Ad Audience

The number of individuals estimated to be in the display audience while ad content is present and deemed viewable.

Ad Campaign

A series of ad units delivered for an advertiser during a defined period of time.

Ad Copy

Ad copies represent individual media files that are imported into the system and stored in the server. A standard ad copy is often a basic image or video file. After importing the content files, players can download and display them on digital screens.

Ad Exchanges

A marketplace platform that facilitates automated, auction-based buying and selling of ad inventory from the various ad networks. Ad exchanges operate in real time, and inventory is bought as needed.

Ad Exposure Time

The length of time the audience spent viewing when ad content is present and deemed viewable.

Ad Inventory

All the available advertising space that a content owner has for sale to advertisers

Ad Load

The amount of advertising in your programming. E.g 10 minutes per hour

Ad Network

A third-party company that connects websites that want to monetize their ad inventory with the appropriate advertisers. Ad networks aggregate publishers into content categories (travel, home and garden, sports) and then find the corresponding advertisers who want to buy that ad inventory at a high volume for a lower price, enabling advertisers to forego site-direct buys. Most ad networks today specialize in a niche content area, working with advertisers who wish to have their brand associated with content aligned with their brand category.

Ad Player

Any device (hardware or software) that distributes video and audio content to a display.

Ad Recall

The estimated number of people likely to remember your ads within days of being exposed.

Ad Rotation Length

The number of seconds required to play all of the ads in a rotation or loop. Also known as loop duration.

Ad Segment

The portion of a programming break or loop – or some other defined period of time – containing advertising content.

Ad Servers

Ad servers are technology used by publishers and advertisers to distribute advertisements on digital channels, such as websites and mobile applications. Ad servers use a variety of variables, such as audience demographics and ad budgets, to determine what ads to display to each user. The ad server uses data about the ad’s performance, including clicks and impressions, to measure the success and progress of different campaigns.

Ad Serving

The online delivery of an advertisement to a display. This is typically done through an ad server and allows an advertiser to track and measure the performance of an ad.

Ad Unit

An asset (also referred to as a frame or spot) designed to deliver a message intended for an advertiser’s existing or prospective customer base. Ad units are designed to conform to the media in which they will be delivered.

Ad Unit Length

Unit of time representing the segment of the loop containing ad content.

Ad Unit Orientation

The proportions of a DOOH frame – referred to as either landscape or portrait.

Ad-Supported Subscription Video-On-Demand (Ad-Supported SOD)

SVOD services with an Ad-supported tier that is cheaper than the premium plans

Addressable TV (ATV)

ATV (Addressable or Advanced TV): Linear TV (traditional TV channels) that can serve different ads to different target groups watching the same linear TV channel, either through satelite, iptv or streaming.

Adstock Effect

Carryover impact from advertising in the time period it was done to the next time period. For example, Radio advertising done in Week 1 could still impact sales in Week 2 – the amount of impact is determined by the adstock level, which is derived by testing many different levels and going with the most statistically significant one.

Advanced Audience Data

Advanced data (or audience data) is a data set used for the purposes of making ad decisions beyond what can be leveraged from age and gender. It may include the use of first-, second- and third-party audience data for buying and targeting.

Advertising Spot

A unit interval (10-second, 15-second, 20-second, 30-second, etc.) containing a commercial message

Advertising-Based Video-On-Demand (AVOD)

On-demand content that is Ad-supported and free to watch

Affiliate Marketing

Businesses hire affiliates to promote their product(s) and compensate those affiliates for each customer the affiliate brings in

Affinity

Measures the suitability of an advertising vehicle for a specific target group. The higher the affinity, the lower the scatter loss.

Affinity index

Reach within target group divided by reach in the underlying universe multiplied by 100 (the higher the index, the greater the affinity).

Animated GIF

A type of image that combines multiple static images and displays them in order, which gives the appearance of movement.

Artificial Intelligence

The theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, etc.

Aspect Ratio

The dimensions of a display screen’s image expressed as a ratio of the horizontal width to the vertical height. eg: 16×9 for vertical mobile

Attribution

The action of assigning a value to a particular marketing activity that a consumer is exposed to is referred to as ‘attribution’. Both causal and probabilistic techniques are used in attribution models, assigning value to either a single marketing engagement with a consumer (single touch attribution), or to give a value to multiple engagements with a consumer (multi-touch attribution). Attribution models offer a way of more closely estimating what an ad does in terms of outcomes than just measuring impressions or clicks alone; however as all attribution techniques have limitations, consideration of these is always required before solely relying upon one method over another.

Attribution Window

The ‘lookback’ period for consideration when a conversion on an advert happens is called the attribution or lookback window. The time between a conversion event and a prior engagement event, such as an ad click or view. For example, a lookback window of 14 days means that any ad a user is exposed to in the 14 days before they convert should be considered in the allocation of that conversion’s credit.

Audience

A specific group of consumers who are most likely to want a product or service, based on their age, gender, income, geolocation, interests, purchase intention, or other factors. Advertisers seek out the audiences most likely to be receptive to an ad campaign.

Audience Composition

The demographic, socioeconomic, or behavioural profile of the network’s audience that is inclusive of the percentage of the total audience falling in each segment.

Audience Delivery

The size of an audience that has an opportunity to see a specific ad or campaign

Audience Demographics

Refers to the characteristics that define who the target audience is. Such items as age, gender, ethnicity, cultural background, religious or political affiliations, economic status, family background and group memberships may help define the demographic.

Audience Reach %

Percentage of an addressable target audience reached by a given campaign.

Automated Guaranteed

A programmatic ad transaction that most closely mirrors a traditional digital direct sale. The deal is negotiated directly between buyer and seller, the inventory and pricing are guaranteed.

Awareness

Refers to the moment a consumer learns about a brand’s product or service. Awareness campaigns enable marketers to get in front of customers with messaging that puts the brand front and center, so it’s noticed. When looking at the marketing funnel, this is the first point of engagement with new consumers along the customer journey.

Balanced Groups

Statistically similar groups that can be compared to help determine impact of a stimulus.

Base Sales

Base Sales is what marketers get if they do not do any advertisement. It is sales due to brand equity built over the years. Base Sales are usually fixed unless there is some change in economic or environmental factors.

Behavioural Profiles

Profile based on past-observed behavior, typically within 30 to 90 days of recency. Behavioural profiles may or may not refer to a profile about unique users.

Behavioural Segments

Segmenting audiences that are defined by previous behaviours, frequently their recent online behavior or offline purchases and visitation.

Bid Rate

Bid Rate is a Programmatic Auction metric that shows how many Bids are occurring in the Auction. This is usually determined by one’s bid price and the frequency cap. The advertiser will only pay for impressions that are won.

