| DEFINITION | DESCRIPTION |
| |
| Ad Serving | Technology for managing the delivery of banner advertising into a website and measuring the number of ads delivered (impressions) and clickthrus achieved. Ad serving can be used by publishers to manage inventory and by advertisers to manage online advertising campaigns. (See also Third Party Ad Serving). |
| |
| Affiliate Program | eCommerce program under which owners of one website (for instance, a website about mountain biking) send users to another website (such as an on-line bookstore) to purchase related items. The owner of the target site shares its profits from the sales with the owner of the referring site. |
| |
| Animated gifs | Animation created by displaying frames of graphics one after the other in quick succession to give the appearance of movement. |
| |
| Applet | An applet is a program written in the JavaTM programming language that can be included in an HTML page, much in the same way an image is included. When you use a Java technology-enabled browser to view a page that contains an applet, the applet's code is transferred to your system and executed by the browser's Java Virtual Machine (JVM). |
| |
| ASP | An Active Server Page (ASP) is an HTML page that includes one or more scripts (small embedded programs) that are processed on a Microsoft Web server before the page is sent to the user. |
| |
| Bandwidth | The amount of data that can be delivered over the Internet within a given timeframe. Bandwidth is usually measured in bits-per-second (bps). The faster the bandwidth, the faster Web pages can be downloaded to a browser. |
| |
| Banner Ad | An advertisement appearing on a website, usually at the top or bottom of the screen. The standard size is 468 pixels wide by 60 pixels high. It is usual for the advertisement to be 'clickable', sending users to the advertisers content or external website. |
| |
| Bookmark | Creation of a link to a website already visited, so that the user can return to that website directly, without using a search engine or directory. |
| |
| Button | An advertisement appearing on a website, usually at the right hand side of the screen. The standard size is 120 pixels wide by 60 pixels high. It is usual for the advertisement to be 'clickable' sending users to the advertisers content or external website. |
| |
| Browser | Internet software that allows the user to "surf" the Web. This is the software that allows the user to view text and graphical elements on the World Wide Web. The most popular Browsers at the moment are Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer. |
| |
| Cache | Caching is a technique used to optimise the performance of the web by reducing the amount of information a user downloads. A browser is designed to store recently used pages on a user's disk in a special area called a cache. If it requires that item again it will use the cached copy rather than download it again. |
| |
| Click | The action of clicking on an advertisement or other graphical or textual element, which triggers an event such as moving to another page or another website. |
| |
| Click Wrap Agreement | A legally binding agreement between an organisation and a user which is completed online by the user clicking on a button which indicates their acceptance of a set of terms and conditions. Most commonly used as part of a registration process or where an application is downloaded to a users hard drive. |
| |
| Clickable | An element which will take the user to another web page if they click on it is referred to as clickable. An element which does not take the user to another web page if they click on it is referred to as static. |
| |
| Clickthru | The result of a user clicking on a clickable element and being transferred to a clickthru destination. |
| |
| Clickthru Destination | The URL which a user will be taken to when they click on a clickable element. |
| |
| Clickthru Rate | The number of clickthru's as a percentage of the number of impressions delivered. |
| |
| Cookie | Small computer file that stores information about computer users (with protection for confidential or sensitive information) to speed up and otherwise improve the user's on-line experience. The purpose of cookies is to identify and track users in order to prepare customised web pages such as on-line shopping carts, to allow users to register only once instead of each time they access a particular site, and to learn more about visitor behaviour. |
| |
| Cost Per Acquisition | (CPA) The cost of selling a particular product or service via a website. |
| |
| Cost Per Click | (CPC) The cost of achieving a clickthru. Some advertising models are based on CPC, whereby the advertiser pays the publisher each time the banner is clicked on, as opposed to buying impressions. |
| |
| Cost Per Event | (CPE) The cost of achieving a desired event such getting an individual user to subscribe to a newsletter or purchase a product or service. |
| |
| Cost Per Thousand | (CPM) The cost of buying 1,000 impressions. This is the standard pricing model for online advertising inventory. |
| |
| CPM Rate | The cost per thousand impressions. |
| |
