This internet marketing jargon buster will help you get to grips with all the latest online jargon. As the internet advertising industry grows, so too does the number of technical terms we need to get our heads around.
From algorithms and avatars through to WAP and wi-fi, via MPUs and ISPs, the jargon busting glossary over the following pages will help you get to grips with the watchwords and phrases at the heart of online advertising.
Abandon – When a user does not complete a transaction.
AB Testing – AB testing refers to two different versions of a page or a page element such as a heading, image or button. AB testing is aimed at increasing page or site effectiveness against key performance indicators including click through rates, conversion rates and revenue per visit.
Above the fold – A term derived from printed media, which is used to indicate whether a banner advertisement or other content is displayed on a web page without the need to scroll.
Access Platform – A method for customers to access digital media. Depending on usage of term, it may consist of hardware and or a browser.
Access Provider – A company providing services to enable a company or individual to access the Internet. Access Providers are divided into Internet service providers (ISPs) and online service providers (OSPs).
Active server page ASP – A type of HTML page (denoted by an .asp file name) that includes scripts (small programs) that are processed on a web server before the web page is served to the user’s web browser.
ActiveX – A programming language standard developed by Microsoft, which permits complex and graphical customer applications to be written and then accessed from a web browser.
Ad Creative – The design and content of an advert.
Ad Inventory – The total number of ad impressions that a web site can sell over time (usually specified per month).
Ad Rotation – When advertisements are changed on a website for different user sessions. This may be in response to ad targeting or simply displaying different advertisements from those on a list.
Advertiser – Also called Merchant, Retailer, E-retailer, or Online Retailer. Any website that sells a product or service, accepts payments, and fulfills orders. An advertiser places ads and links to their products and services on other websites (publishers) and pays those publishers a commission for leads or sales that result from their site.
Advergame – Advergaming is the practice of using video games to advertise a product, organization or viewpoint. The term “advergames” was coined in January 2000 by Anthony Giallourakis who purchased the domain names Advergames.com along with Adverplay.com. (Wikipedia)
Ad Impression – An advertisement impression transpires each time a consumer is exposed to as advertisement (either appended to an SMS or MMS message, on mobile web (WAP) page, within a video clip, or related media).
Ad Serving – Delivery of online adverts to an end user’s computer by an ad management system. The system allows different online adverts to be served in order to target different audience groups and can serve adverts across multiple sites. Ad Technology providers each have their own proprietary models for this.
Ad Unit – Any defined advertising vehicle that can appear in an ad space inside of an application e.g. for the purposes of promoting a commercial brand, product or service.
Affiliate Marketing – An affiliate (a web site owner or publisher), displays an advertisement (such as a banner or link) on its site for a merchant (the brand or advertiser). If a consumer visiting the affiliate’s site clicks on this advertisement and goes onto perform a specified action (usually a purchase) on an advertisers site then the affiliate receives a commission.
Algorithm – The set of ‘rules’ a search engine may use to determine the relevance of a web page (and therefore ranking) in its organic search results. See also organic search results and Search Engine Optimisation.
Application Service Provider (ASP) – An online network that is accessible through the Internet instead of through the installation of software. It is quickly integrated with other websites and the services are easily implemented and scalable.
Avatar – A picture or cartoon used to represent an individual in chat forums, games or on a website as a help function.
Bandwidth – The transmission rate of a communication line- usually measured in Kilobytes per second (Kbps). This relates to the amount of data that can be carried per second by your internet connection. See also Broadband.
Banner – A long, horizontal, online advert usually found running across the top of a page in a fixed placement. See also Universal Advertising Package, embedded formats.
BARB – Broadcasters Audience Research Board is responsible for the measurement of TV viewing.
Behavioural Targeting – A form of online marketing that uses advertising technology to target web users based on their previous behaviour. Advertising creative and content can be tailored to be of more relevance to a particular user by capturing their previous decision making behaviour (e.g. filling out preferences or visiting certain areas of a site frequently) and looking for patterns.
Blog – An online space regularly updated presenting the opinions or activities of one or a group of individuals and displaying in chronological order.
Broadband– An internet connection that is always on and that delivers a higher bit rate (128kbps or above) than a standard dial-up connection. It allows for a better online experience as pages load quickly and you can download items faster.