Bid Request

A bid request is a function that is triggered when a user visits a digital space with ad units on it. It then requests an ad so that it can be displayed in the ad units for users.

Bid Response

The response that gets sent by the DSP inside RTB system to address the Bid Request that was sent by SSP, Ad Network or Ad Exchange. The bid request normally comprises information about the amount of bid, an ID of the creative (banner or video), and ID of the participant that made a bid on the auction.

Billable Impressions

The number of impressions counted towards fulfilling a contract. Because there can be a slight discrepancy between ad serving systems, these are tracked and charged based on externally validated impression counts (i.e., through third-party impression reporting).

Brand Advertising

Focused on building brand awareness and identity, creating a positive perception and emotional connection with the audience over time.

Brand Lift

Digital measurement that leverages surveys to quantify the increase in brand perception against key purchase funnel metrics, including awareness, ad recall, brand attributes, favourability, preference, consideration, intent, and perception.

Budget Optimization

Reallocation of investments to reduce investment is less efficient channels, in favour of those which deliver greater ROI. MMM is one of the approaches that assist marketers in optimizing future spends and maximizing effectiveness. Using MMM approach, it is established which mediums are working better than other ones. Then, budget allocation is done, by shifting money from low ROI mediums to high ROI mediums thus maximizing sales while keeping the budget constant.

Campaign Delivery

The audience delivered by an advertising campaign.

Carry Over Effect or Decay Effect

The impact of past advertisement on present sales is known as Carry over effect. A small component termed as lambda is multiplied with the value for previous time frame. This component is also known as Decay effect as the impact of previous month/week/day advertisement decays over time.

Circuit

A circuit or network is two or more OOH/DOOH faces that are usually bundled to display one campaign.

Circulation

A measurement of traffic volume in a market. Circulation only estimates the number of people with an opportunity to see an OOH display. In print media it reflects the number of copies produced for distribution.

Click

The number of times a user has clicked on a digital advertisement. A ‘display click’ is a click on a paid online ad; a ‘search click’ is click on a search result ad.

Click-Through Rate (CTR)

The ratio of times an ad is clicked on, compared to the number of times an ad is shown. Calculated as clicks / impressions.

Closed Loop Measurement

A method of tracking and analysing the complete customer journey, from initial exposure to interaction to conversion, in-store or online. It is considered a key benefit of most retail media offerings because it allows advertisers to track the impact of their ads from initial exposure to the final purchase.

Co-operative Marketing (Co-op Marketing)

Co-operative marketing (co-op marketing) is a collaborative approach where brands and retailers share the costs of marketing campaigns. Often considered to be an early version of what is now referred to as Retail Media.

Commerce Media

Typically refers to companies that are not strictly retailers setting up offerings that are equivalent to retail media offerings (eg: bank, mobile network). See Retail Media

Cone of Vision

Typically used in OOH/DOOH advertsing, this is the field of view for an individual. Also known as the area of sight. It extends from the subject as a 120° cone.

Connected Television (CTV)

Connected Television (CTV) refers to television sets linked to the internet, enabling users to access online content, streaming services, and interactive features directly on their TV screens. This allows viewers to watch on-demand videos, browse the internet, download applications, and even engage with social media platforms.

Consideration

Reaching consumers who have heard of your brand or product but need to understand details about the product or service to be ‘sold on’ your brand specifically. These consumers are often researching a product category and are evaluating your brand against the competitive set. To be brought into their consideration set and selected, brands must showcase the benefits and key differentiators. When looking at the marketing funnel, consideration is considered mid-funnel along the customer journey, sitting between upper funnel brand advertising and lower funnel direct response advertising.

Content

Editorial or non-commercial material. Typically appears alongside advertisements.

Content Distribution Server

A server or computer used to store content for distribution to digital signage.

Content Management Software/System (CMS)

An application used to create, schedule, manage and modify digital content. EG: used to manage websites or digital signage.

Contribution Charts

Contribution charts are the easiest way to represent sales due to each marketing input. Contribution from each marketing input is a product of its beta coefficient and input value. E.g.: Contribution from Newspaper = β* Newspaper Spends

Control Group

A control group is a statistically significant portion of participants in an experiment that are shielded from exposure to variables. The control group receives no stimulus.

Conversion

The number of viewers who took a desired action, such as visiting your website or making a purchase, as a result of your ad.

Conversion

The number of viewers who took a desired action, such as visiting the website or making a purchase, as a result of your ad.

Cookies

Markers placed on an ad that identify information about a user, such as geography, language, device used, and time of day, and contain non-PII information.

Copy

The advertising displayed, sometimes refering to the text of an ad

Copy Area

The viewing area on an ad

Correlation Matrix

A correlation matrix is a table that shows the correlation values for each pair-relationship. It’s a very fast and efficient way of understanding feature relationships & the values always lie between -1 to +1.

Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)

The average advertising cost of one purchase. Calculated as the total cost (or budget) / conversions.

Cost Per Click (CPC)

Price paid for each click generated. Also known as “pay-per-click.” Calculated as the total cost (or budget) / clicks.

Cost Per Completed View (CPCV)

Total advertising cost / completed video views

Cost Per Play (CPP)

The cost (price) to deliver an ad play on a screen.

Cost Per Point

In print and broadcast media, cost of reaching one percent (one rating point) of the households of a targeted demographic segment or geographical area. Also called cost per gross rating point (CPGRP).

Cost Per Ratings Point (CPRP)

The cost of advertising exposure opportunities that equals one gross rating point (GRP).

Cost Per Screen (CPS)

Refers to the total cost of advertising distributed over the network on a per screen/display basis.

Cost Per Thousand / Mille (CPM)

Cost Per Thousand, using the Latin “Mille” instead of thousand. The amount an advertiser pays a website for every thousand times a brand’s ad is shown. Total cost / (impressions / 1000).

Coverage

The number of individuals delivered by an advertising campaign or network of frames.

Coverage Area

The actual real-life geographic area in proximity to an OOH face or panel where the face is fully visible.

Creative

The content of a message intended to ultimately drive users to take a specific action.

Cross-Platform Advertising

Advertising across different media platforms, including radio, television, paid search, social media, display, mobile, video, connected TV, etc.

Currency

By creating a common measure of all formats equally, and giving a specific value to each, media space may be planned, traded, evaluated and reported based on the currency.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Data

Data from an advertiser’s customer database, which can include their name, email address, mailing address, and phone number, accompanied by their past purchase of your product. This is considered first-party data and can be very valuable, as it reflects the advertiser’s actual customer base.

