Glossary

A term that comes from newspaper advertising, where it refers to the top half of the page. In the adtech world, ATF refers to the portion of a website that is visible in a web browser when the page first loads, before any scrolling occurs. As a larger number of viewers see ATF content, ads featured in this space are considered premium and higher prices are charged. Content reached after scrolling is referred to as “below the fold.”

Pre-roll, mid-roll, and post-roll ads that are played before, during, or after streaming video content. The video player loads and plays before, between, or after paragraphs of text or graphical content, and starts playing only when it enters the viewport. Accompanying Content should only start playback upon entering the viewport. It may convert to a floating/​sticky player as it scrolls off the page.

The gain or addition of new visitors to a website. You can use acquisition reports to determine where website traffic is coming from and to better understand your targeting campaigns.

The number of IDs seen in bidding within the last 7 days within a data segment. Knowing the number of active IDs can help you approximate scale and reach.

The history of changes made. This history shows both the changes you make and the changes Koa makes. Activity insights highlight the impact each change has on spend and performance.

A business that manages the design, creation, and development of advertisements. Ad agencies typically work with media agencies to strategically place advertisements so that targeted consumers see the ad.

A browsing environment various types of ads can be served in. Ad environments include web, mobile-optimized web, and in-app environments. You can target and optimize ads served based on ad environment.

A service that connects publishers, advertisers, and DSPs and conducts an auction among bidders per impression.

The size (width x height) of an ad measured in pixels. For example, a creative’s ad format could be 728×90, 300×250, 160×600, and so on.

The practice of falsifying various aspects of ad serving for financial gain. Ad fraud can include search ad fraud and click ad fraud.

A strategy that falls within a particular campaign and enables you to assemble targeting strategies to specify when, where, and how to serve ads. You can manage budgets, goals, creatives, site lists, inventory, and viewability, as well as targeting options for audiences, devices, locations, languages, times of day, and video adjustments across ad groups.

The amount and types of ad space that publishers offer to advertisers for purchase. Ad inventory is typically defined by size, format, location, and available impressions.

A company that connects advertisers with publishers by matching a supply of ad inventory with a demand for ad placement.

A metric that refers to the number of ad opportunities you have won for the campaign.

Advertising technology. Refers to any digital tool, software, or service that is used to help advertisers manage and analyze their ad campaigns.

A service or system that verifies whether a campaign has been carried out as intended. Ad verification ensures that ads are appearing on the correct websites and reaching the intended audience, to help ensure that you’re gaining the maximum impact from each ad impression.

Refers to video content services like YouTube and Hulu that show ads so that they can offer content for free or for a reduced subscription fee.

A household targeting strategy that enables you to serve different ads to different households, even if those households are watching the same TV program.

A text file introduced by the IAB that participating publishers attach to their websites. ads.txt stands for “authorized digital sellers” and enables publishers to create a public record of authorized sellers of their inventory. Having these files helps prevent ad fraud and can provide buyers with transparency.

Refers to all the ways you can serve ads to your TV-viewing audience, ranging from streaming services to addressable TV. You can access advanced TV across CTV and OTT devices.

A company, group, or brand that buys ad space online in order to sell products or services to a target audience.

A measurement of the advertiser cost per 1000 user impressions, normalized to value at a single user level. Formerly known as Normalized Advertiser CPM.

Describes tools and systems that use artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate tasks.

A list of websites that an advertiser has deemed acceptable to display ads on. An allowlist can be used to maintain brand safety and efficiently target the right demographic.

A high-net-worth individual who provides financial backing for small startups or entrepreneurs, typically in exchange for ownership equity in the company.

A set of access points and tools that enable developers to build custom workflows and applications that can access certain features and data in The Trade Desk platform.

The ratio of a video creative’s width to its height. Common aspect ratios include 4:3, 5:2, and 16:9.

The process of determining credit for a conversion, or desired action that a customer has taken. This process includes identifying the steps a user takes before converting, placing value on each step, and assigning credit to either a single step or to multiple steps, depending on your preference. Tracking attribution helps you better understand what drives customers towards conversion.

The period of time after a click or impression occurs that a conversion is tracked for credit to the click or impression.

An online marketplace where advertisers place real-time bids to buy publishers’ ad inventory. There are first-price auctions and second-price auctions.

The percentage of impressions where an ad was served to a human and was both visible and audible throughout its entirety.

A specific person or group of people you want to reach with a campaign. Built from data segments combined using targeting, narrowing, and blocking logic.

A data solution that aggregates TV ad exposure and viewership data from MVPDs, OTT providers, and other partners. Use it when planning programmatic strategies that prioritize reaching households your campaigns haven’t reached yet and to grow overall audience penetration.

A deprecated name for the audience optimization feature in ad groups. When enabled, Koa automatically added high-performing data segments to a campaign’s audience to improve the likelihood of conversion.

A deprecated name for the audience exclusion feature in ad groups. When enabled, Koa used lookalike modeling to identify users least likely to convert and automatically removed them from your audience.

A performance-enhancing feature that enables Koa to use lookalike modeling to create an audience of users who are most likely to convert and add them in your audience. Koa also continuously updates the audience.

