AdTech glossary · 411 terms

The AdTech dictionary. Plain English.

Acronyms get tossed around. Definitions get fuzzy. We wrote them down. Search a term. Jump to a letter. Move on with your day.

23 letters · 411 definitions
A
62 terms

Above the Fold

TL;DR. Above the fold is the slice of a web page a visitor sees before scrolling. It is the most valuable real estate...

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Ad Account Management

TL;DR. Ad account management is the day-to-day work of running paid-ad accounts across platforms like Meta and Google....

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Ad Agency

TL;DR. An ad agency is a company that plans, creates, and buys advertising on behalf of brands. The category covers...

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Ad Clone

TL;DR. An ad clone is a recreation of a competitor's winning ad in your own brand voice, palette, and offer. The clone...

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Add to Cart Event

TL;DR. The AddToCart event is a Meta Pixel standard event that fires when a shopper adds a product to their cart. It...

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Ad Exchange

TL;DR. An ad exchange is a digital marketplace that runs real-time auctions for ad impressions between buy-side DSPs...

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Ad Fatigue

TL;DR. Ad fatigue is the drop in ad performance after an audience has seen the same creative too many times. CTR falls,...

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Ad Impression

TL;DR. An ad impression is a single instance of a paid creative being served from an ad server to a user's device. It...

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Ad Mediation

TL;DR. Ad mediation is a software layer that sends a single ad request to multiple ad networks, runs an auction across...

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Ad Network

TL;DR. An ad network is a company that aggregates ad inventory from many publishers and resells it to advertisers as...

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Ad Policy Compliance

Policy compliance with ad policies involves adherence to governments, affiliate networks, and platforms’ advertising...

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Ad Revenue

TL;DR. Ad revenue is the income a publisher earns from ads served on a site, app, video, or email. It is calculated as...

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Ad Server

TL;DR. An ad server is software that stores ad creative, decides which ad to show each user, delivers the impression,...

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Ad Tag (Creative or Placement Tag)

TL;DR. An ad tag is a snippet of HTML, JavaScript, or XML that a publisher page or app drops into an ad slot. It calls...

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Ad Tech (Advertising Technology)

TL;DR. Ad tech (advertising technology) is the software stack that buys, sells, targets, and measures digital ads...

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Ad Unit

TL;DR. An ad unit is a defined slot on a page, app screen, or CTV interface where a single ad renders. It has a fixed...

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Advantage+ Creative

TL;DR. Advantage+ Creative is Meta's AI layer inside Ads Manager that takes one uploaded ad and spins out per-user...

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Advantage+ Placements

TL;DR. Advantage+ Placements is Meta's AI placement optimization, the renamed Automatic Placements setting. The system...

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Advantage+ Shopping Campaign (ASC)

TL;DR. Advantage+ Shopping Campaign (ASC) is Meta's automated ecommerce campaign type that uses machine learning to...

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Advantage+ Shopping Campaign (ASC)

An Advantage+ Shopping Campaign (ASC) is Meta’s AI-automated campaign type built specifically for e-commerce sales....

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Advertisers

TL;DR. An advertiser is the brand, agency, or merchant that pays to place ads in front of an audience. Advertisers buy...

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Advertising Restrictions

TL;DR. Advertising restrictions are rules set by platforms like Meta and Google or regulators like the EU that limit...

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Adware and Spyware

TL;DR. Adware is software that injects unwanted ads into a user's browser or device. Spyware is software that secretly...

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Ad Whales

App users who generate great app revenue by watching and engaging with the ads. Users that click on advertising in your...

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AFD (Ads for Domains)

AFD, or Ads for Domains, is a domain monetization technique whereby owners of undeveloped or unused domains can make...

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Affiliate

TL;DR. An affiliate is a person or company that promotes another brand's products or services in exchange for a...

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Affiliate Link / Affiliate Marketing

TL;DR. An affiliate link is a trackable URL containing a unique partner ID that attributes clicks and conversions to a...

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Affiliate Manager

TL;DR. An affiliate manager runs a brand's partner program day to day. The role covers recruiting publishers,...

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Affiliate Marketing Forum

TL;DR. An affiliate marketing forum is an online community where affiliates, advertisers, and network reps trade offer...

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Affiliate Network

TL;DR. An affiliate network is a marketplace that connects advertisers running offers with publishers driving traffic....

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Affiliate Program

TL;DR. An affiliate program is a performance-based deal where a brand pays partners a commission for every sale, lead,...

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Agentic AI in Advertising

Agentic AI refers to artificial intelligence systems that don’t just make recommendations, they take autonomous action....

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Agentic AI in Advertising

TL;DR. Agentic AI in advertising refers to autonomous systems that plan, execute, and optimize paid media without...

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Agentic Workflow

TL;DR. An agentic workflow is an AI system that plans a multi-step task, calls external tools, and acts on its own...

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AI Ad Creative

TL;DR. AI ad creative is the finished ad asset, image, video, or copy, produced by a generative model from a product...

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AI Copywriting for Ads

TL;DR. AI copywriting for ads uses large language models to generate headlines, primary text, descriptions, and calls...

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AI-Generated Ads

TL;DR. AI-generated ads are image, video, copy, and dynamic creatives produced by generative models from a product URL,...

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AI Image Generation

TL;DR. AI image generation turns a written prompt into a finished picture using diffusion or transformer models. The...

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AI-Powered Media Buying

AI-powered media buying utilizes artificial intelligence to streamline and automate digital ad purchase and placement...

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AI Video Ads

TL;DR. AI video ads are short motion clips generated by diffusion or transformer models from a text prompt, a still...

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Alexa Rank

А platform that measures website popularity based on users’ browsing behavioral patterns. It’s a marketing tool...

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Alt Text (Alternative Text)

TL;DR. Alt text (alternative text) is a short written description added to an image's HTML via the alt attribute. It...

