The ad serving terms people pretend they already know.

Ad pod

A sequence of ads played back-to-back in one break.

Ad request

A call to the ad server asking for an ad, filled or not.

Ad server

The system that decides which creative to return for an ad request and records what happened.

App bundle spoofing

Misrepresenting which app an ad request came from.

Attribution

Connecting an exposure to a later outcome.

Bot traffic

Automated requests pretending to be user impressions.

Cache busting

A random value in an ad request that stops proxies serving a cached response.

Competitive separation

Rules that keep rival brands out of the same break or page.

Completion rate (VTR)

The share of video impressions watched to the end.

Conversion tracking

Recording post-click or post-view actions on your own properties.

CTV

Connected TV — televisions and devices that stream video over the internet.

Datacenter traffic

Ad requests originating from hosting providers rather than consumer networks.

Discrepancy

The gap between two systems' counts of the same delivery.

DOOH

Digital out-of-home — advertising on digital screens in public places.

Fill rate

The share of ad requests that return an ad.

Frequency cap

A limit on how many times one user or household sees a campaign.

IFA / device ID

The resettable advertising identifier a device passes to ad requests.

Impression

One counted delivery of an ad.

Impression multiplier

The factor that converts one DOOH play into audience impressions.

In-app inventory

Ad slots inside mobile applications rather than mobile web pages.

Interactive CTA

An in-ad action layer such as call, map, form, WhatsApp or add-to-cart.

IVT

Invalid traffic — ad requests not generated by a genuine human user.

Macro

A placeholder in a tag that the calling platform replaces at request time.

MRAID

Mobile Rich Media Ad Interface Definitions — the in-app rich media standard.

OMID

Open Measurement Interface Definition — a standard for third-party viewability measurement.

OTT

Over-the-top — video delivered over the internet outside traditional pay TV.

Pacing

Spreading delivery evenly across a flight rather than front-loading it.

Playable ad

A short interactive demo of an app or product inside the ad slot.

QPS

Queries per second — the request throughput a platform will accept.

QR CTA

A scannable code that moves a viewer from a screen to their phone.

Quartiles

Progress checkpoints at 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% of a video.

Rewarded video

Opt-in video the user watches in exchange for an in-app reward.

Rich media

Ads with interaction beyond a static image and a click.

SDK spoofing

Fabricating ad requests and install signals that look like they came from a real SDK.

Shoppable ad

A creative with product browsing and cart actions built in.

SSAI

Server-side ad insertion — ads stitched into the content stream before it reaches the device.

Trafficking

Setting a campaign live: creatives, placements, targeting, dates and tags.

VAST

Video Ad Serving Template — the IAB XML standard for delivering video ads to players.

Viewability

Whether an ad had a real chance to be seen.

VMAP

Video Multiple Ad Playlist — describes where ad breaks sit in a video.

VPAID

An older interface for interactive video creatives.

White label

Running a platform under your own brand and domain.