Banner Definitions

Impression: Measurement of banner display frequency. Each time a banner is shown, count one impression.

Hit: Measurement of web site traffic. Each time a browser request is made from a web server counts as one hit. For instance: when a page containing five images is loaded, six hits are counted … one for each image and one for the page. Counting hits is not an accurate way to quantify web site traffic. Count page views instead.

Page View: Measurement of web page (HTML document) display frequency. Each time a page is displayed, count one page view.

CTR: Click-Through Ratio. A rating method for determining banner effectiveness. A ratio of the number of times a banner is shown to the number of times it is actually clicked and the link followed.

CPM: Cost Per Mille, or cost per thousand impressions. A pricing method for banner ads. For instance, if an advertiser states they have a CPM of $25, they would show your banner on their site 1,000 times (impressions) for $25.

IAB: Internet Advertising Bureau. An international association devoted exclusively to maximizing the use and effectiveness of advertising on the Internet.

File Formats: Standard file formats for banner ads are GIF,GIF89 or JPEG. Though some sites allow interactive formats (like JavaScript, DHTML, CGI scripting, Shockwave, Flash or streaming media such as RealAudio), remember that you'll still need a standard-format backup for older or non-enabled browsers.

Looping: In animated banners, one loop is a complete cycle of all the frames. A "endless looping" banner plays through the cycle and repeats continuously. A banner can be "looped" to play through as many cycles as desired, then stop. Some advertisers require "no looping", in which case the banner must play through the animation cycle once, then stop on the last frame.

Resizing: Shrinking a banner to a smaller size. We use an automatic proportional resize process that only works well if going from larger to smaller. If you need a resize larger than the original or of different proportions, it must be repurposed.

Repurposing: Rebuilding an existing banner design to other dimensions.