Return to top of Page Advertising Content Terms As advertising opportunities on the Internet increase in complexity, the content of the advertisement itself is under considerable evolution. The categories provided here attempt to give some structure to the new advertising possibilities that are becoming available. These include Banners, Interstitials, Interactive Product Placement, and more. Banner Animated Banner Linking Banner Interactive Banner Web Advertorial Environmental Advertisement Interstitial Advertisement Interactive Interstitial Advertisement Pop-up Advertisements Product Placement Interactive Product Placement External Ad link Webfomercial Return to top of Page Banner A static image advertisement. Return to top of Page Animated Banner An animated image advertisement. Return to top of Page Linking Banner A static or animated image advertisement that links to another Internet address. Return to top of Page Interactive Banner A banner advertisement that responds to user events, such as mouse clicks and rollovers. Return to top of Page Web Advertorial Internet page or pages dedicated to providing information about a specific product, concept, or service. Created in non-programmable media and intended as an end destination, unlike banner ads. See also Webfomercial. Return to top of Page Environmental Advertisement A term that refers to and includes Interactive Banners, Web Advertorials, Interstitial Advertisements, Interactive Interstitial Advertisements, Pop-up Advertisements, Product Placement, Interactive Product Placement, External Ad links, and Webfomercials. Differentiated from non-environmental ads, environmental ads are intended to be engaging, entertaining, and/or interactive. Return to top of Page Interstitial Advertisement A static or animated image that appears while the primary destination is being loaded into memory. Return to top of Page Interactive Interstitial Advertisement An interactive advertisement that appears while the primary destination is being loaded into memory. Return to top of Page Pop-up Advertisements Sometimes referred to as an Interstitial, the Pop-up advertisement is a static or animated image that launches in its own window. These can be triggered when first entering a website or in response to user input. Return to top of Page Product Placement or Product Branding A still or animated image representing a product or brand placed within a programmable environment. Return to top of Page Interactive Product Placement or Interactive Product Branding An object responding to user events that represents a product or brand placed within a programmable environment. Return to top of Page External Adlink A clickable advertisement within a programmable environment that links to another Internet address. Return to top of Page Webfomercial An interactive or animated advertisement created in programmable media and intended as an end destination, as contrasted with interstitials, interactive interstitials, and interactive banners. Return to top of Page Ad Tracking Terms - Site or Visit Based Tracking terms for Websites are generally focused on two different events: the event of the Visit and the event of the Placed Advertisement. In the first generation of Web advertising, the Placed Advertisement captured the attention of most market entrants. Advertisers, developers and their clients looked to the statistical measure of the placement of banner advertisements on pages. As companies and advertising agencies are seeking "beyond-the-banner" advertising opportunities, visit and site-centered statistics become increasingly important. These are usually associated with paid and unpaid membership models. These newer forms are generally based on psychographic models as opposed to the more static models associated with banner advertisement. Visitor behavior is more effectively tracked when using Site and Visit measurements as opposed to the narrower target of traditional advertising-centered statistics. See also Visitor Terms for additional visit-centered terminology. Visit Session Website Exposure Website Reach Visit Duration Time Raw Visit Depth Visit Depth Return to top of Page Visit A series of web page requests made by a visitor at the site. (A new visit begins after inactivity of more than 30 minutes) Return to top of Page Session A series of visits made by a visitor to a series of web sites Return to top of Page Website Exposure The total number of times visitors were exposed to the Web Site in a time period Return to top of Page Website Reach The total number of individual visitors that were exposed to a Web Site. Return to top of Page Visit Duration Time The length of time a visitor spends at the web site. Return to top of Page Raw Visit Depth The total number of pages a visitor is exposed to during single visit to a web site in a time period Return to top of Page Visit Depth The total number of unique pages a visitor is exposed to during a single visit in a time period (Excludes page duplication) Return to top of Page Ad Tracking Terms - Advertisement Based Advertisement-based tracking terminology centers around the measure of advertisement exposure and effectiveness. While there has been a move towards Site and Visit Based tracking, it is the exposure and effectiveness of the advertisement itself that is understandably at the heart of online advertisers' attentions. As new methods of embedding advertisements into immersive environments are becoming available, pressure is increasing for advertising agencies to develop and offer additional methods of measuring the effectiveness and exposure of next generation Web advertisements. The list here can be expected to grow as new methods of advertising become trackable and quantifiable. Ad Click-Through Ad Click-Through Distribution Ad Click-Through Frequency Ad Click-Through Reach Ad Duration Time Ad Effective Frequency Ad Effective Reach Ad Effective Visit Frequency Ad Effective Visit Reach Exposure (Ad/Page/Product) Exposure (Site) Frequency Hit Impression Reach (Site) Reach (Ad/Page/Product) Reach Duplication Return to top of Page Ad Click-Through The percentage of time visitors who were exposed to an initial ad that clicked on it and went to another location. Return to top of Page Ad Click-Through Distribution The number of times an individual visitor clicked on an initial ad and went to another location. Return to top of Page Ad Click-Through Frequency The distribution of the number of times individuals clicked on an