Glossary

While working with the Adfox, you'll come across some special terms.

Basic terms

Account

An account in the Adfox system database that contains information about users and objects in the system. Sometimes, the account may also mean the system username (login). There are several account types: administrator, assistant, advertiser, and site owner.

Activity audit

An independent verification of the measured metrics in a certain time period. The officially recognized key metrics are the number of ad impressions, the number of page impressions, the number of clicks, the total number of visits, and the number of visits by unique users. Previously, this was called a quantitative audit.
A message that's paid for by the advertiser and addressed to current or future monetizers.

Ad audience

The number of unique users who were served ads during a given period of time.

Ad banner

An area on a web page where an ad is placed (it's most often a visual ad, like an image or other media object). The banner acts as a hyperlink to the advertised website.

Ad blocker

A program in the user's browser that blocks the display of ads.

Ad network

An aggregator company or ad broker that collects and places the client's ads on numerous websites in the network. Ad networks act as “sales representatives” of client websites and select the optimal placement plan.

Ad serving

The transmission of ad messages from the server to the end user's computer, where the browser displays and/or caches them. Ads are usually served by the distributor of web information or a third party. Ads can be embedded in the page structure or sent independently.

Ad space

A place on the site page where ads can be placed. Each space on the site is clearly marked. There may be multiple ad spaces on a page.

Adfox

An online service where publishers can manage site ads.

Affiliate marketing

An agreement between two websites where one party (affiliate/partner) sends information or ads to generate traffic to the other party's website. In turn, the affiliate receives a percentage of sales or other remuneration based on the traffic generation results.

Click fraud

A type of internet fraud where a campaign is based on the “pay per click” principle and a person, an automatic program, or a script simulates a real user clicking an ad. The purpose of click fraud is to receive payment for each click in the absence of real interest in the ad.

Contextual advertising

A type of online ad that's based on the ad material matching the context (content) of the internet page where the ad block is placed. Contextual advertising works selectively: ads are served to the target audience, that is, web page visitors whose interests more or less match the subject of the advertised product or service, which makes them more likely to respond to the ad. The ad medium can be a text & image ad or a banner. Contextual ads include content ads (non-search systems as platforms for displaying ads that are linked by keywords to the text of a specific website page) and search ads (the ad is served in response to a keyword in the user's query). This way, advertisers can optimize their existing search campaigns and reach a wider audience.

Conversion

Performing a certain action on the website that's understood as the main goal of attracting an audience. For example, making a purchase, filling out a questionnaire, or registering.

Cookie, cookies

A packet of text data that the server sends to the browser. The browser stores this information and sends it to the server with each request as part of the HTTP header. Some cookie values can be stored only for one session: they're deleted when you close the browser. Others are set for a certain period of time and saved to a file. When the user accesses the website again, it reads the cookies and “recognizes” them. Cookies are recorded in server logs. Cookies and IP addresses are used for estimating the number of unique visitors. Adfox doesn't track individual users' actions and certainly doesn't share information about them with anyone, but it accumulates and analyzes website traffic statistics. If the user believes that the use of cookies is not in their interests, they can prohibit cookie storage on their computer.

Direct traffic

Users who entered the website address in the browser address bar or selected it in their browser bookmarks.

Disable caching

The process by which websites and servers send information in such a way as to prevent the use of cached content by the browser or proxy server. This makes the user or proxy server receive a new version of the content every time they access it. One reason to disable caching is the need to count user requests more accurately.

Log

A record of the account users' actions. It's only available to the account administrator. Learn more about logs.

Page depth

The average number of website pages that users view in a session.

Pixel

An image element (a separate highlighted dot) on the computer monitor. A unit of measurement that's used to determine the size of an ad module.

Site user

A user who is attracted to the advertiser's website from a campaign. They're identified by installing an additional action point code on the advertiser's website.

Target audience

The audience that the ad is aimed at. It's usually characterized by certain demographic characteristics (like gender, age, and income), certain consumer behavior, and preferences.

Turbo page

A special web page format for accelerated loading. Turbo pages include essential elements, such as text, images, and videos, but almost nothing else, which enables them to load quickly. Learn more about Turbo pages.

Targeting

Behavioral targeting

1. A special technology that's used by online publishers and advertisers to make their campaigns more effective. Behavioral targeting uses information about the user's behavior, for example, what web resources they visited or what words they used in their search queries. Based on this data, you can decide which ads to serve them. Companies that use behavioral targeting believe this helps them serve ads to users who are most likely to be affected by them.

2. Serving ads based on the user's recent online behavior, taking into account the website pages and thematic sections they viewed, search queries they entered, or goods they bought.

Geotargeting

The demonstration (or prevention of demonstration) of content that's based on the end user's automatically calculated or assumed location in the real world. You can use geographical targeting to serve online ads to audiences divided by regions and local areas, that is, by their geography. For example, you can serve ads only to users from Moscow or some other region.

