There was a time, long ago, when TV was easy to define. It was the “box” that governed how people arranged their furniture and schedules. While it was arguably the center of our world, it also had its limitations – from what it could do (other than turn on and off, not much), to the channels and programming we could watch.
Fast forward to today: TV has been reinvented and redefined. No longer bound by time, platforms, locations, or devices, we the people are now in control. “TV” has evolved into a limitless pool of content, available to us anytime, anyplace, anywhere – across platforms and screens. For viewers, it’s a dream.
And for advertisers, it offers powerful and unrivaled ways to reach and engage with those audiences across linear, CTV, and digital video. Like with any fast-moving, fragmenting space, definitions change and new words and acronyms emerge, depending on where you sit in the ecosystem (or the world).
At Innovid, we are in a unique position, working across the global TV ecosystem, including publishers, MVPDs, DSPs, data providers, agencies, and thousands of brands. We know this space and we know how the plethora of terms are used by our many partners in it.
The following is Innovid’s glossary of terms that span converged TV. We hope this glossary makes the myriad acronyms and industry jargon more manageable and understandable. Note that as this fast-moving sector continues to change, we will be updating this glossary regularly.
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Above the Fold Rate: Rate of impressions where the viewability code ran successfully and was able to measure when the ad was above the fold or not.
Activity Rate: Number of interactions within an ad unit.
Ad Creative Pixel: A pixel request embedded in an ad tag, which calls a web server for the purpose of tracking that a user has viewed a particular ad.
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 Exchange: A sales channel between publishers and ad networks that can also provide aggregated inventory to advertisers. They provide a technology platform that facilitates automated auction-based pricing and buying in real-time.
Ad Impression: The count of ads that are served to a user. Ads can be requested by the user’s browser (referred to as pulled ads) or they can be pushed, such as e-mailed ads. In a formal sense, ad impressions are a measurement of responses from an ad delivery system to an ad request from the user’s browser, which is filtered for robotic activity and is recorded at a point as late as possible in the process of delivery of the creative material to the user’s browser – therefore closest to the actual opportunity to be seen by the user.
Ad Insertion: When an ad is inserted in a document and recorded by the ad server.
Ad Network: An aggregation of ad supply from publishers that is matched with advertiser demand. Ad networks pool inventory of unsold ads from publishers and sell them to advertisers. Their ad servers then power ad targeting, tracking, and reporting.
Ad Occurrence Data: Sometimes called “as-run logs,” ad occurrence data is an audit of what spot ran, where it ran, and at what time. The file typically consists of asset ID, market, channel, and time-stamp information.
Ad Ops: The team/function that is responsible for trafficking and optimizing digital ad campaigns.
Ad Recall: A measure 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 Server: An ad server is a technology that stores digital ads and delivers them across channels and devices as needed. Publishers, agencies, and brands all use ad servers to manage, deliver, and measure digital ads. The modern ad server is a one-stop-shop for ad management solutions, uploading creatives, defining delivery parameters, implementing creative strategies, tracking your performance, and gaining advanced insights and measurement. Today's ad servers are data-driven juggernauts and critical technology. Brand and agency professionals increasingly rely on their data-driven ad servers to boost ad performance, increase ROI, and deliver a unified view of total marketing efforts.
Ad Tag: Software code that an advertiser provides to a publisher or ad network that calls the advertiser’s ad server for the purposes of displaying an advertisement.
Ad Targeting: Delivering an ad to the appropriate audience. This may be done using first-party and third-party data as well as via behavioral targeting, contextual targeting, or geographic targeting.
Ad Unit: An ad or set of ads displayed as a result of a piece of ad code executing.
Ad View: A single ad that appears on a web page when the page arrives on the viewer’s display. Ad views are what most websites sell or prefer to sell. A web page may offer space for a number of ad views. In general, the term “impression” is more commonly used.
Adjusted Unique Click-throughs: The estimated number of unique viewers who clicked through to a landing page (see Adjusted Unique Impressions definition).
Adjusted Unique impressions: The estimated number of unique viewers exposed to the campaign. This number is statistically calculated in order to overcome various forms of cookie deletion. Our algorithm simulates, according to different parameters, what the unique metric value would be if there were no cookie deleters/blockers.
Adstock: The measure of the prolonged or lagged effect of advertising on consumer purchase behavior is adstock.
Addressable: Based on predetermined “triggers” or definitions (geo, demo, behavioral, etc.), addressable is a method that delivers targeted TV ads to specific households or household segments. This type of content is delivered by MVPDs to pay TV, cable, satellite, and on-demand subscribers.
Advanced TV: A catch-all term for the improvements TV advertising has made across data, technology, and targeting. It encompasses all non-traditional TV, including OTT, CTV, addressable, and data-driven linear.
Advanced Creative: A premium ad format that includes dynamic and/or interactive components.
Aggregate Campaign Data: data combined from several advertising campaigns to create a segment where campaign-level data is not identifiable.
API (Application Programming Interface): A program that allows applications and systems to communicate with one another. Building an API connection allows Innovid to automatically communicate with data sets that might update in real-time. (Example: Sports scores or stock prices.)
