Ad Impressions
The number of times an ad has been displayed (exposure, opportunity to see). Online advertising is purchased on a cost per thousand (CPM) ad impression basis. This does not refer to the number of people having viewed the ad, but simply the number of times the ad has been displayed. Different to page impressions which is how many times the page has been displayed. You can have multiple ad impressions for every one page impression as there are multiple ads on a page.
Ad Serving
The delivery of online advertising to an end users computer by an ad management system (ad server). The system allows different online adverts to be served in order to target different audience groups and can serve adverts across multiple sites. Ad technology providers (i.e. DoubleClick / DFP) have their own proprietary models for this.
Click Through Rate / CTR
Click Through Rate is expressed as a percentage derived from dividing the number of clicks an ad received by the number of impressions it generated. Example: 500 clicks / 10,000 imps = 0.05%
Cookies
A cookie is a package of data that is entered into the cookie file or “memory” of the web browser on your computer. It will typically contain the name of the domain from which the cookie has come, the “lifetime” of the cookie, and a value, usually a randomly generated unique number. Cookies allow websites to store useful information about repeat visitors.
Cost Per Action or Acquisition / CPA
Cost per action or acquisition is a pricing model that places a value on a specific action i.e. signing up for a credit card, downloading a brochure, applying for mortgage etc.
Cost Per Click / CPC
Cost per click is expressed as a dollar amount and derived by dividing the total cost by number of clicks received.
Cost Per Thousand / CPM
Cost per thousand is one of the online payment models by which advertisers pays for every 1000 impressions of their advertisement. CPM rates differ by site and section. The calculation is impressions / 1000 x CPM rate = $cost.
DoubleClick / DART / DFP
DoubleClick is the ad technology foundation to create, transact, and manage digital advertising for the world's buyers, creators and sellers.
Email Advertising / EDM (email direct marketing)
Banner ads, links or advertiser sponsorships that appear in email newsletters, email marketing campaigns and other commercial email communications. Includes all types of electronic mail (e.g., basic text or HTML-enabled).
Flash
Flash is a rich media technology used to show video and animation on the web and within digital creative. Flash is the standard on the web for delivering animations in a streaming media format (also see Rich Media).
IP address
Internet protocol, the method by which information is sent between any two computers on the internet.
Keywords
The terms a user enters into the query field of a search engine when they are looking for something. Keywords can be bought by advertisers to serve specific advertising, i.e. a car company might want their ads to appear whenever an editorial story mentions their brand.
Landing page
The page of a website that is displayed to a user immediately after they click on your listing or advertisement.
Leaderboard
A horizontal online advert that runs as the top of a page in a fixed placement. The size is 728 x 90 pixels and it can also be known as a banner, top banner, leader.
Medium Rectangle
A square shaped online advert that usually runs in the right hand column of a website. The size is 300 x 250 pixels and it can also be known as a med rec, large rec, MREC or island.
Nielsen
Global leader in measurement and information. Provides the complete view of what consumers watch and buy through powerful insights that clarify the relationship between content and commerce.
Page Impressions /PIs
Also known as page requests or page views. Page impressions refer to the number of times a web page is requested from a server. Think of this as ‘readership’. Page impressions is separate to ad impressions . You can have multiple ad impressions for every one page impression as there are multiple ads on a page.
Search Engine Optimisation / SEO
Search Engine Optimisation is the process which aims to get websites listed prominently within a search engine’s organic (algorithmic, spidered) search results. It involves making a site ‘search engine friendly’ by placing certain text/keywords within the body and headline of stories that will get picked up during a search.
Search Engine Marketing / SEM
Search Engine Marketing is the process which aims to get websites listed prominently in search-engine results through sponsored search and paid inclusions.
Session
A sequence of web activity made by one user at one site or across successive sites. If a user makes no request from a site during a 30 minute period of time, the next content or ad request would then constitute the beginning of a new visit.
Session Duration
The length of time the visitor is exposed to a specific ad, web page or web site during a single session/visit. The ASD = Average session duration; is the average ‘time spent’ during a session.
Share of Voice / SOV
Share of Voice is the percentage of ad impressions the advertiser receives vs. the total amount of impressions the page generates, i.e. if an advertiser buys 20,000 impressions from a section that delivers 100,000 impressions in total, their SOV is 20%. The calculation for SOV is purchased impressions / forecast impressions (for the section you are purchasing) x 100.
Unique Audience
The number of unique individuals who have visited a website at least once in the reporting period. Think of this as circulation.
Unique Browsers
An identified and unduplicated cookied browser that accesses web content or advertising during a measurement period. This definition requires taking account for the potentially inflationary impact of cookie deletion among certain browsers that access web content.
Unique Visitor
Refers to the number of distinct individuals requesting pages from the website during a given period., regardless of how often they visit. (Visits refers to the number of times a site is visited no matter how many unique visitors make up those sessions).