Glossary

Home » Publisher Documentation » Glossary

A

Acquisition

When a user makes an interested action with an ad shown in the adspace. (e.g., signing up for membership or purchasing a product by clicking and going to the advertised location.

ACR

Stands for automatic content recognition. This is an identification technology that recognizes content played on a media device or is present in a media file. Devices containing ACR support enable users to quickly obtain additional information about the content they have just experienced without any user-based input or search efforts.

Ad Agencies

Also known as advertising agencies. Generally, they are strategic media buying or full-service creative companies that partner with brand advertisers and marketers to develop, plan, design, produce, and supervise ad creatives across all platforms for all ad media buys.

Ad Call

A call that is made by a user’s browser to the ad server or ad exchange for an ad to display on a webpage. An ad call can be considered as a request from a client to a server for an ad. The call consists of information such as the publisher ID, browser cookies, size, location, etc.

Ad Exchange

There are technology platforms in the ad space based on real-time ad auctions for buying and selling ad impressions.

Ad Format

The size and type of ad that’s displayed to users. This can include video, banner ads of different size, native advertising, and much more. For more information, see this overview on the different ad formats.

Ad Fraud

Ad fraud relates to advertising that is served but never seen by a user and still has a cost collected against the impression. For more information, download our whitepaper, titled Understand In-App Advertising Fraud.

Ad Impression

An ad impression occurs each time a consumer is exposed to an advertisement.

Ad Integration

The technical process of defining and making available ad slots within a publisher’s site or app.

Ad Markup

The payload to describe the ad to be displayed (often an HTTP snippet) transferred over an interface during an ad request.

Ad Network

An online advertising network or ad network is a company that connects advertisers to websites, mobile sites, and mobile apps that want to host advertisements. The key function of an ad network is aggregation of ad space supply from publishers and matching it with advertiser demand.

Ad Ops

Ad Operations refers to processes and systems that support the sale and delivery of online advertising.

Ad Optimizer

Helps publishers manage ad networks and optimize the monetization of their ad spaces.

Ad Request

A request to a system with the purpose of receiving an ad to be displayed. The request is usually via HTTP. An ad request is counted every time a mobile site or app calls the Smaato platform from a mobile device to display an ad.

Ad Response

An ad response is a reply to an incoming ad request.

Ad Server

A system composed of powerful technical hardware and software solutions used to collect and deliver ad units from ad networks and publishers. An important component of ad servers is the independent tracking of ad display and click information.

Ad Space

The certain area on a web page / in a mobile app available for advertisements. Every publisher has at least one adspace. An adspace always belongs to exactly one publisher.

ASVOD

Ad-supported streaming video on demand. Similar to SVOD (subscription video on demand), but is configured to allow ad-supported streaming.

Ad Tag

A SOMA integration method for publishers (especially for static HTML pages) (See → SOMA_Ad_Tag). It’s a rich media format, often composed of HTML div and JS script tags. (e.g. Celtra, Medialets Mobile Web, Sprout, Phluent, Crisp, ORMMA, or MRAID).

Ad Targeting

Also known as targeted advertising. Refers to the practice of attempting to reach a particular group of consumers, or audience, with specific ad content. Ads are placed in strategic areas to increase visibility among consumers who have specific traits, determined by their past behavior and preferences. Targeting aims to increase the likelihood of the targeted consumer clicking on the advertisement.

Ad Tech

Advertising technology, or ad tech, refers to software built for the advertising industry that helps improve media effectiveness and increase operational efficiencies. Ad tech often refers to a number of platforms, including demand side platforms (DSPs), data management platforms (DMPs), supply-side platforms (SSPs), and ad exchanges.

Advanced Targeting Data

Advanced targeting 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.

Advertisement

A banner or text link displayed within a site or app with the purpose of promoting a brand, product, or service.

Advertiser

An individual person or organization promoting their product or services through a public medium.

Advertising ID

The advertising ID is a unique, user-resettable ID for advertising provided by Google Play services. It gives users better controls and provides developers with a simple, standard system to continue monetizing their apps. It enables users to reset their identifier or opt out of personalized ads (formerly known as interest-based ads) within Google Play apps.

Aerospike

Aerospike is a Flash-optimized in-memory open source NoSQL database.

AFPM

Automated floor price management. This is an application that calculates floor prices based on historical data points.

Commonly stands for artificial intelligence, but can also stand for ad impression (See → Impression)

An ad network. These are companies that connects advertisers to websites, mobile sites, and mobile apps that want to host advertisements. The key function of an ad network is aggregation of ad space supply from publishers and matching it with advertiser demand.

APAC

The Asia Pacific region.

APP ID

The short form for application identifier. (See → ownID)

API

API stands for application programming interface. This is a software interface for specified communication between applications and other services or software products.

Application

A piece of software that is downloaded to run on a mobile phone, typically from an app store or mobile internet site.

APM

APM stands for application performance management or application monitoring. In order to manage and monitor the performance of an application, the collection and monitoring of a multitude of data types is needed to be performed and this is done through the use of an APM tool.

ARIX

The ad network revenue importer imports ad network revenue statistics from external ad networks.

ARPU

Average revenue per user (sometimes known as average revenue per unit). It’s calculated as the total revenue divided by the number of subscribers / users.

ARPDAU

The average revenue per daily active user (See → DAU).

Atlas

Microsoft Atlas is a campaign management and measurement platform.