Business to business classifieds – Classified advertising that is directed towards business customers.
Button – A square online advert usually found embedded within a website page. See also Universal Advertising Package, embedded formats.
Buffering – When a streaming media player saves portions of file until there is enough information for the file to begin playing.
Cache Memory – Used to store web pages you have seen already. When you go back to those pages they’ll load more quickly because they come from the cache and don’t need to be downloaded over the internet again.
Call to Action (CTA) – A statement or instruction, typically promoted in print, web, TV, radio, on-portal, or other forms of media (often embedded in advertising), that explains to a mobile subscriber how to respond to an opt-in for a particular promotion or mobile initiative, which is typically followed by a Notice (see Notice).
Click-through – When a user interacts with an advertisement and clicks through to the advertiser’s website.
Click-through rate (CTR) – Frequency of Click-throughs as a percentage of impressions served. Used as a measure of advertising effectiveness.
Click to Call – A service that enables a mobile subscriber to initiate a voice call to a specified phone number by clicking on a link on a mobile internet site. Typically used to enhance and provide a direct response mechanism in an advertisement.
Commission – An amount of income received by a publisher for some quantifiable action such as selling an advertiser’s product and/or service on the publisher’s website.
Content sponsorship – Advertiser sponsorships of content areas (e.g. entire website, homepage or a specific channel) to include the total value of the package including any embedded or interruptive formats. This category also includes revenue related to email advertising or prioritised listing of results in search engines that are included as part of the sponsorship deal.
Contextual advertising – Advertising that is targeted to the content on the Web page being viewed by a user at that specific time.
Cookie – A small text file on the user’s PC that identifies the user’s browser and hence, the user so they are ‘recognised’ when they re-visit a site e.g. it allows usernames to be stored and websites to personalise their offering.
Consumer classifieds (Jobs & recruitment) – An advertiser pays for space to display a classified ad relating to jobs and recruitment. Although some of these may include images, we think of classifieds as being listings rather than graphical adverts, in a way that mirrors the classified adverts you find in the regional and national press. Unlike search advertising, classified ads are typically listed according to a common category (in this case recruitment) and quite often on a website that is dedicated solely to that category.
Consumer classifieds (All other listings) – Classified adverts relating to any category beyond recruitment – e.g. automotive. Reported revenues should relate only to the direct cost of listing the advert rather than money generated from additional services.
Conversion rate – Measure of success of an online ad when compared to the click-through rate. What defines a ‘conversion’ depends on the marketing objective e.g. it can be defined as a sale or request to receive more information…etc.
Cost per Action (CPA)– A pricing model that only charges advertising on an action being conducted e.g. a sale or a form being filled in.
Cost per Acquisition (CPA) – Cost to acquire a new customer.
Cost per Click (CPC) – The amount paid by an advertiser for a click on their sponsored search listing. See also PPC.
Cost per Mille (CPM) / Cost per Thousand (CPT) – Online advertising can be purchased on the basis of what it costs to show the ad to one thousand viewers (CPM). It is used in marketing as a benchmark to calculate the relative cost of an advertising campaign or an ad message in a given medium. Rather than an absolute cost, CPM estimates the cost per 1000 views of the ad. (Wikipedia definition)
CRM – Customer Relationship Management.
Deep-linking Advert – linking beyond a home page to a page inside the site with content pertinent to the advert.
Display advertising on email – Advertising that appears around the unrelated editorial content of email newsletters. This can take the form of embedded formats like banners, or as sponsorship, and includes both opt-in (sent to customers specifically requesting it) and opt-out (sent to customers with the option to be removed at their request) emails.
Domain Name – The unique name of an internet site e.g. www.iabireland.ie
Downloading – the technology that allows users to store video content on their computer for viewing at a later date. Downloading an entire piece of media makes it more susceptible to illegal duplication.
D2C – Direct to Consumer
DRM – Digital Rights Management is a set of technologies used by publishers and media owners to control access to their digital content. Access can be limited to the number of times a piece of content is accessed from a single machine or user account; the number of times access permissions can be passed on; or the lifespan of a piece of content.
Dynamic Ad Delivery – Based upon predetermined criteria, Dynamic Ad Delivery is the process by which a mobile advertisement is delivered, via a campaign management platform, to a publisher’s mobile content.
