Glossary of Terms
1st Party Audience
An audience that was built using a company or entity's proprietary technology. See audience.
3rd Party Audience
An audience that was built using anonymous data that's not specific to a single company or entity. See audience.
Abandonment
When a user leaves a shopping cart with something in it without completing the transaction.
Abort
When a Web server does not successfully transfer content or an ad to a browser. This usually occurs when a user hits the stop button or clicks on another link prior to the completion of a download.
Above The Fold
When an ad is placed on a website above the scroll line as the page is viewed before any scrolling occurs, the term is derived from newspaper print advertising; when an ad is in view before scrolling.
Accepted ID
A device ID that is not deemed to be reliable, persistant, and meets any filters that have been applied to a partner's subset of cross-device data. Therefore, it can potentially be connected to related ID's in the Tapad Device Graph.
Accuracy
To create related associations between IDs, accuracy involves looking at the quality in the percentage of correctly assigned or incorrectly assigned edges, or connected device nodes. It is statistically calculated as: (true positives + false positives) / (true negatives + false negatives + true positives + false positives), by applying subscriber data to device connections within the graph.
ACR
See Automatic Content Recognition
Ad Click
The user activity of pressing a navigation button on an advertisement unit on a Website (banner, button, or text link).
Ad Family
A collection of one or more related ads.
Ad ID
A resettable, anonymous and unique device identifier, employed on mobile and tablet devices in an in-app context, to improve the user experience and create data sharing for marketing purposes.
Ad Ops
The team/function this is responsible for supporting the sale and delivery of online advertising. Ad Ops includes trafficking and optimizing digital ad campaigns.
Ad Server
A web server dedicated to the delivery of an advertisement.
Ad Space
A location on a webpage in which an advertisement can be placed. Each space is uniquely identified. Multiple ad spaces can exist on a single page.
Ad Targeting
When an ad is delivered to a specific demographic or audience.
Ad View
When a user is exposed to an ad.
AFT
See Above The Fold.
Amplification Rate
The number of related IDs divided by the original number of 'device IDs' in a data set.
Android Advertising ID
Android advertising ID was introduced with Google Play services 4.0 on devices running Android software. Android Advertising ID is a unique user-resettable string identifier that lets ad networks and other apps anonymously identify a user. The user's advertising ID is made available to apps through APIs provided in Google Play services. Users can reset their advertising ID at any time in the Ads section of the Google Settings app. Users can also opt-out of targeted advertising based on the advertising ID by setting the appropriate ad tracking preference. When the user opts-out of targeted ads, this ad tracking preference is made available to apps through a Google Play services API.
Anonymizer
A third party conciliator who prevents Websites from seeing a user's IP address.
Apple IDFA
IDFA or "identifier for advertisers" was introduced with iOS 6 on apple mobile and tablet devices. IDFA is an unique user-resettable string identifier that lets ad networks and other apps anonymously identify a user. A user can reset their IDFA at any time in iOS settings, and IDFA values are automatically reset if the device is erased. A user can also choose to hide their IDFA from apps by selecting "Limit Ad Tracking" in the privacy setting in iOS and Apple requires app developers to honor the limit ad tracking preference in apps that collect IDFA.
Assets
Logos, fonts and artwork used by a brand in their advertising creative.
Automatic Content Recognition
Chips baked into the back of TV's identify the content on the screen in near real time by scanning the image on the display. No audio is involved.
Average View Time
The average amount of time users play a video ad.
Banner
Image-based advertisements that stretch across the top or bottom of a website or down the right or left sidebar.
Beacon
A tiny image referenced by a line of HTML or a block of JavaScript code embedded into a website or third party ad server to track activity. Also known as a web bug, 1 by 1 GIF, invisible GIF and tracking pixel.
Beta
A test version of a product prior to final release.
Bitly
A URL shortening service used in social networking, SMS and email.
Brand Metrics
Used to measure the effectiveness of brand performance including brand lift, affinity and favorability
Button
A clickable graph that contains certain functionality, such as taking one someplace or executive a program. Buttons can also be ads.
Codec
Short for compressor/decompressor. Computer algorithms that are used to compress the size of audio, video and image files for streaming over a data network or storage on a computer. Some common examples are: Apple‘s QuickTime, Microsoft‘s Windows Media Video and MP3.
Control Group
Consumers who were not exposed to an ad. Advertisers compare the control group to an “exposed group”(a group that did see the ad) in order to show the effectiveness of the ad campaign.
Conversion
A conversion occurs when a user clicks an advertisement that leads directly to a purchase, sign-up, registration, lead, or view of a key page.
COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act)
An act enacted by Congress in 1998 which prohibits unfair or deceptive acts or practices in connection with the collection, use, or disclosure of personally identifiable information from and about children on the Internet. Section 6502(b)(1) of the Act sets forth a series of general privacy protections to prevent unfair or deceptive online information collection from or about children, and directs the Commission to adopt regulations to implement those protections.
Cost Per Completed View
CPCV refers to the cost an advertiser pays every time their video ad runs through to completion. Advertisers only pay for ads that finish completion. (CPCV = Cost ÷ Completed Views).
Cost Per Download
The price an advertiser pays every time a desired download occurs via an ad unit.
Cost Per Engagement
CPE refers to when the advertiser only pays when the ad (video or display) receives an interaction from the consumer. (Example: A mouse over or click-to-watch more video in a VPAID ad unit will be a paid engagement. Note the playing the video was not the counted interaction but the the click to watch more video was.
Cost Per Sale
CPS is the cost an advertiser pays per transaction type made by the buyer that resulted from a click on a banner impression. Payment depends either on the cost of lead, cost of sale or a percentage of the sale's revenue.
Cost Per Transaction
See Cost Per Order.
Cost Per Video Complete
CPVC refers to when the advertiser only pays when the video duration is a 100% played. (Example: If a 30 second commercial plays fully then the client can be charged.)
Cost Per Video Complete + Viewability.
CPVC+V refers to when an advertiser only pays when the video duration is a 100% played and in view. According the IAB, a video is considered in view if at least 51% of the video shows up on the screen.
Cost-Per-Thousand.
CPT refers to a media term describing the cost of 1,000 impressions.
CPC (Cost-Per-Click)
The cost of advertising based on the number of clicks received.
CPC (Cost-Per-Customer)
The cost an advertiser pays to acquire a customer.
CPCV
See Cost Per Completed View.
CPE
See Cost Per Engagement.
CPL (Cost-Per-Lead)
The cost of advertising based on the number of database files received.
CPS
See Cost Per Sale.
CPT
See Cost-Per-Thousand.
CPVC
See Cost Per Video Complete.
CPVC+C
See Cost Per Video Complete + Viewability.
Creative Retargeting
A method that allows advertisers to show an ad to specific visitors that previously were exposed to or interacted with the advertisers’ creative.
CSS
See Cascading Style Sheet.
Data Matching
The probabilistic or deterministic method of comparing unique identifiers to determine whether or not they are a match.
Deterministic Data
Refers to more accurate, less scalable unique identifiers (system IDs, log-ins, etc.) that are used to compare a match or an exact comparison between probabilistic data fields.
Digital Campaign
Specific activities to promote a produce, service, or business through different mediums (television, online, TV) using a variety of advertisements
E-Commerce
The process of selling products or services on the web.
E-mail Advertsing
Banner ads, links or advertiser sponsorships that appear in e-mail newsletters, e-mail marketing campaigns and other commercial e-mail communications.
E-mail Campaign
Advertising campaign distributed via e-mail.
Earned media
Or "free media" refers to publicity gained through promotional efforts other than advertising - as opposed to paid media, which refers to publicity gained through advertising.
eCPA
See Effective Cost Per Action.
Effective Cost Per Action
eCPA refers to the action count (Lead for instance) added to on a CPL/CPA/CPS models in order to calculate how much did the advertiser actually paid for each Lead act.
Encoder
A hardware or software application used to compress audio and video signals for the purpose of streaming. See Codec.
Encoding
The process of compressing and separating a file into packets so that it can be delivered over a network.
Encryption
A digital security proccess that makes information unreadable without the use of digital keys.
Engagement
A general term used to classify interaction a consumer has with brand content, whether it be in an ad, on a brand’s site, or via a brand’s social media profile page.
Event Trackers
Primarily used for click-through tracking today, but also for companion banner interactions and video session tracking (e.g. 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%).
Expandable Banners
A banner ad that can expand to as large as 468 x 240 after a user clicks on it or after a user moves their cursor over the banner.
Eyeballs
Advertising industry slang term for audience or the number of people who view a certain website or advertisement.
Family/Ad Family
A collection of one or more ad creatives. Also called ad campaign.
Flash™
Adobe‘s vector-based rich media file format which is used to display interactive animations on a web page.
Floating Ad
An ad that appears to "float" over the top of the page within the main browser window, on top of the web page's normal content.
Fold
The "line" below that marks where the user has to scroll to see content not immediately visible when a web page loads in a browser. Ads or content displayed above the fold are visible without any end-user interaction.
Frame Rate
The number of frames of video displayed during a given time. The higher the frame rate, the more high-quality the image will be.
