The Trade Desk glossary

Here you can find industry terms as well as words unique to The Trade Desk—all in one place.

TIP: Want to share a link to a specific term? Click into the address bar and, at the end of the URL, type # followed by the term (all lowercase and with hyphens (-) between separate words). For example, to get a link to Mobile OTT, type #mobile-ott and copy the Mobile ott link for sharing.

A

A2CR: The A2CR (ads-to-content ratio) is the average of metrics that measure the percentage of pixels allocated to ads compared to those dedicated to content on a webpage. Sincera evaluates both the dimensions of the creatives and the ad slots, using the larger of the two values to calculate the A2CR. The value returned is an percentage. For example, 0.2 is 20%.
Access token: A term used by OpenPass. An access token is a value returned by the authorization server, after authenticating the user, as part of the Open ID connect protocol.; OpenPass does not use the access token.
Accompanying content: Accompanying Content includes pre-roll, mid-roll, and post-roll ads that are played before, during, or after streaming video content. The video player loads and plays before, between, or after paragraphs of text or graphical content, and starts playing only when it enters the viewport. Accompanying content should start playback only upon entering the viewport. It may convert to a floating or sticky player as it scrolls off the page.
Acquisition: Acquisition refers to the gain or addition of new visitors to a website. You can use acquisition reports to determine where website traffic is coming from and to better understand your targeting campaigns.
ACR: ACR, or automatic content recognition, is a technology used to identify content played on a media device or present within a media file. For example, if you use a smart TV, its ACR technology tracks what you watch.
Active IDs: Active IDs are a representation of known active users from all the IDs that are received by The Trade Desk within a data segment. Knowing the number of active IDs can help you approximate scale and reach. Active IDs are counted when the device or browser appears in bidding within the last seven days. See also Unique ID counting methodologies.
Activity: Activity is the history of changes made. This history shows both the changes you make and the changes Koa makes. Activity insights highlight the impact each change has on spend and performance.
Ad agency: An ad agency is a business that manages advertising and marketing. Ad agencies create, plan, execute, and analyze the results of ad campaigns.
Ad environment: An ad environment is a browsing environment in which various types of ads can be served. Ad environments include web, mobile-optimized web, and in-app environments. You can target and optimize ads served based on ad environment.
Ad exchange: An ad exchange is a service that connects publishers, advertisers, and DSPs and conducts an auction among bidders per impression.
Ad format: Ad format refers to the size (width x height) of an ad measured in pixels. For example, a creative's ad format could be 728x90, 300x250, 160x600, and so on.
Ad fraud: Ad fraud is the practice of falsifying various aspects of ad serving for financial gain. Ad fraud can include search ad fraud and click ad fraud.
Ad group: An ad group is a strategy that falls within a particular campaign and enables you to assemble targeting strategies to specify when, where, and how to serve ads. You can manage budgets, goals, creatives, site lists, inventory, and viewability, as well as targeting options for audiences, devices, locations, languages, times of day, and video adjustments across ad groups.
Ad inventory: Ad inventory refers to the amount and types of ad space that publishers offer to advertisers for purchase. Ad inventory is typically defined by size, format, location, and available impressions.
Ad load: The ad load represents the total number of advertisements shown by the seller at a given moment.
Ad network: An ad network is a company that connects advertisers with publishers by matching a supply of ad inventory with a demand for ad placement.
Ad plays: Ad plays is a metric that refers to the number of ad opportunities you have won for the campaign.
Ad refresh: The ad refresh rate (ad refresh) measures how quickly ad placements reload during an active user session.
Ad tech: Ad tech, or advertising technology, is any digital tool, software, or service that is used to help advertisers manage and analyze their ad campaigns.
Ad verification: Ad verification is a service or system that verifies whether a campaign has been carried out as you intended. Ad verification technology ensures that ads are appearing on the correct websites and are reaching the intended audience and is useful for ensuring that maximum impact is gained from each ad impression.
Addressable TV: Addressable TV is a household targeting strategy that enables you to serve different ads to different households, even if those households are watching the same TV program.
ads.txt: ads.txt is a text file introduced by the IAB that participating publishers attach to their websites. ads.txt stands for authorized digital sellers and enables publishers to create a public record of authorized sellers of their inventory. Having these files helps prevent ad fraud and provides buyers with transparency.
Adtech: Adtech, or advertising technology, refers to any digital tool, software, or service that is used to help advertisers manage and analyze their ad campaigns.
Advanced TV: Advanced TV refers to all the ways you can serve ads to your TV-viewing audience, ranging from streaming services to addressable TV. You can access advanced TV across CTV and OTT devices.
Advertiser: An advertiser is a company, group, or brand that buys ad space online in order to sell products or services to a target audience.
Advertiser CPM: Advertiser CPM is a measurement of the advertiser cost per 1000 user impressions, normalized to value at a single user level. Advertiser CPM was formerly called Normalized Advertiser CPM. See also CPM.
Advertising token: A Unified ID 2.0 (UID2) term. The advertising token (UID2 token) is an opaque and encrypted value that can be used for the purpose of targeted advertising but cannot be traced back to the original value.
AI-powered: AI-powered describes tools and systems that use artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate tasks.
Allowlist: An allowlist is a list of websites that an advertiser has deemed acceptable to display ads on. An allowlist can be used to maintain brand safety and efficiently target the right demographic.
Angel investor: An angel investor is a high-net-worth individual who provides financial backing for small startups or entrepreneurs, typically in exchange for ownership equity in the company.
API: An API, or application programming interface, is a set of access points and tools that enable developers to build custom workflows and applications that can access certain features and data in The Trade Desk platform.