Attribution: Tying ads back to performance-based metrics (also called outcomes), such as online/offline sales, web visits, app downloads. Attribution is increasingly incorporated into the definition of measurement.
Audience: The group of people who visit a specific website or who are reached by a specific ad network.
Audience Behavior: Audience behaviors that transcend race, age, and location are more likely to connect advertisers to a wider range of people who will use their products Information that can be used to target audience behaviors includes the total number of times they visit a website, the types of pages that they’re likely to visit, and the types of terms that they enter into internet search engines. This information can shed light on the way a person thinks.
Audience Measurement: The counting of unique users and their interaction with online content. At a campaign level, this service is conducted by a third-party to validate that a publisher delivered what an advertiser had requested. At the industry level, this service enables media buyers to understand which brokers of online content to negotiate with to reach a specific audience.
Audience Segment: A subgroup of consumers defined by an advertiser based on criteria such as product usage, demographics, psychographics, communication behaviors, and media use.
Audience Targeting: A method that enables advertisers to show an ad specifically to visitors based on their shared behavioral, demographic, geographic, and/or technographic attributes. Audience targeting uses anonymous, non-PII data.
Authenticated Audience: A group of audiences that has gone through a validation process. For example, this might be a user sign-in via a website or streaming service. For linear, this must be supplied by the MVPD that has the identifying information.
Auto Optimization: The term signifies if an ad is using Innovid’s automatic optimization feature which automatically adjusts ad rotation based on performance of either CTR or Completion Rate.
Auto-Play Impressions: The number of impressions that were deemed as auto-play by a publisher. Categorized by — Yes: the publisher indicated the impressions were auto-play events; No: the publisher indicated the impressions were not auto-play; and Unknown: the publisher did not provide the auto-play status.
Average Frequency: The number of times an average viewer was exposed to any of the campaign's ads. Calculated as: [Impressions] / [Unique Impressions]
Average View Time: The average amount of time a video ad was played by users.
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Banner: A graphic advertising image displayed on a web page also known as display ads, banner advertisements are a form of graphical ads embedded into a webpage, including a combination of static/animated images, text and/or video designed to convey a marketing message and/or cause the user to take an action.
Behavioral Event: A user-initiated action that may include, but is not limited to: searches, content views, clicks, purchases, and form-based information. They are generally anonymous and do not include PII.
Behavioral Targeting: Using previous online user activity (e.g., pages visited, content viewed, searches, clicks, and purchases) to generate a segment that is used to match advertising creative to users (sometimes also called behavioral profiling, interest-based advertising, or online behavioral advertising). Behavioral targeting uses anonymous, non-PII data.
Broadcast: The most common form of TV in the U.S. Traditional broadcast channels use free public airwaves to air programs to any TV set. The broadcast networks themselves are increasingly airing their programs across streaming apps and platforms as well.
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Cable: Channels that do not use free public airwaves. Viewers are charged a subscription fee to see these channels that have traditionally been delivered via a cable.
Call to Action (CTA): Creative messaging that drives viewers to take an action; examples include “call now,” “download now,” or “visit our website.”
Campaign: A series of ad messages that share a single idea and theme. In digital advertising, a campaign can also refer to a set of ad buys from a specific ad network or publisher. It can also encompass the advertising period in which an ad delivery strategy is executed.
Click-Stream Data: The recording of what a computer user clicks on while web browsing. The action is logged on a client or inside the web server, as well as possibly the web browser and ad servers. Analysis can be used to create a user profile that aids in understanding the types of people that visit a company’s website, or predict whether a customer is likely to make a purchase.
Click Through: The measurement of a user clicking on a link that redirects the user’s web-enabled device to another web destination, a click through is what the sponsoring site counts as a result of an ad click. In practice, click and click-through tend to be used interchangeably. However, a click-through implies that the user actually went to the page.
Click-Through Rate (CTR): The percentage of ad impressions that resulted in a click through to a new web page. It’s a measurement of the success of a digital ad campaign. It’s calculated by looking at the ratio of action to exposure, or [click throughs]/[impressions].
Completes: A term that refers to whether a video played to completion.
Completion Rate (VCR): The percentage of impressions for which 100% of the ad duration was viewed, specific to video. Calculated as [100% Completion] / [Impressions].
Connected TV (CTV): CTV is a TV that connects to the internet and can include smart TVs, devices, and gaming consoles.
Contextual Ads: Contextual ad engines deliver text and image ads to non-search content pages. Ads are matched to keywords extracted from content.
Contextual Targeting: Targeting content that deals with specific topics, as determined by a contextual scanning technology.
Control Group: The collection of consumers who were not exposed to an ad. Their actions are then compared to the exposed group – the group that did see the ad – and the difference between the two groups should show the effectiveness of the ad campaign.
Conversion: When a user performs the specific action that the advertiser has defined as the campaign goal. Conversions are often tracked by a web beacon, called a conversion pixel.
Conversion Pixel: A specific type of web beacon that is triggered to indicate that a user has successfully completed a specific action. This user action is considered a conversion.
Conversion Rate: The percentage of users who complete a desired action compared to all users who were exposed to an online ad.
