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the digital landscape
A marketer’s guide to digital advertising
Foreword
Foreword
1 PricewaterhouseCoopers’ (PWC) Global Entertainment & Media Outlook
Good intentions and hollow promises
‘By 2013, advertising that
“We’re making real progress with
our digital advertising agenda.”
targets new consumer
“We intend to make digital a major
strand in our media plan this year.”
behaviour will account for
Sound familiar?
almost one-fifth of the total
global advertising pie.’1
It means, “we’re thinking about it”
... “talking about it.”
Even after 10 years of steady growth in digital
advertising, and three years in which we’ve seen a
50% bounce, many marketing people still seem to talk
digital rather than act digital. What level of maturity
in this market do we need to reach before we stop
being cautious?
What’s the vision?
In another 10 years, almost everyone in the developed
world will have high-speed broadband across multiple
2
devices. At least 50% of us will routinely buy online.
Most of us will spend more time with our PC than
our TV (or even our families)... in fact, for most of us,
PC and TV will have become one and the same. The
Internet will be so much a part of our lives that at least
one generation will have not known life without it.
It may be five years... it may be three. Whatever the
case it’s too close to ignore or postpone. Whether
out of ignorance or fear of the unknown or the everappealing line of least resistance, many advertisers
are still deeply embedded in their traditional media
comfort zones — and they’re getting left behind.
Ask yourself, as a head of marketing, can you really
afford not to take digital advertising seriously?
Right now.
Many of us use digital channels as a route to
market. Most of us use them to deliver information
to customers, but still too few of us have digital
advertising as an established contributor to the
communications mix. I’m sure all of us have some
level of digital presence in our media plans, but
all too often it’s an afterthought, a token gesture
(to support the hollow promise), far from a fully
integrated ingredient or something handled by a
specialist in digital media, separately from the rest
of the planning process.
Contents
What’s the case?
How long have you got? Let’s start with fast. You can
get a digital campaign online in minutes. It’s responsive.
You can reflect changes in the market, the product, the
news... instantly. And you can see rapid results and an
immediate impact on purchase behaviour. It’s versatile
and much, much more than banner ads — short
messages, long messages, interactive, social networking,
relationship building. Which means it’s viral or wordof-mouth in old money. It is almost infinitely creative.
And it has the breadth, flexibility and scope to support
long-term brand building campaigns too. It’s not just
the domain of quick fire or direct response marketing.
It’s also very measurable and cost efficient, and delivers
insight and learning you’d normally have to pay good
money for.
Audience reach is as wide as, if not wider than,
most conventional media, and technology makes
it as targetable. If you think of digital media as an
extension to your conventional media campaign
then try putting it on equal terms and see how they
leverage each other. If you want to make digital
media work hard for you, then get a bit more familiar
with it, treat it as a friend and bring it in to your
thinking earlier.
Which is what this short guide is about. We aim
to take the “IT” out of digital, to cut through the
technical mystique and replace IT with What and Why
and How. That’s not to say that the technology isn’t
important — it’s the IT that helps deliver the audience
you want to reach — but it can sometimes be a
barrier to entry to the digital media world. So this
book, like all good digital messages, focuses on being
fresh, brief, easy to consume and easy to share with
colleagues and agencies.
Continuing change in media consumption demands a
complete reassessment not only of communications
strategy but of the marketing strategy that underpins
it. Brands and customers are no longer us and them,
communication is even less a one-way street. Brands
can now enter a dialogue with their customers, they can
take a step back from single-minded propositions and
suggest themes for customers to consider and discuss.
In a recent article, Harvard Business School’s John
Deighton asserted that as consumers get more
connected across diverse digital channels, not only
does their ability to consume brand messages grow
but their propensity to talk about brands also grows.
In the case of digital advertising as a communications
imperative, it’s time marketers stopped talking
about it and started letting the digital channels
do the talking.
Contents
What is digital advertising?....................................................................................7
Putting digital in the marketing mix.....................................................................9
But isn’t it just about direct response?...............................................................11
More than a banner ad: the online options.....................................................12
A simple digital billboard... to an interactive online experience...................14
Getting to know social media..............................................................................16
So my audience is out there, but how do I find them?.................................18
Top tips to a better email.....................................................................................20
How do I measure results?...................................................................................21
Tony Wardle
Principal at Marketing Mentor
Former founder and chairman of Saatchi & Saatchi Business
Getting interactive: how an integrated campaign really delivered.............22
The law: the legalities of online advertising.....................................................25
Glossary: a quick reference dictionary of online terms..................................26
4
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6
What is digital advertising?
‘The average person spends 14 hours watching television per week
– and 14 hours online.’
Digital media’s share of worldwide
advertising has almost doubled
from 8% in 2006 to 15% in 20091.
Add the fact that the average person spends as much
time online as they do watching television and we have
some impressive statistics for an industry still in the
early stages of growth. But what are the facts about
this rapidly expanding sector? And what is attracting
the big brands to invest ever larger proportions of their
budget in an advertising form that, for many, remains
hard to define?
