Media Update - December 2009

Quantifying the Pass-Along Value of Online Advertising

Most media planners and buyers intuitively know that the ad placements they plan and purchase for their advertisers have a ripple effect. A user who may click on an ad ends up passing along the link to the destination page to other users who've never viewed the ad. This sharing of links generates an X factor of pass-along value to the advertiser that -- to this point -- really hasn't been easy to quantify. Now a new company, Meteor Solutions, has developed a technology platform that allows media teams to connect the performance of paid media with the "organic lift" that occurs by word-of-mouth.

How Meteor Works

Meteor Solution's Tracker technology initially works like many ad-tracking solutions: some lines of JavaScript must be inserted on the campaign's destination page and other script must be inserted on the conversion confirmation page. When a user clicks on an ad and arrives at the destination page, via a cookie, she's assigned a unique ID. That ID is also appended to the destination URL. If that user bookmarks that URL or shares it with friends by e-mailing it, copying and pasting it, blogging about it, tagging it, or posting it in a social community, visits to the appended URL will be tracked by Meteor. URL shorteners, commonly now used by Twitterers, and other tracking scripts like Web analytics or ad tracking solutions, do not impose upon Meteor's tracking.

Because of the cookie, Meteor can identify that a visitor to the appended URL is not the original visitor. This second visitor is cookied and assigned another new unique ID and appended URL -- and so on and so on for each new visitor to the site.

Conversion actions generated by these shared URLs are also tracked. Meteor then generates "sharing graphs" from these visits and conversions in a dashboard.

Meteor Tracker can help shed light on some of the unaccountable "no referrer" source in Web analytics that typically dominates all sources. Meteor has found that approximately 20 percent of inbound no referrer traffic actually comes from shared links.

Implications for Media Planners

Agencies can utilize Meteor Tracker in a number of ways:

        * Placement justification. Meteor Tracker traces back to the original ad unit and publisher source. Although Publisher B's ad might be more expensive than Publisher A's, if an ad on Publisher B's site proves to generate more direct and shared traffic altogether, the media planner can better justify the more expensive buy.

        * Fine-tune planning for campaign objectives. Having a way to track the campaign's pass-along value helps the media planner better estimate how many impressions she really needs to buy in order to generate the target quantity of visitors. It might also mean that the planner can accomplish the objectives while spending less for the advertiser, which in these times advertisers welcome.

        * Value for brand and direct response advertisers alike. Meteor's solution can provide value for any kind of advertiser. The more likely the audience is to share information -- which goes for B2B (define) and CPGs (define)alike -- the more valuable tracking this information becomes.

        * Improved conversion measurement. Not only does Meteor Tracking now provide a way to track the lift in conversions originated from ad campaigns via shared links, but there is also information to suggest that shared links convert four times more than unshared ones. So, now sharing can be freely encouraged and attribution can be given to the ad campaign.

        * Creative testing. If Ad A generates slightly higher click-thru rates but Ad B ends up generating significantly more shared URLs, this shakes up the way to judge the ads' performance. The planner might suggest a creative test such as this before a full-blown campaign launch to help optimize the campaign from the get-go.

        * Greater emphasis on the landing page. Meteor has found a vast disparity in the amount of traffic driven to a site by shared links. Some sites generate as much as half their traffic from shared links while shared traffic on other sites represents only a few percentage points. Users tend to share URLs based on the value of the page's content. If sharing represents a campaign objective, the creative team needs to really ratchet up the quality and content of the landing page.

In a time when advertisers want to see their ad dollars being put to the most effective use, Meteor's solution can help give media planners an edge.


Most Visited Web Site and Most Searched Term in 2009?
Facebook was the most searched term during 2009, according to Hitwise. Citing data collected between January and November 2009, the online measurement firm reckons the social networking site accounted for 0.67 percent of all searches during that period.

Rival social networking site MySpace was second overall for the year, but the continued growth of Facebook saw it rise from 10th position in 2008 to overtake its rival in 2009.

Facebook was also the third most visited Web site of the year, Hitwise says, behind Google and Yahoo's mail product, which came first and second, respectively, for the second year running.

Top 10 Most Searched Terms
2009	2008
facebook	myspace
myspace	craigslist
craigslist	ebay
youtube	google
yahoo mail	myspace.com
google	yahoo
yahoo	youtube
ebay	yahoo mail
facebook login	yahoo.com
myspace.com	facebook
Source: Experian Hitwise

Top 10 Most Visited Web Sites Among U.S. Users
2009	2008
www.google.com	www.google.com
mail.yahoo.com	mail.yahoo.com
www.facebook.com	www.myspace.com
www.yahoo.com	www.yahoo.com
www.myspace.com	mail.live.com
mail.live.com	www.ebay.com
www.youtube.com	search.yahoo.com
search.yahoo.com	www.msn.com
www.msn.com	www.facebook.com
www.ebay.com	www.youtube.com
Source: Experian Hitwise

 Overall, Google accounted for 6.7 percent of all U.S. visits between January and November 2009. Yahoo Mail accounted for 4.44 percent of visits, followed by Facebook with 4.26 percent, Yahoo with 3.36 percent, and MySpace at 3 percent.


HEARST MAGAZINES DIGITAL MEDIA SELECTS YUME AS VIDEO ADVERTISING PARTNER
YuMe to Provide In–Stream Advertising Technology and Sales for Hearst’s Portfolio of Websites

Redwood City, CA—December 7, 2009—YuMe, the video advertising technology company, announced today that it has been selected by Hearst Magazines Digital Media to help drive a new source of revenue using Hearst’s highly engaging video content. YuMe will provide in–stream advertising across Hearst’s extensive portfolio of web sites, including Cosmopolitan.com, GoodHousekeeping.com, RealBeauty.com and HarpersBazaar.com.

Hearst Magazines Digital Media will use YuMe’s video advertising technology to ensure that video ad impressions from big name advertisers are paired against the most profitable and relevant premium content. With YuMe’s ability to deliver high–impact ad units and advanced targeting capabilities, Hearst will maximize revenue generated by its video content. Through the partnership, YuMe will also expand the premium video content available in its women–focused audience channel.

“As the popularity and consumption of streaming video content continues to thrive, the digital team at Hearst is focused on helping its loyal advertisers take advantage of this engaging and dynamic communications medium,” said Chuck Cordray, SVP and general manager of Hearst Magazines Digital Media. “With the help of YuMe’s video ad technology, we’re able to ensure that our visitors are presented with the most relevant advertising messages and that we realize maximum revenue opportunities across all of our online media properties.”

“Hearst is one of the world’s most established media companies with an extensive portfolio of some of the web’s most respected sites,” said Michael Mathieu, CEO of YuMe. “Advertisers want an effective way to take advantage of that audience and content, and YuMe is uniquely positioned to connect the two parties in a beneficial way.”

YuMe recently announced partnerships with Ooyala, Autotrader.com and MSNBC.com, demonstrating the company’s leadership position in the online video advertising space and continued success in helping the world’s most reputable publishers monetize their streaming video advertising initiatives.

About Hearst Magazines Digital Media

Launched in March 2006, Hearst Magazines Digital Media, a unit of Hearst Magazines, is dedicated to creating and implementing the digital strategy for Hearst’s magazine brands and other sites, which serve the company’s consumers and audience. The unit has launched, re-launched or acquired 25 Web sites and nine mobile sites for brands such as Cosmopolitan, Esquire, Good Housekeeping, Marie Claire and Seventeen, as well as original digital properties such as Delish.com, a food site in partnership with MSN; TheDailyGreen.com; RealBeauty.com and MisQuinceMag.com. To round out its growing portfolio of interests for teens and women, Hearst Digital has acquired Q&A platform Answerology.com; the eCrush Network (eCRUSH.com, eSPIN.com), a teen social community; social shopping site Kaboodle.com, and RealAge.com, a consumer health site.

About YuMe

YuMe is a video advertising technology company that is making professional video profitable for publishers and impactful for advertisers. With 500+ publishers, more than 1 billion video streams and 65 million unique viewers per month, YuMe gives publishers and advertisers unprecedented reach, brand safety, contextual relevance, controlled syndication, and consistent delivery across all digital media platforms—Web, downloads, mobile, and IPTV. YuMe is a privately held company headquartered in Redwood City, CA and backed by Khosla Ventures, Accel Partners, BV Capital and DAG Ventures.

Media Update - November - 2009

Star Tribune, CarSoup.com Target Auto Ad Dollars

The Minneapolis Star Tribune is partnering with CarSoup.com to power the stagnant car-selling portion of the publication’s website, StarTribune.com/cars. In exchange, the Star Tribune will become the local sales arm for CarSoup.com products and services in the Twin Cities metro area for both dealership and for-sale-by-owner advertising.

The partnership, which begins in December, will give visitors to the Tribune’s site access to CarSoup.com’s vehicle listings and products. Users can also access CarSoup’s listings via KMSP-TV’s MyFOX9.com.

The deal promises to prop up the Tribune’s faltering online auto sales listings with one of the strongest local-search verticals in the city, according to the Minneapolis Post. Right now startribune.com/cars doesn’t even show up among the six local auto classified sites listed in the March-April 2009 Media Audit. CarSoup is first, with 14.8% of a fractured market - nearly nine times as much as cars.com, and 10 percentage points ahead of Autotrader.com; Craigslist, has 9.9% of the Twin Cities, writes MarketingVOX.

CarSoup is also getting important cross-platform ad exposure out of the deal. “While CarSoup is winning the local search wars, owner Larry Cuneo knows there’s a lot more to get,” the Minneapolis Post said - such as the Tribune’s print component, an area in which CarSoup had no partner.

CarSoup gets about 250,000 uniques a month in the Twin Cities, Cuneo said. CarSoup is now in 80 of the nation’s 217 designated market areas.

The deal illustrates the lure of the growing market for online auto ads and sales activity, especially for publishers. Auto manufacturers are expected to increase their online ad spend by 14% in 2010, while new- and used-car dealers will increase their ad spend online by 8.6%, according to a new report from Borrell Associates. The increase in expected spending may be because the internet is - according to dealers - the leading media driver of walk-in traffic.

JetBlue and JWT Parting Ways

JetBlue Airways and its creative agency, WPP-owned JWT, are splitting up, despite a four-year run marked by the airline doubling its footprint to some 60 markets and earning a dedicated terminal at New York's JFK airport.

"On the eve of JetBlue's 10th anniversary, we have mutually agreed that it is time to part ways," said Rosemarie Ryan, JWT's president-North America, in a note today to agency employees. "In 2005, at the age of five, JetBlue hired JWT with two objectives: A) help JetBlue grow in the next 5 years B) help JetBlue grow in the right way and make sure their unique culture remains intact," she said. "In the past five years we have done exactly that."

Forest Hills, N.Y.-based JetBlue handed JWT its ad account in November 2005 after a pitch against a handful of smaller New York agencies. Other shops on its roster include WPP's Mediacom and PR agency MWW, which it appointed after a review last year.

A JWT spokeswoman declined to comment on the split and JetBlue did not respond by press time.

The split comes just as the domestic airline is expanding its footprint globally via a codeshare struck this month with German airline Lufthansa, and it also follows reports by industry insiders that JetBlue has been quietly shopping around for other agencies.

If JetBlue opts to call a pitch for its account, it's a safe bet that any number of shops will be clamoring to participate -- even though the popular brand isn't a big ad spender.

Because JetBlue's marketing strategy leans heavily on the web and social media, its measured media spending has remained at a conservative $25 million for the past several years, according to TNS Media Intelligence data.

The low-cost carrier has been hailed a progressive marketer -- especially for the embattled airline industry -- with its fun style of events and its use of social media as a marketing tool. Named to Ad Age's list of America's Hottest Brands earlier this month, JetBlue has close to 1.5 million followers on Twitter and is building a following on a new Twitter feed called JetBlue Cheeps, designed solely to tweet limited-time-offer airfare specials to consumers.

This summer, it built buzz for its new routes from New York's JFK and Boston's Logan International to LAX by hiring YouTube celebs to tweet and post videos about the experience while flying on planes equipped with wireless internet.

JWT is responsible for JetBlue's "Happy Jetting" campaign, for which it created humorous ads and a website targeted at bigwig CEO's that have been forced to downgrade to commercial travel amidst the recession.

For the first nine months of 2009, JetBlue posted earnings of $47 million despite an economy that's hit the travel sector hard.

Mike Parker in Tribal DDB Return

Tribal DDB is bringing former top executive Mike Parker back into the fold to serve as co-president of its U.S. operations.
Parker and Richard Guest will serve as co-presidents at Tribal. Parker will operate from San Francisco and Guest from New York, where he has been managing director of the office there for the past three years.
Parker spent the just eight months at Betawave, an ad network run by former Tribal DDB CEO Matt Freeman, as vp of strategic solutions. Prior to that, he was director of digital strategy at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners for two years. He was CEO of Tribal DDB Canada and spent a decade with DDB prior to joining Goodby.
"As we're called more and more to the C suite and get charged with a brand's direction, I have more ammunition to go to battle with," said Tribal CEO Paul Gunning. "It'll free me up to put a little more attention on the global network. We're having a huge expansion in Asia."

"Right now there's still a lot of question about the right way to service digital, who own social media and how you do digital production," said Parker. "There's still a lot to be figured out and a lot of opportunity. What's exciting is clients are committed to digital now and it's really matured."

