Glossary

Also known as: ad agency, digital agency, creative agency An advertising agency is an independent, external company that creates, plans, and manages advertising campaigns on behalf of its clients. Beyond core…

Also known as: ad blockers, ad-blocking software Software that prevents advertisements from being displayed to users on websites. The most common approaches include browser plugins — such as Ghostery and Adblock Plus —…

Also known as: ad request An ad call is a request sent from an ad slot on a web page or app to an AdTech platform — typically an ad exchange or ad server — for the purpose of serving an ad to the user. Ad calls usually…

An ad exchange is a dynamic technological platform that facilitates the buying and selling of available ad impressions. Advertisers access inventory by placing bids through demand-side platforms (DSPs), while publishers…

An ad network is a technology platform that acts as a broker between a group of publishers and a group of advertisers, connecting supply and demand across the digital advertising ecosystem. Traditionally, ad networks…

A sequenced group of ads served within a single video ad placement. Rather than showing one ad at a time, an ad pod bundles multiple creatives together — played back-to-back — in a defined order. This format is common…

A technological platform responsible for deciding which ads to display on a website, serving those ads, and collecting and reporting performance data such as impressions and clicks. Ad servers were among the first…

An ad slot is the physical space on a webpage where ads appear. Publishers place ad slots in strategic locations across their site — typically areas where ad visibility and engagement are highest. Each ad slot contains…

Ad space is the content area within an ad slot where an advertisement is actually displayed. While the terms ad space and ad slot are often used interchangeably, they refer to distinct concepts. The ad slot is the…

A piece of code inserted into an ad slot in order to display an ad. When a web page or mobile app loads, the ad tag requests the necessary information and carries out the processes required to render the creative.…

The practice of displaying ads to online users based on data known about the user and the website or app they are visiting. Ad targeting encompasses a range of techniques, including behavioural targeting, contextual…

Ad trafficking is the process of setting up, monitoring, and optimizing advertising campaigns within ad servers and/or other AdTech platforms. The term covers the full operational lifecycle of a campaign — from initial…

Also known as: ad placement A single unit of ad space available on a publisher's website or mobile app. Ad units represent the discrete slots into which advertisers serve creative — a banner position at the top of a…

Also known as: verification services Ad verification is an umbrella term for the processes that allow advertisers to check whether their ads are appearing in the right context, on the right websites, in the right area…

AdChoices is a self-regulatory program managed by the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA). Its purpose is to give online users meaningful control over how advertising companies collect and use their data for online…

Also known as: Advertising Operations Advertising operations (AdOps) is a function within a company responsible for setting up, monitoring, and optimizing advertising campaigns. The role sits at the intersection of…

Also known as: Authorized Digital Sellers An IAB-led initiative designed to reduce certain types of ad fraud and arbitrage in programmatic advertising. Ads.cert functions as an upgrade to ads.txt — another IAB project…

A text file that publishers place on their web server, configured by site administrators, that acts as a whitelist of authorized selling partners. It specifies exactly which supply-side platforms (SSPs) and ad exchanges…

Also known as: advertising-technology platform, technology provider, AdTech vendor Software used to automate the buying, selling, and measurement of online advertising. AdTech platforms sit at the infrastructure layer…

Also known as: brand advertiser An advertiser is a person or company that pays to display ads to consumers across one or more media channels — including websites, apps, TV, radio, and podcasts. Advertisers sit at the…

Also known as: ad agency, digital agency, creative agency A company that provides services associated with creating, planning, and managing advertising campaigns, and may also handle broader forms of promotion and…

An analytics suite is a set of fully integrated applications for the collection, measurement, analysis, visualization, and sharing of analytics data. The goal of an analytics suite is to give users at every level of…

A set of instructions that allows one system to access features and data from another — whether that's a piece of software, an application, or an external tool. In AdTech, APIs are a foundational layer of how platforms…

Also known as: conversion attribution Attribution is a method for linking a specific advertisement to a conversion or acquisition — essentially answering the question: which ad (or sequence of ads) deserves credit for a…