Jargon Buster

The screening of a video ad after viewing video content.

An ad that plays at the end of content. Although it can be less effective than mid-roll or pre-roll ads, it can still provide value, particularly in long-form content.

The screening of a video ad before viewing video content.

An ad that plays before the main content begins. Pre-roll ads are often short and designed to capture the listener's attention right away.

Any advertising that appears before requested content has loaded, blocking the consumer from progressing until either a countdown has elapsed or the duration of an ad experience has been achieved. These are currently discouraged for desktop web and mobile web experiences due to consumer feedback.

Refers to the dominant area of advertising displayed on the screen. The Primary Ad unit should be described as either Full screen or Partial screen.

In 2019, Google announced its Privacy Sandbox initiative, which seeks to find alternative solutions for advertisers to target and measure campaigns in light of the continued reduction of third-party data in Chrome. This was initially established to operate in Chrome, but Google announced in February 2022 that the scheme will be extended to also cover the Android operating system. 

A way to buy/sell programmatic advertising. This auction type is very similar to an open auction, except a publisher restricts participation to select buyers/advertisers. A publisher may choose to not participate in an open auction and only run an invitation-only auction. It is important to note that an invitation-only auction is still an auction and buyers will be expected to bid on inventory. A publisher may choose to expose different information such as transparency or data, through the use of deal IDs or line items to add value to this select group of buyers while using this tactic.

The buying and selling of online ad inventory through automated methods rather than human actions. This includes but is not limited to Real-Time Bidding (RTB).