Also called Web advertising. An ad is almost always a banner or button, a graphic image of a designated pixel size and byte size limit.  Often animated. An ad or set of ads for a campaign is often referred to as “the creative,” Banners and other special advertising that include interactive, audio or visual image elements beyond the usual are known as rich media.

Ads are often rotated into ad spaces from a list. Other definitions of “rotation” including the sequential presentation of various specific ads (“the creative”) in a campaign, or an ad that literally “rotates” in its appearance.

Also called ad impression, is a single ad that appears on a Web page when the page arrives at the viewer’s display. Ad views are what most Web sites sell. In general, the term impression is more commonly used. 

Users / readers / customers who “consume” your media. In some cases, you will develop and sell advertising into multiple audiences – e.g., teenagers and young adults for an edgy entertainment site; a seniors audience for a seniors site; the newspaper audience(s) in various markets, etc. 

A horizontal ad on a page linked to an advertiser’s site. A banner or button is an ad in the form of a graphic image. Ads are usually GIF or JPEG images. Animated banners seems to attract more clicks than static images, although – perhaps surprisingly – text-only ads frequently have much higher click-through rates than banners and buttons.

A program that allows users to access documents on the World Wide Web. The most popular browsers are Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Mozilla’s Firefox. (Safari for both PCs and Macs are worth a look.)

High-speed Internet connection through a cable line.

Web pages and graphics (including ads) are sometimes saved on a computer or server’s hard drive so the next time the page is viewed they do not have to be retrieved off of the Internet.  A cached ad will be viewed by the user, but not counted by the ad tracking programs. This sometimes causes visitors to see old versions of a page or ad. 

Campaigns generally contain more than one ad creative. However, “campaign” can also refer to a specific period of time that advertising was scheduled to run. (“The county fair wanted its campaign to run for one week starting four days before the fair opened.”)

A click is “when a consumer interacts with an advertisement.” This means actually clicking on it and the consumer is sent directly to the advertiser’s Web site (home page or landing page).

The percentage of ad views that result in clicks or click-through. 

The action of moving to a new Web page or Web site by clicking a link within an ad or editorial content.

A file on a Web user’s hard drive to record data about the user. Some ad rotation platforms use cookies to see which ad the user has just seen, so a different ad will be cycled into the next page-view. 

The advertising cost measure based on units of 1,000 impressions.

The creative design and content of an ad, and the technology used to create or develop that ad unit. The most common creative technology for banners is GIF or JPEG images. Others include Java, HTML, or streaming audio or video. Those are commonly referred to as “rich media” banners.

Internet connection through an analog phone line.  Slowest connection.

Information received from a Web site that tells visitor how to get from one point to another – can be done through graphics and / or text.

High-speed Internet connection through a digital phone line. Allows use of phone line at the same time.

A vector-graphic animation technology commonly used to display animations in a Web browser. 

The number of times an ad is delivered to the same visitor in a single session.

The real-world geographic location of an Internet connected computer, mobile device, or Web site visitor.

GIF images are the most common form of banner / button ad creative and Web graphics. Sometimes pronounced “djif;” other times referred to as “ghif” with a hard G. (Compuserv execs used the soft “G” pronunciation.)

Global Positioning System: A worldwide radio-navigation system that was developed by the U.S. Department of Defense. In addition to military purposes it is widely used in marine, terrestrial navigation and location-based services.

Large banners run across the top of the page. 

Internet connection through cable or DSL lines that allows fast connection.

A hit is the receipt of a single request to a Web server (page, graphic, audio or other file type). When you call up a Web page, the page, as unique Web element, is a unique server request. When you add graphics or other elements to the page, those are also unique server requests. So, a single page with two simple graphics on it constitutes three unique server requests, or three hits. The number of hits is only an indication of how busy your server is. Hits are not an appropriate measure to use for analyzing traffic, users or comparing sites.

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.

Text that is underlined that links to a different section of that page when selected (clicked) by a site user.

The count of a delivered basic advertising unit from an ad distribution point. Impressions are how most Web advertising is sold at major sites; the cost is usually quoted in terms of “cost per thousand” impressions (CPM).

The total number of ad views or impressions that a Web site has to sell during a given period of time. The number of ads on a page, multiplied by the number of pages served (delivered) determines the total inventory. Inventory can be broke down further by specific category. (“We’re totally out of inventory in the sports section and the photo gallery, but still have some in our wedding section.”)

