Glossary

A brand looking to promote or spread the message of their product or service with specific goals in mind, such as user acquisition. Advertisers purchase ad space from mobile publishers, sometimes through intermediaries.
Advertisers use data to quantify their ads’ performance and gauge the ROI(Return on Investment) of their ads in terms of user acquisition and revenue and to optimize their budget.

A technology platform that enables the buying and selling of media advertising inventory of ad networks. This technology-driven approach generally uses (RTB) to purchase or sell inventory, and prices are determined on an impression-by-impression basis.

Aggregates ad space and supply and matches them with the corresponding demand via auctioning. The ad network act as a liaison between SSPs or DSPs and publishers and helps them scale up and optimize their reach.

The concept that you can generate revenue through your app via either ads or in-app purchases by therefore converting traffic into revenue.

An app monetization solution that lets app developers manage and optimize multiple ad networks in one place, with just one SDK integration. Ad mediation platforms give multiple ad networks access to an app’s inventory, creating an arena in which ad networks must compete for their ad to be served. Higher competition among ad networks means competitive eCPMs and more ad revenue for app developers.

An ad tag is code publishers place on websites in order to sell ad space. It consists of two parts: 1) a URL and 2) a piece of HTML or JavaScript code. Working together, these two parts first request content (ads or other ad tags) from the URL and then instruct the browser how to display the content.

An IAB-approved text file that aims to prevent unauthorized inventory sales.

Content provider and offer owner

An application programming interface (API) is a language format, written in code, which allows programs and applications to communicate with each other and their respective operating systems. The language creates a standard of rules and protocols which programmers use to develop software that doesn’t conflict. In the mobile ad tech sector, API-powered mobile devices offer greater visibility into a user’s lifestyle, delivering data that can create marketing opportunities and inform strategic decisions.

The revenue a single paying user generates during a specific period. An example of a paid action is subscribing, making in-app purchases, or paying for a download. Using this metric, users who have not paid for anything can be removed from the equation. The calculation formula is total revenue divided by the number of paying users.

The total revenue your app generates on average across all installs . The calculation formula is you take the total revenue generated during a period and divide it by the number of installs during the same period.

The total revenue your app generates on average across all users . The calculation formula is you take the total revenue generated during a period and divide it by the number of users during the same period.

The process of optimizing mobile apps to rank higher in the app store’s search results to drive more traffic to your app’s page so searchers can perform a specific action such as downloading an app.

The process by which user interactions are identified and measured. It’s a way in which marketers garner a better understanding of how certain events lead users to a desired outcome, referred to as a conversion. Attribution quantifies an ad’s ability to influence a consumer’s purchasing decisions, providing marketers with a way to compare the effectiveness of various marketing campaigns.

A banner is any type of advertisement that acts as a “banner” displayed usually at the top or bottom or the webpage or app. Banner ads are still very popular today, and feature both text and graphics.

Focuses on delivering users a positive message about your brand

The percentage rate at which customers stop subscribing to a service or employees leave a job.

The final price paid for an impression.

Also known as organics poaching, click spam is a type of advertising fraud that happens when a fraudster executes clicks for users who haven’t made them. Unless preventative measures are in place, this allows fraudsters to claim credit for fake clicks.

A sophisticated form of click-spamming. By publishing (or having access to) an Android app that listens to “install broadcasts,” fraudsters detect when other apps are downloaded and trigger clicks before an install completes. The fraudster then receives credit for installs as a consequence.

Cohort Analysis is a common and powerful methodology used by marketers to understand how different groups behave over the long-term.

The percentage of users who have completed the desired action known as the conversion. The formula for conversion is as follows: you take the number of conversions and divide that by the number of total ad interactions during the same time period (that can be tracked to the conversion).

A pricing model in which advertisers pay the publisher each time a user clicks on their ad. It is calculated by dividing the cost of a paid advertising campaign by the number of clicks.