Parker and Guest will split overall U.S. responsibilities, without a geographic divide, for Tribal's offices in Chicago, Dallas, New York, San Francisco and Seattle and satellite offices in Los Angeles and Miami.

Gunning had taken over U.S. responsibilities from Liz Ross in March. At the time, he said Tribal needed to focus on operational efficiencies. In that time, Gunning has driven the shop's offices to share production for clients, rather than serving them all from the office that won the business. It has also further developed centers of excellence, like New York's social media focus.

Tribal's U.S. offices have had an up-and-down year. Along with fellow Omnicom Group shop Agency.com and Publicis Groupe's Digitas, Tribal was replaced as Wrigley's digital agency by a trio of smaller shops: Big Spaceship, Firstborn Interactive and EVB.

Gunning said there's little to the thought that so-called "traditional" digital agencies are losing ground to smaller, more nimble shops. Tribal, for instance, subsequently won the Pepsi AMP business and is handling the social media piece for OfficeMax's "Elf Yourself" holiday push.

"It's a little ridiculous," he said of what he characterizes as the "production versus full-service" debate. "It's a very competitive environment and our clients and ourselves are trying various mixes and models. We're right there along with them to get the most out of every penny they spend. You'll see hundreds of combos, but no one particular model will completely own how the advertising world operates."

Betawave, which Freeman joined in June 2008 when it was named GoFish, has been building up a network of mom- and kid-focused sites. It hopes to differentiate itself in the crowded ad network space by offering "attention" advertising opportunities on sites that have high engagement rates. It boasts reaching 32 million users through sites like MiniClip, Shutterfly and Meez.

According to financial filings, the company took in $2.3 million in the second quarter and recorded a net loss of $2.6 million.

Media Updates - October 2009

Pre-Roll Ads Dominate Online Video....but View-through Rate is Just 70 Percent, Study

NEW YORK -- Pre-roll ads, especially those for beauty and household products, continue to dominate online video ad inventory in 2009, according to a study from online video ad network YuMe


The Redwood City, Calif firm analyzed the more than 3 billion video ad impressions it served for in-stream video over the first nine months of 2009 and found pre-roll remains the most popular ad format and

comprised anywhere from 81% to 94% of the inventory each quarter.

Usage rose throughout the year and about 93% of spots in the third quarter were of the pre-roll variety.

Also, YuMe found viewers watch about 70% of a pre-roll ad, known as the video completion rate. The view-through rate dipped a bit last quarter to 67%, down from 72% in the second quarter.

"The pre-roll is dominant because ultimately the agencies are repurposing TV creative," said Michael Mathieu, CEO of YuMe. "The challenge for us is to have the agencies spend more time on custom creative because when you do custom creative you get a significantly better experience from an engagement perspective."

In fact, the click-through rate for custom spots is about 2%, such as video takeovers, with pre-rolls generating closer to 1% click-through rates, the study found. YuMe plans to introduce new type of customized ad formats, he said.

The top advertising category for the first nine months of 2009 was beauty products, accounting for 18.6% of the spend, while consumer packaged goods/household ranked second with 14.7% of the spend, and autos third with 10.3% of ad dollars.

YuMe said marketers are most eager to reach people 25 to 54 with 13% of advertisers requesting inventory against that demo. Also popular were the men 18 to 34 and women 25 to 54 audience segments.

Media Update - September 2009

Online Video CPMs Keep Dropping, BrightRoll CEO Says

Since the company's launch in 2006, online video ad network BrightRoll has seen CPMs for video ads drop by $1 to $1.50 each quarter. "Prices have been inflated and there has been a false equilibrium about scarcity," BrightRoll CEO Tod Sacerdoti told Andy last week at the OMMA summit.

Certainly, steady price drops are a cause for concern (and blood pressure checks for CEOs), but Sacerdoti said he expects CPMs to stabilize shortly in the low teens. When that happens expect more ad money to flow into the Web video business.

The latest market estimates from Magna predict online video should generate $699 million in ad dollars this year.

BrightRoll itself is cracking open some marketer budgets. Earlier this year the company landed a large chunk of a $20 million online video ad spend from the consumer packaged goods company Reckitt Benckiser, a buy widely seen as a large vote of confidence in online video because Reckitt shifted that money from its TV budget to the Web.

But don't expect online video to steal dollars from TV budgets, Sacerdoti said. The new money in Web video will likely come from underperforming venues like print and outdoor, he said, adding that Brightroll makes money via a percentage of the ad spend across its network. Brightroll reaches more than 62 million unique viewers each month, placing it as the 5th largest ad network according to comScore.

Because the ad network business is a bit of a commodity business, companies like Brightroll and its competitors like YuMe, ScanScout, Tremor and BBE regularly roll out new features. Some of the latest additions from Brightroll include its new pricing model that lets advertisers buy based on performance, such as cost per engagement, cost per click or cost per completed video. Also, the company introduced behavioral targeting for ad buys so marketers can segment by demographic, interest and intent to purchase.


AOL Hires Another Ex-Google Executive
AOL Inc. hired former Google Inc. executive Shashi Seth to build the company's digital advertising systems.
Chief Executive Tim Armstrong has set out to make AOL the market leader for online display advertising, one of the key efforts of his strategy for turning the company around. AOL is working to change from a subscription-based service for connecting to the Internet to an ad-supported digital media company, as it prepares to spin off from Time Warner Inc. this year.
Mr. Seth, hired as senior vice president of global advertising products, worked at Google from 2005 to 2008. There, he most recently was head of monetization at video site YouTube, responsible for building advertising products and creating business models. Google, which acquired YouTube for $1.7 billion in 2006, has struggled to turn a profit on the video site, despite its popularity among consumers.
Mr. Seth is one of a handful of former Google employees to join AOL in recent months, following the April hiring of Mr. Armstrong himself, a former Google senior vice president. Most recently, Mr. Seth worked as chief revenue officer at Cooliris Inc., which creates products for browsing the Web.

Media Updates August 2009

YuMe, AutoTrader.com Deal Offers Behavioral Targeting for Video Ads
Ad network YuMe became the latest to offer its video advertisers behavioral targeting capabilities today thanks to a new deal with AutoTrader.com.
YuMe advertisers will now be able to deliver video ads to customers on AutoTrader.com based on past search and browsing behavior, something advertisers on the site could previously do only with display ads.
Behavioral targeting opportunities are hard to come by for video advertisers, partially because most video players can't be "tagged" the way display ads can. The AutoTrader.com deal was made possible thanks to a step forward in video technology that changed that, said Jayant Kadambi, co-founder and President of YuMe.
"What we figured out how to do is take third party data, keep it proprietary -- it's Auto Trader's data -- and apply it across our network through use of some software we've thrown into our partners' video players," he said.
YuMe is not the first to figure out how to apply behavioral targeting techniques to video ads. Last month, Hulu announced it had partnered with AudienceScience to enable behavioral targeting for its in-stream video ads.
It is no coincidence that YuMe struck this deal with one of the largest auto-shopping sites on the Web. Kadambi noted that the auto category -- despite its recent challenges -- is still a leader in video advertising.
"The spend is there," he said. "And given the state of the car industry now, and marketing that shows a return on investment and can show all key performance indicators going in the right direction will get more funds."
YuMe, which claims more than 500 publishers in its network and over 60 million unique viewers per month, anticipates forging similar deals with other publishers in its network soon, Kadambi said.

Advance Partners with Microsoft to Sell Local Advertising

Advance Internet, the division representing 36 newspaper Web sites owned by the Newhouse family including NOLA.com and NJ.com, has entered into a deal with Microsoft. The partnership will allow Advance salespeople to sell Microsoft Media Network inventory on the local level and offer behavioral targeted advertising."We have the No. 1 local news and information sites in each of our markets," Peter Weinberger, president of Advance Internet, said in a statement citing Media Audit data. "Now through our agreement with Microsoft, we will be able to serve our advertisers with even better online marketing solutions."With the addition of Microsoft Media Network inventory, Advance can expand its local reach in the marketplace to about 75% of all adults who use the Internet. Additionally, Advance will be implementing Microsoft Advertising's Content Ads and Search Ads, which serve contextually relevant advertisements within articles and other content pages, and will be able to sell Microsoft search products."The local perspective that Advance Internet offers will be incredibly helpful as we develop our reseller efforts," Brian Handly, general manager, PubCenter, Microsoft, said in a statement. "We are excited to expand Content and Search Ads into Advance Internet's porfolio of regional Web sites." This alliance differs from the Yahoo newspaper consortium in that Advance can maintain its own advertising platform, notes Ken Doctor, who reported the news earlier on his blog Content Bridges.

Media Updates July 2009

AOL targeting big marketers but could steal smaller ones
When AOL CEO Tim Armstrong unveils a strategy Friday that focuses on combining specialized content and display advertising, he plans to make AOL appealing to large consumer products companies with big marketing budgets like Procter & Gamble.
But he also is looking to gather the smaller local markets as well. I asked Guy Schuller, who oversees media strategy for Chrysler and other clients of interactive ad agency Organic Inc, what he sees for smaller marketers.
Schuller said that online display marketplace has traditionally not been easily accessible to small marketers. Launching a local campaign required specific media expertise, appropriate creative and the implementation of tracking. Local newspaper and television sites had some success with a packaged media + creative approach but ultimately targeting was a challenge and these buys tended to be inefficient, quantifying ROI was difficult. On the flip side, search was naturally set up to be extremely targeted and performance driven which made it an easy sell for local businesses.
“This has improved over the last few years with the resurgence of the Ad Networks and their targeting capabilities. The adoption of these advance targeting features and different buying models (Cost Per Acquisition) have helped to reduce waste and have provided ROI focused small marketers with an efficient way to use display. The only issue is that while these buys are geographically targeted (IP Address) they may not be contextually relevant from a local perspective which can affect the impact.
AOL seems to be trying to address this local display opportunity by investigating an auction based display sales approach, similar to search, and by acquiring content (Patch) and tools (Going) that can reach local audiences and deliver on relevancy. If they can be the leaders of the local space by making it as accessible and contextually relevant as possible, they can tap into a sizable, and potentially lucrative, marketplace.”
I also asked him about concerns that while there are billions of advertising moving from traditional advertising to online that companies will spend the money, or a smaller portion than they used to, on their own sites and marketing rather than on display, banner, etc. of third-parties.
“The continued shift in consumer behavior requires all marketers to communicate, at some level, within the digital environment. In turn marketers, large and small, are recognizing this change and investing in their own offerings and sites to keep up. Ultimately they still need to drive awareness and traffic to prove out that investment which results in more online marketing.
“This shift in turn puts pressure on publishers to figure out a way to service and monetize thousands of small buys in addition to catering to large national advertisers. The search vendors, especially Google, have adapted well and have reaped the benefits of selling to both national and local marketers.”

Publisher collusion fraud rises
Click Forensics says that the overall industry average click fraud rate was 12.7 percent. That’s down from 13.8 percent for Q1 2009 and from the 16.2 percent rate reported for Q2 2008.
According to the company’s industry pay-per-click fraud figures though, click fraud traffic from sophisticated sources and scripted programs rose again in Q2 2009. This included a rise in the incidents of publisher collusion fraud on ad networks. Publisher collusion fraud occurs when online publishers use rotating IP-addresses or botnets to click ads on their own sites in order to generate inflated commissions from unprotected ad networks. Ad networks have difficultly differentiating such attacks from valid clicks.
“The increased diligence of online ad networks to detect and block invalid traffic sources has contributed to the decline in the overall click fraud rate this quarter,” Tom Cuthbert, president of Click Forensics, said in a statement. “However, increasingly sophisticated attacks, such as publisher collusion fraud, continue to be a concern. Ad networks should pay close attention to such threats in the coming months.”
Now in its fourth year, the Click Fraud Index provides statistically significant industry PPC data collected from online advertising campaigns for both large and small advertisers across all leading search engines. Traffic across more than 300 ad networks is also reflected in the data.

News Corp.’s digital future
Less than six months into his new role as head of News Corp. (NWSA), digital chief Jon Miller has no acquisitions planned. Instead, he said Thursday, he’s going to seed innovation from inside the company and spoke of “putting the house in order” first.
While he didn’t comment on News Corp.’s rumored plans to release a kindle-like digital device (News Corp. has denied that it will) he also talked at length about coming platform shifts and how industries will be experimenting with business models into the fall and figuring out how to adapt them.
Miller expressed faith in the potential for “third screens” like e-readers, to monetize content. He admitted to paying for content on his Kindle that he would be reluctant to pay for online.
But, he said, content producers have to act quickly to leverage their assets. “While you have that market position you need to move,” he said.
Miller believes that media conglomerates like News Corp. and Viacom (VIA.B) have an advantage because of their ability to both produce and distribute content.
“You have to look at how you get different pieces of the pie,” he said, offering online video site Hulu as an example. The site is a joint venture between News Corp., NBC and Disney.
Miller is becoming “more convinced fundamental changes are taking place” in the advertising industry. As digital media makes marketing more efficient, thanks to behavioral targeting and exploding supply, he said those budgets will shrink. Advertising spending online is lagging behind the time consumers spend with media online.
“You don’t have as much room for everyone to take cuts,” he explained.
Miller sees that pool of digital ad dollars splitting into two categories: premium experiences and commoditized inventory. This second tier can become more valuable, however, through behavioral targeting, which Miller says will provide “a lift out of what otherwise is a big undifferentiated environment.”
Premium content meanwhile will benefit as more brand advertising migrates online, Miller predicts. While 9% of advertising has moved online, brand advertising accounts for only a third. News Corp. is preparing its “processes and environments” for that coming shift.
Another focus for Miller is revitalizing MySpace. In May, the social networking site News Corp. acquired in 2005 for $580 million was eclipsed by rival Facebook in the number of U.S. visitors. Last month the company laid off 30% of its staff after installing new leadership in April.
Profits have fallen short of expectations and in the most recent quarter, News Corp. reported a significant drop in revenue at the unit that includes MySpace. The company reports fourth-quarter earnings on August 5.
Miller has compared his strategy to what Tim Armstrong, his successor as chief of AOL, also faces. It’s about going back to the core of the brand, he said, “and focusing on how to make it relevant today.” That also means concentrating on a few things, he said. “You can’t do everything even though you want to.”
To accomplish this, Miller is committed to building small teams that work on specific product areas. “We have to develop specialized areas and let them win,” he said. “Only then can you broaden out.”
Figuring out which specialized areas to target involves going after new behaviors, rather than trying to play catch-up, he said, mentioning video and games. Awed by the time users spend online playing games, Miller claimed, “Myspace will be an even better gaming platform in the future.”