Auction

An auction is the practice of allowing multiple buyers to value and bid on a singular ad opportunity, leveraging first-, second- or third-party data within a pre-fulfilment window. The concept of an auction is different in the TV world than in the digital world. TV auctions exist within a spectrum of totally open and highly controlled bidding rules and publisher controls that enforce end value for both the buy and sell sides.

Audience

A person or group of people that an advertiser wants to reach to promote his brand, service or product.

Audience Buying

Audience buying is the process of directly buying audience segments based on data.

Automated Media Buying

Automated media buying allows for targeting and engaging with consumer segments within a single platform

B

Backfill

Ad networks are filling each others unsold inventory (no high-paying ads). If an ad network can not serve an ad it will ask another ad network. If this ad network can provide an ad. Both ad networks share the revenue on the delivered ad.

Banner

Also known as “display ads,” banner advertisements are a form of graphical ads, typically including a combination of static/animated images, text, and/or video designed to convey a marketing message or cause the user to take an action. Banner dimensions are typically defined by width and height, represented in pixels.

Beacon

Beacons or so-called tracking pixels that help to count the view of the advertiser’s ad to validate traffic, data, and performance. A beacon is a transparent 1×1 GIF, which has to be requested by the mobile device directly after the banner image or the text ad, is requested.

Between-the-Page

Also known as “interstitial” ads, between-the-page ad units display as a user navigates from one webpage to the next webpage. The ad appears after the user leaves the initial page, but before the target page displays on the user’s screen. The ad is self-contained within its own browser window and may not appear as an overlay on the target page content.

Bid Request

The beginning of a real-time bidding transaction. The exchange requesting the DSPs for response including various data such as the user’s demographic information, location, and the app or page being loaded.

Bid Response

The answer of a demand-side platform (DSP) inside real-time bidding (RTB) on a bid request including the ad and a price.

Big Data

The term “big data” refers to extremely large sets of data that can be analyzed to reveal patterns and trends. It aims to deepen and drive the conversation and uncover ways in which the entire ecosystem can benefit through shared information and expertise.

Bitrate

The rate of bits processed per unit of time, commonly measured in bits per second (Bps), kilobits per second (Kbps), or megabits per second (Mbps). The bitrate is one of the biggest factors in audio or video quality.

Blacklist

Blocking a specific vendor’s access to inventory from the ad exchange.

Blind Traffic

Traffic generated by blind links or exit consoles.

BTF

Below-the-fold are ads that are below the viewable area in a screen making them not visible until the user scrolls down to them.

Bundle ID

A bundle ID or bundle identifier uniquely identifies an application in Apple’s ecosystem. No two applications can have the same bundle ID. Apple uses bundles to represent apps, frameworks, plug-ins, and many other specific types of content. Bundles organize their contained resources into well-defined sub-directories, and bundle structures vary depending on the platform and the type of the bundle.

Buyer

A company that contracts with a Demand Partner to buy adspace inventory, such as a trading desk or ad agency.

C

Cache Reloader

Application that reads the database entries needed by SOMA and puts these data as serialized blobs into the cache table of SOMA.

SOMA then reads the serialized blob values to update its caches.

Cache or Caching

The practice of temporarily storing files on local servers for quick retrieval the next time the file is needed. Cached files supply an old copy that may not be up to date with the file stored at the original source, but are often necessary for improving page load performance.

Campaign

The advertising period in which an ad delivery strategy is executed.

Carrier

A telephone company that provides services for mobile phone subscribers.mobile network operator (MNO), mobile phone operator (or simply mobile operator or mobo), carrier service provider (CSP), wireless service provider, wireless carrier, or cellular company

CAR

Click accounting rate. This is the percentage value of clicks (Demand Partner) over clicks (Smaato).

CAT Tool

A component in PrimeTime / Ad Server to change the publisher payout per campaign.

CDMA

Code-division multiple access refers to any of several protocols used in so-called second-generation (2G) and third-generation (3G) wireless communications. (See → GSM)

CDN

An acronym for content distribution network, a CDN is a system of geographically dispersed servers used to provide web content to a browser or other client. Files are strategically pulled from a server on the network based on the location of the user, the requesting server, and the delivery server of the CDN to provide the best delivery performance.

Click

An interaction between a website visitor and the browser in which the website visitor uses a device, such as a mouse, to move the cursor (or pointer) to an active area of the screen and then deliberately interacts with that area by clicking a button on their device, triggering an event. In the case of touch-screen devices, the user “clicks” by touching the active area with their finger or a stylus.

Click Through Rate (CTR)

Percentage of ad impressions to the recorded clicks. CTR typically ranges from 0.8 – 1%. CTR is a way of measuring the success of an online advertising campaign. For example, if a banner ad was delivered 100 times (impressions delivered) and 1 person clicked on it (clicks recorded), then the resulting CTR would be 1%

COPPA

The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act is a legislation that regulates the online collection of personal information of individuals under 13 years of age within U.S. jurisdiction.

COSY

Cookie synchronization service. This service gets the cookie ID from a parameter and saves it in the cookie.

CPA

Cost per Action is an online advertising pricing model, where the advertiser pays for each specified action (a purchase, a form submission, a download) linked to the advertisement. In other words, it is a pricing model where the advertiser pays for a specified user action (registration, purchase, etc.)

CPC

Cost per click (CPC) is the sum paid by an advertiser to a publisher for a single click on their advertisement, which directs one visitor to the advertiser’s website. (see → eCPC)

CPD

The cost per download.