A metric used to evaluate the percentage of the target audience that has potentially been exposed to a digital out-of-home (DOOH) advertisement. It is calculated by dividing the number of target mobile devices, or the number of mobile ad IDs that are a member of your target audience segment around a DOOH screen, by the total number of devices around a DOOH screen.

A buying philosophy that looks to understand the traits and behaviors of the people that successfully move through each stage of the funnel in each unique channel, so you can find the most value for your money with every impression — not just the last one.

Refers to the digital streaming of audio content, such as music, talk shows, and podcasts, through platforms like Spotify and Pandora.

The process of inserting ads into audio content.

A budget-optimization feature that helps reduce the time and effort it takes to manage spend. You can enable AutoAllocator with either automatic prioritization or manual prioritization. With automatic prioritization, you empower Koa to continually prioritize your ad groups based on performance and direct spend to better-performing ad groups first, before assigning any remaining budget to lower performing groups. With manual prioritization, you regulate how your ad groups are prioritized, and thus how your spend is allocated.

A technology used to identify content played on a media device or present within a media file. For example, if you use a smart TV, its ACR technology tracks what you watch.

The ad opportunities that are open to The Trade Desk to bid on. Also known as avails.

The percentage of people viewing a program compared to the total population of TV viewers.

Refers to how familiar customers are with a brand.

An ad campaign that works to increase brand visibility and recognition by educating potential customers on the existence of a brand.

The starting price that you pay for an impression before applying any bid factors. Your final bid is the result of your base bid multiplied by the applied bid factors. For example, if your base bid is $2 and the combined bid factors for a given impression work out to 3x, then your bid on that impression is $6. Regardless of your applied bid factors, you will never bid more than your max bid.

The practice of using browsing history to determine which ads would be relevant to individual users, and thus which ads to present to them on a particular website.

An offer you make in an auction to pay for an impression. It can also refer to the final price of an offer you make as well as the number of offers you make.

A multiplier that you apply to your base bid to increase or decrease the bid sent out in an ad exchange. Bid factor techniques ensure that your bids are automatically adjusted based on individual customers’ characteristics, such as device type, location, or demographic.

A signal that an SSP sends to a DSP that enables the DSP to purchase ad inventory. In a bid request, the SSP indicates that they have an impression for sale and provides details about that impression.

A signal that a DSP sends to an SSP in response to a bid request. In a bid response, the DSP indicates a price and, potentially, creative specifications.

A list of websites that you don’t want your ads to appear on.

A way for advertisers to understand if their advertising is resulting in awareness, consideration, or purchase of their product or service. This is done by comparing a control group (not exposed to the ad) and exposed group (exposed to an ad), and measuring the difference between the two.

A study that measures the impact that ad campaigns have on driving key branding metrics by asking participating users survey questions to gauge awareness, consideration, recommendation, purchase intent, and brand favorability.

Refers to practices that work to protect a brand’s image by preventing ads from appearing on websites or in contexts that don’t align with the brand’s standards. Websites may be blocked for containing hateful content, encouraging illegal activity, or for reasons specific to a particular brand.

Refers to TV programs that are delivered via airwaves and accessible for free without a cable subscription.

Refers to video streaming services offered by traditional TV broadcasters.

How much you plan to spend on ads over a given time period.

Describes the part of the ad industry that purchases ad space online. This includes advertisers, agencies, DSPs, and DMPs. Also known as demand side.

Refers to TV programs that are delivered to subscribers via traditional cable providers.

Any technique advertisers use to encourage consumers to respond promptly. A CTA could be an eye-catching design or phrases such as “buy now” or “instant download.”

A strategy for purchasing ad inventory that is driven by goals, or KPIs. You can set your campaigns to run with a set budget for a set period of time and allow Koa to drive performance more effectively to help ensure that every ad impression you’re buying is the right one, at the right price.

Lists of keywords and phrases that are matched to the content of webpages and apps.

A medium ads are served through. For example, you can serve video ads, display ads, mobile ads, audio ads, and more. The Trade Desk is an omnichannel platform, meaning that it offers a wide range of different channels to serve ads on.

When a user interacts with an ad by clicking on it.

A type of ad fraud that involves a party using a bot to repeatedly click an ad to generate money for a publisher who is paid per click.

A technique that enables you to target audience segments generated from the users who have already clicked on your creatives.

When a user clicks an ad served to them and then converts (via whatever is considered a conversion action). Conversion actions are defined by the campaign and can include buying a product, performing a location look-up, and more.

Click-through rate, or CTR, is a ratio that shows how often users that see an ad click on it. CTR is calculated by dividing the number of clicks by the number of ad impressions. You can set CTR as a KPI to focus on how often users click an ad.

A non-guarantee agreement between an advertiser and a publisher where the advertiser agrees to spend a certain amount of money during a campaign flight.

A commitment is a formal deal between a buying and selling party with a fixed media spend goal. Once accepted, both parties are expected to meet the agreed delivery and media spend terms. The buying party can expand the commitment terms to consider more inventory if pacing falls behind.

A display banner ad that’s served alongside a video ad.

The percentage of ads served in an ad campaign that are viewed, played, or heard in their entirety. You can set completion rate as a KPI, or goal, for your campaign to focus on achieving a higher completion rate through optimizations such as prioritizing non-skippable inventory.

