--- Web Advertising Metrics ---
--- Online Marketing / Web Marketing ---
 Ad / Web Advertising
Ad Space
Ad View
Affiliate Marketing
Banner
Beyond the Banner
Booked Space
Brand / Brand Name / Branding
Caching
Click
Click Stream
Clickthrough
Click Rate
Co-Branding
Cookie
CPTM
Creative
Demographics
FAST
Filtering
Fold
IO / Insertion order
Inventory
Media Broker
Media Buyer
Opt-in E-mail
PPV / Pay Per View
Proof of Performance
Psychographic Characteristics
Reporting Template
Rich Media
RON / Run of Network
ROS / Run of Site
Splash Page
Sponsor
Sponsorship
Targeting
Unique Visitor
User Session
View
Visit
Ad / Web Advertising
An ad is almost always a banner, a graphic image or set of animated images of a
designated pixel size and byte size limit. An ad or set of ads for a campaign is often referred to as "the creative."
Banners and other special advertising that include an interactive or visual element beyond the usual are known as rich
media. Ad rotation: Ads are often rotated into ad spaces from a list. This is usually done automatically by
software on the Web site or at a central site administered by an ad broker or server facility for a network of
Web sites.
Ad Space
Ad space is a space on a Web page that is reserved for ads. An ad space group is a group of spaces within a Web
site that share the same characteristics so that an ad purchase can be made for the group of spaces.
Ad View
An ad view, synonymous with ad impression, is a single ad that appears on a Web page when the page arrives at the
viewer's display. Ad views are what most Web sites sell or prefer to sell. A Web page may offer space for a number
of ad views. In general, the term impression is more commonly used.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is the use by a Web site that sells products of other Web sites, called affiliates, to
help market the products. Amazon.com, the book seller, created the first large-scale affiliate program and
hundreds of other companies have followed since.
Banner
A banner is an advertisement in the form of a graphic image that typically runs across a Web page or is
positioned in a margin or other space reserved for ads. Banner ads are usually Graphics Interchange Format (GIF)
images. In addition to adhering to size, many Web sites limit the size of the file to a certain number of bytes so
that the file will display quickly. Most ads are animated GIFs since animation has been shown to attract a larger
percentage of user clicks. The most common larger banner ad is 468 pixels wide by 60 pixels high. Smaller sizes
include 125 by 125 and 120 by 90 pixels. These and other banner sizes have been established as standard sizes by
the Internet Advertising Bureau.
Beyond the Banner
This is the idea that, in addition to banner ads, there are other ways to use the Internet to communicate a marketing
message. These include sponsoring a Web site or a particular feature on it; advertising in e-mail newsletters;
co-branding with another company and its Web site; contest promotion; and, in general, finding new ways to engage
and interact with the desired audience. "Beyond the banner" approaches can also include the interstitial and
streaming video infomercial. The banner itself can be transformed into a small rich media event.
Booked Space
This is the number of ad views for an ad space that are currently sold out.
Brand / Brand Name / Branding
A brand is a product, service, or concept that is publicly distinguished from other products, services, or concepts
so that it can be easily communicated and usually marketed. A brand name is the name of the distinctive product,
service, or concept. Branding is the process of creating and disseminating the brand name. Branding can be applied
to the entire corporate identity as well as to individual product and service names. In Web and other media
advertising, it is recognized that there is usually some kind of branding value whether or not an immediate,
direct response can be measured from an ad or campaign. Companies like Proctor and Gamble have made a science out
of creating and evaluating the success of their brand name products.
Caching
In Internet advertising, the caching of pages in a cache server or the user's computer means that some ad views won't
be known by the ad counting programs and is a source of concern. There are several techniques for telling the browser
not to cache particular pages. On the other hand, specifying no caching for all pages may mean that users will find
your site to be slower than you would like.
Click
According to ad industry recommended guidelines from FAST, a click is "when a visitor interacts with an
advertisement." This does not apparently mean simply interacting with a rich media ad, but actually clicking
on it so that the visitor is headed toward the advertiser's destination. (It also does not mean that the visitor
actually waits to fully arrive at the destination, but just that the visitor started going there.)
Click Stream
A click stream is a recorded path of the pages a user requested in going through one or more Web sites. Click
stream information can help Web site owners understand how visitors are using their site and which pages are getting
the most use. It can help advertisers understand how users get to the client's pages, what pages they look at, and
how they go about ordering a product.