Microsoft and Yahoo struggle to catch up with Google
Another week, another demonstration of Google’s dominance. While Microsoft and Yahoo have posted poor Q2 results this week, with online ad revenues down by 14% and 16% respectively, last week Google revealed its revenues were up 3% for the quarter.
It’s clear that, despite the economic slowdown, Mountain View’s finest are still doing something right. That something, of course, is search, which these result demonstrate the others are still not making work.
The announcements of Yahoo’s and Microsoft’s online revenue shortfalls has inevitably led to more discussion over whether they’ll join forces – a saga that has been dragging on for almost 18 months now. Clearly, Microsoft will want to see how Bing affects its bottom line first. It will be encouraged by the reaction among the industry which, for the most part, has looked on Bing favourably.
However, any market share increase has so far been minimal. Microsoft hopes new initiatives will help drive this, of course, not least its forthcoming ad-funded online Office Suite. It’s move in this space was inevitable due to the increasing popularity of free offerings such as Open Office and Google Docs, so it’ll be interesting to see how Bing and other online ad services will be integrated.
Perhaps most worrying for Microsoft and Yahoo is Google’s move into the multi-million-pound ad exchange sector. This is an area in which Yahoo, with Right Media, is an established player but will be looking over its shoulder with concern. Google CEO Eric Schmidt has said it’s the big focus for the company, but Microsoft has said its own exchange, currently being tested, is still a couple of years off. It’s a potential goldmine for any company that gets it right.
Microsoft and Yahoo have both undergone significant changes this past year, not least redundancies and launches like Yahoo’s new home page. However, it’s clear that both still have a long way to go before they start worrying Google.

Nielsen: Kids Flock to Web
Nielsen Online has confirmed something that most parents know all too well: kids are going online in droves—at a faster rate than the general Web population—and are spending more entertainment time with digital media.Over the past five years, the kids' Web universe has swelled by 18 percent, compared to a 10 percent growth rate seen in the relatively mature general Web population, per Nielsen. As of May, the kids 2-11 audience had reached 16 million, or 9.5 percent of the active online universe.That growth spurt is particularly noteworthy since it has taken place during a period in which the number of kids under 14 in the U.S. declined by 1 percent—from July 2004 to July 2009, per the U.S. Census Bureau.But even more impressive is this group's heavy surge in usage when compared to the rest of the Web. Kids are all but living online. Time spent among kids has soared by 63 percent over the past five years, while overall time spent across all age groups is up 36 percent, per Nielsen.According to Nielsen, kids 2-11 spent nearly seven hours online per month five years ago vs. 11 hours a month in 2009, with boys spending slightly more time on average than girls. That disparity is perhaps most evident in online video viewing, as boys accounted for 61 percent of video streams among kids on the Web.
However, the kids' online video landscape—once dominated by TV players Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network and Disney—is changing, as options for kids and digital media buyers abound.

EyeWonder's PageMorph 'Manipulates' Site Content
EyeWonder debuted PageMorph, a homepage-takeover ad format that manipulates the page upon which it sites by apparently shrinking, crumpling, stretching or affecting a real-time screenshot of the content with other means.
"Publishers are looking to create premium placements to sell to advertisers while also keeping ad clutter off their home pages," explained VP-Enterprise Solutions Erin Quist of EyeWonder. "Advertisers are seeking online ad space that will give their brands extensive reach and exposure to large audiences."
Via agency PLAN.NET, BMW Germany has experimented with PageMorph ad placements on the homepage of MotorSport-Total.com. View a demo of the effort.
EyeWonder claims such interactive takeover ads, which appear to interact with the content a user is actually interested in, enjoy higher-than-average interaction times — with some seeing up to a minute of engagement.
A study by the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers found rich media ads, such as those vaunted by EyeWonder, accounted for 7% of online ad spend in the first half of '08.
EyeWonder hosts an open-source Universal In-Stream Framework, which works agnostically across most ad-serving providers and supports players built in Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight and Akamai's Media Framework, according to MediaPost.
The Framework also supports the IAB's Video Ad Serving Template guidelines.
Ads that "interact" with content pages grew popular in late 2008, when in September an ad for Wario Land: Shake It! appeared on YouTube as an ordinary video. When played, it wreaked havoc on the entire page.
Last November and with the assistance of Eyeblaster, 20th Century Fox ran promotions for feature film Marley & Me on MySpace.com. In them, Marley — the canine protagonist — interacts with both banner ads and the MySpace homepage.
Finally, December saw an iPod touch ad in which Yahoo Games' homepage danced when the iPod started playing music.

Two Tribal DDB Vets Join Digitas
Digitas is bringing former Tribal DDB exec Liz Ross aboard as chief growth officer. It has also hired current Tribal global chief strategic officer and president of Europe, Middle East and Africa regions Stephan Beringer as president of Digitas Global. In her new role, Ross is tasked with growing Digitas' U.S. business with existing and new clients, as well as fostering collaboration with fellow Publicis Groupe agencies. Beringer will oversee Digitas' non-U.S. operations from London. The hires are part of a management restructuring at Digitas that expands chief marketing officer Seth Solomons' portfolio to include oversight of new business, strategy and analytics, media, technology and public relations. He also leads the Samsung and Delta relationships. Global creative chief Mark Beeching will oversee creative, planning and branded entertainment unit The Third Act.Ross will report to Solomons and plans to begin work next month. "Everybody says they're changing or they're the new model and I don't know if anybody's cracked it," said Ross, who will remain based in Chicago. "What I loved about Digitas is the base is there, the fundamentals around media and analytics. That stuff is so hard to build." Digitas has needed to deal with a dreadful year for two of its largest clients, American Express and General Motors. Solomons said changes in the media landscape give Digitas opportunities to expand its role with clients at a time of flux. "She's led an organization that's proven to win," he said. "She's very focused on helping clients build business and she's a big conceptual creative thinker." In March, Ross left Tribal DDB, where she was U.S. CEO. Global CEO Paul Gunning took her place, saying the Omnicom Group shop needed more focus on structural efficiencies.

June Media Updates

PointRoll Releases AdArchitect to Streamline Rich Media Design, Development and Production

AdArchitect Leverages Leading-Edge Technologies to Reduce Turnaround Time and Enable More Robust Functionality for Rich Media Display Ads
NEW YORK, June 23 /PRNewswire/ -- PointRoll, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI) and leading provider of rich media advertising, today launched AdArchitect, a collection of tools that helps designers and developers easily create, develop and deliver rich media ads. By streamlining the rich media ad development process, AdArchitect reduces production time by at least 30 percent.
The AdArchitect toolset leverages leading technologies that promote efficiency and enable more robust interactive display ads. The technology can be used to create an advertising unit across any of PointRoll's rich media executions, including expandable, polite, and floating formats. AdArchitect ultimately expedites the production cycle, saves time and reduces costs for advertisers and agencies.
In addition to full technical support, AdArchitect includes:
PointRoll Creative Manager, a convenient desktop application that seamlessly integrates with PointRoll's AdPortal platform and enables users to upload files, build ad units, and make demos all within their existing workflow. Creative Manager is built on the Adobe(R) AIR(R) framework and functions regardless of the installed operating system or changes in the Adobe Flash authoring environment, making it a unique and advanced tool in the rich media development space.
PointRoll Flash API, a custom API that allows users to add any PointRoll Flash feature into their rich media experience regardless of complexity. The PointRoll Flash API gives users full flexibility and design control while ensuring that all creative units have PointRoll's leading analytics tracking.
PointRoll Flash Components Library, a collection of drag-and-drop elements that allow users to easily add and customize complex features without a deep understanding of ActionScript. Users can create full-featured rich media ads, customize complex Flash elements, and easily integrate rich media features without writing code.
"AdArchitect addresses our customers' need to streamline the development process, works with all PointRoll ad formats, and allows clients to update existing features in real time," said PointRoll CEO Jason Tafler. "For brands and agencies that require a more user-friendly and comprehensive tool that reduces the time needed to produce more engaging and interactive rich media campaigns, AdArchitect is the answer."
Each of these time saving and ad-improving tools helps advertisers create highly engaging rich media display ads which provide a 550 percent lift in engagement over standard ads and more than a 60 percent increase over flash banner ads. "PointRoll's AdArchitect increases our efficiency tremendously by reducing turnaround time and makes it easier for us to meet project deadlines," said Jason Sutterfield, Interactive Technology and Production Director at The Martin Agency. "We are excited that PointRoll has taken the initiative to develop a tool that meets key needs for developers and agencies. Incorporating Adobe AIR technology makes AdArchitect more responsive than a browser tool, and by making the development process faster we can provide updates for clients in under an hour."
AdArchitect works within a user's existing workflow as the API and components are enabled inside the Flash Authoring environment and the Creative Manager resides on the user's desktop via an Adobe AIR application. The product suite is ideal for a wide range of skills levels as it includes components that minimize the need to code and a well-documented API for users with advanced ActionScript skills.
"PointRoll's AdArchitect is extremely well-designed, easy to use, and very intuitive," said Joseph Graiff, Technical Group Supervisor at CDMiConnect. "It has helped us streamline our design processes and develop creative units faster, which is a key consideration for any agency. AdArchitect enables us to conserve time and effort when launching new campaigns and updating existing creative, so that we can be as efficient as possible."


H&R Block Moves to DDB

Omnicom Group shop adds creative portion of $130 mil. business without a review
H&R Block has shifted creative duties on its ad account to DDB without a review, the Omnicom Group shop said today.Major media spending on the brand totaled $105 million last year and nearly $130 million in the first four months of 2009, according to Nielsen. Those figures do not include online spending.Interpublic Group's Campbell Mithun in Minneapolis had handled the business since 2000. In addition to traditional advertising, DDB will handle digital efforts via its Tribal DDB subsidia ry.Media duties are not shifting and remain at Omnicom's OMD.Sources said that the shift came after several months of meetings between DDB and H&R Block, whose president and CEO, Russ Smyth, knew the agency from his 21 years at McDonald's, a key global client of DDB. Smyth rose to president of McDonald's European operations before exiting in 2005."Having worked with the agency before, I know we can expect a great partnership that will help grow our business and enhance our brand," Smyth said in a statement. "DDB has a proven track record for generating strong creative that builds and maintains leadership brands."DDB North American president Dick Rogers, who worked with Smyth when he was at McDonald's and contributed to the agency's pursuit of H&R Block, said he was "thrilled" to get the opportunity to help reposition an "iconic American brand." DDB will pull creative ideas from its core U.S. offices in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Seattle. Account management will be led out of New York.Campbell Mithun landed the account in 2000 and successfully defended it in a 2006 review. DDB's Chicago office was among the five finalists in that contest.


AOL buys Tim Armstrong’s Patch

It’s good to be king, but who knows if it will pay off.
AOL has brought Patch Media Corporation, a local news and information platform aimed at serving local towns and communities and Going, a local platform for people to discover and share information about things to do in a number of leading cities across the country. Both Patch and Going offer local experiences, content and self-service applications for consumers and advertisers. AOL’s CEO Tim Armstrong is the principal investor in Patch.
“Local remains one of the most disaggregated experiences on the Web today — there’s a lot of information out there but simply no way for consumers to find it quickly and easily,” Armstrong said in a statement. “It’s a space that’s prime for innovation and an area where AOL has a significant audience and a valuable mapping service in MapQuest. Going forward, local will be a core area of focus and investment for AOL. The acquisitions of Patch and Going will help us build out our local network further with excellent local services that enable people to stay better informed about what’s going on in their neighborhood.”
Founded in December 2007 and headquartered in New York, Patch combines localized, professional journalism with community contribution and a platform that puts all town assets online – in effect, digitizing the community. Patch, which expects to be available in a dozen communities by the end of the year, currently has “Patches” in five communities with four more in development.
Launched in September 2006 and headquartered in Boston, Going is one of the leading local communities for 20-somethings looking for things to do in cities across the country. Going is available in 30 leading U.S. cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami and Boston, with several more planned this year. Going also provides local promoters, event organizers and venues a fully automated, self-service RSVP, ticketing and advertising engine to maximize the attendance and value of their events.


