Alternative term: Split testing
A/B testing is the comparison of two live versions of an ad to see which one performs better. An advertiser usually tests one variable, be it the ad creative, copy or targeting disciplines whilst keeping all other variables constant. This allows an advertiser to optimise their campaign based on the option that has the most impact on the overall campaign.
An active user is an individual who has opened a mobile app within a specific time period. Monitoring active users helps marketers understand user quality and app engagement.
An ad exchange is a digital marketplace that facilitates the buying and selling of advertising inventory. The pricing for ad units is determined through real-time bidding on a CPM basis.
Online ad inventory is how many times a given ad has the opportunity to be seen by potential customers. Marketers use this metric to determine the popularity of a given website and how many visitors it attracts.
An ad network acts as an intermediary connecting advertisers with supply partners. They give advertisers access to their network of partners, whilst giving their partners access to their ad campaigns.
An ad server is the technology and service that places the advertisements onto websites.
An affiliate is a type of supply partner, typically an individual, who markets another company’s product in return for a commission. They are generally more engaged with the strategy of promoting the product than other types of supply partners.
An API is a set of programming instructions that specifies how software components should interact with each other. It connects applications together by exposing some of a program’s internal functions.
An app wall is an ad unit that displays personalised app recommendations to users. The high-relevance of the ad to the end user results in a high conversion rate.
ARPU is a measure specific to mobile applications, defined as the amount of revenue an app makes per user. This metric is used to determine the value of each user and allows advertisers to optimise their campaigns based on users that give the highest return.
Alternative terms: Mobile attribution
Attribution is the action of determining which partner was the cause of the conversion. Tracking attribution is how an ad network determines how supply partners get paid. This enables our advertising to be performance-based.
A blacklist is a set of audience-targeting features that are specifically excluded from a campaign. Features include demographics, device type, etc.
Bot traffic is any traffic that is considered not human. Both legitimate and malicious bot traffic skew performance data and therefore are excluded from performance metrics.
Burst campaigns use an advertiser’s budget in a short amount of time to deliver a high volume of paid installs to boost app store ranking and discoverability. With the app now sitting at the top of the rankings it is more easily discovered, which leads to a rise in free organic installs.
Campaign optimisation is the process of monitoring the characteristics of traffic supplied, and favouring those that provide the best performance and highest quality conversions.
Alternative term: Cost-per-action
CPA is an online advertising pricing model where the advertiser only pays for a specified acquisition. For example, a purchase, registration, mobile app install, etc.
CPC is an online advertising pricing model where the advertiser pays each time a potential customer clicks on their advertisement, regardless of whether a conversion is made or not.
CPI is an online advertising pricing model where the advertiser is charged each time a potential customer clicks on their ad resulting in an install.
CPL is an online advertising pricing model, where the advertiser pays for a lead. A lead is an online form, sign up or registration for a specified offer.
CPM is an online advertising pricing model where the advertiser pays a fee for every thousand impressions.
CTR is the ratio of consumers that click on an advertisement to the number of total consumers who viewed the advertisement. This is an important metric to optimise campaigns based on factors that produce the highest CTR.
In online advertising, demand refers to the advertisers and their campaigns they are wanting to advertise to reach their target audience.
DMP is a centralised data management platform that allows advertisers to create target audiences based on a combination of first-party and third-party audience data.
A DSP provides for the automatic buying of ads across multiple ad exchanges through one simple interface.
eCPM is a metric that enables the advertiser to measure the effectiveness of an ad campaign. It is calculated by dividing the total earnings of a supply partner by total number of impressions in thousands. It helps compare advertisements with different pricing methods by converting everything to a common metric.
Frequency capping is a feature that limits the number of times a specific visitor to an app or website is shown a particular advertisement. This prevents the over-saturation of ads and wasted impressions to users who have expressed no interest in an advertiser’s offer even after multiple ad exposures.
An impression is the opportunity for an ad to be viewed.
Incentivised traffic is when visitors/users are encouraged to take a specific action in return for some sort of compensation or reward. Incentives can include winning a prize for downloading an app, cash for clicking through to a specific site or an in-app reward.
Interstitial ads are full screen ads that cover the interface of their host application. This ad type forces users to interact by clicking out or clicking through the ad, resulting in a high conversion rate.
Alternative: IVT
Invalid traffic includes traffic that is either non-human or that falls outside of the campaign criteria. Our network takes certain measures to mitigate this risk as invalid traffic skews performance metrics.
KPIs are measurable values that demonstrate how effectively a company is achieving key business objectives. Common KPIs in online advertising when determining the value of customers are retention, purchase value and lifetime value.
A media buyer is a type of supply partner, that purchases and monitors advertising space on behalf of clients.
Mobile analytics is the measurement of the relationship between a user and a mobile application. This enables marketers to understand the quality of the user and measure the ROI of their mobile marketing investments. Common metrics include screen views, time spent in the app, user demographic and device information, and post-install events.
Mobile attribution tracking refers to the process of tracking the source of a new user for a mobile app, as well as the user’s actions within the app. This indicates which supply partners delivered which installs and the user quality. The quality of those conversions can then be used to drive campaign optimisation.
Non-incentivised traffic is when consumers that see an ad, engage with it and click through to it, receiving no compensation for doing so. Their main motive is the product offer itself, therefore these consumers tend to be of higher-value to the company.
An offer wall is a list of incentives a user can receive by performing a specific action, such as downloading an app, sharing content on social media, etc.
Performance-based advertising is a form of online advertising in which the advertiser only pays for performance, such as a sale, install, registration, etc.
PostBacks are URL requests that notify tracking systems that an install or other tracked conversion has taken place. PostBacks give networks and ad exchanges vital data that allows them to optimise advertising in real time.
PPCall is a mobile campaign type whereby clicking the advert conveniently connects the customer with the advertiser via a phone call. The advertiser only pays for clicks that lead to a call. This type of campaign allows advertisers to answer questions, book appointments and close deals with the prospect directly, over the phone.
Programmatic is the algorithmic purchase and sale of advertising space in real time. Through automating the buying, placement and optimisation process it increases efficiency.
Programmatic Arbitrage is the process of ad networks buying ad inventory from supply partners on a CPM-basis and then reselling them on a CPA-basis.
A publisher is a type of supply partner, typically an individual that sells ad space for their website.
ROI is a performance measure used to evaluate the efficiency of an investment. In performance advertising this could be measuring the amount of return on an advertising campaign or the development of a new feature relative to the cost of the action.
RTB is a type of programmatic ad buying where ads are bought and sold through real-time auctions on an impression-basis. These auctions are often facilitated by ad exchanges or supply-side platforms.
To scale a campaign refers to the step in a campaigns lifecycle where a marketer drives extra traffic to the campaign. In the early stages an advertiser starts with a small amount of traffic to gain an understanding of their best audience. Once they have a sufficient conversion rate and level of quality, they scale up their campaign by increasing the traffic based on the elements tested in the previous stages of the campaign.
An SDK is a software development tool with its own function and is used to deliver that functionality into other apps, rather than the app developer developing it from scratch.
In the online advertising world, supply refers to the supply partners either affiliates, publishers, media buyers or ad exchanges, who have available ad space to accommodate the demand of our network.
Supply and demand mediation is a term that refers to the process of sourcing traffic from our supply partners for our campaigns that have been provided by our advertisers.
Supply partners drive traffic to our advertiser’s campaigns by allowing access to their ad inventory. There are many types of supply partners such as affiliates, publishers, media buyers and ad exchanges.
An SSP is a technology platform that helps supply partners manage and sell their online advertising inventory.