if impressions are displayed, where they are displayed and if they meet the advertiser’s privacy criteria. It’s popular to use an ad verification system to verify blinded buys and provide confidence that the proper audience has been reached.

Marketers from brands and business who buy advertising. Can be broken down into two main types. The first are called “Brand or Institutional” advertisers and the second “Direct Response” advertisers. Brand advertisers focus promoting a brand’s image or a particular initiative. Direct response advertisers focus on driving app downloads, generating sales and generating leads.

This is the process of finding page impressions that are most likely to lead to consumer engagement with an advertiser. Companies develop sophisticated optimization algorithms and reporting systems, which take into account all sorts of data points in an attempt to figure out which impressions are most likely to lead to conversions, and at the cheapest price.

These groups are sell-side platforms, and they are like the counter points to DSPs, but on the publisher side. They manage the non premium inventory of publishers and networks and sell lower-value impressions through various channels. This solution makes the most of ad impressions that are otherwise ineffectively monetized. Yield optimization companies provide a solution which looks at each impression available on a web publisher site and then matches that impression with an available ad from one of the myriad of ad networks or exchanges.

A media agency is a company or entity that applies its expertise and technology to help marketers buy advertising spots media sellers and marketplaces such as publishers, ad exchanges, ad networks, sales house etc.

Agency Trading Desks are a centralized, service-based organization that serves as a managed service layer, typically on top of a licensed demand-side platform (DSP) and other audience buying technologies; An Agency Trading Desk manages programmatic, bid-based media and audience buying. It works as an agency’s internal center of excellence, supporting agency teams wishing to tap into this new buying model on behalf of agency clients.

Systematic trading strategy that can be expressed by a set of rules or a computation procedure to derive results from data.

Android’s equivalent of IDFA.

A predetermined way for a software components to interact with each other. API’s are commonly included in SDKs

Audience extension is an application of behavioral targeting. Audience extension allows advertisers to target a premium site audience, which is often sold out, across other sites that belong to the same ad network. The ad buy is then made at a lower CPM than running ads on the premium site alone. Audience extension is used for premium site audiences which are especially sought after.

The practice of using data to imply an audience, either by demography, life stage or intent. One example is targeting people who have searched for information on a cars or mobile phones

A video ad or a video ad linked with video content that initiates play without user interaction or without a user actively starting the video (essentially automatically starting without a play button being clicked by the user).

Automated Guaranteed Digital Media Inventory is a type of inventory that is reserved, has fixed pricing and incorporates a one seller-to-one buyer type of participation. Other terms used in the market to describe Automated Guaranteed Digital Media Inventory are: Programmatic Guaranteed, Programmatic Premium, Programmatic Direct and Programmatic Reserved. Prioritization in the ad server, the Deal ID, Data usage, Transparency to buyer and pricing floors are other things to consider as an impact to Automated Guaranteed Digital Media Inventory.

A 1×1 pixel tag typically used by an advertiser or a third party ad server to track a unique user’s activity over times.

Behavioral targeting is a technique used by online publishers and advertisers to increase the effectiveness of their campaigns. Behavioral targeting uses information collected on an individual’s web-browsing behavior and preferences, to select which advertisements to display to that individual. Practitioners believe this helps them deliver their online advertisements to the users who are most likely to be interested. On the theory that properly targeted ads will fetch more consumer interest, the seller may ask for a premium for these over random advertising or ads based on the context of a site.

The component of the buying algorithm that faces the auction and places bids on impressions.

A term used to describe a data driven approach to business. The Big Data approach stresses the use of data and quantitative analysis as the primary factor in business decision making.

Publishers who an advertisers or ad buying platform have deemed inappropriate to appear on that site. Generally referring to a publisher that was available on a buying platform, but was blocked for violating the terms of service of the buyers.

Studies which use control/exposed methodology to determine whether an ad that was served had an impact on metrics like ad recall, brand favorability and purchase intent

From an online advertising perspective, brand safety refers to a set of practices and tools that ensures the advertiser’s brand is not damaged as a result of the improper or inappropriate placement of ads.

A statement or instruction, that explains to a user how to respond to an opt-in for a particular promotion or mobile initiative, which is typically followed by a notice.

Charts and graphs that provide a snapshot of campaign performance at a point in time so executives can spot problems, or identify marketplace opportunities, and shift gears, if a better course of action is required.

