Programmatic Marketing Glossary
Key terms you need to know to understand how real-time bidding works and who is involved
Ad networks: an entity that connects buyers and sellers of online advertising impressions. These companies can facilitate the purchasing of real-time ad inventory.
Ad Server: a technology used to store online display ads, then subsequently deliver them to a consumer on a website. This company’s purpose is to maximize revenue for the publisher and/or advertiser, as well as manage campaigns.
Behavioural marketing (behavioural targeting): this term refers to several ways in which online advertising campaigns are made more effective by taking into consideration the actions of the consumer. Data needs to be collected to facilitate this process, and what is collected will vary based on the desires of the advertisers.
Brand Safety Technology: this technology is used to classify the content of webpages and allow advertisers to avoid running their campaigns on pages which carry content they deem to be ‘negative’ for their brand.
Cookie Caching: collecting the cookies of visitors to a webpage for the purpose of making more informed buying decisions about that consumer’s impression.
Demand-side platform (DSP): these entities allow advertisers to manage their purchasing of online display advertising in real-time. DSPs purchase advertising for the advertisers through ad networks and exchanges. DSP functionality varies, and includes things like allowing advertisers to manage their bid amounts, performance metrics and consumer targeting.
Online contextual advertising: online advertising which is selected to appear on a particular webpage because it is a match for the content of the page.
Online display advertising (online banner ads): online advertising that appears on top of or alongside the content of a webpage. This type of advertising utilizes banners, which come in the standard sizes of 300×250, 728×90 and 160×600.
Prospecting: the process through which an RTB campaign is implemented so promising consumers are sought out to be retargeted throughout the campaign.
Real-time bidding (real-time advertising): a method of buying online display advertising in which publishers release impressions to be purchased individually, in an auction environment.
Retargeting: the process of adjusting your online advertising creative, as well as purchasing strategy, based on the actions of consumers. The simplest example is spending more for the impressions of consumers who have not completed an order form on your website, as well as showing them a more influential creative.
Second Price Auction: an auction format in which the bidder who offers to pay the highest price pays only the price of the second highest bidder. This system is used in most RTB ecosystems.
Supply-Side Platform (SSP): an entity that works with publishers and advertisers to release impressions into the real-time bidding ecosystem to be purchased by DSPs or other agents.
Tagging a Page: the process of adding a piece of code (referred to as a ‘pixel’) to a webpage (usually the landing page and key pages for a campaign) to collect data on visitors to that page. This data is then used to make more informed buying decisions later on.
Targeted advertising: a form of advertising in which ads are delivered to consumers based on demographics and geography, as well as other factors like interests and purchasing behaviour. Real-time bidding has enabled online display advertising to become more targeted through the use of first and third party data.