Clickthrough
A clickthrough is what is counted by the sponsoring site as a result of an ad click. In practice, click and
clickthrough tend to be used interchangeably. A clickthrough, however, seems to imply that the user actually
received the page. A few advertisers are willing to pay only for clickthroughs rather than for ad impressions.
Click Rate
The click rate is the percentage of ad views that resulted in clickthroughs. Although there is visibility and
branding value in ad views that don't result in a clickthrough, this value is difficult to measure. A clickthrough
has several values: it's an indication of the ad's effectiveness and it results in the viewer getting to the
advertiser's Web site where other messages can be provided. A new approach is for a click to result not in a
link to another site but to an immediate product order window. What a successful click rate is depends on a number
of factors, such as: the campaign objectives, how enticing the banner message is, how explicit the message is
(a message that is complete within the banner may be less apt to be clicked), audience/message matching, how
new the banner is, how often it is displayed to the same user, and so forth. In general, click rates for high-repeat,
branding banners vary from 0.15 to 1%. Ads with provocative, mysterious, or other compelling content can induce click
rates ranging from 1 to 5% and sometimes higher. The click rate for a given ad tends to diminish with repeated
exposure.
Co-Branding
Co-branding on the Web often means two Web sites or Web site sections or features displaying their logos
(and thus their brands) together so that the viewer considers the site or feature to be a joint enterprise.
(Co-branding is often associated with cross-linking between the sites, although it isn't necessary.)
Cookie
A cookie is a file on a Web user's hard drive (it's kept in one of the subdirectories under the browser file directory)
that is used by Web sites to record data about the user. Some ad rotation software uses cookies to see which ad the
user has just seen so that a different ad will be rotated into the next page view.
CPTM
CPTM is "cost per thousand targeted" ad impressions, apparently implying that the audience you're selling is
targeted to particular demographics.
Creative
Ad agencies and buyers often refer to ad banners and other forms of created advertising as ""the creative." Since
the creative requires creative inspiration and skill that may come from a third party, it often doesn't arrive until
late in the preparation for a new campaign launch.
Demographics
Demographics is data about the size and characteristics of a population or audience (for example, gender, age group,
income group, purchasing history, personal preferences, and so forth).
FAST
FAST is a coalition of the Internet Advertising Bureau (), the ANA, and the ARF that has recommended or is working on
guidelines for consumer privacy, ad models and creative formats, audience and ad impression measurement, and a
standard reporting template together with a standard insertion order. FAST originated with Proctor and Gamble's
Future of Advertising Stakeholders Summit in August, 1998. FAST's first guideline, available in March, 1999, was a
guideline on "Basic Advertising Measures." Our definitions in this list include the FAST definitions for impression
and click.
Filtering
Filtering is the immediate analysis by a program of a user Web page request in order to determine which ad or ads to
return in the requested page. A Web page request can tell a Web site or its ad server whether it fits a certain
characteristic such as coming from a particular company's address or that the user is using a particular level of
browser. The Web ad server can respond accordingly.
Fold
"Above the fold," a term borrowed from print media, refers to an ad that is viewable as soon as the Web page arrives.
You don't have to scroll down (or sideways) to see it. Since screen resolution can affect what is immediately
viewable, it's good to know whether the Web site's audience tends to set their resolution at 640 by 480 pixels or at
800 by 600 (or higher).
IO / Insertion order
An insertion order is a formal, printed order to run an ad campaign. Typically, the insertion order identifies the
campaign name, the Web site receiving the order and the planner or buyer giving the order, the individual ads to be
run (or who will provide them), the ad sizes, the campaign beginning and end dates, the CPM, the total cost, discounts
to be applied, and reporting requirements and possible penalties or stipulations relative to the failure to deliver
the impressions.
Inventory
Inventory is the total number of ad views or impressions that a Web site has to sell over a given period of time
(usually, inventory is figured by the month).
Media Broker
Since it's often not efficient for an advertiser to select every Web site it wants to put ads on, media brokers
aggregate sites for advertisers and their media planners and buyers, based on demographics and other factors.
Media Buyer
A media buyer, usually at an advertising agency, works with a media planner to allocate the money provided for an
advertising campaign among specific print or online media (magazines, TV, Web sites, and so forth), and then calls
and places the advertising orders. On the Web, placing the order often includes requesting proposals and negotiating
the final cost.
Opt-in E-mail
Opt-in e-mail is e-mail containing information or advertising that users explicitly request (opt) to receive.
