AAAA – Founded in 1917, the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA) is the national trade association representing the advertising agency business in the United States. Its membership produces approximately 75 percent of the total advertising volume placed by agencies nationwide.
“A” Counties– All counties that are in the top 25 (largest) metropolitan areas, these are defined by Nielsen and the metro areas correspond to the SMSA.
ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulation) – Verifies circulation figures for publications.
ACI (Area of Cable Influence) – Cable selling strategy that documents to advertisers the value of cables ability to target geographically and demonstrates the importance of the cable household’s purchasing power.
A/E – An account executive (A/E) is an advertising agency employee assigned to a client and responsible for overseeing the services provided to the client.
AIDA– Stands for attention, interest, desire, and action (AIDA). This is a historical model of how advertising works, by first getting the consumer’s attention, then their interest, etc.
AM (Amplitude Modulation) – The radio broadcast band between 540 and 1800 kilohertz.
ANA – Founded in 1910, the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) is the national trade association dedicated to serving the interests of corporations that advertise their products and services in the US.
ARB (Arbitron, Inc., formally know as American Research Bureau) – Radio local rating and audience composition service based on a sample of diary keeping households.
Above The Fold – Any area of a web page that is viewable without the viewer having to use the vertical scroll bar. Ad space in this area is usually more expensive since it is more likely to be viewed by the visitor.
Account– Client or contract
Accrual – The amount of co-operative advertising support money earned by a retailer through wholesale purchases from a manufacturer/distributor.
Acquisition Cost – The cost to an advertiser to gain a new customer. Advertisers take into consideration the amount of revenue potential from a potential customer over a life time in order to determine the maximum acquisition cost.
Ad – Print terminology for an advertising message. The broadcast equivalent is a commercial or a spot.
Advertisement-A paid public announcement appearing in the media.
Advertorial– An advertisement styled to resemble the editorial format and typeface of the content in which it runs. Often generates higher response rates.
Ad Network – A company that provides sales representation for dozens to thousands of internet sites by aggregating the ad inventory and selling ads across multiple sites, either as a “run of network” buy or as groups of sites by content category. Ad networks serve these ads from a central server.
Ad Request – The request of an advertising element as a direct result of a visitor’s action, as recorded by the as server software.
Ad Server – A computer, normally operated by a third party, that delivers and tracks advertisements independent of the web site where the ad is being displayed. Use of an ad server helps establish trust between an advertiser and publisher since the statistics are maintained by a objective third party.
Ad Space – The space on a web page reserved for the displaying of advertisements. Typically at the top or bottom of a page or if a small advertisement in the right or left column. The most desirable ad space is above the fold.
Ad Stream – A series of ads viewed by a user during a single visit to a sight.
Ad Units – A means of classifying ad types. Examples for internet ad units can include banners, buttons, daughter windows, pop-ups, interstitials, tag lines, etc.
Broadcast examples would include :10, :15, :30 and :60 spots or in print a unit would be a full page, quarter page etc.
Advertorial– An advertisement styled to resemble the editorial format and typeface of the content in which it runs. Often generates higher response rates.
Ad Views – 1) The number of ads that are counted by the ad server as a result of an ad request. 2) The downloading of an ad from the ad server to the browser. The viewing of an ad after it has been delivered.
NOTE: Different definitions exist because ad serving and auditing systems measure and define the ad view differently. The ad request counted by an ad server may not result in the delivery or viewing of an ad. Counts of actual as delivery (after the request is made) may differ due to various factors, including the users’ image settings (graphics turned off); caching due to ISP or online service proxy servers; the patience of the user (who may click stop, refresh or click on another link); the routing of the data packets; and/or a communication error.
Adjacency – A commercial announcement positioned immediately before or after a specific program segment.
Advergaming – Interactive advertisements that merge online, multi-player computer games with product placement – through which businesses can target specific demographics.
Advertising Budget – Total dollar allocation for advertising expenditures including creative, production and media.
Advertising Checking Bureau – Supplies advertisers and agencies with newspaper tearsheets for ads, which have been previously run.