Quibblo.com Named Best Advertising Media Web Site

Quibblo.com Named Best Advertising Media Web Site at 7th Annual American Business Awards(SM)
Pangea Media, a leader in online quizzes and quiz technology, announced today that the company's popular tween/teen quiz site, Quibblo.com, was awarded the top "Advertising Media Web Site or Blog" for 2009 at The American Business Awards (Stevie Awards) ceremony, held on June 22, 2009 in New York City.
Boston, MA June 26, 2009 -- Pangea Media (PangeaMedia.com), a leader in online quizzes and quiz technology, announced today that the company's popular tween/teen quiz site, Quibblo.com, was awarded the top "Advertising Media Web Site or Blog" for 2009 at The American Business Awards (Stevie Awards) ceremony, held on June 22, 2009 in New York City.
Quibblo.com was recognized for its ability to provide marketers with innovative advertising opportunities that enable them to target a select and engaged audience. Quibblo.com enables advertisers to weave their messages into the site's content by customizing quizzes or sponsoring quiz categories. The site has run campaigns for advertisers including Kohl's, MTV and DreamWorks, among others.
"As online advertising becomes an increasingly important part of the marketing mix, advertisers are seeking new strategies to better target individual audiences," said Seth Lieberman, CEO of Pangea Media. "This award is validation that Quibblo delivers a fresh approach to advertisers, providing them with innovative ways to reach and connect with their audiences through social media channels."
Stevie Awards were presented in over 40 categories including Best Overall Company of the Year, Executive of the Year, and Corporate Social Responsibility Program of the Year. More than 2,600 entries from companies of all sizes and in virtually every industry were submitted for consideration. More than 200 executives across the country participated in the judging process to determine the finalists and Stevie Award winners.



Tremor Media Touts New Web Video Ad Format

Forget the standard pre-roll. Ditch the overlay. Tremor Media today is set to release V-Choice, a set of new online video ad placements that the company claims will successfully marry the sight, sound and motion of TV spots with the control and interactivity that users expect on the Web.The company, which boasts a video ad network that reaches 57 million unique viewers (comScore, March), has just completed a beta test period with several top advertisers, including Procter & Gamble, Universal Pictures and Ubisoft. Now, it plans to roll out V-Choice ads to the general market.V-Choice units are now available on Tremor’s 900-plus site partners. The network has tapped Web metrics firm Quantcast to provide both demographic and user interaction data for campaigns.When encountering V-Choice ads, users are first shown a short five- to 15-second teaser video spot, either before or during content, and then have the choice to skip the ad entirely or view more content. That’s a better alternative for all parties, according to Tremor CEO Jason Glickman. “This is a whole different experience,” he said. “Publishers like it because it's a great user experience. For advertisers, it opens up a whole new world. It kind of changes the game for in-stream ads.”Among the new V-Choice offerings are “showcase” units, which enable brands to present multiple ads or products in a single campaign, allowing users to choose which ads to watch (if any) and in some cases to determine the length of commercials. For Universal Pictures’ upcoming movie Land of the Lost, Tremor has been testing an in-stream video ad on sites such as Fandango.com. The placement gives users the option to view a film “teaser," full length trailer, or to visit the movie’s Web site.Other showcase campaigns could direct interested users to sample different videos for a group of brands -- such as different car models from the same company -- or even long-form video content, such as product demos.Allowing for even more interactivity and potential creativity are V-Choice “storytelling” units, which let advertisers present campaigns in chapters, with users controlling the navigation. Tremor executives said these units should work for advertisers’ whose campaigns have extended scenarios and also support vehicles such as branded entertainment Webisodes.


Microsoft puts Razorfish up for sale

Microsoft has appointed Morgan Stanley to find a potential buyer for Razorfish, its digital agency.
Publicis, the French marketing company that says it is planning more acquisitions in online advertising, is thought to be a possible bidder.
Microsoft acquired the agency, formerly called Avenue A Razorfish, as part of its $6bn takeover of aQuantive in 2007.
One analyst valued Razorfish at $600m-$700m, based on sales of about $400m last year and profit margins for similar businesses of 12-13 per cent.
The analyst said: “Much more than that would be overpaying”, adding that even in digital marketing, valuations had fallen since last year, when Advertising Age trade magazine reported a valuation of $800m
In August, two years after the aQuantive deal, more favourable tax implications will provide an opportunity for Microsoft to sell an asset some view as a conflict of interest with Microsoft Advertising, which sells technology to rival agencies.
Microsoft declined to comment.
Razorfish, which has headquarters in Seattle, is one of the largest digital agencies, with 2,000 employees. Clients include Audi, Nike and Kraft.
Maurice Lévy, Publicis chief executive, said funds from a refinancing this month could be used for acquisitions, particularly in digital and emerging markets, which are performing better than traditional advertising in the US and Europe.
“There are some opportunities” for acquisitions, he said.
“Obviously if we can take advantage of the current situation to be ready to take these things, it’s good.”
Publicis had previously said that its issuance of €719m ($1bn) in convertible bonds was related to a refinancing due in 2012.
Mr Lévy said there was currently a “window where it looks like it is relatively easy to raise money” even if there was no “immediate need”.
He did not name potential targets and declined to comment on whether he would be interested in acquiring Razorfish.
But one analyst, who asked not to be named, said: “Publicis would be willing to look at everything. It has the best balance sheet and the most to do.” Razorfish is “the more likely name”.
Publicis and Microsoft Advertising on Friday announced a broad strategic agreement, including Publicis’s VivaKi unit using Microsoft technology to place targeted advertising on television set-top boxes.
Other agency groups, such as Omnicom and WPP, which are facing the same structural shift of marketing budgets into digital, could also be interested in Razorfish.



Google Holds 65% Search Share in Pre-Bing Rankings

Americans conducted 14.3 billion searches at the five core search engines in May 2009, with nearly two-thirds (65%) of searches performed on Google, 20% on Yahoo and 8.2% on Microsoft Sites, according to comScore qSearch data.
Though the total number of searches was down 3.8% over April 2009, Google's share of searches rose eight tenths of a percentage point, up from 64.2% in April, observes MarketingCharts. Shares for Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL declined slightly. Ask Network (3.9% of searches) was up one-tenth of a percentage point, while AOL LLC (3.1% of searches) declined two-tenths of a point.
May search data did not include figures for Microsoft's new search engine Bing, which was launched June 1. Bing figures will be included in comScore's June search analysis.
Separate comScore research from the first two weeks of Bing's launch showed that it had gained enough traction in the search market to rattle Google.
Total Core Searches
Google Sites accounted for 9.3 billion core searches in May, followed by Yahoo Sites with 2.9 billion and Microsoft Sites with 1.1 billion.
The total number of searches was down across the top engines overall, with AOL experiencing a 12% drop in the number of searches, and Google experiencing a 3% drop. Ask Network had the smallest percentage decrease, down 1%.
Expanded Search Rankings
In the comScore May 2009 analysis of the top properties where search activity is observed, Google Sites led with 13 billion searches. Yahoo Sites ranked second with 3 billion searches, followed by Microsoft Sites (1.2 billion) and AOL LLC (721 million).
Nielsen Online also released May search data, which put the total number of searches at 9.9 billion and Google holding a 63.2% share. Nielsen's figures showed the number of searches between April and May 2009 increased, in part because Nielsen data also tracks a number of smaller players that have experienced recent growth.

Online Advertisement Glossary

A
AAAA (American Association of Advertising Agencies)
Founded in 1917, the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA) is the national trade
association representing the advertising agency business in the United States.

Abandonment
When a user leaves a shopping cart with something in it prior to completing the transaction.

Abort
When a Web server does not successfully transfer a unit of content or ad to a browser. This is
usually caused by a user hitting the stop button or clicking on another link prior to the completion of a download.

Ad
For Web advertising, an ad is almost always a banner, a graphic image or set of animated images (in a file called an animated GIF) of a designated pixel size and byte size limit.

Ad audience
The number of unique users exposed to an ad within a specified time period.

Ad blocker
Software on a user’s browser which prevents advertisements from being displayed.

Ad campaign audit
An activity audit for a specific ad campaign.

Ad download
When an ad is downloaded by a server to a user’s browser. Ads can be requested, but aborted or
abandoned before actually being downloaded to the browser, and hence there would be no
opportunity to see the ad by the user.

Ad impression ratio
Click-throughs divided by ad impressions. See click rate.

Ad Impressions
The number of times an advertiser's banner is downloaded by users. Ad impressions are the number of times an ad is rendered for viewing. One impression is equivalent to one opportunity to see an ad.

Advertising network
A network representing many Web sites in selling advertising, allowing advertising buyers to reach broad audiences relatively easily through run-of category and run-of-network buys.

Above the fold
The section of a Web page that is visible without scrolling.

Ad recall
A measure of advertising effectiveness in which a sample of respondents is exposed to an ad and
then at a later point in time is asked if they remember the ad. Ad recall can be on an aided or
unaided basis. Aided ad recall is when the respondent is told the name of the brand or category
being advertised.

Ad request
The request for an advertisement as a direct result of a user's action as recorded by the ad server. Ad requests can come directly from the user’s browser or from an intermediate Internet resource, such as a Web content server.

Ad serving
The delivery of ads by a server to an end user's computer on which the ads are then displayed by a browser and/or cached. Ad serving is normally performed either by a Web publisher or by a third-party ad server. Ads can be embedded in the page or served separately.

Ad space
The space on a Web page available for advertisements.

Ad stream
The series of ads displayed by the user during a single visit to a site (also impression stream).

Animated GIF
The combination of multiple GIF images in one file to create animation. The multiple images,
displayed one after another, give the appearance of movement. Studies show that animated banners are more
effective than static banners. They generate higher ad awareness and recall, and click-thorough. unaided basis.
Aided ad recall is when the respondent is told the name of the brand or category being advertised.

ALT text
HTML attribute that provides alternative text when non-textual typically images, cannot be displayed.

Affinity Group
A special interest group identified for purposes of targeting specific ads.

Alternate text
A word or phrase that is displayed when a user has image loading disabled in their browser or
when a user abandons a page by hitting "stop" in their browser prior to the transfer of all images. Also appears as “balloon text” when a user lets their mouse rest over an image.

Audit
A report that counts and verifies a site's traffic or verifies the site's ad delivery for a particular ad campaign.

Ad Click
A click on an advertisement on a web site which takes a user to another site, it is referred
to as an ad click.

Affinity Links
URL links established between Web sites that reach similar demographics.

Authentication
Technique by which access to Internet or Intranet resources requires the user to identify
himself or herself by entering a username and password.

Ad layout
The way the ads are displayed on a publisher's site. You can choose the
format that best fits your site. For example, the banner ad layout will display up to 2 ads
horizontally across the page and the skyscraper will display up to 4 ads vertically.

Ad layout code (AdSense ad code)
The HTML that is placed on any page of anapproved site by the publisher who owns the site, allowing ads to be shown on that page in a specific ad layout format.

Ad rank/Positioning
An ad's position on a web page is determined by a combination of its maximum cost-per-click (price) and clickthrough rate (performance).

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.

Adware
Software that collects a user's information without their knowledge through the user's Internet
connection. This information is often used for the purposes of displaying advertisements through pop-ups or other means. Sites associated with Adware are not allowed to run the AdSense ad code.

Alternate ads
Alternate Ads allow you to monetize your ad space in the event that Google is unable to serve targeted ads to your page. By specifying an image or ad server of your choice, you can make sure that your advertising space is always being used effectively, either by targeted AdSense ads, or by your own choice of content. Alternate Ads, if specified, will be shown when there are no targeted ads available for your page.

ANA (Association of National Advertisers)
The Association of National Advertisers leads the marketing community by providing its members insights, collaboration and advocacy. The ANA strives to promote and protect all advertisers and marketers. See ana.net for more information.

Anonymizer
An intermediary which prevents Web sites from seeing a user’s Internet Protocol (IP) address.

Applet
A small, self-contained software application that is most often used by browsers to automatically
display animation and/or to perform database queries requested by the user.

ARF (Advertising Research Foundation)
The ARF is the premiere advertising industry association for creating, aggregating, synthesizing
and sharing the knowledge required by decision makers in the field. The principal mission of The ARF is to improve the practice of advertising, marketing and media research in pursuit of more effective marketing and advertising communications.

Artifacting
Distortion that is introduced into audio or video by the compression algorithm (codec).
Compressed images may have stray pixels that were not present in the original image. See
codec.

Availability Forecast
Forecasting tool is used to predict the availability of inventory. Availability Forecast is used in two ways: 1. during the sales process, to estimate how much inventory is available for sale; 2. when an ad is booked, if there is not enough inventory predicted to meet the requirements of the ad, the Availability Forecast report is automatically displayed to inform the trafficker of the problem.

Acquisition cost
Advertising or promotional costs divided by the number of click-throughs.

Ad Centre
Online Advertising channel where your ads appear in the MSN search engine as "Sponsored Sites".

