Glossary
Programmatic advertising glossary
Plain-English definitions of the terms you hear when buying media programmatically. DSPs, deals, CTV, data, measurement and privacy, explained by the AdGeeks programmatic team.
A
Ad Exchange
An ad exchange is a digital marketplace where publishers and advertisers buy and sell ad impressions through automated, real-time auctions.
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Ad Fraud
Ad fraud is any deliberate attempt to make advertisers pay for impressions, clicks or conversions that no real, interested person ever saw or made.
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Ad Inventory
Ad inventory is the total supply of ad space a publisher can sell, such as website banners, video breaks, in-app placements and connected TV ad slots.
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Ad Server
An ad server is technology that stores ad creatives, decides which ad to show in a given placement, delivers it, and records impressions, clicks and conversions.
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Addressable TV
Addressable TV is television advertising that serves different ads to different households watching the same content, based on household-level audience data.
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Adform
Adform is an independent advertising technology company whose platform, Adform FLOW, combines a DSP, an ad server and data tools for programmatic buying.
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Ads.txt
Ads.txt is an IAB Tech Lab standard that lets publishers publicly list the companies authorized to sell their ad inventory, so buyers can avoid spoofed supply.
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Amazon DSP
Amazon DSP is Amazon's demand-side platform for buying display, video, audio and streaming TV ads programmatically, using Amazon shopping signals for targeting.
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Attention Metrics
Attention metrics are measurements that estimate how much human attention an ad actually receives, going beyond whether it was served or technically viewable.
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Audience Segment
An audience segment is a group of people who share specific traits or behaviors, such as interests, demographics or purchase intent, that advertisers target as one unit.
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B
Brand Lift
Brand lift is the measured increase in brand awareness, ad recall, consideration or purchase intent caused by an ad campaign, compared with a control group.
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Brand Safety
Brand safety is the set of practices and tools that keep ads away from harmful or inappropriate content that could damage how people see the advertiser.
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C
Connected TV (CTV)
Connected TV (CTV) is any television that streams video over the internet, such as a smart TV or a TV using a streaming stick, game console or set-top box.
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Contextual Targeting
Contextual targeting is a way of placing ads based on the content of the page, app or video being viewed, rather than on personal data about the viewer.
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Cookieless Advertising
Cookieless advertising is ad targeting and measurement that works without third-party cookies, using context, first-party data and alternative IDs instead.
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CPA (Cost per Acquisition)
CPA (cost per acquisition) is the average amount an advertiser pays for one conversion, such as a sale, sign-up or lead, calculated as spend divided by conversions.
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CPCV (Cost per Completed View)
CPCV (cost per completed view) is a video pricing model and metric where an advertiser pays only when a viewer watches a video ad all the way to the end.
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CPM (Cost per Mille)
CPM (cost per mille) is the price an advertiser pays for 1,000 ad impressions, the standard unit for pricing and comparing most programmatic media buys.
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Cross-Device Targeting
Cross-device targeting is recognizing the same person or household across phones, computers, tablets and TVs to target and measure ads consistently.
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D
Data Clean Room
A data clean room is a secure environment where two or more parties can match and analyze their data together without either side seeing the other's raw records.
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Data Management Platform (DMP)
A data management platform (DMP) is software that collects, organizes and segments audience data, mostly cookie and device based, for use in ad targeting.
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Deal ID
A deal ID is a unique code that identifies a pre-arranged agreement between a buyer and seller, so a DSP can bid on specific inventory on agreed terms.
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Demand-Side Platform (DSP)
A demand-side platform (DSP) is software that lets advertisers buy ad impressions automatically across many exchanges and publishers from one interface.
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Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH)
Digital out-of-home (DOOH) is advertising shown on digital screens in public places, such as billboards, transit stations, airports and shopping malls.
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Display & Video 360 (DV360)
Display & Video 360 (DV360) is Google's enterprise demand-side platform for buying display, video, CTV, audio and DOOH ads programmatically across many exchanges.
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Dynamic Creative Optimization (DCO)
Dynamic creative optimization (DCO) is technology that builds ads in real time from interchangeable parts, choosing the version most likely to work for each viewer.
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F
First-Party Data
First-party data is information a company collects directly from its own customers and audiences, such as website activity, purchases, app usage and CRM records.
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First-Price Auction
A first-price auction is an auction model where the highest bidder wins the ad impression and pays exactly what they bid, rather than the second-highest price.