Cycle

The interval of time when an outdoor advertising frame or campaign is run. Also referred to as display period.

Data Management Platform (DMP)

A data warehouse used to aggregate and target relevant audience segments. Once aggregated, this data is easily accessible to marketers for planning, activation/modeling, and validation / measurement.

Day Part

A set period of time or proportion of a day to define audience delivery.

Deal ID

Also known as a deal identifier, is the unique number assigned to an automated ad buy.

Delivered Impacts

The number of times a creative has been viewed/had the opportunity to be viewed/was served

Delivered Play

The number of times a creative (with a defined spot length) plays fully.

Demand Side Platform (DSP)

A technology platform that provides centralised and aggregated media buying from multiple sources including ad exchanges, ad networks and sell side platforms, often leveraging real time bidding capabilities of these sources.

Demand-Side Retail Media

Demand-side retail media (DSRM) is a type of retail media that allows brands to buy ad space directly from retailers. It provides a platform where advertisers can control their bidding, targeting, and optimisation. This is in contrast to traditional retail media, where brands buy ad space from intermediaries, such as ad networks and exchanges.

Demographic Audiences

Audience breakdowns based on various characteristics such as age, sex, income, education, etc.

Demographic Targeting

A method of showing a specific piece of content (e.g. an advertisement) to a group of visitors based on their age, gender or household income.

Dependent Variable

The dependent variable (DV) is outcome or result you wish to measure, explain or predict. The values of this variable depend on independent variables. It is the outcome that you’re studying. It’s also known as the response variable or outcome variable.

Digital Billboard

Billboards that can change advertising content using digital technology. Content is static with multiple advertising message presented in rotation every few seconds.

Digital Place-Based Media

Addressable OOH screens that change advertising content remotely, excluding roadside digital OOH media such as billboards and bus shelters. Digital place-based media includes a broad range of content, including static messages and full motion video with an audio track.

Digital-Out-Of-Home (DOOH)

Any OOH display that can change its advertising content remotely – generally LCD or LED screens.

Diminishing Returns

The concept that the more you spend on a media channel, the lower the incremental gain in terms of conversion will be, up to the point where they hit zero and spending more money on that channel does not bring any additional impact.

Display

The surface area where advertising copy is displayed, often for DOOH, sometimes called ‘frame’.

Display Advertising

Broad term that covers banner and video digital advertising in both social and non social channels

Display Exposure Zone

The area of research that, using eye-tracking methods, produces data on the probability that an advert is visible to the viewer, sometimes called viewability area

Display Period

The interval of time when an outdoor advertising frame or campaign is run

Double/Triple Counting

More of an issue because of silo-ed reporting if brands combine reports from individual platforms they are at risk of significantly overstating their conversion numbers, as each single conversion can be counted multiple times in each platform.

Dwell Time

The time spent by an audience member in the visibility area or the coverage area of an OOH frame. For DOOH, dwell time refers to the time spent in the visibility area or coverage area when a specific ad was being displayed. Can be also defined as the time to cross the coverage area, or conversely only when the visible from in-front of the site, depending on the source data.

Dynamic Content

The process of creating and enabling responsive and editable creative messaging to deliver contextually relevant messages driven by the smart use of data.

Dynamic Creative Optimization

Ad creatives that are dynamically served to make each ad more relevant, but on a massive scale. The most common approach is Dynamic Retargeting, where ads can display products a user browsed or added to their shopping cart. Dynamic ads can also recommend similar products or best-selling items based on user browsing or similar offers based on browsing behavior.

Dynamic OOH

An OOH frame that shows more than one ad message.

Eccentricity

The angle of viewing between the audience and the face at a specific distance.

Electronic Sell-Through (EST)

On-Demand content that users can purchase on a pay-per-view basis to own indefinitely

Endemic Advertising / Endemic Brands

Advertising displaying brands or products that customers can purchase at the retailer. Advertising is contextually relevant, and customers expect to see messaging from these brands, and it integrates into their overall shopping experience.

Engagement

The level of interaction with your ad is measured through metrics like video completion rate (VCR) or QR code scan.

Engagement

The level of interaction with an ad. This is measured through metrics like video completion rate (VCR), QR code scan or CTRs in case of banners

Environment

The place and location of the advertising network and screens. For example, retail and metro, among others.

Events

Events are special campaigns that can be scheduled outside of the regular playback loop to appear at a predefined time.

Exposed – Store Conversion Rate

Rate at which exposed audience visited the store per impression served.

Exposure

Presence in the defined screen exposure zone or coverage area while content is deemed to be viewable, though this does not require that the content be viewed. Exposure is also often referred to as opportunity-to-see.

Eye Tracking

A survey methodology that records the movement of the eye and its fixations in relation to what an individual is looking at.

Face

The surface area on an OOH unit where advertising copy is displayed. A structure may have more than one face.

Facing

The direction a frame is pointing – may be relative to audience flow or to true north (Azimuth).

Feature Importance

Feature importance allows you to determine how “important” each input variable is to predict the output variable. A feature is important if shuffling its values increases model error because this means the model relied on the feature for the prediction.

Fill Rate

The amount of ad inventory that gets sold to advertisers (versus remaining unfilled)

First Party Data

Information that you own and collect directly from your customer base that can then be leveraged across various platforms. This data can come from a variety of places, for example your website (online) or collected in-store (offline). This data is rich and very accurate since the customer is consenting and directly inputting the information.

Flight

The advertising campaign period for a particular advertising spot or spots, expressed in days or weeks. Also known as campaign duration.

Format

Refers to the type of media. For example, digital screen, online banner, pre-roll among others.

Frame

The surface area on an outdoor unit where advertising copy is displayed.

Frames Per Second (FPS)

The speed at which still images (frames) in a video or animation are played in succession by an imaging device. Sometimes expressed as hertz (Hz).

Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV (FAST)

Streaming linear channels that are Ad-supported and free to watch

Frequency

Frequency is the average number of times an individual has teh opportunity to see a message during a defined period of time.

Frequency Capping

A limit/cap on how many times a specific user is shown a particular advertisement within a given time period.

Frequency Distribution

Distribution showing the percentage of the target audience population who have been exposed to a schedule of faces at each level of frequency.

Gap Length

The time gap between spots of the same advertiser.

Geofencing

A technology that allows an advertiser to select a geographic point using latitude and longitude information and then to create a radius, or virtual ‘fence’ around that point to deliver a digital communication to a particular audience.