E-Commerce (Electronic Commerce) – Business that takes place over electronic platforms, such as the Internet.
Email bounced – Those emails sent as part of a mailing distribution which did not have a valid recipient email address and so generated a formal failure message. (ABC Electronic jargon buster definition)
Embedded format – Advertising formats that are displayed in set spaces on a publisher’s page. See also banners, skyscrapers, button.
Emoticons – Emoticon symbols are used to indicate mood in an electronic mode of communication e.g. email or instant messenger. 🙂
Encoding – the conversion of an analogue signal to a digital format.
EPC (Average Earnings Per One Hundred Clicks) – A relative rating that illustrates the ability to convert clicks into commissions. It is calculated by taking commissions earned (or commissions paid) divided by the total number of clicks times 100.
Electronic Programme Guide (EPG)– Is the electronic version of a television schedule showing programme times and content on the television screen or monitor. In the case of VOD, an EPG displays the content of all of the services available to a subscriber.
Expandable banner/skyscraper – Fixed online advertising placements that expand over the page in the response to user action e.g. mouseover. See also Rich Media.
Firewall Software – Provides security for a computer or local network by preventing unauthorised access. It sits as a barrier between the web and your computer in order to prevent hacking, viruses or unapproved data transfer.
Flash – Web design software that creates animation and interactive elements which are quick to download.
Flash impression – The total number of requests made for pages holding flash-based content by users of that site in the period being measured. (ABC Electronic jargon buster definition)
Geotargeting – The process of only showing adverts to people on a website and in search engines based on their physical location. This could be done using advanced technology that knows where a computer is located or by using the content of website to determine what a person is looking for, e.g. someone searching for a restaurant in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire.
GPRS – General Packet Radio Service or ‘2.5G’ is an underlying mechanism for the networks to deliver Internet browsing, WAP, email and other such content. The user is ‘always connected’ and relatively high data rates can be achieved with
most modern phones compared to a dial-up modem. Most phones default to using GPRS (if capable), and Incentivated is able to develop services that utilise this delivery mechanism.
Graphic Banners – A graphic mobile ad represented by a banner featuring an image. Similar to a web banner but with lower size constraints (See Banner).
GSM – Global Standard for Mobiles. The set of standards covering one particular type of mobile phone system.
Hit – A single request from a web browser for a single item from a web server.
Hot spotting – The ability to add hyperlinks to objects in a video that enable viewers to tag a product or service. Hot spotting can be used as a direct response mechanic in internet video.
HTML – Stands for HyperText Markup Language, which is the set of commands used by web browsers to interpret and display page content to users. (ABC Electronic jargon buster definition)
Image Ad – An image on a mobile internet site with an active link that can be clicked on by the subscriber. Once clicked the user is redirected to a new page, another mobile internet site or other destination where an offer resides.
Impressions – The metric used to measure views of a webpage and its elements- including the advertising embedded within it. Ad Impressions are how most online advertising is sold and the cost is quoted in terms of the cost per thousand impressions (CPM).
Instant messaging – Sending messages and chatting with friends or colleagues in real-time when you are both online via a special application.
Interruptive formats – Online advertising formats that appear on users’ screens on top of web content (and sometimes before web page appears) and range from static, one-page splash screens to full-motion animated advertisements. See also overlay, pop-up.
Interstitial Ads – Which appear between two content pages. Also known as splash pages and transition ads. See also Rich Media.
Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) – The use of a broadband connection to stream digital television over the internet to subscribed users.
Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) – High-speed dial-up connections to the internet over normal phone lines.
Internet Service Provider (ISP) – A company which provides users with the means to connect to the internet. e.g: eircom, UPC, Vodafone
IAPI – IAPI is the representative body for Irish advertising agencies in Ireland.
IP address – The numerical internet address assigned to each computer on a network so that it can be distinguished from other computers. Expressed as four groups of numbers separated by dots.
Keyword marketing – The purchase of keywords (or ‘search terms’) by advertisers in search listings. See also PPC.
LAN (Local Area Network) – A group of computers connected together, which are at one physical location.
