Resources

Programmatic advertising glossary

Plain definitions for the terms publishers, advertisers, and demand partners use every day — pricing, the auction, measurement, privacy, and formats. The full code list is on all IAB categories.

Pricing & metrics

How programmatic ads are bought and measured

CPM (cost per mille)

Price per 1,000 ad impressions. Common for brand, video, and display campaigns where reach and viewability matter. Publishers report effective CPM as eCPM.

CPC (cost per click)

Advertisers pay when a user clicks the ad. Used for performance and traffic campaigns. Quality filters reduce invalid clicks before billing.

eCPM (effective CPM)

Revenue per 1,000 impressions after fill, timeouts, and format mix. Yield teams optimize floors and demand to raise eCPM without starving fill.

CPA, CPI & CPL

Cost per action, install, or lead. Conversion pixels and MMP postbacks confirm outcomes. Often layered on top of CPM or CPC delivery in the console.

Platforms & marketplaces

Who sits on each side of the auction

SSP (supply-side platform)

Software publishers use to sell ad inventory. An SSP connects to demand partners, applies floors and brand safety, and sends bid requests in real time. Amli Media SSP →

DSP (demand-side platform)

Software advertisers use to buy inventory across many publishers. DSPs bid in OpenRTB auctions, manage budgets, and target audiences. Amli Media DSP →

Ad network

A company that connects publisher inventory with advertiser demand, often across many sites and apps. Amli Media is an independent programmatic ad network founded in 2017 in Bengaluru.

Ad exchange

A marketplace where supply and demand meet in a real-time auction. Exchanges typically use OpenRTB. Amli Media runs a unified auction for display, native, video, audio, CTV, and DOOH.

Demand partner

Any buyer connected to your inventory — DSP seat, agency desk, or direct advertiser. Non-exclusive demand lets publishers keep other SSPs and wrappers.

PMP (private marketplace)

Invite-only deals between a publisher and selected buyers. Preferred deals and private auctions run alongside the open auction with publisher-approved demand. Deal types compared →

Protocols & integration

OpenRTB, Prebid, and tags

OpenRTB / ORTB

Industry standard for real-time bidding. Bid requests and responses are JSON over HTTP. Amli Media supports OpenRTB 2.5 and 2.6 for banner, native, and video. Integration docs → Live content signals →

RTB (real-time bidding)

Auction that completes in milliseconds per impression. Each ad slot can receive bids from many demand partners; the highest valid bid wins.

Prebid & header bidding

JavaScript wrapper (Prebid.js) or server (Prebid Server) that sends parallel bid requests before the ad server chooses a winner. Amli Media is available as a Prebid bidder.

Server-to-server (S2S)

Bid requests sent from the publisher ad server or exchange to demand, not from the user’s browser. Lower latency and cleaner logs at scale.

SPO (supply-path optimization)

Buyers prefer the shortest, most transparent path to inventory. schain and publisher IDs in OpenRTB let DSPs drop duplicate hops and favor direct supply. What is SPO? →

QPS (queries per second)

Volume of bid requests a DSP receives. Quality exchanges filter unsellable requests so demand partners spend QPS on impressions they can actually buy. Transaction IDs and duplicate requests →

Formats & channels

Display, video, CTV, and DOOH

Display ads

Standard IAB banner sizes, sticky units, and interstitials on web and in-app. Sold on CPM with viewability and frequency controls.

Native advertising

Units that match publisher layout — in-feed, recommendation widgets, and app native with asset-level bid responses in OpenRTB.

Video ads

Instream, outstream, rewarded, and skippable video. Delivered via VAST/VPAID. Common pricing: CPM with completion or viewability thresholds. Rewarded video → How viewability is counted →

VAST / VPAID

Video Ad Serving Template — XML standard for serving video creatives. VPAID adds interactive layers. Required for most programmatic video demand. Viewability vs completed view →

CTV (connected TV)

Streaming and living-room inventory on smart TVs and OTT apps. Podding, non-skippable slots, and household reach. Monetized via OpenRTB video objects. Live content signals →

DOOH (digital out-of-home)

Programmatic buying of digital billboards and venue screens. Geo, daypart, and audience data drive CPM campaigns in physical locations.

The auction

What happens between a page view and a paid impression

Ad impression

One chance to show an ad to a person. An impression is counted when the ad is served. A viewable impression is the smaller set that actually had a chance to be seen.

Bid request

The message an exchange sends to buyers describing one impression: site or app, size, device, floor, and category. In OpenRTB it is a JSON request. No request means no bid.

Bid response

The buyer’s answer: a price, a creative, and the advertiser domain. A response that arrives after the timeout is ignored, even if the price was high.