CPD Ad Network

A CPD ad network is a network that generates downloads of Android or iOS Apps and also measures conversions. The download generation is mostly (but not always) done by incentivizing the user.

CPI

Cost per Installation

CPM

Cost per mille (CPM) or cost per thousand (CPT) means the cost of reaching 1,000 people. This information can be used to compare revenue across channels. CPM is calculated as:
CPM = (Total costs for running the ad / Total audience ) * 1000
If a website sells banner ads for a $20 CPM that means it costs $20 to show the banner on 1000 page views. (see → eCPM)

CPG

Consumer packaged goods, such as food, beverages, cosmetics, etc.

CPU

CPU is an acronym for central processing unit, the key component of a computer system, which contains the circuitry necessary to interpret and execute program instructions.

Conversion rate

Conversion rate is the proportion / percentage of users (banner clicks / views) to successful conversions / actions on the website. It is percentage value calculated as follows: (Conversions / Total Clicks) X 100

Connected TV

Real-time buying of live TV ads airing on internet-enabled over-the-top (OTT) devices or smart TV applications. Connected TV ads are sold as impressions using software automation and advanced data, reaching viewers who stream content on demand. Ad spots are purchased when a viewers matches your desired audience, creative messaging then appears in full-screen, 100% viewable environments.

Creative

An advertising unit created by an ad designer, in accordance with publisher specifications and guidelines, for the purpose of communicating a marketing message to that publisher’s audience. One creative may consist of multiple files in various formats, such as standard images, animation, video, execution files (.html, .js, etc.), and other files that work together for an interactive experience.

Cross-Device Attribution

Cross-device attribution assigns a value to each device in the path to purchase, enabling agency teams and advertisers to better understand their consumers’ behavior and more intelligently invest their budgets. Traditional, single-device attribution assumes all message exposure and activity occurs on the same device, whereas cross-device attribution knows that a single user often has access to multiple devices on which message exposure and activity can occur.

Cross-Device

Cross-device marketing allows agencies, media companies and advertisers to deliver brand messages to consumers at the right time, in the right format, and on the right device. The underlying foundation of cross-device marketing is a technology that links together various identifiers associated with a digital consumer. This linking forms a holistic profile of an individual, which enables marketing professionals to address and understand actual people, instead of devices.

Customer Insights

Customer insights/analysis software, also known as customer intelligence software, helps marketing professionals analyze available customer data and past behaviors in order to inform future marketing strategies. This category of software is typically used to segment customers into sub-groups, track customers as they move across segments over time, predict future behaviors of customers, determine customer lifetime value, and access machine-based learning recommendations to improve future marketing efforts.

CRM

Customer relationship management (CRM) software is a category that covers a broad set of applications designed to help businesses manage customer data and track customer interactions. These programs are typically used by sales and marketing departments and allow teams to access business information, track leads and opportunities, manage business contracts, manage employee, vendor and partner relationships and provide customer support.

D

DAD

Short for direct advertising.

Daily Active Users (DAU)

Daily active users is one of the ways used for measuring success of an internet product. This number measures “stickiness.”

Data-Driven Decisioning

Data-driven decisioning is based on information derived from a real-time decision engine that makes millions of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered decisions every second. This allows agencies and advertisers to make millions of informed, data-driven decisions in real-time on a daily basis. This also allows marketing professionals to make more strategic decisions.

Data Management

Data management helps marketing professionals identify, understand, and engage with high-value consumers in a more relevant and authentic way.

Deal ID

A deal ID or adID is a parameter passed between a bid request and bid response to enable one-to-one programmatic buying. Standardized IDs are critical to the success of any open standards.

Dedicated SiteID

An ad network account (siteID) mapping to one multiplier, publisher, or ad space. The revenue collected for this account could be matched to one certain multiplier, publisher, or ad space.

Demand Partner

A company which purchases ad inventory.

Device Graphs

Also known as identity management. A device graph describes how different devices (i.e., a laptop, smartphone, and TV) relate to each other by mapping of all the devices, IDs, and associated data back to one unique user or household.

Digital Advertising

Digital advertising is the practice of using digital technologies to deliver advertisements to consumers. It allows advertisers and marketers to reach specific target audiences more effectively and efficiently than traditional advertising, such as print, static billboards, or traditional cable TV.

Digital Advertising Software

Digital advertising software is a broad category that covers data management platforms (DMPs), ad exchanges, supply-side platforms (SSPs) and, less commonly, demand-side platforms (DSPs). These  four technologies form the broader digital advertising ecosystem. Within this ecosystem, large amounts of data are collected, integrated and managed by the DMP. Publishers connect their inventory to ad exchanges and DSPs and buyers purchase advertising inventory directly from an ad exchange, ad network ,or DSP.

Digital Media

Digital media in the advertising industry typically refers to digital advertising assets, such as the ad or creative element. Digital media includes digital video, banner ads, search, social media promotion, mobile banners, mobile video, digital audio, and more. It can be created, viewed, distributed, modified, and preserved on digital devices.

Display Advertising

Display advertising is a type of online advertising that comes in several forms, including banner ads, rich media ,and more. Unlike text-based ads, display advertising relies on elements such as images, audio, and video to communicate an advertising message and is aimed at generating quick conversions.

DMP

Short for data management platform. These technology solutions aggregate large amounts of ad related data from multiple sources with the purpose of analytics, marketing, profiling, segmentation and other value added services for publishers and marketers.

