The world of ad tech and website monetization is vast and complex, even for the most experienced publisher. This guide of ad monetization terminology will help you navigate through the latest ad tech terminology, acronyms, and jargon.
Ad exchange
A digital marketplace where publishers and advertisers directly buy and sell ad inventory.
Ad inventory
The amount of ad space that a publisher has available for advertisements.
Ad network
A platform that aggregates ad inventory from publishers and acts as a broker to sell to advertisers.
Ad refresh
Ads that automatically reload on the page.
Ad server
Technology used to serve ads on a publisher’s digital asset.
Ad unit
Placeholders on digital assets used to serve ads.
Ads.txt
A publicly available record of authorized digital sellers for the publisher’s inventory.
Adtech (aka ad tech)
Ad technology.
AdX (Ad Exchange)
Google’s premier ad exchange. Only accessible to premium publishers or to small and medium-sized publishers via a Google AdX Network Partner.
Allowlisting
When a publisher manually creates a list of advertisers that it wants to sell to.
Anchor ads (aka sticky ads)
Ads that remain fixed to the top or bottom of the user’s screen.
ARPU (average revenue per user)
The amount of revenue generated per one user
ATF (above-the-fold)
Ads that appear on the initial in-view page of a site, before scrolling down.
Banner ad
An image ad that appears in the form of a rectangle on the top, bottom or side of a digital asset.
Banner blindness
A term for users’ tendency to ignore ads.
Bid request
Code used to sell ads that is triggered when a user enters a page.
Blacklisting (aka blocklisting)
A list created by a publisher banning certain advertisers.
BTF (below-the-fold)
Ads that appear only once a user scrolls down.
Client-side header bidding
When the bidding occurs on the user’s web browser.
Content recommendation
Ads that suggest additional content to users based on their interests. This can be 100% advertising or a percentage of internal links.
Cookie
Text file containing user data that advertisers use to track user attributes.
CPA (cost per acquisition)
Average cost of a conversion.
CPC (cost per click)
Average cost an advertiser pays per ad click.
CPI (cost per impression)
Average cost an advertiser will pay per ad impression.
CPM (cost per mille)
Average cost an advertiser pays per one thousand impressions.
CTR (click through rate)
Percentage of people who saw an ad and clicked on it.
CTV (connected TV)
Devices like smart TVs and game consoles that support streaming videos over the internet.
Demand partner
Supplier interested in running ads.
DFP (DoubleClick for Publishers)
Now known as Google Ad Manager, the largest and most powerful ad server.
Display ads
Visual ad; the most common way ads are shown.
Display video ad
Ads that appear in the same locations as display ads, but are videos.
DMP (data management platform)
Software that collects and organizes user data for targeted advertising.
DSP (demand-side platform)
Software that enables advertisers to buy ad inventory.
eCPM (effective cost per mille)
Similar to CPM, eCPM is the actual average cost an advertiser paid for serving 1,000 ad impressions.
Exchange bidding
Google’s sever-to-server header bidding, now known as “open bidding.”
Fill rate
Percentage of how many ads were served on the publisher’s digital asset out of the ad requests it received.
First-party data
User data information collected by the publisher.
First-price auction
When the ad auction goes to the highest bidder and they pay the amount they set for the bid.
Floor price
The minimum price a publisher is willing to accept to run an ad. There are hard floor prices and soft prices (see below for differences).
GAM (Google Ad Manager)
Google’s ad management platform for large publishers, formerly DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP).
Hard floor price
The minimum price a publisher is willing to accept to run an ad, with no leniency for lower bids.
Header bidding
Programmatic technology utilized by publishers to simultaneously auction their ad inventory to multiple demand sources, with the highest bidder winning the auction.
Hybrid header bidding
Technology that utilizes both client-side and server-side header bidding.
IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau)
An organization that develops industry standards for the online advertising industry.
Impression
A metric to count every time an ad was served.