In this guide we explore some of the common
questions and key areas that define digital
advertising, providing an overview of the role that it
has to play in the marketing mix and looking at the
technologies, audience, measurement and creative
opportunities it offers today’s marketers. It’s not a
technical overview but instead something that will
provoke thought about how to integrate digital into
your marketing strategy. A view of the many facets
of digital and why it deserves serious time in your
planning schedule.
And we examine the role of digital in all marketing
campaigns, not just as the preserve of the big
brands. Yes, if you want to create a cross-media
campaign linking TV, to online to national print,
you’re going to need a budget to match. However,
the beauty of digital media is the ability to target
and measure results, providing opportunities
even for the niche players. And it’s important to
remember that digital isn’t just online, there’s
mobile and gaming too – the digital revolution
has significantly changed the way in which people
consume media. TV, radio and print remain but
digital is clearly a major part of many people’s
daily lives. People share content – and ads – in a
way they couldn’t do in the past. Viral marketing
(more of that later) before the Internet relied on
word-of-mouth, and social media have added a
new layer of complexity when considering when,
where, how and sometimes if you should approach
your audience.
Whilst this guide won’t answer all your questions,
in fact it may even raise a few new ones, we can say
one thing about digital advertising for sure: if it’s not
already part of your marketing mix, it’ll be forcing its
way into your plans soon.
1 ‘Interaction: Addressable, Searchable, Social and Mobile’ study, WPP’s Group M, 2009
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8
Just when do you start to consider the digital element of any
marketing campaign?
The truth is that all too often it’s
treated as an add-on. Of course
that’s not true of every business.
There are many companies achieving great success by
carefully integrating digital into their marketing mix.
And there’s good reason to do so. Used in
combination, television and online can increase
purchasing intent buy up to 50 per cent1, showing
how, as part of the mix, the sum of different media
can be greater than the whole. They can also grow
the reach of a more expensive TV or print campaign
by moving it into the online environment, at the same
time extending its longevity by creating a rich, more
engaging experience for the user.
But to get the most from your marketing spend you
need to do more than just move your print and TV
advertising online. The most successful campaigns
exploit the relative strengths of each medium and
create natural links to extend audience engagement
with their brand or message. TV is still the dominant
viewing platform but online offers another level of
engagement. (Although recent research may challenge
even that perception, with 27% of European Internet
users regularly using online to watch film, TV or video
clips (rising to 57% for 16-24s)2.
A good example is a campaign run by UK broadcaster,
Channel 4, in preparation for the launch of a new
show called Skins. It fostered engagement with the
channel’s digital brand, E4, as well as capturing a
significant proportion of its target youth audience by
encouraging them to visit a dedicated website for the
chance to see previews of the show and learn more
about the characters and storylines. By the week of
transmission the site had received 400,000 visitors.
This had the dual effect of driving viewers to the
website and web visitors to the TV. And, of course,
Channel 4 was the beneficiary in terms of increased
audience for its own advertising proposition and
brand visibility amongst a valuable audience sector.
So it’s clear that digital is an essential part of the
marketing mix, but what can you do to ensure that it
forms part of a genuinely integrated campaign, not
just an add-on? The following pages help to answer
that question.
2 Source: EIAA Mediascope Europe – Dec 2008
Norm Johnston, Global Digital
Leader, Mindshare Interaction
Putting digital in the marketing mix
1 Source: UK Thinkbox and IAB research – Summer 2008
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Putting digital in the
marketing mix
But isn’t it just about
direct response
But isn’t it just about direct response?
Margaret Clerkin, CEO, North America, Mindshare Interaction
10
‘Rich media excels at achieving brand goals.’1
In this respect digital is possibly a
victim of its own success.
Talk of click-throughs, pay-per-click and sponsored
links add to the impression that digital is the greatest
of all direct response vehicles. And it is. But it’s also a
lot more than that.
The interactive element of digital advertising,
combined with targeting, measurement and the rise
of social media, mean that it is possible to engage the
audience in ways not achievable with traditional media.
This takes it beyond simple direct response to provide
a method of brand building, developing long-term
relationships with the target audience.
And this is something that hasn’t escaped the notice
of Chanel, Coca-Cola, Philips, Nokia, Ford... just a few
examples of global companies that use digital for
more than direct response, and there are of course
thousands more. Brand advocacy is the key to many
campaigns, using online word-of-mouth to build
awareness and create interest.
Of course digital also offers approaches similar
to those used in print and TV, with relatively
straightforward proximity advertising. For example,
putting your brand on a commercial news site near
content relevant to sports fans provides ideal proximity
for sports broadcasters. That’s at its simplest. More
sophisticated executions include engaging the target
audience with your brand through instant messaging,
chat or even combinations of TV, web and text.