DSP

Short for demand-side platform. A system that allows digital advertisers to manage multiple ad exchange and data exchange accounts through one interface. Real-time bidding for displaying online ads takes place within the ad exchanges, and by utilizing a DSP, marketers can manage their bids for the banners and the pricing for the data that they are layering on to target their audiences.

Direct Revenue

The revenue of the direct revenue stream: Direct SSP-Revenue + Direct Fee.

Direct Fee

The direct fee from a direct campaigns kept by Smaato.

Direct Margin

Smaato’s margin from the direct revenue stream: Direct fee + Smaato’s share (direct).

Dynamo DB

Amazon DynamoDB is a fully managed proprietary NoSQL database service that is offered by Amazon.com as part of the Amazon Web Services portfolio. Dynamo had a multi-master design requiring the client to resolve version conflicts and DynamoDB use synchronous replication across multiple datacenters for high durability and availability.

E

eCPC

The effective cost per click (effective CPC is revenue divided by the number clicks) (see → CPC)

eCPM

The effective cost per mille is cost per a thousand impressions (effective CPM is revenue divided by the number of impressions) (see → CPM)

Elastic Load Balancer (ELB)

Elastic load balancing automatically distributes incoming application traffic across multiple Amazon EC2 instances in the cloud. It enables you to achieve greater levels of fault tolerance in your applications, seamlessly providing the required amount of load balancing capacity needed to distribute application traffic.

EMEA

The regions of Europe, Middle East, and Africa.

Engagements

Any interactions with a rich media ad other than expansion or dismiss.

Engagement Rate

For expandable ads, engagement rate is the ratio of impressions where one or more engagement occurred to total expands. For rich banners and rich interstitials, engagement rate is the ratio of impressions where one or more engagement occurred to total valid impressions.

ESN

Short for electronic serial number.

ETS

Short for event tracking service. Registers views, clicks, and send win notification to DSPs who won in OpenRTB auctions.

Even Delivery

This option would ensure that the impression burn rate is consistent throughout the campaign period. No surge and spike in impression burn.

Exchange

Short name for ‘OpenRTB Exchange’ or ‘RTB Exchange’. It’s The supply side of real-time bidding (RTB). For each inbound ad request, the exchange holds an auction by first broadcasting bid requests to bidders. Responses will then be evaluated under prevailing auction rules, the winner, if any, notified, and finally the ad will be returned.

Expandable Ads

Rich media ads that can be enlarged to dimensions beyond the initial dimensions of the placement they fill on the webpage. The user initiates expanding events, sometimes after the ad initially expands briefly on its own to catch the user’s attention.

Expanded Dimensions

The secondary dimensions of an expanding ad unit (after the ad is expanded). Initial dimensions are fit to the dimensions of the placement. Then, either by auto-play or by user interaction, the ad unit expands to its secondary dimension.

Expansion Rate

Ratio of total expands to impressions. Note that expands are not counted toward engagement rate.

Expansion Duration

The average amount of time in seconds when users expanded and interacted with a Rich Expandable ad.

F

Feasibility Check / FC

Technical evaluation for an ad network integration into SOMA.

Fill Rate

Percentage of requested ads satisfied from served ads.

First-Party Data

First-party data is collected and owned by the party who collected it (brand, media company, etc.) about the consumer or household. This could include CRM data or data generated by digital properties, such as “this person uses my mobile app”, or “this person has been browsing for minivans on my website”. This data is proprietary and not available in the broader marketplace due to limits on its use.

Fraud

Fraud relates to advertising that is served but never seen by a user and still has a cost collected against the impression. For more information, download our whitepaper, titled Understand In-App Advertising Fraud.

Frequency Capping (FC)

Restricting or capping the amount of times (frequency) a specific user is shown a particular ad. Frequency capping is a feature within ad serving that offers limits to the maximum number of impressions/views a visitor can see a specific ad within a period of time (e.g., three views/visitor/24-hours, meaning after viewing this ad 3 times, any visitor will not see it again for 24 hours.)

G

Geotargeting (zoning)

Geotargeting and zoing is the method of determining the geographically-defined location of a website visitor and delivering different content to that visitor based on his or her location, such as country, region/state, city, metro code/zip code, organization, IP address, ISP or other criteria. For more information on location-based targeting, see this blog post.

GSM

The Global System for Mobile Communications is a standard set developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to describe technologies for digital cellular networks. One of the major standards for digital cellular communications, in use in over 60 countries and serving over one billion subscribers.

Guaranteed Buy

A guaranteed buy, also known as “programmatic direct” or “programmatic guaranteed,” is the direct sale of reserved ad inventory between a buyer and seller, with automation replacing the manual insertion order (IO) process. This inventory is sometimes categorized as premium, sold upfront, reserved, guaranteed, first-look, direct sold or class-1. Guaranteed buys allow the publisher to regulate the price of inventory to buyers. It also gives buyers the ability to transparently buy more premium inventory on a direct basis from the publisher. Transparency includes price and inventory type.

H

HasOffers

HasOffers is an affiliate tracking software and also a download-tracking mechanism named after the company who developed it.

House Ads

House ads or house campaigns, are self-promotional ads that a company runs to put unsold inventory to use. Publishers sometimes run their own inventory, mostly for cross-promotional purposes at no cost. House ads are traditionally set to the lowest priority, thus filling inventory otherwise unsold.

I

IAB

The Interactive Advertising Bureau is an advertising business organization that develops industry standards, such as ad formats and app categories, in addition to conducting research.

