Ad Tech Glossary
Plain-language definitions of the ad serving and ad tech terms publishers run into most often.
- Ad server
- Software that selects, delivers and tracks ads in a publisher's ad placements.
- CPM
- Cost per mille: the price an advertiser pays for one thousand impressions.
- Direct-sold advertising
- Ad campaigns sold directly by a publisher's sales team to an advertiser, rather than through automated auctions.
- DSP (demand-side platform)
- Technology advertisers and agencies use to buy ad inventory programmatically.
- Fill rate
- The percentage of ad requests that are filled with an ad.
- First-party data
- Data a company collects directly from its own audience, such as subscriber or shopper data.
- Header bidding
- A technique where multiple demand partners bid on an impression at the same time before the ad server makes its final decision. Prebid.js is the most common open-source implementation.
- Impression
- A single instance of an ad being served to a user.
- Native ad
- An ad that matches the look and feel of the content around it, such as a sponsored article card in a news feed.
- Programmatic advertising
- Automated buying and selling of ad impressions through real-time auctions between demand and supply platforms.
- Retail media
- Advertising sold by retailers and marketplaces on their own websites, apps and channels, often using first-party shopper data.
- Self-serve ad portal
- A website where advertisers can book, pay for and manage their own campaigns without contacting the publisher's sales team.
- Sponsored products
- Paid product listings that appear in a retailer's search results or category pages.
- SSP (supply-side platform)
- Technology that helps publishers sell ad inventory programmatically to many buyers.
- VAST
- Video Ad Serving Template, the IAB standard that tells a video player which ad to play and how to track it.
- Zone (ad unit)
- A defined ad placement on a page, app or email where the ad server delivers ads.