A TV set that enables you to access advanced TV to stream video content. CTV connects your TV screen to the internet, whether by stick, dongle, gaming console, or even a connection built into the TV itself. CTV enables you to access premium content without the need for a cable subscription.

Software that helps websites and apps collect and manage collection of users’ personally identifiable information (PII) and user consents in line with applicable data protection laws and regulations

Products that are sold in sealed packages, like food, beverage, and household items.

Content Signal Transparency is a single control in the UI that helps you approximate what your content is in order to call it transparent. This control is set to “true” if one of these three groups of content signals is present:
• Genre AND Duration AND Rating AND Livestream AND Production Quality
• OR Series
• OR Title

Attributes, or metadata, applicable to all connected TV content that you can use to forecast, target, exclude, or optimize towards certain types of inventory. Content signals can include genre, length, livestream, rating, production quality, and more. With content signals, you can better understand what you’re buying and feel empowered to improve campaign performance, increase reach and contextual relevancy, and drive creative relevancy for different types of users.

A pre-built or custom-made category based on matching keywords and phrases that you can use for contextual targeting.

A solution that allows you to match identified categories, keywords, or phrases with the content of a website where an ad can potentially be placed.

A time-saving feature that enables you to group together multiple PMP contracts, and then assign this group across your ad groups. For example, you can assign all your CTV contracts to one contract group, and then assign this group to the ad group rather than searching for and assigning multiple individual contracts. You can create standard contract groups for both first-party and third-party contracts.

An endeavor deal that the selling party attaches to a commitment or endeavor with a media spend goal to count spend from the deal towards a spend goal. When the buying party spends on the contributing endeavor deal, it counts toward the media spend goal of the primary commitment or endeavor with a media spend goal.

A desired action a user takes after being exposed to an ad, including making a purchase, downloading software, or subscribing to a newsletter. You can define what a conversion is based on your campaign goals.

The percentage of users that engage with an ad and complete an action, calculated by dividing the total number of conversions by the number of visitors to a website or media channel.

A small file stored by websites on a web user’s computer to record data about the user. Cookies are used by websites to recall useful information such as saved addresses, preferences, and personal settings.

The process of syncing cookies and sharing user IDs from one system to another.

Describes data collection options and audience-targeting methods that don’t rely on third-party cookies. Also known as cookie-free.

A pricing model where an advertiser pays a publisher based on the number of times users perform a specific action. CPA is calculated by taking the total cost of an ad campaign and dividing it by the total number of acquisitions, or conversions. You can set CPA as a KPI, or goal, for your campaign to focus on a specific action, like a purchase or a newsletter sign-up.

A pricing model where an advertiser pays a publisher based on the number of times users click on an ad. CPC is calculated by taking the total cost of an ad campaign and dividing it by the total number of clicks that occurred. You can set CPC as a KPI to focus on cost.

A pricing model where an advertiser pays a publisher when users view a video ad in its entirety. You can set CPCV as a KPI, or goal, for your campaign to focus on cost and immediate engagement with video creatives.

A pricing model where an advertiser pays a publisher each time users engage directly with an ad. Engagement often includes actions such as clicking on, rolling over, or viewing ad content.

A pricing model where an advertiser pays a publisher each time users install a mobile application.

A pricing model where an advertiser pays a publisher for each individual visit to the advertiser’s website.

A pricing model where an advertiser pays a publisher for every thousand ad impressions that are served. CPM is calculated by dividing the total cost of a campaign by the number of impressions, and then multiplying that value by 1,000. CPM is among the most common methods of charging for online ads and is particularly suited to generating brand exposure on websites with high traffic.

A measure of cost efficiency. It is the cost of advertising exposure that equals one rating point or 1% of the population in any geographically defined market. CPP helps you plan your budget and enables you to compare the costs of ads in various placements (for example, TV versus billboard ads). CPP is calculated by dividing total cost by GRPs.

A pricing model where an advertiser pays every time users play or interact with a video ad. The definition of a view varies by publisher, with some charging after a user has played a video for only a few seconds and some charging after a user has played a video for 30 seconds or longer.

The actual advertisement served to users to draw attention, communicate a message, or convert a visitor. Creatives can consist of text, images, video, audio, and animated elements.

First-party data that includes all client information collected and shared across an organization.

Describes scenarios in which users move and convert through two or more devices.

Enables you to measure and credit conversions across multiple devices. With cross-device attribution, conversions can be properly credited even when a user views an ad on one device but converts on another.

Works in tandem with frequency capping to limit ad exposure across all associated devices, not just the device where a user first saw the ad. Cross-device targeting enables you to scale your high-value audiences across devices and environments.

The process of serving digital video on internet-enabled TVs during TV content, giving viewers an experience that’s similar to watching a traditional TV commercial.

A device that connects a TV screen to the internet and enables access to content without the need for a cable subscription. A CTV device could be a stick, dongle, or gaming console.

A system that centralizes customer data from all sources and, upon the data owner’s approval, could make that data available to other systems for uses such as targeted advertising campaigns, customer service, and customer experience initiatives.

A technology that stores information a company has about their customers.

A raw device ID, such as iOS IDFA or Android’s AAID.

A data provider in The Trade Desk platform that blank labels third-party audience data and charges for it based on a percentage of an ad campaign’s total media cost.