Campaign optimization saves time and money while helping marketers achieve and improve upon business objectives. Efficiently collect the necessary data to analyze marketing campaigns and make informed data-driven business decisions. Campaign analysis not only helps marketers to reduce waste by making short term fixes to marketing campaign mix but can also provide the marketer with insight into maximizing the lifetime value of a customer over time.

A channel partner is a third-party organization or individual that markets and sells products, services or technologies for a manufacturer or service provider via a partnering relationship.

A way of measuring the success of a digital advertising campaign. CTR is obtained by dividing the number of users who clicked on an ad by the number of impressions.

A video ad that has an initial static image file which is displayed encouraging users to click the view the full video. The proportion of viewers who click is known as the Play Rate.

A mobile specific ad interaction type where a user clicks an ad which launches a phone call. Popular with paid search, direct response and small local businesses

The orientation of an organization toward serving its clients’ needs. Having a customer focus is usually a strong contributor to the overall success of a business and involves ensuring that all aspects of the company put its customers’ satisfaction first. Also, having a customer focus usually includes maintaining an effective customer relations and service program.

This refers to the category that a targeting technology has placed a piece of content, based on a taxonomy. It is possible to grab only the relevant text from a web page allowing it to classify content precisely, using its granular, advertiser-focused taxonomy.

Also known as content-targeted advertising, which means that an advertisement is shown on a web site that is “in context” to a company’s specific product or service.

This targeting strategy aligns advertisements with relevant context on a webpage. Semantic advertising is one approach within this strategy, classifying at the page level. Also included within the contextual bucket are keyword-based targeting and domain level targeting.

This is a popular metric for measuring campaign performance, based on the percentage of users who see an ad and complete a certain task as determined by the advertiser. A conversion can mean a few things: a user has signed up for a mailing list, purchased a product, or maybe filled out a survey. Many ad campaigns are launched with a CPA (cost per acquisition) goal. These campaigns are very focused on conversion data and raising conversion rates. A more targeted campaign is likely to result in a higher conversion rate.

Conversion tracking allows marketers to measure app installs driven from advertising and marketing. The technology is used primarily in cookieless environments like in-app ads.

A cookie is a small piece of information (i.e., program code) that is stored on a browser for the purpose of identifying that browser during audience activity and between visits or sessions.

The cost an advertiser pays to acquire a customer.

In online advertising, CPM is an estimate of the cost per 1,000 views of an ad. It is a useful measure for calculating the relative cost of an advertising campaign or for comparing different marketing channels for the campaign.

Cost per view (CPV) ads are viewable impressions that are actually viewed by a user. For this to occur, the ad must be visible on the window for at least one second. Ads that don’t get viewed (but are loaded onto the page) aren’t considered cost per view. Such ads are typically at the very top or bottom of the page.

Cost plus is an industry standard business model and pricing methodology which adds aggregated transaction fees to the original price a publisher sells its ad inventory. Where there is often a complex and long supply chain involving many intermediaries the cost plus model can make procuring media expensive, and even lead to a situation where the transaction cost is larger than the actual price charged for the ad inventory bought.

A digital advertising business model where an advertiser only pays for ads clicked upon, popularized by Google when they introduced Adwords.

The cost required for a marketer to generate an app install. Typically this is a fixed price charged by a DSP to a marketer regardless of the CPM or CPC price.

The process of favoring the highest performing creative by adjusting the frequency of creative exposure, typically on a direct response basis.

Refers to the ability of tying multiple devices to the same individual for the purpose of targeting and reporting (i.e. reach the individual wherever he or she happens to be, and on whichever device).

Data are values of qualitative or quantitative variables, belonging to a set of items.

Platforms that aggregate ad serving data, conversion data and other 3rd party data sources including offline data.

The practice of scraping or matching user attributes from targeting data in an unintended way. Generally, but not always a violation of a platform’s or publisher’s terms of service.

A data management platform (DMP) provides a marketer, agency, or trading desk with a single integrated view of all campaign and audience data, helping with overall management and analysis of data. This enables the marketer or agency to best target their advertising in order to hit the right people at the right time with the right message.

Data providers source various types of data including market intelligence, audience intention, and publisher performance data. This data is then collated and packaged to sell to companies such as demand-side platforms and trading desks. Brought together in a DMP, the 3rd party data compliments the 1st party data, which is owned and generated by the marketer, agency, or trading desk. This allows for smarter bidding in ad auctions and for improved digital targeting of audience for smarter and less wasteful audience composition.