Landing Page (Jump Page) – The page or view to which a user is directed when they click on an active link embedded in a banner, web page, email or other view. A click through lands the user on a jump page. Sometimes the Landing Page is one stage upstream from what would ordinarily be considered the Home Page.
Lead – When a visitor registers, signs up for, or downloads something on an advertiser’s site. A lead might also comprise a visitor filling out a form on an advertiser’s site.
Link – A link is a form of advertising on a website, in an email or online newsletter, which, when clicked on, refers the visitor to an advertiser’s website or a specific area within their website.
Location Based Services (LBS) – A range of services that are provided to mobile subscribers based on the geographical location of their handsets within their cellular network. Handsets do not have to be equipped with a position-location technology such as GPS to enable the geographical-trigger of
service(s) being provided since the location of the cell-site can be used as a proxy. Assisted GPS combines cell-site information with satellite positioning for a more accurate read. LBS include driving directions, information about certain resources or destinations within current vicinity, such as restaurants, ATMs, shopping, movie theatres etc. LBS may also be used to track the movements and locations of people, as is being done via parent/child monitoring services and mobile devices that target the family market.
Locator – An advertisement or service through which an advertiser’s bricks and mortar location can be identified based on proximity of the consumer or their preferred location) can be LBS or user defined postal code).
Log files – A record of all the hits a web server has received over a given period of time.
Meta-tags/ descriptions – HTML tags that identify the content of a web page for the search engines.
Microsite – A sub-site reached via clicking on an ad. The user stays on the publisher’s website but has access to more information from the advertiser.
MMA – The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) is the premier global non-profit association that strives to stimulate the growth of mobile marketing and its associated technologies. The MMA is an action-oriented association designed to clear obstacles to market development, to establish standards and best practices for sustainable growth, and to evangelize the mobile channel for use by brands and third party content providers. The MMA has over 500 members representing forty-plus countries.
Mobile Data Services – Includes SMS, MMS, WAP, LBS and video.
Mobile Internet Advertising – a form of advertising via mobile phones or other wireless devices (excluding laptops). This type of mobile advertising includes mobile web banner ads, mobile internet sponsorship and interstitials (which appear while a requested mobile web page is loading) as well as mobile paid-for search listings. Mobile internet advertising does not include other forms of mobile marketing such as SMS, MMS and shortcode.
MP3 – A computer file format that compresses audio files up to a factor of 12 from a .wav file.
MPEG – File format used to compress and transmit video clips online.
MSISDN – Mobile Subscriber Integrated Services Digital Network. The mobile phone number of the participating customer.
Multiple Purpose Units (MPU) – A square online advert usually found embedded in a web page in a fixed placement. Called ‘multiple purpose’ as it is a flexible shaped blank ‘canvas’ in which you can serve flat or more interactive content as desired. See also Rich Media, Universal Advertising Package.
Natural search results – The ‘natural’ search results that appear in a separate section (usually the main body of the page) to the paid listings. The results listed here have not been paid for and are ranked by the search engine (using spiders or algorithms according to relevancy to the term searched upon). See also spiderm algorithm, SEO.
Notice – An easy-to-understand written description of the information and data collection, storage, maintenance, access, security, disclosure and use policies and practices, as necessary and required of the entity collecting and using the information and data from the mobile subscriber.
NVOD – Near Video On Demand service is the delivery of film and television programming from a server via a cable network or the internet. Like VOD these services are nonlinear and navigated via an EPG. Programming must be downloaded and the majority of existing services require the same amount of time to download as the duration of the selected programme.
OB – Outside Broadcast Unit Known as a “production truck”. In the US an OB unit is a truck containing a mobile TV production studio.
Off-Portal – Point of sale/access on the mobile network, but outside of the operator’s “walled garden”/portal/deck, where consumers can access/purchase information and mobile products/content/utilities.
On-Portal – Point of sale/access within the operator’s “walled garden”/portal/deck, where consumers can access/purchase information and mobile products/content/utilities.
Online HD – Is the delivery of High Definition streamed video media. This typically conforms to 720p standards where 720 represents 720 lines of vertical resolution and p stands for progressive scan.