Geotargeting

Geotargeting is a method that allows advertisers to serve ads to consumers that correspond to their location (country, city, area). Geotargeting is limited by law in some locations. This advertising tactic utilizes location and demographic to reach a prime market of individuals to create advertisements aimed at specific behavior. The information is gathered from mobile phones and is privacy compliant. When someone is searching for information, ads can then appear for organizations nearby. Setting a specific ad location scope helps organizations avoid wasting marketing funds. Ads can be used in real time based on user location or location history. Geotargeting can also be used to measure visitation history and create more relevant ads based on that information, leading to improved responses.

GPS

Global Positioning System. The satellite navigation system that provides precise location information for electronic devices such as smart phones.

Gross Impressions

The number of individuals over a period of time with opportinity to see an advertismenet or in OOH, have presence in the defined exposure zone. May be also defined as OTS or ROTS.

Gross Rating Points (GRPs)

The total number of impacts delivered by an OOH schedule expressed as a percentage of total market population.

Hybrid Advertising & Subscription Video-On-Demand (AVOD/SOD)

On-demand content that is Ad-supported and free to watch alongside On-demand content that is subscription-based

Impact

One individual, seeing one advert, once. This is a mathematical rule applied in audience calculations. In DOOH, the definition of a route impact uses likelihood to see (LTS), not opportunity to see (OTS).

Impression multiplier

The multiplier is an OOH specific metric which informs the buyer exactly how many impressions are delivered in a single ad play. In programmatic DOOH, one bid request accounts for one ad play, therefore the multiplier highlights how many impressions are included per bid request.

Impressions

The number of times your ad has been viewed.

Impressions

The number of times your ad has been viewed.

In Market Audience

People who are likely in the market to purchase a given product or service. See also Commerce Intent.

In-Banner Video

Video placements within banner formats advertising using the VAST protocol

In-Feed Video

Videos appearing within content feeds of social media or websites, automatically playing as users scroll, for a seamless viewing experience. This is a subcategory of Out-stream

In-Store Digital Retail Media

In-store digital Retail Media opportunities are also offered by retailers to agencies and brands. The digital opportunities available include radio, DOOH screens, TV, ATMs and hand scanners. Most in-store digital is bought directly from the retailer as a managed service

In-Store Retail Media

Advertising and promotional content opportunities that exist within a physical retail environment, including but not limited to product displays, digital signage including video, printed signage including decals, and shelf wobblers. Depending on the context, it can refer to either digital, analogue, or physical assets.

In-Store Sales Value

The sales value generated in-store during the campaign or over a specific time period, from shoppers exposed to your campaign.

In-Store Sampling

Promotional campaigns that offer shoppers a free sample, tasting, or demo of the product, often involving a sampling station attended by a store associate.

In-Store Signage

Signs, posters, and banners placed around the store, including the entrance area, ceiling-mounted frames, over checkout lines, and special sections of the store, such as the deli to provide advertising messages and information.

In-Stream Video

Video ads played before, during, or after video content, ensuring viewer engagement with non-skippable content for a set time.

Incremental Sales

Sales attributable to marketing activities like TV advertisement, print advertisement, and digital spends, promotions etc, typically calculated by comparing a control group to an exposed group.

Incremental Value

Also known as incremental ROAS, it is the lift in value generated from an ad campaign. Incrementality measurement is a key benefit of the closed-loop measurement feature of many retail media programmes.

Incrementality

Measures the impact of a single variable on an individual user’s behaviour relative to the expected behaviour without that variable. Ie: the impact of a marketing action v the impact expected without that individual action.  Typically this is measured using an exposed group (to the marketing action) against a control group (who were not exposed). The lift (incrementality) is measured as the percent difference between the two and can be done on brand metrics, unit sales or revenue sales where the data is available.

Incrementality / Sales Incrementality / Incremental Uplift

An advanced method to measure marketing effectiveness that seeks to show that those who purchased did so because they were exposed to advertising content, rather than that they were already likely to purchase despite the advertising. Measuring incrementality is further enabled by closed-loop measurement that is increasingly typical via retail media networks.

Independent Variables

Independent variables (IVs) are the ones that you include in the model to explain or predict changes in the dependent variable. These variables are independent. In this context, independent indicates that they stand alone and other variables in the model do not influence them. The researchers are not seeking to understand what causes the independent variables to change. See Dependent Variable

Likelihood to See (LTS)

An estimation of the probability of viewing an ad that is generally based on eye tracking or attention mapping studies. LTS is a qualitative metric that usually complements quantitative measurement metrics. The accuracy of LTS is highly dependent on the representativeness of the studied sample in relation to the local market.

Line of Sight

The simultaneous viewing of more than one OOH unit.

Linear Regression

Statistical analysis used to estimate the  impact of different variables in the outcome of advertising activity.

Linear TV

Linear TV, or traditional TV, is the 24/7 line-up of programming available to view as it airs. It is delivered to viewers over-the-air with a digital or terrestrial antenna, through pay-TV provider technology (set-top box, IPTV, satellite dish), and increasingly via CTV (e.g., Amazon Prime, YouTube TV, Hulu, fuboTV). Programs can be recorded with a DVR to watch later.

Location Traffic

Passers-bys or circulation.

Logistic Regression

This can be used to calculate the probability of a particular touchpoint having influenced a consumer’s behaviour.

Long-Loop Data

Refers to data that tracks customer behaviour over a long period of time – for example, the past 52 weeks. This can include data about what products customers have purchased online and offline, how often they have visited a retailer’s website, and what they have searched for online.

Look-Alike Modeling

A process that uses machine learning to identify audiences who look and act very similarly to a known audience. Look-alike models are often used to create scale and find more people who will likely take a similar desired action.

Look-Alike Targeting

Targeting audiences that have some number of attributes in common with an audience of interest. For example, an advertiser may target ‘look-alikes’ of past purchasers – i.e. those who share demographic or behavioural characteristics of past purchasers, but have not themselves made a purchase.

Lookback Window

The time between a conversion event and a prior engagement event, such as an ad click or view. For example, a lookback window of 14 days means that any ad a user is exposed to, in the 14 days before they convert, should be considered in the allocation of that conversion’s credit.

Loop

Segments of content and advertising programmed to a specific length that repeats on standard intervals. For example, a 40-second loop of five ad positions of eight seconds each.

Machine Learning

The scientific study of algorithms and statistical models that computer systems use to progressively improve their performance on a specific task.