The platform listing of a data segment. Each data element has information such as the data segment name and ID, which enables advertisers to access the data segment and use it for targeting.

A collection of data elements combined using an OR (union) operator. When building an audience, you can use data groups to include or exclude data elements for targeting.

A platform that collects, processes, and stores large amounts of audience data such as cookie IDs, first-party data, and third-party data. A DMP typically handles vast quantities of information in real time, making it useful for targeting online ads at a specific audience on a given website. You can use DMPs to create audience segments to target specific types of users during a campaign.

An online platform that facilitates the buying and selling of data.

When advertisers move data from one technology platform to another.

The actual data that a data provider uploads, comprising pseudonymous IDs of users (such as cookies, device IDs, UID2s, and EUIDs) and user information like demography, interest, and purchase or browsing behavior.

Reaching consumers with advertising that uses information, or data, to help marketers determine the strategies, channels, and audiences that result in their consumers buying a product or service.

A strategy that enables you to schedule ads to be displayed at specific times of day or days of the week to reach desired audiences more effectively.

The period of time when duplicate clicks or conversions are disregarded for attribution. Deduplication windows are designed to filter out what are typically user errors.

An action that ends a commitment deal and removes the buying party’s obligation to spend. Either the buying party or selling party can cancel the commitment if it continues to underdeliver after expansion (if applicable).

An action the buying party can take that adds more inventory to a commitment deal when it is pacing behind. qualified avails are low. Expansion is only available if the commitment includes expansion terms and the commitment is pacing below the negotiated threshold.

A unique number assigned to an ad buy within a private marketplace that enables buyers and sellers to identify one another. Deal IDs are used to match individual buyers and sellers based on a series of pre-negotiated criteria, such as the type of ad or the area of the website the ad will be published on.

A summary score that helps buyers and sellers whether the deal offers better value or access than the same inventory through the marketplace. Scores can range from 0 – 100, with 50 indicating the deal is on par with marketplace options. Score higher or lower than 50 suggest better or worse value, respectively.

Refers to the power advertisers have to make decisions on who, where, when, what, and how to spend. Programmatic advertising increases advertisers’ decisioning power.

A list of permissions that you define and then apply across first- or third-party contracts. Delivery profiles eliminate the need to set up permissions for individual contracts.

An ad platform that helps advertisers buy ads through real-time bidding exchanges. By using a DSP, advertisers can manage multiple ad exchange accounts and automatically optimize the bidding process through a single interface.

Information about users such as their age range or gender.

Enables advertisers to target demographic segments.

Data that is known to be true when linking to an individual and used to identify them across apps, websites, channels, and devices.

A publicly available website that includes the API reference and other documentation on how to build to The Trade Desk API.

The physical hardware that’s used to consume digital media and that supports digital advertising. For example, an iPhone is a mobile device that’s used to consume digital media and that serves display, video, audio, and native ads.

A string of numbers and letters that identifies every individual smartphone or tablet. Device IDs are stored on mobile devices and can be retrieved by any app that is downloaded and installed.

An ad campaign that’s facilitated via digital advertising technology and that involves the execution of marketing strategies across digital channels.

The term used for the ad environment primarily made up of outdoor digital ad placements. This includes digital billboards and signs in a variety of locations, including gas stations, airports, freeways, and the sides of buildings.

A marketing technique designed to elicit an instant response by encouraging prospective customers to take a specific action.

The act of selling products directly to people without the use of third-party intermediaries or brick-and-mortar stores.

A type of advertising where ads are served in standard, reserved spaces on web pages. These ads can be image- or text-based and found at the top of the webpage, in the middle, on the side, or at the bottom. Display advertising is separate from native advertising, where ads are formatted and placed to blend in with the content of the webpage.

Business and media expertise layered into a marketing mix modeling (MMM) to ensure media channels are represented accurately.

A creative that’s hosted by a third-party and changes based on information about the user. Dynamic creatives automatically optimize and tailor ads to users in real time through dynamic creative optimization (DCO).

The process where a macro is passed within a creative URL through a third-party ad server. This process results in dynamic creatives that automatically optimize and tailor ads to users in real time.

The guardrails put in place when using dynamic creative optimization to ensure that the correct combination of messages and images are swapped out and shown to the right audience.

Snippets of code that you can add to your pixels to allow your site to pass back specific product and revenue-related information based on a user’s activity from the page itself.

A measure of how much revenue an advertiser generates for every 1,000 impressions that are served. eCPM is calculated by dividing a campaign’s revenue by the total number of impressions and multiplying that value by 1,000.

A flexible deal type that gives buyers access to inventory without strict delivery requirements. Some endeavors include a media spend goal.

Built for advertisers in Europe and specific to regional regulations, EUID uses data to identify and reach consumers with relevant advertising across channels and devices.

An action that a user takes, such as viewing a product page, adding something to a shopping cart, or purchasing a product. The Trade Desk has a list of pre-defined events.

The additional budget an ad group can spend during a day without changing any targeting settings.The difference between a campaign or ad group’s potential spend and its current budget. In other words, it is the additional budget that a campaign or ad group can spend without changing any targeting settings. You can use excess potential spend as a directional indicator for how much additional budget a campaign or ad group can take on. For example, if a campaign has a potential spend value of $1,000 and a budget of $600, then the excess potential spend for this campaign is $400.

