If you are new to online advertising or you have had someone managing it for you, the chances are that you may not have got your head around the various terminologies that are used. So we've created an easy reference online advertising glossary and cheat sheet of the most commonly used online advertising phrases.
At LexisClick we always try to steer clear of blinding our clients with technical speak, but at the end of the day every skilled profession develops a vocabulary as a common reference for day-to-day communication amongst practitioners.
That’s why we’ve put together a glossary of common terms that we use every day when discussing online advertising between suppliers, clients and ourselves.
We have also put it together as an easy to reference PDF cheat sheet that you can keep handy on the device of your choice. Download the online advertising cheat sheet here.
If you think there are any other common online advertising terms that should be added to the glossary or cheat sheet, or changes we should make just let us know in the comments below.
Online advertising glossary of common terms
| Affiliate marketing |
Partners show and promote products that you sell and are paid a commission from resulting sales. Amazon used this model to grow its business significantly. |
| Banner |
A graphic advert displayed on a website, in an email or a mobile app. |
| Click / Click Through |
When a user has clicked on an advert and started on their journey to the destination site. Although a click through implies that the user clicks and arrives at your site, it doesn’t mean that they have actually arrived. For example if they arrive at a site that is not working correctly it is still a click through. |
| Click Rate / Click Through Rate / CTR |
The percentage of ad views that resulted in click throughs. |
| Cookie |
Information stored on the user’s computer by a website. Cookies are often used in online advertising to record which sites a user has visited, when they visited etc and for tracking subsequent conversions like sales or enquiries. |
| Cost per action / CPA |
When an advertiser pays for a visitor undertaking a specific action, e.g. visiting a specific page, signing up to a newsletter or following a social media profile. |
| Cost per click / CPC |
When an advertiser pays when a visitor clicks on an advert and their destination website is served. |
| Cost per sale |
When an advertiser pays for a visitor making a purchase as a result of the advertising. |
| CPM |
Cost per thousand ad impressions. |
| Fold – Above the fold |
A term borrowed from print media, that refers to an ad that is viewable as soon as the web page arrives, you don’t have to scroll to see it. |
| Impression |
The delivery of a basic advertising unit from an ad distribution point e.g. website page or mobile app. |
| Opt-in e-mail |
Opt-in e-mail is e-mail containing information or advertising that users explicitly request (opt) to receive, usually via the completion of a web form. |
| Double opt in |
Where users are asked to verify that they have initially opted in – usually via a second confirmation email. |
| Pay-per-click |
In pay-per-click advertising, the advertiser pays a certain amount for each click through to the advertiser's website, this is the typical method used for Google Adwords search advertising. |
| Pay-per-lead |
In pay-per-lead advertising, the advertiser pays for each sales lead generated. For example, an advertiser might pay for every visitor that clicked on a site and then filled out a form. |
| Pay-per-sale |
Pay-per-sale is not regularly used for standard ad buys. It is, however, the standard for affiliate programmes. |
| Pay-per-view (Pay-per-impression) |
Since this is the prevalent type of ad buying arrangement on larger websites, this term tends to be used only when comparing this most prevalent method with pay-per-click and other methods. |
| Rich media |
Rich media is advertising that contains video, sound and clickable menus, it is becoming increasing popular. |
| ROI |
ROI (return on investment) is "the bottom line" on how successful an ad or campaign was in terms of what the returns (generally sales revenue) were for the money expended (invested). |
Download the online advertising cheatsheet