ARP: Audience Reach Percentage, or ARP, is a metric used to evaluate the percentage of the target audience that has potentially been exposed to a digital out-of-home (DOOH) advertisement. It is calculated by dividing the number of target mobile devices or the number of mobile ad IDs that are members of your target audience segment around a DOOH screen by the total number of devices around a DOOH screen.
Aspect ratio: Aspect ratio is the ratio of the width of a video creative to its height. Common aspect ratios include 4:3, 5:2, and 16:9.
ATF: ATF, or above the fold, is a term that comes from newspaper advertiser, where it refers to the top half of the page. In the adtech world, ATF refers to the portion of a website that is visible in a web browser when the page first loads, before any scrolling occurs. As a larger number of viewers see ATF content, ads featured in this space are considered premium and higher prices are charged. Content reached after scrolling is referred to as "below the fold."
Attribution: Attribution is the process of determining credit for a conversion, or desired action that a customer has taken. This process includes identifying the steps a user takes before converting, placing value on each step, and assigning credit to either a single step or to multiple steps, depending on your preference. Tracking attribution helps you better understand what drives customers toward conversion.
Attribution window: An attribution window is the period of time after a click or impression occurs that a conversion is tracked for credit to the click or impression.
Auction: An auction is an online marketplace where advertisers place real-time bids to buy publishers' ad inventory.
Audience: An audience is a specific person or group of people that you want to reach with a campaign. Audiences are made up of included and excluded data groups. Data groups are made up of data elements (first-party data segments or third-party data segments). When you add multiple elements to a data group, you grow the audience. When you add multiple data groups to an audience, you shrink the audience.
Audience Accelerator: Audience Accelerator is a data solution that aggregates TV ad exposure and viewership data from a multitude of partners, including MVPDs and OTT providers. With Audience Accelerator, you can leverage this data to inform your programmatic strategies, focusing spend on expanding reach to net new households and maximizing audience penetration.
Audience-based buying: Audience-based buying is a buying philosophy that looks to understand the traits and behaviors of the people that successfully move through each stage of the funnel in each unique channel, so you can find the most value for your money with every impression—not just the last one.
Audience Booster: Audience Booster is a performance-enhancing feature that automatically optimizes your campaign audiences. When you turn on Audience Booster for an ad group, Koa adds high-performing segments to your audiences, so ads are served to the audiences who are most likely to convert.
Audience Excluder: Audience Excluder (also known as Prism) is a performance-enhancing feature that enables Koa to use lookalike model data to create and continuously update an audience of users who are least likely to convert, and remove them from your audience. This feature is highly recommended for conversion-based campaigns and for contextual strategies.
Audience Predictor: Audience Predictor is a performance-enhancing feature that enables Koa to use lookalike model data to create and continuously update an audience of users who are most likely to convert, and target them in your audience.
Audience Unlimited: Audience Unlimited is a campaign-level data segment solution that gives you unlimited access to thousands of The Trade Desk and third-party data segments for an annual fee, helping you build audiences, improve relevance, and reduce data costs.
Audio: Audio refers to the digital streaming of audio content, such as music, talk shows, and podcasts, through platforms like Spotify and Pandora.
Audio advertising: Audio advertising refers to the process of inserting ads into audio content.
Authorization code: A term used by OpenPass. In OAuth 2.0, with the Authorization Code grant type, the resource owner (the consumer, app user, or site user) is redirected to the authorization server and gives authorization for the client (the site or app) to access the resource. The authorization server then redirects the consumer back to the client with an authorization code. The client presents this authorization code, along with its own authentication credentials, back to the authorization server, requesting an access token. The client then uses the access token to call the service on behalf of the resource owner.; In the context of OpenPass, the authorization server is the OpenPass server, the client is the publisher, the resource owner is the consumer, and the protected resource is the publisher's content.
Authorization server: A term used by OpenPass. In OAuth 2.0, the authorization server is the server that authenticates the resource owner (consumer), gets the consumer's authorization, and then issues a token to the client. The token allows the consumer to access the protected resource by means of the client.; In the context of OpenPass, the authorization server is the OpenPass server, the client is the publisher, the resource owner is the consumer, the token is the ID token, and the protected resource is the publisher's content.
AutoAllocator: AutoAllocator is a budget-optimization feature that helps reduce the time and effort it takes to manage spend. You can enable AutoAllocator with either automatic prioritization or manual prioritization. With automatic prioritization, you empower Koa to continually prioritize your ad groups based on performance and direct spend to better-performing ad groups first, before assigning any remaining budget to lower performing groups. With manual prioritization, you regulate how your ad groups are prioritized, and thus how your spend is allocated.
Available impressions: Available impressions, or avails, are the ad opportunities that are open to The Trade Desk to bid on.
Average rating: Average rating is the percentage of people viewing a program compared to the total population of TV viewers.
AVOC: AVOC, or audible and visible on complete, is the percentage of impressions where an ad was served to a human and was both visible and audible throughout its entirety.
AVOD: AVOD, or advertising-supported video on-demand, refers to video content services like YouTube and Hulu that show ads in order to offer content for free or for a reduced subscription fee.
Awareness: Awareness refers to how familiar customers are with a brand.
Awareness campaign: An awareness campaign is an ad campaign that works to increase brand visibility and recognition by educating potential customers on the existence of a brand.