No-bid

A buyer chooses not to bid. Common reasons are price, brand safety, missing consent, a blocked category, or a creative that does not fit the slot.

Clearing price

The price the auction actually charges for the win. In a first-price auction it is the winning bid. In a second-price auction it is based on the next bid, plus any floor.

Bid floor

The minimum price the publisher will accept. Bids under the floor are dropped. A floor that is too high leaves the slot empty. How dynamic floors work →

Dynamic floor

A floor that changes by country, device, format, or recent bids instead of one number for the whole site. The aim is total revenue, not the highest CPM on the impressions that still sell.

First-price auction

The winner pays what they bid. Buyers often shade bids down so they do not overpay. Most open programmatic display now clears this way. First price and bid shading →

Second-price auction

The winner pays just enough to beat the next bid, not their full bid. It used to be the default. Many exchanges still support it for specific deals.

Bid shading

A buyer bidding less than their true value in a first-price auction, based on what they think it takes to win. Shading that is too aggressive loses the impression.

Waterfall

Calling demand one partner at a time, in a fixed order, and stopping at the first acceptable ad. It is simpler than an auction and usually earns less, because later buyers never see the impression.

Header bidding

Asking many buyers to bid at the same time, before the ad server picks a winner, so a direct campaign is not the only one that gets a look. Prebid is the common way to do it. Prebid →

Auction timeout

How long the page or server waits for bids. A longer wait can collect more bids. A shorter wait keeps the page fast and drops slow buyers. Prebid timeouts →

Win notice, billing notice, loss notice

OpenRTB URLs called nurl, burl, and lurl. The win notice says who won. The billing notice is what should add spend. The loss notice tells a buyer why they lost. When a win actually bills →

Seat

A buyer’s account inside a DSP or exchange. One DSP can have many seats, for different agencies or advertisers, each with its own budget and blocklist.

Measurement

Numbers publishers and buyers actually argue about

Viewability

Whether an ad had a real chance to be seen. For display, the usual bar is at least half the pixels on screen for one continuous second. A viewable ad is not the same as an ad someone engaged with. How video viewability is counted →

Fill rate

The share of ad opportunities that received an ad. Always check the denominator. A high fill rate on low-priced impressions can still mean less money than a lower fill rate at a better price.

CTR (click-through rate)

Clicks divided by impressions. Useful for traffic campaigns. A high CTR on a tiny placement, or on accidental mobile taps, is not the same as real interest.

VCR (video completion rate)

The share of video ads that played to the end. Buyers use it to judge whether a placement is skipped or watched. It is not the same as viewability.

RPM and page RPM

Revenue per 1,000 impressions, or per 1,000 page views. Page RPM is the better check when someone adds more ads: impressions can rise while the page earns less per visit.

vCPM, CPCV, and oCPM

vCPM is cost per thousand viewable impressions. CPCV is cost per completed view. oCPM is an optimized CPM, where the buyer bids toward a goal such as a conversion rather than a flat price.

Frequency cap

A limit on how often one person sees the same ad or campaign. Caps protect the audience. Caps that are too tight also throw away demand that would have paid. Frequency across channels →

Attribution

The rule for deciding which ad gets credit for a sale, install, or visit. Last click, view-through, and modeled credit can disagree. The pixel or MMP has to match the rule in the contract. Cross-channel attribution and measurement →

ROAS

Return on ad spend: revenue attributed to the ads divided by the media cost. A publisher does not set ROAS. Buyers use it to decide which inventory is worth bidding on again.

Discrepancy

The gap between what the publisher counted and what the buyer or SSP counted. Causes include timeouts, filtered invalid traffic, time zones, and different impression definitions.

Net revenue

What the publisher keeps after revenue share, fees, and invalid-traffic deductions. A higher gross CPM can still pay less once those costs are taken out.

Make-good

Extra impressions or a credit given when a campaign under-delivered or ran in the wrong place. Make-goods cost inventory. They should be counted before a deal is called profitable.

Trust and the supply path

How a buyer decides the impression is real

ads.txt

A small file on the publisher’s site listing who is allowed to sell its inventory. Buyers drop requests from sellers that are not on the list. ads.txt, sellers.json, and schain →

app-ads.txt

The same idea as ads.txt, for mobile apps. The file lives on the developer’s website, which is listed in the app store, not inside the app itself.

sellers.json

A file an exchange publishes naming the publishers and intermediaries it pays. Buyers use it to see whether a seller is the publisher or a reseller.

schain (supply chain)

The ordered list of companies that handled one bid request, from the publisher toward the buyer. A long or incomplete chain is a common reason a DSP does not bid.