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Amazon PPC

TL;DR. Amazon PPC is pay-per-click advertising inside Amazon's marketplace. Sellers bid on keywords or products. Ads...

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Amazon Sponsored Products

TL;DR. Amazon Sponsored Products are pay-per-click ads that promote individual ASINs across Amazon search results and...

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Anchor Text

Тhe part of the link with the clickable words. An anchor text is a text you use to connect out of and into your site,...

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Andromeda (Meta Ad Algorithm)

Andromeda is Meta’s updated ad retrieval and ranking algorithm rolled out in 2025, designed to handle a significantly...

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API (Application Programming Interface)

Communication protocol between a server and a client lets users access Majestic data for application development. To...

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APK Offers (Android Application Package Offers)

Is a file format meant for installing mobile applications. It is used by Android operating systems as an application...

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App Metrics

TL;DR. App metrics are the quantitative signals that describe how a mobile app acquires, engages, and monetizes users....

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App Monetization

TL;DR. App monetization is how a mobile app turns users into revenue. The four primary models are in-app advertising,...

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App Rating

TL;DR. An app rating is the 1 to 5 star score users assign to an app on the Apple App Store or Google Play. It is a...

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App Session

TL;DR. An app session is one continuous period of user engagement with a mobile app, from foreground open to background...

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AR Advertising

TL;DR. AR advertising places branded 3D objects, filters, and try-on experiences inside a user's camera feed. It runs...

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Arbitrage Campaign

An arbitrage campaign is a marketing tactic that seeks to take advantage of the difference between user action income...

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Attribution Window

Attribution window defines the period over which conversion is attributed to a specific ad or affiliate click,...

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Attribution Window (Meta)

TL;DR. A Meta attribution window is the time period after a click or view in which Meta will credit a conversion to one...

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Audience Retargeting

TL;DR. An audience retargeting list contains users who already engaged with a brand: site visitors, cart abandoners,...

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Audience Targeting

TL;DR. Audience targeting is the practice of choosing who sees an ad based on demographics, interests, behavior,...

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Average Revenue Per Daily User

A mobile marketing metric that helps track mobile games’ monetization performance. This indicator is used to track how...

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Average Revenue per Paying User (ARPPU)

TL;DR. Average Revenue per Paying User (ARPPU) divides total revenue by the count of paying users in a window. It...

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Average Revenue Per User (ARPU)

TL;DR. Average revenue per user (ARPU) is total revenue divided by active users in a fixed period. It is the cleanest...

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AVOD vs SVOD (Video on Demand)

TL;DR. Video on demand (VOD) lets viewers stream content on demand instead of on a fixed schedule. AVOD is the...

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B
14 terms

Backlinks

TL;DR. A backlink is a link from one website to another. Search engines treat each backlink as a vote of trust. The...

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Banner Ad

TL;DR. A banner ad is a visual ad placed in a fixed slot on a website, app, or mobile screen. It runs as a static...

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Bid

TL;DR. A bid is the price an advertiser is willing to pay for an ad placement, click, view, or conversion in an...

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Bid Shading

TL;DR. Bid shading is a programmatic bidding technique that reduces a buyer's bid in a first-price auction to a...

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Bid Strategy

TL;DR. A bid strategy is the rule set that decides how an ad platform spends your budget in each auction. It can be...

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Black Hat SEO

TL;DR. Black hat SEO is the practice of using tactics that violate search engine guidelines to push a page up the...

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Blacklist

TL;DR. A blacklist is a list of domains, apps, IP addresses, or keywords that an advertiser explicitly blocks from a...

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Bounce Rate

TL;DR. Bounce rate is the percentage of sessions that end on the entry page with no further interaction. In GA4, it is...

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Brand Lift Study

TL;DR. A brand lift study measures how an ad campaign moves brand metrics like awareness, recall, and purchase intent...

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Brand Profile

TL;DR. A brand profile is a structured record of a brand's identity that an AI ad platform uses to keep every generated...

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Brand Safety

TL;DR. Brand safety is the practice of keeping ads away from content that could damage an advertiser's reputation. It...

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Broad Targeting (Meta)

TL;DR. Broad targeting on Meta means setting only age, geo, and language, then letting the delivery algorithm locate...

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Bulk Campaign Launcher

TL;DR. A bulk campaign launcher is a tool that builds and deploys many ad campaigns at once by combining products,...

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Bulk Uploads (Campaigns)

Bulk uploads are a campaign management feature that affiliate marketers and advertisers use to bulk upload multiple...

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C
61 terms

Campaign Automation

TL;DR. Campaign automation is software that runs the repetitive parts of paid advertising without manual clicks. It...

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Campaign Budget Optimization (CBO)

TL;DR. Campaign Budget Optimization (CBO) sets a single budget at the campaign level and lets Meta distribute spend...

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Campaign Compliance

TL;DR. Campaign compliance is the process of ensuring every ad, landing page, and claim meets platform policies,...

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Campaign Launcher

A campaign launcher is a professional tool or platform feature that is designed to speed up the process of...

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Carousel Ads

TL;DR. Carousel Ads are a paid social format that lets one ad unit hold up to 10 cards. Each card carries its own image...

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Catalog Ads / Dynamic Product Ads (DPA)

TL;DR. Catalog ads (also called Dynamic Product Ads or DPA) pull items from a structured product feed and auto-generate...

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CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act)

TL;DR. The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) is a state privacy law that gives California residents the right to...

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Chargeback

TL;DR. A chargeback is a forced payment reversal a cardholder triggers through their issuing bank, not the merchant. It...

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Churn Rate

TL;DR. Churn rate is the percentage of customers, subscribers, or app users who stop paying or stop using a product in...

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Click Arbitrage

TL;DR. Click arbitrage is the practice of buying paid clicks at a lower CPC than the RPC earned from monetizing those...

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Click Fraud

TL;DR. Click fraud is the practice of generating invalid clicks on a paid ad to drain a competitor's budget, inflate...