IMEI

The International Mobile Equipment Identity is a number, usually unique, to identify mobile phones. It is usually found printed inside the battery compartment of the phone.

Impression

The single appearance of an advertisement on a web page or a mobile app. Each time an ad loads onto a user’s screen, the ad server counts that loading as one impression or view.

IMSI

The International Mobile Subscription Identity is a unique number that identifies a phone subscriber.

In-Banner Advertising

A video delivered as part of the display ad creative for a given placement rather than initiating the use of a video player.

In-house Programmatic

In-house programmatic is the practice of a brand bringing all programmatic activities in-house. Some of the benefits offered by bringing programmatic in-house are cost-savings and flexibility.

Interstitial Ad

This is a full-screen advertisement which may be placed as a “bumper” screen for the launch and exit of the application or as a splash or jump page within the application. It may be used as the landing page from an earlier ad banner or may be a stand-alone Interstitial. This i nterstitial may also be active or static.

App interstitial ads should be displayed in full, during which click-through actions are enabled. At any time the interstitial ad is displayed in full, the user should be able to click to continue past the ad into the content. A preliminary recommendation for interstitial ad display time is that the units disappear after a maximum of 5 seconds.

Insertion Order (IO)

The “contract between a media buyer and the media property selling the advertising.” An IO is the general term for an agreement of an advertising campaign, including its specifications, such as price, time frame, targeting, creatives etc.

ISP

Internet service providers (ISPs) is a company that provides access to the Internet.

IQzone

IQzone is a technology company specializing in post-app mobile advertising solutions for Android.

J

JavaScript

JavaScript, often abbreviated as JS, is a high-level, interpreted programming language. It is a language which is also characterized as dynamic, weakly typed, prototype-based, and multi-paradigm.

K

KPI

A key performance indicator (KPI) is a business metric used to evaluate factors that are crucial to the success of an organization.

Short for keyword.

L

LAC

A location area code is used to identify different location areas. The LAC forms part of the location area identifier (LAI) which is composed of two bytes. LAC adopts hexadecimal coding. The available range is from 0001H to FFFEH. Code group 0000H and FFFFH cannot be used (please refer to specification GSM0303, 0408, and 1111). One location area can contain one or more cells.

LAI

Short for location area identity (LAI = MCC + MNC + LAC ). The LAI uniquely identifies an LA (location area) within any PLMN (public land mobile network). It is comprised of the MCC (mobile country code), MNC (mobile network code) and the LAC (location area code).

Landing Page

The first page an end user sees when he clicks on an ad.

Linear TV

Refers to traditional television viewing.

Live Streaming

Live streaming refers to video content delivered live over the Internet. It requires a form of source media (e.g., a video camera, an audio interface, and screen capture software), an encoder to digitize the content, a media publisher, and a content delivery network to distribute and deliver the content. Some examples of live streaming in TV include Sling TV, live content on CBS All Access, or NBC streaming the Super Bowl.

Long-Form Video

Long-form video is video content that adheres to traditional episodic lengths. Generally, long-form video is approximately 30 minutes or longer and typically increases at 30-minute increments.

M

Marketing Analytics

Marketing analytics is the process of measuring, managing, and analyzing the performance of overall and individual marketing initiatives. Business metrics such as return on investment (ROI), marketing attribution, and overall marketing effectiveness are used to determine the total effectiveness of a marketing program. Understanding marketing analytics allows agency teams and advertisers to be more efficient at their jobs and minimize wasted digital marketing dollars.

MCC

The list of mobile country codes for use in identifying mobile stations in wireless telephone networks (3 Numbers, the firsts refers the continent).

MD5

The MD5 Message-Digest Algorithm is a widely used cryptographic hash function that produces a 128-bit (16-byte) hash value. Specified in RFC 1321, MD5 has been utilized in a wide variety of security applications and is also commonly used to check data integrity. MD5 was designed by Ron Rivest in 1991 to replace an earlier hash function, MD4. An MD5 hash is typically expressed as a hexadecimal number, 32 digits long.

Media Activation

Media activation refers to the unification of everything that media buyers need to understand their audience segments in order to execute real-time bidding.

Media Buying

Media buying is the process of purchasing advertising space. Today, media buying is typically completed digitally, which allows agencies or advertisers to make algorithmic purchases of advertising space in real-time using computers.

MediaBuy SiteID

An ad network account (siteID) type. The ad network offers a special campaign (certain price, placement, and specific time) and Smaato provides the right traffic for this campaign. To route traffic to this account, the rules engine with “siteID overwrite” active links to this siteID.

MEID

A mobile equipment identifier (MEID) is a globally unique number identifying a physical piece of CDMA mobile station equipment. An MEID is 56 bits long (14 hex digits). It consists of three fields, including an 8-bit regional code (RR), a 24-bit manufacturer code, and a 24-bit manufacturer-assigned serial number. The check digit (CD) is not considered part of the MEID. (See → IMEI → UDID) (→ Mobile identifier)

MMA

The Mobile Marketing Association (http://www.mmaglobal.com)

MMX

MetaMarkets (MMX) is a data science-as-a-service company based in San Francisco that provides a solution to companies with large amounts of data, like the Smaato OpenRTB data. Metamarkets unlocks value and insight from large-scale transaction streams. Using a cloud-based solution, data scientists deliver powerful dashboards to Smaato users and accelerate their own discovery efforts.

