Online Advertising Terminology

(Source:IAB)

Click-through
The action of following a hyperlink within an advertisement or editorial content to another website or another page or frame within the website.

Click-through rate (CTR)
The percentage of visitors exposed to a banner advertisement who clicked on the banner and were then exposed to the target advertisement (the relative effectiveness of the banner advertisement, the percentage of total impressions: clicks/impressions).

Cookie
A file on the user’s browser that uniquely identifies it. In web advertising, cookies can be used to track website visitors.

Cost-Per-Thousand (CPM)
Media term describing the cost of 1 000 impressions.

Cost-Per-Transaction (CPT)
Cost of advertising based on the number of transactions.

Frames
Multiple, independent sections used to create a single web page. Each frame is built as a separate HTML file but with one "master" file to control the placement of each section.

HTML (HyperText Markup Language)
A set of codes called markup tags in a plain text file that determine what information is retrieved and how it is rendered by a browser. An HTML page is a document stored in a directory on a web server and/or created dynamically at the time of the request for the purpose of satisfying that request. In addition to text, an HTML page may include graphics, video, audio and other files.

HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol)
The format most commonly used to transfer documents on the World Wide Web.

Page impression
A measurement of the responses from a web server to a page request from the user browser, with robotic activity and error codes filtered out, and being recorded at a point as close as possible to the opportunity afforded to the user to see the page. One of the three terms used to determine the popularity of a web service in relation to others. The other two are ‘Unique visitor’ and ‘Visit’.

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, 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 websites. For example, in a single session, a user may begin on a publisher's website, click on an advertisement and then go to an advertiser's website and make a purchase.

Visit
A measurement which has been filtered for robotic activity of one or more text and/or graphics downloads from a site without 30 consecutive minutes of inactivity and which can be reasonably attributed to a single browser for a single session. One of the three terms used to determine the popularity of a web service in relation to others. The other two are ‘Unique visitor’ and ‘Page impression’.

Unique visitor
An individual or browser which accesses a website within a specific time period (usually a week). For certain campaigns, it is possible to measure the number of unique visitors on the campaign website (net number of visitors). One of the three terms used to determine the popularity of a web service in relation to others. The other two are ‘Visit’ and ‘Page impression’.

URL (Uniform Resource Locator)
The unique identifying address of any particular page on the web.