B

Base bid

The base bid is the starting bid for an impression before bid adjustments from private contracts, bid lists, and optimizations. By setting a higher base bid for a valuable segment, you indicate a willingness to pay more for those impressions, improving your chances of winning them.

Bid prices are always entered as CPM, so a $2 base bid is .02c ($0.002) per impression.

Your base bid is multiplied by your bid factors. So, for example, if your base bid is $2 and bid factors for a given impression add up to 3x, your bid on that impression is $6. Regardless of your applied bid factors, you will never bid more than your max bid.

Base bid CPM

Bid prices are always entered as CPM, so a $2 base bid is 0.02c ($0.002) per impression.

When we send a bid response, it contains the bid price expressed as CPM, so we send a bid of $2 but transact at $0.002 for the impression if the bid wins.

In summary, base bid CPM sets the starting point for bidding, and bid factor adjusts that bid to reflect the value of each impression. They work together to optimize campaign performance and budget allocation.

Basic Authorization header

A term used by OpenPass. In Open ID connect, requests to the token endpoint should include the HTTP Basic Authorization header, which allows the OpenPass server to authenticate the identity of the client. The value of this header is constructed from the Client ID and Client Secret values, with a colon separator, Base64-encoded.

For details, see Client Sends Code in the OpenID Connect specification. For an example, see Authorization in the Examples section (Mozilla documentation).

Bearer token

A term used by OpenPass. In OAuth 2.0, a bearer token is a security token issued by the authorization server after authenticating the user. Any entity in possession of the bearer token can use it to access the protected resource.

In the context of OpenPass, the token returned by the OpenPass authorization server, after authentication of the user, is a bearer token in JWT format. OpenPass includes an extra optional layer of security, Proof key for code exchange (PKCE), to help prevent malicious interception of the bearer token.

For details, see The OAuth 2.0 Authorization Framework: Bearer Token Usage.

