Every programmatic advertising term explained in plain English. Your go-to reference for publisher monetization vocabulary.
A digital marketplace that enables advertisers and publishers to buy and sell advertising space, often through real-time auctions.
A company that connects advertisers to websites that want to host advertisements. Ad networks aggregate ad supply from publishers and match it with advertiser demand.
Google's advertising program that allows publishers to earn money by displaying ads on their websites. A simpler but lower-yield alternative to Google AdX.
An open-source HTML framework developed by Google to create fast-loading mobile web pages. Requires specialized ad tags for monetization.
The cost an advertiser pays for one thousand impressions of their ad. The primary pricing model in programmatic advertising.
The percentage of ad impressions that result in a click. Calculated as (clicks / impressions) × 100.
A small piece of data stored in a user's browser used to track behavior and enable targeted advertising. Third-party cookies are being phased out.
Now known as Google Ad Manager. An ad server that helps publishers manage their ad inventory and maximize revenue.
Software used by advertisers to buy digital advertising inventory automatically across multiple ad exchanges and networks.
The actual revenue earned per thousand impressions, regardless of the pricing model used. A key metric for comparing ad performance.
The percentage of ad requests that are filled with an actual ad. A 100% fill rate means every ad slot is monetized.
An advanced programmatic technique where publishers offer ad inventory to multiple ad exchanges simultaneously before making calls to their ad servers. Results in higher CPMs through increased competition.
Ads that a publisher runs on their own site to promote their own products or services, typically used to fill unsold inventory.
An open-source header bidding solution that allows publishers to run header bidding auctions with multiple SSPs simultaneously.
The automated buying and selling of online advertising using software and algorithms, rather than traditional manual processes.
An invitation-only real-time bidding auction where premium publishers offer their inventory to a select group of advertisers.
A type of programmatic advertising where ad impressions are bought and sold in real-time auctions that take place in milliseconds as a webpage loads.
The revenue a publisher earns per thousand page views. A key metric for measuring overall monetization performance.
Technology used by publishers to manage, sell, and optimize their available ad inventory. SSPs connect publishers to multiple ad exchanges and DSPs.
The process by which advertisers and agencies evaluate and select the most efficient paths to purchase publisher inventory.
A metric that measures whether an ad had the opportunity to be seen by a user. An ad is considered viewable if 50% of its pixels are visible for at least 1 second.
An XML-based video ad serving protocol that enables ad servers to communicate with video players to serve video ads.
A traditional ad serving method where ad networks are called sequentially in order of priority. Less efficient than header bidding as networks don't compete simultaneously.