Ad Sense
Google’s Contextual advertising network. As a website owner, Adsense gives you the opportunity to receive revenue by allowing the placement of Google advertisements on your site. Google will automatically crawl the content of your pages and place both text and image ads that are relevant to your audience and your site’s content. Whenever someone on your site clicks on one of the Adsense ads, you receive a payment. Advertisers can also bid to appear on your site on a CPM (cost per thousand impressions) basis and recently Google introduced the possibility of CPC (cost per click).AdWords Online Advertising Channel provided by Google. Adwords is a Cost-per-Click advertising channel which means that you only pay for an ad if people click on your ad. The ads appear in the Google search engine results as "Sponsored Links".

Anchor Text
The text that a user clicks on to follow a link to another web page or website. Search engines assume this text is an important term for the content of your website. For example if the anchor text was “Dublin Restaurant ”and this then linked to your restaurant’s website, search engines assume that this term is a goof term for locating your website or represents the content of the site.

AIDA
Stands for attention, interest, desire, and action (AIDA). This is a historical model of how advertising works, by first getting the consumer's attention, then their interest, etc.


B
Beta
A test version of a product, such as a Web site or software, prior to final release.

Blog
Online journal of entries in reverse chronological order that typically features multiple links; short for Web log.

Banner Ad
A graphical web advertising unit, typically measuring 468 pixels wide and 60
pixels tall (i.e. 468x60). 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.

Beyond the banner
Online advertising not involving standard GIF and JPEG banner ads. Ad campaign that incorporates standard and nonstandard ad units (banners with buttons, tag lines, pop-ups or email), email, text links or wireless ads.

Button ad
A graphical advertising unit, smaller than a banner ad. A clickable graphic that takes the user to another page or executes a program, such as a software demo or a video player.

Bookmark
A link stored in a Web browser for future reference.

Banner networks
Banner networks sale advertising for a large number of sites. They serve
as a third party in the process and maintain ad serving technology, reporting tools and
sales teams. Banner networks can sell banners across the network of sites they are
affiliated with, increasing the reach of a certain campaign.

Booked space
This is the number of ad views for an ad space that are currently sold out.

Brand or Brand Name
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.

B2B (Business-to-Business)
B2B, or Business-to-Business, defines a business, often a web site, targeting other commercial
entities rather than consumers.

Banner exchange
An alternative to banner ads, a banner exchange provides the potential to draw extra traffic to a web site through banner displays and is a good way to fill unsold or unprofitable inventory.

Bandwidth
The amount of data that can be transmitted in a fixed amount of time. For
digital devices, the bandwidth is usually expressed in bits per second (bps) or bytes per
second. For analog devices, the bandwidth is expressed in cycles per second, or Hertz .

Behavioral Targeting
A technique used by online publishers and advertisers to increase the effectiveness of their
campaigns. Behavioral targeting uses information collected on an individual’s web browsing
behavior such as the pages they have visited or the searches they have made to select which
advertisements to be displayed to that individual. Practitioners believe this helps them deliver
their online advertisements to the users who are most likely to be influenced by them.

Bonus impressions
Additional ad impressions above the commitments outlined in the approved insertion order.

Browser
Short for web browser, a software application used to locate and display web ages. The
browser interprets the HTML code on web servers and allows users to navigate, read and
listen to information, and it performs desktop functionality, such as accessing mail and
setting user preferences.

Broad match
Broad matches are often less targeted than exact or phrase matches. If you decide to
run your ads on broad-matched keywords, we recommend creating keyword phrases
containing at least two descriptive words.

Beacon
A line of code placed in an ad or on a web page that helps track the visitor's
actions, such as registrations or purchases. A web beacon is often invisible because it's
only 1 x 1 pixel in size and has no color. Also known as web bug, 1 by 1 GIF, invisible GIF
or tracker GIF.

Branding
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.

Bumper Ad
Bumper ad usually refers to a linear video ad with clickable all-to-action; format is usually shorter than full linear ads (i.e. 3-10 seconds) and call-to-action usually can load another video or can bring up a new site while pausing the content.

Bug
Bug is a persistent, graphical element that appears in the video environment. Clicking on it will take the user to a website.

Backbone
A central network connecting other networks together.

Black Hat
Search engines consider certain marketing techniques deceptive in nature, and label them as black hat SEO.

Brick and Mortar
Is an jargon term for a company that has a physical shop without a website. The opposite term, Click and Mortar refers to a company that sells online in addition to having a physical shop.


C
Click-through rate (CTR)
Average number of click-throughs for an online ad per 100 ad impressions; a 2% click-through rate means for every 100 times the ad was seen, two people clicked on it.

Cookies
Files from a Website that are transferred to and stored on a visitor’s Website that provide information, such as what the visitor purchased and what site the visitor was on immediately preceding the visit, to the Website.

Contextual marketing
Placing merchandise near relevant content.

CPC
Cost per click.

Cache
Memory used to temporarily store the most frequently requested content/files/pages in order to speed its delivery to the user. Caches can be local (i.e. on a browser) or on a network. In the
case of local cache, most computers have both memory (RAM), and disk (hard drive) cache.

Cache busting
The process by which sites or servers serve content or HTML in such a manner as to minimize or prevent browsers or proxies from serving content from their cache. This forces the user or proxy to fetch a fresh copy for each request. Among other reasons, cache busting is used to provide a more accurate count of the number of requests from users.

Cached ad impressions
The delivery of an advertisement to a browser from local cache or a proxy server’s cache. When a user requests a page that contains a cached ad, the ad is obtained from the cache and displayed.

Caching
The process of copying a Web element (page or ad) for later reuse. On the Web, this copying is
normally done in two places: in the user's browser and on proxy servers. When a user makes a
request for a Web element, the browser looks into its own cache for the element; then a proxy, if
any; followed by the intended server. Caching is done to reduce redundant network traffic,
resulting in increased overall efficiency of the Internet.

CARU (The Children's Advertising Review Unit) -
division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus that reviews advertising and promotional
material directed at children in all media. See caru.org for more information.

CGI script (Common Gateway Interface)
CGI’s are used to allow a user to pass data to a Web server, most commonly in a Web-based
form. Specifically, CGI scripts are used with forms such as pull-down menus or text-entry areas
with an accompanying submit button. The input from the form is processed by a program (the
CGI script itself) on a remote Web server.

CPM
Cost Per Thousand (Roman numeral) impressions. The price paid by an advertiser
for a site displaying their banner a thousand times.

Click-through
The process of clicking through an online advertisement to the advertiser's destination.

Conversion rate
The percentage of visitors who take a desired action.

Cascading style sheets (CSS)
A data format used to separate style from structure on Web pages.

CPA
Cost per Action. The advertiser pays not for the impression, but for any resulting immediate action taken from the viewer, like buying a product or subscribing to a service. Branding or secondary effects of an ad are not paid for.

CPC
Cost per Click. A model of CPA where the advertiser pays only if the visitor clicks on the ad (click-through).

Click-Through
Act of a visitor clicking on a banner. Click through percentage is expressed in terms of click throughs divided by banner impressions. This is sometimes used as a gauge of a banners call for action, but says nothing about branding.

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.

Client-initiated ad impression
One of the two methods used for ad counting. Ad content is delivered to the user via two methods
Server-initiated and Client-initiated. Client-initiated ad counting relies on the user’s browser formaking requests, formatting and re-directing content. For organizations using a client-initiated adcounting method, counting should occur at the publisher’s ad server or third-party ad server,subsequent to the ad request, or later, in the process. See server-initiated ad impression.

Codec
Short for compressor/decompressor. Codecs are computer algorithms that are used to compress
the size of audio, video, and image files for streaming over a data network or storage on a
computer. Apple’s QuickTime, Microsoft’s Windows Media Video, and MP3 are examples of
common codecs.

Cost-per-lead
This is a more specific form of cost-per-action in which a visitor provides enough information at the advertiser's site (or in interaction with a rich media ad) to be used as a sales lead. Note that you can estimate cost-per-lead regardless of how you pay for the ad (in other words, buying on a pay-per-lead basis is not required to calculate the cost-per-lead).

Cost-per-sale
Sites that sell products directly from their Web site or can otherwise determine sales generated as the result of an advertising sales lead can calculate the cost-per-sale of Web advertising.

CPA (Cost-per-Action)
Cost of advertising based on a visitor taking some specifically defined action in response to an ad.
"Actions" include such things as a sales transaction, a customer acquisition, or a click.

CPO (Cost-per-Order)
Cost of advertising based on the number of orders received. Also called Cost-per-Transaction.

CPTM (Cost per Targeted Thousand Impressions)
Implying that the audience one is trying to reach is defined by particular demographics or other
specific characteristics, such as male golfers age 18-25.The difference between CPM and CPTM
is that CPM is for gross impressions, while CPTM is for targeted impressions.

Click-down ad, also Click-within ad
An ad that allows the user to stay on the same web page, while viewing requested advertising content.
Click-downs display another file on the user's screen, normally below or above the initial ad. Click-within allow the user to drill down for more information within the ad.

Crawler
A software program which visits Web pages to build indexes for search engines. See also spider,
bot, and intelligent agent.

Creative
The concept, design or artwork of an ad including the technology used to create or
develop the ad. The most common creative technology for banners is GIF, JPEG images
or animated GIFs. Other creative technologies include Java, HTML or streaming media.

Call to action
Ad copy that encourages users to take a defined action. Examples range from "Click here" or "Buy now" to "Enter now to win a free trip to Hawaii" or "Click to download a free white paper."

Cybersquatting
Cybersquatting is using a domain name with bad-faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else. Typosquatting is a form of cybersquatting, based on the probability that a certain number of Internet users will mistype the name of a URL when surfing.

Companion Ad
Both Linear and Non-linear Video ad products have the option of pairing their core video ad product with what is commonly referred to as companion ads. Commonly text, display ads, rich media, or skins that wrap around the video experience, can run alongside either or both the video or ad content. The primary purpose of the Companion Ad product is to offer sustained visibility of the sponsor throughout the video content experience. Companion Ads may offer click-through interactivity and rich media experiences such as expansion of the ad for further engagement opportunities.

Completes
Completes refer to whether the video played to completion.

Core video ad products
The root ad product that serves as the source or core ad that compliments the video ad experience.

Content integration
Advertising woven into editorial content or placed in a contextual envelope. Also known as "Web advertorial".

Cube
Sometimes used to refer to a 125x125 pixel banner ad.


D
Daughter window
An ad that runs in a separate ad window associated with a concurrently displayed banner. In
normal practice, the content and banner are rendered first and the daughter window appears
thereafter.

Demographics
Common characteristics used for population segmentation. Typical demographic data include age, gender, occupation, and income.

Description tag
An HTML tag used by Web page authors to provide a description for search engine listings.

Doorway domain
A domain used specifically to rank well in search engines for particular keywords, serving as an entry point through which visitors pass to the main domain.

Doorway page
A page made specifically to rank well in search engines for particular keywords, serving as an entry point through which visitors pass to the main content.

Deep linking
Linking to a web page other than a site's home page.

DART
The ad serving technology by DoubleClick that performs the targeting, reporting and
inventory management for the sites in the Publisher Member Network.

DHTML (Dynamic Hypertext Markup Language)
An extended set of HTML commands which are used by Web designers to create much greater
animation and interactivity than HTML.

DPO (Distinct Point of Origin)
A unique address from which a browser connects to a Web site on the Internet.

Drill down
When an online user accesses more and more pages of the Web site, i.e., he or she goes deeper
into the content of the site.

Domain Name
Resource location identifier that corresponds with a particular IP address or set of IP
addresses.

Dynamic rotation
Delivery of ads on a rotating, random basis. Dynamic rotation allows ads to be served on different pages of the site and exposes users to a variety of ads.

Destination URL
This is the URL to which ads link. This is the page users see when they click
through to an advertiser's site from an ad.

Display URL
This is the URL displayed on ads to identify the advertiser's site to users.

DART MediaVisor
A hosted, web-based media planning, buying and campaign management workflow solution. This intuitive, easy-to-use tool automates many time-consuming, repetitive administrative tasks, such as RFPs, Insertion Orders, flow charts and more. Simply put: MediaVisor is the planning and operations center for your online advertising.

DART for Advertisers (DFA)
A hosted, web-based ad management and serving application, DART for Advertisers (DFA) is a reliable, scalable tool for targeting, serving and analyzing online campaigns.

DART for Publishers (DFP)
A hosted, web-based ad management and serving application, DART for Publishers (DFP) is a reliable, scalable tool for effectively monetizing a publisher's advertising inventory.

DART Enterprise
An in-house, licensed software solution for targeting, serving and reporting ads delivered online and through other digital channels such as kiosks and iTV.

DART Motif
DART Motif is the only fully integrated solution for all aspects of creating and managing rich media advertising. Motif is brought to you through an exclusive alliance between industry leaders DoubleClick and Macromedia.

Deep linking
Linking to a web page other than a site's home page.

Domain Name
Resource location identifier that corresponds with a particular IP address or set of IP addresses.

Dynamic ad insertion
The process by which an ad is inserted into a page in response to a user's request. Dynamic
ad placement allows alteration of specific ads placed on a page based on any data available to
the placement program. At its simplest, dynamic ad placement allows for multiple ads to be
rotated through one or more spaces. In more sophisticated examples, the ad placement could be
affected by demographic data or usage history for the current user.

Dead Link
A link to a page that no longer exists. Search engine spiders scan these types of links and eventually eliminate them from search engine results.


E
E-commerce
The process of selling products or services via the Web.

E-mail Advertising
Banner ads, links or advertiser sponsorships that appear in e-mail newsletters, e-mail marketing
campaigns and other commercial e-mail communications. Includes all types of electronic mail
(e.g., basic text or HTML-enabled).