And perhaps the ultimate in pure brand promotion
comes through gaming. Not online gaming (although
that’s another opportunity) but placing advertising
within the landscape of a computer game, making
the game more realistic and connecting you when
the audience is at their most engaged. Imagine
putting your brand on the advertising hoardings
around the ground in a football simulation game,
mirroring the electronic displays in the real world - or
be an exclusive sponsor of a bonus level or map to a
distant universe!
The digital landscape redefines the way in which
consumer and brand interact. Get it right and your
audience becomes a player in the brand story. An
ambassador willing, even eager, to spread the word,
multiplying the value of your investment and bringing
you closer to your customers than ever before.
1 Source: Dynamic Logic MarketNorms®, 2008.
‘…the reality is that with
the things that we create
nowadays, they’re so
dynamic and we’re getting
so much information
and results, it’s not like
traditional creative where
you put it out there and
just let it run.’
More than a banner ad: the online options
‘There is such a thing as a free lunch with digital.’1
There’s no mystery about digital.
In the same way that the creative
approach differs for print, radio,
outdoor and television, so digital
advertising follows a new set of
creative rules.
As Margaret Clerkin, CEO North America, Mindshare
Interaction, says, “... you’ve got to constantly be
able to re-learn, recreate and revisit how you’re
approaching things. So I think that makes it much
more complex.”
are viewed suspiciously or won’t make it through
corporate firewalls. Plain text can be surprisingly
effective too, proving that the message remains
critical to the success of any marketing campaign.
It’s about matching the delivery to the audience.
However, careful consideration of the campaign
objectives and the target audience, along with
standard issues such as budget, can help build the
best approach.
So how can you use them to best effect and how can
your traditional and digital media elements be linked?
Each format has its own strengths and weaknesses
and it’s necessary to consider the role of the ad in the
journey towards a sale or other action to make sure
you choose the correct option. For specific, bespoke
campaigns, it’s possible to indulge almost any
creative whim – from animations that takeover the
screen to video games. You can bring your product
alive, putting it in the ‘hands’ of the viewer through
demonstrations and simulations, creating a virtual
environment to allow them to explore a specific
experience before they buy.
Then there’s search. Search engine marketing involves
paying to increase the ranking of your website when
someone searches for relevant content. These links
are the ones noted at the top or right hand side
of a search engine such as Google, Yahoo or Bing.
Don’t confuse this with search engine optimisation,
which involves designing your webpages so that they
naturally appear higher up the search rankings and
no payment is made to the search engine at all.
One of the key aspects to remember is that
digital gives you the chance to customise the user
experience and exploit the two-way nature of the
online world, but what a world it is. Unlike the linear
nature of TV or the static medium of print, digital
provides multiple pathways to your message. It can
also provide a one-way dialogue, or broadcast, but
with the potential to involve the audience more
intensely than before.
Skyscrapers, roadblocks, homepage takeovers. The
range of options available in the digital advertising
world is virtually unlimited, making it easier to
delegate to a digital specialist.
1
OK, that’s not strictly true. You’ll need to invest in creative, but once a viral campaign is established it can potentially run itself at no further cost.
More than a banner ad
12
Of course there are simpler options too, such as
email. Careful targeting and creation can yield the
best results here. If you know your audience, and
they know you, then an HTML email is probably safe,
but attachments are generally a no-go area as they
With search you can target by day, geography or
demographics and you only pay for a click, not for
impressions. And you can scale the campaign to
suit your budget, with a direct link between spend
and results. The likelihood of a sale is also high, with
conversion rates generally superior to direct mail.
And the cost is the same for any business, so you
can compete on equal terms with your competitors
regardless of their budget.
And there are forms of advertising that redefine the
discipline, with viral at the forefront. This is where a
specific game, video or image is designed to capture
attention and encourage people to forward it to
their friends in the form of a link or attachment. The
advertising or brand message is frequently quite
subtle and often involves association with something
amusing or ‘cool’. Chances are you’ve been the
recipient of some viral ad in the past month. It’s a fine
art and for every ad that goes viral, many more don’t
make it past the first cut.
The possibilities with digital are endless and any list
will be out of date before it’s printed – or published
online. The main consideration for any campaign
is that the purpose is not simply to dazzle with
stunning creative, but to consider the way in which
your audience behaves and find the best method of
reaching them.
Tourism Queensland used viral marketing to promote
the region when it invited applicants for ‘The Best
Job in the World’. The successful candidate would
enjoy a life largely devoted to enjoyment of the
sites and experiences that Queensland has to offer.
It provided an ideal showcase for the state’s tourist
industry and attracted over 34,000 applications from
across the world.
A simple digital billboard…
... to an interactive online experience.
These examples illustrate some of the formats most
commonly used for online display advertising. They
don’t, however, show the full range of options and of
course you can’t see the interactive nature of digital
on a printed page!
2 Source: EyeBlaster Analytics, July 09
By using Rich Media, which means anything with
an interactive element such as video, audio, games,
surveys – or all of the above, you really increase
engagement with your brand. And it doesn’t stop
there. You can (with the permission of the publisher)
literally take over the screen.