Refers to an online display ad that expands to a larger ad format when a viewer scrolls over it.

The amount the campaign is projected to spend by the end of that day (based on UTC time). This metric is calculated by taking the amount spent in the most recent full hour of spend and multiplying that value by the number of hours left in the day, accounting for partial hours. If expected daily spend is equal to intraday spend, that means your campaign is projected to have already spent as much as it’s going to that day.

A measurement of the number of unique bid combinations possible for an ad group or an individual tile. Expressiveness is calculated using the unique, non-zero bid factors applied to each dimension.

An agreement that a buyer makes with a publisher to purchase inventory.

Data that you collect or lawfully control on the websites that your company, brands, or advertisers manage. It may include user behaviors, actions, or interests demonstrated through your websites, subscriptions, or social media. It may include cross-platform data from mobile web or apps or data from your CRM. The most common types of first-party data are cookies, device IDs, and UID2s, to the extent such identifiers are collected and used in compliance with applicable law and user-consent requirements.

A style of auction where the winning bidder pays the bid amount, no matter how much higher it is than the amount of the second-highest bid. Compare this with a second-price auction, in which the winning bidder pays the amount of the second-highest bid plus one cent.

The length of an ad campaign from a set start date to a set end date. When you schedule a flight, you specify when you want your ads to run. A campaign with no flight continues for an indefinite period. A campaign can have a single flight with a single budget or it can have multiple flights with different budgets for each flight.

The minimum price for a valid bid set by the publisher. You can’t win an impression if you bid below the floor price.

The dividing line between the part of the webpage visible when a user opens the page, and the rest of the page. Ads that are placed “above the fold” are positioned so that users can view them without scrolling down. Ads that are placed “below the fold” are only viewable by scrolling down.

A non-binding estimate of how much of your budget you’ll spend in a campaign or ad group given the various targeting settings you’ve applied (audience, inventory, geography, bids, frequency, and so on). The platform shows forecasted spend for campaigns and ad groups pre-flight to enable you to get a better sense of how your campaign or ad group setup will impact scale. Once a campaign is in flight, you can update forecasted spend in real time. These forecasts are projections only and do not guarantee spend outcomes. Formerly known as projected spend.

A tool that uses historical data to estimate potential media spend or impressions and potential reach or frequency for an ad group configuration.

An environment where media is bought and sold in advance. This purchasing system enables buyers and publishers to lock in prices for ad inventory that they expect may fluctuate in value.

An advertising model used by TV streaming services where the service or subscription is at no cost and advertising pays for content.

A metric that refers to the number of ads a given user is served in a specified time period within the reporting context (advertiser, campaign, or ad group).

A limit on the number of impressions a single user can be served within a given time period. For example, a 1/​3‑hour cap indicates that a user can be served a maximum of 1 impression every 3 hours. Also known as an f‑cap.

A method for ensuring that a single user doesn’t see the same ad too often. You can set a maximum number of times the same ad is displayed to the same user within a given time period. This maximum is the frequency cap.

Specifies the desired number of impressions to be targeted for a user. For example, a 1/​3‑day goal indicates that a user should be served a minimum of 1 impression every 3 days.

Enables you to control how many times a single user is served the same ad within a given time period.

A platform that streams professionally produced, TV-like content on any device type across mobile and web browsers. This content is television length (typically 30 – 60 minutes) with commercial breaks in between.

The levels of the marketing funnel: awareness, consideration, and conversion. Awareness campaigns bring audiences into the top of the funnel, consideration campaigns help move those audiences along in their journey, and then conversion campaigns help drive them to take an action — like completing a purchase or signing up for a service. With Kokai, you can visualize which funnel locations are activated and how they’re performing throughout your ad groups.

A European privacy and security law that regulates how organizations target or collect data related to residents of the European Union.

A form of invalid traffic that can be identified through routine methods of filtration.

A virtual boundary around a geographical area, or a virtual radius, that you want to target.

A strategy that involves setting up geofence lists to define virtual boundaries of geographical areas, or virtual radii, around locations to target. The other geographical strategy is geography targeting.

A geographical strategy that involves setting up location lists to use to target people in specific countries, states, cities, or postal codes. The other geographical strategy is geofence targeting.

A method of targeting that enables you to serve ads to users based on their locations.

An IAB-recommended framework for publishers to communicate user consent and privacy preference signals to downstream partners, and is intended to support, but doesn’t by itself ensure, compliance with applicable privacy laws.

The dimensions available for a given data set or API which can be included in reports as columns. Grains can vary significantly by report, but examples include time range, ad format, media type, campaign, advertiser, and more.

A metric used to determine how many people within an advertiser’s target audience saw an ad. GRP can be calculated by multiplying reach (expressed as a percentage) by the average frequency multiplied by 100.

The period after which the impact of an impression decays by half.

A string of characters transformed into an anonymous string of characters.

A technique where publishers implement code on a webpage that requests bids from multiple demand sources at the same time, before making a call to their ad server to determine which ad will be served. Header bidding enables publishers to offer their ad inventory in multiple auctions simultaneously.

Refers to a group of people who live together and manage their bills and expenses as one unit.