E-mail Bounce
An e-mail that cannot be delivered to the mailbox provider and is sent back to the e-mail ServiceProvider that sent it. A bounce is classified as either “hard” or “soft.” Hard bounces are the faileddelivery of e-mail due to a permanent reason, such as a non-existent address. Soft bounces arethe failed delivery of e-mail due to a temporary issue, such as a full inbox or an unavailable ISP server.

E-mail campaign
Advertising campaign distributed via e-mail.

E-mail Inbox
Within a mailbox provider, the default, primary folder that stores delivered e-mail messages.

E-mail Mailbox Provider
The e-mail program, and by extension the server, that hosts the targeted e-mail address

E-mail Service Provider (ESP)
A business or organization that provides the e-mail campaign delivery technology. ESPs may also provide services for marketing, advertising and general communication purposes.

Encoding
The process of compressing and separating a file into packets so that it can be delivered over a
network.

Encoder
A hardware or software application used to compress audio and video signals for the purpose of
streaming. See codec

Extramercial
Banner ads placed in the extra space in the right column of Internet web pages.

Encryption
Securing digital information so that it is unreadable without the use of digital keys.

E-mail Preview Pane
A small window within a mailbox provider that allows the user to view some e-mail content withoutopening the e-mail.

Extranet
Group of Websites, each with a different owner, that joined together to share information; often used in supply chain management.

Electronic Commerce (E-Commerce)
The process of selling products or services via the Web on a secured platform.

Effective Frequency
The number of times an ad should be shown to one person to realize the highest impact of the ad without wasting impressions on that individual.

Effective Reach-
Estimated number of individuals in an audience that is reached at least once in a specific amount of time.

Expandable banner
A banner ad that can expand to as large as 468 x 240 pixels after a user clicks on it or after a user moves the cursor over the banner.

Effective CPM
Cost per 1000 impressions. From a publisher's perspective, CPM is a useful way to compare revenue across different channels and advertising programs. It is calculated by dividing total earnings by the number of impressions in thousands.

Exclusive
A contract that allows advertisers to purchase all inventory on a given page or for chosen keywords.

Exit Page
The last page on a site accessed during a visit, signifying the end of a visit/session.

Eyeballs
Slang term for audience; the number of people who view a certain website or advertisement.


F
Family/Ad family
A collection of one or more ad creative's. Also called ad campaign.

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.

Filtration guidelines
IAB voluntary guidelines for removing non-human activity in the reported measurement of ad impressions, page impressions, unique visitors and clicks. See iab.net for ad campaign measurement guidelines.

Frequency cap
Restriction on the amount of times a specific visitor is shown a particular advertisement.

Flash
Multimedia technology developed by Macromedia to allow much interactivity to fit in a relatively small file size.

Fold
The line below which a user has to scroll to see content not immediately visible when a Web page
loads in a browser. Ads or content displayed “above the fold” are visible without any end-user
interaction. Monitor size and resolution determine where on a Web page the fold lies.

Frames
A structure that allows for the dividing of a Web page into two or more independent parts.

Frame rate
The number of frames of video displayed during a given time. The higher the frame rate, the more high-quality the image will be.

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.


Floating ads
An ad that appears within the main browser window on top of the page's normal content, appearing to "float" over the top of the page.

FTP
File Transfer Protocol is a standard method of sending files between computers over the
Internet.

Finger
A program tool for locating user information while they are online to verify personal information
or website login.

Fourth-Party Ad Server
For a campaign, the entity other than the publisher or third-party ad server, who holds the
rich media creative assets (or facilitates obtaining the creative asset through the ad media or
creative server) and serves them into a web site.


G
GIF (Graphical Image Format)
A common compression format uses to transfer graphic files between different computers. GIF images are the most common form of banner creative and web graphics.

Geo-targeting
The distribution of ads to a particular geographical area. For example, you can use a place name
in your keyword, such as "Minnesota multimedia" or "Sacramento farm equipment." Some search engines allow you to target specific countries and languages without using keyword relevance.

Gross exposures
The total number of times an ad is served, including duplicate downloads to the same person.

Guerilla Marketing campaign
Tactic involving the placement of often humorous brand-related messages in unexpected places either online or in the real world; intended to provoke word-of-mouth and build Buzz.

GUI (Graphical User interface)
A way of enabling users to interact with the computer using visual icons and a mouse rather than
a command-line prompt/interpreter.


H
Hard Cut-off
A feature that automatically stops an ad on the end date specified, even if the ad has not met its delivery goals.

Head end
The site in a cable system or broadband coaxial network where the programming originates and
the distribution network starts. Signals are usually received off the air from satellites, microwave relays, or fiber-optic cables at the head end for distribution.

Heuristic
A way to measure a user's unique identity. This measure uses deduction or inference based on a
rule or algorithm which is valid for that server. For example, the combination of IP address and
user agent can be used to identify a user in some cases. If a server receives a new request from
the same client within 30 minutes, it is inferred that a new request comes from the same user and the time since the last page request was spent viewing the last page. Also referred to as an inference.

History list
A menu in a web browser which displays recently visited sites. The same mechanism makes it
possible for servers to track where a browser was before visiting a particular site.

Home page
The page designated as the main point of entry of a Web site (or main page) or the starting point
when a browser first connects to the Internet. Typically, it welcomes visitors and introduces the
purpose of the site, or the organization sponsoring it, and then provides links to other pages
within the site.

Hotlists
Pull-down or Pop-up menus often displayed on browsers or search engines that contain new or
popular sites.

HTML banner
A banner ad using HTML elements, often including interactive forms, instead of (or in addition to) standard graphical elements.

House ad
Self-promotional ad a company runs on its media outlets to put unsold inventory to use.

Host
A computer that is connected to a TCP/IP network, including the Internet. Each host has
a unique IP address. As a web server, a company acts as host, providing the computer
hardware, software, and communications protocols for accessing websites.

HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)
The language that converts raw ASCII text into formatted text, hyperlinks, and graphics
for display in a World Wide Web browser. HTML defines the page layout, fonts and
graphic elements, as well as the hypertext links to other documents.

HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol)
The set of rules for transferring text from a web server to a browser over the Internet.

Homepage Rib splitter
An ad which loads in the browser window before the homepage loads and it usually stays for
8 to 10 seconds.

Hypertext
Any text that contains links connecting it with other text or files on the Internet.

Hoax
An attempt to trick an audience into believing that something false is real. Hoaxes are generally sent via email.

Hidden text
Refers to the inclusion of text on a webpage which is not visible to visitors to a site but can be seen by search engine spiders. This is considered as a Black Hat Technique. While some sites may get away with it for a while, generally the risk to reward ratio is inadequate for most legitimate sites to consider using hidden text.

Hill top
An algorithm approach to assessing the quality of links between pages based on the identification of hub and authority pages. Hub pages A concept related to hill top. A page which contains many outbound links about a particular topic.


I
Intranet
Online network designed to be accessible only to members of a specific
organization, with firewalls keeping out other potential users.

Internet Service Provider (ISP)
An organization that provides Internet access for a fee or hosting of web pages.

Interstitial Ads
Online ad that loads between two content pages. Interstitial ads are ads that appear in a separate
browser window while another page is loaded. If a user, on page A, clicks a hyperlink to go to
page B, the user will see the interstitial ad before arriving at page B.
Interstitial advertisements are usually full-page ads displayed while a user is in transit from one
page to another, triggered by code included in the link. CPM rates can be as high or higher than
popup and popunder rates, and interstitials, due to their similarity to traditional television advertising. Ads that appear between two content pages. Also known as transition ads.

Invisible Web
The portion of the Web not accessible through Web search engines.

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.

IAB-Internet Advertising Bureau
The IAB, or Internet Advertising Bureau, is an association dedicated to helping online, interactive broadcasting, email, wireless and interactive television media companies increase their revenues.

Image map
A GIF or JPEG image with more than one linking hyperlink. Each hyperlink or hot spot can lead to a different destination page.

Infoglut
Information overload due to the explosive growth of the World Wide Web.


Inventory
The number of ad impressions available for sale on a website. Ad inventory isdetermined by the number of ads on a page, the number of pages containing ad space and the number of page requests. Also defined as the number of banner ad impressions delivered via an ad space during a given period.

Intermercial
Web-based commercial.

Invalid click or impression
Clicks or page impressions generated through prohibited means, and intended to artificially increase click or impression counts on a publisher account.

IP Address
Every computer connected to the Internet is assigned a unique number known as an Internet Protocol (IP) address. Since these numbers are usually assigned in country-based blocks, an IP address can often be used to identify the county from which a computer is connecting to the Internet.

In-unit click
A measurement of a user-initiated action of responding to an ad element which generally causes
an intra-site redirect or content change. In-unit clicks are usually tracked via a 302 redirect. Also known as click-downs, click-ups and click-withins. See ad click; 302 redirect.

In-Text Video
A relevant video ad experience displayed only when a user chooses to mouse-over,
a highlighted word or phrase within the text of web content.

In-Banner Video
A video ad experience displayed or triggered within a display banner.

Incentivized Click
A type of click through in which the person clicking on the advertisement does so in order to receive some reward. Often results in low visitor quality.

Internal page impressions -
Web site activity that is generated by individuals with IP addresses known to be affiliated with the Web site owner.
Internal activity that is associated with administration and maintenance of the site should be excluded from the traffic or measurement report.


J
JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group)
Standard web graphic file format that uses a compression technique to reduce graphic file sizes.

Jump page ad
Microsite which is reached via click-through from button or banner ad. The jump page itself can list several topics, which are linked to either the advertiser's site or the publisher's site.

JavaScript
A scripting language developed by Netscape and used to create interactive Web sites.

Jump Page
The page that is displayed when a user clicks on a banner. Can be used for just about anything from promoting a website, product or service, user registration to contests.

Junk E-mail Folder
A folder within an e-mail client or on an E-mail Service Provider server that stores e-mail messagesthat are identified, either by the user or by an automated spam filter, as undesired or undesirable.


K
Keyword marketing
Putting your message in front of people who are searching using particular keywords and
keyphrases.

keyword density
Keywords as a percentage of indexable text words.

keyword research
The search for keywords related to your Web site, and the analysis of which ones yield the highest return on investment (ROI).

Keywords tag
META tag used to help define the primary keywords of a Web page.

Keyword
A specific word, or combination of words, entered into a search engine that results in a list of pages related to the keyword. A keyword is the content of a search engine query. Keyword Search Revenues Revenue generated from advertisements delivered with a user’s search results.

Keyword Frequency
Is a measure of the frequency that a word appears on a webpage in comparison to the total number of words on a webpage. Keyword density is measured by dividing the number of times a keyword is showing on a webpage in comparison to the total number of words on a web page. The higher a keyword density is the better; but over-optimising may lead to Keyword stuffing which is penalised by search engines.

Keyword stuffing
Writing copy that uses excessive amounts of a particular keyword, the objective of which is to improve the page's ranking for that keyword. Search engines penalise sites heavily for keyword stuffing. When people use keyword stuffed copy it tends to read mechanically and consequently does not convert well.


L
Lag
The delay between making an online request or command and receiving a response. See latency.

LAN (Local Area Network)
A group of computers connected together (a network) at one physical location.

Latency
1) Time it takes for a data packet to move across a network connection;
2) Visible delay between request and display of content and ad. Latency sometimes leads to the
user leaving the site prior to the opportunity to see. In streaming media, latency can create stream degradation if it causes the packets, which must be received and played in order, to arrive out of order.

Large rectangle
An IMU size. The IAB’s voluntary guidelines include seven Interactive Marketing Unit (IMU) ad formats; two vertical units and five large rectangular units. See iab.net for more information.

Link
A clickable connection between two Web sites. Formally referred to as a hyperlink.

Link popularity
A measure of the quantity and quality of sites that link to your site.

Log file
File that records the activity on a Web server.

Landing page
A landing page is the advertiser's web page to which a user is directed after clicking an ad.

Lead
A lead indicates a potential customer who has expressed interest in a product or service,
generally by means of requesting additional information or following through on an online registration. Some affiliate programs pay on a CPL, or Cost Per Lead, basis.

Link farms
Websites that are created and maintained solely for the purpose of constructing links between member sites. You should avoid listing your website on these sites as it could result in your website being banned by search engines.


M
Make goods
Additional ad impressions which are negotiated in order to make up for the shortfall of ads
delivered versus the commitments outlined in the approved insertion order.

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.

Maximum cost-per-click
The maximum cost-per-click (CPC) an advertiser is willing to pay. Our Discounter automatically
reduces this amount so that the actual CPC the advertiser is charged is just one cent more than the minimum necessary to keep his/her ad's position on the page.

Maximum cost-per-thousand-impressions
The maximum cost-per-thousand-impressions (CPM) an advertiser is willing to pay. The AdWords
Discounter automatically reduces this amount so that the actual CPM the advertiser is charged is just
one cent more than the minimum necessary to keep his/her ad's position on the page.

Micro-sites
Multi-page ads accessed via click-through from initial ad. The user stays on the publisher’s Website,
but has access to more information from the advertiser than a display ad allows.

Midroll
Form of online video ad placement where the ad is played during a break in the middle of the
content video. See Preroll and Postroll.