Imagine your ad literally breaking out of the confines
of its on screen box and changing the page around
it. Or a game that can be played and forwarded to
friends to compare high scores. No other medium
matches the engagement and interactivity of digital.
Shown here is a skyscraper, available in 160 x 600
or 120 x 600 formats, providing a highly visible ad
dominating the right hand side of the screen.
‘The interactive nature encourages audience
involvement, with click-through rates up to
three times higher than static banners.’
14
Shown here at the top of the screen is a banner
(also called a superbanner or leaderboard) which sits
at the very top of the screen. These are available in
dimensions of 468 x 60, 728 x 90, 234 x 60 (shown
in the Windows Live Messenger example, right) and
120 x 240. Also displayed is a rectangle, available as
300 x 250 and 180 x 150.
Here a banner of 234 x 60 is
shown within Windows Live
Messenger, a great example of
exploiting digital to gain visibility
in the online social environment.
Getting to know social media
Getting to know social media.
Common misconceptions
of social media:
And ways to make it work:
The closest traditional media
comes to social media is probably
through the limited audience
participation of radio, TV and to
some extent print.
1
2
3
4
5
It’s cheap. To build a credible presence using
Make it easy to access.
It’s easy. There’s no simple solution. Success
Ensure accuracy.
Online social media has changed all that by enabling
dynamic environments largely or completely dependent
upon the input of the user community. This provides
opportunities for unprecedented access to consumers,
but tread carefully or the effect could reflect negatively
on your brand as unwanted or clumsy intrusion.
Web 2.0 has been the key to this changing nature of
the digital experience, enabling users to do more than
just view or post information. It is this that has led to
blogs, file sharing, hosted applications and of course the
explosion in social networking. Facebook, Hyves, StudiVZ,
Twitter, and YouTube are amongst the best known
examples of social media, but there are many more, niche
networks that cater to specific groups or ages.
16
There are also business-focused networking sites
such as Plaxo and LinkedIn which provide the
opportunity to market to the business sector in a
more targeted way than many traditional media
allow. If you’re considering social media as part
of the mix then take time to look for smaller
community-orientated websites where your
influence will be proportionately higher. This can
include forums, niche social networking websites
and industry conference websites.
Add chat, instant messaging, blogs… and you can see
that this isn’t an area to address without considerable
care, without falling into the trap of creating
meaningless content or input that will have the
opposite effect on your audience, gaining only their
disinterest or even disapproval.
But cautionary warnings aside, the power of this
medium is almost unrivalled as it offers true wordof-mouth exchange, if you can get your message
accepted. Here, overt selling is not the objective, it’s
more about creating new and strengthening existing
relationships with consumers.
social media takes time, and requires an
ongoing commitment and investment.
depends on careful planning to make the right
connection with your audience.
It’s quick. Social media is frequently a slow
burn, demanding patience to avoid appearing
false or too ‘pushy’.
It’s a side project. You’ll need help, probably
from a professional agency.
It just works. Even good work won’t necessarily
just happen. You’ll need to invest to get noticed,
seeking out those that you want to target.
Embrace context.
Build a community – make it easy to
bookmark, link to page, add feeds, comment.
Be easy to find – using search
optimisation & PR.
So my audience is out there...
So my audience is out there...
... but how do I find them?
‘One major fashion retailer in France saw a 100% lift in click-through
rates when using behavioural targeting as part of its ad campaign.’
Even niche broadcast and print
media generally delivers
limited targeting.
The Internet delivers greater reach but also greater
segmentation of the audience, enabling you to target,
for example, young mothers with an interest in the
environment and, young males looking for a bank
loan or men over 50 interested in classic cars. This is a
powerful aid to increasing the effectiveness of your
campaigns. Better still, you can segment by purchase
intent or behaviour. So you can choose to target
people who have previously expressed an interest in
the products or services that you offer.
The online audience is more mobile than any other
and understanding their behaviour is essential to
a successful and highly targeted campaign. Digital
advertising can exploit audience targeting to identify
the most valuable prospects for your campaign and
help deliver your message to them.
To use targeting most effectively you need an
understanding of exactly who you want to talk to. In
general there are four types of targeting which can be
deployed across most major online media networks.
18
Category targeting is based around what people
are looking at and allows you to advertise to them.
Thus you can place your advertising in an appropriate
context, such as near online content related to
insurance, travel or financial services. It’s not as
specific as profiling but does give a significant volume
of audience with greater likelihood of an interest in
your offer.
Profile targeting is a much broader approach,
allowing you to find the people you’re looking for
by who they are, where they are and when you
want to be seen by them. It involves defining the
characteristics that matter most to you. It could be
anything from the consumer’s age, gender or country,
to the day part you want to target the audience on, or
their operating system.
Behavioural targeting works differently, by
analysing individual consumer behaviour to establish
patterns and then using those patterns to assess
likely purchase intent. For example a user with a
browsing history of searching for new cars who has
also explored car insurance is likely to be in the
market for a new car. The ad networks can group
these people and you can then contact them via
targeted advertising.
