Above the Fold: In reference to ad placement in traditional media, such as newspapers, this defines the top half of a page. On the web, this portion of the page is viewed without scrolling.

Ad (Advertisement): Digital creative that is typically interactive. Banners, buttons, interstitials and key words are all examples of online advertisements. The digital creative can be text, static graphic, animated graphic, video, audio or other.

Ad Network: Historically, an organization charged with the representation of advertising space for a group of Webster for the purpose of maximizing revenue and minimizing administrative costs through aggregation. The role of an Internet advertising network is to transact, serve, track and report the distribution of creative from advertisers to publishers using an efficient, interactive marketplace.

Ad Product - A specific advertising opportunity on a website. Example: banners, jump pages, pop-ups, splash pages and tickers.

Ad Rotation: Different ads and different ad sources are often rotated in the same space on a web page. Ad rotation can be static (one ad per page view) or dynamic (more than one ad per page view cycled based on elapsed display time). This is usually done automatically by software on the web site such as . This function is related to, but different from ad serving provided by a network.

Ad server: Name for the organization, hardware, and software that deliver advertising creative to the user’s browser. The ad server typically is responsible for selecting the appropriate ad to serve by frequency control and targeting. The ad server also performs a variety of other administrative tasks including real time reporting of impressions, clicks, uniques, and more.

Ad Space: The space on a web page reserved to display advertising.

Audit Bureau of Verification Services (ABVS): The interactive auditing unit of the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC).

Advertiser: Any individual or entity purchasing online advertising space including agency media buyers, OEM media buyers, and sole proprietors.    

Affinity Marketing: Marketing efforts aimed at consumers on the basis of established buying patterns.

Agency: An organization beholden with the responsibility to design, produce and manage the advertising for its customers. Agencies that handle digital creative and online campaigns are typical called interactive agencies. Many agencies handle both interactive and traditional media.

Affiliate: Typical term for a web site that drives traffic to another web site in exchange for a percent of sales from users driven to the site.

Alias: A URL that points to another web site. Many web sites use aliases to differentiate traffic. 

Alternate text: Text that appears while a banner is loading or when a cursor moves over a banner. 

Animated GIF: The combination of multiple GIF images in one file to create animation. The multiple images, displayed one after another, give the appearance of movement. Studies show that animated banners are more effective than static banners. They generate higher ad awareness and recall, and click-throughs.

Application Service Provider (ASP): Entities that manage and distribute services and solutions to customers across a wide area network from a central data center. Internet advertising networks are sometimes referred to as ASPs.

Applet: A small application served along with or instead of an image file for the purpose of executing a specific animation, visual or audio sequence. Some creatives are served using a Java applet. Applets are typically intended to provide an enhanced web user experience.