IVT (invalid traffic)

Impressions that are not a real person choosing to see an ad: bots, data-center traffic, hidden ads, or incentivized junk. General IVT is obvious automation. Sophisticated IVT is built to look human.

Brand safety

Keeping an ad off content that would harm the brand, such as violence, hate, or illegal material. It is a block. It is not the same as wanting a specific topic.

Brand suitability

A tighter choice than brand safety. The content is allowed in general, but this advertiser does not want it. A news brand and a family brand will not share one blocklist.

Blocklist and allowlist

A blocklist names categories, domains, or apps that must not run. An allowlist names the only ones that may run. Allowlists are safer and much smaller.

IAB categories

The standard topic codes for a page or app, from IAB1 to IAB26. Buyers target or block them. OpenRTB sends the codes in cat and blocked codes in bcat. All IAB categories →

Ad server

The system that decides which creative runs in a placement and counts the result. Publishers use one to traffic direct campaigns. Advertisers use one to host the creative and the pixel.

Passback

A tag that runs when the first demand source does not fill. Passbacks can rescue an empty slot. A chain of them also adds latency and can show a worse ad later.

Ad refresh

Loading a new ad in the same slot after a set time, or when the slot returns to the screen. Refresh creates more impressions. Refresh that is too fast is often discounted or blocked.

Privacy and identity

What a bid request is allowed to say about a person

First-party data

Information the publisher collected on its own site or app, such as a logged-in reader or a section someone visits often. It is useful only when the publisher has a lawful basis and honors the person’s choices.

Contextual targeting

Matching an ad to the subject of the page, not to a profile of the person. An article about phones can take a phone ad without a cookie. Accurate categories make this work.

CMP (consent management platform)

The tool that asks a person for permission and stores the answer. If the CMP is slow, the auction starts late. If the answer is missing, many buyers will not bid.

TCF (Transparency and Consent Framework)

The IAB Europe standard for recording consent as a string that can travel inside a bid request. The string has to match the vendors who will actually use the data. Consent strings in OpenRTB →

GPP (Global Privacy Platform)

A single way to carry privacy signals for more than one law, including US state strings and TCF. Buyers read the section that applies to the impression’s region.

COPPA

The US rule for sites and apps directed at children under 13. Those impressions should not be used for behavioral targeting or interest profiles. India’s DPDP Act uses 18, not 13.

MAID (mobile advertising ID)

The resettable advertising identifier on a phone. iOS calls it IDFA. Android calls it GAID. If the person has limited ad tracking, the ID is zeros or missing, and many app campaigns will not bid.

SKAdNetwork

Apple’s way for an ad network to learn that an install happened without receiving the person’s IDFA. Postbacks are delayed and limited. CPI buyers treat it as a different measurement system, not a broken one.

Deals

Open auction, private deals, and direct sold

Open auction

Any eligible buyer can bid. It is the default programmatic path. Access is wide, and prices move with demand. Deal types compared →

Preferred deal

A buyer is offered the impression at an agreed price before, or instead of, the open auction. The buyer can still say no. It is a first look, not a guarantee of spend.

Programmatic guaranteed

A reserved number of impressions sold to one buyer at a fixed price, delivered through programmatic pipes. The publisher owes the volume. The buyer owes the budget.

Deal ID

The code that ties a bid request to a private or guaranteed deal. If the ID is missing or mistyped, the buyer’s deal bid never matches and the impression falls through to the open auction.

Insertion order (IO)

The contract for a direct campaign: budget, dates, sizes, targeting, and how delivery will be counted. The ad server then traffics the line items that fulfill it.

Direct sold

Inventory the publisher’s own sales team sold to an advertiser. It often has priority over the open auction. It is only better if the net rate beats what programmatic would have paid.

Remnant

Impressions not taken by direct campaigns. They are usually sold in the open auction. “Remnant” describes what is left, not a lower-quality audience by itself.

House ad

An ad the publisher runs for itself when no paying ad is available. It fills the slot. It does not earn. A high house-ad rate means demand or floors need a look.

Sponsorship

A direct package built around a section, newsletter, or show, not a single leftover impression. It can pay more because the advertiser is buying context and a promise, not a spot price.

Placements and delivery

Where the ad sits, and how it gets there

Placement (ad unit)

One specific slot: the size, the page template, and the position. Two units on the same article can have very different prices. Report them separately.

Above the fold

The part of the page visible before the person scrolls. It tends to be more viewable. It is also where a heavy ad does the most damage to load time.

Interstitial

A full-screen ad between pages, levels, or articles. It earns more when it is expected. Surprise interstitials are a common cause of people leaving.