If you’re already active online then re-messaging
allows you to identify the people who have engaged
with you before. The most advanced and potentially
most effective form of targeting, it involves tracking
visitors throughout the course of their online journey
and contacting them when they return to a specific
media network. This requires the active involvement
of a specific online media provider so your options
depend upon their offering, but it’s worth considering
as it provides one of the best routes to your most
receptive prospects.
Targeting can greatly increase your campaign
effectiveness by finding the people most relevant to
your message. When you know the audience you want,
it’s easy to decide where to position your ad. Timing is
as important as location when planning a campaign,
and niche is as much an option as broadcast. Again,
budget naturally plays a part but it’s necessary to look
further than simple volume.
How to make targeting work
Use at least basic targeting on every campaign.
Even standard mass-reach campaigns can be improved
with the addition of basic ad targeting.
Focus on the segments that perform rather than
the segments that sound right. Rather than segment
users based on idealised customer profiles, marketers
should study their data to find any targeting criteria
that improves ROI — even ones they may not have
thought of before.
Use targeting tools to gain customer insights or
choose your segments for you. Research and testing
are crucial to uncovering the best-performing segments.
Don’t neglect the most effective form of
targeting: re-messaging. Although
re-messaging offers fewer impressions than other
types of targeting, it may well generate the highest
ROI of an entire online campaign.
Top tips to a better email
How do I measure results?
Top tips to better email
1
2
3
4
5
20
Don’t forget the basics. Pay as much attention
to the proposition, targeting, data and execution
as you would for any campaign.
Consider timing. You can control delivery time
quite accurately, so make use of it.
Spend a lot of time on the subject. Don’t be too
clever. Check the latest list of ‘risky’ words that
could send your email straight to the spam box.
Who’s it from? Use a sensible sending address,
preferably someone’s name, to make the email
appear more personal.
Use brand and images only when they add
impact. Plain text is generally better for more
personal communication.
6
7
8
9
10
How do I measure results?
Attachments are trouble. Better to provide
a link to an external site for a download.
Shake it up. Try different styles and
approaches to see what works best
for you.
Don’t just bolt it on! Email should be
considered as an integrated element of your
marketing activity, not a low-cost add on.
Keep it professional, with an unsubscribe
option and company details. You’re more
likely to look like a genuine email if you
look like a genuine email!
Test. Once you’re ready to go try sending
your email to a few external addresses to
check that it is white-listed and avoid going
straight to junk.
Sales? Brand awareness?
Traditional measures still apply
but digital provides a much more
immediate response in the form of
click-throughs, open rates, viewing,
dwell time etc.
What do each of these measurements mean and how
can I use them to evaluate and refine my campaign?
It’s first essential to establish the kind of results you’re
looking for. Whatever your objective you need to
answer that question before you plan your campaign.
Is it indeed brand awareness, or is it a specific number
of visitors to your website? Perhaps you’re looking
at conversion rates or a much more straightforward
measure of sales?
So what can you measure? The answers are numerous.
Visitors to your website, of course, but also a number
of actions based on your online campaign. Cost-perclick is one of the most common, with a simple charge
every time someone clicks on one of your ads. Cost per
acquisition takes this further by calculating the money
spent in the acquisition of a customer rather than a
visitor and is possibly a more accurate reflection of the
value of your marketing campaign.
In practical terms there are statistics and facts available
from services such as Google Analytics or Microsoft
Advertiser Suite. These give you a rapid and up-to-date
view of the effectiveness that your campaign is having
in terms of click-throughs and other actions. It’s not
the only measure but it’s a valuable one.
Most importantly you need to look at digital in terms
of its contribution to the overall effectiveness of your
marketing campaign. Is it pulling people through from
TV, outdoor or print? Is it creating engagement with
your brand? Is it part of a long-term strategy that can
grow and change to accommodate your objectives? In
short, is it still just an add-on, or is it part of the mix?
‘…digital is more
measurable than
anything else we do.’
Benjamin Jankowski, Global Account
Director, Omnicom Media Group
Getting interactive
Getting interactive: how an integrated campaign really delivered.
Launching Microsoft Office 2007
Microsoft made full use of the
cross-media mix with the launch
campaign for Office 2007, using
print and outdoor to create
awareness and drive traffic
online, where demos, videos
and downloads provided more
information to promote the new
features of the software.
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The primary objective was to create a need for
Microsoft Office 2007.
A three-layer campaign focused on awareness and
intrigue building, using print and outdoor to attract
attention at launch and to sustain the messaging,
relying on digital to allow people to experience the
product. Product demos and rich media online ads
allowed interaction with the product and were very
efficient perception changers.
The campaign delivered 23.5 million hands-on
experiences and the result was a 91% lift in awareness
of Microsoft Office 2007 and a 47% lift in audience
saying they ‘need Microsoft Office 2007’.
