Digital Advertising Glossary: 59 Essential Digital Advertising Terms for 2024

Whether it’s audience targeting, click-through rate, or call to action, navigating the realm of digital advertising often involves encountering various terms that might seem unfamiliar. With abundant jargon in digital advertising, staying abreast of these terms can prove challenging for newcomers.

Digital Advertising Terminology and Glossary

Starting with an overview of digital advertising terms, let’s delve into the various jargon:

A

A/B test: A method of comparing two different ad versions to determine which performs better, aiming to optimize user response.

Above the fold is the visible area of a webpage before scrolling, and it varies depending on the device or resolution.

Ad tech: Technology empowering advertisers to control ad placement, such as Adroll and Tapad.

Algorithm: A rules guiding computer operations, like Google’s ad relevance algorithm.

Alternative text: Descriptive text accompanying images for accessibility and search engine context.

Artificial Intelligence (AI): Technology emulating human intelligence, useful for tasks like speech recognition.

Audience: Target individuals for ad outreach based on demographics and characteristics.

Audience targeting: Segregating consumer bases into groups for tailored ads.

B

B2B digital advertising: Paid online promotion for business-to-business (B2B) entities across various channels.

Banner ad: A display ad appears as a clickable banner on websites, often combining text and images.

Behavioral retargeting: Targeting past website visitors showing interest but not converting.

Blacklist: Exclusion list for users, advertisers, or publishers from viewing specific ad campaigns.

Bounce rate: The ratio of users leaving a page without interaction to total sessions indicates page quality.

Brand awareness: Consumer recognition of a product, service, or business without research.

C

Call to action (CTA): Button or text prompting a specific action, guiding users through the sales funnel.

Campaign: Marketing initiative aimed at specific goals, like revenue or engagement.

Channel: Distribution outlet for ads, spanning radio to social media.

Click-through rate: Ratio of clicks on an ad or search result to total views.

Conversion: Desired user action after viewing an ad, like a purchase or account creation.

Conversion rate: Ratio of total conversions to website visitors.

Cookie: Browser-stored data tracking user preferences and behaviors.

Competitor geofencing advertising: Targeting users within a virtual fence around competitor locations.

Copy: Ad text conveying information and encouraging conversions.

Cost per Acquisition (CPA): Cost of acquiring a single customer, calculated by total spend divided by acquired customers.

Cost per Click (CPC): Average advertiser cost per click, determined by total spend divided by clicks.

Cost per Lead (CPL): Cost of generating each conversion or lead, calculated by total spend divided by conversions.

Cost per Thousand (CPM): 1000 ad impressions, typically for brand awareness campaigns.

Cost per View (CPV): Price per video ad play lasting at least 30 seconds, calculated by total spend divided by video plays.

D

Digital advertising is an online strategy for promoting businesses, products, and services, emphasizing revenue generation and data-driven decision-making.

Display advertising is text, image, or video ads on websites, apps, and social media that direct users to advertiser web pages upon clicking.

Domain: Website name visible in the browser's address bar, such as Target.com or Walmart.com.

Domain authority: Metric assessing website quality and influence.

Dynamic ads: Personalized ads tailored to the viewer for enhanced performance.

E

Email advertising: Ads in users' inboxes, resembling regular emails but labeled as ads.

Ecommerce Digital Advertising: Targets on digitally promoting websites and products, leveraging data for decision-making.

F

Frequency: Number of times a user views the same ad within a period.

Frequency capping: Limiting ad views per user within a specific time frame.

G

Geographic targeting: Selecting a campaign audience based on geographic factors like cities, states, or zip codes.

Geofencing: Using GPS to create virtual fences, targeting users within designated regions.

H

Headings: Title atop landing pages, offering insight into page content.

I

Impression: Total ad views, irrespective of clicks.

Internal Links: Links within a website guiding users to relevant pages.

K

Key performance indicator (KPI): Metrics used to measure campaign success aligned with goals.

Keyword: Targeted terms relevant to advertisers, matching user search queries.

Keyword research: Data-driven process identifying search terms relevant to a business.

L

Landing page: Web page for users clicking on ads, optimized for conversion.

Lead: Prospect showing interest in products or services, often by providing contact information.

M

Mobile ads: Advertisements designed for display on mobile devices.

N

Native ads: Blend seamlessly with surrounding content on websites.

O

Online advertising: Promoting businesses and offerings via internet ads across various platforms.

P

Paid search: Placing ads directly on search engine result pages (SERPs).

Pay-per-click (PPC): Payment model charging advertisers for each click on their ad.

Premium ad inventory: High-quality ad spaces are often priced higher.

Programmatic Advertising: Automated ad management using AI for buying and selling ads.

Programmatic marketing: Real-time bidding for hyper-targeted ad placement.

Publisher: Website producing content and hosting ads.

R

Reach: Proportion of intended audience exposed to display ads.

Retargeting: Targeting users who visited a website but did not convert with ads elsewhere.

Return on Advertising Spend (ROAS): Revenue generated per ad dollar spent.

Return on investment (ROI): Revenue divided by total costs, gauging ad effectiveness.

S

Search engine crawler: Tool gathering data from web pages for search engine indexing.

Search engine optimization (SEO): Optimizing web pages to increase search engine visibility.

Social advertising: Paid ads on social media platforms.

Static ad: Permanent ad content appearing across various formats.

T

Title tags: Text providing page details in search engine results, influencing click-through rates.

U

Unique visitor: Individual user counts visiting a site, regardless of visit frequency.

User experience (UX): Designing online experiences catering to user needs.

User Intent: Purpose behind user search queries.