Market Mix Modelling (MMM) / Media Mix Modelling

A technique which helps in quantifying the impact of several marketing inputs on sales. The purpose of using MMM is to understand how much each marketing input contributes to sales, and how much to spend on each marketing input.  This  helps to ascertain the effectiveness of each marketing input in terms of Return on advertisement spends (ROAS). Typically this is done through a statistical approach that analyzes historical data to quantify the impact of external and internal variables on a key KPI, usually Sales.  Whilst it generally refers to sales impact, it can be adapted for measuring Awareness, Earned Media, Web Visits, Browser Search, etc. It can also be scaled by consumer segment, product, distribution channel, etc. and can include halo effects.

Marketing Funnel

The marketing funnel is a visualization of the theoretical steps on a journey customers move through from awareness to sales. The most common funnel includes at least awareness, consideration, and conversion, although more complex versions may also include interest, preference, intent, evaluation, trial, and advocacy or non-liner options.

Marketplaces

A digital platform that serves as an intermediary between vendors and consumers, facilitating the online sale of goods and services.

Maximum Visibility Distance

The distance measured along the line of travel from the point where an advertising unit first becomes fully visible to the point where the copy is no longer deemed viewable.

Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE)

The mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) — also called the mean absolute percentage deviation (MAPD) — measures accuracy of a forecast system. It measures this accuracy as a percentage, and can be calculated as the average absolute percent error for each time period minus actual values divided by actual values.

Media Buying

Media buying is the process of purchasing ad space on digital and offline platforms to maximize profit from audiences. Those who buy media are called media buyers. These professionals find and purchase ad openings in optimal locations, site placements, and run times to reach consumers. A media buyer will negotiate for preferred ad placements at lower costs to ensure higher revenue.

Media Plan

A plan for an advertising campaign that specifies details of the selected media, advertising content, dates and delivery goals.

Media Unit

A unit defined by a DOOH network that describes the physical space on which a DOOH ad unit will play. Most often for digital place-based networks, a media unit is a single screen. However, in locations where multiple screens are combined to portray content that is larger than one screen, the entirety of that group of screens may be referred to as a single media unit.

Monetisation / Media Monetisation

The capacity to generate additional revenue from your media assets and data by allowing advertising partners to promote their products and brands across multiple channels and touch points.

Multi Sensor Tracker (MST)

Multi sensor tracking devices are used by route to monitor the movement of participants in a travel survey. These use a combination of GPS and other sensors to detect people’s location and movements on a second-by-second basis. They are designed to work both above ground and below, even when there is no mobile signal available. These provide accurate positioning to one metre.

Multi-Touch Attribution (MTA)

Multi-touch attribution is a marketing effectiveness measurement technique that takes all of the touchpoints on the consumer journey into consideration and assigns fractional credit to each so that a marketer can see how much influence each channel has on a sale. Multi-touch attribution offers a more sophisticated alternative to traditional, rules-based attribution approaches, such as first- and last-touch, which give all of the credit to the first or last marketing touchpoint before the consumer converts through a purchase, download or any other event.

Multicollinearity

Multicollinearity is the occurrence of high intercorrelations among two or more independent variables in a multiple regression model. Multicollinearity can lead to skewed or misleading results when a researcher or analyst attempts to determine how well each independent variable can be used most effectively to predict or understand the dependent variable in a statistical model.

Multiple Linear Regression

Multiple linear regression attempts to model the relationship between two or more explanatory variables and a response variable by fitting a linear equation to observed data. For this model to work, you also must assume that there’s no significant correlation between the multiple independent variables. This is because you’re measuring their impact on the dependent variable, not each other.

Network

A circuit or network is two or more OOH/DOOH faces that are usually bundled to display one campaign.

Non-Endemic Advertising / Non-Endemic Brands

Brands that are not associated with or related to the products available from a retailer – and are not able to be bought from the retailer – but are in some way relevant to the consumer.

Null Hypothesis

A null hypothesis is a type of statistical hypothesis that proposes that no statistical significance exists in a set of given observations. Hypothesis testing is used to assess the credibility of a hypothesis by using sample data. Sometimes referred to simply as the “null,” it is represented as H0.The null hypothesis, also known as the conjecture, is used in quantitative analysis to test theories about markets, investing strategies, or economies to decide if an idea is true or false.

Off-Site / Off-Network / Off-Platform Retail Media

Advertising or promotional content placed outside of a retailer’s owned channels or platforms, in other media platforms or media inventory. It is typically placed by the retailer, not the brand advertiser, in some manner making use of the retailer’s 1st party data, to target audiences beyond the retailer site or platforms. Practically speaking, it refers to digital media opportunities. Examples of media channels used here could include Video, CTV, DOOH, Search and social.

Off-Site Digital Retail Media

The use of retailer data to buy advertising sold on inventory outside of retailers online (web and app) shopping platforms. The inventory available with third-party partners (using retailer data) includes display, video, social, Connected TV (CTV) and Digital-Out-Of-Home (DOOH). Off- Site Retail Media sometimes requires the creative to be co-branded and sometimes contains direct links to the product on the retailer’s website. Off-Site Retail Media can be bought and managed directly by retailers, or from other providers including agencies and platforms.

Offline Sales Measurement

Also known as offline-to-online purchase measurement, this links online advertising to offline sales by measuring the lift in purchase from those exposed to a digital ad. Vendors such as Nielsen Catalina Solutions, Oracle, IRI, and Kantar Group collect offline purchase data (point-of-sales [POS], coupon, loyalty card, and panel data) and leverage their robust database technology to match consumers who purchased offline with their online cookie.

Omnichannel

Omnichannel is a holistic approach to advertising that considers the customer journey and how it spans multiple channels and touchpoints. It provides a consistent brand experience with seamless messaging across channels that work together to drive awareness, consideration, and intent, all the way through to conversion. This integrated approach involves a range of ad formats (including display, native, and video) that run on different channels (including websites, social media, and linear TV).

Omnichannel Retail Media

A holistic approach to advertising that considers the customer journey and how it spans multiple channels and touchpoints. It provides a consistent brand experience with seamless messaging across channels that work together to drive awareness, consideration, and intent, all the way through to conversion. This integrated approach involves a range of ad formats (including display, native, and video) that run on different channels (including websites, social media, and linear TV).

On-Site / On-Network / On-Platform Retail Media

Any type of advertising that is placed on a retailer’s own digital properties (website or app) on behalf of a brand. This can include, but not limited to, sponsored product listings, brand pages or hub, email inclusions. Typically, targeting is informed in some manner by the retailers first party data. Commonly refers to digital media opportunities (contrasted to in-store retail media, which can be either digital or physical ad spaces).

On-Site Retail Media

Advertising placed on the retailer’s own digital properties. This typically includes retailer websites and apps (e.g. Carrefour, Landmark), or online consumer shopping marketplaces (e.g. Dubbizle, Noon and Amazon). Typically, targeting is informed in some manner by the retailers first party data. On-Site Retail Media also includes the ability to optimise and measure campaigns as well as target specific inventory.