initial ad and were exposed to additional ad Return to top of Page Ad Click-Through Reach Total Number of individual visitors who clicked on an initial ad and were exposed to additional ad in a time period Return to top of Page Ad Duration Time The length of time an individual visitor is exposed to an advertisement. Return to top of Page Ad Effective Frequency The number of exposures to an ad necessary to prompt a visitor to click on ad and be exposed to more information. Return to top of Page Ad Effective Reach Total number of individual visitors exposed to an ad at the effective frequency level in one or more visits in a time period. Return to top of Page Ad Effective Visit Frequency The number of exposures to an ad necessary to prompt visitor to click on ad and be exposed to more information in one session Return to top of Page Ad Effective Visit Reach Total number of individual visitors exposed to an ad at the effective frequency level in one session. Return to top of Page Exposure (Ad/Page/Product) The total number of times visitors were exposed to an ad/page/product in a time period without regard to visitor duplication. See also Hit and Impression. Return to top of Page Exposure (Site) Total number of sessions at the web site in a time period, without regard to duplication. Return to top of Page Frequency The distribution of the number of times individual visitors were exposed to an Ad/Page/Product/Site in a time period Return to top of Page Hit A number that represents the individual files that were requested from a server. These include HTML, image, and other files. Return to top of Page Impression A number that represents the number of HTML pages that were requested from a server. Also referred to as Page View. Return to top of Page Reach (Ad/Page/Product) Total number of individual visitors exposed to an ad/page/product in a time period Return to top of Page Reach (Site) Total number of individual visitors at the web site in a time period. Return to top of Page Reach Duplication The number of individual visitors to the web site that are exposed to the same Ad/Product at more than one of the sites in a time period. Return to top of Page Visitor Terms Visitors to websites are grouped into two categories: Identified and Unidentified visitors. Both "member" and "guest" can provide valuable information to the advertiser. The unidentified visitor is the broader target of advertisement-centered campaigns. These are the large numbers of eyeballs that images are targeted for, and provide the advertiser its first-level Demographic base. The identified visitor provides more valuable Psychographic information, which in addition to providing the raw numbers that are used for Hit and Impression calculations, provide information that can only be determined through measuring behavior variables. This is done through establishing a Personal Profile system that stores information on members. Visitors become identified through voluntarily becoming a member; through the tracking of contact with the visitor through client methods, such as cookies, or server-side methods, such as Intelligent Agents. These can be done with or without the visitor's permission, although there are security features built into the browsers that provide some degree of protection from hostile persons. Identified Visitor Personal Profile Unidentified Visitor Visitor Return to top of Page Identified Visitor A visitor who has provided a personal profile, has a screen name, and user ID, and whose behavior can be tracked through multiple visits to the web site as well as to other web sites. Linked to Personal Profile. Return to top of Page Personal Profile A personal preference file created from a survey voluntarily filled out by a visitor. Contains information such as e-mail address, screen name, personal preferences etc. Linked to Identified Visitor. Return to top of Page Unidentified Visitor A visitor who has not provided personal information. Return to top of Page Visitor An individual that visits the web site. Return to top of Page Various Terms The following terms do not fall into the other categories on this page, but an understanding of each will help with the understanding of other concepts and items discussed in this glossary. Some of the terms come from the world of print or broadcast advertising, while others apply only to the online marketplace, such as cookies. Additional information can be found through the links on our advertising resource page. Auditing Demographics Cookies CPM Immersive Media Intelligent Agents Psychographics Site Sponsorship Return to top of Page Auditing The verification of statistics. Generally performed by one of a small group of companies with reputations for accuracy in reporting. Return to top of Page Cookies Cookies are small text files left on a user's hard disk to store information for a specified server to access. The text files store up to 4096 characters and are used to maintain state variables, to conduct transactions, and other client-server functions. Return to top of Page CPM Cost per thousand. This number is used to calculate the cost of advertising based on the thousands of times that it is viewed. Originated in print media. Return to top of Page Demographics Individual and aggregate statistics about a population, such as sex, age, height, etc. Demographics are founded on relatively unquestionable, objective facts, unlike Psychographics, which are built on attitudes and behaviors. Return to top of Page Immersive Media Media in whch the visitor, or user, interacts with environmental elements, and affects her or his outcome with such interaction. Immersive media include virtual worlds built in VRML, Shockwave, Java, and other programming environments. Return to top of Page Intelligent Agents Applications that run on a server that perform a variety of functions on the Internet. Among these are searching for destinations of a specified critera, alerting a user when a stock price passes a specified level, and other user-defined tasks. Return to top of Page Psychographics Individual and aggregate behavior and lifestyle based statistics. As contrasted to Demographics, Psychographics are built off of the concept of choice. As behavior, attitude, and lifestyle influence choice as much as demographic variables, such as race and sex, psychographic information helps marketers plan focused campaigns. Return to top of Page Site Sponsorship Overall Sponsorship (host) of a site Return to top of Page