Nonprofit professionals who work in online advocacy and web management often wear several hats. They are the “go to” person to write and send out action alerts, analyze results and trends, fix website errors as well as market the organization’s websites and grow their email lists. But navigating the online advertising world can be terribly confusing and filled with terms like CPM and ROS that make many of us say “huh?” Below is a list of the most commonly used online advertising terms and their associated definitions. The next time your boss asks you to coordinate an ad buy for an upcoming campaign; you will have the nuts and bolts nailed down.
Ad Impressions: The number of ads delivered during the course of an online ad campaign.
Ad Network: An ad aggregator or broker that represents ad inventory for several sites.
Banner Ad Sizes (Pixels):
| Button 1: 120 by 90 | Medium Rectangle: 300 by 250 |
| Large rectangle: 336 by 280 | Skyscraper: 120 by 600 |
| Leaderboard: 728 by 90 | Standard Banner: 468 by 60 |
Banner Button: A small banner ad in the shape of a square.
CPA: Cost per acquisition or action taken. 
CPC: Cost per click on an ad.
CPM: Cost per 1000 ad impressions. It’s the standard pricing model in online advertising.
CTR: Stands for click-thru-rate. The results of clicking on an ad that links to a website. It’s calculated by dividing the number of clicks on the ad by the number of ad impressions.
Closed Network: The list of sites in the ad network is not public.
Email advertising: Banner ads, text ads, links or ad sponsorships displayed in e-newsletters, email marketing campaigns, and other email communications.
Eyeballs: Slang term for the number of people who view a banner ad, website or web section.
Geo-Targeting: Targeted ads by geographic location.
Interstitial Ads: Online ads that loads between two pages. Also known as splash pages.
Lead Generation: A term that refers to marketing tools and online advertising in order to acquire leads and prospects for future follow up. For example when activists opts into being contacted by an organization via email.
Open Network: The list of sites in the ad network is public.
Permission Marketing: Marketing centered on an individual giving a website permission to market its products and services to him or her.
Pop-under ad: Ad that appears in a new browser window behind the current open window.
Pop-up ad: Ad that pops-up and appears in a new browser window.
Roadblock: Advertiser buys out 100% share-of-voice for one day or one week.
ROI: Return on investment is calculated by net profit divided by investment (the money you spent on the ad buy).
ROS: Stands for run of site. The ad rotates throughout the site and is not targeted to specific sections or audiences.
Share of Voice: The total percentage that your ad campaign possesses of a particular website section or target audiences.
What are some of the online advertising terms that are not on this list that confuse you?
Never miss a post by subscribing to frogloop's RSS feed.
COMMENTS