Online Video Advertising – Video advertising accompanying video content distributed via the internet to be streamed or downloaded onto compatible devices such as computers and mobile phones. In its basic form, this can be TV ads run online, but adverts are increasingly adapted or created specifically to suit online. Video advertising can be placed before (pre-roll), during (mid-roll) and after (post-roll) video content. There are also a variety of other methods of delivery including:
- Embedded within rich media adverts – a video advert can be triggered by a user clicking on a banner ad.
- Subsite – a video advert loads in a separate browser window behind the site a user is looking at. The video advert then starts playing automatically when the user leaves the original site.
- In-text video – allows video footage to be delivered when a user rolls over a double underlined word within editorial.
- Email – allows video to be embedded within an email.
Opt-in – An individual has given a company permission to use his/her data for marketing purposes.
Opt-out – An individual has stated that they do not want a company to use his/her data for marketing purposes.
Organic search results – The ‘natural’ search results that appear in a separate section (usually the main body of the page) to the paid listings. The results listed here have not been paid for and are ranked by the search engine (using spiders or algorithms) according to relevancy to the term searched upon. See also spider, algorithm, SEO.
Overlay – Online advertising content that appears over the top of the webpage. See also Rich Media.
Paid Inclusion – In exchange for a payment, a search engine will guarantee to list/review pages from a website. It is not guaranteed that the pages will rank well for particular queries – this still depends on the search engine’s underlying relevancy process.
Paid for listings – Paid-for listings within general search services. This includes all of the non-graphical search advertising formats from keywords to direct feeds, local search and pay per call. Search is sold on a pay-per-click basis where the advertiser pays only when a visitor to the search website clicks on their advert. This does not include the search engine optimisation (SEO) techniques that can be used to make a website ‘search engine friendly’, nor does it include services specifically designed for recruitment, automotive, property and other traditional classified sections which should be counted in the classified section. See also Organic search results, PPC (Pay Per Click).
Paid Search – See PPC.
Pay for Performance Program – Also called Affiliate Marketing, Performance-based, Partner Marketing, CPA, or Associate Program. Any type of revenue sharing program where a publisher receives a commission for generating online activity (e.g. leads or sales) for an advertiser.
Pay per lead – The commission structure where the advertiser pays the publisher a flat fee for each qualified lead (customer) that is referred to the advertiser’s website.
Pay per sale – The commission structure where the advertiser pays a percentage or flat fee to the publisher based on the revenue generated by the sale of a product or service to a visitor who came from a publisher site.
Pay Per View (PPV) – Is an ecommerce model that allows media owners to grant consumers access to their programming in return for payment. Micro payments may be used for shorter programming whist feature films may attract larger sums.
Personal Video Recorder (PVR) – is a hard disc based digital video recorder most use MPEG technology and enables viewers to pause and rewind live TV. PVR’s also interact with EPG’s to automatically record favourite programmes and have lead to an increase in the number of consumers watching “Time Sifted” TV and skipping advertising breaks.
Phishing – An illegal method whereby legitimate looking e-mails (e.g. appearing to come from a well-known bank) are used in an attempt to get personal information that can be used to steal a user’s identity.
Pharming – An illegal method of redirecting traffic from another company’s website (such as a bank) to a fake one designed to look similar in order to steal user details when they try to log in. See also Phishing.
Placement – The area where an advertisement is displayed/placed within a publisher’s mobile content.
Podcasting – Podcasting involves making an audio file (usually in MP3 format) of content –usually in the form of a radio program- that is available to download to an MP3 player.
Polite loading – Fixed online advertising placements that load and display additional Flash content after the host page on which the advert appears has finished loading. See also Flash.
Pop-under – An ad that appears in a separate window beneath an open window. Pop-under ads are concealed until the top window is closed, moved, resized or minimised.
Pop-up – An online advert that ‘pops up’ in a window over the top of a web page. See also interruptive formats.
Portal – A browseable portal of links to content, pre-configured usually by the network operator, and set as the default home page to the phone’s browser.
Pay per Click (PPC) – Allows advertisers to bid for placement in the paid listings search results on terms that are relevant to their business. Advertisers pay the amount of their bid only when a consumer clicks on their listing. Also called sponsored search/ paid search.
Post-roll – The streaming of a mobile advertising clip after a mobile TV/video clip. The mobile advert is usually 10-15 seconds.
