The Ultimate Programmatic Advertising Glossary: 55+ Advertising Terms

Programmatic advertising strategy requires knowledge of its terms. Once you have a better handle on its jargon, you can understand which metrics to optimize and which platforms enable your success.

This guide covers the essential terms for programmatic advertising, with references to more in-depth explanations from our Knowledge Center if you're looking to expand your knowledge.

Programmatic Advertising Glossary

Ad exchange

A digital marketplace where advertisers and publishers can buy and sell advertising space in real time through automated bidding systems.

Ad inventory

The total amount of advertising space available on a publisher's platform that a publishder puts up for sale. Ad inventory represents the capacity a publisher has to display ads to users.

Ad network

An intermediary platform that bundles ad space and sells those ad placements to advertisers.

Ad server

A platform that helps you manage, deliver, and measure digital ads from across multiple channels and devices.

Application Programming Interface (API)

An intermediary that can connect information from external applications with disparate sources to a single dashboard. 

Attribution

A reporting method to determine which marketing channels drive desired customer responses, such as conversions, impressions, click-throughs, or other campaign KPIs.

Behavioral targeting

A targeting method that helps advertisers target users based on their website activity (their behavior).

Bid request

A function that fetches bids from ad networks to populate ads for a web or app user.

Brand safety

A set of safety measures and strategies to ensure advertisements are placed with content that is consistent with the brand’s values and reputation.

Click-through rate (CTR)

The percentage of views or impressions that result in a click on an ad or link. Marketers use CTR as a foundational performance metric for gauging the effectiveness of digital ad campaigns at driving users to visit a brand’s website and move farther into the customer journey.

Completion rate

The percentage of viewers who watch an entire advertisement — usually referring to video ads.

CTV

Delivering targeted advertisements through internet-connected television sets or devices, departing from traditional TV advertising.

Contextual advertising

An advertising strategy that involves placing ads on websites or platforms that are contextually relevant to the content being viewed.

Cookie

Character strings that a website sends to your browser when you visit it. The cookie then serves as an ID for your browser when you return.

Cost per click

A metric that represents the price an advertiser pays to the ad publisher for each click-through by a user.

Cost per acquisition/action (CPA)

An ad pricing model that defines the price ad advertiser pays for a specific user action (such as a conversion or link click).

Cost per mille (CPM)

The cost per 1,000 impressions an ad receives. Typically used to measure the cost effectiveness of an ad campaign.

Cross-channel attribution

A method of measuring how different marketing channels contribute conversions across the whole customer journey.

Customer journey

The path a customer takes to conversion. This maps all the customer’s interactions and touchpoints.

Data management platform (DMP)

A platform that collects, consolidates, and activates information from disparate data sources.

Demand-side platforms (DSPs)

Allow advertisers to bid on ad space across multiple interfaces while facilitating bid management in real time.

Display advertising

A form of online advertising created with a combination of visual elements, including  text, animations, videos, photographs, or other graphics. These ads are typically displayed on websites and mobile apps. 

Dynamic CPM

Allows advertisers to price an advertising opportunity dynamically based on expected return of the specific target audience, according to the campaign conversion goal.

Effective Cost per Mille (eCPM)

The ad revenue generated per 1,000 impressions an ad receives.

First-party data

Data that comes directly from your audience or customers that is collected by your company.

Frequency capping

A feature that limits the number of times a person sees an ad.

Geotargeting

An advertising technique that targets users based on geographic location.

Header bidding

A programmatic ad technique that allows publishers to offer their inventory to multiple DSPs and ad exchanges.

Incrementality

A method for measuring the true impact of an advertising campaign on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). In the context of ads, it can be referred to as the measurement of ad effectiveness.

Interstitial ads

A fullscreen ad that covers the interface of a website or app. These ads are placed at natural breaks between content.

Keywords

A list of words or phrases advertisers use to target audiences based on their intention.

Last-click attribution

An attribution model that awards 100% of conversion credit to the last touchpoint that the user clicked on.

Lookalike targeting

An advertising targeting strategy that finds new audiences who share similar characteristics to your existing customers.

Maximum bid

The highest you are willing to pay per click for your ad.

Multi-channel advertising

A marketing strategy that includes more than one channel or touchpoint. Mobile apps, emails, print ads, social media, retail stores, promotional events, product packaging, and more can all be part of a multichannel marketing plan.

Native advertising

A paid advertising technique that ensures the advertisement matches the media source on which it appears.

Omnichannel marketing

A strategy that connects various marketing tactics under a holistic strategy, and is intended to provide a seamless, integrated customer experience. 

Open auction

Another term for real-time bidding (RTB). An open auction is a digital marketplace where publishers sell ad inventory to advertisers through real-time auctions.

Persistent cart

A feature that preserves the items that a customer has placed in their shopping cart when they exit the site without purchasing, using a cookie that identifies the customer for future sessions, even on other devices.

Private auction

An auction for publisher inventory in which publishers limit participation to select advertisers.

Programmatic

An approach to digital advertising that leverages algorithms and technology to automate the process of buying and selling ad space in real-time.

Personalization

The act of using customer insights to increase the relevancy of an ad to that specific person. These insights could be anything from demographic information to their specific interests, purchasing intent, and buying behavior.

Quality

A measurement of your ad’s user experience compared to other advertisers. For instance, Google Ads’ Quality Score ranks ads on a scale of 1–10 based on several relevance factors.

Real-time bidding

An automated process where publishers sell ad inventory, and advertisers place bids in real-time and on a per impression basis.

Retargeting

A technique that serves ads tailored to potential customers based on the user’s prior engagement with the brand.

Return on ad spend (ROAS)

A marketing metric that tells you how much revenue you make for each $1 you spend on an advertising campaign.

Segmentation

A method of dividing potential buyers into groups based on common characteristics such as interests, location, behavior, and so on.

Supply-side platforms (SSPs)

Allow publishers to manage and sell their inventory by connecting ad exchanges and DSPs to maximize profit revenue.

Third-party data

Information collected by an external data provider that does not directly interact with customers.

Uncoupled data

Allows an advertiser to use data or audience segments for campaign activation in their own DSP.

View

A metric that gauges how often an ad was seen by users.

Viewability

A metric that gauges how often an ad impression was actually visible to a user.

Walled garden

An online environment that controls a user’s access to its content and services. The owner of a walled garden controls its data. 

Win rate

A metric that measures the percentage of impressions won versus the percentage of impressions bid for.

YoY

A data analysis method that compares data for a specific time period with the corresponding time period from the previous year.

Gen Z

An audience demographic born in the 1990s to early 2010s. Programmatic advertisers can segment by age group, choosing audiences like Gen Z, Millennial, Gen X, and Boomer.

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Last updated on December 30th, 2024.