Expands the reach of an ad campaign to device’s covered by a user’s household IP address, which may include all tablets, smartphones, and other devices connected to a particular household’s WiFi network. Enabling Household Extension allows you to expand your audience to target every device that falls within a single household. Also known as Household Extension Targeting.

Assigns a pseudonymous identifier to each household and uses available signals to associate OTT devices in the household to that identifier.

Represents the percentage of American households watching a TV program.

A pricing method that uses a percentage of media cost with a maximum CPM cap.

A performance-enhancing feature that enables marketers to make the most of cross-device targeting by combining all available cross-device vendors into a single graph that provides a more complete picture of each user’s device for each impression.

A static tracking tag that contains a piece of HTML code with an invisible image loaded from a tracking domain when a user visits a page.

A single ad that is served to a user. The ad does not need to be clicked on, only visible. Measuring impressions enables better tracking and improves the effectiveness of a campaign.

An ad served within a mobile application, rather than on a webpage or mobile browser.

Enables an advertiser to get a detailed overview of the post-installation activities inside their apps and insights into the way users interact with their apps.

A video ad that is displayed within the banner space on a webpage.

Ads shown inside video or TV content either before, during, or after the video plays.

A video ad that is played directly before, during, or after the video content that a user has requested.

The number of impressions where an ad was in view for a certain period of time.

A KPI, or goal, for a campaign to focus on maximizing the number of unique viewers beyond those who have already been reached through linear TV, or other channels.

A product that measures conversions that might have been influenced by exposure to ads. If a customer required additional time before making a purchase decision or conversion, IBI can provide insight into what triggered the action.

A formal written agreement between an advertiser and a publisher to run an ad campaign. It includes specifications like the campaign name, flight dates, ad sizes, websites receiving the order, total cost, cost per mille, discounts to be applied, reporting requirements, and possible penalties or stipulations relative to failure to deliver the impressions.

A tool that improves behavioral audience targeting with pre-built audience categories, such as business and finance, computers and technology, education, and more. This enables AI to identify the most relevant related segments based on lookalike modeling and include them in an audience.

A product or system’s ability to work with other products or systems, at present or in the future, in either implementation or access, without any restrictions.

An ad served while a user is navigating between different pages or websites, which are generally full-screen overlays that appear during a natural pause in the use of a website or application.

Traffic that doesn’t come from authentic human sources and involves false clicks or impressions that exaggerate the cost or earnings of online ad efforts.

A metric that measures how closely the avails coming through a commitment deal or endeavor deal match with what was negotiated for the deal.

A contract that references the individual terms of a specific deal between a buyer (advertiser or agency) and a seller (publisher).

A metric that measures the success of an ad campaign by driving performance and delivering results based on primary, secondary, and tertiary KPIs that align with a campaign’s high-level objectives.

The artificial intelligence that powers our platform. Its algorithm prioritizes and selects the best-performing and most relevant inventory based on a campaign’s goals, ensuring the right price is paid per impression.

A marker that is attached to a campaign to help keep track of things like tactics, regions, and more.

A type of attribution that gives credit to the last marketing touchpoint before conversion. In campaigns with multiple partners, this means that the partner with the last impression or click before a user completes an action/​conversion gets credit.

Traditional TV consumption where users watch a TV program when it airs on its original channel via cable or satellite.

The process of streaming TV content in real time over the internet.

Affiliates of broadcast networks that provide local content as opposed to national content.

A technique that identifies an audience of potential new users based on the known characteristics and behaviors of an audience of existing users. Advertisers can select a specific group of users and have an algorithm compare them to the general population to generate a secondary audience that shares statistically significant characteristics with the original group.

The period of time during which data is collected for attribution credit or reporting purposes. A lookback window set to 30 days would not give attribution credit for conversions or actions until 31 days after that impression is served.

Strings of characters in a creative’s code that enable ad managers to tailor their creative settings.

A research technique that helps marketers understand the contribution of marketing and nonmarketing factors (economy, seasonality, weather) to their marketing goals.

A model used to describe the path that a customer takes toward the purchase of goods or services from awareness into action, or conversions. Targeting parts of the funnel would have funnel-specific goals, or KPIs.

The desirable aspects of inventory, typically used in conversations about ad fraud.

The maximum amount an advertiser is willing to bid, including bid factors.

The process advertisers go through selecting optimal media strategies to reach their desired audiences that involves the best combination of media channels, mobile, connected TV, etc., to achieve campaign objectives.

The amount of media spend agreed to as part of a deal. Applies to commitments and some endeavors. Only spend on qualified avails counts toward meeting the goal.

Video ads that play in the middle of video or TV content.

Devices that consumers carry with them, such as smartphones and tablets.

Ads placed on mobile devices on the web and in-app.

An impartial third-party provider that attributes campaigns to different user behaviors, or conversion events, within mobile apps by optimizing app event goals, building and retargeting audience app events, and connecting campaigns to in-app outcomes.

Refers to television content that is served over the internet and viewed on a mobile device.

A subscription service that provides multiple broadcast or satellite television channels either live or on demand.

Advertising where ads are formatted to blend in with the design, function, and tone of the page on which they are placed.

Advertising that incorporates all available channels (including mobile, display, native, video, audio, and TV) into a unified strategy and ensures ads are delivered seamlessly and consistently to consumers across channels, devices, and platforms.