MIME (Multi-purpose Internet Mail Extensions)
A method of encoding a file for delivery over the Internet.


MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Role-Playing Game)
Any of a variety of three dimensional, highly immersive, PC or console based video games where
many players interact, competing or co-operating to achieve goals in real time.

Mouseover
The process by which a user places his/her mouse over a media object, without clicking. The
mouse may need to remain still for a specified amount of time to initiate some actions.

MP3
Codec most commonly used for digital music online. Generic term for any digital music file,
regardless of codec used to create or play it.

MPEG
1) The file format that is used to compress and transmit movies or video clips online;
2) Standards set by the Motion Picture Exports Group for video media.

MRC (Media Rating Council)
A non-profit trade association dedicated to assuring valid, reliable and effective syndicated audience research. The MRC performs audits of Internet measurements as well as traditional media measurements.

Meta Tags
Meta tags are HTML codes that are inserted into the header on a web page, after the Title tag.
They take a variety of forms and serve a variety of purposes, but in the context of search engine optimization when people refer to meta tags, they are usually referring to the Meta Description tag and the Meta Keywords tag. Meta-information is associated with a web page and placed in the HTML but not visible for the user. Meta tags are an optional feature of Websites with strict Search Engine Optimization purposes and little else.

Minutes/Visit (Minutes per Visit)
The average calculated by dividing the total number of minutes spent by all users in specific section by the total number of visits to/by that section.

Minutes/Visitor (Minutes/Visitor)

The average calculated by dividing the total number of minutes spent by all users in specific section by the total number
of visitors to/by that section.

Mirror Site:
A site which mirrors or is a duplicate of the contents of another website. This is usually where a company will more than one domain name particular for geographical search engines. For example having http://www.mywebsite.ie/ and http://www.mywebsite.com/


N
Navigation
That which facilitates movement from one Web page to another Web page.

NAI (Network Advertising Initiative)
A cooperative group of network advertisers which has developed a set of privacy principles in
conjunction with the Federal Trade Commission. The NAI provides consumers with explanations
of Internet advertising practices and how they affect both consumers and the Internet. See
networkadvertising.org for more information.

Netiquette
A term that is used to describe the informal rules of conduct ("do's and don'ts") of online behavior.

Newsgroup
An electronic bulletin board devoted to talking about a specific topic and open to everybody. Only
a handful of newsgroups permit the posting of advertising.

Non-registered user
Someone who visits a Web site and elects not to, or is not required to, provide certain information, and hence may be denied access to part's of the site.

Nonqualifying page impressions
Page impressions which should be excluded from traffic or measurement reports, such as
unsuccessful transfers of requested documents, successful transfers of requested documents to
a robot or spider, and/or pages in a frame set. See frames.

Newbie
A term to describe someone new to the Internet.


O
Off-site measurement
When a site forwards its log files to an off-site Web research service for analysis.

On-demand
The ability to request video, audio, or information to be sent to the screen immediately by clicking something on the screen referring to that choice.

On-site measurement
When a server has an appropriate software program to measure and analyze traffic received on
its own site.

OPA (Online Privacy Alliance)
A group of corporations and associations who have come together to introduce and promote
business-wide actions that create an environment of trust and foster the protection of individuals'
privacy online. See privacyalliance.org for more information.

OPA (Online Publishers’ Association)
Trade association representing a segment of online publishers. See online-publishers.org for more information.

Opt-in e-mail
Opt-in e-mail is e-mail containing information or advertising that users explicitly request (opt) to
receive. Subscribers have registered to receive specific information of interest.

Opt in
Refers to an individual giving a company permission to use data collected from or about the
individual for a particular reason.

Opt out-
When a company states that it plans to market its products and services to an
individual unless the individual asks to be removed from the company's mailing list.

OTS (Opportunity to See)
Same as page display - when a page is successfully displayed on the user's computer screen.


P
P3P (Platform for Privacy Preferences Project)
Browser feature that will analyze privacy policies and allow a user to control their privacy needs.

Packet sniffer
A program used to monitor and record activity and to detect problems with Web transactions on a network., also known as a network sniffer, network analyzer or protocol analyzer.

Page impression
A measurement of responses from a Web server to a page request from the user’s browser,
which is filtered from robotic activity and error codes, and is recorded at a point as close as
possible to the opportunity to see the page by the user. See iab.net for ad campaign
measurement guidelines.

Page request
The opportunity for an HTML document to appear on a browser window as a direct result of a
user's interaction with a Web site.

Page view
Request to load a single HTML page.

Pay per click (PPC)
Online advertising payment model in which payment is based solely on qualifying click-throughs.

Pay per lead (PPL)
Online advertising payment model in which payment is based solely based on qualifying leads.

Pay per sale (PPS)
Online advertising payment model in which payment is based solely based on qualifying sales.

Pay-per-view
Since this is the prevalent type of ad buying arrangement at larger Websites, this term tends to be used only when comparing this most prevalent method with pay-per-click and other methods.

Performance pricing model
An advertising model in which advertisers pay based on a set of agreed upon performance.
criteria, such as a percentage of online revenues or delivery of new sales leads. See CPA, CPC,
CPL, CPO, CPS, CPT.


PII (Personally Identifiable Information)
Refers to information such as an individual’s name, mailing address, phone number or e-mail
address.

Pop-up ad
An ad that displays in a new browser window.

Pop-under ad
An ad that displays in a new browser window behind the current browser window.

Portal
A web page that works as a starting point for a user's session on the Internet. Portals typically
include a directory of websites, access to web services and shopping sites, and search functionality powered by a search engine provider. Example of portals are AOL, Netscape, CompuServe, and EarthLink.

Pay per click search engine
Search engine where results are ranked according to the bid amount, and advertisers are charged when a searcher clicks on the search listing.

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.

Pixel
Picture element (single illuminated dot) on a computer monitor.
The metric used to indicate the size of Internet ads.

Pop-up transitional
Initiates play in a separate ad window during the transition between content pages. Continues
while content is simultaneously being rendered. Depending primarily on line-speed, play of a
transitional ad may finish before or after content rendering is completed.

Portal
A Web site that often serves as a starting point for a Web user’s session. It typically provides
services such as search, directory of Web sites, news, weather, e-mail, homepage space, stock
quotes, sports news, entertainment, telephone directory information, area maps, and chat or
message boards.

Proxy Server
A server that sits between a client application, such as a web browser, and a real server.
It intercepts all requests to the real server to see if it can fulfill the requests itself. If not, it
forwards the request to the real server.

Psychographics
Subjective information about a population of World Wide Web viewers, such as
propensity towards sports, arts, or business. Includes personality characteristics.

Push
A tool that sends automatically sends information to a web user. The delivery ("pushing
of") information that is initiated by the server rather than being requested by the user
("pulled"). Examples would be PointCast, BackWeb, and Marimba.

Paid placement
Guaranteed listing with high ranking among search results, usually in
relation to specified keywords. Paid placement programs are typically based on CPC
or CPM pricing, with higher overall costs than paid inclusion. Also known as pay-for placement.

Paid inclusion
Guaranteed inclusion on a search engine's results in exchange for payment, without any guarantee of how high the listing will appear. A paid inclusion appears to the user as an editorial listing rather than as a sponsored link. Paid inclusion pricing is typically based on a flat fee or index fee.

Public service ad (PSA)
PSAs are non-profit organization ads that are served to pages when targeted ads are unavailable. Publishers do not receive earnings for clicks made on PSAs.

Postroll
Form of online video ad placement where the advertisement is played after the content video plays. See Preroll and Midroll.

Pre-caching
Storing advertising or content in a computer's RAM or hard disk memory before it is displayed on the user's
screen, rather than at the time that it plays, to reduce delays in rendering. See cache, caching.

Preroll
Form of online video ad placement where the advertisement is played before the content video
plays. See Postroll and Midroll.


Profiling
the practice of tracking information about consumers' interests by monitoring their movements
online. This can be done without using any personal information, but simply by analyzing the
content, URL’s, and other information about a user’s browsing path/click-stream.

Push advertising -
Pro-active, partial screen, dynamic advertisement which comes in various formats.

PIT (Page Information Transfer)
The successful text transfer of a Web page to a browser.


Q
Query
A request for information, usually to a search engine or a database. The user types in words or topics, and the search engine returns matching results from its database. A query is at the center of every search engine interaction.


R
Rectangle ad
Any one of the large, rectangular banner sizes suggested by the IAB.

Rate card
Document detailing prices for various ad placement options.

Re-direct
When used in reference to online advertising, one server assigning an ad-serving or ad-targeting
function to another server, often operated by a third company. For instance, a Web publisher's ad management server might re-direct to a third-party hired by an advertiser to distribute its ads to target customers; and then another re-direct to a "rich media" provider might also occur ifstreaming video were involved before the ad is finally delivered to the consumer. In some cases, the process of re-directs can produce latency. See ad serving, latency.

Reach
1) Unique users that visited the site over the course of the reporting period, expressed as a
percent of the universe for the demographic category; also called unduplicated audience;
2) The total number of unique users who will be served a given ad.

Real time
Events that happen “live” at a particular moment. When one chats in a chat room, or sends an
instant message, one is interacting in real time.

Referral link
The referring page, or referral link is a place from which the user clicked to get to the current page.In other words, since a hyperlink connects one URL to another, in clicking on a link the browser moves from the referring URL to the destination URL. Also known as source of a visit.

Referral fees
Fees paid by advertisers for delivering a qualified sales lead or purchase inquiry.

Return visits
The average number of times a user returns to a site over a specific time period.

Run-of-network (RON)
Ad buying option in which ad placements may appear on any pages on any sites within an ad network.

Run-of-site (ROS)
Ad buying option in which ad placements may appear on any pages on same site.

Roadblock
Inventory blocked by a particular ad for a short period of time (1 to 3 days).

ROI
ROI (return on investment) is "the bottom line" on how successful an ad or campaign was in terms of what the returns (generally sales revenue) were for the money invested.

Rich media ads
Rich media advertisements are banners (or popups, skyscrapers, interstitials, etc.) which are constructed
using dynamic tools such as Flash, html forms, Java, ASP, Shockwave, Javascript, or other languages or applications that increase the appearance and/or functionality of the ad beyond that which can be achieved with a static or animated image.

Referrer
URL of an HTML page that refers to your Web site.

Robots
Also knows as spiders or web crawlers. Robots search the web to scan and collect documents to be accessed on search engines.

Reciprocal links
Links between two Websites based on an agreement between the two owners.

RSS
Rich Site Summary or Real Simple Syndication; means of distributing dynamic
content to subscribers via an XML (Extensible Markup Language) format rather than email.

Remnant inventory
Low-cost advertising space that is relatively undesirable or otherwise unsold.

Repeat visitor
A unique visitor who has accessed a website more than once over a specific time period.

Rep Firm
Ad sales partner specializing primarily in single-site sales.

RPM (Revenue per thousand page views)
The sum total of all ad placements on a single page. For example, if you had three ads on a web page,
each selling for a $5 CPM, your RPM would equal $15.

302 Redirect
The process of a server sending a browser the location of a requested ad, rather than sending the
ad itself. Ad servers use 302 redirects to allow them to track activities such as ad requests or ad
clicks

ROC

Run of category (ROC) means a banner will appear anywhere within a category on a web site or ad network. More targeted than a run of site (ROS) campaign where the banner would appear randomly on any page of the site.


S
Sample
A subset of a universe whose properties are studied to gain information about that universe.

Sampling frame
The source from which the sample is drawn.

Scripts
Files that initiate routines like generating Web pages dynamically in response to user input.

Site stickiness
The amount of time spent at a site over a given time period.

Surround session
Advertising sequence in which a visitor receives ads from one
advertiser throughout an entire site visit.

Self-serve advertising
Advertising that can be purchased without the assistance of a sales representative.

Shopping bots
Software programs that help Web users search for and compare specific products across multiple
Websites; also called bots, intelligent agents.

Search Engine
Helps users locate information on the Internet by searching for keywords or phrases. Indexes are
developed from resource lists or created by robots, spiders, crawlers or agents.

Search engine marketing (SEM)-
A form of Internet Marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in the
Search Engine result pages.

Sell-through rate
The percentage of ad inventory sold as opposed to traded or bartered.

Server
A computer which distributes files which are shared across a LAN, WAN or the Internet. Also
known as a "host".

Server centric measurement
Audience measurement derived from server logs.

Server-initiated ad impression
One of the two methods used for ad counting. Ad content is delivered to the user via two methods server-initiated and client-initiated. Server-initiated ad counting uses the publisher’s Web content server for making requests, formatting and re-directing content. For organizations using a server-initiated ad counting method, counting should occur subsequent to the ad response at
either the publisher's ad server or the Web content server, or later in the process. See client initiatedad impression.

Server pull
A process whereby a user's browser maintains an automated or customized connection or profile
with a Web server. The browser usually sets up a unique request that is recorded and stored
electronically for future reference. Examples are: requests for the automated delivery of e-mail
newsletters, the request for Web content based on a specific search criteria determined by the
user, or setting up a personalized Web page that customizes the information delivered to the user based on pre-determined self selections.

Server push
A process whereby a server maintains an open connection with a browser after the initial request
for a page. Through this open connection the server continues to provide updated pages and
content even though the visitor has made no further direct requests for such information.