Frames
Multiple, independent sections built by separate HTML files used to create a single web page.
Free Media
See Earned Media.
Frequency
The number of times an ad is delivered to the same browser in a single session or time period.
Full Screen Views
The number of impressions where a video or media plays in full screen mode.
GIF
The Graphics Interchange Format is a standard web format which uses compression to store and display images.
Global System for Mobile
GSM refers to a digital mobile phone system that is widely used in Europe and most of the rest of the world outside North America.
Graphical User Interface
GUI refers to a program interface that enables users to interact with a computer using visual icons and a mouse.
Gross Rating Point
GRP refers to a term used to measure the size of an audience reached by a specific media (frequency × % reached).
Gross Ratings Points
GRP is a metric that originates from TV advertising. It is now being altered and adopted for digital advertising measurement, particularly by Nielsen, comScore, and Video vendors. GRP is a measurement of a campaign's "size" or impact on the desired population. The simple formula is Reach (expressed as a %: uniques / population) X frequency (impressions / uniques) X 100. The key to GRP measurement is determining which base population to use for calculation which should match the campaign targeting. If the campaign is targeted broadly to the U.S. the base population would be the U.S. online population. If the campaign is targeted to only Women 18-54 then the base population and GRP would be calculated for only that audience.
GRP
See Gross Ratings Points.
GSM
Global System for Mobile.
GUI
See Graphical User Interface.
Hit
The record of a single online transaction event stored in a log file. One page view may contain multiple hits, one for each image on a web page.
Home Page
The page designated as the main point of entry of a Web site (or main page) or the starting point when a browser first connects to the Internet. Typically, it welcomes visitors and introduces the purpose of the site, or the organization sponsoring it, and then provides links to other pages within the site.
Householding or Home IP Association
Taking data available on the HTTP request (user agent, IP address, timestamps) and intelligently mapping that user to a household or group of households for profiling.
HTML
See Hypertext Markup Language
HTTP
See Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol
Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol
The format most commonly used to transfer documents on the World Wide Web.
Hypertext Markup Language
A set of codes called markup tags in a plain text file that determine what information is retrieved and how it is rendered by a browser. There are two kinds of markup tags: anchor and format. Anchor tags determine what is retrieved, and format tags determine how it is rendered. Browsers receive HTML pages from the Internet and use the information to display text, graphics, links and other elements.
IBA
Internet Based Advertising
IFrame
Short for “inline frame,” this is the area on a website designated for an ad to appear.
IMU
See Interactive Marketing Unit
In-Page Video Ads
Delivered most often as a stand alone video ad and generally do not have other content associated with them. This format is typically home page or channel based and depends on real estate within the page dedicated for the video player.
In-Text Video Ads
Delivered from highlighted words and phrases within the text of web content. The ads are user activated and delivered only when a user chooses to move their mouse over a relevant word or phrase.
In-Unit Click
A measurement of a user-initiated action of responding to an ad element which generally causes an intra-site redirect or content change. In-unit clicks are usually tracked via a 302 redirect. Also known as click-downs, click-ups and click-withins. See ad clicks.
Insertion
Actual placement of an ad in a document, as recorded by the ad server.
Instream
When a video ad “streams” (plays) alongside (before/mid/after) video content.
Integral Ad Science Bid Expert
A platform that enables Tapad to assess the value of every ad opportunity across channels and screens, and make informed decisions that maximize ROI.
Interaction Rate
The proportion of users who interact with an ad or application. Some will be involuntary depending on where the ad or application is placed on screen, so it is highly dependent on placement.
Interactive Advertising
All forms of online, wireless and interactive television advertising, including banners, sponsorships, e-mail, keyword searches, referrals, slotting fees, classified ads and interactive television commercials.
Interactive Marketing Unit
The standard ad unit sizes endorsed by IAB.
Intermediaries or Facilitators
Intermediaries/Facilitators are often lumped into the server category given their critical role in the process. This would be any of the other intermediary ad decisioning mechanisms that ultimately funnel to the ad server of record. These intermediators play a variety of roles from actual asset serving to helping advertisers and publishers with analytics and attribution. Tapad is investing heavily in this area and the ability to provide unified cross-device analytics and attribution are core to the value that we offer.
Interstitial
When an ad appears before the actual webpage. Also known as transition ads, intromercial ads and splash pages.
Key Performance Indicator
(KPI) A business metric used to evaluate factors that are crucial to the success of an organization; demonstrates how effectively a company is achieving key business objectives; A set of quantifiable values that a company or industry uses to gauge or measure performance.
Keyword
Specific words entered into a search engine that indicate the content of a document or website.