| Domain | The textual name used to identify a website. For example, the site www.mysite.com has the domain name "mysite". |
| |
| Double opt-in | An email subscription practice that allows marketers to ask new email subscribers to confirm (via email) that they want to be added to an email distribution list for promotions, before the subscriber actually receives the information. The double confirmation is the best guarantee of user interest. |
| |
| Double Opt Out | An email subscription practice that allows marketers to confirm (via email) that subscribers to a particular newsletter, etc. no longer wish to be included on that email distribution list after the subscriber requests to be removed from the list. |
| |
| Download | To transfer data from one computer (e.g. the server for a website) to the user's computer. |
| |
| Event | An action identified by the advertiser as being a key objective of an online marketing initiative, and tracked using post click tracking. This could be subscribing to a newsletter, purchasing a product or using an online service. |
| |
| Flash | Flash, a popular authoring software developed by Macromedia, is used to create vector graphics-based animation programs with full-screen navigation interfaces, graphic illustrations, and simple interactivity in an antialiased, resizable file format that is small enough to stream across a normal modem connection. |
| |
| Flighting | An ad industry term referring to the planned and delivered impressions for a schedule over time. Flighting is the way impressions are spread over the entire campaign's duration. |
| |
| Form | A Web page mechanism used for collecting information or taking orders from a visitor. A form is processed once the visitor clicks the "submit" button. These pages contain blank data fields that users complete, and can be delivered within an HTML-formatted email, as an email attachment, or on a web page. |
| |
| Frames | A viewing and layout style, used by some websites, where two or more Web pages are simultaneously loaded and displayed. With frames, Web pages are broken into segments, and each frame becomes a separate page with its own attributes. |
| |
| Frequency | The number of times a single users is sent (or has seen) a campaign or online advertising creative. |
| |
| GIF | Graphic Interchange Format. A graphics format that can display on most web browsers. Animated gif is a file that creates a sequence of images to simulate animation. |
| |
| Hardwired | A method of Web advertising that gives an ad banner the same placement on the same page at all times. |
| |
| Hit | An outdated term referring to the number of page elements that make up any given web page. This term has been used to describe the amount of traffic through a website. |
| |
| Home Page | The introductory page of a website. The homepage is the main entrance for a group of linked, related Web pages, or a single Web page dedicated to one person, institution, company, etc. |
| |
| HTML | The coding language used to create Hypertext documents for use on the World Wide Web. HTML looks a lot like old-fashioned typesetting code, where you surround a block of text with codes that indicate how it should appear, additionally, in HTML you can specify that a block of text, or a word, is linked to another file on the Internet. HTML files are meant to be viewed using a World Wide Web Client program, such as Netscape or Microsoft Internet Explorer. |
| |
| Hyperlink | On the Web or other hypertext systems, hyperlink is a synonym for both link and hypertext link. Possibly, the term originated because "link" was not felt to be specific enough. And it's shorter than "hypertext link." |
| |
| Hypertext | Clickable text on a web page that takes the user to another place on the same page, another page or another site. Usually identified by being blue and underlined. |
| |
| Impression | The number of times a banner ad appears on pages, measured by the server that delivers the ad. The measurement excludes nonqualifying activity and internal users. |
| |
| Individual User | A person who can be identified, across multiple access points, by a certifiable registration ID. |
| |
| Insertion Order | The contract between the advertiser (or their agency) and the online publisher for the purchase of impressions. |
| |
| Internet Session | An unbroken period of time during which a user is connected to, and active on, the Internet. |
| |
| Interstitial | Meaning in between, an advertisement that appears in a separate browser window while you wait for a Web page to load. Interstitials are more likely to contain large graphics, streaming presentations, and applets than conventional banner ads, and some studies have found that more users click on interstitials that on banner ads. |
| |
| ISP | Internet Service Provider. A company that provides access to the Internet, most commonly through a dial-up modem connection. You use an ISP to connect to the Internet every time you log on. |
| |
| IP Address | Internet Protocol Address. Identifies an individual computer that is connected to the Internet. |
| |
| Inventory | Online advertising space available for purchase by advertisers. |
| |