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Norm Johnston, Global Digital
Leader, Mindshare Interaction
The law
The law: the legalities of online advertising
Interactive or digital advertising
currently suffers fewer restrictions
than broadcast and print, but
there are still laws that govern the
online world and regulation is likely
to increase as its role in our lives
and its significance economically
continues to catch the attention of
governments around the world.
We have used the UK Advertising Standards Authority’s
rules and regulations as the basis for some guidelines
that govern best practice for online advertising,
although of course the law varies from country to
country, particularly outside the EC.
• Be legal, decent, honest and truthful. Ads should
not include anything that is likely to cause offence.
The questions at the forefront of the advertising
campaign should be, for example, is the ad likely to
cause offence on the grounds of race, religion, sex,
sexual orientation or disability?
• Do not be misleading. You need to ensure that all
claims in ads are accurate and unambiguous and
can be substantiated. Can you back up what you are
saying? Do you have evidence for any claims?
• Be prepared with a sense of responsibility to
consumers and society.
• Respect the principles of fair competition generally
accepted by business.
• Protect and respect the privacy of individuals,
specifically when gathering or placing data on
their computers or mobile devices (cookies, holding
IP addresses).
• No marketing communication should bring
advertising into disrepute.
24
23
Glossary
Glossary: a quick reference
dictionary of online terms
Behavioural Targeting A form of online marketing that uses
advertising technology to target web users based on their previous
behaviour. Advertising creative and content can be tailored to be
of more relevance to a particular user by capturing their previous
decision making behaviour (e.g. filling out preferences or visiting
certain areas of a site frequently) and looking for patterns.
It doesn’t stop at SPAM.
Beta First step beyond Alpha. An application (often a website)
released into the public domain so it can find and fix as many bugs as
possible, and can be user tested. As more and more bugs are fixed,
updated Beta builds—called Release Candidates are created, and
when it is ready, the ‘beta’ tag will be removed.
The digital industry is awash with
acronyms, abbreviations and its own
unique terminology. Below is not a
definitive list, but it’s a handy guide
to help you untangle the language of
the online advertising world.
Abandon When a user does not complete a transaction.
Ad Serving Delivery of online ads to an end user’s computer by an
ad management system. The system allows different online ads to be
served in order to target different audience groups and can serve ads
across multiple sites. Ad Technology providers each have their own
proprietary models for this.
Affiliate Marketing An affiliate (a website owner or publisher), displays
an advertisement (such as a banner or link) on its site for a merchant (the
brand or advertiser). If a consumer visiting the affiliate’s site clicks on
this advertisement and goes onto perform a specified action (usually a
purchase) on an advertisers site then the affiliate receives a commission.
Algorithm The set of ‘rules’ a search engine may use to determine the
relevance of a webpage (and therefore ranking) in its organic search
results. See also organic search results and Search Engine Optimisation.
App Shortened form of application and synonym for programme.
Applications are a set of instructions encoded in software that
instructs the computer hardware to manipulate or display data.
Avatar A picture or cartoon used to represent an individual in chat
forums, games or on a website as a help function.
Bandwidth The transmission rate of a communication line- usually
measured in Kilobytes per second (Kbps). This relates to the amount
of data that can be carried per second by your Internet connection.
See also Broadband.
Banner (superbanner, leaderboard) A long, horizontal, online ad
usually found running across the top of a page in a fixed placement.
See also Universal Advertising Package, embedded formats.
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Blog An online space regularly updated presenting the opinions
or activities of one or a group of individuals and displaying in
chronological order.
Button A square online ad usually found embedded within
a website page. See also Universal Advertising Package,
embedded formats.
Broadband An Internet connection that is always on and that
delivers a higher bit rate (128kbps or above) than a standard dial-up
connection. It allows for a better online experience as pages load
quickly and you can download items faster.
Buffering When a streaming media player saves portions of file until
there is enough information for the file to begin playing.
Cache Memory Used to store webpages you have seen already. When
you go back to those pages they’ll load more quickly because they
come from the cache and don’t need to be downloaded over the
Internet again.
Contextual advertising Advertising that is targeted to the content on
the webpage being viewed by a user at that specific time.
Cookie A small text file on the user’s PC that identifies the user’s
browser and hence, the user so they are ‘recognised’ when they
re-visit a site e.g. it allows usernames to be stored and websites to
personalise their offering.
Conversion rate Measure of success of an online ad when compared
to the click-through rate. What defines a ‘conversion’ depends on
the marketing objective e.g. it can be defined as a sale or request to
receive more information…etc.
CPA (1-Cost per Action) A pricing model that only charges
advertising on an action being conducted e.g. a sale or a form being
filled in.
CPA (2-Cost per Acquisition) Cost to acquire a new customer.
CPC (Cost per Click) The amount paid by an advertiser for a click on
their sponsored search listing or display ad. See also PPC.
CPM – (Cost per Thousand) The cost of achieving one thousand
impressions.
Deep-linking Ad Linking beyond a home page to a page inside the
site with content pertinent to the ad.