MNC

The list of mobile network codes for uniquely identifying a mobile phone operator/carrier (Two numbers).

MIDP

The mobile information device profile (MIDP) lets you write downloadable applications and services for network-connectable mobile devices. When combined with the Connected Limited Device Configuration (CLDC), MIDP is the Java runtime environment for today’s most popular compact mobile information devices.

MIN

A mobile identification number (See→ Smaato Glossary)

MNO

A mobile network operator (See→ Carrier)

Mobile

In the marketing and advertising industry, “mobile” generally refers to the use of techniques and campaigns that specifically target audiences on their mobile devices. Mobile is often viewed as a market sector that allows for greater engagement and connections, forming a bridge to help join the consumer and advertiser.

Mobile Website/Page

Any internet site tailored for mobile and accessed from a mobile device.

MongoDB

MongoDB (from humongous) is a cross-platform document-oriented database. Classified as a NoSQL database, MongoDB eschews the traditional table-based relational database structure in favor of JSON-like documents with dynamic schemas (MongoDB calls the format BSON), making the integration of data in certain types of applications easier and faster.

MRAID

“MRAID, or “Mobile Rich Media Ad Interface Definitions” is the IAB Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence’s project to define a common API (application programming interface) for mobile rich media ads that will run in mobile apps. This is a standardized set of commands, designed to work with HTML5 and JavaScript, that developers creating rich media ads will use to communicate what those ads do (expand, resize, get access to device functionalities such as the accelerometer, etc) with the apps they are being served into. (→ See more iab.net/mraid or → See Richmedia)

MSISDN

A number uniquely identifying a subscription in a GSM or a UMTS mobile network. Simply put, it is the telephone number to the SIM card in a mobile/cellular phone. This abbreviation has several interpretations, the most common one being “Mobile Subscriber Integrated Services Digital Network-Number”. (Deprecated SOMA API Parameter)

Multiplier

A Multiplier is any group or entity which aggregates many different publishers within their respective mobile web and/or mobile applications. A publisher can sign up for multiple different multipliers groups.

MVNO

Short for mobile virtual network operators. Some operators share their mobile networks with virtual network operators.

MySQL

MySQL is a widely used relational database management system (RDBMS). The MySQL development project has made its source code available under the terms of the GNU General Public License, as well as under a variety of proprietary agreements. MySQL was owned and sponsored by a single for-profit firm, the Swedish company MySQL AB, now owned by Oracle Corporation.

N

Native Advertising/ Native Ads

Native Advertising refers to the advertising technique which blurs the lines between organic content and paid content, creating a more pleasing experience for the targeted user. In other words, native ads blend in with the content displayed on the mobile site or application making it look and feeling a part of the main content.

No Ad

Describes the event when an ad network chooses to deliver no ad as a response to an ad request.

No Bid

Describes the event when a DSP chooses not to bid to a bid request.

O

Omni-Channel

Refers to the creation of a seamless user experience across all facets of the customer’s path to purchase. Finding the right tools and partners to unify your campaigns, no matter the channel, and give you a 360 degree understanding of your customer is no longer a luxury – it’s a necessity. Technology is making it easier to measure and market across the entire customer journey.

OpenRTB

Standardized specification of a real-time bidding interface for mobile applications (also see → RTB). See more at the project homepage, http://www.iab.net/rtbproject

Optimization

Optimization in digital advertising refers to the process of changing the current inventory mix to improve a certain metric in order to increase a campaign’s potential to meet its desired objective or outcome.

ORMMA

Open Rich Media Mobile Advertising API for displaying rich media ads across platforms. (http://www.ormma.org)

Overdelivery

An adserver delivers above the maximum impression limit.

ownID

Used to be the unique hardware ID of the device, e.g. the UDID for iPhones or the IMEI. Deprecated. (→ Smaato Glossary)

Owned SiteID

An ad network account (siteID) that is owned by a multiplier or publisher. Smaato is allowed to use this account, but the collected profit could arise from smaato and other. The accounting of the smaato share for this account is on publisher side.

P

Passback

Passbacks are “NoAdAvailable” notifications passed to the device, rather than to the adServer. The Device has to further notify the adServer about the NoAdAvailable notification.

PDA

Abbreviation for the smaato term: Publisher Direct Account. This account type is used for special publishers who have direct account to an Ad Network which is already a business partner of smaato. Using the PDA means that smaato uses the publisher’s own Site ID to send over traffic.

PPC

Short for pay-per-click.

Pivot

Pivot is a web-based exploratory visualization UI for Druid. At Smaato, a modified version of Pivot is used.

Programmatic Buying

Programmatic buying is the process of executing transparent media planning and buying using automation. In most cases, programmatic buying is fueled by the use of advanced audience data through digital platforms such as exchanges, trading desks and demand-side platforms (DSPs), which helps create operational efficiency for both the buy and sell sides. Agencies use programmatic on behalf of their advertiser clients to increase marketing efficiency, helping them get more out of media budgets.

Programmatic Direct

Programmatic direct is where specified buyers get access to specified inventory that’s not necessarily available from an open marketplace or a supply-side platform (SSP).

Programmatic lLnear

Programmatic linear is TV advertising that is purchased through an automated platform and delivered via set-top boxes. Targeting and reporting are based on traditional TV metrics (daypart, network, GRP).

Programmatic Software

Programmatic media buying, marketing, and advertising software enables agencies and advertisers to make algorithmic purchases of advertising space in real-time using computers. The term “programmatic software” is commonly used to refer to demand-side platforms (DSPs).