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Click ID

TL;DR. A click ID is a per-click token (like Google's gclid or Meta's fbclid) added to landing page URLs. Advertisers...

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Click-Through

The act of clicking a link that takes a user to a website. Even while clicking through on an ad is the most common...

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Click-through Rate

The ratio of the users who see the ad to the number of users who click on the ad. If a user visits your advertisement...

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Client Based Tracking

Client-based tracking stores information on the user’s computer by placing a cookie in their browser when the users...

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Cloaking

A technique used to deliver the content on a certain page to a search engine in a way that is different content from...

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Cold Audience

TL;DR. A cold audience is a group of users who have no prior relationship with the brand. They have never visited the...

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Collection Ads

TL;DR. Collection Ads are a Meta mobile-only ad format that pairs a cover image or video with a four-tile product grid....

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Commerce Media

TL;DR. Commerce media is digital advertising sold by a company that owns transaction data. Retailers, marketplaces,...

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Commission

A fee an affiliate gets when they generate a lead or a sale to the advertiser’s website. It’s also called a "referral...

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Connected TV (CTV)

TL;DR. Connected TV (CTV) is video advertising delivered to internet-connected televisions through streaming apps and...

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Consent Management Platform (CMP)

TL;DR. A consent management platform (CMP) is the software layer that shows the cookie banner, records what each...

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Content Approval

TL;DR. Content approval is the review step that decides whether an ad creative is allowed to run on a platform. It...

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Content Farm

TL;DR. A content farm is a website that publishes huge volumes of low-effort articles purely to capture search traffic,...

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Contextual Ads

TL;DR. A contextual ad is an ad unit served next to page content that matches its topic. The unit can be display,...

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Contextual Advertising

TL;DR. Contextual advertising serves ads based on the content of the page, not the identity of the reader. NLP engines...

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Contextual Links

Links found in the body of the article. The clickable text on a web page, typically a keyword, is referred to as the...

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Contextual Targeting

TL;DR. Contextual targeting places ads next to relevant page content rather than tracking individual users. NLP engines...

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Conversion

TL;DR. A conversion is any user action that an advertiser counts as success. Purchases, signups, leads, app installs,...

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Conversion Lift

TL;DR. Conversion lift is a randomized experiment that measures the conversions an ad actually caused, by comparing an...

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Conversion Rate

TL;DR. Conversion rate is the percentage of visitors who complete a desired action, divided by total visitors,...

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Conversion Rate Optimization

TL;DR. Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) is the practice of increasing the share of visitors who complete a desired...

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Conversion Tracking

TL;DR. Conversion tracking is the system that records what users do after clicking an ad. It pairs a browser pixel with...

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Cookies

A small piece of data sent to a user, and their purpose is for the website to remember important information about the...

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Cost Cap Bidding

Cost Cap is a Meta Ads bidding strategy where the advertiser sets a maximum average cost per result, and Meta’s...

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Cost Per Acquisition

Cost Per Acquisition, or CPA, is the amount an advertiser pays for each completed action whether that’s a purchase, a...

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Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)

TL;DR. Cost per acquisition (CPA) is the average cost to win one conversion from paid media. Formula: ad spend divided...

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Cost per Click

A price the advertiser pays every time their banner/creative clicks on. It’s the fee you pay when someone clicks on one...

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Cost Per Click (CPC)

TL;DR. Cost per click (CPC) is the price an advertiser pays each time someone clicks a paid ad. It is calculated by...

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Cost Per Engagement (CPE)

TL;DR. Cost per engagement (CPE) is the price an advertiser pays each time a user interacts with an ad. Engagements...

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Cost Per Install (CPI)

TL;DR. Cost per install (CPI) is total ad spend divided by installs in a period. It is the headline mobile user...

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Cost Per Lead (CPL)

TL;DR. Cost per lead (CPL) is the average paid media cost to capture one lead. Formula: ad spend divided by lead form...

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Cost per One Thousand Impressions

A price the advertiser pays for every thousand impressions on their ad. CPM stands for cost per thousand impressions,...

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Cost Per View (CPV)

TL;DR. Cost per view (CPV) is what an advertiser pays each time a video ad counts as viewed. The threshold changes per...

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CPA (Cost Per Action)

TL;DR. CPA, or cost per action, is an affiliate payout model that pays a fixed fee each time a tracked user completes a...

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CPM advertising

CPM (Cost Per Mille) is a pricing model where you pay a flat rate for every 1,000 impressions your ad receives. “Mille”...

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CPM Advertising

TL;DR. CPM advertising prices ads by every 1,000 impressions served, regardless of clicks. The formula is total spend...

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CPM Auction Dynamics (Meta)

Meta Ads operates on a CPM-based auction where ad delivery is determined by a combination of bid amount, estimated...

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CPM (Cost per Mille / Cost per 1,000 Impressions)

TL;DR. CPM is the price of 1,000 ad impressions. You divide total spend by impressions, then multiply by 1,000. It is...

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CPM (Cost per Mille/Cost per 1,000 Impressions)

Cost to display an ad 1,000 times, used to quantify the effectiveness of advertising campaigns. CPM is a widely used...

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Crawlers

Internet bot that crawls the Web mostly for Web indexing. Every web page on the internet is studied to acquire relevant...

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Creative

TL;DR. A creative is the visual and copy asset a user sees in an ad. Static image, video, carousel, UGC clip, or...

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Creative Compliance

TL;DR. Creative compliance is the pre-launch review process that confirms ad creative meets platform policy,...

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Creative Library

TL;DR. A creative library is a centralized repository of approved ad assets, images, video, copy, and brand guidelines,...

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Creative Library

TL;DR. A creative library is a central store of approved ad assets. Images, videos, headlines, logos, and brand kits...

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Creative Optimization

TL;DR. Creative optimization is the process of testing ad creatives at scale and shifting budget toward the variants...