Behavioral targeting

Behavioral targeting is the practice of using browsing history to determine which ads would be relevant to individual users, and thus which ads to present them with on a particular website.

Bid

A bid is an offer you make in an auction to pay for an impression. It can also refer to the final price of an offer you make as well as the number of offers you make.

Bid factor

A bid factor is a multiplier that you apply to your base bid to increase or decrease the bid sent out in an ad exchange.

Bid factor techniques ensure that your bids are automatically adjusted based on individual customers' characteristics, such as device type, location, demographic, or audience segment.

The base bid CPM and the bid factor work together to determine the final bid. The final bid submitted in an ad auction is calculated by multiplying the base bid CPM by one or more applicable bid factors:

Final bid = base bid CPM × bid factor.

Here are some scenarios:

If the bid factor is 1, the final bid equals the base bid.
If the bid factor is greater than 1 (for example, 1.5), the final bid is increased (for example, for more valuable impressions).
If the bid factor is less than 1 (for example, 0.5), the final bid is decreased (for example, for less valuable impressions).
If the bid factor is 0, no bid is placed for that impression.

Example:
  Base bid CPM = $2.00
  Bid factor for a high-value user segment = 1.25
  Final bid = $2.00 × 1.25 = $2.50

Bid list

A bid list is a collection of bid lines that all use the same dimensions. A bid list is used to target, block, or apply optimizations to adjust an ad group's base bid.

Bid request

A bid request is a signal that an SSP sends to a DSP that enables the DSP to purchase ad inventory. In a bid request, the SSP indicates that they have an impression for sale and provides details about that impression.

Bid response

A bid response is a signal that a DSP sends to an SSP in response to a bid request. In a bid response, the DSP indicates a price and, potentially, creative specifications.

Blue List

The Blue List is a private, self-curated list that an agency manages and uses to decide which sellers and publishers to buy inventory from. Blue list features are available only to a limited number of The Trade Desk advertisers.

Blocklist

A blocklist is a list of websites that you do not want your ads to appear on.

Brand lift

Brand lift studies measure the impact of ad campaigns on driving key branding metrics by asking survey questions to gauge awareness, consideration, recommendation, purchase intent, and brand favorability.

Brand safety

Brand safety refers to practices that work to protect a brand's image by preventing ads from appearing on websites or in contexts that do not align with the brand’s standards. Websites may be blocked for containing hateful content, encouraging illegal activity, or for reasons specific to a particular brand.

Broadcast TV

Broadcast TV refers to TV programs that are delivered via airwaves and accessible for free without a cable subscription.

Budget

Your budget is how much you plan to spend on ads over a given time period.

Buy side

Buy side, also known as demand side, describes the part of the ad industry that purchases ad space online. This includes advertisers, agencies, DSPs, and DMPs.

BVOD

BVOD, or broadcaster video on demand, refers to video streaming services offered by traditional TV broadcasters.

C

Cable TV

Cable TV refers to TV programs that are delivered to subscribers via traditional cable providers.

Campaign

A campaign is a strategy for purchasing ad inventory that is driven by goals, or KPIs. You can set your campaigns to run with a set budget for a set period of time and allow Koa to drive performance more effectively to ensure that every ad impression you’re buying is the right one, at the right price.

Category

Categories are lists of keywords and phrases that are matched to the content of webpages and apps.

CDP

A CDP, or customer data platform, is a prebuilt system that centralizes customer data from all sources and then makes this data available to other systems for marketing campaigns, customer service, and all customer experience initiatives.

Channel

A channel is a medium through which ads are served. For example, you can serve video ads, display ads, mobile ads, audio ads, and more. The Trade Desk is an omnichannel platform, meaning that it offers as many channels as possible.

Cinemagraph

A cinemagraph is a type of mime format that uses a muted video with subtle motion. For example, a screen saver is a cinemagraph.

Claim

A term used by OpenPass. In Open ID connect a claim is a piece of information about the user, which is returned after user authentication.

Click

A click is when a user interacts with an ad by clicking it.

Click ad fraud

Click ad fraud is a type of ad fraud that involves a party using a bot to repeatedly click an ad to generate money for a publisher who is paid per click.

Click retargeting

Click retargeting enables you to target audience segments generated from the users that have already clicked on your creatives.