Session
1) A sequence of Internet activity made by one user at one site. If a user makes no request from a site during a 30 minute period of time, the next content or ad request would then constitute the beginning of a new visit;
2) A series of transactions performed by a user that can be tracked across successive Web sites. For example, in a single session, a user may start on a publisher's
Web site, click on an advertisement and then go to an advertiser's Web site and make a
purchase. See visit.

Session cookies
These are temporary and are erased when the browser exits at the end of a web surfing session.
See cookie.


Search Engine optimization
Tactics and techniques that make it easier for spiders or web crawlers to find your page, contributing to higher ranking on a list of search engine results. Basic optimization starts with listing relevant keywords in your metatags and building clear and descriptive words into page copy, title, text hyperlinks, and image file names. It's also important to design your site on a logical link structure and follow standard HTML conventions, avoiding the use of frames, dynamic URLs, Image Maps, and JavaScript for navigation.

Search engine submission
The act of supplying a URL to a search engine in an attempt to make a search engine aware of a site or page.

Search Referrer
The search referrer is an internal or external referrer for which the URL has been generated by a search function.

Site search
Search functionality specific to one site.

SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language)
The parent language for HTML.

Shockwave
A browser plug-in developed by Macromedia (now part of Adobe) which allows multimedia objectsto appear on the Web (animation, audio and video).

Shopping bot
Intelligent agent which searches for the best price.

Skins
Customized and interchangeable sets of graphics, which allow Internet users to continually
change the look of their desktops or browsers, without changing their settings or functionality.
Skins are a type of marketing tool.

Site-centric measurement
Audience measurement derived from a Web site's own server logs.

Splash page
A branding page before the home page of a Web site. 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: 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.

Sponsor
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.

SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol)
The protocol used to transfer e-mail.

Sponsorship
Advertising that seeks to establish a deeper association and integration between an advertiser and a publisher, often involving coordinated beyond-the-banner placements. 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.

Shopping cart
Software used to make a site's product catalogue available for online ordering, whereby visitors
may select, view, add/delete, and purchase merchandise.

Skyscraper, skyscraper ad, skyscraper banner
A common banner ad format. Skyscraper ads are most commonly 120x600 pixels, although a
relatively new variation on the theme, the wide skyscraper, is gaining ground. These are 160x600.

Server Error
An error occurring at the server. Web server errors have codes in the 500 range.

Scalability
Ability of a system to adapt to increased demands. The elimination of all points of pressure where a system could break down.

Syndication
An option that allows you to extend your reach by distributing ads to additional partner sites.

Shoskeles
An animated ad that moves across the browser, usually with sound effects. It animates only long
enough to play a message before settling into a stationary ad on the page.

Social marketing
Marketing tactic that taps into the growth of social networks, encouraging users to adopt and pass along widgets or other content modules created by a brand, or to add a brand to the user’s social circle of friends.

Social network
An online destination that gives users a chance to connect with one or more groups of friends,
facilitating sharing of content, news, and information among them. Examples of social networks
include Facebook and LinkedIn.

Space
Location on a page of a site in which an ad can be placed. Each space on a site is uniquely
identified. There can be multiple spaces on a single page.

Software Developer Kit (SDK)
Targeted marketing messages embedded within software applications. This medium offers precise targeting capabilities to a very high-tech savvy audience, and the ability to reach consumers on or off the Internet.

Spam
Unsolicited email.

Sniffer
Software that detects capabilities of the user's browser (looking for such things as Java capabilities,
plug-ins, screen resolution, and bandwidth).

Static Ad
A fixed ad unit that remains on a page and does not rotate throughout the site.

Split-Run
The testing process of sending the same advertisement to two or more groups with different headlines or copy to
determine effectiveness of each


Shoskeles
An animated ad that moves across the browser, usually with sound effects. It animates only long
enough to play a message before settling into a stationary ad on the page.

Social marketing
Marketing tactic that taps into the growth of social networks, encouraging users to adopt and pass
along widgets or other content modules created by a brand, or to add a brand to the user’s social
circle of friends.

Social network
An online destination that gives users a chance to connect with one or more groups of friends,
facilitating sharing of content, news, and information among them. Examples of social networks
include Facebook and LinkedIn.

Space
Location on a page of a site in which an ad can be placed. Each space on a site is uniquely
identified. There can be multiple spaces on a single page.

Software Developer Kit (SDK)
Targeted marketing messages embedded within software applications. This medium offers precise targeting capabilities to a very high-tech savvy audience, and the ability to reach consumers on or off the Internet.

Spam
Unsolicited email.

Sniffer
Software that detects capabilities of the user's browser (looking for such things as Java capabilities, plug-ins, screen resolution, and bandwidth).

Static Ad
A fixed ad unit that remains on a page and does not rotate throughout the site.

Split-Run
The testing process of sending the same advertisement to two or more groups with different headlines or copy to determine effectiveness of each


Streaming Media
A technique that allows audio and visual files to run and does not require that a file be
downloaded before the user can see or hear the content. Streaming media improves
the users' experience in viewing rich media.

Spider
A program that automatically fetches web pages and feeds them to search
engines. Because most web pages contain links to and from other pages, a spider can
start almost anywhere. As soon as it recognizes a link to another page, it goes off and
fetches it. Large search engines have many spiders working simultaneously. Also
known as a crawler.

Share of voice
A relative portion of inventory available to a single advertiser within a defined market sector over a specified time period.

Static ad placement/Static rotation
Ads that remain on a Web page for a specified period of time; 2) embedded ads.

Stickiness
A measure used to gauge the effectiveness of a site in retaining individual users. Stickiness is
usually measured by the duration of the visit.

Superstitials®
An interstitial format developed by Unicast which is fully pre-cached before playing. Specs are
550 x 480 pixels (2/3 of screen), up to 100K file size and up to 20 seconds in length.

Surfing
Exploring the World Wide Web.

SERP

Stands for "Search Engine Results Page", the page of site listings that a search engine returns in response to
a user’s entry of a search query.

SSL

An SSL certificate is an electronic key that will ensure an online transaction is secure.


T
Target audience
The intended audience for an ad, usually defined in terms of specific demographics (age, sex,
income, etc.) product purchase behavior, product usage or media usage.

Title tag
HTML tag used to define the text in the top line of a Web browser, also used by
many search engines as the title of search listings.

Targeting, ad targeting, targeted, targeted ads
Targeting refers to the means by which advertisers attempt to reach a desired audience through choice of category (in an ad network), choice of web site, choice of demographic, geographic location, or whateverother criteria the advertiser finds interesting. Targeted ads command higher CPM rates than non-targeted ads, with the most finely targeted, site-specific, usually earning the highest rate.

Traffic
Traffic refers to the rate at which a site is visited. The term is general, but the best true measures of traffic are calculated in terms of unique visitors and page views.

Text ad
Advertisement using text-based hyperlinks. An ad designed for text delivery, with concise, action-oriented
copy and a link to your website. Because they are not accompanied by graphics, text links are easy to create and improve page download time. Also known as a sponsored link.

Tracking
Online advertising opens the opportunity to track audience response throughout the life of your
campaign. Tracking and reporting tools can help you learn as you go, so you can refine your ad creative, placement options, and spending levels if you're not seeing the results you expect. The publisher of your ads typically will provide reports on ad impressions and clickthrough. For additional analysis of your traffic and actual customer conversion rates, you'll need to build tracking mechanisms into your website.

Third-party ad server
Independent outsourced companies that specialize in managing, maintaining, serving, tracking,
and analyzing the results of online ad campaigns. They deliver targeted advertising that can be
tailored to consumers' declared or predicted characteristics or preferences.


Throughput
The amount of data transmitted through Internet connectors in response to a given request.

Token
Tracer or tag which is attached by the receiving server to the address (URL) of a page requested
by a user. A token lasts only through a continuous series of requests by a user, regardless of the
length of the interval between requests. Tokens can be used to count unique users.

Transfer
The successful response to a page request; also when a browser receives a complete page of
content from a Web server.

Transitional ad
An ad that is displayed between Web pages. In other words, the user sees an advertisement as
he/she navigates between page ‘a’ and page ‘b.’ Also known as an interstitial.

Transitional pop up
An ad that pops up in a separate ad window between content pages.

Triggers
A command from the host server that notifies the viewer's set-top box that interactive content is available at
this point. The viewer is notified about the available interactive content via an icon or clickable text.
Once clicked by using the remote control, the trigger disappears and more content or a new interface appears
on the TV screen.

Trick banner

A banner ad that looks like a dialog box with buttons. It simulates an error message or an alert.

Trap Door
A trap door is a type of banner advertisement that leads to a page that does not easily allow the visitor to return to
the previous page the banner was on. This is accomplished by using a meta refresh tag set to 0 on the destination
page immediately sending them to another page or launching a browser windows that has hidden the browsers back button.

TrustRank
Search relevancy algorithm which places additional weighting on links from trusted websites that are controlled by
major corporations, educational institutions, or governmental institutions.


U
Underdelivery
Delivery of less impressions, visitors, or conversions than contracted for a
specified period of time.

Unique users, unique visitors, unique, unique impressions
Unique users refers the the number of distinct individuals, as determined by IP address, user login,
cookie, or some combination thereof, who visit a web site or view a banner ad. Most ad networks favor
sites which generate a large number of unique impressions over sites whose users view large numbers
of pages. A typical ad network will often not show more than five or six individual ads of any one type to
a single user in a single browser session.

User Session
A session of activity (all hits) for one user of a web site. A unique user is determined by the
IP address or cookie. By default, a user session is terminated when a user is inactive for
more than 30 minutes. See General Web Log Analyzer Settings on page 156 for
instructions on how to change the default setting. Synonym: Visit.

URL (Uniform Resource Locator)
The unique identifying address of any particular page on the Web. It contains all the information
required to locate a resource, including its protocol (usually HTTP), server domain name (or IP
address), file path (directory and name) and format (usually HTML or CGI).

URL tagging
The process of embedding unique identifiers into URLs contained in HTML content. These
identifiers are recognized by Web servers on subsequent browser requests. Identifying visitors
through information in the URLs should also allow for an acceptable calculation of visits, if
caching is avoided.

Usenet
Internet bulletin-board application.

User
An individual with access to the World Wide Web.

User agent string
A field in a server log file which identifies the specific browser software and computer operating
system making the request.

User centric measurement
Web audience measurement based on the behavior of a sample of Web users.


V
Vertical banner
A banner ad measuring 120 pixels wide and 240 pixels tall.

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.

Visits
The number of distinct visits to a web site within a specified time period, such as one day or one month. Visits
are an imprecise term and numbers may vary considerably depending on the type of calculation used, but many
log and statistical applications define a visit as a single browser session by a single IP address. Multiple browser
sessions by the same visitor will often be counted as a single visit if the time frame within which they occur is short.

Viral Marketing
A marketing strategy that works by users passing marketing messages on to their friends.

Visit Length
Also known as visit time, the length of time, as measured by log files that a viewer spends
on a particular page or website

Visitor
A user who access a website as identified by user registration data, a cookie, Unique URL
tagging or unique IP addresses.

Viral video
Online video clips (typically short and humorous) passed via links from one person to another.

Visit duration
The length of time the visitor is exposed to a specific ad, Web page or Web site during a single session.

VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language)
Programming language designed to be a 3D analog to HTML.

Video Ad Experience
A term used to describe where the source of the video advertising experience is coming from.


W
Web browser
A software application that allows for the browsing of the World Wide Web.

Web site usability
The ease with which visitors are able to use a Web site.

Web hosting
The business of providing the storage, connectivity, and services necessary to serve files for a website.

WAP (Wireless Application Protocol)
A communications protocol that wireless devices, such as cellular phones, use for Internet access.

Web Server
A computer that stores and serves information for access on the World Wide Web.

Web beacon
A line of code which is used by a Web site or third party ad server to track a user’s activity, such
as a registration or conversion. A Web beacon is often invisible because it is only 1 x 1 pixel in
size with no color. Also known as Web bug, 1 by 1 GIF, invisible GIF and tracker GIF.

Webcasting
Real-time or pre-recorded delivery of a live event’s audio, video, or animation over the Internet.

Wi-Fi
Any of a family of wireless LAN data standards (IEEE 802.11) used fairly ubiquitously for
corporate and home connectivity. Also available as “hotspots” in public areas such as cafes and
airport terminals, either for free or for a one-time use charge or subscription fee.

WIMAX
A wireless WAN standard (IEEE 802.16) designed to provide portable (eventually mobile) wireless broadband
access. Single WIMAX antennas can provide coverage over large physical areas, making deployment potentially
very cost effective. Although not widely available as of 2007, sometimes considered a potential competitor to
cable modems and DSL for residential broadband.

Webmercials
Full screen animated ads accompanied by professional voice over and sound effects. Usually appear between
web pages for 5-30 seconds and used for branding purposes.


White hat
A term coined in the search engine optimisation industry to describe ethical SEO tactics. Search engines
consider certain marketing techniques deceptive in nature, and label them as black hat SEO. Those which
are considered within their guidelines are called white hat SEO techniques.


X
XML (eXtensible Markup Language)
A richer more dynamic successor to HTML utilizing SGML or HTML type tags to structure information.
XLM is used for transferring data and creating applications on the Web. See SGML and HTML.


Y
Yield
In the context of banner ads, yield indicates the percentage of clicks divided by impressions for an ad
on a given page (see click-through rate).