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CSV File

A type of Excel file. A CSV file is formatted in a way that saves data in a table-structured fashion. CSV files. Each...

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CTR (Click Through Rate)

TL;DR. CTR (click-through rate) is the share of people who click an ad or link after seeing it. The formula is clicks...

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Custom Audience (Meta)

A Custom Audience is a Meta Ads targeting option that lets advertisers reach users based on their own first-party data,...

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Custom Audience (Meta)

TL;DR. A Meta Custom Audience is a list of users built from first-party data: customer files, website visits, app...

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Customer Cohort Analysis

TL;DR. Customer cohort analysis groups users by a shared start event, usually signup or first purchase, and tracks how...

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D
20 terms

Daily Active Users (DAU)

TL;DR. Daily Active Users (DAU) is the count of unique users who interact with a product within a 24-hour window....

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Daily Budget

TL;DR. A daily budget is the average amount an ad campaign is allowed to spend each day. Google and Meta both treat it...

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Data Clean Room

TL;DR. A data clean room is a secure, privacy-preserving environment where two or more parties match and analyze...

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Data-Driven Attribution (DDA)

TL;DR. Data-driven attribution (DDA) is a machine-learning model that assigns conversion credit across every ad...

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Datafeed

TL;DR. A datafeed is a structured file or API stream that ships catalog data from a source system into an ad platform....

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Dayparting

TL;DR. Dayparting is the practice of running ads only during specific hours of the day or days of the week. It cuts...

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Deep Linking

TL;DR. Deep linking is a URL that sends a user to a specific screen inside a mobile app or a specific page on the web,...

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Demand Path Optimization (DPO)

TL;DR. Demand path optimization (DPO) is the publisher-side practice of curating which SSPs, exchanges, and bidders...

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Demand-Side Platform (DSP)

A demand-side platform (DSP) is a software that advertisers use to buy ad space through real-time bidding. With the...

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Demand-Side Platform (DSP)

TL;DR. A demand-side platform (DSP) is software that lets advertisers buy ad inventory across multiple ad exchanges and...

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Direct Billing Flow

When the billing is made by taking money directly from the user’s phone. A mobile user’s mobile number is used to...

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Direct Buy

TL;DR. A direct buy is ad inventory purchased straight from a publisher through a negotiated insertion order, not an...

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Direct Offer

TL;DR. A direct offer is an affiliate deal sourced straight from the advertiser instead of through a network....

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Disclosure

TL;DR. A disclosure is a clear, conspicuous notice that tells readers, viewers, or followers that you are paid, gifted,...

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Display Advertising

TL;DR. Display advertising places visual ads, banner, video, or rich media, on websites, apps, and connected TV. It...

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Domain Authority

TL;DR. Domain Authority (DA) is a Moz metric that scores a website's likely ranking strength on a 0 to 100 logarithmic...

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DOOH (Digital Out-of-Home)

TL;DR. Digital out-of-home (DOOH) is advertising on internet-connected digital screens in public spaces such as...

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Double opt

A term that means the subscriber has confirmed the subscription. A regular Opt-in occurs when a user voluntarily joins...

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Duplicate Content

Content that matches other content completely or is very similar. While it can include copied text, it can also...

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Dynamic Tracking

TL;DR. Dynamic tracking auto-populates URL parameters from variables inside each click event, using macro tokens like...

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F
10 terms

Facebook Ads

TL;DR. Facebook Ads is Meta's auction-based advertising platform that places paid placements across Facebook,...

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Feed Provider

TL;DR. A feed provider is a company that supplies a syndicated feed of search results, products, or sponsored content...

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Feed Revenue Diversification

Feed revenue diversification is defined as the reduction of reliance on a single source of feed-based monetization by...

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Fill Rate

TL;DR. Fill rate is the percentage of ad requests that return a paid ad. It is the publisher's monetization yield on...

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Fired Pixel

An expression, meaning the click was generated (or another event such as sale, transaction, etc.).It’s a piece of code...

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First Click Attribution

TL;DR. First click attribution assigns 100% of conversion credit to the first marketing touchpoint a user interacts...

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First-Party Data

TL;DR. First-party data is information a brand collects directly from its own customers, app users, and site visitors...

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First-Touch Attribution

TL;DR. First-touch attribution gives 100 percent of conversion credit to the first marketing touchpoint a buyer...

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Frequency Cap

TL;DR. A frequency cap is the numeric setting that limits how many times one user or household sees the same ad in a...

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Frequency Capping

TL;DR. Frequency capping is the rule that limits how often a single user or household sees the same ad inside a defined...

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I
12 terms

Identity Resolution

TL;DR. Identity resolution is the process of stitching scattered signals (emails, hashed phone numbers, device IDs,...

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Impression

TL;DR. An impression is a single instance of an ad being served to a user's device. Platforms count it the moment the...

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In-App Advertising

TL;DR. In-app advertising is the practice of showing ads inside mobile apps, sold through networks like Google AdMob,...

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Incrementality Testing

TL;DR. Incrementality testing measures the conversions an ad actually caused versus the conversions that would have...

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Installs Per Mille (IPM)

TL;DR. Installs Per Mille (IPM) measures how many app installs an ad creative drives per 1,000 impressions. Mobile ad...

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Instant Experience (Canvas Ad)

TL;DR. Instant Experience is Meta's full-screen, post-click canvas that opens inside Facebook and Instagram after a tap...

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Interactive Ads

TL;DR. Interactive ads invite the viewer to tap, swipe, play, or shop inside the ad unit itself. Common formats include...

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Internal Linking

It leads to another page that’s on the same website. Put another way, and they’re talking about hyperlinks that point...

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Interstitial Ads

TL;DR. An interstitial ad is a full-screen ad that appears between two content moments, like an app level break or a...

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Invalid Traffic (IVT)

TL;DR. Invalid traffic is any ad impression or click not generated by a real human with genuine intent. The IAB Tech...