A pricing model in which advertisers select a post-install action to measure and only pay if users engage in that action. For this action to be calculated, the user must see the ad, install the app, and perform the action. To calculate CPA, one must divide the advertising cost by the number of times the action occurs. For example, advertisers can provide a survey and once a user completes the survey, this can be calculated as an action.

A pricing model or the cost that advertisers pay for each time a user installs the app. This can be calculated only once per user. Basically, the cost of the ad that leads to an app install.

A type of mobile advertising that suggests paying DSP’s for each lead that it has generated. The advertisers pay for information about the potential customer and not for the product or service sold. The calculation formula is the budget spent on the campaign divided by the amounts of leads generated.

An advertising payment model that refers to the cost or expense of every 1000 impressions (or views).

Creative, specifically ad creative, is a file that houses the digitally formatted design and artwork for an advertisement. This file is rendered as a display ad on the publisher’s medium and can take the following formats: Image (GIF, PNG, JPEG), Flash File (SWF), HTML or JavaScript.

The process of managing interactions with customers from the past as well as current and potential customers. By analyzing a customer’s history and interactions with a company, you can optimize all aspects from customer retention to the ultimate goal of increasing sales growth.

A word, phrase, or sentence that encourages the user to perform a specific action. Examples would be “click here”, “buy now”, “download”, “install”, or other creative ways to urge the user to take action. You are essentially motivating the user to act immediately.

The ratio of users who click on a specific link, to the number of total users who view an advertisement. It is often used to measure the success of an advertising campaign.

A supply aggregation platform that helps advertisers buy ad inventory programmatically and manage multiple ad exchange and data exchange accounts through one interface or platform. This allows mobile advertisers to buy high-quality traffic at scale and saves time and resources.

A group of more than 2 million websites, videos, and apps where your ads can appear.

A software platform that is used for managing and collecting data. This optimizes the advertising budget as it provides insights into the audience, markets, and users.

Do Not Track (DNT) is specifically a HTTP header field that sends a signal to other websites, namely analytics companies, ad networks and social platforms, requesting them to disable any tracking of individual users. Despite the request, many sites still do not honor the DNT signal. There currently exists no standardized protocol for its enforcement.

Effective cost per thousand impressions. Total ad revenue generated by 1,000 impressions. It is a metric used to calculate an app developer’s monetization performance or the ad revenue generated by a specific campaign.

This measurement examines the user’s additional active days in the app. An active day is defined by a unique day in which a user was active in the app.

A fake install is a mobile ad fraud tactic. It’s accomplished by fraudsters who use device emulation software in virtualized environments (on server hardware) to fake installs.

The fill rate is the rate at which a publisher successfully displays an ad in relation to the number of times the ad was requested. Essentially, this rate evaluates the amount of wasted inventory space a publisher has.

Digital buying model where if your bid wins, you pay exactly what you bid. This maximizes revenue potential for the seller.

This is calculated by dividing the number of unique visitors by the number of first-time app deposits. This metric provides insights on the potential lifetime value of a customer.

General Data Protection Regulation

Gross Rating Point (GRP) is a standard measure for the impact or exposure of an ad campaign. GRPs calculate reach multiplied by exposure frequency. For example, if an ad is exposed to 32% of a targeted audience and that exposure occurs a total of three times at the same 32% rate, then you have a GRP of 96. Because the GRP measures gross, it is therefore possible to have a number over 100.

Header bidding is an advanced programmatic advertising technique that serves as an alternative to the Google “waterfall” method. Header bidding is also sometimes referred to as advance bidding or pre-bidding, and offers publishers a way to simultaneously offer ad space out to numerous SSPs or Ad Exchanges at once.

A monetization strategy in which app developers get paid to serve advertisements within their mobile app, therefore maximizing the revenue through the ads.

Something that you can buy within the app, such as characters, upgraded abilities, or real money in-game currencies.

An ad impression is the calculated instance of an ad being displayed to a human consumer. Impressions give marketers a broad understanding of how many people their brand is reaching.