Rewarded ad

A video or playable the person chooses to watch in exchange for something in an app, such as coins or an extra life. Opt-in is the point. Rewarded video →

Sticky ad

A unit that stays on screen while the person scrolls, often at the bottom on mobile. It can raise viewability. It can also cover the content if it is too tall.

Pre-roll, mid-roll, post-roll

A video ad before the content, during a break, or after it ends. Pre-roll is the most common. Mid-roll works when the break matches how people already watch.

Outstream

Video that plays in a page or feed without a video player already there. Instream plays inside a player the person came to watch. Buyers price them differently.

Ad pod

A sequence of video ads in one break, like a TV pod. OpenRTB 2.6 can describe the structure so buyers know the position and the length. Ad pods →

SSAI (server-side ad insertion)

Stitching the ad into the video stream on the server, which is common on connected TV. The TV plays one stream. Measurement is different from an ad the app plays itself. SSAI vs client-side →

MRAID

The mobile rich-media standard that lets an in-app creative ask the app to expand, resize, or close. Without it, an expandable mobile ad often fails.

OM SDK (Open Measurement)

The IAB Tech Lab kit that lets a third party measure viewability and verification inside an app. Buyers trust in-app viewability more when OM SDK is present.

Mediation

A layer in an app that decides which network or bidder serves the ad. It can run as a waterfall or as a unified auction. The SDK that mediates still has to be fast.

SDK

Code the app developer installs so an ad network can request, show, and measure ads. Each extra SDK adds size, startup time, and another party that can see the device.

In-app

Ads inside a mobile application, as opposed to a mobile website. The integration is an SDK or a server-side bid, and the identifier is usually a mobile advertising ID, not a browser cookie.

OTT and FAST

OTT is video delivered over the internet to a TV or streaming device. FAST is a free, ad-supported streaming channel. Both are usually bought as connected-TV inventory.

Creative

The ad itself: the image, video, or HTML. A bid can win and still not display if the creative is the wrong size, too heavy, or blocked by the publisher’s quality rules.

Pixel and postback

A pixel is a small request that records a view, click, or conversion in a browser. A postback is the same idea from an app or a measurement partner’s server, often used for installs.

MMP (mobile measurement partner)

The company an app advertiser uses to decide which click or view gets credit for an install. CPI campaigns depend on the MMP. If the postback is late, the exchange and the buyer will disagree.

Dayparting

Running or bidding only at certain hours or days. A commute campaign and an evening streaming campaign should not share one schedule.

Geo targeting

Limiting delivery by country, region, or city. The bid request’s location has to be good enough for the buyer’s rule. A country code is not the same as a precise GPS point.

Retargeting

Showing ads to people who already visited or bought. It needs an identifier the buyer is allowed to use. Without that permission, the campaign should not run.

Walled garden

A platform that keeps its inventory, data, and measurement inside its own walls. Buyers cannot treat it like open-web inventory, and publishers on the open web cannot see its auction.

Open web

Sites and apps that sell through the open programmatic market, rather than only inside one platform. Transparency files such as ads.txt exist so buyers can see who is selling that inventory.

White-label ad platform

Auction and ad-serving software a company runs under its own name. The technology can be shared. The publisher relationship and the auction rules stay with the company that sells them. Amli Media products →

Use Amli Media in your stack

Whether you monetize as a publisher, buy as a demand partner, or license white-label infrastructure, the same auction core supports OpenRTB, Prebid, and JS tags.

Publisher SSP — web, app, gaming, and CTV supply in India and globally
Advertiser & DSP demand — CPM, CPC, video, and app install campaigns
OpenRTB & Prebid integrations — ORTB monetization endpoints and adapter setup
Products — SSP, DSP, and white-label ad platform

FAQ

What is programmatic advertising?

Programmatic advertising is automated buying and selling of digital ad inventory in real time. Publishers offer impressions; advertisers or DSPs bid through an ad exchange or SSP using standards like OpenRTB.

What is the difference between an ad network and an ad exchange?

An ad network aggregates inventory and resells it. An ad exchange runs an open auction where many buyers bid on each impression. Amli Media operates as both for publishers and demand partners.

What is OpenRTB (ORTB) monetization?

OpenRTB monetization means publishers send bid requests to demand buyers over the OpenRTB protocol. Amli Media supports 2.5 and 2.6 for banner, native, and video.

What is a demand partner?

A demand partner is a buyer of ad inventory — a DSP, trading desk, or direct advertiser on OpenRTB, S2S, or tags. Amli Media connects demand for app, gaming, and CTV supply worldwide.