“B” Counties – Nielsen designated counties other than “A” counties, which have over 150,000 residents.

BFD – (Not what you think. . .Best Food Day) -In newspapers, the day of the week in which the largest amount of retail grocery advertising occurs, usually on Wednesdays.

B2B – Business-to-business advertising

B2C – Business to consumer (B2C) is a business model in which a business’s main customers are consumers. Common B2C web sites include online stores selling books, music & videos.

BPA (Business Publication Audit) – A company who audits the circulation of business publications.

BPS – Bits Per Second (BPS) is a measurement of how much data, called bits, can be transferred through a network connection in one second. When the amount goes over 100,000 bps it will often be shorted to 1 mega bit per second (mbps).

BRC (Brand response card) a card inserted into magazines for readers to request information on products or services.

BW – Refers to a print ad printed in black & white only.

Backbone – That part of the Internet infrastructure consisting of high speed telecommunications lines that carry the bulk of Internet traffic to smaller regional networking companies and ISPs. If there is a problem on the backbone web pages and banner advertisements may not load as fast or at all.

Back-to-Back Scheduling – Two or more commercials or programs shown oneimmediately following the other.

Bait and Switch Advertising – The illegal practice of baiting customers with an unusually low advertised price on a product, which they are then persuaded to buy a more expensive brand.

Bandwidth – a range within a band of wavelengths, frequencies, or energies;especially: a range of radio frequencies which is occupied by a modulated carrier wave, which is assigned to a service, or over which a device can operate.

Banner – A graphic that appears on a web page that is usually hyperlinked to an advertisers web site. May be in a variety of formats including GIF, JPEG, Flash, HTML, Java, JavaScript & more.

Banner Burnout – A term used to describe an event when a banner has been shown to the same visitor(s) to the point where the click through rate has dropped dramatically. Rotating banners helps to reduce banner burnout.

Banner Exchange – A Internet service that provides free banner impressions to those willing to place free banners on their sites. A typical exchange ratio is for every 2 banners one shows for free, they get one of their banners shown for free on some one else’s site. The company running the banner exchange takes the other impression and tries to sell it.

Barter – The exchange of goods or services for air-time or ad space instead of cash. Also called trade.

Basic Cable – Advertiser supported Cable TV.

Below-the Line Listing-Describes how a station’s estimates are printed in a radio-market report. A station may be listed below-the-line if it has engaged in activities determined by Arbitron to have rating bias or rating distortion potential.

Bellyband – A band that can carry advertising which wraps around a newspaper or magazine.

Billboard – An outdoor advertising display, or in radio and television, a brief announcement, identifying advertiser sponsorship during the beginning, the end, or breaks in the scheduled program broadcast.

Billings– The agency’s annual gross dollar volume generated from one or several accounts.

Bleed – An advertisement in which printed matter runs off the edge of the page (trim) of into the gutter of a magazine or newspaper.

Blind Link – A text or graphical hyperlink which does not clearly indicate where the hyperlink leads to.

Blind Traffic – Web visitor traffic that is generated using blind links.

Bias – A distortion in the collection, analysis, or interpretation of research data.

Boards – A colloquial term for poster panels and bulletins.

Body Copy – The text of an ad, which tells the complete story. Usually set in smaller type than headlines or sub-heads.

Bonus Spot – A spot given free as a consideration or incentive for buying other spots or to bring in the bottom line of a given schedule or package.

Boutique – An agency that provides a limited service, such as one that does creative work but does not provide media planning, research, etc. Usually, this refers to a relatively small company.

Broadsheet – Standard large newspaper format, compared to the smaller tabloid format; exact measurements of broadsheet vary per publication.

Brochure-A folded leaflet with an advertisement or promotional message.

Browser – A computer software program that enables one to access and view text or graphical web pages on the world wide web (WWW). Two popular browsers include the Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator.

Button – A type of advertising unit that is smaller than a banner and usually placed in parts of a web page where space is limited such as in narrow columns on the left or right side of a page.

Buzz-Excited talk or rumors.