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Frequency Capping
Frequency capping is a setting that limits how many times the same person sees an ad within a set period, such as three impressions per user per week.
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I
Impression
An impression is a single instance of an ad being served and loaded on a screen, the basic unit used to count delivery and price most digital advertising.
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In-App Advertising
In-app advertising is the practice of showing ads inside mobile apps, using formats such as banners, interstitials, native ads and rewarded video.
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Incrementality
Incrementality is the measure of extra conversions, sales or other outcomes caused by advertising, beyond what would have happened if the ads had never run.
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M
Managed Service
A managed service is a buying model where an agency or vendor plans, runs and optimizes programmatic campaigns for an advertiser inside a DSP on their behalf.
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Multi-Touch Attribution
Multi-touch attribution (MTA) is a measurement method that splits credit for a conversion across the ad touchpoints a customer interacted with along the way.
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O
Open Auction
An open auction is a real-time programmatic marketplace where any approved buyer can bid on publisher ad impressions, and the highest bid wins each one.
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OTT (Over-the-Top)
OTT (over-the-top) is video and audio content streamed over the internet directly to viewers, bypassing traditional cable and satellite TV providers.
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P
Pacing
Pacing is the way an ad campaign spends its budget over time, controlling whether delivery is spread evenly across the flight or spent as fast as possible.
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Preferred Deal
A preferred deal is a programmatic agreement that gives one buyer first look at a publisher's inventory at a fixed price, with no commitment to buy a set volume.
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Private Marketplace (PMP)
A private marketplace (PMP) is an invite-only programmatic auction where a publisher offers selected inventory to chosen buyers, usually through a Deal ID.
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Programmatic Advertising
Programmatic advertising is the automated buying and selling of digital ad space using software and data, rather than manual orders and negotiations between people.
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Programmatic Direct
Programmatic direct is a way of buying ad inventory directly from a publisher through automated platforms, at agreed terms, without competing in an open auction.
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Programmatic Guaranteed
Programmatic guaranteed (PG) is a direct deal where a buyer reserves a fixed volume of a publisher's inventory at a fixed price, delivered through a DSP.
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R
Reach
Reach is the number of unique people or households who saw an ad at least once during a campaign, as opposed to the total number of impressions served.
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Real-Time Bidding (RTB)
Real-time bidding (RTB) is a programmatic buying method where each ad impression is sold in an automated auction that happens in milliseconds as a page or app loads.
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Retail Media
Retail media is advertising sold by retailers that uses their shopper data to place ads on their own sites and apps, in stores and across the wider web.
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Retargeting
Retargeting is an advertising tactic that shows ads to people who already interacted with your brand, such as visiting your site, using your app or viewing a product.
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ROAS (Return on Ad Spend)
ROAS (return on ad spend) measures the revenue generated for every dollar spent on advertising, calculated as attributed revenue divided by ad spend.
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S
Seat ID
A seat ID is the unique identifier for a buyer's account on a DSP or ad exchange, used by sellers to recognize the buyer and grant access to private deals.
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Self-Serve DSP
A self-serve DSP is a demand-side platform that advertisers or agencies operate themselves, setting up, running and optimizing programmatic campaigns in-house.
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Supply Path Optimization (SPO)
Supply path optimization (SPO) is the practice of choosing the most efficient, transparent routes to buy the same ad inventory, cutting redundant hops and fees.
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Supply-Side Platform (SSP)
A supply-side platform (SSP) is software that helps publishers sell ad inventory automatically to many buyers by running auctions and managing prices and rules.
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T
Third-Party Cookies
Third-party cookies are small browser files set by a domain other than the site a person is visiting, often used to track users across sites for ads.
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Third-Party Data
Third-party data is audience information collected by companies with no direct relationship to the people in it, then packaged and sold to advertisers.
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Trading Desk
A trading desk is a team of programmatic specialists, inside an agency, a brand or an independent firm, that plans, buys and optimizes media using DSPs.
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V
VAST (Video Ad Serving Template)
VAST (Video Ad Serving Template) is an IAB Tech Lab XML standard that tells a video player which ad to play, how to play it and which events to track.
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Video Completion Rate (VCR)
Video completion rate (VCR) is the percentage of video ads that play all the way to the end, out of all the video ads that started or were served.
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Viewability
Viewability is a measure of whether a digital ad actually had a chance to be seen, based on how much of it appeared on screen and for how long.
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Industry Solutions
Platforms and types
