A
Ad Exchange
A digital marketplace where publishers and advertisers buy and sell ad inventory programmatically.
Ad Fraud
Any activity that prevents ads from being served to real people (bots, click farms).
Ad Impression
A single instance of an ad being displayed on a webpage or app.
Ad Network
A company that connects advertisers to websites that want to host advertisements.
Attribution
The process of assigning credit to marketing channels for conversions.
Audience Targeting
Selecting users based on demographics, interests, behaviors, or intent.
Auto-Bidding
A machine-learning driven bidding strategy where the platform adjusts bids to achieve a goal.
Audience Expansion
A feature that expands the audience beyond the selected segments to improve reach.
B
Behavioral Targeting
Showing ads based on users' past behavior (e.g., sites visited).
Bid Shading
Technique to reduce cost in first-price auctions by bidding just enough to win.
Brand Lift Study
A measurement study to evaluate the impact of ads on brand awareness, recall, and consideration.
Brand Safety
Ensuring ads appear in suitable, non-harmful environments.
Bounce Rate
The percentage of visitors who leave a website after viewing one page.
Budget Pacing
Controlling how spend is distributed over time.
C
CPA (Cost Per Action)
The cost incurred for a specified action (purchase, signup).
CPC (Cost Per Click)
Cost paid each time a user clicks on an ad.
CPM (Cost Per Mille)
Cost per 1,000 ad impressions.
CTR (Click Through Rate)
Percentage of impressions that result in a click.
Contextual Targeting
Placing ads based on webpage content.
Conversion
A desired action (purchase, signup, form fill).
Creative
The actual ad content (banner, video, native ad).
Cross-Device Targeting
Reaching the same user across multiple devices.
Custom Bidding
Creating custom algorithms to optimize towards specific business goals.
D
DCO (Dynamic Creative Optimization)
Personalizing ad creatives in real time.
Deal ID
A unique identifier for private marketplace deals.
DSP (Demand Side Platform)
A platform advertisers use to buy programmatic ad inventory.
DV360
Google's enterprise-level DSP.
DMP (Data Management Platform)
A platform to collect and manage audience data.
Data Onboarding
The process of bringing offline data into a digital environment for targeting.
E
eCPM (Effective CPM)
The effective revenue generated per 1,000 impressions.
Engagement Rate
Percentage of users who interact with an ad (click, hover, video play).
Exchange (Ad Exchange)
A platform connecting DSPs and SSPs.
F
First-Party Data
Data collected directly by a business from its users.
Frequency Cap
A limit on how many times a user sees an ad in a time period.
Fill Rate
The percentage of available impressions that were successfully filled with an ad.
G
Geo Targeting
Delivering ads based on a user's location.
Guaranteed Deals
Inventory bought at a fixed price and volume commitment.
Goal-Based Bidding
Optimizing campaigns for a selected KPI (e.g., CPA, ROAS).
I
Impression
Each time an ad is displayed.
Inventory
The total available ad space on websites and apps.
In-Market Audiences
Users actively researching products/services.
Incrementality Testing
Testing the lift generated by a campaign versus control groups.
K
KPI (Key Performance Indicator)
A measurable value indicating campaign success.
Keyword Targeting
Showing ads based on relevant keywords found on webpages.
L
Lookalike Audience
New users similar to your existing audience.
Lifetime Value (LTV)
The predicted revenue a user will generate over their lifetime.
Line Item
A sub-component of a campaign where targeting, bidding, and creatives are defined.
M
Media Plan
A plan outlining where and how ad budgets will be spent.
Multi-Touch Attribution
Assigning conversion credit across multiple marketing touchpoints.
Marketplace
A curated collection of inventory sources and deal opportunities.
O
Open Auction
Public real-time bidding on inventory.
Optimization
Adjusting campaign settings to improve results.
OS Targeting
Showing ads based on device operating systems.
Overdelivery
Spending more than the allocated daily or lifetime budget to hit delivery goals.
P
PMP (Private Marketplace)
An invite-only auction where premium inventory is sold.
Pixel
A tracking tag to measure conversions or retarget audiences.
Programmatic Advertising
Automated buying/selling of digital ads in real-time.
Preferred Deal
One-to-one deal at a fixed CPM but not guaranteed volume.
Pacing
How quickly the budget is spent across the flight.
Q
Quality Score
A measure of ad relevance and quality used in auctions (Google Ads).
QPS (Queries Per Second)
The number of ad requests processed by a platform per second.
R
Reach
Total number of unique users exposed to an ad.
Remarketing / Retargeting
Targeting users who previously interacted with your brand.
ROAS (Return on Ad Spend)
Revenue earned for every dollar spent on ads.
Real-Time Bidding (RTB)
An auction process where DSPs bid for impressions in milliseconds.
S
SSP (Supply Side Platform)
A platform publishers use to sell ad inventory.
Second-Price Auction
Winner pays just above the second-highest bid.
Site List
A whitelist or blacklist of websites for ad placements.
Segment
A group of users with shared attributes (e.g., in-market, location).
T
Tag
Code snippet for tracking user behavior.
Third-Party Data
Data bought from external providers.
Traffic
The volume of users visiting a site.
Time of Day Targeting
Scheduling ads to show during specific hours.
Threshold CPM
A minimum bid set for your line items to enter auctions.
U
Unique User
A distinct visitor counted once in a given period.
URL Parameters
Tracking variables added to links for attribution.
User ID
A unique identifier for an individual user.
V
Viewability
A measure of whether an ad was actually seen by the user.
Video Completion Rate (VCR)
Percentage of users who watched a video ad to the end.
View Through Conversion
A conversion that occurs after an impression but without a click.
W
Win Rate
Percentage of bids that successfully win impressions.
Whitelist
A list of approved sites where ads can run.
Y
YouTube Inventory
Video ad space on YouTube available via DV360.
Z
Zero-Party Data
Data intentionally shared by consumers (e.g., via surveys).