Open Auction

A way to buy/sell programmatic advertising. It is the least- restrictive type of ad auction, with a media owner/publisher generally allowing any and all buyers to participate in accessing the ad inventory.

Open RTB

The IAB standard for Real Time Bidding (RTB) now used by most DSPs.

Operating Hours

Typicaly a DOOH term, this is the period of time each day the frame location is displaying advertising and content to audiences.

Opportunity To See (OTS)

The number of number of exposures or opportunities an audience has over a period of time to see an ad or in the presence of defined visibility area, in the case of DOOH.

Organic Conversion

A visitor to a website from an unpaid traffic source who performs a desired action, such as signing up for a new account, registering for an event, or downloading a PDF. Success is measured based on “organic conversion rate,” which is calculated based on the percentage of total visitors that convert.

Orientation

The direction a DOOH frame is pointing, relative to true north (Azimuth).

Out-Of-Home (OOH) Media

All media formats specifically intended to reach consumers outside the home.

Over The Top (OTT)

OTT content can be watched on any device that has an internet connection: Desktop, mobile, smartphone, tablets Apps, set-top boxes, smart TVs, etc.

Panel

The surface area on an outdoor unit where advertising copy is displayed.

Panel Data

Observations or conclusions about consumer behavior derived from a sample which is representative of a larger population. Often panel data is gathered through surveys or interviews. Panel data is less expensive than collecting first-party data, useful for directional information, and particularly suited for reaching broad audiences, like with a brand campaign or a new launch campaign. Panels are samples, so they are usually derived from less than 1% of the population. This can make them a weak source of information about niche audiences because there might not be a statistically significant sample size to build off of. For other data collection types, see direct data.

Parallel

When a poster frame is parallel to a particular flow of traffic or pedestrian flow.

Passbys

Used in DOOH measurement, this is defined in ‘Streach’ as an individual entering and exiting the coverage area of an OOH face. Repeated passbys over a campaign’s duration account for frequency. In DOOH, Streach passbys are deterministically synchronised with the ad unit in play to calculate ad-level passbys.

Passive

Describes research fieldwork that requires minimal input from the participant. At a practical level the data is simple to process and subject to fewer input errors than in active or survey-based methods.

Performance

Evaluation of a campaign’s achievements after the event.

Personally Identifiable Information (PII)

Data that can identify a particular person, such as name, street address, credit card number, etc.

Pixel

Pieces of code that are placed on a website in order to gather valuable information about visitors to the site and their behaviors while on the site.

Place-Based

Located at a destination venue (indoors or outdoors) with associated dwell time. Place-based media audiences are typically pedestrians, or can be individuals located within a venue.

Plant

A media company’s entire outdoor advertising inventory.

Play

A play in DOOH differs from an impression in online, as it has a defined length, start and end time.

Playback Format

The final format in which the ad unit will be played across the network. Networks shall disclose the playback format.

Player

Any device (hardware or software) that distributes video and audio content to a display.

Point of Sale Data

Transaction data collected at the point of sale, providing insights into customer behaviour and preferences.

Population

The total potential audience available to be measured – population can be segregated based on demographic or other characteristics for reporting. Sometimes refered to as universe

Position In Sequence

The position of a specific ad play within a loop. The position in sequence indicates the specific periods in time where an ad will be displayed within a fixed loop.

Posting Date

The date when an advertising billboard is set up or a digital LED screen display program is scheduled to commence.

Predictive Audiences

Targeting specific audience segments based on predictive models that forecast user behaviour.

Private Marketplace (PMP)

A way to buy/sell programmatic advertising. Deals that are negotiated as invitation-only auctions, providing certain buyers in the ad exchange preference. A publishers’ direct sales team can negotiate a deal with certain clients ahead of time, including a max bid, max CPM, ad unit types, certain site sections, etc. If a publisher has an impression that matches the negotiated deal’s criteria, it triggers a bid request encoded with a special Deal ID number. The auction calls out to demand partners and prioritizes buyers with the matching Deal ID.

Product Feed Management

The administering and optimising of product feeds to enhance the performance of online advertising campaigns.

Product Listing Optimisation

Involves enhancing and enriching elements of a product listing or product feed to improve ranking in marketplaces, increase traffic, and boost conversions.

Product Recommendations

Typically AI-driven algorithms that enhance the relevance of digital content for specific products based on a shopper’s on-site behaviour, such as navigation, recency, and the types of other products browsed.

Product Search

An example of on-site retail media. Product search involves sponsored-search ads and premium product placement on a retailer’s e-commerce site using proprietary consumer data, including history, preferences, and demographics.

Programmatic Buying

Automatic process of buying and selling of digital advertisement placements through real-time bidding, supported by real-time bidding technology and several data sources.

Proof of Play/Performance (PoP)

Acronym for ‘Proof of Play’ or ‘Proof of Performance’. A reporting mechanism in which logs are used to show that an ad actually played back on a digital screen or network. Some advertisers now also demand ‘proof of display’ – verification that the ad was actually shown on the screens, as well as third-party audited play logs.

Prospecting

Targeting new audiences who are a good fit for your brand and likely to convert. Prospecting is a key strategy used in combination with retargeting to drive new potential customers into the marketing funnel.

Psychographic Targeting

Targeting audiences defined by personality, interests, attitudes or mindsets – e.g. financial optimists, environmentally-conscious consumers. Often driven from offline surveys and stated preferences.

R-Square

R-squared is a goodness-of-fit measure for linear regression models. The closer the R square value is to 1, the better the correlation. This statistic indicates the percentage of the variance in the dependent variable that the independent variables explain collectively. R-squared measures the strength of the relationship between your model and the dependent variable.

Reach

The net (unduplicated) count or percent of the universe or of the defined target audience exposed to content, advertising, or a specific ad within a defined time frame- campaign duration.

Reach and Frequency

The estimated number of people exposed to an advertising campaign, and the average number of times they have been exposed to it, in a defined period.

Real Time Bidding (RTB)

Bidding or buying inventory in real time. Advertising buyers bid on an impression and, if the bid is won, the buyer’s ad is (nearly) instantly displayed on the publisher’s site, without the user being aware of the auction. The transaction is facilitated by technolgy on buy side (DSP’s) connecting with the sell-side (SSP’s)

Realistic Opportunity To See (ROTS)

The number of individuals in the defined visibility area or coverage area whilst the advertisement is displayed.