| JSP | Java Server Page (JSP) is a technology for controlling the content or appearance of Web pages through the use of servlets, small programs that are specified in the Web page and run on the Web server to modify the Web page before it is sent to the user who requested it. |
| |
| JPEG | (Joint Photographic Expert Group). A format used to store Web graphics, more commonly photographic or complex graphics. |
| |
| Jump Page | A page set up specifically as the clickthru destination for an online advertising campaign. The jump page will contain more information, terms and conditions and any functionality associated with the campaign (such as entering a competition). |
| |
| Keyword | A word or phrase entered as part of an online search, which can be bought by advertisers to deliver targeted online advertising. |
| |
| Length of Stay | The elapsed time from the first to the last page request that constitutes a visit, and adding the average time per page for such visit. |
| |
| Meta Tag | Special HTML code used on some websites to specify information, such as keywords or descriptions, about the content of a Web page. Meta tags are often used to increase the likelihood that Web crawlers will index a site's pages in their database, thus enhancing the probability that the page will be listed on a search results page. |
| |
| Mouse Over | A javascript element that triggers a change on an item (usually a graphic) in a web page when the mouse passes over it. The change usually signifies that the item is a link to related or additional information. Mouseovers are widely used in navigation bars, pop-up boxes, and/or form submissions. |
| |
| Opt-in | An email subscription practice that occurs when a user requests to be added to an email distribution list by submitting their email address. Typically, users voluntarily sign up to receive commercial email about topics of interest. |
| |
| Opt-out | An email subscription practice by which users request to be deleted from an email distribution list by either selecting a link, or sending an email that requests their address be deleted. |
| |
| Opt-in email | Persons on an opt-in mailing list receive email only if they specifically agree to get it. |
| |
| Opt-out email | email is sent to persons on an opt-out list unless they specifically ask to be removed. |
| |
| Page Download | A file or a combination of files received by a user as a result of that user's request being received by the server. |
| |
| Page Request | A file or a combination of files sent to a user as a result of that user's request being received by the server. |
| |
| Page View | The number of times a particular web page is requested from a Web host's server and delivered to a users browser. The number of page views delivered across an entire website can be used to demonstrate the volume of traffic a website receives. |
| |
| Permission Marketing | All advertising that has been delivered in response to an explicit acceptance agreement, not necessarily in return for immediate value, e.g. an agreement to accept advertising from a particular organisation or on particular products/categories, and growing the permission that exists to develop a strong relationship between and organisation and its customers. |
| |
| PHP | In Web programming, PHP is a script language and interpreter that is freely available and used primarily on Linux Web servers. PHP (the initials come from the earliest version of the program, which was called "Personal Home Page Tools") is an alternative to Microsoft's Active Server Page (ASP) technology. |
| |
| Plugin | A small software application that merges with browser software to enable it to play multimedia elements on a Web page. |
| |
| Pop Under | Ad that appears in a separate window beneath an open window. Pop-under ads are concealed until the top window is closed, moved, resized or minimised. |
| |
| Pop Up | An ad that appears in a separate window on top of content already on-screen. |
| |
| Portal | Usually used as a marketing term to describe a website that is or is intended to be the first place people see when using the Web. Typically a "Portal site" has a catalogue of websites, a search engine, or both. A portal site may offer email and other service to entice people to use that site as their main "point of entry" (hence of "portal") to the Web. |
| |
| Post Click Tracking | The process of tracking users actions beyond clickthru and on to key areas of the advertisers site to determine whether the clickthru resulted in an event such as purchasing a product. |
| |
| Reach % (Active) | A measure of the number of unique web users seeing a website/domain one or more times, expressed as a percentage of the total active web population for the given time period. (Active population refers to those who both have access to the Internet and make use of this. |
| |
| Reciprocal Link | A Link on one website that connects to another website containing a link back to the original site. Reciprocal links are a common practice aimed at increasing website traffic, and may be used as a courtesy or may be contractually required. |
| |
| Repeat Visits | The average number of times a visitor returns to a site over a given period of time (usually one month). |