Data science incorporates varying elements and builds on techniques and theories from many fields, including math, statistics, data engineering, pattern recognition and learning, advanced computing, visualization, uncertainty modeling, data warehousing, and high performance computing with the goal of extracting meaning from data and creating data products.

An approach to marketing that stresses the use of quantitative analysis to determine the targeting, timing, and content of marketing promotions.

This is the process by which an ad is served on a page following the classification of that content. Once a page of content has been classified, a series of messages are sent between the targeting platform, advertiser’s ad server and publisher’s ad server. When this happens seamlessly, an ad is delivered in within a few milliseconds of a web page being loaded.

A demand-side platform (DSP) enables a marketer to utilize a single interface to perform programmatic and Real-Time Bidding media buying. A DSP allows the marketer to manage bidding on and buying ad inventory and data across multiple ad exchanges, ad market-places, and data provider accounts.

Mapping derived from user data (e.g. user login) that is mapped to different devices that belong to the same user.

A class of devices with identical capabilities. All devices of the same device type can be treated interchangeably. For example: iPhone 5 or Samsung Galaxy.

App tracking methodology that collects parameters about a specific mobile user such as the time stamp or network visited. This is used to track a mobile user’s activity in a completely anonymized fashion.

Inventory sold by a publisher directly through their sales team.

Usually any advertisement other than a classified or video advertisement. Display ads are generally several columns wide and often contain color, graphics, and pictures. They are assembled or typeset by the advertiser and supplied to the printer or publisher.

Form of online advertising where an advertiser’s message is shown on a destination web page, generally set off in a box or banner at the top or bottom or to one side of the content of the page.

In the US a DMA represents counties, zip codes or sometimes split counties that contain a specific population that can be targeted by advertising.

A platform used to collect unstructured audience data from analytical tools, CRM, point of sale data, social, advertising or any other available sources.

A platform that automates media buying across multiple sources. It generally provides the buyer with unified targeting, data, optimization and reporting.

The practice of publishers dynamically changing the price of their inventory in step with market demand.

A mathematical process of calculating a publisher CPM from a different methods such as CPC. Generally performed by publishers who have buyers using both CPM and CPC. By calculating an eCPM they can better manage yield optimization. The eCPM calculation is:    cost/(impressions delivered/1000).

Percent of total impressions that were clicked, liked, or commented on regardless of platform.

An exchange is an open and transparent marketplace that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads. The ideal online ad exchange provides every buyer and seller with the tools and controls needed to reduce risk and maximize return for every media buy. Exchanges allow buyers and sellers to value inventory on an impression by impression basis and in real-time.

The percentage of ad requests that are filled with ads.

Refers to technology that is used to identify individuals on the Internet and ad exchanges when cookies are not available. Commonly used in iOS environments, where third-party cookies are turned off by default. This technology is not as accurate as cookies, as it relies on a combination of attributes from the consumer, such as IP address, browser and OS characteristics, which may apply the same fingerprint to multiple people. Nonetheless, in the absence of cookies, fingerprinting is a proven method for reaching the audience in cookie-less environments.

Using specific media, how many times, on average, the individuals in your target audience should be exposed to your advertising message. It takes an average of three or more exposures to an advertising message before consumers take action.

The practice of managing the number of times a user views a specific ad creative.

A virtual perimeter for a real-world geographic area. Geo fencing is commonly implemented by leveraging GPS (long/lat) information that is reported by mobile device.

Targeting users based on their physical location. In the mobile world, this data is readily available, as many apps and sites communicate the GPS coordinates of users. The targeting may include either immediate presence at the target location, or retargeting users after they visited a specific location.

High-frequency trading (HFT) is a machine-to-machine program trading platform that uses powerful computers to transact a large number of orders at very fast speeds. High-frequency trading uses complex algorithms to analyze multiple markets and execute orders based on market conditions. Typically, the traders with the best models, lowest transaction costs, and fastest execution speeds are most successful. It is estimated that the majority of all securities and commodities exchange volume comes from high-frequency trading orders. A high-frequency trading process typically takes place in milliseconds or less and results in greater liquidity, cost savings efficiency for the buyer, and often higher eCPMs and/or better monetization for the seller.

The 5th revision of HTML code. Includes support for animation, video and other rich media functionality. Used exclusively by Apple as a replacement to Flash for delivery of rich media content.