Cookie: A small data file stored on a user's computer by a web browser. It can also be used to remember information that a user previously entered, such as names and credit card numbers. Cookies have been under scrutiny from a privacy and security perspective, and Google is activating its plans to phase out the cookie.
Cost Per Action/Acquisition (CPA): Cost of advertising based on a visitor taking some specifically defined action in response to an ad..
Cost Per Click (CPC): The cost of advertising based on the number of clicks received.
Cost Per Completed View (CPCV): The price an advertiser pays every time a video ad runs through to completion. Rather than paying for all impressions, some of which may have been stopped before completion, an advertiser only pays for ads that finished (CPCV = cost ÷ completed views).
Cost Per Customer (CPC): The cost an advertiser pays to acquire a customer.
Cost Per Download (CPD): The price an advertiser pays every time a desired download occurs via an ad unit. Rather than paying for all impressions, an advertiser only pays when the desired outcome occurs [CPD = cost ÷ download].
Cost Per Engagement (CPE): The price an advertiser pays every time a consumer interacts with a rich media ad unit. Rather than paying for all impressions, an advertiser only pays when the desired interaction occurs [CPE = cost ÷ engagement].
Cost Per Lead (CPL): Cost of advertising based on the number of leads received.
Cost Per Mille (CPM): A media term describing the cost of 1,000 impressions, it is an industry standard measure for selling ads on websites. For example, a website that charges $1,500 per ad and reports 100,000 impressions has a CPM of $15 ($1,500 divided by 100).
Cost Per Order (CPO): Cost of advertising based on the number of orders received. Also called cost-per-transaction.
Cost Per Point (CPP): A pricing model based on the cost of a campaign divided by each full percentage rating point of a targeted demographic that the campaign successfully reaches.
Cost Per Sale (CPS): This is an advertiser’s cost to generate one sales transaction. Sites that sell products directly from their website or can otherwise determine sales generated as the result of an advertising sales lead can calculate the CPS of advertising. If this is being used in conjunction with a media buy, a cookie can be offered and read on the advertiser’s site after the successful completion of an online sale.
Cost Per Unique Visitor: The total cost of the placement or application, divided by the number of unique visitors.
Cost Per View (CPV): A pricing model where the advertiser only pays for a video start.
Cost Per Viewable Impression: A pricing model where the advertiser only pays for video ad impressions that are considered “viewable” based upon MRC and IAB viewability guidelines.
CPX Pricing: How media is bought on a cost per basis. The x is replaced by “m” (CPM) to refer to cost per thousand, “c” (CPC) for cost per click, or “a” for (CPA) cost per action.
Creative: An advertising unit created by an ad designer, in accordance with publisher specifications and guidelines, for the purpose of communicating a marketing message to that publisher’s audience.
Creative Optimization: The automated process of selecting the best-performing creative or creative elements for a specific KPI and increasing the distribution of that particular version or element.
Creative Retargeting: A method that enables advertisers to show an ad specifically to visitors who previously were exposed to or interacted with the advertisers’ creative.
Cross-Channel: The measurement of TV ads served across linear, CTV, digital channels, including all traditional and programmatic inventory.
Cross-Device Targeting: Targeting that maps users across devices and optimizes ad-serving video strategies.
Cross-Platform: Ad measurement across all forms of content delivery, including publisher platforms, apps, STBs, TV manufacturers, and other inventory sources that enable advertisers to quantify incremental reach, and determine who to effectively find and reach the right audience to drive KPIs, including sales, brand lift, and offline outcomes.
Cross-Screen: The ability to track and measure viewing across all screens — from smart TVs to laptops to mobile devices.
Cross-Site Analytics: Statistics that span multiple websites. In the interactive ad industry, there are two main consumers for cross-site analytics: large publishers, who want to understand traffic behavior over multiple properties, and advertisers, who want to understand inventory before a campaign and success metrics afterwards. These analytics allow an advertiser to optimize and audit the delivery of creative content on pre-bought publisher inventory. Data can range from number of pages visited and content visited, to purchases made by a particular user. Such data is used to surmise future habits of users or best placements for a particular advertiser based on success.
Currency: Currency is a measurement metric, a financial unit of value that is used to conduct the buying and selling of TV advertising. Traditionally, a gross rating point (GRP) is the currency used in the buying and selling of TV advertisements. Note that currency is not measurement, and measurement is not currency. Measurement encompasses the metrics, ranging from reach to actions to sales, that gauge how an ad or campaign performs.
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Data Append: User data from one source that is linked to a user’s profile from another source.
Data-Driven Linear (DDL): DDL is based on impressions and enables 1:1 deterministic matching between viewership data and ad delivery, all tied to the household level. With DDL, advertisers can achieve precise measurement, attribution, and insight into who was reached and who took an action.
Data Feed: The data set being used for a particular dynamic campaign which can come in a variety of formats or delivery mechanisms (e.g. CSV file, XML file, API connection, JSON feed, Google Spreadsheet).
Data Management Platform (DMP): A system that allows for the collection of audience intelligence by advertisers and agencies, thereby allowing better ad targeting in subsequent campaigns on a combination of in-depth first- and third-party audience data. It helps to accurately target campaigns to these audiences across third-party ad networks and exchanges.’