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Inventory Curation

TL;DR. Inventory curation is the process of selecting, packaging, and quality-screening programmatic ad supply before...

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iOS 14.5 ATT (App Tracking Transparency)

TL;DR. iOS 14.5 App Tracking Transparency is Apple's privacy framework that forces apps to ask permission before...

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L
12 terms

Customer Lifetime Value (LTV)

TL;DR. Customer lifetime value (LTV) is the total profit a customer generates from the first purchase to the last. It...

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Landing Page

TL;DR. A landing page is a standalone web page built for a single conversion goal. It is where paid traffic lands after...

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Last-Touch Attribution

TL;DR. Last-touch attribution gives 100 percent of the conversion credit to the final marketing touchpoint before a...

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Latent Semantic Indexing Keyword (LSI Keyword)

A computer program that uses context to learn many synonyms. Its method uses mathematical techniques to uncover...

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Lead

A potential customer of the products or services. It can refer to both a potential consumer and a visitor’s behavior in...

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Link building

Getting hyperlinks from other websites that are not your own. Link construction is the process of making changes to a...

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LinkedIn Ads

TL;DR. LinkedIn Ads is the paid advertising platform inside LinkedIn Marketing Solutions. It reaches over 1 billion...

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Link Juice

The power passed to a website via either internal or external source links. It’s a slang term for measuring and...

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LLM (Large Language Model)

TL;DR. A large language model (LLM) is an AI system trained on huge volumes of text to predict the next token in a...

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Lookalike Audience

TL;DR. A lookalike audience is a modeled group of users who resemble a seed list of known customers. Ad platforms run a...

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Lookalike Audience Expansion

Lookalike Audience Expansion is a Meta feature that automatically broadens a defined lookalike audience beyond its...

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Loyalty Affiliates

The users are motivated to a certain action on the affiliate’s website to get a commission. When you urge traffic to...

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M
26 terms

Manual Approval

TL;DR. Manual approval is the human review step that vets affiliate applications, ad creatives, or full campaigns...

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Maximum Budget

TL;DR. Maximum budget is the hard ceiling an advertiser sets on campaign spend, applied either daily or across a...

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Media Buyer

TL;DR. A media buyer plans, negotiates, buys, and optimizes paid ad placements across digital and traditional channels....

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Media Buying Platform

TL;DR. A media buying platform is software that lets advertisers plan, purchase, and optimize ad inventory across...

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Meta Ad Library

TL;DR. The Meta Ad Library is a public, searchable archive of every ad currently running on Facebook, Instagram,...

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Meta Ads Learning Phase

TL;DR. The Meta Ads learning phase is the algorithm's exploration period for new or edited ad sets, ending once the ad...

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Meta Ads Manager

TL;DR. Meta Ads Manager is the central dashboard advertisers use to plan, launch, measure, and optimize paid campaigns...

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Meta Advantage

TL;DR. Meta Advantage is the umbrella brand for Meta's AI-driven ad automation products. It covers Advantage+ Sales...

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Meta Business Manager

TL;DR. Meta Business Manager is the central hub where brands own and organize their Meta assets. Pages, ad accounts,...

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Meta Conversions API (CAPI)

TL;DR. The Meta Conversions API (CAPI) sends conversion events directly from your server to Meta, bypassing the...

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Meta Description

TL;DR. A meta description is the short HTML summary that tells search engines what a page is about. Google often...

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Meta Pixel

The Meta Pixel is a snippet of JavaScript code that you place on your website to track visitor activity. It acts as a...

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Meta Pixel

TL;DR. The Meta Pixel is a JavaScript snippet that loads fbevents.js on your website to track visitors for Facebook and...

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Meta Pixel Events

TL;DR. Meta Pixel events are the named signals your website sends to Meta when a user does something valuable. There...

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Meta Tags

TL;DR. Meta tags are HTML snippets in the <head> of a page that tell search engines and social platforms what the...

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Meta Title

TL;DR. A meta title is the HTML title tag that names a webpage in search results, browser tabs, and social previews. It...

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MFA Sites (Made for Advertising)

TL;DR. MFA sites are web properties built primarily to harvest programmatic ad revenue, not to serve readers. They run...

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Mobile App Fraud

TL;DR. Mobile app fraud is the theft of user acquisition budget through fake installs, hijacked attribution, and...

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Mobile Attribution Manipulation

Unnecessarily serving mobile ads to customers that are close to conversion. As a result, credit for conversions and app...

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Mobile Billing

TL;DR. Mobile billing, also called direct carrier billing or DCB, lets a user charge a digital purchase to their...

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Mobile Game Business Models

A monetization strategy used by developers to achieve revenue. A one-time payment is one option for developers, but...

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Mobile Game Marketing

TL;DR. Mobile game marketing is the practice of acquiring, retaining, and monetizing players for iOS and Android...

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Monetized Search

Monetized search is the methodology of advertising that associates user searches on a site or app with paid results and...

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Monthly Active Users (MAU)

TL;DR. Monthly Active Users (MAU) is the count of unique users who performed a qualifying action inside a product...

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Multi-Touch Attribution

TL;DR. Multi-touch attribution (MTA) splits conversion credit across every marketing touchpoint a buyer interacted with...

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Multivariate Testing (MVT)

TL;DR. Multivariate testing (MVT) changes multiple elements of a page or ad at the same time and measures every...

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O
11 terms

Offer

TL;DR. An offer is the product, service, or promotion an advertiser submits to an affiliate network for publishers to...

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Offer URL

The final URL that the visitor lands on when clicking on the promotion link. A developer’s redirection URL is known as...

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Offer Wall

TL;DR. An offer wall is an in-app screen where users complete paid actions in exchange for app currency. Users install...

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Off-Page SEO

TL;DR. Off-page SEO is everything you do outside your own site to earn ranking trust. Backlinks, brand mentions,...

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Offsite Conversions

Offsite conversions are actions that happen on an advertiser’s website or app after a user clicks or views a Meta ad,...