| |
| Results Page | A Web page listing meaningful matches in response to a search engine query. |
| |
| Rich Media | Rich media is a term for advanced technology used in Internet ads, such as streaming video, applets that allow user interaction, and special effects. |
| |
| ROI | ROI stands for "return on investment". ROI is trying to find out what the end of result of the expenditure (in this case, an ad campaign) is. A lot depends on the goal of the campaign, building brand awareness, increasing sales, etc. |
| |
| Run of Network | Advertising that can be placed at random across a network of associated websites. The advertiser does not get to specify where the advertisement is placed, and in return pays a lower CPM rate. |
| |
| Run of Site | Advertising that can be placed at random within a website. The advertiser does not get to specify where the advertisement is placed, and in return pays a lower CPM rate. |
| |
| Search Engine | Computer software that goes through a document, website or the entire Web to find web pages that contain a particular word or phase, and then categorise web pages for delivery into results pages relevant to keywords entered in the search engine by users. |
| |
| Server | A computer that makes Web pages or other services available through a network or the Internet. For example, Web servers deliver Web pages and email servers deliver email. |
| |
| Session | See 'Internet Session' |
| |
| Site Session | A series of page requests or page downloads served in an unbroken sequence from within the site to the same user. |
| |
| Skyscraper | An advertisement appearing on a website, usually at the right hand side of the screen. The standard size is 160 pixels wide by 600 pixels high, however some sites use a 120 pixel wide by 600 pixel deep format clickable sending users to the advertisers content or external website. |
| |
| spam | Unsolicited email, usually mass mailed to individual email addresses or newsgroups containing a marketing message. |
| |
| Static Web Page | Page on a website, the content of which does not change until the entity sponsoring the website edits the computer files. |
| |
| Stickiness | A website's ability to keep visitors in a website, get users to view multiple pages within a website or return to the website frequently. |
| |
| Streaming Media | Non-text files, such as sounds, animation and video, that can be viewed or listened to shortly after the downloading process begins, because it is not necessary to download the entire file before viewing it or listening to it. |
| |
| Subscribe | The act by which people willingly provide their names and email addresses for inclusion on an email distribution list, to join a forum or discussion group, or to receive an online publication, etc. |
| |
| Syndicated Content | Content that is generated or provided on a website from another source and is updated automatically without your intervention. |
| |
| Tile Ad | An advertisement appearing on a website, usually at the right hand side of the screen. The standard size is 120 pixels wide by 120 pixels high, however some sites use a 120 pixel wide by 90 pixel deep format. It is usual for the advertisement to be 'clickable' sending users to the advertisers content or external website. |
| |
| Third Party Ad Serving | Technology used by advertisers to manage the delivery of online creative into paid online media placements, measure the number of ads delivered (impressions), clickthrus achieved and post click tracking activities generated. (See also Ad Serving). |
| |
| Traffic | A way of measuring the success of a website through the volume of unique users through the site over a given period of time, and the number of page views generated. This measurement has replaced 'hits' which is no longer used. |
| |
| Tower Ad | An advertisement appearing on a website, usually at the right hand side of the screen. The standard size is 160 pixels wide by 240 pixels high, however some sites use a 120 pixel wide by 240 pixel deep format. It is usual for the advertisement to be 'clickable' sending users to the advertisers content or external website. |
| |
| Unique Audience | A projection based on an individual user and a clearly specified universe. |
| |
| Unique Users | An aggregate of users over a time period, where multiple visits by the same user are removed. |
| |
| URL | The address of a website. For example if the domain is 'mysite', then the URL is www.mysite.com. |
| |
| Unique Host | An individual IP address. |
| |
| Viewthru | A post click event which is traced back to having come from a user who was exposed to an online advertisement but didn't click on it. |
| |
| Visit | A series of one or more page requests or page downloads, served to one user which ends when there is a gap of 30 minutes or more between successive page requests or page downloads for that user. |
| |
| Website | A collection of html pages grouped within a particular domain. |
| |
| Web Property | The combination of related websites and pages owned by the same company. For example, ABC Ltd is the owning or parent brand of ww.xyz.com and www.abc.com. Thus these two sites make up their Web property. |