Click-through

Click-throughs are calls to action (CTAs) within a creative that fire when the user interacts with the ad.

Click-through conversion

A click-through conversion occurs when a user clicks an ad served to them and then converts via whatever is considered a conversion action. Conversion actions are defined by the particular campaign and can include buying a product, performing a location look-up, and more.

CMP

A CMP, or consent management platform, is a tool that supports transparency and openness by enabling publishers to present website visitors with opt-in and opt-out information so that visitors can see how and why their data is collected.

Commitment

A commitment is an agreement between an advertiser and a publisher in which the advertiser agrees to spend a certain amount of money during a campaign flight.

Commitment deal

A commitment deal is an agreement in the platform that specifies a target cost for media investment and a timeframe for its delivery. The Trade Desk platform ensures that the participating parties can fulfill the designated investment amount. A commitment deal specifies a selling party, a buying party, and an inventory composition that includes publishers and other parameters.

Companion banner

A companion banner is a display banner ad that is served alongside a video ad.

Completion rate

Completion rate is the percentage of ads served in an ad campaign that are viewed, played, or heard in their entirety. You can set completion rate as a KPI, or goal, for your campaign to focus on achieving a higher completion rate through optimizations such as prioritizing non-skippable inventory.

Consumer packaged goods

Consumer packaged goods are products that are sold in sealed packages, such as food, beverage, and household items.

Content Signal Transparency

Content Signal Transparency is a single control in the UI that helps you approximate what your content is in order to call it transparent. This control is set to "true" if one of these three groups of content signals is present:

Genre AND Duration AND Rating AND Livestream AND Production Quality
OR Series
OR Title

Content signals

Content signals are attributes, or metadata, applicable to all online video and audio content that you can use to forecast, target, exclude, or optimize toward certain types of inventory. Content signals can include genre, length, livestream, rating, production quality, and more and are available in the platform as ad group rails. With content signals, you can better understand what you're buying and feel empowered to improve campaign performance, increase reach and contextual relevancy, and drive creative relevancy for different types of users.

Contextual categories

Contextual categories enable you to deliver relevant ads by matching identified keywords with the content of a website or an app, where an ad can potentially be placed. Contextual categories are either pre-built or custom-made categories.

Contextual targeting

Contextual targeting enables you to deliver relevant ads by matching identified keywords with the content of a website or an app, where an ad can potentially be placed. By using this solution, you can reach customers at the right moment by matching your advertising with the content that your customers are consuming.

Contract groups

Contract groups are a time-saving feature that enable you to group together multiple PMP contracts, and then assign this group across your ad groups. For example, you can assign all your CTV contracts to one contract group, and then assign this group to the ad group rather than searching for and assigning multiple individual contracts. For both first-party and third-party contracts, you can create standard or custom contract groups to save time when targeting or optimizing private contracts.

Contributing deal

An endeavor deal that the selling party attaches to a commitment or endeavor with a media spend goal to count spend from the deal toward a spend goal. When the buying party spends on the contributing endeavor deal, it counts toward the media spend goal of the primary commitment or endeavor with a media spend goal.

Conversion

A conversion is a desired action a user takes after being exposed to an ad, including making a purchase, downloading software, or subscribing to a newsletter. You can define what a conversion is based on your campaign goals.

Conversion lift

Conversion Lift experiments help you measure the impact of your ads on a consumer’s decision to convert. In other words, Conversion Lift experiments provide insights into whether The Trade Desk campaigns are driving lift on top of existing media, so you can better understand the value of your ads in driving real business results.

Conversion rate

Conversion rate is the percentage of users that engage with an ad and complete an action. It is calculated by dividing the total number of conversions by the number of visitors to a website or media channel.

Cookie

A cookie is a small file stored by websites on a web user's computer to record data about the user. Cookies are used by websites to recall useful information such as saved addresses, preferences, and personal settings and enable you to build a profile of an individual’s media consumption habits.

Cookie mapping

Cookie mapping is the process of syncing cookies and sharing user IDs from one system to another.

Cookieless

Cookieless describes data collection options and audience-targeting methods that don't rely on third-party cookies.