Targeting

A campaign setting that restricts the display of ad messages based on certain criteria. Targeting can be based on geography, time, demographics, and other criteria. Learn more about targeting.

User accounts and roles

Administrator

When you create an account, an account with administrative access to the system is also created. A user who is an administrator can manage all account settings and create new users: assistants, advertisers, and site owners.

Advertiser

1. The user who has access to campaign statistics. Sometimes, the advertiser also has the right to add and remove campaign banners.

2. The company that pays for ad placement.

API assistant

A user who only has access to the Adfox API methods, but not to the Adfox web interface.

Assistant

A user that helps the administrator. Assistants can access campaign reports and manage their campaigns.

Site owner

A representative of the site where you place ads. The site owner is granted access to statistics only for the sites where they are listed as the owner.

User

1. A person or an organization that uses the Adfox system. There are several user types: administrators, participants (advertisers and site owners), and assistants.

2. Network users and website visitors.

Ad placement and display

Ad display

Successful display of ad on the user's computer display.

Ad download

1. The process of downloading ads to the user's browser by the server. Ad messages are offered to the user, but they can cancel or interrupt message loading before it's complete. In this case, the user doesn't see them.

2. An event, in other words, the fact that the user's browser successfully downloaded an ad from the ad server. It's possible that the user's browser requests the ad, but the download is canceled or interrupted before it's complete, which is why the user doesn't see the ad.

Ad request

An ad request is a direct result of the user's action that's recorded by the Ad management system. Requests can come directly from the user's browser or from an intermediate internet resource, for example, a web content server.

Ad stream

A stream (a configured sequence) of ad messages served to the user during a single site visit (impression stream).

Alternative text

A word or phrase that appears when the user's browser fails to load an ad or the user refuses to view the page by clicking “stop” before all images are loaded. It also appears as a text frame when the user hovers over an image.

Asynchronous ad tag

When the page response reaches the Adfox ad tag, the browser sends a request to the Adfox system and continues loading the page without waiting for a response. Adfox then loads the request result (a banner or placeholder) in parallel with the page loading as if in a separate window (iframe). Only after that, it loads the data to the page, even when it's completely formed and loaded. You can use an asynchronous ad tag to avoid slowing down the loading of the page and waiting for it to load completely.

1. An ad image that's placed on a web page.

2. A visual and text block in the form of an image that contains information about the advertised project or product. When the user clicks it, they go to the advertised site or page containing more information about the advertised product (this action is called a “banner click” or “click”). The banner is placed on sites or placements.

A tool that lets the system make a decision about placing the banner on a placement.

Bonus impressions

Additional ad impressions in excess of those stated in the placement order.

Campaign profile

A set of predefined fields and values used to create a campaign. The campaign profile defines the campaign's purpose. Once you save the campaign, you can't change its profile.

Category

You can use categories to group sites, sections, or placements by content categories and get statistics on impressions and click for the entire category. Categories are also helpful for behavioral targeting. Learn more about categories.

Close

Means that the user quickly removes the ad from the viewable field by clicking or some other way. It may not work for ads that don't overlap with page content.

Dynamic ad placement (the process of inserting ads)

You can use dynamic ad placement to replace one ad block with another based on any information that the hosting program has. The simplest option is to rotate several ad messages in one or more placements. With a more complex approach, ad display may vary depending on your targeting, for example, a particular user's demographic characteristics or their browsing history.

Dynamic rotation

In dynamic rotation, several banners or ad texts (links) are placed in the same ad placement and served at random (banner and text rotation). This is done so that users can see different ad messages, and ad messages can appear on different site pages.

First screen

The part of the web page that the user sees first when it loads, without scrolling.

Flight

A selected period of the campaign. Learn more about the campaign/flight/banner hierarchy.

Image map, hypermap

A GIF or JPEG image that contains more than one hyperlink. Each hyperlink or hotspot can lead to a separate external page.

Placement

A banner placement on a site page.

Profile

A profile is a set of campaign settings, for example, targeting or placement parameters. You can use profiles to make adding campaigns easier and restrict assistants' access to placements and targeting. Learn more about profiles.

Site

An object in the Adfox system where campaigns are placed. There are sections with a set of platforms in the site.

Site section

Part of a site that's logically distinct in terms of topic, method of selling banner placements, subdomain, or any other characteristic. Sections allow you to select different sets of placements on pages of the same site and serve differenr campaigns.

Template

A code (JSON, JavaScript, HTML, or XML) that defines the banner appearance and features on the site. The template code contains variables whose values are substituted from the parameters of the banner selected for impressions. Learn more about templates.