Pre-roll – The name given to the adverts shown before, or whilst an online video is loading. There can be more than one and although they all vary in length, they average 21seconds in duration.
PSMS – Premium SMS. A text message that is charged at a premium over the standard rate.
Publisher – Also referred to as an Affiliate, Associate, Partner, Reseller or Content Site). An independent party, or website, that promotes the products or services of an advertiser in exchange for a commission.
Query string formation – In a search engine, a query string is the set of words entered into a search engine by an individual e.g. a search for “search engine marketing information”. Query string formation is simply the process of thinking of the correct query string to get the results required.
Reach – The number of unique web users potentially seeing a website one or more times in a given time period expressed as a percentage of the total active web population for that period.
Real time – No delay in the processing of requests for information, other than the time necessary for the data to travel over the Internet.
Rich Media – is the collective name for online advertising formats that use advanced technology to harnesses broadband to build brands. It uses interactive and audio-visual elements to give richer content and a richer experience for the user when interacting with the advert. See also Interstitial, Superstitial, Overlay and Rich Media Guidelines.
Rich Media Guidelines – Design guidelines produced by the IAB for effective use of Rich Media technologies in all forms of internet advertising. They aim to protect user experience by keeping them in control of the experience e.g. encouraging clearly labelled close, sound and video buttons.
Really Simple Syndication (RSS) – Software that allows you to flag website content (often from blogs or new sites) and aggregate new entries to this content into an easy to read format that is delivered directly to a user’s PC. See also blogs.
Run of network (RON) – An ad buying option in which ad placements may appear on any pages on sites within an ad network.
Run of site (ROS) – An ad buying option in which ad placements may appear on any pages of the target site.
Sale – When a user makes a purchase from an online advertiser.
Sales House – An organisation which sells advertising on behalf of other media owners. These sales houses typically retain a percentage of the revenue they sell in exchange for their services. These organisations may combine a number of websites together and sell them as different packages to advertisers.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) – The process which aims to get websites listed prominently in search-engine results through search-engine optimisation, sponsored search and paid inclusion. See also PPC and SEO and Paid Inclusion.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) – The process which aims to get websites listed prominently within search engine’s organic (algorithmic, spidered) search results. Involves making a site ‘search engine friendly’. See also organic listings.
Server – A host computer which maintains websites, newsgroups and email services.
Session – The time spent between a user starting an application, computer, website…etc and logging off or quitting.
Serial Digital Interface (SDI) – Is a dedicated digital video interface used to carry broadcast quality video content.
SIM – Subscriber Identity Module. A removable part the mobile phone hardware that identifies the subscriber.
Simulcast – watching an existing TV service over the internet at the same time as normal transmission.
Site analytics – The reporting and analysis of website activity – in particular user behaviour on the site. All websites have a weblog which can be used for this purpose, but other third party software is available for a more sophisticated service.
Skyscraper – A long, vertical, online advert usually found running down the side of a page in a fixed placement. See also Universal Advertising Package.
SMPP – Short Message Peer-to-peer Protocol – used for exchanging SMS messages.
SMS – Short Message Service.
SMCS – Short Message Service Centre. A network switch for routing SMS traffic.
Sniffer Software – Which identifies the capabilities of the user’s browser and therefore can determine compatibility with ad formats and serve them an advert they will be able to see/fully interact with (e.g. GIF, Flash etc).
Social Media – We refer to social media, in a commercial sense, as: the creation of useful, valuable and relevant content and applications by brands, or by consumers with specific reference to brands, that can be shared online, facilitated by web 2.0 technology.
Solus email advertising – where the body of the email is determined by the advertiser, including both text and graphical elements, and is sent on their behalf by an email list manager/owner. Solus email advertising is conducted on an opt-in basis where the recipient has given their consent to receive communications..
Spam – Unsolicited junk mail.
Spider – A programme which crawls the web and fetches web pages in order for them to be indexed against keywords. Used by search engines to formulate search result pages. See also organic listings.
Sponsored Search – See PPC (Pay Per Click).
Sponsorship – Advertiser sponsorships of targeted content areas (e.g. entire website, site area or an event) often for promotional purposes.
SS7 – Signalling System 7. A worldwide standard for telecommunications hardware to talk to each other.