Programmatic Video

Programmatic video refers to the process of buying and selling digital video ads. This process uses real-time data to better target specific audiences in the right place at the right time. It is generally carried out using ad tech such as a DSP.

Publisher

A company or person engaged in publishing / developing applications or digital publications. Publishers also handle the marketing efforts and usually are not the creator of the material / developer. Publishers simply serve as the intermediary between the author of the publication and the consumer market.

Publisher ID

The Unique ID of a publisher who signed up and had their email address verified.

Q

Queries-Per-Second (QPS)

QPS is a measure of how much traffic a particular query server is handling at a given time. On the internet, the activity in the collection of servers that serve as the domain name system is sometimes measured in queries-per-second.

R

Raw Data

Raw data is source-level data that does not conform to an acceptable standard of parameterization or taxonomy. Raw data is data being generated before any data science is applied (human or machine).

Real Time Auction

A real-time auction is an auction of ad requests in real time.

Real-Time Bidding (RTB)

Auction of ad requests in real time, where buyers bid on available ad spaces and the highest-paying bidder wins the auction.

Remnant

Advertising space that remains unsold right before it is about to be used and thus often sold at a discount at the last minute.

Rejection Rate / Intended Rejections

In this case, the publisher / multiplier request is not consistent and rejected by SOMA.

Revenue

The amount received by Smaato from the partner ad networks for delivered ads, calculated depending on the revenue model (CPC, CPM, CPA).

Revenue Calculator

The revenue calculator distributes all generated revenues to the publishers.

Revenue Sharing

Sharing advertising profits and losses between Smaato, multiplier and publishers over a certain percentage.

RM / Rich Media

Usual interactive ads using HTML and JavaScript.

RFPs

Requests for Proposals

RON

Short for run of network, in online advertising RON is a type of online ad buying campaign where the banner, image, media or text ads can appear on any web site within an ad network.

ROP

Short for rest of Publishers (ROP). An accumulation siteID for publishers if a dedicated account is not profitable.

S

Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service) is an online file storage web service offered by Amazon Web Services.

SDK

A software development kit (SDK or “devkit”) is typically a set of software development tools that allows for the creation of applications for a certain software package, software framework, hardware platform, computer system, video game console, operating system, or similar platform.

Second-Party Data

Second-party data is data that is collected or generated and owned by the publisher, made available to the buyer at the time of purchase. Could include consumer or household data that the publisher knows, or simply data about context and/or content.

Search Advertising

Search advertising refers to advertisements that appear next to, or in-line with, organic results when a user searches for a product or service. It is the most simple and measurable form of online advertising. Search advertisers sometimes use consumer search data to retarget display advertising.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO software offers keyword suggestions and quality ratings to help businesses and content rank better in search results. SEO software can help organizations perform better than competitors in search and drive highly qualified website traffic.

Served (Ad)

An ad request that results in a positive response from the Smaato advertising platform ends up as a served ad.

SES

Amazon Simple Email Service (Amazon SES) is a cost-effective outbound-only email-sending service.

SHA-1

SHA stands for “secure hash algorithm” SHA-1 is a cryptographic hash function designed by the United States National Security Agency and published by the United States NIST as a U.S. Federal Information Processing Standard.

Short-Form Video

Short-form video is video content that has a length less than that of traditional episodic TV programs (i.e. 22 minutes).

SiteID / SID

The publisher Account on an ad network.

SMX

Short for the Smaato Exchange iIncluding RTB, ad network mediation, and direct business)

SMX Revenue

RTB Revenue (RTB Publisher Payout + Smaato Share + RTB Fee) + AN Revenue( AN Publisher Payout + Smaato Share) + Direct Revenue ( Direct Publisher Payout + Smaato Share + Direct Fee)

SMX Total Net Revenue

The total net revenue of the SMX Platform RTB SSP Revenue + AN Mediation SSP-Revenue + Direct SSP-Revenue.

Smaato Revenue Share

The Smaato revenue shares of the SMX Platform. Smaato Share (RTB) + Smaato Share (AN) + Smaato Share (Direct)

Smaato SDK

A software development kit for Android and iOS operating systems that provides developers components to be included in their project/application, enabling them to create ad properties, send ad requests, receive ad responses, parse responses into view and more functionality necessary for accessing Smaato’s services.

Smart TV

A smart TV, sometimes referred to as a connected TV or hybrid TV, is a television set or set-top box with integrated internet connectivity and features that can receive video programming through an open IP method outside of the traditional cable QAM transport. Connected TV is an example of innovative technological convergence between computers, televisions and set-top boxes. Well-known examples include Roku, Apple TV, Chromecast, or Samsung SmartTV.

SMX Total Margin

The Total Margin of the SMX Platform. RTB Margin + Smaato Share (AN) + Direct Margin.

SOMA

Short for Smaato Open Mobile Advertising.

SPX

The Smaato Publisher Platform (SPX) is a free, full-featured publisher ad server built from the ground up for a mobile-first world. This all new platform enables app developers and digital publishers to immediately monetize their properties by delivering target consumers to advertisers in real time.

SRAP

Short for the Smaato Reporting App Server. This is used by the SPX-Frontend and the different KPI-Mail-Applications to get statistical data out of the SPX-(Vertica-)database.

Streaming Device

A streaming device is any internet-enabled device capable of receiving and displaying IP-distributed long-form content in its native resolution.