In-app ad
Ads served on a mobile app.
In-house ad
Ad that is created and placed by the publisher.
Instream video ad
Video ad that appears before, during or at the end of video.
Interstitial ad
Full screen ad that usually appears while transitioning from one page/section within a webpage or app.
In-view refresh ad (aka viewable/auto refresh ad)
When ads refresh on the page only while in the viewport.
Lazy loading
Ads that are served only when they come into a user’s viewport, which reduces page load times.
Leaderboard ad
Large banner ads that appear at the top of the page.
Linear TV
Traditional TVs.
Mid-roll
A video ad that shows while the video is being played.
Monetization
Earning money from your digital asset (website, mobile app, CTV app).
Native ads
Ads created to look like the content of the website.
Open bidding
Google’s sever-to-server header bidding.
Organic traffic
Users who arrive at your digital asset from unpaid sources (i.e. Google search).
OTT (over-the-top)
Streaming service that provides content over the internet, such as Netflix, Disney+, and Hulu.
Outstream video ad
Video ads that appear separately on a page and not within existing video content.
Overlay ad
Ad that appears over the bottom third of a page’s content.
Paid traffic
Users who arrive at your digital asset from paid sources (i.e. Google ads).
PAL SDK (Programmatic Access Libraries Software Development Kits)
Provides targeting signals for Google Ad Manager programmatic ads. The way CTV publishers can access Google’s video ads.
PMP (private market place)
Method in which publishers offer their ad inventory to a select group of advertisers
Pop-up ad
Ad that displays in a new browser window.
Post-roll
A video ad that shows after the video ends.
PPC (pay-per-click)
When advertisers pay only when someone clicks on the ad (as opposed to paying per impression).
Pre-bid
Technology that calls the premium bids before the ad is served; utilized by header bidding.
Pre-roll
A video ad that shows before the video starts.
Programmatic advertising
The use of automated tools for digital advertising.
Publisher
Owner of a digital asset such as a website, mobile app, or CTV app.
Revenue share (aka rev share)
In the digital advertising world, when the publisher gives a portion of its revenue to the company running its programmatic advertising in exchange for its services.
Rich media
Advanced technology such as videos, audios, etc.
ROAS (return on ad spend)
Metric that measures the revenue earned from every dollar spent on advertising.
ROI (return on investment)
Metric that measures the revenue earned from the overall investment.
RPM (revenue per mille)
The amount of money earned per 1,000 pageviews on a publisher’s digital asset.
RTB (real-time bidding)
Also known as “open auction,” RTB is the technology used for buying and selling ad impressions. Header bidding is subset of RTB.
Second-party data
User data information collected by another source (as opposed to first-party data that is collected by the publisher).
Second-price auction
When the ad auction goes to the highest bidder and they pay one cent higher than the second highest bid.
Sellers.json
File that contains a list of a publisher’s authorized sellers and resellers.
Server-to-server (S2S) header bidding
When the bidding occurs on an external server.
Smart TV
TV with a built-in internet connection.
Soft floor price
The minimum price a publisher is willing to accept to run an ad, with leniency for lower bids. Also known as target CPM.
Sticky ads (aka anchor ads)
Ads that remain fixed to the top or bottom of the user’s screen.
Supply-side platform (SSP)
Technology platform utilized by publishers to manage and sell their ad inventories.
Target CPM
The minimum price a publisher is willing to accept to run an ad, with leniency for lower bids. Also known as target soft floor price.
Text ads
Links on the page, you will get paid every time someone will click on the ad.
Third-party data
User data information collected by a source that has no direct contact to the user.
VAST (video ad serving template)
A template used to structure ad tags to serve video ads.
Video ads
Ads that come in the form of videos.
Video header bidding
Header bidding that utilizes video ads.
Viewability
Metric used to measure how visible ads are to users.
Waterfall
Outdated method to serve ads; replaced by header bidding.