Tracking method used by advertisers for devices running Apple iOS 6 or higher. Allows for user opt out at the device level. This supplanted the use of UDID (Unique Device Identifier) prior to iOS 6.

An impression is a measurement of responses from a web server to a page request from the user browser, which is filtered from robotic activity and error codes, and is recorded at a point as close as possible as an opportunity to see the page by the user.

Refers to ad inventory within mobile apps. For example, The Weather Channel app, which has ads at the bottom of the screen, is an “in-app” inventory source.

Arms-length buyer and seller of advertising inventory offering execution services on behalf of publishers, marketers and/or agencies, and networks. The IMT may or may not offer additional services to buyers and sellers. The media trader may trade on its own behalf and may or may not bear risk as principal. Less common, the independent media trader may also trade continuously in specific market segments as a Market Maker. In its role as Market Maker, the IMT may or may not have special privileges and/or responsibilities granted to it by the publisher, ad exchange, and/or audience or contextual data supplier.

An insertion order is an online or printed document that specifies the details of an advertising campaign. The terms of the agreement may also be specified on the insertion order or they may be placed in a separate document.

A type of ad unit within a mobile app that takes over the entire screen. Interstitials are commonly used within mobile games when moving between game levels.

The estimated total amount of ad space a publisher has available to sell to an advertiser.

Invitation-Only Auction Digital Media Inventory is a type of inventory that is unreserved, has auction based pricing and incorporates a one seller-to-few buyers type of participation. Other terms used in the market to describe Invitation-Only Auction Digital Media Inventory are: Private Marketplace, Private Auction, Closed Auction and Private Access. Prioritization in the ad server, the Deal ID, Data usage, Transparency to buyer and pricing floors are other things to consider as an impact to Invitation-Only Auction Digital Media Inventory.

Just-in-time is a production strategy that strives to improve return on investment by reducing in-process inventory and associated carrying costs.

Technique used by publishers and advertisers to increase the effectiveness and relevancy of ad placement. A contextual advertising system scans the text of a website for keywords and returns advertisements to the webpage based on ad messages that match with the sentiment of those keywords. Practitioners believe this helps them deliver their online advertisements to the users who are most likely to be interested. On the theory that properly targeted ads will fetch more consumer interest, the seller may ask for a premium for these over random advertising.

The length of time between, a user taking an action (such as clicking) and the response of the application to perform the task. This is generally used to refer to the length of time between a page loading and the ads appearing on that page.

Fees advertisers pay to Internet advertising companies that refer qualified purchase inquiries (e.g., auto dealers which pay a fee in exchange for receiving a qualified purchase inquiry online) or provide consumer information (demographic, contact, and behavioral) where the consumer opts into being contacted by a marketer (email, postal, telephone, fax). These processes are priced on a performance basis (e.g., cost-per-action, -lead or -inquiry), and can include user applications (e.g., for a credit card), surveys, contests (e.g., sweepstakes) or registrations.

Advertising assets are liquid when they can be bought and sold easily.

Local Online Ads refer to ads that are purchased based on a “local”, geographic location. Local online ads can be purchased by agencies or brands on a national, regional, or local level (i.e. by zip code or neighborhood).

A map of the marketing technology space which shows different technologies and where they sit in the ecosystem. It’s created by an investment banking firm called LUMA Partners.

Refers to a mobile website. These sites are mobile optimized to render well on smaller screen sizes. Example: http://m.sears.com. Companies typically (although not necessarily) create mobile sites on a subdomain, which start with the ‘m.’ prefix – hence the name.

A scientific discipline that is concerned with the design and development of algorithms that allow computers to evolve behaviors based on data. A major focus of our machine learning research is to automatically learn to recognize complex patterns in text and make intelligent decisions to categorize it. Our machinery analyzes similarities in content and learns what words, phrases and associations to connect to a certain category.

A market maker is a company that accepts principal risk or matches a client order seeking to profit by continuously bidding to buy on “cross” tradable digital media at a lower price than the price at which he expects to sell it, or by selling the media at a higher price than he expects he can buy it back. Market makers can make money in both rising or falling markets, by taking advantage of the difference between “bid” and “offer” prices or spread.

Able to understand how the media works and is able to use and manipulate the media to their own advantage.

A term used to describe the specialization of media buying and planning that happens in a large agency. Teams are generally based on a specific media type such as TV, outdoor, digital or social and don’t have domain knowledge of expertise in an area outside to their own.