Action tracking

Action point

An object in the system that's used to analyze the behavior of users attracted to the advertiser's website from a campaign. The point code is placed on the advertiser's website.

Action point size

The action point parameter that characterizes the page value for the advertiser. For example, the size of the main page can be 1, and the size of the “thank you for your purchase” page can be 10. The size of the action point can be assigned arbitrarily, but it must be greater than or equal to 1. The recommended range of values is from 1 to 10.

Audience quality index

Calculated based on the total number of action point downloads and their weight. You can use it to evaluate the quality of the attracted audience.

Average page depth

The number of loaded pages of the advertiser's website that are identified using a separate action point.

Click-through

Clicking through a link in an ad or information message to another site or page (section) on the same site. Click-throughs on ad links should be tracked and recorded by the ad management system as redirect 302, while bot activity should be excluded.

Click-within

Click that doesn't take the user to the advertised website. Used in ads where the format enables the user to receive more detailed information inside the ad message without going to other pages.

Entry point

1. In reports, this is the page (URL) through which the user accesses the site.

2. In the system, this is the page through which the user enters the system interface. For example, this is the Adfox login page.

Referer

The URL that shows which site the user came from or clicked the banner on. The Adfox server receives a referer in each banner request. Learn more about referer templates.

Traffic

1. The flow of data that's sent over the network or the number of website visitors in a certain period of time.

2. The flow of visitors that's understood as all clicks from other internet resources (including type-in traffic) to the website.

Visit counter (counter)

Special software that calculates quantitative metrics related to website visits. For example, the number of queries (hits) and the number of unique visitors (hosts).

The counter consists of two parts:

  • The code that's placed on the participating website pages for data collection.

  • A technology that makes calculations using the received information and presents it as statistical reports.

Statistics and revenue

Audience overlap (by clicks)

The number of unique users who simultaneously clicked on ad messages on two sites.

Audience overlap (by impressions)

The number of unique users who simultaneously saw ad messages on two sites.

Audience overlap (general)

The number of unique users who interacted with ad messages (saw and/or clicked them) on two sites.

Average ad requests

Average number of requests during the period.

Citation index (CI)

An metric of website popularity on the internet. It's determined by the number and significance (“weight”) of website links on other internet resources.

Click

A link or banner click that leads to another page or site.

Clicks (IMS)

The number of clicks on banners with a redirect to the advertiser's website, taking into account invalid traffic (GIVT and SIVT) filtering.

Conversion rate

1. The ratio of the number of conversions to the number of users attracted to the website. It's used to determine how effective a website or online ad is.

2. The ratio of the number of visitors who bought a product on the website to the number of users who came to the website. It may also mean the ratio of the number of website visitors who used the offered service to the number of users who saw the ad. It's an metric of how effective ads and websites are as tools for the sales or promotion of services.

Coverage

1. The cumulative number of unique users who saw the ad message.

2. The cumulative volume of unique impressions.

CPA (cost-per-action), the price of a useful action

The ad price that's calculated based on the user performing a specific action in reaction to an ad. For example, such actions may include the fact of purchase and sale, filling out a questionnaire, subscribing to a service, and attracting a client.

CPC (cost-per-click)

The amount an advertiser pays to search engines and other internet publishers for a click on their ad that brings a user to their site.

CPM (cost-per-mille)

The cost per 1000 impressions.

CPUC

The cost of a unique click.

CPUM

The cost per 1000 unique impressions.

CTR (click-through-rate)

The ratio of the number of clicks on an ad banner followed by a click-through to the advertiser's website to the number of banner impressions as a percentage. For example, 1000 impressions were served, and 2 clicks were made. The CTR is 0.2%.

Event

The banner's server request. In Adfox, you can track up to 30 banner events in addition to impressions and clicks. Event values are determined by the banner developer. Some banner formats already include event tracking. For example, you can use events to track user interactions with the banner that don't lead to a click to the advertiser's website (like hovering over the banner, playing a video, stopping the video, moving inside the banner, and opening the Screenglide/Expandable banner). The event mechanism is also used in interactive banners with multiple buttons that lead to one or more pages of the advertiser's website.

Impression frequency

Count of banner ad impressions for unique users.

Impressions

Events that occur at the start of ad rendering.

Impressions (IMS)

Events that occur at the start of ad rendering based on invalid traffic (GIVT and SIVT) filtering.

Measured Rate (IMS)

The ratio of measurable impressions with viewability determined to the total number of Impressions (IMS), taking into account invalid traffic (GIVT and SIVT) filtering.

Non-viewable ad impressions (IMS)

Impressions with rendering on the page registered, but without confirmation of viewability according to the international media standards criteria, taking into account invalid traffic (GIVT and SIVT) filtering.

Quantity of events

The total number of events triggered.