Supply Side Platform / Sell-side Platform (SSP)

A technology platform with the single mission of enabling publishers to manage their ad impression inventory and maximize revenue from digital media.

T

Tag

User-generated keywords that provide a concise description of a campaign, site, or app.

Targeting

The process of selecting targets and matching the appropriate response to it on the basis of device, carrier, location, user attributes, request details. Targeting is the process of identifying the optimal audience segment for a media plan based on a set of desired characteristics. The segment can be either large or small, depending on the objective and parameters of the campaign. Also see → Geotargeting.

Third-Party Data

Third-party data is proprietary data collected and/or generated by data brokers who license this data to agencies, advertisers, or publishers.

Toaster Ad

A rich media banner ad format that includes a close button which pops up in the once the ad is loaded. End users can hide the banner by pressing the close button. Toaster ads typically do not come with auto-reload enabled.

Tracking

Following and recording of end user data (location, gender, age, device, etc.), events for breakdown, optimization, or advertisement targeting.

Traffic

The amount of data sent and received by visiting a site or app with a mobile device.

Transparency

To be considered transparent, a solution provider must fully disclose all components of the buy including pricing, any related mark ups, delivery, placement level media location, inventory type, inventory mix, and how advanced audience data is being applied and reported.

U

User Agent / UA

A user agent is a client application implementing a network protocol used in communications within a client–server distributed computing system. Web user agents range from Web browsers to search engine crawlers (spiders), as well as mobile phones, screen readers and braille browsers used by people with disabilities.

UDI / Unique Device Id

An ID to uniquely identify a mobile device.

UI Design

The UI or the user interface is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. This can include display screens and other computer components where a user interacts with an application or a website. At Smaato our UI teams develope the how users interact with SPX and SDX. UI design is related more to the graphic design or the look and feel.

UX Design

Also known as user experience or user experience design. This is the process of enhancing user satisfaction with a product by improving the usability and accessibility provided in the interaction with the product. In other words, UX design is more analytical and technical as compared to UI design.

Unique User

A person using an application and exposed to advertising messages, as determined through registration, User self-identification or some form of heuristic. A unique user is an unduplicated person using an application and exposed to advertising messages during a reporting period.

UserStore ETL

This is a Spark Streaming application that consumes SPX logs and does some pre-processing on the logs to make them ready to be processed by UserStore Merger

UserStore Merger & ViewGenerator

This Spark batch application joins the current UserStore with the new incoming data from UserStore ETL. This process outputs the new Userstore and writes new records to Aerospike so that SOMA can use them for enrichment.

V

VAR

Short for the view accounting rate. Calculated as the percentage value of impressions (from a demand partner) over impressions (from a Smaato).

VAST

The Video Ad Serving Template is used in the delivery of inline/linear and non-linear video advertising.

Validity Check

A user agent and/or IP address check.

Vendor ID

The vendor ID is hardcoded to the device and refers to the carrier “branded” the device (not the current carrier).

Vertica

The cluster-based, column-oriented Vertica Analytics Platform is designed to manage large, fast-growing volumes of data and provide very fast query performance when used for data warehouses and other query-intensive applications. The product claims to drastically improve query performance over traditional relational database systems, provide high-availability, and petabyte scalability on commodity enterprise servers.

Video Advertising

Video advertising is the practice of using video content to get an advertising message to a target audience. Video content is a powerful way to engage consumers as it allows agencies and advertisers to both quickly inform and entertain their audience.

View(s)

Views, also called impressions, are what is counted for every time an ad is displayed and is viewable by a user of a mobile website or application.

Viewability

Viewability measures whether an ad was served in a location where the user had an opportunity to view it. An ad impression is viewable if greater than, or equal to, 50% of the ad’s pixels appear in the viewable space of an in-focus browser tab for at least one second post ad-render. Find out more about viewability in this blog post.

View Rate

Percentage of served ads satisfied from views.

Video On Demand (VOD)

VOD systems allow users to watch video content when they choose to, rather than having to watch at a specific broadcast time.

Volume Capping

Volume capping is an ad serving feature that limits the maximum number of impressions/views per campaign (with or without a time interval); e.g.: a campaign can end after delivery of 100000 impressions, or after a daily cap of 10000 for the rest of the day (i.e. the campaign will restart delivery on the subsequent day unless specified otherwise).

VPAID

Short for the digital video player-ad interface, VPAID standardizes the communication between video players and in stream video advertising. Find out more about VPAID in this blog post.

W

WAP

Wireless Application Protocol A specification for a set of communication protocols to standardize the way that wireless devices, such as cellular mobile telephones, PDAs, and others access and browse Internet-based content.

Walled Gardens

Walled gardens refer to services where the service provider has control over its ecosystem, including applications, content, organic media, paid media and any gathered data. Examples of walled gardens include Google, Facebook, and Amazon.

Whitelist

Identifying a specific vendor as “approved” in order to ensure it is included in the requests and responses.

WiFi

Short for wireless fidelity. A wireless LAN data standard used fairly ubiquitously for corporate and home internet connection. Also available as hotspots in public areas.

Win Notice

A notification sent by an real-time bidding exchange to a bidder about their winning of the auction, along with the settlement price and optionally with other relevant information. The notification takes place via HTTP by requesting a URL as specified by the bidding party.

WURFL

WURFL stands for Wireless Universal Resource File. The WURFL is an XML configuration file which contains information about device capabilities and features for a variety of mobile devices.

Last Modified: November 25, 2021 at 5:48 pm