Advertising words, in plain language

The twelve worth reading in full

Everything else, in one line each

Impression

One time an advert was shown to somebody. We count an impression once per person per allowed view, and never twice for the same page load. How we count a view once and refuse to count it twice is written down.

Viewability

Whether an advert was really on screen long enough to be seen. A banner that appears for one second at the very bottom of a page is counted as not seen. Placement decides whether a banner is ever really seen.

Postback

A quiet message a shop sends us when a sale happens. Your shop sends the order value to our address, and the affiliate's commission appears. This is the page where a shop is wired up to report its own sales.

Affiliate link

A normal link with a tag that says who sent the visitor. Your link looks ordinary to a reader, but tells us which affiliate to pay. Taking an offer is what creates your link.

Rate card

The written list of your prices. A newsletter rate card might list a top slot, a middle slot and a classified line. Your listing is your rate card: written prices, visible to buyers, no haggling.

Media kit

The short document that describes your audience. It shows your reader count, the topics you write about, and past results. The audience details you enter once do the job a media kit used to.

Programmatic buying

Computers buying advert space automatically. A machine decides in a fraction of a second whether to buy the view you are about to see. The comparisons spell out what you give up when a machine picks the placement.

OpenRTB

The shared language computers use to bid on one advert view. A request describes the space and the viewer, and bidders answer with a price. The standards we follow, and the ones we deliberately do not, are listed.

Header bidding

Asking several buyers for a price before the page loads adverts. Four bidders answer, the highest wins, and the page shows that advert. It only matters if you sell through an auction, and the comparisons explain when that is worth it.

First price auction

The winner pays exactly what they bid. You bid four euros, you win, you pay four euros. Advoratise sells at a fixed asking price instead, and this page says exactly what it costs.

Second price auction

The winner pays just above the next best bid. You bid four euros, the next bid was three, so you pay three euros and one cent. Useful background, but our prices are set by the seller, not by a bid.

Floor price

The lowest price a space may be sold for. Set a floor of two euros and no cheaper bid can win. The asking price you set is your floor; nothing sells below it.

Brand safety

Keeping an advert away from content the brand refuses. A family brand blocks news about violence, so its advert never appears beside it. You pick the exact show, so you know what your advert sits next to.

Invalid traffic

Views and clicks that must not be charged for. The same person clicking twice in one second is counted once. What we discount, and how, is written out.

Frequency cap

A limit on how often one person sees your advert. A cap of three means nobody sees it a fourth time that day. In a newsletter the cap is simply one per send, which is why it is easy to trust.

Reach

How many different people could see your advert. A newsletter with twelve thousand readers has a reach of twelve thousand per send. Every listing states its audience size, and where that number came from.

Engagement

What people did after seeing something, not just that they saw it. Opens, clicks and replies are all engagement. Sellers with a record of results are listed there.

Extra sales

The sales that would not have happened without the advert. If half your buyers would have bought anyway, only the other half is extra. The calculator makes you name how many buyers would have bought anyway.

Safe data room

A place where two sides compare data without seeing each other's people. We answer how many customers overlap, but never who they are. What we do and do not do with personal data is written down.

Your own data

Information people gave you directly. Your newsletter list is your own data. Your own list is the thing you are selling access to.

Consent

A person clearly agreeing to be tracked. The banner where somebody chooses what they allow is the record of consent. What we set, and only after you allow it, is listed.

GDPR

The European law about people's personal information. It is why we ask before setting anything that identifies a visitor. The plain version of what we hold about you.

DAC7

A European rule making marketplaces report what sellers earned. Somebody paid through the platform gives a tax country and number once. What we must report about sellers, and when.

Reverse charge

A tax rule where the buyer, not the seller, accounts for the tax. A business buyer in another European country accounts for the tax themselves. Whether tax is added to your invoice depends on where you are, and this page says how.

Payout hold

The waiting time before earnings are sent. A fourteen day hold means the owner is paid two weeks after the advert ran. The waiting time and what can interrupt it are written down.

Sellers file

A public list of who is allowed to sell a site's advert space. Our list is public, so anybody can see which sellers are genuine. Our public seller list, and why it exists.

Ads file

A file on a website naming who may sell its adverts. One line names the platform and the seller number. Selling your own space is what makes the line worth adding.

Make good

A free replacement when an advert did not deliver. A missed send is repeated in the next issue at no extra cost. What happens when an advert does not run as agreed.