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On-Page SEO

TL;DR. On-page SEO is the set of edits you make on a webpage to rank higher in search and earn more clicks. It covers...

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Optimization Rules

TL;DR. Optimization rules are automated if-then triggers that pause, scale, or rotate ad campaigns based on performance...

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Opt-In Email

TL;DR. Opt-in email is permission-based marketing. A user actively agrees to receive messages before any send. Two...

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Organic Installs

TL;DR. Organic installs are app downloads not attributed to any paid campaign. They come from store search, ASO, word...

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Outbound Link

A link to another website. An external link, also known as a connector that connects your website that takes users to...

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Outbrain

Outbrain is a platform for native ads, helping brands show sponsored articles and recommendations as part of the...

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P
31 terms

Page Authority

A score from 1-100 that predicts how well will a certain page rank on search engines. Pages with high Page Authority...

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Page Management for Facebook Pages

TL;DR. Page management for Facebook Pages is the day-to-day work of running a brand's Page on Facebook. It covers admin...

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PageRank

An algorithm for ranking sites based on their searches (used by Google). Page Rank is a search engine ranking technique...

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Paid Media

TL;DR. Paid media is any marketing channel where you pay a platform to place a message in front of an audience. It...

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Paid Search

TL;DR. Paid search is the practice of buying ad placements on search engine results pages. Advertisers bid on keywords....

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Pay Bump

TL;DR. A pay bump is a temporary higher payout an advertiser grants a specific affiliate to drive volume, win back lost...

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Payout

TL;DR. A payout is the amount an affiliate network or advertiser pays a publisher for each qualifying conversion....

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Pay Per Click (PPC)

A payment model where the advertiser gets paid every time a user clicks on an ad. PPC is an abbreviation for...

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Pay Per Lead (PPL)

TL;DR. Pay per lead (PPL) is an affiliate pricing model where the advertiser pays a fixed fee for each validated lead...

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Pay Per Sale (PPS)

TL;DR. Pay per sale (PPS), also called CPS, is an affiliate payout model where the advertiser pays the affiliate a...

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Performance Max (PMax)

TL;DR. Performance Max is a Google Ads campaign type that runs across Search, YouTube, Display, Discover, Maps, Gmail,...

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Pinterest Ads

TL;DR. Pinterest Ads are paid Pins that appear in the home feed, search results, and related Pin sections across...

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Pixel

TL;DR. A pixel is a snippet of tracking code (originally a 1x1 transparent image, now usually a JavaScript tag) that...

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Pixel Event

TL;DR. A pixel event is a named signal a tracking pixel fires to an ad platform when a user takes an action. PageView,...

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Playable Mobile Ads

TL;DR. Playable mobile ads are 30 to 60 second HTML5 mini-games that let users try an app inside the ad before...

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Plug-in

A smaller app that adds features to some other larger app. The word "plug-in" refers to a smaller app integrated or...

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Portal

A custom-built website that gathers data from various sources; including email, search engines, and online forums. The...

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Postback URL

TL;DR. A postback URL is a server-to-server call the advertiser fires when a conversion happens. It pings the tracking...

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Postback URL

Postback URL is a method of sending conversion data between an advertiser’s servers and its tracking providers or...

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Post-Install Event

Any user action that happens while using the app after it has been installed. Following the download and installation...

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PPC Affiliates

TL;DR. PPC affiliates are performance marketers who buy paid traffic on platforms like Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, and...

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Predictive Analytics

TL;DR. Predictive analytics uses historical data and machine learning to forecast future outcomes. In marketing, it...

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Prelander

TL;DR. A prelander is a short bridge page that appears after the ad click and before the actual offer. Affiliates use...

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Privacy Sandbox

TL;DR. Privacy Sandbox is Chrome's stack of privacy-preserving advertising APIs. It replaces cross-site cookie use...

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Product Feed

TL;DR. A product feed is a structured file (XML, TXT, CSV, or API) that lists every SKU you sell with attributes like...

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Profit

The money you earn from your sales after subtracting all your expenses. It is an accounting phrase for the difference...

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Programmatic Audio

TL;DR. Programmatic audio is the automated buying of digital audio ad inventory across music streaming, digital radio,...

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Programmatic Direct

TL;DR. Programmatic direct is automated media buying without an open auction. The buyer reserves inventory from one...

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Prompt Engineering

TL;DR. Prompt engineering is the craft of writing instructions that get reliable, on-brand output from AI models. For...

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Publisher

TL;DR. A publisher is the owner of a website, app, email list, or social account who monetizes traffic by serving ads...

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Purchase Event

TL;DR. The Purchase event is the Meta Pixel standard event that fires when a customer completes an order. It carries...

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R
27 terms

Raw Clicks

TL;DR. Raw clicks are the unfiltered total of every click event a tracker records before deduplication, bot exclusion,...

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Real-Time Bidding (RTB)

TL;DR. Real-time bidding (RTB) is the auction mechanism that prices and serves a digital ad impression in under 100...

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Real-Time Reporting

TL;DR. Real-time reporting surfaces ad and marketing performance data within seconds to minutes of an event firing....

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Reciprocal Links

An agreement between web admins of exchanging a link between the two websites. These links connect websites that have...

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Reddit Ads

TL;DR. Reddit Ads is the self-serve and managed advertising system for Reddit. Advertisers buy auction-priced...

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Redirection

Process of having a URL, when it is clicked, forwards to a different URL. It’s also known as URL forwarding because it...

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Reels Ads

TL;DR. Reels Ads are full-screen vertical video placements that run between organic Reels on Instagram and Facebook....

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Referral Bonus Programs

TL;DR. A referral bonus program rewards existing users for bringing in new ones. Rewards can be one-sided, two-sided,...

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Referring Domain

A domain from where backlinks are coming. In the SEO world, it’s also referred to as a linking domain, and it’s a...

