40 Online Advertising Terms Every Entrepreneur Should Know

11. Click-through: the action of following a link within an advertisement or editorial content to another Web site or another page or frame within the Web site. Ad click-throughs should be tracked and reported as a 302 redirect at the ad server and should filter out robotic activity.

12. Contextual Ads: existing contextual ad engines deliver text and image ads to non-search content pages. Ads are matched to keywords extracted from content. Advertisers can leverage existing keyboard-based paid search campaigns and gain access to a larger audience.

13. Cookie: a small piece of information (i.e., program code) that is stored on a browser for the purpose of identifying that browser during audience activity and between visits or sessions.

14. CPA (Cost-per-Action): cost of advertising based on a visitor taking some specifically defined action in response to an ad. “Actions” include such things as a sales transaction, a customer acquisition, or a click.

15. CPC (Cost-per-click): cost of advertising based on the number of clicks received.

16. CPL (Cost-per-lead): cost of advertising based on the number of database files (leads) received.

17. CPM (Cost-per-thousand): media term describing the cost of 1,000 impressions. For example, a Web site that charges $1,500 per ad and reports 100,000 visits has a CPM of $15 ($1,500 divided by 100).

18. Display Advertising: a form of online advertising where an advertiser’s message is shown on a destination web page, generally set off in a box at the top or bottom or to one side of the content of the page.

19. E-mail Advertising: banner ads, links or advertiser sponsorships that appear in e-mail newsletters, e-mail marketing campaigns and other commercial e-mail communications. Includes all types of electronic mail (e.g., basic text or HTML-enabled).

20. Fold: the line below which a user has to scroll to see content not immediately visible when a Web page loads in a browser. Ads or content displayed “above the fold” are visible without any end-user interaction. Monitor size and resolution determine where on a Web page the fold lies.