Recall

Consumers initial memory of seeing an advertisement. This is calculated using market research where respondents are asked to remember the advertising they have seen within a given period of time, unaided is wher eno props are used, while to establish aided recall,some promts are provided to the respondent.

Regression Attribution

Using linear regression to correlate digital media activity with digital KPIs. This helps quantify the individual impact of each media channel without relying on cookie-level tracking and its limitations.

Resolution

Refers to the clarity and detail of an image relating to the number of lines (horizontal and vertical) of pixels.

Respondent

A respondent is a participant in a research study.

Retail Media

The digital advertising space, retail data assets and in-store opportunities a retailer or marketplace owns, which is then made available to brands for the execution of advertising campaigns. It can include a variety of different formats, such as online advertising, in-store signage, and sponsored products. First-party data, or information that retailers have obtained directly from their customers, enables them to design and deliver highly targeted advertising campaigns that are more likely to resonate with consumers, thereby raising brand awareness, boosting sales, and fostering customer loyalty.

Retail Media Group (RMG)

A retailer’s business entity, division, or appointed agency that specialises in the monetisation of its advertising assets within physical stores, retailer-owned sites, or apps.

Retail Media Network (RMN)

The infrastructure comprising both online and offline channels where brands can advertise to reach shoppers. It encompasses the actual ‘spaces’ or ‘channels’, such as e-commerce sites, in-app spaces, in-store digital displays, and email marketing channels, where advertisements can be placed.

Retail Media Platform (RMP)

A technological solution or software system that facilitates the management, execution, and analysis of advertising campaigns within the Retail Media Network. It allows brands to reach shoppers at the point of purchase on retailer and marketplace websites and apps. RMPs offer a variety of ad formats, including sponsored products, display and video ads, in-store display and off-site.

Retargeting

Serving ads to consumers who have previously engaged via site visits or email sign-ups, where the prior engagement did not result in a sale or conversion. Shorthand abbreviations include RT and RET.

Return On Advertising Spends (ROAS)

Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) is a marketing metric that measures revenue earned for each dollar you spend on advertising. By calculating and tracking ROAS, you gain insights on the effectiveness of your advertising. You can calculate ROAS for a wide variety of advertising initiatives, from measuring ROAS on single ads or projects, to calculating ROAS on monthly campaigns or for an entire year’s worth of advertising spend.

Return On Investment (ROI)

The value of increased sales or other measured outcomes over the cost of achieving those outcomes.

ROAS

A marketing metric that measures revenue earned for each dollar you spend on advertising. By calculating and tracking ROAS, you gain insights on the effectiveness of your advertising. You can calculate ROAS for a wide variety of advertising initiatives, from measuring ROAS on single ads or projects, to calculating ROAS on monthly campaigns or for an entire year’s worth of advertising spend.

ROI

The value of increased sales or other measured outcomes over the cost of achieving those outcomes.

Rotation

The process of moving the advertiser’s message from one location to another at stated intervals to achieve a more balanced coverage of a market. Rotation sometimes also refers to the ad position in a loop.

Sales Uplift

Measures the incremental increase in sales that results from running specific promotional campaigns within a set period. Measuring incrementality is enabled further by closed-loop measurement that is increasingly typical via retail media networks.

Schedules

Schedules are the resources that tell campaigns which content to display and during which block of time to display it. A campaign can have multiple schedules that it will play through one by one every time their turn comes in the playlist. Also used to refer to a media plan.

Screen

A device or medium designed to deliver advertising content, whether it be video, audio or both.

Screen Networks

A collection of connected digital screens that are placed throughout a retailers’ network of stores that can be used to display a variety of content, including advertising, product information, and promotions. Through ownership or partnership, a screen network can be extended to include proximity screens and other screen inventory that a retail media network has been provided access to.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

This marketing tactic uses either paid media advertising or organic search engine optimisation (see SEO definition) to give websites higher rankings in search engine result pages (SERPS) for increased visibility.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

The practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to a website through organic search engine results to give higher rankings in search engine result pages (SERPS) for increased visibility.

Seat ID

A unique identifier used to offer inventory to specific buyers on a DSP platform.

Second Party Data

Someone else’s first party data. Typically, a company makes their first party data available to another company for a defined purpose in a contractual agreement. This can take place in the form of a co-op. For example, a supplier may obtain a retailers loyalty data in order to gain additional insights about the market.

Second-Party Data

Second-Party Data is the first-party data of another organisation that is obtained and used transparently and with permission for marketing purposes. It provides medium-scale and highly accurate data.

Segmentation

Dividing a broad group of consumers or businesses into subgroups (known as segments) based on shared demographic/psychographic/behavioural attributes. Segmentation is often used to create target audiences (comprised of one or more segments) or to customise an offer or message for specific segments.

Self-Serve Platform

Self-Serve Platform is a retail media advertising platform that enables marketing teams and agencies to have direct access to data, inventory, and more, allowing for greater control and clarity in advertising efforts.

Served Impression

An ad that was reported to have begun to render on the screen.

Share Of Time (SOT)

A percentage share of time on a digital display that has been used by an advertiser.

Share Of Voice (SOV)

A percentage share of a exposure (or some times spend) that a brand has relative to a competitor set

Shelf Talkers

An example of in-store retail media. Shelf Talkers are signs and blades clipped directly onto grocery store shelves next to the products they are advertising. They are also known as “aisle violators” and “shelf wobblers”

Shoppable

Interactive online content or ads allowing direct purchases through the content, integrating e-commerce capabilities for a seamless shopping experience.

Shoppable Content

Media content that directly links to a product or service for immediate purchase. This could be within articles, social media posts, or videos.

Shopping Trolley Ads

An example of in-store retail media. Advertisement panels that are placed in or on physical shopping trolleys or carts, in-store.

Show-Rooming

The practice where customers visit a physical store to examine products before purchasing them online.

Sign

Panel, frame, screen.

Silo-Ed Reporting

Using conversion data from individual platforms (Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok, etc.) This can be misleading as it can lead to multiple platforms claiming credit for the same conversion, as they are not able to see media interactions from other platforms.

Single Touch Attribution (STA)

Assigning the entire credit of a single consumer touchpoint to a single entity. This could be, for example, the first place an advertiser saw or interacted with an ad or last place they saw or interacted with an ad, even if they have seen it more than once.  For instance, an advertiser with an online retail website may deliver an ad to a consumer who clicks on the ad then purchases from their website (a click-through conversion). A single touch attribution model would assign the credit to the site on which the consumer last clicked before they purchased. This ‘last click’ model would not assign a value to other touchpoints with the consumer prior to the last click that may have added to the consumer’s propensity to act.

