glossary of Web advertising terms

On the last call there was a suggestion from Jason that we make a
glossary of advertising terms tat was from a neutral (or W3C/Web
perspective, and this met with support.

I looked at some glossaries and found that indeed some are from a very
narrow perspective and most seem to have errors and/or meanings for
terms that i've never encountered and can't find support for.

So here's a go at starting with A - what do you think? is it worth-
while? I can make it a github Note, or a group wiki or blog page, that
any of us can edit, and that can have proper cross-references :)

Liam


[[
# A/B Testing
Comparing two versions. In Web advertising it's most commonly used to
test two different Web page layouts or two different ads, by showing
each to a randomly selected half of visitor and measuring which does
best.

# Above the Fold
The part of a Web page that can be seen without scrolling; this
obviously varied by device. It originally came from print newspapers,
which are comonly sold folded in half so that only the top part of the
front page is visible before purchase.

# Account-based Advertising
The practice of micro-targeting (q.v.) based on job title, managerial
level or similar attributes of people in a target account such as a
large corporation.

# Ad Blocker
A Web browser add-on that hides ads on Web pages the user visits is
called an Ad Blocker. Some of these can block ads in video sites as
well as in HTML pages; it's also common for some sort of privacy
features to be included to prevent Behavioural Targeting.

# Ad Click
User response to an ad, e.g. by pressing it or clicking on it.

# Ad Completion
When a video ad plays all the way to the end.

# Ad Exchange
An automated marketplace where an auction is held each time an ad is
requested for a Web page to provide the ad that will pay th emost money
per ad click or per ad impression.

# Ad Fraud
Attempts to cheat the system, such as running malicious ads that
pretend to be from one company but actually when clicked take users to
a phihing site, or, more commonly, publisher fraud happens when a Web
page reloads excessivly or has hiden ads users don't see, to get
advertisers to pay them or to simulate a high number of pageviews.

# Ad impression
A single ad being shown to a single user on one Web page is called an
impression. It can be difficult to measure when an ad has been shown,
but the Intersection Observer specification provides a mechanism to do
this. Has an ad been shown when 90% of it was on screen? Probably.

Some advertisers pay per impression, for example for Display
Advertising (qv).

# Ad Inventory
A Web Publisher's ad inventory is the number of Ad Impressions the
publisher has available to sell each month.

# Ad Network
An organization that supplies adverts to fill Ad Slots on Web pages. Ad
Networks typically connect large numbers of Web sites with large
numbers of advertisers, increasing the Audience for the advertiser and
the range of ads for the Publisher.

# Ad Serving
The process of delivering ads from an Ad Channel or a publisher's Web
server to the client browser.

# Ad Targeting
The process of delivering ads based on information about the person
viewing the containing Web page. See also Behavioral Targeting,
Contextual Targeting, and Geographic Targeting.

# Ad Tech
Avertising Technology: the entire range of systems, technologies and
services that are involved in the Web advertising industry.

# Ad Unit
Web pages that show ads generally have one or more Ad Slots, each of
which must be one of a particular set of sizes in pixels; a design of
an ad to fit such a slot is called an Ad Unit. When a Web page is
displayed, the Ad Network will supply an ad that meets the Ad Unit
specification for each slot in turn, with data such as pixel size,
colours, fonts and so forth. The IAB (q.v.) keeps a set of commonly-
used sizes for Ad Units.

# Affiliate Marketing
This is where Web publishers sign up with retailers and get paid when
users click through an ad to the retailer and make a purchase.

# Agency Trading Desk
(not sure)

# Analytics
Statistics about who uses a particular Web site: at its simplist this
can just provide total numer of users (Pageviews, q.v.) or users per
page over a given period; more sophisticated analytics might combine
Behavioral Targeting information to give information about visitor age
groups, location, gender and so forth, as well as how much time people
spend on the Web site,how they progress from page to page through the
site, which other sites they visit, and more.

# Attribution
Ientifying which contact with a user led to a sale, for the purpose of
estimating ROI (q.v.) For example, a user might have been exposed to an
email campaign, or received a telephone call, or seen an Web ad.

First-touch Attribution is when the first contact is assumed to be
responsible for the sale; last-touch gives the most recent contact just
before the ale the entire credit for the sale; multi-touch is more
realistic and shares the credit over the various contacts, but is
harder to calculate.

# Audience
Also known as Ad Audience. The total group of people that might have
seen a particuar ad in a given time period, often expressed as a
number.

# Audience Extension
See "Lookalike Modeling".

# Audio
There are guidelines from the IAB (q.v.) about when sound can be played
without specific opt-in from the user.

# Banner Ad
Wide horizontal ads that appear primarily at the top of a Web site.
Most people have learned to ignore these.

# Display Advertising
Web ads that are intended to promote a brand rather than any particular
product; sometimes there's no specific action on an Ad Click, since the
primary coal is just to increase awareness of the brand.

Display ads are almost always graphcal rather than simply text; if they
are textual it will generally be with an eye=catching font. The term
comes from print newspapers, where Display Ads are inserted alongside
text articles.

# Lookalike Modeling
Expanding audience size by extrapolating from known customers based on
shared behaviours and characteristics to target new people likely to
become customers.

Also known as Audience Extension.

# Perception Gap
(is this worth including?)

# Publisher

# Run-of-site

]]



-- 
Liam Quin, W3C, http://www.w3.org/People/Quin/
Staff contact for Verifiable Claims WG, SVG WG, XQuery WG
Improving Web Advertising: https://www.w3.org/community/web-adv/
Personal: awesome vintage art: http://www.fromoldbooks.org/

Received on Tuesday, 15 May 2018 17:25:20 UTC