A media trading desk is typically a service-based organization that provides a managed service layer overlaying or interfacing to one or a number of demand-side platforms (DSP) or trading platforms. Through the trading desk, the marketer or its representative media agency can programmatically obtain audience-based, bid-based, and guaranteed ad inventory.

An online video commercial that appears during an online video, it is typically :10 – :15 seconds in length. Once you click on certain online video links, you may be forced to watch a short commercial either before the video content (known as a pre-roll) during the video content (known as a mid-roll) or after the video content (known as a post-roll).

Media that is consumed outside of stationary traditional channels including tablets, cellular devices and laptops.

Data modeling is a process used to define and analyze data requirements needed to support the business processes within the scope of corresponding information systems in organizations. Therefore, the process of data modeling involves professional data modelers working closely with business stakeholders, as well as potential users of the information system.

Monetization is the process of converting existing traffic being sent to a particular website into revenue. Some ways of monetizing a website are by implementing Pay per click (PPC) and Cost per impression (CPI/CPM) advertising. Or by driving conversions.

An ad unit that looks like a piece of content from a specific publisher. It generally is labeled as “sponsored content or post.” Publishers such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Buzzfeed already incorporate native ad formats into their published content.

A field of computer science and linguistics concerned with the interactions between computers and human natural languages. This science lays the groundwork for how our machinery processes textual data, as we strive to teach our computers to understand language the same way humans do.

Open Auction Digital Media Inventory is a type of inventory that is unreserved, has auction based pricing and incorporates a one seller-to-all buyers type of participation. Other terms used in the market to describe Open Auction Digital Media Inventory are: Real-time Bidding (RTB), Open Exchange and Open Marketplace. Prioritization in the ad server, the Deal ID, Data usage, Transparency to buyer and pricing floors are other things to consider as an impact to Invitation-Only Auction Digital Media Inventory.

A project started in November 2010 by the IAB to develop an API specification for companies interested in an open protocol for the automated trading of digital media across a broader range of platforms, devices, and advertising solutions

Pixel is short for picture element. A pixel is a measurement representing a single point in a graphic. Most ad units are measured in pixels such as the common 468 pixel x 60 pixel sized banner.

A pop-under is a window that is created but temporarily “hidden” behind the window of a Web site that the user has chosen to visit. Pop-under ads are concealed until the top window is closed, moved, resized or minimized. Although some users find pop-unders to be intrusive, advertisers generally report good results.

An online video commercial that appears at the end of an online video, it is typically :10 – :15 seconds in length. Once you click on certain online video links, you will be forced to watch a short commercial before the video content (known as a pre-roll) or after the video content (known as a post-roll).

An online video commercial that appears prior to an online video, it is typically :10 – :15 seconds in length. Once you click on certain online video links, you will be forced to watch a short commercial before the video content. This snippet of online advertising is known as “a pre-roll” or just “pre-roll” (as opposed to a mid-roll or post-roll). Pre-roll makes up a small percentage of the available interactive video inventory, but it is growing more popular due to the fact that online publishers can pretty much guarantee that users will see and hear the pre-roll commercial before the audio stream starts. It is also one of the simplest ways to utilize the Internet for sight, sound and motion.

A type of inventory found on well-known and well-respected publisher sites. This type of inventory is media inventory that achieves ROI and is considered of high value to an advertiser.

Ad impression which is in high demand and gives the advertiser the highest possible ROI.

CLEAR is an acronym for Control Links for Education and Advertising Responsibly. The CLEAR Ad Notice is a document that suggests technical standards to empower each member of the online advertising community to communicate their presence and behavioral advertising targeting practices (if any) to consumers in a simple and direct manner. The 7 regulatory principle buckets: Education Transparency Consumer Control Data Security Material Changes to Existing Online Behavioral Advertising Policies and Practices Sensitive Data Accountability.

A private ad exchange is an ad exchange through which a publisher can directly auction and sell its ad inventory retaining more control over bid selection, setting dynamic reserves, and limiting potential buyers including by invitation only auctions. A private ad exchange is an auction marketplace that a publisher can exclusively sell some or its entire ad inventory combined with its own proprietary data sets to obtain better bids and therefore improve revenues and yield using programmatic media channels.

