Struggling with digital definitions? Here’s our wordbook to get everything you need to know
Have you ever struggled with looking for a definition and ending up not finding anything on web? Well, we have just created a brand new digital dictionary containing all the essential mobile marketing terminology and concepts. This is just the first of three rounds of our digital dictionary, stay tuned for the next ones and become an authentic digital geek!
A
Active user = person who access the app for a given period. During this period each user is counted to provide an app developer with an accurate figure of how many people use an app.
Ad exchange = digital marketplace that enables advertisers and publishers to buy and sell advertising space, often through real-time auctions. It works as a sales channel between publishers and ad network and can provide aggregate inventory to advertisers.
Ad inventory = number of publisher’s advertisements, (or amount of space, impression, click or download) available to advertisers Media space is typically broken down into four categories, which can be purchased through a variety of sales channels: premium guaranteed, audience targeted, remnant, sponsorship.
Ad network = company which aggregates advertising inventories from a large number of publishers’ websites, and advertisers which need to promote their products. It operates as commercial and technical intermediary between advertisers and publishers.
Ad server = web server that stores advertising content used in online marketing and delivers that content into various digital platforms as websites, social media outlets and mobile apps. Basically, it is the technology in which the advertising material is stored and is the means of distributing that material into appropriate advertising slots online.
Advertiser = a person, organization or company looking to promote its brand, product or service.
Agency = a company that provides services such as planning, creating, buying, and tracking advertisements and ad campaigns on behalf of a client.
API = Application Programming Interface. API is a software-to-software interface that helps to automate as much as possible the monetization and promotion process. It can be defined as a set of rules that enables communication between machines as a server, mobile phone or PC.
App = application. An application program is a program designed to perform a specific function directly for the user or, in some cases, for another application program.
App id = App identification code. A two-part string used to identify one or more apps from a single development team. The string consists of a Team ID and a bundle ID search string, with a period (.) separating the two parts. The Team ID is supplied by Apple and is unique to a specific development team, while the bundle ID search string is supplied by you to match either the bundle ID of a single app or a set of bundle IDs for a group of your apps / A string that identifies an iPhone or Android application or a set of applications from one vendor.
App ranking = how a mobile application ranks in an app store – mainly Apple’s App Store and Android Apps on Google Play. Ranks are obtained on home pages, search pages and category pages.
App’s bundle id = an ID that univocally identifies a single app. The bundle ID string must be a uniform type identifier (UTI) that contains only alphanumeric characters (A-Z,a-z,0-9), hyphen (-), and period (.). The string should be in reverse-DNS format. Usually app id and bundle id are used interchangeably when dealing with Android’s apps, while they are interpreted as two different concepts while dealing with iOS’ apps.
ARPU = average revenue per user or average revenue per unit. Expression of the income generated by a typical subscriber or device per unit time in a telecommunications network. Amount of money, on average, that a company brings in for each of its customers.
ASO = App Store Optimization. Process of improving the visibility of a mobile app in an app store.
Attribution Frauds = type of mobile ad fraud where clicks are not made by a user seeing an ad, but by artificially using device or user details to make it look like the click was completed by a user. This activity outsmarts common attribution methods in order to attribute organic installs to publishers as paid installs. CPI fraud.
Audience buying = catchall term for the shift from buying proxies for audiences (content, for example) to directly buying audience segments based on data collected about them.
Auto-redirects = type of mobile ad fraud where a fraudster interrupts the normal ad flow, automatically redirecting a user to an ad’s landing page even though the user never performed a click action. CPC fraud.
B
Banners = type of graphical ads embedded in a webpage, including a combination of images, text and video having the main purpose to promote a brand or to get visitors from the host website to go to the advertiser’s website.
Browser = a computer software program that enables one to access and view text or graphical web pages on the world wide web.
Budget = the total amount of money that the advertiser wants to spend to promote his apps.
Burst campaign = mobile advertising tool used when someone wants to gain and acquire a huge amount of installs over a short period of time in order to get their apps into Top Charts and search results, increasing the app’s visibility and obtaining free and quality organic installs.
C
Callback = other term used to indicate a post back.
Campaign management = planning, executing, tracking and analysis of direct marketing campaigns.
Click = the number of clicks that have occurred as a result of a user clicking on an ads and being redirected to a sponsored web page.
Click Injection = type of mobile ad fraud allowing fraudulent app publisher to earn money by injecting clicks from an Android device once the user installs an app.
Click Flooding = type of mobile fraud where impressions are recorded as clicks determining a high volume of fake clicks flooding the ad space. The system starts to collapse and fraudulent publishers can be credited with installs they actually do not own.
Click Spamming = type of ad fraud where organic installs are incorrectly counted towards ad clicks, for which app developers pay large sum of money.
Cohort = set of users sharing a significant experience at a certain period of time or having one or more significantly similar features.
Cookie stuffing = affiliate fraudulent practice by which an affiliate drops cookies on a user computer without really sending him into the website which set the cookie. Using an affiliate link, a call is made to the merchant servers without the visitor knowledge. The cookie is then dropped and associated with the affiliate ID.
CPA = Cost per action. Online ad model in which payment is based on qualifying actions as sales or registrations.
CPC = Cost per click. Price the advertiser pays every time the visitor actually clicks on the ad.
CPCV = Cost per completed video/view. The price an advertiser pays every time a video ad runs through to completion.
CPE = Cost per engagement. It is an event which happens after the ad has been viewed, clicked and installed. It can also be defined as the price that gets paid when an ad is engaged with, where an engagement can be anything from pausing a video to submitting contact details or subscribe to a service.
CPI = Cost per Install. Price the advertiser pays each time the element is installed
CPL = Cost per lead. It is an online advertising pricing model which defines how much revenue a publisher receives when he creates a lead for an advertiser: advertiser pays only for an explicit sign-up from a consumer interested in the advertiser’s offer. It is more specific than CPA.
CPM = Cost per thousand impressions. Price of 1000 ad impressions on one webpage.
CPS = Cost per sale. Commission which is paid on a sale only when the lead results in a purchase. While the CPA model pays immediately just for the click, a consumer is required to actually open that bank account and make a deposit before the site earns a commission if the CPS model is in place.
CPV = Cost per view. Price an advertisers pays for each display of a video ad.
CR = Conversion rate. It is defined as the percentage of visitors who take a desired action and it is computed as the number of customers who have completed a transaction divided by the total number of website visitors. In our specific case, it can be defined as the number of clicks divided by the total number of installs, measured in percentage points. CR = (number of clicks/number of installs) * 100
Creatives = banners or other type of advertising material used to promote the offer.
Credit Card Fraud = type of ad fraud where fraudsters will capture real or counterfeit credit card numbers and use them to complete in-app transactions in target apps. Before the credit card fraud is caught, these fraudsters have already earned revenue from advertisers for the post-install event. Post-install fraud.
CTR = Click through rate. The number of clicks divided by total impressions served, measured in percentage points. CTR = (Clicks / Impressions) * 100.