CPA

CPA, or cost per acquisition, refers to a pricing model in which an advertiser pays a publisher based on the number of times users perform a specific action. CPA is calculated by taking the total cost of an ad campaign and dividing it by the total number of acquisitions, or conversions. You can set CPA as a KPI, or goal, for your campaign to focus on a specific action, like a purchase or a newsletter sign-up.

CPC

CPC, or cost per click, refers to a pricing model in which an advertiser pays a publisher based on the number of times users click on an ad. CPC is calculated by taking the total cost of an ad campaign and dividing it by the total number of clicks that occurred. Rather than setting CTR as a KPI, or goal, for your campaign and focusing on how often users click an ad, you can set CPC as a KPI to focus on cost.

CPCV

CPCV, or cost per completed view, refers to a pricing model in which an advertiser pays a publisher when users view a video ad in its entirety. You can set CPCV as a KPI, or goal, for your campaign to focus on cost and immediate engagement with video creatives.

CPE

CPE, or cost per engagement, refers to a pricing model in which an advertiser pays a publisher each time users engage directly with an ad. Engagement often includes actions such as clicking on, rolling over, or viewing ad content.

CPI

CPI, or cost per install, refers to a pricing model in which an advertiser pays a publisher each time users install a mobile application.

CPL

CPL, or cost per landing, refers to a pricing model in which an advertiser pays a publisher for each individual visit to the advertiser's website.

CPM

CPM, or cost per mille, refers to a pricing model in which an advertiser pays a publisher for every thousand ad impressions that are served. CPM is calculated by dividing the total cost of a campaign by the number of impressions, and then multiplying that value by 1,000. CPM is among the most common methods of charging for online ads and is particularly suited to generating brand exposure on websites with high traffic.

CPP

CPP, or cost per point, refers to a measure of cost efficiency. It is the cost of advertising exposure that equals one rating point or 1% of the population in any geographically defined market. CPP helps you plan your budget and enables you to compare the costs of ads in various placements (for example, TV versus billboard ads). CPP is calculated by dividing total cost by GRPs.

CPV

CPV, or cost per view, refers to a pricing model in which an advertiser pays every time users play or interact with a video ad. The definition of a view varies by publisher, with some charging after a user has played a video for only a few seconds and some charging after a user has played a video for 30 seconds or longer.

Creative

A creative is the actual advertisement served to users to draw attention, communicate a message, or convert a visitor. Creatives can consist of text, images, video, audio, and animated elements.

CRM data

CRM, or customer relationship management, data is first-party data that includes all client information collected and shared across an organization.

Cross-device

Cross-device describes scenarios in which users move and convert through two or more devices. See also CRM data integration.

Cross-device attribution

Cross-device attribution enables you to track the interactions a user has with an ad across multiple devices. With cross-device attribution, conversions can be properly credited even when a user views an ad on one device but converts on another.

Cross-device targeting

Cross-device targeting enables you to scale your high-value audiences across devices and environments. It works in tandem with frequency capping to limit the number of times a user sees an ad across all of their devices, not just the device on which they first saw the ad.

CSRF

A term used by OpenPass. CSRF is an acronym for cross-site request forgery, a type of attack in which a malicious user exploits the fact that a user has authenticated with a site and therefore the site's cookie is in the user's cache. Malicious code from one browser tab can leverage the authentication that was granted in another tab, to execute actions unknown to the authorized user.

CTA

A CTA, or call to action, is any technique advertisers use to encourage consumers to respond promptly. A CTA could be an eye-catching design or phrases such as "buy now" or "instant download."

CTR

CTR, or click-through rate, is a ratio that shows how often users that see an ad click on it. CTR is calculated by dividing the number of clicks by the number of ad impressions. Rather than setting CPC as a KPI, or goal, for your campaign and focusing on the cost of the media, you can set CTR as a KPI to focus on how often users click an ad.

CTV

CTV, or Connected TV, refers to a TV set that enables you to access advanced TV used to stream video content. CTV connects your TV screen to the internet, whether by stick, dongle, gaming console, or even a connection built in to the TV itself. CTV enables you to access premium content without the need for a cable subscription.

CTV advertising

CTV advertising refers to the process of serving digital video on internet-enabled TVs during TV content, giving viewers an experience that's similar to watching a traditional TV commercial.

CTV device

A CTV device is a device that connects a TV screen to the internet and enables access to content without the need for a cable subscription. A CTV device could be a stick, dongle, or gaming console.