Affidavit – A sworn proof that an advertiser’s commercials were actually run as scheduled. The affidavit show the date and time of each broadcast and accompanies the stations bill.
Affiliate – In broadcasting, a station contracted with a network and carrying that specific network’s programming for a certain number of hours and at specific times. For internet, an individual or company that agrees to host a link on their web site either to direct traffic to, or sell products in conjunction with another site, in exchange for compensation. Compensation usually takes the form of a percentage based commission or flat fee.
Affinity Marketing – A marketing approach focused on building customer relationships based on lifestyle and buying habits through loyalty and frequency programs.
Agate Line – Space measurement for newspaper, 1/14 of an inch deep by one column wide, often referred to as a line.
Age Group-A target audience defined by age.
Agent – A program that gathers information while searching the internet for specific information. Also known as robots, spiders or web crawlers.
Agency-A company in the business of creating advertisements, packaging, and names for products and services, as well as providing marketing and merchandizing advice and general business and promotional counsel to it’s clients.
Agency Discount – A discount, normally equal to 15%, that is offered to advertising agencies that place an order on behalf of their clients. Many large companies establish their own in house agency in order to qualify for the discount when they place the advertisements directly
Air-Check – Video or audio tape of a station’s programming or commercial content on a specific day at a specific time.
Ala Carte – Terms used to describe the way services are offered at some advertising agencies. For example, if an ad agency chooses to provide only the services that a client wishes to purchase instead of providing all services for a set price it would be offering their services Ala carte.
Allotment – The number of poster panels comprising a showing. (outdoor)
Alt Text – Short for alternative text (Alt Text). Alt text is HTML code that allows an HTML coder to add text to a graphic that is visable to those that have images disabled or those that hover their mouse over a banner advertisement. Often used by advertisers to reinforce a message or call someone to action such as: “Click Here”.
Amplifier– Increases the power of an electrical signal
Analog– An electrical format that uses continuous physical variables, such as frequency.
Animation – the use of cartoon, puppet characters, or photo animation in television commercials to create a live effect in inanimate objects.
Announcement – An advertising message. A commercial.
Applet – A small program, or application, that is included in HTML web pages, and runs independently of servers or other connections. The most common Applets are based on the programming language Java.
Approach – The distance measured along the line of travel from the point where the advertising structure first became fully visible to the point where copy is no longer readable.
Astroturf– A fake grassroots website
Auctions – An alternate advertising channel offering buys of discounted, remnant inventory on a variety of sites.
Audience Composition – The demographic distribution of a medium’s representative audience.
Audience Duplication – The percentage of a station’s audience that is shared with another station or medium.
Audience Flow – The movement of the audience between programs and stations. By scheduling programs consecutively that appeal to similar audiences, the networks and local stations try to maintain the same audience and minimize the flow to other networks or stations.
Audience Turnover – The number of times a program’s audience changes over a period of time.
Audit – A report issued by an auditing company that counts and verifies a site’s traffic, or verifies the site’s ad delivery for a particular ad campaign. An audit in broadcast is also know as a post buy.
Availability – In broadcasting, a period of time offered for sale as commercial space. Also known as “avails”
Average Quarter-Hour Rating-The average quarter hour persons estimate expressed as a percentage of the appropriate estimated population. The estimate is shown for the Metro and DMA in applicable Arbitron Radio Market Reports.
Average Frequency – Measures how often on average an individual will be exposed to an advertisement during a campaign.
Average Issue Audience – The reach of one issue of a print vehicle during its issue life. Includes all readers – primary as well as pass-along.
AQH (Average Quarter Hour) Persons – The estimated average number of persons who view/listen to a station for a minimum of five minutes within a given quarter hour. Radio is expressed in hundreds (00) Television in thousands (000)
AQH (Average Quarter Hour) Rating – The Average Quarter Hour persons estimate expressed as a percentage of the appropriate estimated population.
AQH (Average Quarter Hour) Share – The Average Quarter Hour Persons estimate for a given station expressed as a percentage of a given time period