Acronyms and terms in the mobile marketing industry can be confusing and inconsistent. Not knowing the terminology mobile marketers use can put you in tough situations. You may feel like you’re not understanding a conversation or missing bits and pieces. FYI: “CPA” in mobile marketing doesn’t stand for Certified Public Accountant. Don’t worry though! We’ve got your back, and here we present 15 mobile advertising terms you need to know.
A/B Testing
When someone encourages you to “A/B test” something, they’re usually referring to ads or landing pages. The idea behind A/B testing is to compare two variants to see which version performs better. A/B testing can provide good insight on what your target audience prefers, and it is most likely to click on.
Ad Network
An ad network is a company that connects advertisers like you to a website or an app publisher that wants to host advertisements, like CNN for example. There are hundreds of ad networks available to advertisers, and each presents its own unique variations. It is highly recommended that you work with several networks at the same time if your budget and human resources allow it. Otherwise, partner with an agency who can get the best ad placement through various ad networks for your bank.
Ad Exchange
An ad exchange is a digital marketplace that facilitates the buying and selling of mobile ad inventory through real-time bidding (RTB).
Ad Unit
This term is simply a fancy way of saying “your ad.”
Click Fraud
Click fraud is a type of internet crime. It happens when a computer program imitates an online user by clicking on the ads. This type of fraud mostly occurs in cost-per-click (CPC) campaigns.
Conversion
In mobile marketing, a conversion is when a mobile user clicks on your ad and becomes a paying customer.
DSP or Demand Side Platform
A DSP is a technology platform that provides centralized and aggregated media buying from multiple sources. This includes ad exchanges, ad networks, and sell-side platforms, often leveraging the real-time bidding capabilities of these sources.
Impression
Impressions are the number of times an ad is displayed.
Interstitial Ad
As you have previously read in other blog posts, you can display multiple sizes of ads on mobile and desktop. An interstitial ad is another fancy name that refers to a full-screen mobile ad unit. They usually appear before the destined mobile website, mobile app, or at a natural transition point such as between videos, levels in games, etc.
KPI
KPI stands for Key Performance Indicator, which is a specific business metric used to determine the effectiveness of a campaign. KPIs can be views, clicks, conversions, a low cost-per-click, a good click-through-rate, etc.
Retargeting
This is a marketing strategy that re-engages users with your brand. Users who have shown prior interest in your products or services are going to continue to see your ads over and over until — hopefully — a conversion occurs.
Rich Media
Rich media is any interactive ad format, like video, audio, or expandable banners, that encourages viewers to engage with the content.
RTB
RTB stands for Real-Time Bidding, which is the programmatic buying of advertising placements through auction pricing mechanisms that happen in real time.
Target Segment
A target segment is a specific group of people an advertiser wants to reach. This group of potential customers usually shares specific criteria like age, gender, interests, location, etc.
UDID or Unique Device Identifier
A UDID is a unique character string made up of 40 letters and numbers assigned permanently to each iOS device. UDID has many applications, the most important being the ability to identify each device and segregate users according to their demographics, activity within the App Store, etc. Moreover, some applications depend on UDID to operate, such as Apple’s native device syncing feature, which uses UDID to store and manage synced devices. UDIDs are also retrieved by developers for building apps that use user-related data, but this use is limited due to security and privacy concerns.
We’ll keep bringing you terms and acronyms to add to your mobile marketing dictionary, so stay tuned!