Keyword Targeting
Targeting websites or documents that contain specific keywords.
KPI
See Key Performance Indicator
Latency
The time interval between request and display of content and ad.
NAI
See Network Advertising Initiative.
Network Advertising Initiative
NAI refers to a group of third party networks advertisers, which has developed a set of principles in conjunction with the Federal Trade Commission. The NAI is committed to consumer privacy, Internet advertising practices and the expansion of electronic commerce. To learn more visit networkadvertising.org
On-Demand
The ability to download or purchase video, audio, or information immediately by clicking something on the screen that refers to that choice.
On-Demand Video
Video media that is immediately available to a user. Hulu, YouTube, and Netflix are examples of services that offer On-demand video. See on-demand.
On-Site Measurement
When a server has the ability to measure on-site campaigns and analyze traffic received on its own site.
Open Auction
A programmatic market place where real-time bidding (RTB) occurs. See RTB.
Opportunity To See
OTS refers to when a product or service is successfully displayed on a user’s computer screen.
Original Equipment Manufacturer
Another name for TV manufacturer. Example; Samsung, Sony, VIZIO, etc.
OTS
Opportunity to See.
OTT
See Over The Top
Over The Top
The delivery of content to a TV without the use of coaxial cables. OTT uses the internet to deliver content to devices. This can be both hardware and software. Hardware examples include Apple TV, Roku, or Chromecast. Software examples include Netflix or Hulu.
Pace/Pacing
The rate at which a digital ad campaign uses up its pre-set number of impressions (for a fixed/reserved campaign) or budget (for an auction-based/unreserved campaign); campaigns can pace evenly or unevenly.
Paid Media
Publicity gained through advertising.
Probabilistic Data
Refers to less accurate, more scalable field values (wifi, email, etc.) that are compared between two records (deterministic data unique identifiers). Each field is assigned a weight that indicates how closely the two field values match. The sum of the individual fields weights indicated the likelihood of a match between two records.
Pulse TV
A unified cross-device measurement capability leveraging linear TV data through a partnership with first-party data suppliers.
Search Engine Marketing
A type of Internet marketing associated with the researching, submitting and positioning of a website within search engines to achieve maximum visibility. Involves SEO, keyword research, competitive analysis, paid listings and other search engine services that will increase search traffic to your site.
Search Engine Optimization
(SEO) The process of getting traffic from the “free,” “organic,” “editorial” or “natural” search results on search engines. Aims to provide better organic search results. Google, Bing, and Yahoo! are considered primary search engines.
SEM
See Search Engine Marketing
SEO
See Search Engine Optimization
SKI (Key Success Indicator)
Another name for Key Performance Indicator (See KPI)
Social Media Platform
A website or app that enables the development, deployment and management of social media.
Social Network
An online platform that gives users the ability to connect with one or more groups of friends.
Super-Publishers
Publishers such as Google or Facebook that have a persistent user identifier across all devices (and have native apps as well as websites).
Target Audience
The intended audience for an ad.
Technology
The application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes.
The Pantone Matching System
(PMS) A proprietary color space used in the manufacture of colored paint, fabric and plastics.
Unify
The name for Tapad’s platform for our proprietary cross-screen technology. It facilitates our pinpoint advertising, analytics and personalization services for advertisers, publishers, marketing technology companies and programmatic businesses.
Unify Tech
The industry’s definitive cross-screen conversation, is an annual invite-only summit, presented by Tapad, leading provider of unified, cross-device technology, that educates attendees on impacts of our connected world.
Unique Users
See Unique Visitors
Unique Visitor
See Unique Visitors.
Unique Visitors
Unique individual or browser which has accessed a site or application and has been served unique content and/or ads such as e-mail, newsletters, interstitials or pop-under ads. Unique visitors can be identified by user registration, cookies, or third-party measurement like ComScore or Nielsen. Reported unique visitors should filter out bots.
User Agent String
A field in a server log file which identifies the specific browser software and computer operating system making the request.
Video Completion Rate
Measurement of when a video ad runs all the way through to the end.
Video Game Console
An interactive entertainment computer or electric device that manipulates the video display signal of a display device (a television, monitor, etc.) to display a game. The term video game console is typically used solely for playing video games, but the new generation of consoles may play various types of media such as music, TV shows, and movies.
Video Installs
Number of Video players that have been placed by a user onto their page. Also called embed, grab or post. A video player is a type of Widget.
Video On Demand
Usually refers to services offered by cable companies through set-top boxes.
Video Player
A computer program that translates data into video for viewing.
Yield
The percentage of clicks vs. impressions on an ad within a specific page. Also called ad click rate.
