The Internet Advertising Guide
We've provided some very basic information on Advertising on the Internet. We start with a glossary of Internet Advertising Terms. Later we hope to add more information. Our glossary....
Glossary of Internet Advertising Terms
There are some terms you need to be familiar with if you're going to work with advertising on the Internet. These relate to the pricing of advertising on websites/webpages.
- Impressions
- CPM - Cost per Thousand (Impressions)
- CPC - Cost per Click
- CTR - Click through rate
- Run-of-Site
- Run-of-Category
- Run-of-Network
An impression is counted every time the advertisement is shown to a user. When a user requests a web page and the advertisement is sent with that page then that is counted as one impression. If the user moves away and comes back to the page in a few seconds and they were given the same advertisement then that would be counted as two impressions.
This is the cost per thousand impressions. That is very every 1,000 times your advertisement is shown to a user, they charge this rate. This typically varies from $15.00 to $45.00 CPM. That is for every 1000 times your advertisement is shown you would pay (for example) $15.00. There is usually a cap of some sort that you arrange with the website - either a total cap, or a cap per time period with an overall cap. Such as an absolute cap of $500.00 or cap of $100 per month for six months might be another one that stretches your advertising over a period of time with a limit on the charges. Be careful, if you are advertising on a high hit site then you will only get a small amount of "time" that your ad is shown. It still will be shown to the same amount of users. The difference comes if you are doing an "advertising" campaign or a "marketing" campaign.
This is the cost charged to an advertiser every time their ad is "clicked" on. That is every time a user clicks on the ad, which then normally sends the user to the advertiser's website. This is tracked by the website through software and reported back to the advertiser in an invoice. Sites such as Google Adwords and Yahoo's pages are typically done this way. You only pay for people clicking on the ad and going to your website. Of course there is not guarantee they will actually purchase anything from your site.
The click through rate (CTR) is the rate of hits (viewers to a page) versus clicks for ads. The website calcualtes this by looking at the hits statistics and dividing that by their advertising clicks. This supposedly gives a ratio of that site's customers who click on ads versus just looking at the web page. This rate is useful in determining their advertising rates. As a customer this can also tell you a little information on their market. If you are paying a monthly charge or CPC charge, you can estimate how many clicks you may be getting and the "value" of advertising and cost of advertising for each click on this website.
Run-Of-Site, Run-of-Network and Run-of-Category
These terms refer to the placement of your advertisement on the hosting sites systems. In each of them typically the hosting company sets the placement of your ad instead of you. This is typically a trade-off for a reduced advertising cost.
- Run-Of-Site sets your ad on one particular site - but can be on any page within that site. Many sites of course will put these ads on the lesser viewed pages as they are typically charging you a lower rate.
- Run-Of-Network sets your ad on a groups of sites managed by the site company. This is a large company that owns many sites and may sell you advertising space where your ad may appear in any of the websites they manage.
- Run-Of-Category sets your ad on websites managed by the site company that fit a particular category. For example, a magazine publisher may have many different sites, but you want your ad to only appear on sites related to gardening. This would be a Run-Of-Category.
In each case make sure you're speaking the same language with the people your are placing your ads with. A little confusion can go a long way and be expensive!.