Stickiness – Measure used to gauge the effectiveness of a site in retaining its users. Usually measured by the duration of the visit.
Streaming media – Compressed audio/video which plays and downloads at the same time. The user does not have to wait for the whole file to download before it starts playing.
Superstitials – A form of rich media advertising which allows a TV-like experience on the web. It is fully pre-cached before playing. See also Rich Media, Cache.
Tenancy – The ‘renting’ out of a section of a website by another brand who pays commission to this media owner for any revenue generated from this space e.g. dating services inside portals or bookstores inside online newspapers.
Text Ad – A static appended text attached to an advertisement.
Text Link – Creative use for mobile advertisements – represented by highlighted and clickable text(s) with a link embedded within the highlighted text. Usually limited to 16-24 characters.
Third party adserving -The technology used to deliver creative assets from one adserver into another, allowing advertisers to track the performance of the campaigns and recording impressions and clicks amongst other campaign metrics.
Traffic – Number of visitors who come to a website.
Universal Advertising Package – A set of online advertising formats that are standardised placements as defined the by the IAB. See also banner, skyscraper, button, MPU and embedded formats.
Unique users – Number of different individuals who visit a site within a specific time period.
Uniform Resource Locator (URL) – Technical term that is used to refer to the web address of a particular website e.g. www.iabireland.ie
Universal player – Is a platform agnostic media player that will allow video and audio to be played on any hardware / software configuration from a single source file.
User generated content (UGC) – Online content created by website users rather than media owners or publishers – either through reviews, blogging, podcasting or posting comments, pictures or video clips. Sites that encourage user generated content include MySpace, YouTube, Wikipedia and Flickr. See also blog, podcast.
UMTS – Universal Mobile Telephony Service or ‘3G’ offers comprehensive voice and multimedia services to mobile customers by providing very high data rates and new functionality such as data streaming. 3G phones are backward compatible and can access all the services that 2 and 2.5G phones can, except that in this case, data can be transferred a lot quicker. This means that any service that Incentivated can currently provide, will work on the newer phones whose experience can be enhanced specifically based on handset type.
VMNO – Virtual Mobile Network Operator. A company that uses the infrastructure of an existing (licence-owning) telecoms network operator. Tesco is an example of a VMNO in Ireland.
Video On Demand (VOD) – Allows users to watch what they want, when they
want. This can be either ‘pay per view’ or a free service usually funded
by advertising.
Viral Marketing – The term “viral advertising” refers to the idea that people will pass on and share striking and entertaining content; this is often sponsored by a brand, which is looking to build awareness of a product or service. These viral commercials often take the form of funny video clips, or interactive Flash games, images, and even text.
Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) – Technology that allows the use of a broadband Internet connection to make telephone calls.
Web 2.0 – The term Web 2.0 – with its knowing nod to upgraded computer applications – describes the next generation of online use. Web 2.0 identifies the consumer as a major contributor in the evolution of the internet into a two-way medium. See also user generated content.
Web based – Requiring no software to access an online service or function, other than a Web browser and access to the Internet.
Web portal – A website or service that offers a broad array of resources and services, such as email, forums, search engines, and online shopping malls.
Wilfing (What Was I Looking For) – Wilfing is an expression referring to browsing the internet with no real purpose.
Whitelist – An e-mail whitelist is a list of contacts that the user deems are acceptable to receive email from and should not be sent to the trash folder (wikipedia definition).
WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) – Standard for providing mobile data services on hand-held devices. Brings Internet content such as news, weather, travel, etc to mobile phones and can also be used to deliver formatted content such as wallpapers, ringtones, video, games, portals and other useful links. Incentivated provide the mechanisms to write and deliver mobile Internet content to subscribers.
Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) – The ability to connect to the internet wirelessly. Internet ‘hotspots’ in coffee shops and airports etc use this technology.
Wiki – A wiki is a type of website that allows the visitors themselves to easily add, remove, and otherwise edit and change some available content, sometimes without the need for registration.
Wireless Markup Language (WML) aka WAP 1.0 – Where the mobile internet started many years ago. Hardly supported any more.
Extensible Hypertag Markup Language (XHTML) aka WAP 2.0 – The language used to create most mobile internet sites.
Extensible Markup Language (XML) – Language used by many internet applications for exchanging information.