Domain Name The unique name of an Internet site
e.g. www.hotmail.com.
EIAA The European Interactive Advertising Association is a panEuropean trade organisation for media companies focused on
growing interactive business.
Click-through When a user interacts with an advertisement and clicks
through to the advertiser’s website.
Embedded format Advertising formats that are displayed in set
spaces on a publisher’s page. See also banners, skyscrapers, button.
CTR (click-through rate) Frequency of click-throughs as a percentage
of impressions served. Used as a measure of advertising effectiveness.
See also impression, click-through.
Emoticons Emoticon symbols are used to indicate mood in an
electronic mode of communication e.g. email or instant messenger.
Expandable banner/skyscraper Fixed online advertising placements
that expand over the page in the response to user action e.g.
mouseover. See also Rich Media.
Firewall Software Provides security for a computer or local network
by preventing unauthorised access. It sits as a barrier between the
web and your computer in order to prevent hacking, viruses or
unapproved data transfer.
Flash Web design software that creates animation and interactive
elements which are quick to download.
Hit A single request from a web browser for a single item from a
web server.
IAB Interactive Advertising Bureau. The IAB educates marketers,
agencies, media companies and the wider business community
about the value of interactive advertising. Working with its member
companies, the IAB evaluates and recommends standards and
practices and fields critical research on interactive advertising.
Impression The metric used to measure views of a webpage and
its elements- including the advertising embedded within it. Ad
Impressions are how most online advertising is sold and the cost is
quoted in terms of the cost per thousand impressions (CPM).
IM/Instant messaging Sending messages and chatting with
friends or colleagues in real-time when you are both online via a
special application.
Interruptive formats Online advertising formats that appear on
users’ screens on top of web content (and sometimes before webpage
appears) and range from static, one-page splash screens to fullmotion animated advertisements. See also overlay, pop-up.
Interstitial Ads Which appear between two content pages. Also
known as splash pages and transition ads. See also Rich Media.
IP address The numerical Internet address assigned to each computer
on a network so that it can be distinguished from other computers.
Expressed as four groups of numbers separated by dots.
IPTV (Internet Protocol TV) The use of a broadband connection to
stream digital television over the Internet to subscribed users.
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ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) High-speed dial-up
connections to the Internet over normal phone lines.
Overlay Online advertising content that appears over the top of the
webpage. See also Rich Media.
ISP (Internet Service Provider) A company which provides users with
the means to connect to the Internet. Eg: AOL, Tiscali, Yahoo!
Paid Inclusion In exchange for a payment, a search engine will
guarantee to list/review pages from a website. It is not guaranteed
that the pages will rank well for particular queries – this still depends
on the search engine’s underlying relevancy process.
Keyword marketing The purchase of keywords (or ‘search terms’) by
advertisers in search listings. See also PPC.
LAN (Local Area Network) A group of computers connected
together, which are at one physical location.
Log files A record of all the hits a web server has received over a
given period of time.
Meta-tags/ descriptions HTML tags that identify the content of a
webpage for the search engines.
Microsite A sub-site reached via clicking on an ad. The user stays
on the publisher’s website but has access to more information from
the advertiser.
MP3 A computer file format that compresses audio files up to a factor
of 12 from a .wav file.
MPEG File format used to compress and transmit video clips online.
MPU (Multiple Purpose Units) A square online ad usually found
embedded in a webpage in a fixed placement. Called ‘multiple
purpose’ as it is a flexible shaped blank ‘canvas’ in which you can
serve flat or more interactive content as desired. See also Rich Media,
Universal Advertising Package.
Opt-in An individual has given a company permission to use his/her
data for marketing purposes.
Opt-out An individual has stated that they do not want a company to
use his/her data for marketing purposes.
Organic search results The ‘natural’ search results that appear in
a separate section (usually the main body of the page) to the paid
listings. The results listed here have not been paid for and are ranked
by the search engine (using spiders or algorithms) according to
relevancy to the term searched upon. See also spider, algorithm, SEO.
Paid Listings The search results list in which advertisers pay to be
featured according to the PPC model. This list usually appears in a
separate section to the organic search results- usually at the top of
the page or down the right hand side. See also Organic search results,
PPC (Pay Per Click).
Paid Search See PPC.
Phishing An illegal method whereby legitimate looking emails
(appearing to come from a well-known bank, for example) are used
in an attempt to get personal information that can be used to steal a
user’s identity.
Pharming An illegal method of redirecting traffic from another
company’s website (such as a bank) to a fake one designed to look
similar in order to steal user details when they try to log in. See also
Phishing.
Podcasting Podcasting involves making an audio file (usually in MP3
format) of content –usually in the form of a radio programme - that is
available to download to an MP3 player or listen to online.
Polite loading Fixed online advertising placements that load and
display additional Flash content after the host page on which the ad
appears has finished loading. See also Flash.
Pop-up An online ad that ‘pops up’ in a window over the top of a
webpage. See also interruptive formats.
