Ad Tech Terms, Explained
The words you will meet in ad server demos and contracts, in plain English.
- Ad exchange
- A marketplace where programmatic buyers and sellers trade impressions in real time.
- Ad request
- A single call from a page, app or newsletter asking the ad server for an ad. Many hosted ad servers price by ad requests or impressions.
- CPM
- Cost per mille: the price of 1,000 impressions.
- CTV
- Connected TV: streaming video watched on internet-connected televisions.
- Direct-sold campaign
- A campaign you sell to an advertiser yourself, rather than through a programmatic auction.
- DSP
- Demand-side platform: software advertisers use to buy ads across many publishers.
- Fill rate
- The share of ad requests that are answered with an ad.
- Header bidding
- A way to let several programmatic buyers bid for an impression at the same time before the ad server makes its decision.
- Impression
- One ad shown once. Usually counted when the ad is delivered or rendered.
- Prebid
- The most widely used open-source header bidding framework.
- Programmatic
- Buying and selling ads automatically through auctions, usually via SSPs, exchanges and DSPs.
- Self-hosted
- Software you install and run on your own servers, rather than a vendor running it for you.
- Self-serve portal
- A website where advertisers can book, pay for and upload their own campaigns without your sales team.
- SSP
- Supply-side platform: software that sells a publisher's inventory to many programmatic buyers.
- VAST
- Video Ad Serving Template: the standard format video players use to request and play video ads.
- White-label
- A product you can put your own brand on, so your advertisers see your name rather than the vendor's.