This is a unique number (like a phone number instead of a mailing or Web address) assigned to any Internet-connected computer. You can type in IP addresses instead of a Web address.

A company that provides access to the Internet such as AOL, Earthlink, ATT, Comcast or Verizon.

A high-level programming language, originally designed under the name OAK for set-top boxes and hand-held devices. It is now widely used for building applications on the Internet because it provides a simplified object-oriented language for advanced features, increased animation detail and real-time updates.

A common form of banner/button ad creative and Web graphics.  This is a file type frequently used for creative. (JPEG was developed by the Joint Photo Experts Group, thus JPEG; GIF, or Graphics Interchange Format, was developed by Compuserv.)

The Web page a viewer is taken to after clicking on an ad. This may be the home page, a page created specifically for this ad, or a page in the site already. See “splash page.”

Cellular describes a specific technology for mobile telephone and data services. “Mobile” is the preferred term.

Any device capable of receiving wireless telephone or data transmissions.

One Web page seen by a user. 

A size unit for Web. One “dot” on the computer screen. Somewhat akin to a single dot in a halftone printed in the newspaper.

An add-on program that can easily be integrated within another application to enhance its functionalities.

Ads that do not run in a specific position on the page view.  Pop-ups appear on top of the screen you’re viewing. (Most Web users now use pop-up blockers to eliminate pop-ups.) Pop-unders appear under the frame you’re viewing so when you close it, the ad will be visible.

An affidavit or other formal report that verifies ads were delivered as ordered or scheduled. Typically based on server logs.

These are usually the final, specific outputs desired from a site. Results are often expressed as products or services for an internal or external customers, but not always. They may be in terms of financial accomplishments, impact on a community, etc. Results are expressed in terms of cost, quality, quantity or time.

Advertising with animation, sound and interactive elements more elaborate than GIFs or JPEGs. Rich-media ads are often built in Flash or Java. Rich media ads are often used for ads with pop-up menus that may let the visitor select a particular page to link to on the advertiser’s Web site.  Rich-media ads have become increasingly popular.

Return on Investment is the bottom line – how successful an ad or campaign was in terms of the returns for the money invested.

An ad that rotates on any available ad space on a site without any targeting or choices as to where the ad will run.  CPM rates for run of site ads are typically less than for rates for specifically targeted ads or sponsorships.

No inventory available. A site that’s consistently sold out should raise its rates.

Spam is e-mail containing information or advertising that users have not explicitly requested from a site. Sometimes referred to as “UCE,” unsolicited commercial e-mail.

An association with a Web site that gives an advertiser some particular visibility and advantages above that of a regular ad program. When associated with specific content, sponsorship can provide high visibility for the advertiser.

Serving ads at relatively constant levels throughout the life of a campaign. 

A banner or tile ad that does not cycle in rotation with other ads.

A measure used to gauge the effectiveness of a site in retaining user interest, usually by duration spend or number of return visits.

The ability to deliver the most appropriate ad to a user. Targeting is purchasing ad space on sites that match audience and campaign objective requirements.

The amount of time a user spends reviewing or interacting with the Web site.

A measure of the total number of different users, or different computer terminals, that have visited a Web site determined through the use of enhanced tracking or user registrations.

A unique visitor is someone with a unique IP address who is entering a Web site for the first time in some specified time period.  Thus, someone that returns within that time frame is not counted twice. Unique visitor counts tell you how many different people there are in your audience during the time period, but not how much they used the site during the period.

Uniform Resource Locator, a Web address. (e.g.: MedOpportunities.com)

An individual with access to the Internet; when referring to a “site user,” a visitor to that particular site.

Someone with a unique address who enters or re-enters a Web site during a specified period.  A user session is sometimes determined by counting only those users that haven’t re-entered the site within the past 20 minutes or a similar period. User sessions are a better indicator of total site activity than “unique visitors” since they indicate frequency of use.

A vertical banner is an Internet ad that is typically taller than it is wide – e.g., 120 pixels wide by 240 pixels high. For more information on specific sizes of Web ad units, see:
http://iab.net/standards/adunits.asp .

The visual presentation of information in a moving format; either on a Web site or a mobile device. “Full-motion video” is like television; “photo-mation” is a less-expensive video type that manipulates still photos to look like they are videos.

A view is, depending on context, either an ad view or page-view.  There can be multiple ad views per page-view.

A Web user with a unique address entering a Web site at some page for the first time that day (or for the first time in a lesser time period).