PPC (Pay per Click) Allows advertisers to bid for placement in the
paid listings search results on terms that are relevant to their business,
or to pay based on the number of clicks achieved by a display ad.
Advertisers pay the amount of their bid only when a consumer clicks
on their listing. Also called sponsored search/ paid search.
Reach The number of unique web users potentially seeing a website
one or more times in a given time period expressed as a percentage
of the total active web population for that period.
Rich Media is the collective name for online advertising formats that
use advanced technology to harnesses broadband to build brands. It
uses interactive and audio-visual elements to give richer content and
a richer experience for the user when interacting with the ad. See also
Interstitial, Superstitial, Overlay and Rich Media Guidelines.
Rich Media Guidelines Design guidelines produced by the IAB for
effective use of Rich Media technologies in all forms of Internet
advertising. They aim to protect user experience by keeping them
in control of the experience e.g. encouraging clearly labelled close,
sound and video buttons.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Software that allows you to flag
website content (often from blogs or new sites) and aggregate new
entries to this content into an easy to read format that is delivered
directly to a user’s PC. See also blogs.
Sales House An organisation which sells advertising on behalf of
other media owners. These sales houses typically retain a percentage
of the revenue they sell in exchange for their services. These
organisations may combine a number of websites together and sell
them as different packages to advertisers.
SEM (Search Engine Marketing) The process which aims to get
websites listed prominently in search-engine results through searchengine optimisation, sponsored search and paid inclusion. See also
PPC and SEO and Paid Inclusion.
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) The process which aims to
get websites listed prominently within search engine’s organic
(algorithmic, spidered) search results. Involves making a site ‘search
engine friendly’. See also organic listings.
Server A host computer which maintains websites, newsgroups and
email services.
Session The time spent between a user starting an application,
computer, website...etc and logging off or quitting.
Site analytics The reporting and analysis of website activity - in
particular user behaviour on the site. All websites have a weblog
which can be used for this purpose, but other third-party software is
available for a more sophisticated service.
Skyscraper A long, vertical, online ad usually found running
down the side of a page in a fixed placement. See also Universal
Advertising Package.
Sniffer Software Which identifies the capabilities of the user’s
browser and therefore can determine compatibility with ad formats
and serve them an ad they will be able to see/fully interact with (e.g.
GIF, Flash etc).
Spam Unsolicited junk mail.
Spider A programme which crawls the web and fetches webpages
in order for them to be indexed against keywords. Used by search
engines to formulate search result pages. See also organic listings.
Sponsored Search See PPC (Pay Per Click).
Sponsorship Advertiser sponsorships of targeted content areas (e.g.
entire website, site area or an event) often for promotional purposes.
Stickiness Measure used to gauge the effectiveness of a site in
retaining its users. Usually measured by the duration of the visit.
Streaming media Compressed audio/video which plays and
downloads at the same time. The user does not have to wait for the
whole file to download before it starts playing.
Superstitials A form of rich media advertising which allows a TV-like
experience on the web. It is fully pre-cached before playing. See also
Rich Media, Cache.
Tenancy The ‘renting’ out of a section of a website by another brand
who pays commission to this media owner for any revenue generated
from this space e.g. dating services inside portals or bookstores inside
online newspapers.
Traffic Number of visitors who come to a website.
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Universal Advertising Package A set of online advertising formats that
are standardised placements as defined the by the IAB. See also banner,
skyscraper, button, MPU and embedded formats.
Unique users Number of different individuals who visit a site within a
specific time period.
URL (Uniform Resource Locator) Technical term that is used to refer
to the web address of a particular website. For example www.iabuk.net
User generated content Online content created by website users
rather than media owners or publishers - either through reviews,
blogging, podcasting or posting comments, pictures or video clips.
Sites that encourage user generated content include MySpace,
YouTube, Wikipedia and Flickr. See also blog, podcast.
Viral Marketing The term “viral advertising” refers to the idea that
people will pass on and share striking and entertaining content; this
is often sponsored by a brand, which is looking to build awareness of
a product or service. These viral commercials often take the form of
funny video clips, or interactive Flash games, images, and even text.
VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) Technology that allows the use
of a broadband Internet connection to make telephone calls.
Whitelist An email whitelist is a list of contacts that the user deems
are acceptable to receive email from and should not be sent to the
trash folder (wikipedia definition).
WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) Standard for providing mobile
data services on hand-held devices.
Web 2.0 The term Web 2.0 - with its knowing nod to upgraded
computer applications - describes the next generation of online
use. Web 2.0 identifies the consumer as a major contributor in the
evolution of the Internet into a two-way medium. See also user
generated content.
Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) The ability to connect to the Internet
wirelessly. Internet ‘hotspots’ in coffee shops and airports etc. use
this technology.
You dream it. We deliver it.
Find out how Microsoft Advertising can
help you unleash the power of digital at
www.advertising.microsoft.com/europe
© 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Microsoft is a trademark of the Microsoft group of companies.