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Referring URL

The URL of a web page that sends traffic to your page or website. When you click on an internal link on a webpage, you...

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Retail Media Network (RMN)

A Retail Media Network (RMN) is an advertising platform built and operated by a retailer that allows brands to buy ad...

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Retail Media Network (RMN)

TL;DR. A retail media network (RMN) is an ad platform owned by a retailer that lets brands buy on-site, in-app, and...

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Retention Rate

TL;DR. Retention rate is the percentage of users, customers, or accounts who stay active over a defined window. It is...

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Return on Investment (ROI)

TL;DR. Return on investment (ROI) measures the net profit a marketing campaign produces relative to its total cost. The...

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Revenue

Total sales calculated before the expenses are subtracted. The income that is recognized after a particular period is...

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Revenue Clawback (in feeds)

Revenue clawback is a system by which income previously granted is cancelled due to counterfeit, erroneous, or bad...

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Revenue Per Click (RPC)

TL;DR. Revenue Per Click (RPC) is total revenue divided by total clicks, expressed in dollars. Affiliates,...

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Revise (Creative Variation Tool)

TL;DR. A revise tool takes one existing ad creative and generates AI variants by swapping specific elements: headline,...

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Rewarded Video

TL;DR. Rewarded video is an opt-in mobile ad format where a user watches a 15 to 30 second video or playable in...

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ROAS Calculator

TL;DR. A ROAS calculator divides revenue from ads by ad spend to return a single multiplier. Plug in $40,000 revenue...

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ROAS (Return on Ad Spend)

TL;DR. ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) is the revenue generated for every dollar spent on ads. Formula: revenue from ads...

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Robots.txt

Web admins use a Robots.txt file to give instructions to web robots. Robots.txt exclusion protocol is a text file that...

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Robots.txt

Web admins use a Robots.txt file to give instructions to web robots. Robots.txt exclusion protocol is a text file that...

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ROI (Return on Investment)

ROI (Return on Investment) is a primary metric that assesses the profitability of a campaign on the basis of comparing...

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RON (Run of Network)

TL;DR. Run of Network (RON) is an ad buy that spreads impressions across every publisher in an ad network without...

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Root Domain

The shortest form of the domain. The root domain is the highest level of the Internet’s hierarchies, surpassing...

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RSOC (Related Search on Content)

TL;DR. RSOC, short for Related Search on Content, is a Google AdSense for Search product. Publishers embed a search box...

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S
45 terms

S2S (Server-to-Server) Tracking

TL;DR. S2S tracking records conversions through direct server-to-server calls instead of browser pixels. The advertiser...

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S2S Tracking

A unique identification is generated and stored when a user clicks on a tracking link or generates an ad impression...

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Scaling Campaigns

Scaling Campaigns refers to the act of spreading broader ad budgets using reach extensions to increase campaign...

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Search Arbitrage

TL;DR. Search arbitrage is the practice of buying cheap paid traffic, sending it to a content page that hosts a Google...

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Search Engine

A software application designed to find specific digital resources, web pages, images, videos, etc., using keywords...

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Search Engine Results Page (SERP)

Results that the search engine finds when searching for a word or sentence query. After submitting a search query, SERP...

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Search Feed

TL;DR. A search feed is an XML or JSON stream of paid search ads syndicated from Google, Microsoft, or Yahoo to...

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Search Feed Compliance

Search feed compliance mandates that every search feed be technically, legally, and qualitatively compatible with...

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Search Intent Targeting

TL;DR. Search intent targeting reaches users based on the queries they type, not who they are. It uses keyword data to...

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Search Monetization

TL;DR. Search monetization is the practice of turning search queries and search-result pages into ad revenue, typically...

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Search Redirection

Search redirection is a marketing technique that helps bring in maximum advertising revenue by redirecting users away...

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Search Term

A word or a phrase that users type into a search engine when searching for something. A search term can also be called...

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Search to Search

TL;DR. Search to search (S2S) is an arbitrage strategy where marketers buy paid search clicks on Google or Bing, route...

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Search Traffic

TL;DR. Search traffic is the slice of website visitors who arrive from a search engine. It splits into organic (unpaid...

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SEO Affiliates

TL;DR. SEO affiliates are publishers who rank in Google for buyer-intent keywords, then monetize the traffic with...

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Server-Side Tracking

TL;DR. Server-side tracking sends conversion events from your backend directly to ad platforms via authenticated APIs....

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Shopify Ads Integration

TL;DR. A Shopify ads integration is the connection between a Shopify store and an ad platform like Meta, Google, or...

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Single Offer

TL;DR. A single offer is an affiliate campaign that points all traffic to one specific advertiser, landing page, and...

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Single opt-in

Conversion flow that requires only one conformation. It is a one-step method that only requires a single confirmation,...

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Site map

An organized model of the content on a website, helps users find the info they need. It contains information on the...

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SKAdNetwork (SKAN)

TL;DR. SKAdNetwork (SKAN) is Apple's privacy-preserving attribution API for iOS ad campaigns. It returns aggregated...

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Smartlink

TL;DR. A smartlink is a single tracking URL that sends each click to the highest-paying affiliate offer that matches...

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Smart Optimization Bots

Smart optimization bots are real-time AI-driven automated systems that monitor, analyze, and optimize campaign settings...

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Smart Resize (AI)

TL;DR. Smart Resize (AI) is a workflow that takes one ad creative and rebuilds it for every placement format. The model...

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SMS Billing Flow

SMS Billing Flow is when users need to give their phone number to subscribe to something (usually used for connecting...

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Snapchat Ads

TL;DR. Snapchat Ads are paid placements that run between Stories, in Discover, in Spotlight, and through AR Lenses...

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Social Marketers

TL;DR. Social marketers are professionals who plan, produce, and measure paid and organic content across platforms like...

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Social Proof in Ads

TL;DR. Social proof in ads embeds trust signals, reviews, ratings, testimonials, user counts, expert endorsements, into...