Curated REDS

Curated REDS feeds are privacy-focused data solutions that enable partners and vendors to act on behalf of The Trade Desk clients while minimizing the risk of data exposure. They share only the necessary log-level or aggregated data, enabling measurement, optimization, and analysis. For details, see Getting started with curated REDS feeds.

D

Data Alliance: Data Alliance is a data provider in The Trade Desk platform that blank labels third-party audience data and charges for it based on a percentage of an ad campaign’s total media cost.
Data-driven marketing: Data-driven marketing is a strategy that reaches consumers with advertising that uses information, or data, to help marketers determine the strategies, channels, and audiences that result in their consumers buying a product or service.
Data element: A data element is the platform listing of a data segment. Each data element has information such as the data segment name and ID, which enables advertisers to access the data segment and use it for targeting.
Data group: A data group is a collection of data elements combined using an OR (union) operator. When building an audience, you can use data groups to include or exclude data elements for targeting.
Data marketplace: A data marketplace is an online platform that facilitates the buying and selling of data.
Data onboarding: Data onboarding is the process of moving data from one technology platform to another, typically between advertisers and providers.
Data segment: A data segment is the actual data that a data provider uploads, including information like cookies and various IDs (such as device IDs and Unified IDs like UID2 and EUID). When paired with related information such as name and description, we call this a data element.
Dayparting: Dayparting is a strategy that enables you to schedule ads to be displayed at specific times of day or days of the week to reach desired audiences more effectively.
DAID: DAID is a raw device ID, such as iOS ID for advertisers (IDFA) or Android advertising ID (AAID).
DCO: DCO, or dynamic creative optimization, refers to the process through which a macro is passed within a creative URL through a third-party ad server. This process results in dynamic creatives that automatically optimize and tailor ads to users in real time.
Deal cancellation: An action that ends a commitment deal and removes the buying party’s obligation to spend. Either the buying party or selling party can cancel the commitment if it continues to underdeliver after expansion (if applicable).
Deal expansion: An action the buying party can take that adds more inventory to a commitment deal when it is pacing behind. Expansion is only available if the commitment includes expansion terms and the commitment is pacing below the negotiated threshold.
Deal ID: A deal ID is a unique number assigned to an ad buy within a private marketplace that enables buyers and sellers to identify one another. Deal IDs are used to match individual buyers and sellers based on a series of pre-negotiated criteria, such as the type of ad or the area of the website on which the ad will be published.
Deal quality score: A summary score that helps buyers and sellers whether the deal offers better value or access than the same inventory through the marketplace. Scores can range from 0-100, with 50 indicating the deal is on par with marketplace options. Score higher or lower than 50 suggest better or worse value, respectively.
Decision Power Score: Decision Power is a forward-looking metric (scored from 0 to 100) that allows you to evaluate your campaign’s potential for success by showing when you’ve got the scale needed to be discerning in finding and capturing the most relevant impressions for you.
Decisioning: Decisioning refers to the power advertisers have to make decisions on who, where, when, what, and how to spend. Programmatic advertising increases advertisers' decisioning power.
Deduplication window: A deduplication window is the period of time during which duplicate clicks or conversions are disregarded for attribution. Deduplication windows are designed to filter out what are typically user errors.
Delivery profile: A delivery profile is a list of permissions that you define and then apply across first- or third-party contracts, eliminating the need to set up permissions for individual contracts.
Demographic data: Demographic data consists of information about users such as their age range or gender.
Demographic targeting: Demographic targeting enables advertisers to target demographic segments.
Deterministic data: Deterministic data is data that is known to be true when linking to an individual, and is used to identify that individual across apps, websites, channels, and devices.
Developer portal: A publicly available website that includes the API reference and other documentation on how to build to The Trade Desk API.
Device: Device refers to the physical hardware that is used to consume digital media and that supports digital advertising. For example, an iPhone is a mobile device that is used to consume digital media and that serves display, video, audio and native ads.
Device ID: A device ID is a string of numbers and letters that identifies every individual smartphone or tablet. Device IDs are stored on mobile devices and can be retrieved by any app that is downloaded and installed.
Digital advertising campaign: A digital advertising campaign is an ad campaign that is facilitated via digital advertising technology and that involves the execution of marketing strategies across digital channels.
DII: DII, or directly identifying information, refers to information that directly identifies an individual, including name, email address, or phone number. The term is similar to PII and is often used in relation to UID2.
Direct response: Direct response refers to a marketing technique designed to elicit an instant response by encouraging prospective customers to take a specific action.
Direct response marketing: Direct response marketing is a marketing technique designed to elicit an instant response by encouraging prospective customers to take a specific action.
Display advertising: Display advertising is a type of advertising in which ads are served in standard, reserved spaces on web pages. These ads can be image- or text-based and found at the top of the webpage, in the middle, on the side, or at the bottom. Display advertising is separate from native advertising, in which ads are formatted and placed to blend in with the content of the webpage.
DMP: A DMP, or data management platform, is a platform that collects, processes, and stores large amounts of audience data such as cookie IDs, first-party data, and third-party data. A DMP typically handles vast quantities of information in real time, making it useful for targeting online ads at a specific audience on a given website. You can use DMPs to create audience segments to target specific types of users during a campaign.
Domain knowledge: Domain knowledge is business and media expertise layered into marketing mix modeling (MMM) to ensure media channels are represented accurately.
DOOH: DOOH, or digital out-of-home, is the term used for the ad environment primarily made up of outdoor digital ad placements. This includes digital billboards and signs in a variety of locations, including gas stations, airports, freeways, and the sides of buildings.
DSP: A DSP, or demand-side platform, is an ad platform that helps advertisers buy ads through real-time bidding exchanges. By using a DSP, advertisers can manage multiple ad exchange accounts and automatically optimize the bidding process through a single interface.
DTC: DTC, or direct-to-consumer, refers to the act of selling products directly to people without the use of third-party intermediaries or brick-and-mortar stores.
Dynamic creative: A dynamic creative is a creative that is hosted by a third-party and that changes based on information about the user. Dynamic creatives automatically optimize and tailor ads to users in real time through DCO.
Dynamic creative rules: Dynamic creative rules are the guardrails put in place when using dynamic creative optimization to ensure that the correct combination of messages and images is swapped out and shown to the right audience.
Dynamic parameters: Dynamic parameters are snippets of code that you can add to your image or universal pixels to allow your site to pass back specific information from the page itself about things like revenue, order size, and any other details that may be present on a page based on a user’s activity. Dynamic parameters can take your media-buying strategy to the next level by allowing ROAS optimization.