Corresponds to the traffic coming from all types of advertisements in return for a reward.

Full-screen ads that cover the interface of their host app.

represents an increase in sales in response to some form of advertising or promotion.

A metric that determines how valuable a customer will be to your app over the whole relationship with the app. It tells you how much a user is worth and determines how much you should pay for this user.

A mobile application, also referred to as a mobile app or simply an app, is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a phone, tablet, or watch.

The mean time between click and install.

A user who has opened the app at least once in a particular month. The total number of MAU shows you how many users use the app monthly.

Users who logged in or accessed an app on any given day that the app could show ads.

Downloads that happen as a result of any ad activity, whether it be paid or owned. A non-organic install to encourage a download, such as in a “paid” campaign where users are presented with ads that lead to downloads or in an owned campaign where email, SMS, or QR codes encourage the download.

Designed to get people to tap on an ad and initiate an install.

A pivot table is a table of statistics that summarizes the data of a more extensive table

An invite-only ad auction where publishers offer their ad inventory to a selected group of advertisers. A PMP allows for a more tailor-made experience as it facilitates relationships between publishers and participating advertisers and enables them to be more precise regarding their audience relevancy and inventory.

The minimum price a publisher will accept for its inventory. Publishers ignore all bids below that price. This, in effect, turns a second-price auction into a type of the first-price auction.

The publisher has digital real estate on which to display ads. The publisher auctions real estate in real-time through various business models, and the winning bidder gets the ability to show an ad to the end-user.

Profile Query Language (PQL) is an Experience Data Model (XDM) compliant query language that is designed to support the definition and execution of segmentation queries for real-time customer profile data.

The amount of search traffic that a search engine or database receives during one second.

Reattribution refers to the attribution of this reinstall to a specific retargeting campaign therefore a specific traffic source.

A server-to-server auction process where advertising inventory is sold on a per-impression occurring in real-time bidding. The IAB has defined a revised standard for this, similar to how financial markets operate. Through a programmatic on-the-spot auction, through addressable advertising (ads reach the consumer directly), they can focus on demographic, psychographic, or behavioral attributes.

Identifying your app’s users at the exact moment they’re using another app on their mobile and enticing them back with a relevant ad. One click brings them directly to your app where they start interacting with your product again.

Used to count customers and track customer activity irrespective of the number of transactions (or dollar value of those transactions) made by each customer - Used to monitor firm performance in attracting and retaining customers.

Measures how much the campaign increased the percentage of users who returned to using the app over the natural return rate.

A marketing method that measures the success of a marketing campaign. The calculation formula is as follows: gross revenue from the ad campaign divided by the ad campaign’s cost.

Real-Time-Bidding

Displays bid responses and impressions that were filtered from the available impressions and any potential issues that may be actionable by you. Using the activity data, you can determine possible ways to increase impression availability.

Digital buying model where if your bid wins, you pay $0.01 above the second-highest bid in the auction. In this type of auction, it is in your best interest to bid the highest amount you are willing to pay, knowing that often you will end up paying less than that amount.

The creation of legitimate-looking installs with data of real devices without the presence of any actual installs. Fraudsters utilize a real device to create installs that look real to consume an advertiser’s budget. It is also known as traffic spoofing and replay attacks.

Advertising technology that enables web publishers and digital out-of-home (DOOH) media owners to manage their advertising space inventory, fill it with ads and receive revenue.

Or UA for short, is the process through which new users or customers are acquired for a mobile app business through marketing-driven activity.

Clicks not made by mistake.

VTA relies on tracking impressions that have led to installations or reinstallation. In some cases, there may be a gap between the first action to install, but with VTA, it is easier to track and provide accurate information.

The percentage of sales leads who entered the sales funnel and have now downloaded the app. This is essentially a metric that proves the market fit, pricing, and sales execution and will help identify opportunities to improve the sales cycle. To calculate it, you take the number of installs and divide it by the number of qualified leads. This is the win conversion rate.