A metric that measures effectiveness in reaching intended audiences by using third-party measurement partners like Nielsen.

Movies, TV programs, or video clips that are streamed from the internet.

A programmatic ad buying and selling marketplace that enables buyers to buy publishers’ inventory through real-time bidding technology and where any user of a supply-side or demand-side platform can conduct media transactions on an impression-by-impression basis.

A competitive, privacy-conscious, transparent, and open marketplace of ideas, content, and commerce that is powered by relevant advertising.

A streamlined, universal single sign-on solution that enables a consumer to view content in exchange for their email address, ensuring a frictionless experience when logging in to gated website content across publishers on the open Internet.

A simplified, direct connection to premium publishers that supports an objective, transparent supply path that maximizes value for advertisers and publishers. Not a supply-side platform, OpenPath provides buyers with an alternate efficient path to each impression, cleaning up supply chains by reducing the number of intermediaries required in the real-time bidding process.

The process of reviewing what aspects of a campaign are helping to reach the goal then using settings and features to focus spend on the best-performing aspects.

A negotiated condition whereby an advertiser can cancel a percentage of purchased inventory by preestablished dates each quarter.

Video ads shown independently from other video content. These ads load and play once a user has scrolled through a visible portion of the website’s content, such as between paragraphs of a written article.

Television content served over the internet rather than through a cable or broadcast provider and using devices that connect to the internet, such as smart TVs and devices like Roku.

Data that can be used to identify an exact individual. Examples of PII are full name, phone number, email address, and home address.

A piece of code that loads an anonymous cookie every time a new user lands on a website. When a user leaves a site, the cookie continues to track their behavior. Pixels enable retargeting, which means that the same ads might be displayed on other websites that the user visits.

Video ads that play in-stream directly after the video content that the user has viewed ends.

Targeting that enables advertisers to bid only on traffic that falls within certain parameters. Advertisers can block fraudulent traffic, bid only on ads likely to be in view, or target pages related to relevant contextual categories.

Video ads that play in-stream directly before the video content that the user has requested begins. Content providers and publishers can provide the option to skip the video, or require users to watch all of it.

Using artificial intelligence to analyze historical clearing prices to find a lower, optimal bid for each impression served in a first-price auction, without impacting the win rate.

A fixed-price deal between a single advertiser and a single publisher that is accomplished using a deal ID. Enables publishers to offer inventory to a selection of preferred buyers at a fixed price before the inventory is offered at open auction.

Connected TV (CTV) inventory sources that mirror the look and feel of digital cable or satellite TV providers. CTV ads through premium distributors allow advertisers to access users’ registration data and to better target large, scalable audiences. Some premium distributors create and own proprietary content.

The block of time during which TV shows are expected to have the largest audience. Typically between 7:30 p.m. and 10 p.m.

Ranges of values a marketing mix modeling (MMM) uses to test assumptions (e.g., frequency, half-life).

The act of keeping consumer information anonymized, safe, and unable to be linked to a specific individual, and within consumer control on the internet.

An auction that requires an invitation (in the form of a deal ID) to access. Allows advertisers to bid on ad space in real time with a smaller pool of other advertisers that are invited to bid on that publisher’s ad space.

Refers to data that use probability, or a likelihood of something occurring, to link an individual. Made up of individual pieces of data, like IP address or operating system, to identify a user across apps, websites, channels, and devices.

The automated buying and selling of ad inventory using software. Helps advertisers improve performance through data-driven decisions and save time by centralizing the buying experience in a single platform where advertisers can customize the target audience, channels, publishers, geographies, and more with just a few clicks.

Digital audio inventory that is available for programmatic purchase.

Deals between advertisers and publishers in which the two negotiate a fixed price for ad inventory in advance. This enables advertisers to bid on ad inventory using real-time bidding while being guaranteed a certain number of impressions from the publisher.

Targeting customers in real time based on their current location using GPS and mobile network triangulation to understand a user’s location and proximity to a reference point. This allows a user entering a defined geographic area, such as a mall or a retail store, to receive push notifications on their smartphone.

A company, website, or entity that owns and provides digital content and makes money selling ad inventory to agencies and advertisers.

Describes the act of purchasing inventory directly from the publisher.

Avails that match the declared inventory terms of a commitment or an endeavor with a media spend goal. For commitments, only these count toward the agreed terms.

A metric that indicates the number of requests that a server is receiving each second. It measures the traffic that an ad server, ad exchange, demand-side platform, or supply-side platform can handle.

The total number of unique users who are exposed to an ad. Reach can be a KPI, or goal, for a campaign when focusing on maximizing the percentage of a target audience that is exposed to an ad. Cost per mille will be lower since frequency capping determines how often a user should be targeted.

Refers to the buying and selling of ad impressions in an ad exchange. In RTB, auctions are automated and occur within milliseconds. During this time, ad exchanges invite advertisers to bid on an impression through demand-side platforms, and the winning bid has its ad served.

An advertising metric that refers to how long it’s been since a user saw an ad.

A way to buy advertising space that applies data collected from retailers, including loyalty shopper data and purchase history. Can be used by advertisers to target consumers.

