DartMedia

To store pages, images, or other items, on a local server or user's computer to speed the rate at which webpages load. Ads, like other images, are cached unless some sort of cache-busting technique is used. When ads are cached, they will be served but will not be counted by an ad server. This can lead ad servers to under count the number of times a page is viewed, and this can in turn skew monitoring techniques.

The process of blocking the caching of certain files to guarantee new delivery from the external server for each page view. Cache busting is necessary for the successful execution on online advertising.

A contracted agreement between an advertiser or advertising agency and either a publisher or a representative of a publisher. The campaign is specific to the creative to be published and the issue, or duration of the publication. Online advertising campaigns are defined by a number of variables, including the digital creative, the duration or flight dates, the pricing program, the publishers to be used and any user targeting applied.

The controlled delivery of creative to categorized websites. Categories focus a campaign to those users most likely to be interested in the products or services being offered, thus increasing the effectiveness of the campaign.

The process of counting and auditing the clicks for a campaign. Click tracking can be done by a different entity than that which serves the creative.

The activation of a hyperlink using a mouse or other input device. The click-through is essential to the interactivity of online advertising.

The rate of activated ads to total ads displayed. A typical CTR is 0.5% (1 in 200). Also called Click-Through Percent (CTP). The click-through rate of an advertising creative is one measure of its effectiveness.

When users click on a banner or text link, the click-through URL is the new destination to which they are directed.

The percentage of the advertising fee paid to the Publisher for hosting the creative on their website Typical commissions range from 50 to 75 percent.

Interface-creation scripting programs that create webpages in real-time based on dynamic end user interactive data.

A cookie is a file used to record and store a variety of information on a user's computer. Cookies are placed by an external source during a certain event, such as the display of an ad. A cookie can be read only by the server in the domain that stored it. Cookies placed by Fastclick.com on user's computers as part of the ad serving process do not collect, store or transmit personally identifiable information. Users can accept or deny cookies, by changing a setting in their browser preferences. The denial of cookies severely limits the customization and interactivity of a user's online experience.

An advertising campaign pricing model based on an estimate of the number of impressions of a particular creative in a particular media at a particular time (TV) or issue (printed media). The vast majority of online banner advertising is priced using the CPM model. The "M" is the Roman numeral for 1,000. The cost is aggregated per thousand for convenience; the cost for individual impressions would be very small. CPM is strongly associated with the "branding" school of marketing.

An advertising campaign pricing model based on paying for direct results. The direct correlation between the action taken and the payment for the advertising that led to the action is desirable to advertisers. This model takes many forms (leads, sales, etc.) and is increasing in popularity online due to the ease of implementation and accounting compared to traditional media. CPA is strongly associated with the "direct response" school of marketing. Also called Cost per Transaction.

An advertising campaign pricing model base on paying only for those ads that experience a click-through CPC can be considered a measure of direct response, but is not a measure of true action taken by a user.

A CPA pricing method that typically pays a fixed fee for the acquisition of a customer lead, such as a filled out form or an opt-in email address. See Cost per Action (CPA).