Glossary - Understanding Sponsored Search - page 231

Active Verb : an action word, usually used in a call to action (CTA) that tells a visitor
what to do (Source: Quirk) (see Chapter 4 ads).
Activity audit : independent verification of measured activity for a specified time
period. Some of the key metrics validated are ad impressions, page impressions,
clicks, total visits, and unique users. An activity audit results in a report verifying the
metrics (Source: IAB) (see Chapter 7 analytics).
Ad audience : the number of unique users exposed to an ad within a specified time
period (Source: IAB) (see Chapter 7 analytics).
Ad banner : a graphic image or other media object used as an advertisement (Source:
IAB) (see Chapter 4 ads).
Ad blocker : software on a user's browser that prevents advertisements from being
displayed (Source: IAB) (see Chapter 5 consumers).
Ad blocking : the blocking of Web advertisements, typically the image in graphical Web
advertisements (Source: Marketing Terms.com) (see Chapter 5 consumers).
Ad broker : an Internet advertising specialist. Ad brokers act as middlemen
between Web site owners with advertising space to sell and advertisers (Source:
SearchEngineDictionary.com) (see Chapter 2 model).
Ad campaign audit : an activity audit for a specific ad campaign (Source: IAB) (see
Chapter 7 analytics).
Ad centric measurement : audience measurement derived from a third-party ad
server's own server logs (Source: IAB) (see Chapter 7 analytics).
Ad click : a click on an advertisement on a Web page, which takes a user to another
site (Source: modified from WebTrends) (see Chapter 7 analytics).
Ad copy : the main text of a clickable search or context-served ad. It usually makes
up the second and third lines of a displayed ad, between the Ad Title and the Display
URL (Source: SEMPO) (see Chapter 4 ads).
Ad display / Ad delivered : when an ad is successfully displayed on the user's com-
puter screen (Source: IAB) (see Chapter 7 analytics).
Ad download : when an ad is downloaded by a server to a user's browser. Ads can
be requested, but aborted or abandoned before actually being downloaded to the
browser, and hence there would be no opportunity to see the ad by the user (Source:
IAB) (see Chapter 7 analytics).
Ad impression : can have multiple meanings depending on the context (Source: IAB)
(see Chapter 7 analytics):

• An ad served to a user's browser. Ads can be requested by the user's browser.

• The measurement of responses from an ad delivery system to an ad request from

the user's browser, which is filtered from robotic activity and is recorded at a point
as late as possible in the process of delivery of the creative material to the user's
browser - therefore closest to the actual opportunity to be seen by the user.
• Ad impression ratio : click-throughs divided by ad impressions. It is more commonly
known as the click-through rate (CTR) (Source: IAB) (see Chapter 7 analytics):