An ad buying technology that retail brands develop to monetize their consumer shopping data and also sell advertising space on their digital channels (e.g., websites, apps).

Targeting ads at users who have previously interacted with a website or an app. Designed to recapture the interest of users who have demonstrated interest in a website or app. This strategy retains existing customers and can convert potential new customers.

The ratio of total revenue to total ad spend. A measure of campaign effectiveness, it tells advertisers how much revenue they get in return for each dollar they spend on advertising, according to how the marketer defines the value of different conversions.

The ratio of total revenue to total spend, or money invested. If the revenue is $40,000 and the total media spend is $10,000, the ROI is 4:1.

Describes ads that include multimedia features like embedded videos and interactive elements.

A media-purchasing strategy that is used by both TV networks and agencies. Used to sell air time at higher ad rates at the last minute as opposed to in a forward market, where TV ad space is prepurchased.

Data collected directly from the partner that owns it. A partner’s first-party data that an advertiser gets permission to use. Different from third-party data, which has intermediaries that collect information from several sources and aggregates them to purchase from a data marketplace.

A type of auction in which the winning bidder pays an amount equal to the second-highest bid plus one cent. A bid of $5.00 over a second-highest bid of $4.50 in a second-price auction means that the winner pays $4.51.

When a client gives us their first-party data, we use seeds to build lookalike audiences that help expand reach to users with similar online behaviors to a seed audience.

A group of users targeted as an audience because they share a defining characteristic, such as gender, region, or an action that they’ve taken online. Also called “audience segment.”

Describes companies in the advertising industry that sell ad space online, including publishers and supply-side platforms.

A TV set with a built-in connection to the internet.

A form of invalid traffic that requires advanced detection and analytics tools to identify.

The amount of money a client spends on advertising efforts in our platform.

The act of viewing video content or TV programs through an internet connection.

Sticks, dongles, and cubes through which media is sent from the internet to a home TV in a continuous “stream.”

A type of monetization where users pay a certain fee upfront to get access to content.

Used by advertisers to look at all the ways they buy media on the internet and remove any redundant intermediaries and streamline their access to supply.

A technology company that enables publishers to manage and automate the selling of their ad inventory so they can generate the maximum amount of revenue per ad impression.

A European privacy and security law that regulates how organizations target or collect data related to residents of the European Union.

We’re a technology company that empowers ad buyers to create, manage, and optimize data-driven digital ad campaigns through our self-service, cloud-based platform.

Our online platform that provides education on programmatic advertising and allows learners to earn certifications.

User data that a single company collects on various platforms, but does not own, and sells to other companies, advertisers, or brands. Includes data on users who tend to frequent sites, and an advertiser might pay to use that data for a campaign.

A sub-unit within an agency that optimizes the purchase of programmatic ads to offer clients increased value from each impression.

Refers to the number, or volume, of visitors to a website or specific webpage.

An aggregate score from 1 to 100 that quantifies the quality of connected TV and video impressions. Derived from the weighted scores of six criteria (content, addressability, playback type, device type, content duration, market type) across three pillars of quality (content, ad experience, signals).

An open-source ID framework that publishers, advertisers, and digital advertising platforms can use to establish the identity of a user across the open internet, while also offering users transparency and privacy controls.

A tracking tag that contains JavaScript and enables management of multiple processes with just one pixel added to an entire website. Universal pixels are dynamic and help capture every website visitor no matter what page they’re on. They also enable segmenting all website visitors based on the different pages they visit.

A commercial investment for the upcoming year based on a negotiated cost per mille and guaranteed demographic as dictated by Nielsen.

Content that consumers (rather than brands) create and publish. Content created by users is usually not as regulated.

A way to buy media rooted in the return on the media cost (real-world results) instead of the focus on the price of media itself.

The most widely adopted Interactive Advertising Bureau standard ad script, tag, or code that is produced by ad servers that allows them to share basic information (data) with video players on a publisher’s site. While it does not offer robust metrics or interactivity options, it is the most widely accepted tag type by publishers.

The percentage of video ads that are played in their entirety. Used as a performance metric.

Video content that users can stream or download whenever they want after it airs.

An Interactive Advertising Bureau standard ad script, tag, or code that is produced by ad servers that allows them to share robust metrics like viewability, completion rate, and click-through rate. Not as widely available, it offers interactivity and can report on more advanced metrics. Ad servers generate a VPAID tag and video ad unit on the publisher’s side that needs to be VPAID-enabled.

When a user views an ad served to them, it goes to the advertiser’s site organically (without clicking the ad) and converts via the conversion action.

A metric for whether an ad has been viewed by a user (rather than only served on a webpage and not viewed). Calculated by dividing viewed impressions by tracked impressions.

The estimated percentage of cost per mille (CPM) impressions that are in view. Calculated by dividing the estimated CPM by the number of impressions that were in view.

Refers to an organization that keeps its technology, information, and user data to itself with no intention of sharing it. A closed ecosystem operated by people within the ecosystem, without involvement from outside organizations. Often used to describe Google, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.

The count of impressions won through auctions.

A percentage that measures the total number of impressions won divided by the total number of bids.

Adjusting the price of a product in response to market factors, like demand or competition. In programmatic advertising, the cost of impressions will go up or down based on the number of advertisers bidding for that impression.