Dayparts: The parts of the day that the linear schedule is divided into (prime, morning, early fringe, etc.). Dayparts are used to advertise to different audiences at different times of day.
Decision Tree: A visual tool to map overall strategy, data points are shown as branches of a chart that connect to the different creatives associated with each.
Demographic Targeting: A method that enables advertisers to show an ad specifically to visitors based on information such as age, gender, and income, which may come from site registration data or an inference-based mechanism.
Demographics: Common sizes and characteristics of a population or audience, which is used for segmentation, including age, gender, household income, purchasing history, and personal preferences.
Deterministic: The method of attribution that uses impression-based data to match TV ad viewers to their viewing response using ID mapping technology, tying ad delivery and response to the household level.
Device Graph: A map that links individuals to all the devices they use (laptop, work computer, smartphone, etc.). Instead of counting each device as the behavior of a different person, a device graph counts them as one person, so there’s no duplication. Device graphs play a critical role in deduplicating audiences, as well as not overstating reach or understating frequency metrics.
Digital-Out-of-Home (DOOH): An ad platform that allows for the screen to rotate through different advertisers, or to rotate through a single brand’s creative, and in some cases even allows passersby to interact through touching or motion. DOOH can be used for advertising wrapped around buildings in Times Square, on large billboards along the highway, and in kiosks in airports and malls.
Digital Publisher: Digital-native publishers that are not traditional broadcast, cable, or linear networks.
Digital Video: Any type of video that is produced and published on a digital platform. Unlike cross-platform TV, digital video is not necessarily professionally produced and thus does not offer the same level of brand safety to advertisers.
Direct response (DR): An ad that is designed to have the viewer take immediate action. (See Interactive Video.).
Display Advertising: A form of online advertising where an advertiser’s message is shown on a destination web page, generally set off in a box at the top or bottom or to one side of the content of the page.
DMA (Designated Market Area): Geographic regions in the United States used for the measurement of local TV. There are 210 local regions in the country.
Double-Blind Match: The process by which two parties share data with personally identifiable information (PII), using a third-party for matching. It is considered compliant with privacy rules and policies.
DSP (Demand-Side Platform): A platform that allows buyers to purchase digital advertising (including CTV), programmatically across multiple ad exchanges. When using a DSP, marketers can automate real-time buying and leverage the programmatic platform to optimize and enable audience targeting.
Dwell Rate: The percentage of users exposed to a given piece of rich media content or advertising who interact with that content moving their cursors over it (but not clicking).
Dwell Time: the amount of time that a user keeps the cursor stationary over a given icon, graphic, ad unit, or another piece of web content. Often used in the context of expandable ads, where the ad increases in size only when users roll over it with their mice.
Dynamic Creative/Dynamic Creative Optimization (DCO): A form of advertising technology that uses data to personalize and optimize, in real-time, creative elements, such as headline, copy, pictures, backgrounds, video, animation, and interactive elements. The goal of dynamic creative is to deliver personalized and relevant advertising experiences to consumers.
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Engagement: A general term used to classify interaction a consumer has with brand content, whether it be in an ad, on a brand’s site, or via a brand’s social media profile page.
Engagement Rate: Percent of impressions where there was at least one interaction within an interactive video unit.
Exposed Group: The collection of consumers who were exposed to an ad. Their actions are then compared to the control group – the group that did not see the ad – and the difference between the two groups should show the effectiveness of the ad campaign.
Eyeballs: Slang term for audience; the number of people who view a certain website or advertisement.
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First-Party Data: Data sources provided by a brand/advertiser.
First Tracked: The first date an impression for an ad or campaign was served.
Flighting: The timing around when a commercial will air. This can also be used to talk about laying out the parameters of a digital ad campaign.
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.
Fraud Impressions: The number of impressions that DoubleVerify recorded as Bot Fraud or Site Fraud.
Fraud Rate: The percentage of Fraud Impressions out of Monitored Impressions.
Frequency: How many times viewers are exposed to a specific ad. From a TV advertisers’ perspective, it is the number of times their ad repeats over a set amount of time.
Frequency Capping: The limit of how many times a given ad will be shown to a unique cookie during a session or within a specified time period.
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Geographic Targeting: A method that enables advertisers to display (or prevent the display of) an ad specifically to visitors based on ZIP code, area code, city, DMA, state, and/or country derived from user-declared registration information or inference-based mechanism.
Geolocation Data: The identification or estimation of the real-world geographic location of an object, such as a mobile device or computer, using digital information. In digital advertising, geolocation is often used to target viewers based on their physical location, allowing advertisers to deliver relevant content or advertisements based on a viewer’s current or past locations.
Gross Exposures: The total number of times an ad is served, including duplicate downloads to the same person.
Gross Impressions: The unfiltered count of ad plays, which a portion of it may be attributed to general invalid traffic.
Gross Tracked Ads: Completely unfiltered number of tracked ads that occurred.