Programmatic marketing is a fully formed idea that programmatic media buying best practices and technology originally developed for computerized buying of online display advertising can be applied beyond display advertising or even beyond paid media to embrace all digital marketing activities. Programmatic marketing is about data and algorithmically driven targeting and campaign management being applied in an integrated fashion across all paid, earned, and owned digital and screen based marketing activity.

Fully automated buying and selling of digital media using disparate data and typically algorithmically driven trading systems with direct access to publisher ad servers, ad exchanges, supply side platforms, demand side platforms, trading desks and other auction based electronic marketplaces, sellers and buyers. Programmatic trading can be real-time or forward sold.

The practice of using a DSP to automate the sale of media assets.

Publishers are organizations that deliver content or a service to users. In many cases publishers depend on selling advertising mixed in with their content in order to fund development and delivery of the content or services. In some other cases, advertising is a source of additional revenue. Publishers have traditionally directly sold their best quality advertising spots or space, whereas those that can’t be sold directly are often sold through third party resellers such as ad networks. More recently they are sold through supply-side platforms that place the publishers advertising in electronic marketplaces on their behalf.

Any content sent by advertisers and marketers to your mobile device at a time other than when you requested it. Push messaging can include audio, SMS, e-mail, multimedia messaging, cell broadcast etc.

Real-Time Bidding is a technology that uses highly specific data, algorithms and automation to enable marketers to bid on ad inventory in microsecond auctions. During the time in which a user’s web page loads—in anywhere from 100 to 160 milliseconds—the marketer places a bid on a particular ad impression, which is then served to the user once the page is loaded. Using data related to the user’s cookie in addition to other sources, the marketer is able to track the user and match them with available ad impressions. This allows for the delivery of the marketer’s message directly to the consumer in a live setting.

Many publishers and ad networks have enormous supplies of web traffic and have difficulty monetizing a large majority of their ad impressions in that their direct sales team can’t possibly sell everything. This block of inventory is known as remnant ad inventory.

An online advertising technique that targets users which have already visited a website. Retargeting works by placing a small amount of code on a website which will place cookies on a users web browser. A form of online advertising by which ads are targeted to consumers based on their previous internet activity. There are various types of retargeting including: • Site: Targeting users who visit a page of your website. • Email:  Targeting users who open your emails. • Dynamic:  Targeting users with ads of the specific items or products they were viewing. • Search:  Targeting users who search for specific search queries in search engines. • CRM:  Targeting offline users by onboarding offline data such as a mailing address to a data provider and matching up IP addresses.

A performance measure used to evaluate the efficiency of an investment or to compare the efficiency of a number of different investments. To calculate ROI, the benefit (return) of an investment is divided by the cost of the investment; the result is expressed as a percentage or a ratio. In the above formula “gains from investment”, refers to the proceeds obtained from selling the investment of interest. Return on investment is a very popular metric because of its versatility and simplicity. That is, if an investment does not have a positive ROI, or if there are other opportunities with a higher ROI, then the investment should be not be undertaken.

Advertisements with which users can interact (as opposed to solely animation) in a web page format. 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. These Guidelines cover standard Web applications including e-mail, static (e.g. html) and dynamic (e.g. asp) Web pages, and may appear in ad formats such as banners and buttons as well as transitionals and various over-the-page units such as floating ads, page take-overs, and tear-backs.

Method of selling and buying online display advertising in real time one ad impression at a time. This happens instantaneously through a live auction, very similar to the automated stock trading on a stock market exchange.

Run of network (RON) means a banner will appear on any page of any site that is part of an ad network. Since this type of buy is not targeted, it tends to be the least expensive type of advertisement that can be purchased.

A piece of code that is integrated into an advertiser’s mobile app. In programmatic marketing, it is commonly used to track attribution within mobile apps. SDK’s are similar to tag containers used on websites that track user behaviors and conversions, and to report the activities to vendors, such as RevvedUp Digital, for attribution and optimization purposes.

When an ad sale through fails to hit the floor or minimum pricing set and the publisher decides it’s worth putting it out again at a different price

This approach applies semantic technologies to online advertising solutions. The function of semantic advertising technology is to analyze every web page according to its true meaning and sentiment in order to ensure that the web page contains the most appropriate advertising. Semantic advertising increases the chance that the viewer will engage with an ad because only advertising relevant to what they are viewing, and therefore their interests, should be displayed.

Used to determine if the “sentiment” of the page is positive or negative.