Rejection rate

The percentage of visitors who viewed only one page and left the website immediately after that. When using this metric in analytics, note that it doesn't always have a negative meaning. It depends on the content of the target page that the user views and that may contain all the information they want.

Total clicks

Total number of clicks from ad banners to the advertiser site.

Total impressions

The total count of banner impressions in the system, including backup ad. The number of impressions may differ from the number of banner ad responses if the impression count method is overridden at the campaign level.

Total unique impressions

Banner impressions for the user that were recorded by the system, including backup ad, but excluding repeat impressions. The impression count may differ from the number of banner ad responses if the impression count method is overridden at the campaign level.

Undetermined ad impressions

Impressions for which it's impossible to determine the viewability status. The metric is generated based on invalid traffic (GIVT) filtering.

Undetermined ad impressions (IMS)

Impressions for which it's impossible to determine the viewability status, taking into account invalid traffic (GIVT and SIVT) filtering.

Unfilled ad responses

The number of code requests for which backup ad impressions were made. Backup ad is served if commercial campaign banners couldn't be selected because of placement settings, limits on the number of impressions, running speed, or targeting.

Unfilled clicks

Number of clicks from backup ad to the advertiser site.

Unique banner ad responses

A banner response (without repeat responses) to the user, counted by the system. The response count may differ from the number of banner impressions if the impression count method is overridden at the campaign level.

Unique browser

An identifiable, non-duplicated browser that supports cookies and provides access to web content or ads in the reporting period. This definition must take into account that cookies may be deleted in some browsers, which may distort the results.

Unique click

A unique user's click on an ad message that's recorded by the system.

Unique CTR

The ratio of unique clicks to unique impressions as a percentage.

Unique impressions

The banner impression recorded by the system, excluding repeat impressions. The impression count may differ from the banner response count if the impression count method is overridden at the campaign level.

Unique unfilled ad responses

A response of a backup ad (without repeat responses) to the user, counted by the system.

Unique user

A user's unique browser that's identified using cookies.

Unique Yandex HB total ad requests

The number of all requests sent via Yandex Header Bidding (without repeat requests).

Viewable impressions

Ad impressions in the window's viewable area in the active browser tab, which are counted according to the established criteria: the minimum percentage of pixels in the viewable area and the duration in the browser viewable area. The metric is generated based on invalid traffic (GIVT) filtering.

Viewable impressions (IMS)

Ad impressions in the viewable area of the window in the active browser tab, counted according to the international media standards criteria, such as the minimum percentage of pixels in the viewable area and the duration in the browser viewable area, based on invalid traffic (GIVT and SIVT) filtering.

Viewable impressions, Yandex

Impressions that meet the Yandex-viewability criteria. The metric is only available for campaigns with the count method Viewable impression, Yandex (previously — Viewable impression, 2 seconds) that were created before March 18, 2022.

Viewable impressions, Yandex (IMS)

Impressions that meet the Yandex viewability criteria: 50% (30% for ads of 242, 500 pixels (970 x 250 px) or more) of the banner area is viewable in the active browser window for at least 2 seconds, based on invalid traffic (GIVT and SIVT) filtering.

Viewable rate (IMS)

The percentage of impressions in the viewable area of the browser window counted according to the international media standards criteria relative to the impressions with viewability determined, taking into account invalid traffic (GIVT and SIVT) filtering.

Yandex HB total ad requests

The number of all requests sent via Yandex Header Bidding.

Settings for Russian ad register

Advertiser (under the law “On advertising”)

A manufacturer, product seller, or any other person which has defined an advertising object and (or) the advertising content.

Advertising data operator (ORD)

An organization that issues tokens for ad creatives and collects information from the market participants to transfer it to the state register.

Advertising distributor

A person distributing an advertisement in any manner, in any form, and by any means.

Advertising producer

A person bringing information, fully or partially, into a form which is ready to be distributed.

Advertising system (under the law “On advertising”)

An information system and(or) program for computers that are designed and used to organize the distribution of ads on “the internet” through information resources owned by third parties (sites on “the internet”, site pages on “the internet”, information systems and (or) programs for computers) (clause 13 introduced by Federal Law No. 124-FZ dated April 30, 2021).

Advertising system operator

A person carrying out activities to maintain the advertising system.

Direct contract

A contract that's concluded directly between the advertiser and the publisher, without the involvement of intermediaries (agencies).

Final contract

A contract between the publisher (website, domain, video resource, or blog owner) and the intermediary (agency).

Primary contract

A contract between the advertiser and their contractor (the first contract in the placement chain).

Token

A unique ad ID assigned to each creative by an advertising data operator.

Unified Register of Online Ads (state register)

An ad accounting system administered by the Russian Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor). All advertising market participants that display ads in Russia are required to submit data about ad creatives, contracts, and invoices, advertising chain participants, and accurate site statistics to the state register.

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