GRP (Gross Rating Point): A term used to measure the size of an audience reached by a specific media vehicle or schedule. It is used to measure the exposure to one or more programs or commercials, without regard to multiple exposures of the same advertising to individuals. For example, an advertisement that is aired/served 5 times, reaching 50% of the target audience each time it is aired, would have a GRP of 250 (5 × 50%). GRPs are typically used by media buyers to compare the strength of media vehicles.
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Heuristic: A way to measure a user’s unique identity. It uses deduction or inference based on a rule or algorithm that 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.
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iFrame: Short for inline frame, the area on a website designated for an ad to appear.
Impact: The action a viewer takes after seeing a TV ad once or multiple times is the; this action can take place right after an ad is seen (i.e. immediate impact) or weeks to months after it ran (i.e. longer-term impact).
Impressions: As per the IAB’s definition, an impression is the measurement of responses from a web server to a page request from the user browser. Innovid’s impression measurement is defined at ad render and does not include those filtered as general invalid traffic. Also a great band from Chicago featuring Curtis Mayfield; the group is best known for “People Get Ready.”
Incremental Reach: This refers to finding incremental audiences, either unique audiences reached via CTV campaigns in addition to the audience reached by linear campaigns, or additional audiences reached across specific streaming publishers. Incremental reach is usually achieved by expanding the media plan to include other inventory sources not included in the original campaign.
Insertion Order (IO): A formal, printed order to run an ad campaign between a seller of interactive advertising and a buyer (usually an advertiser or its agency).
Instant Optimization: A feature of the Innovid platform, Instant Optimization is machine-learning solution that empowers converged TV marketers with the ability to immediately optimize ad performance in flight. Instant Optimization provides the essential technology to automatically adjust which ad is seen, championing top-converting ads in real-time and improving performance across streaming and digital channels.
Interactive CTV Ads: An interactive TV ad experience such as an overlay, branded canvas, QR code, or expand unit that runs across CTV.
Interactive CTV Choice-Based Ads: An interactive CTV ad experience that gives viewers the ability to engage for a given period of time and, in turn, receive their content with significantly reduced commercial breaks.
Interactive CTV Non-Choice-Based Ads: An interactive CTV experience that allows viewers to engage, but does not incentivize engagement with reduced commercials or ad load.
Interactive Video: A type of digital video creative that can take user input to perform some enhanced actions through elements integrated above and beyond the standard video playback controls (i.e., play, pause, rewind, and mute.) These interactions can include varied QR codes, calls-to-actions, forms, polls/surveys, links, chapter menus, and hot-spots that may affect story progression of the video content and/or drill down on specific parts of the content itself. The goal of the creative is to give the user various options to engage with the message beyond viewing the video.
Interstitial: Between-the-page ad units displayed as a user navigates from one web page to the next. The display or video ad appears after the user leaves the initial page, but before the target page displays on the user’s screen. Also known as transition ads, intermercial ads, splash pages, and “between-the-pages.”
IP Address: a numerical label assigned to each device connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol (IP) for communication. An IP address serves two main functions: host or network interface identification and location addressing.
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Keyword: Specific word(s) entered into a search engine by the user that result(s) in a list of websites related to the keyword. They can be purchased by an advertiser in order to embed ads linking to the advertiser’s site within search results.
Keyword Targeting: Targeting content that contains specific keywords.
KPIs (Key Performance Indicators): Business metric used to evaluate factors that are crucial to the success of an organization. KPIs differ based on the business and marketing focus.
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Last Tracked: The last date an impression for an ad or campaign was served.
Linear: TV advertising or programming that plays on a predetermined schedule and channel, across traditional cable and broadcast networks, qualifies as linear.
Linear Video Ads: Advertising experienced before, between, or after the linear content is consumed by the viewer. One of the key characteristics of linear ads is the ad takes over the full view of the video.
Local: TV advertising or programming that reaches only a specific market is considered local. It’s delivered through cable, broadcast, or satellite. For advertising purposes, it is defined by a designated market area (DMA).
Long-Form Video: Video content that has a content arc with a beginning, middle, and end that lasts longer than 10 minutes. If the content is ad supported, it typically contains breaks (mid-roll). This is different from commercial videos, which typically put the product upfront and run under one minute.
Lookalike Audiences: A group of audiences that share similar characteristics to existing audience segments. They are typically used to increase reach among a targeted group of individuals based on specific behaviors and demographics.
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Makegoods: Additional ad impressions, which are negotiated in order to make up for the shortfall of ads delivered vs. the commitments outlined in the approved insertion order.
Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM): A statistical analysis applied to a mixed media plan to forecast the impact of the plan.
Match Rate: The percentage of users from one file that you can find in another dataset. Knowing the match rate for a user set is critical for understanding the size of addressable online audiences.
Measurement: Distinct from attribution, measurement is more numbers-based, aka the tangible results that stem from a campaign (e.g., how many people did an ad reach and how often). Attribution is all about outcomes. Increasingly, our industry is lumping attribution under measurement, with the term encompassing reach, frequency, unique reach, and outcomes.
Measurable Impression: An impression where the Javascript code ran successfully and was able to determine whether the ad can be measured or not. This metric is limited to VPAID inventory.
