Essential terms and definitions relating to buying or selling advertising on the Web.
A clickthrough occurs when a user clicks on an ad and gets successfully redirected to the advertiser's Web site.
Advertising pricing model where advertisers pay only when users completes a specific desired action. The action is usually a sales transaction or a registration. Also known as cost-per-acquisition or cost-per-transaction.
The rate at which visitors are "converted" from viewing an ad to taking a desirable action on an advertiser's Web site. The desired action might be buying a product, registering for a membership, opting into a mailing list, or subscribing to an RSS feed.
Advertising designed to be related to a Web site's content. For example, placing presidential campaign ads on a political blog is a form of contextual advertising.
Advertising pricing model where advertisers pay by the number of times visitors click on an ad. A typical range is 5 cents to $1 per click. Also known as pay-per-click.
How much it costs an advertiser to show an ad 1,000 times. A $100 CPM means the advertiser paid $100 per every 1,000 times his ad appears on a Web site. CPM is the most common measurement of online advertising costs. Also known as cost per thousand (Mille is Latin for one thousand).
A small file Web sites leave on its visitors' computers. Cookies allow websites to identify each user as an unique individual. Web sites use this information to provide customized content, track traffic patterns, and identify usage habits among its visitors.
A banner ad that expands in size after a user clicks on it or hovers the cursor over the banner.
An ad that appears on the main browser window and floats across the top of the webpage's normal content.
The ability to target ads at users based on their geographic location. The targeting can be based on country, state, city, or postal code. Geo-targeting is an important tool for local small businesses that wants to run focused, cost-effective ad campaigns.