Primarily internet or cellular phone based applications and tools to share information among people. Social media includes popular networking websites, like Facebook and Twitter; as well as bookmarking sites like Digg or Reddit. It involves blogging and forums and any aspect of an interactive presence which allows individuals ability to engage in conversations with one another, often as a discussion over a particular blog post, news article, or event.

The prevailing market price for a given ad impression.

Used to describe the different technology layers in place to facilitate the buying or selling of digital advertising. Different vendors specialize on different parts of the “stack” and the pieces all operate together to form an ecosystem.

Mapping derived from user data context (e.g. browsing history and patterns). This is not an accurate as deterministic mapping, but is more readily available at scale.

A Supply Side Platform, or SSP, is an advertising technology platform which represents the suppliers of online ads, and guarantees inventory availability. SSPs allow many of the larger web publishers of the world to automate and optimize the selling of their online media space.

Hardware-based identifier unique to Apple’s iOS which was used by advertising companies to gather user data to improve ad relevance. Replaced in 2012 with IFA (Identifier for Advertisers).

The process of unifying tools and reporting available through an SSP so that a publisher can look at their inventory in a holistic manner and optimize their sales accordingly.

Refers to the number of distinct individuals requesting ads during a given period.

The total number of visitors to a site over a certain time period. The only way to accurately track this is to require each visitor to login with a unique user name to gain access to a site. Relying exclusively on IP addresses in a log file is not recommended as it would not take into consideration multiple users accessing ones site through the same IP address such as would happen at companies and schools. Cookies are also used sometimes, but since they can be disabled or cached, they cannot be relied upon exclusively.

Unreserved Fixed Rate Digital Media Inventory is a type of inventory that is unreserved, has fixed pricing and incorporates a one seller-to-one buyer type of participation. Other terms used in the market to describe Unreserved Fixed Rate Digital Media Inventory are: Preferred Deals, Private Access and First Right of Refusal. Prioritization in the ad server, the Deal ID, Data usage, Transparency to buyer and pricing floors are other things to consider as an impact to Unreserved Fixed Rate Digital Media Inventory.

Also called a “UI” or simply an “interface,” a UI is the means in which a person controls a software application or hardware device. A good user interface provides a “user-friendly” experience, allowing the user to interact with the software or hardware in a natural and intuitive way. Nearly all software programs have a graphical user interface, or GUI. This means the program includes graphical controls, which the user can select using a mouse or keyboard. A typical GUI of a software program includes a menu bar, toolbar, windows, buttons, and other controls.

In tabulating statistics for Web site usage, a user session (sometime referred to as a visit) is the presence of a user with a specific IP address who has not visited the site recently (typically, anytime within the past 30 minutes). The number of user sessions per day is one measure of how much traffic a Web site has. A user who visits a site at noon and then again at3:30 pm would count as two user visits.

Venture capitalists are a specialized segment of the financial industry who focus on early-stage, high-potential, high risk, growth companies.

Verification is the act of reviewing, inspecting or testing, in order to establish and document that a product, service or system meets regulatory or technical standards.

Provides a common ad response format for video players enabling video ads to be served across all compliant video players. However, VAST alone does not provide support for rich interactivity. VAST alone only supports relatively simple in-stream video ad formats that are not executable. These simple ad formats do not provide an interactive user experience, and do not allow the advertiser to collect rich interaction details.

Establishes a common interface between video players and ad units, enabling a rich interactive in-stream ad experience. Layering VPAID onto VAST offers an enhanced solution. VPAID establishes a common communication protocol between video players and ad units that allows a single executable ad (one that requires software logic to be executed as part of ad playback) to be displayed in-stream with the publisher’s video content, in any compliant video player. It also enables the executable ad unit to expect and rely upon a common set of functionality from the video player. Advertisers using VPAID ads can provide rich ad experiences for viewers, and collect ad playback and interaction details that are just as rich as the ad experience. With the adoption of VPAID, advertisers have more control over the display experience in their video campaigns.

View Through Rate (VTR) is an estimation of the number of impressions viewed during the advertising campaign, (as well as estimation of realized advertising contacts).

A classification of ads placements that are actually seen by a users rather than just loaded on a page or into an app.

Refers to inventory that originates when consumers use mobile browsers to visit sites with ads. Web inventory includes mobile-optimized and non-optimized sites. Mobile optimized inventory is recommended for smaller screens (phones / ‘phablets’). Non-optimized websites are suitable for tablets, as they have larger screens.

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