Glossary of Internet Advertising Terms

Ad Clicks	Number of times users click on an ad banner.

Ad Click Rate	Sometimes referred to as "click-through," this is the
		percentage of ad views that resulted in an ad click.

Ad Views (Impressions)	Number of times an ad banner is downloaded and
		presumably seen by visitors. If the same ad appears on
		multiple pages simultaneously, this statistic may 
		understate the number of ad impressions, due to browser
		caching. Corresponds to net impressions in traditional
		media. There is currently no way of knowing if an ad 
		was actually loaded. Most servers record an ad as 
		served even if it was not.

B2B		B2B stands for "business-to-business," as in businesses
		doing business with other businesses. The term is most
		commonly used in connection with e-commerce and 
		advertising, when you are targeting businesses as 
		opposed to consumers.

Banner		An ad on a Web page that is usually "hot-linked" to the
		advertiser's site.

Browser Caching	To speed surfing, browsers store recently used pages on
		a user's disk. If a site is revisited, browsers display
		pages from the disk instead of requesting them from the
		server. As a result, servers under-count the number of
		times a page is viewed.

Button		Button is the term used to reflect an Internet 
		advertisement smaller than the traditional banner. 
		Buttons are square in shape and usually located down the
		left or right side of the site.
 
Click through 	The percentage of ad views that resulted in an ad click.
 
CPC 		Cost-per-click is an Internet marketing formula used to
		price ad banners. Advertisers will pay Internet 
		publishers based on the number of clicks a specific ad
		banner gets. Cost usually runs in the range of 
		$.01 - $20 per click.
 
CPM 		CPM is the cost per thousand for a particular site. A 
		Website that charges $15,000 per banner and guarantees
		600,000	impressions has a CPM of $25 ($15,000 divided 
		by 600).

Domain Name 	The unique name of an Internet site; for example 
		www.cyberatlas.com. There are six top-level domains 
		widely used in the US: .com (commercial) 
		.edu (educational),.net (network operations), 
		.gov (US government),.mil (US military) and .org 
		(organization). Other, two letter domains represent 
		countries; thus; .uk for the United Kingdom and so on.

Hit 		Each time a Web server sends a file to a browser, it
		is recorded in the server log file as a "hit". Hits are 
		generated for every element of a requested page 
		(including graphics, text and interactive items). If a
		page containing two graphics is viewed by a user, three 
		hits will be recorded - one for the page itself and one
		for each graphic. Webmasters use hits to measure their 
		server's workload. Because page designs vary greatly, 
		hits are a poor guide for traffic measurement.

HTML 		HyperText Markup Language is a coding language used to 
		make hypertext documents for use on the Web. HTML 
		resembles old-fashioned typesetting code, where a block
		of text is surrounded by codes that indicate how it 
		should appear. HTML allows text to be "linked" to another
		file on the Internet. 

Hypertext 	Any text that can be chosen by a reader and which causes
		another document to be retrieved and displayed. 

IAB 		IAB stands for the Interactive Advertising Bureau. The 
		IAB is a global nonprofit association devoted exclusively
		to maximizing the use and effectiveness of advertising
		on the Internet. The IAB sponsors research and events
		related to the Internet advertising industry. 

Interstitial 	Meaning in between, an advertisement that appears in a 
		separate browser window while you wait for a Web page 
		to load. Interstitials are more likely to contain large
		graphics, streaming presentations, and applets than
		conventional banner ads, and some studies have found 
		that more users click on interstitials than on banner
		ads. Some users, however, have complained that 
		interstitials slow access to destination pages. 

Java 		Java is a general purpose programming language with a
		number of features that make the language well suited 
		for use on the World Wide Web. Small Java applications
		are called Java applets and can be downloaded from a Web 
		server and run on your computer by a Java-compatible Web
		browser, such as Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet 
		Explorer. 

Jump Page 	A jump page, also known as a "splash page" or 
		“landing page” is a special page set up for visitors who 
		clicked on a link in an advertisement. For example, by 
		clicking on an ad for Site X, visitors go to a page in
		Site X that continues the message used in the advertising
		creative. The jump page can be used to promote special
		offers or to measure the response to an advertisement. 

Link 		An electronic connection between two Web sites (also 
		called "hot link"). 
		
Opt-in e-mail 	Opt-in email lists are lists where Internet users have
		voluntarily signed up to receive commercial e-mail about
		topics of interest.
 
Page Views 	Number of times a user requests a page that may contain
		a particular ad. Indicative of the number of times an ad
		was potentially seen, or "gross impressions." Page views
		may overstate ad impressions if users choose to turn off
		graphics (done to speed browsing). 

Pixel		Short for Picture Element, a pixel is a single point in a
		graphic image. Graphics monitors display pictures by
		dividing the display screen into thousands (or millions)
		of pixels, arranged in rows and columns. The pixels are so
		close together that they appear connected.

Rich Media 	Rich Media is a term for advanced technology used in
		Internet ads, such as streaming video, applets that allow
		user interaction, and special effects. 

ROI 		ROI stands for "return on investment," one of the great
		mysteries of online advertising, and indeed, advertising
		in general. ROI is trying to find out what the end result
		of the expenditure (in this case, an ad campaign) is. Alot
		depends on the goal of the campaign, building brand 
		awareness, increasing sales, etc. Early attempts at 
		determining ROI in Internet advertising relied heavily on
		the click-rate of an ad.
 
Splash page 	See jump page. 

Sponsorship 	Sponsorships are increasing in popularity on the Internet.
		A sponsorship is when an advertiser pays to sponsor content,
		usually a section of Web site or an e-mail newsletter. In
		the case of a site, the sponsorship may include banners or 
		buttons on the site, and possibly a tag line. 

Sticky 		"Sticky" sites are those where the visitors stay for an 
		extended period of time. For instance, a banking site that
		offers a financial calculator is stickier than one that 
		doesn't because visitors do not have to leave to find a
		resource they need.
 
Unique Users 	The number of different individuals who visit a site within
		a specific time period. To identify unique users, Web sites
		rely on some form of user registration or identification 
		system. 

Visits 		A sequence of requests made by one user at one site. If a 
		visitor does not request any new information for a period of
		time, known as the "time-out" period, then the next request 
		by the visitor is considered a new visit.