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Social to Search

Social to search is the type of ad format in affiliate marketing that is served on social traffic. Social to search...

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Social Traffic (Social Advertisements)

TL;DR. Social traffic is the visits a website receives from social platforms, either from organic posts or paid social...

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Soft Launch

TL;DR. A soft launch is a deliberately limited release of a product, app, or ad campaign. It tests demand, pricing, and...

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Software Development Kit (SDK)

A bundle of software development tools and devices placed in one installable package. It is also possible to separate...

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Spiders (Web crawling)

Several website URLs that need to be visited, and these are seeds. The crawler of the search engine visits every web...

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Split Testing (A/B Testing)

TL;DR. Split testing, also called A/B testing, runs two versions of a page, ad, or email at the same time to see which...

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SSP (Supply-Side Platform)

TL;DR. A supply-side platform (SSP) is software that lets publishers sell their ad inventory programmatically across...

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Story Ads

TL;DR. Story Ads are full-screen vertical (9:16) ads that appear between user-generated Stories on Instagram, Facebook,...

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Sub ID tracking

Tracking the performance of the campaigns by analyzing publishers. Campaign performance can be tracked using...

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SubID Tracking

TL;DR. SubID tracking is a method where affiliates append custom parameters to their links, like sub1 or aff_sub, to...

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Super Affiliates

TL;DR. Super affiliates are the top 1-3% of partners in any program, often generating $100k+ per month and accounting...

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Supply Path Optimization (SPO)

Supply Path Optimization (SPO) is the practice of identifying and prioritizing the most direct, transparent, and...

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Supply Path Optimization (SPO)

TL;DR. Supply path optimization (SPO) is the buy-side practice of curating which exchanges, SSPs, and resellers a DSP...

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Supply Side Platform (SSP)

A technology platform that enables web publishers to manage their advertising space inventory, fill it with ads, and...

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Suppression List

TL;DR. A suppression list is a record of contacts who must not receive your marketing. It includes unsubscribers, hard...

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Sweepstakes

TL;DR. A sweepstakes is a promotion where participants submit basic information (name, email, postal address) for a...

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Synthetic Media

TL;DR. Synthetic media is image, video, audio, or text content produced or materially altered by generative AI. It...

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T
20 terms

Taboola

Taboola is a native advertising network that displays sponsored content and recommendations on a wide range of partner...

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Targeted Marketing

TL;DR. Targeted marketing reaches a defined audience with a message built for them, instead of broadcasting to...

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Targeted Traffic

TL;DR. Targeted traffic is visitors who match your offer by search intent, audience signal, or context. It converts at...

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Text Link

A link to a web page without an image attached. A text link is also called an anchor text or link label and refers to...

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Third-Party Cookie Deprecation

TL;DR. Third-party cookie deprecation is the gradual end of cross-site tracking cookies in major browsers. Safari...

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Third-Party Tracking

TL;DR. Third-party tracking measures ad activity through entities other than the publisher or advertiser, using...

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Threads Ads

TL;DR. Threads Ads are sponsored placements inside Meta's text-first social network. Launched as a closed image-ad beta...

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Thumb-Stop Rate

TL;DR. Thumb-stop rate measures the percentage of feed impressions where a scroller actually pauses on your video,...

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TikTok Ads

TL;DR. TikTok Ads are paid placements that run inside TikTok's For You feed, on TopView, and across the audience...

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TLD

Top-level Domain – A letter normally following the final dot of a web address. TLDs are usually categorized as two:...

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Token

Token is used to optimize campaigns by tracking specific info in an ad campaign provided by a paid traffic network....

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Tracking Link

TL;DR. A tracking link is a URL with appended parameters that record where a click came from, who sent it, and what...

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Tracking Method

TL;DR. A tracking method is the technical approach used to record ad clicks and conversions. The main options are pixel...

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Tracking Pixel

TL;DR. A tracking pixel is a 1x1 transparent image or JavaScript tag embedded in a webpage, email, or app that fires a...

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Tracking Platform

TL;DR. A tracking platform records every click, click ID, and conversion across affiliate campaigns, then attributes...

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Tracking Software

TL;DR. Tracking software is the system that records every click, conversion, and payout in an affiliate or performance...

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Tracking URL

TL;DR. A tracking URL is a web address with appended query parameters that record click metadata before the page loads....

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Traffic

TL;DR. Traffic is the flow of visitors arriving at a website, app, or ad placement. Each visitor comes from a source:...

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Traffic Arbitration Risk Management

Traffic arbitration risk management refers to the methods and controls used to mitigate risks in buying and reselling...

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Traffic Networks

Traffic networks are platforms that connect publishers and advertisers by sharing web traffic, with the purpose of...

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U
10 terms

UGC Ads

TL;DR. UGC ads are paid social ads that look and feel like organic creator content. First-person, lo-fi, phone-shot....

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Unified Reporting

TL;DR. Unified reporting consolidates ad performance data from every paid channel into one view, so marketers can...

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Unique Clicks

TL;DR. Unique clicks measure how many distinct users or sessions clicked an ad or link, not the raw click total....

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Unique User

TL;DR. A unique user is a deduplicated count of distinct people interacting with a campaign or property over a defined...

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URL–Uniform Resource Locator (Web Address)

A Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is a unique identification for a resource located on the Internet. Every proper URL...

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User Acquisition (UA)

TL;DR. User acquisition (UA) is the practice of attracting new users to an app, game, or SaaS product through paid and...

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User Ad Revenue

Revenue generated by users from viewing in-app ads. User ad revenue is the rate of revenue and efficiency a developer...

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User Engagement

TL;DR. User engagement measures how actively people interact with a product, page, or piece of content. It covers time...

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User Freshness

User freshness represents the time since the user opted to get push notifications. It is one of the strongest user...

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User Segmentation

TL;DR. User segmentation is the practice of grouping customers into clusters that share traits, behavior, or value....

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