Typically, a Web site invites its visitors to fill out forms identifying subject or product categories that interest
them and about which they are willing to receive e-mail from anyone who might send it. The Web site sells the names
(with explicit or implicit permission from their visitors) to a company that specializes in collecting mailing lists
that represent different interests. Whenever the mailing list company sells its lists to advertisers, the Web site is
paid a small amount for each name that it generated for the list. You can sometimes identify opt-in e-mail because it
starts with a statement that tells you that you have previously agreed to receive such messages.
PPV / Pay Per View
Since this is the prevalent type of ad buying arrangement at larger Web sites, this term tends to be used only when
comparing this most prevalent method with pay-per-click and other methods.
Proof of Performance
Some advertisers may want proof that the ads they've bought have actually run and that clickthrough figures are
accurate. In print media, tearsheets taken from a publication prove that an ad was run. On the Web, there is no
industry-wide practice for proof of performance. Some buyers rely on the integrity of the media broker and the Web
site. The ad buyer usually checks the Web site to determine the ads are actually running. Most buyers require weekly
figures during a campaign. A few want to look directly at the figures, viewing the ad server or Web site reporting
tool.
Psychographic Characteristics
This is a term for personal interest information that is gathered by Web sites by requesting it from users. For
example, a Web site could ask users to list the Web sites that they visit most often. Advertisers could use this data
to help create a demographic profile for that site.
Reporting Template
Although the media have to report data to ad agencies and media planners and buyers during and at the end of each
campaign, no standard report is yet available. FAST, the ad industry coalition, is working on a proposed standard
reporting template that would enable reporting to be consistent.
Rich Media
Rich media is advertising that contains perceptual or interactive elements more elaborate than the usual banner ad.
Today, the term is often used for banner ads with popup menus that let the visitor select a particular page to link
to on the advertiser's site. Rich media ads are generally more challenging to create and to serve. Some early studies
have shown that rich media ads tend to be more effective than ordinary animated banner ads.
RON / Run of Network
A run-of-network ad is one that is placed to run on all sites within a given network of sites. Ad sales firms handle
run-of-network insertion orders in such a way as to optimize results for the buyer consistent with higher priority ad
commitments.
ROS / Run of Site
A run-of-site ad is one that is placed to rotate on all nonfeatured ad spaces on a site. CPM rates for run-of-site
ads are usually less than for rates for specially-placed ads or sponsorships.
Splash Page
A splash page (also known as an interstitial) is a preliminary page that precedes the regular home page of a Web site
and usually promotes a particular site feature or provides advertising. A splash page is timed to move on to the home
page after a short period of time.
Sponsor
Depending on the context, a sponsor simply means an advertiser who has sponsored an ad and, by doing so, has also
helped sponsor or sustain the Web site itself. It can also mean an advertiser that has a special relationship with
the Web site and supports a special feature of a Web site, such as a writer's column, a Flower-of-the-Day, or a
collection of articles on a particular subject.
Sponsorship
Sponsorship is an association with a Web site in some way that gives an advertiser some particular visibility and
advantage above that of run-of-site advertising. When associated with specific content, sponsorship can provide a
more targeted audience than run-of-site ad buys. Sponsorship also implies a "synergy and resonance" between the Web
site and the advertiser. Some sponsorships are available as value-added opportunities for advertisers who buy a
certain minimum amount of advertising.
Targeting
Targeting is purchasing ad space on Web sites that match audience and campaign objective requirements. Techtarget.com,
with over 20 Web sites targeted to special information technology audiences, is an example of an online publishing
business built to enable advertising targeting.
Unique Visitor
A unique visitor is someone with a unique address who is entering a Web site for the first time that day (or some
other specified period). Thus, a visitor that returns within the same day is not counted twice. A unique visitors
count tells you how many different people there are in your audience during the time period, but not how much they
used the site during the period.
User Session
A user session is someone with a unique address that enters or reenters a Web site each day (or some other specified
period). A user session is sometimes determined by counting only those users that haven't reentered the site within
the past 20 minutes or a similar period. User session figures are sometimes used, somewhat incorrectly, to indicate
"visits" or "visitors" per day. User sessions are a better indicator of total site activity than "unique visitors"
since they indicate frequency of use.
View
A view is, depending on what's meant, either an ad view or a page view. Usually an ad view is what's meant. There
can be multiple ad views per page views. View counting should consider that a small percentage of users choose to
turn the graphics off (not display the images) in their browser.
Visit
A visit is a Web user with a unique address entering a Web site at some page for the first time that day (or for the
first time in a lesser time period). The number of visits is roughly equivalent to the number of different people
that visit a site. This term is ambiguous unless the user defines it, since it could mean a user session or it could
mean a unique visitor that day.
|