Social Ads

Display ads served on social media platforms. Since there are few social media players, they can have unique ad sizes that integrate well into their pages. For more digital ad formats, see rich media, banner display ads, mobile ads, video ads, native ads and connected TV (CTV)

Social Advertising

Display ads served on social media platforms. Since there are few social media players, they can have unique ad sizes that integrate well into their pages.

Sponsored Brand

An example of on-site retail media. Sponsored Brands are keyword or category-targeted ads that promote a brand alongside shopping results on a retailer site or marketplace.

Sponsored Product Ad / Promoted Product

An example of on-site retail media. Sponsored Products ads are keyword- or product-targeted ads that promote individual listings and appear in shopping results and product detail pages on the retailer’s site.

Spot

A piece of advertising creative content.

Spot Length

The amount of time the advertiser has to play their creative.

Stock Keeping Unit (SKU)

A unique identifier is assigned to each product variant, allowing accurate tracking and inventory management.

Store Conversion Rate

Rate at which exposed consumers visited the store per impression served.

Store Visits

Total number of store visits attributed to the campaign, based on store visitation behavior observed and the total number of impressions for the campaign.

Subscription Video-On-Demand (SVOD)

Entire catalog of On-Demand content that users can access for a monthly fee

Supplier

An organisation, often referred to as a brand that provides a product or service for sale via a retail partner or marketplace.

Supplier-Side Retail Media

Supply-side retail media (SSRM) is a type of retail media that allows brands to buy ad space directly from retailers. The ad space inventory is accessed via a platform where retailers can manage and sell their ad space directly to advertisers. This is in contrast to traditional retail media, where brands buy ad space from intermediaries, such as ad networks and exchanges.

Supply Side Platform (SSP)

A technology platform that helps publishers manage their advertising inventory while maximizing potential revenue. SSPs allow publishers to manage their inventory in real time, prioritizing their own direct buys first (which net them more money), and then uploading their unsold inventory to the ad exchanges. SSP reporting capabilities also provide insight into what inventory is selling best and at what price point.

Synchronisation

The same content playing on multiple screens or frames at the exact same time.

Target / Target Audience

Any audience reflecting the most desired consumer prospects for a product or service usually defined by demographics, such as age, sex, geography, income and or/psychographics, such as attitudes and/or behaviours, such as shopping history.

Target Rating Point (TRP)

The total number of impacts delivered by an OOH schedule against a specified target audience group expressed as a percentage of the population of that target group. In Streach, TRP is defined as the ratio of the deduplicated count of individuals from a specific target audience exposed to a campaign, to the total count of individuals from the same target audience available within a city.

Targeted Email

An example of on-site retail media. Promotional email vehicles, such as weekly newsletters, seasonal campaigns, or personalised messages, containing ads, product features, and promo offers, targeting specific segments or individual occasions.

Test Group

A Test Groups is a group of (usually randomly assigned) users/ sessions/ pageviews/ etc. that are exposed to a certain treatment. The test groups are then compared to the Control Group to check for discrepancies large enough to reject the null hypothesis of interest.

Third Party Data

Third party data is data that has been sourced and aggregated by a company who is not the original collector of the data, such as through random surveys. The advantage of this dataset is the depth and breadth of the segments that exist. The disadvantage is does not directly link back to your customers.

Third-Party Cookies

Information generated by a website and stored by your browser, to help understand users’ online behaviors. Third-party cookies are generated on a website by a party other than the website itself.

Third-Party Data

Information that a company collects indirectly (such as through third-party cookies) or aggregates from others (such as credit card companies and magazine publishers) and then sells to ad buyers.

Trade Marketing

A marketing strategy focused on wholesalers, retailers, and distributors. Its goal is to increase demand from supply chain partners and promote products to consumers, by increasing product visibility within a retail environment. Trade Marketing budgets are shifting online. Trade Marketing encompasses both off-line and online channels, with retail media being a typical channel of online trade marketing.

Traffic

Volumes of visitors to a site or page or in the case of DOOH, volumes of people moving, whether on foot or in vehicles.

Transactional Video-On-Demand (TVOD)

On-Demand content that users can rent for a limited period of time

Transit Advertising

OOH advertising appearing on the exterior or interior of public transportation vehicles or stations.

Transition

The change from one message to another. Transition between one ad play and another within a loop.

Unique Traffic

The unduplicated audience that has an opportunity to see any message during a reporting period.

Universe

The population count within a defined geography or the total potential number of people that can be reached through advertising. The universe may be customized based on specific attributes of the population, eg: aged 15+

Validating Attribution Techniques

Each system of attributing value has inherent bias brought about by how complete the data set is on which the model is being built. Whether incomplete due to not capturing all touchpoints, or to the accuracy or degradation of 3rd party cookies, any attribution model needs a process of verification for accuracy. Methods that can account for direct exposure through random controlled trials (RCTs) are generally considered as the gold standard in the approach to validation. RCTs rely on comparing groups of consumers who are exposed and not exposed to an ad to assess the difference in the effects from the baseline.

Vendor

Could refer to media owner or screen/digital technology manufacturer.

Venue

The place and location of the advertising network and displays.

Venue Traffic

The total number of individuals estimated to be present, and thus targetable

Video Ad-Serving Template (VAST) Tag

VAST is for structuring ad tags that serve ads to video players. VAST transfers important metadata about an ad from the ad server to a video player.

Video Advertising

Advertising that uses video assets and runs using the VAST or VPAID protocol, this includes instream, outstream and infeed and also includes Youtube and social channels.

Viewable/Viewability

The percentage of impressions that were viewable. An ad is counted as viewable if at least 50% of its area is visible for at least one second for display ads, or at least two seconds for video ads

Visibility

The probability that an advert is visible to the viewer, typically estmiated using eye-tracking technology

Visibility Adjusted Contacts (VAC)

The number of individuals in the defined visibility area, facing the advertising frame whilst the advertisement is displayed, adjusted for the probability that they have looked at that ad content. Typicallyused by IPSOS in their OOH measurement methodology

Visibility Adjustment (VA)

A ratio or the percentage of a frame’s total OTS audience who are likely to notice an ad (VAC).

Visibility Area

The area from which an OOH frame can be viewed without defined obstruction.

Wastage

The proportion of an advertising campaign’s expenditure or advertising weight which is not seen or heard by the specified target audience, although could be seen or hear by people outside the defined audience.

Web-Rooming

Webrooming refers to the behaviour of shoppers gathering product information online to decide which products to buy but then going to a physical store to make the purchase (a play on the term “showrooming”)

Weighting

Statistical adjustments, conducted before data are analyzed, which adjust for respondents’ unequal probabilities of selection in probability samples.