Measurable Rate: The percentage of impressions that are measured out of the total served impressions. Calculated as [Measurable Impressions] / [Impressions]. This metric is limited to VPAID inventory.
Media Mix: The combination of advertising media channels employed in meeting the promotional objectives of a marketing plan or campaign. A mix can include radio, linear, CTV, print, and online advertising.
Metadata: Data that provides information about other data. This includes descriptions of the characteristics of information, such as quality, origin, context, content, and structure.
Microsites: Multi-page ads accessed via click-thru from an initial ad. The user stays on the publisher’s website, but has access to more information from the advertiser than a display ad allows.
Mobile/Location-Based Targeting: Refers to a way to target advertisements on mobile devices such as smartphones, GPS receivers, tablets, and soon on many mobile laptops. On phones and tablets, such advertisements can appear in a mobile web browser or within an app.
Monitored Impressions: The number of Innovid Impressions served in which the DoubleVerify (DV) fraud monitoring was applied. This metric is captured through Innovid’s integration with DV.
Monitored Rate: The percentage of Monitored Impressions out of total served impressions. This metric is captured through Innovid’s integration with DV.
MVPD (Multichannel Video Programming Distributor): A cable or satellite service that provides and packages multiple TV channels. Meanwhile, a virtual MVPD (vMVPD) is an OTT service that provides content from broadcast and cable networks, plus streaming providers.
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National: TV advertising that reaches markets across the entire U.S. is considered national; this heightened exposure usually costs more money than local.
Non-Measurable Impressions: Impression that cannot be measured. Reasons for this include: video delivery inside a banner ad, security restrictions by the player, inventory limitations.
Non-Viewable Impressions: An impression that is not considered viewable or where the viewability code cannot run.
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On-Demand Video: Video media that is available to a user at the convenience of that user.
Online Behavioral Advertising (OBA): A method for targeting digital advertising impressions to appear to a select audience of consumers based on their prior online or offline actions; also called behavioral targeting (BT).
Open Auction: A programmatic marketplace where real-time bidding (RTB) occurs, and any advertiser or publisher can participate.
Optimization: Making the insights gleaned from measurement and attribution actionable to consistently improve reach and outcomes for converged TV advertising campaigns.
OTT (Over the Top): Any streaming media service that is offered directly to viewers via the internet and thus bypasses traditional cable, broadcast, and satellite TV platforms. The content is typically accessed via websites, computers, apps, digital media players, or smart TVs.
Out of Home (OOH): Advertising placements that appear in public places, including billboards, airports, grocery stores, taxi cabs, bus stations, etc.
Outcomes: Outcomes are the ability to tie TV ads to business performance metrics, proving that TV campaigns drive immediate response and longer-term brand and sales impact.
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Page View: When the page is actually seen by the user.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC): A pricing model in which advertisers pay agencies and/or media companies based on how many users clicked on an online ad or e-mail message through to their websites.
Pay-Per-Impression: A pricing model in which advertisers pay based on how many users were served their ads.
Pay-Per-Lead: A pricing model in which advertisers pay for each sales lead generated. For example, an advertiser might pay for every visitor that clicked on an ad or site and successfully completed a form. (See CPL.)
Pay-Per-Sale: A pricing model in which advertisers pay agencies and/or media companies based on how many sales transactions were generated as a direct result of the ad.
Percent of Ad Display: The average duration percentage of the video watched by viewers. Calculated as weighted average of 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% video duration rates.
Performance Metrics: The measurement of digital ad campaigns with outcomes-driven, action-based goals such as click-throughs, leads, app downloads, sales, registrations, etc.
Personalization: Aggregating previous online activity to match non-ad related information to users.
PII (Personally Identifiable Information): User data that can be used to contact the user, either directly or through a lookup, including social security numbers and postal and email addresses.
Pixel: A web beacon, also known as a web bug, 1x1 gif, invisible gif, and tracking pixel, is a tiny image referenced by a line of HTML or a block of JavaScript code embedded into a website or third-party ad server to track activity.
Pixel (as a unit of measure): The smallest unit of measurement for graphical elements in digital imagery, used as the standard unit of measure for ad creative. Pixels may also represent x/y coordinates relevant to a given space, such as the browser window, an application workspace or the user’s computer screen.
Pixel Tag: A piece of code embedded on a website and used to capture viewership data pertaining to content and advertising, as well as consumer/visitor usage and behavior.
Post Logs: A list of TV spots that have aired, post-log files contain details on creatives, programs, networks, dayparts, impressions, and costs.
Post-Click Conversions: The number of conversions that occurred after a user clicked on an ad within the predefined lookback window.
Post-Impression Conversions: The number of conversions that occurred after a user saw an ad within the predefined lookback window.
Post-Completion Conversions: The number of conversions that occurred after a user viewed a full video ad within the predefined lookback window.
Premium Content: TV programming that is professionally produced in a brand-safe manner and typically has an established, loyal audience. For this reason, these shows are very appealing to advertisers for reach and brand recognition.
Probabilistic: The use of complex algorithms and statistical models to attribute response to TV spots based on their level of probability.
Programmatic: Simplifying the ad planning and buying process by using data and analytics to serve ads to the right audience at the right time. Programmatic is a TV ad buy that uses data and automation to target consumers efficiently at a granular level.
