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Online Marketing Glossary

A/B Testing / Split Testing

The process of testing different elements to see what works best. Even the smallest changes such as

adjusting the copy, color, font size or call-to-action can help improve conversion rates. To figure out what

truly works, advertisers need to test, optimize and repeat on a regular basis.

Ad Network

A company that aggregates available ad space across a large number of websites (publishers) and sells it

to advertisers. There are many types of ad networks from large ones to niche ones that target a specific

audience. By buying from these networks you get access to their extensive list of publishers.

Advertiser

Any company or user that purchases ad inventory on a publisher's domain. Ex: when you see an ad placed

on a site, the site who paid to place that ad is the advertiser.

The Search By Advertiser feature at Adsviser.com allows users to search for the activity of specific

advertisers.

Affiliate Marketing / Performance Marketing

A commission is paid to an individual called an "affiliate" when they generate a referral in the form of a

lead or sale hence, it is based on performance. Because of its advantages for sales opportunities there are

millions of different brands and websites that offer affiliate programs. The most common examples are

Amazon.com, online dating, insurance, etc.

Alexa.com

This is a free website that provides commercial web traffic data and ranking information. It crawls all

publicly available sites to create a series of snapshots of the web. It employs web usage information,

which tells users what is being seen on the web by real people. This information comes from the

community of Alexa Toolbar users.

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Banner Ads

Commonly called display advertising. They are graphics that come in different sizes and are placed on

third-party websites with the goal of driving traffic back to an advertisers' website.

Call-to-Action (CTA)

A button, graphic or text in an ad intended to prompt the visitor to click the ad (which will redirect them

to a landing page). Ex: Click Here, Buy Now, Sign Up, etc. This is an important component of making

your ads successful, as it helps to engage the user and give them actionable direction.

Click-through

Refers to when a user is redirected to an advertiser’s website by ‘clicking’.

Click-through Rate (CTR)

The percentage of clicks an ad receives in relation to the number of impressions. (CTR = clicks over

impressions.) This is an important metric involved in analyzing the effectiveness of an ad.

Cookie

A virtual token placed on a user’s computer allowing them to be identified with their browsing activity

and visited website history. Using these virtual tokens, sites like Google can compile a fairly

comprehensive profile of a user simply through their cookies, allowing them to infer what content they

might be interested in. This data allows sites to display customized content to users.

Cost-Per-Action (CPA)

An online advertising pricing model that is calculated as cost divided by number of acquisitions. Ex. if

you spend $200 on a campaign and get 10 acquisitions then your CPA is $20.

Cost-Per-Click (CPC)

An online advertising pricing model that is calculated as the amount spent to get an advertisement

clicked. Ex. for a $1 CPC, an advertiser pays a buck each time someone clicks the ad.