Banner or Online Banner Ad — A banner ad is a stationary (though sometimes animated) advertisement on a nonrelated Web page that links to an advertiser's site or a landing page. Banners are the most common type of Web advertising, and they come in a broad variety of square and rectangular sizes. For instance, banner ads that are described as "skyscraper ads" are rectangular ads that are taller than they are wide. They generally run along the margins of a Web page.
Click - Through — Click-through is generated when a user clicks on an advertiser's banner in order to visit the advertiser's website. A click-through is often stated as a percentage of page impressions. For example, if 1,000 Internet users view an advertiser's message, and 60 click on the message to view the advertiser's information, the click-through rate is 6%. This click-through rate is also referred to as a referral, yield, or CTR.
CPC — cost per click. Advertisers whose agreements specify cost-per-click only pay for subscribers who click through the online ad to the advertiser's website.
CPM — cost per thousand impressions. CPM refers to the total cost per 1,000 visitor requests to view an ad. In other words, the cost for 1,000 impressions.
Floating Creative — Using recent technological innovations, advertisers are now able to create highly original ads that move or "float" across the central body of a Web page in a unique and nonstandardized way. These moving executions dance on top of, glide over, or otherwise appear on top of a page's content. The advertisements use DHTML technology.
IAB ( or Interactive Advertising Bureau ) — An organization that evaluates and recommends guidelines and best practices for online advertisers, fielding research to document the effectiveness of interactive media. The IAB also educates the advertising industry about the use of interactive advertising and marketing. The Bureau consists of companies that are actively engaged in the sale of interactive advertising and marketing.
Impressions — The number of times an ad banner is requested by visitors' browsers, and presumably seen by the user. Guaranteed impressions are the minimum times an ad banner has the opportunity to be seen by visitors (as specified in the contract).
Page Views or Page Deliveries — The number of times a Web page is requested. Page views, not clicks, are the preferred counting method for site traffic estimates and measurement.
Rich Media — Advanced technology used in Internet ads, such as streaming video, applets that allow user interaction, and other special effects.
Run of Site — A general online advertising rotation package that allows an advertising campaign to be delivered on all Web pages. For example, EarthLink's run-of-site includes the Personal Start Page, the EarthLink Finance Channel, Chat, WebMail, the EarthLink Shopping Network, and all other pages on the site that have banner ads.
Streaming Audio or Video — A technique for transferring data such that it can be processed as a steady and continuous stream. Streaming technologies are becoming increasingly important with the growth of the Internet because most users do not have access fast enough to download large multimedia files quickly. With streaming, the client browser or plug-in can start displaying the data before the entire file has been transmitted.