Programmatic Publisher: Typically a DSP or other platform through which all types of digitally delivered inventory is purchased.
Publisher: An individual or organization that prepares, issues, and disseminates content for public distribution or sale via one or more media.
Publisher Macro: Dynamic variables or placeholders used in ad tags or creative templates that are filled in by the publisher's ad server with specific values at the time of ad serving. These variables can include information like the viewer’s geographic location, device type, or any other relevant data. Publisher macros enable the customization of ad content based on various parameters, providing a personalized experience for the audience.
Publisher Pixel: An object embedded in a web page (typically a 1×1 image pixel) that calls a web server for purposes of tracking some kind of user activity.
Publisher/Platform Third-Party Targeting: Data that is passed to the ad server on ad call, usually via macros, that helps the ad server determine the most relevant creative to serve.
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Rate Card: Standardized cost for media space defined by ad sizes, platform, and creative formats, excluding custom programs or the list of advertising prices and products/packages offered by a media company.
Ratings: Traditionally, TV advertising has been bought and designed around ratings — audience measurement segmentation developed by Nielsen.
Reach: A common metric used to measure the number of people or households exposed to an ad.
Real-Time Bidding (RTB): A way of transacting media that allows an individual ad impression to be put up for bid in real time. This is done through a programmatic, on-the-spot auction, which is similar to how financial markets operate. RTB allows for addressable advertising – the ability to serve ads to consumers directly based on their demographic, psychographic, or behavioral attributes.
Retargeting: Also known as remarketing, retargeting is a digital advertising strategy that involves displaying ads to viewers who have previously interacted with a brand's website or mobile app. It works by using cookies or other tracking mechanisms to identify viewers and show them targeted ads across different websites or platforms. The goal is to re-engage viewers who have shown interest in a product or service but may not have completed a desired action, such as making a purchase.
Return on Ad Spend (ROAS): A metric used by advertisers to measure how much revenue they earned that can be attributed to the expense of an ad campaign.
Return on Investment (ROI): Net profit divided by investment.
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Sequential Messaging: When creative and messaging are presented in specific order, gated by either frequency or consumer behavior.
Server-Initiated Ad Impression: This is one of the two methods used for ad counting. Ad content is delivered to the user via server- and client-initiated methods. Server-initiated ad counting uses the publisher’s web content server for making requests, formatting, and redirecting 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-Initiated Ad Impression.)
Set-Top Box (STB): An electronic device that connects to a TV, providing connectivity to the internet, game systems, or cable systems.
Share of Voice (SOV): The percentage of ad space on a page that is filled by a single brand. For example, if only one brand has ads appearing on a webpage, then that brand has 100% SOV.
Short-Form Video: Content that has a duration of less than 10 minutes.
Single Sign On (SSO): An authentication process that allows users to authenticate with multiple websites or apps via one set of credentials in a secure manner.
Site-Centric Measurement: Audience measurement derived from a website’s own server logs.
Site Retargeting: A method that enables advertisers to show an ad specifically to previous site visitors when they are on third-party websites.
Skips: The number of times a user clicks “Skip” in the video ad.
Slotting Fee: A fee charged to advertisers by media companies to get premium positioning on their site, category exclusivity, or some other special treatment. It is similar to slotting allowances charged by retailers.
Social Publisher: Social platforms that are also content publishers.
Standard Pre-Roll: A standard promotional video message that plays before the content the user has selected.
Streaming: Any content (including TV shows, movies, music videos, etc.) delivered over the internet to computers, mobile devices and TVs, is considered streaming. This content can be live or pre-recorded.
Supply-Side Platform (SSP): A platform that allows publishers to offer their available ad inventory to ad exchanges and DSPs. The SSP is the counterpart to a DSP in the programmatic ad space.
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Tags: Software code that an advertiser provides to a publisher or ad network that calls the advertiser’s ad server for the purposes of displaying an advertisement.
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.
Target Rating Point (TRP): A term used in traditional advertising to measure the size of an audience reached by a specific media vehicle or schedule. It is the product of the percentage of the target audience reached by an advertisement, times the frequency they see it in a given campaign (frequency × % reached). For example, a television ad that is aired 5 times, reaching 50% of the target audience each time it is aired, would have a TRP of 250 (5 × 50%).
Technology Data: The various devices used to deliver and consume online content. This includes web browsers, mobile devices, operating systems, and other technologies that influence how ads are displayed and interacted with. Advertisers may consider the technological landscape to optimize their creatives for different devices and platforms or to inform viewer-specific preferences like language.
Third-Party Ad Server: Independent 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.
Third-Party Data: Data sources that can be purchased from an outside vendor.
Time/Day Data: Delivering ads based on specific times of the day or days of the week. Advertisers can schedule their campaigns to reach target audiences during optimal times for engagement or when specific events or promotions are taking place. This strategy allows for more precise and timely delivery of ad content to maximize its impact.
Time-Earned: The average time (in seconds) that a viewer spent interacting with the interactive unit while the pre-roll video was automatically paused in the background.
Time-Shifted Audience: The people who viewed ads from playback or recorded TV (think DVRs).
Token: A 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.
Tracked Ads: A metric recorded prior to 'begin to render' for a site-served display ad, as defined by the Media Ratings Council. All site served display 'Impression Events' are reported as 'Tracked Ads' because there is no clear indication that the impression fired prior or at 'begin to render.'
Tracked Ad Clicks: The action of clicking the ad that is associated with a Tracked Ad.
Tracking Pixel: A transparent image that provides information about an ad’s placement. In many cases, a tracking pixel is used to notify an ad tracking system that either an ad has been served (or not served, in some cases) or that a specific webpage has been accessed. It is also known as beacon, web beacon, action tag, redirect, etc.
Traffic: The flow of data over a network or visitors to a website.
TV Everywhere: An online business model in which TV broadcasters, particularly cable networks, allow their customers to access live and/or on-demand video content from their networks through internet-based services. The fee for access is covered as part of their subscription via an MVPD.
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Unique Click Throughs: The number of unique viewers who clicked through to a landing page.
Unique Impressions: The number of unique viewers exposed to the campaign.
Unique Visitors: A unique individual or browser that has accessed a site or application and has been served unique content and/or ads such as e-mail, newsletters, interstitials, or pop-under ads. Unique visitors can be identified by user registration, cookies, or third-party measurement.
Upfronts: The period, typically in spring, when media companies outline their program lineup for the next programming year and try to sell as much ad space as possible. Upfronts get a lot of attention due to the promotion of new shows and major tentpole events. The Upfronts, which were traditionally rigid buys, are changing, as advertisers demand more flexibility and full transparency around high-cost buys so that they can optimize as needed.
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 also allows for an acceptable calculation of visits, if caching is avoided.
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VAST (Video Ad Serving Template): A framework for serving ads to a video player. It also describes expected player behavior for executing ads that are supplied using VAST. The interaction between the ad and the player is unidirectional, meaning that once the player receives the VAST tag, no other interactions are possible except for the activation of select tracking beacons at appropriate times during ad playback. It provides a standardized method for communicating the status of a video ad back to the ad servers. It is specifically designed for on-demand video players, where the ad response is parsed prior to play. VAST is applicable to linear video ads (such as pre-rolls), non-linear video ads (such as overlays), and companion ads as defined in the IAB digital video ad format guidelines.
Video Completes: When a viewer watches a pre-roll video to 100% completion.
Viewability: The percentage of impressions identified as viewable out of total measurable impressions, according to IAB standards. Calculated as [Viewable Impressions] / [Measurable Impressions].
Viewable Impression: A viewable video ad impression tracked by Innovid is defined by IAB standards, requiring that at least 50% of the video ad pixels can be viewed in the viewable space of the browser’s page, on an in-focus browser tab. Additionally, the ad must be played for at least 2 consecutive seconds. Viewable impressions tracked on YouTube are captured through ADH and measured according to Google’s methodology.
Viewable Completion Rate: The percentage of viewable impressions for which 100% of the pre-roll video duration was viewed.
Video Game Console: An interactive entertainment computer or electric device that manipulates the video display signal of a display device (a TV, monitor, etc.) to display a game. The term “video game console” is typically used solely for playing video games, but the new generation of consoles may play various types of media, such as music, TV shows, and movies.
View-Through: When a consumer sees a brand’s ad, does not click on it, and then later visits that brand’s website.
VMAP (Video Multiple Ad Playlist): A protocol used for ad servers, ad units, and publishers to communicate with each other in order to serve multiple video ad breaks within streaming video on desktop.
VOD (and all its friends): any video service offering TV content, videos or movies, where viewers can choose what to watch, when to watch it and where. Netflix, Disney+, Peacock and Hulu are popular VOD services. Within VOD, there are many more specific acronyms floating around too. While some of these names are more popular in certain regions of the world than others (and can occasionally be used interchangeably), here are the most used ones:
- AVOD: Advertiser VOD streaming services are free to watch, with the content carrying advertising; there are usually options to pay to get rid of ads; revenue is primarily from advertising and subscriptions.
- BVOD: Broadcaster VOD is the content and programming made available on demand by TV broadcasters. It’s a term typically used in the UK and Australia.
- FAST: Free Ad Supported TV streaming services provide both on-demand and scheduled linear programming; advertising is the primary source of revenue. .
- SVOD: Subscription VOD allows consumers to access a catalog of content for a flat monthly fee. Subscribers can consume as much of the (often ad-free) content as they want.
- TVOD: Transactional VOD is a pay-per-view streaming service where viewers can rent or buy content.
VPAID (Video Player Ad Interface): The protocol between the ad and the video player that enables ad interactivity and other advanced video advertising functionality. VPAID offers bilateral (two-way) communication between the ad and the video player, and meets the needs of emerging in-stream formats, such as non-linear video ads and interactive linear ads.
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Weather Data: Adjusting ad content based on current weather conditions in a viewer’s location. Advertisers can use weather data to tailor their creatives to match the current weather, promoting products or services that are relevant to specific weather conditions. For example, an ad for a clothing retailer might showcase warm clothing during cold weather or beachwear during hot weather.