E

eCPM: eCPM, or effective cost per mille, is a measure of how much revenue an advertiser generates for every 1,000 impressions that are served. eCPM is calculated by dividing a campaign's revenue by the total number of impressions and multiplying that value by 1,000.
Edge Academy: Edge Academy is The Trade Desk online education platform. Edge Academy provides advertising and digital marketing education and certifications for free.
Endeavor deal: A flexible deal type that gives buyers access to inventory without strict delivery requirements. Some endeavors include a media spend goal.
Event: An event is an action that a user takes, such as viewing a product page, adding something to a shopping cart, or purchasing a product. The Trade Desk has a list of pre-defined events.
Excess potential: Excess potential is the additional budget that an ad group can spend during one day, without changing any of the targeting settings.
Excess potential spend: Excess potential spend is the difference between a campaign or ad group's potential spend and its current budget. In other words, it is the additional budget that a campaign or ad group can spend without changing any targeting settings. You can use excess potential spend as a directional indicator for how much additional budget a campaign or ad group can take on. To give an example: If a campaign has a potential spend value of $1000 and a budget of $600, then the excess potential spend for this campaign is $400.
Expandable: Expandable refers to an online display ad that expands to a larger ad format when viewers scroll over it.
Expected daily spend: The amount the campaign is projected to spend by the end of that day (based on UTC time). This metric is calculated by taking the amount spent in the most recent full hour of spend and multiplying that value by the number of hours left in the day, accounting for partial hours. If expected daily spend is equal to intraday spend, that means your campaign is projected to have already spent as much as it’s going to that day.
Expressiveness: Expressiveness refers to a measurement of the number of unique bid combinations possible for an ad group or individual segment. Expressiveness is calculated using the unique, non-zero bid factors applied to each dimension.
EUID: EUID is an acronym for European Unified ID.
European Unified ID: European Unified ID, also known as EUID, is an open-source identity solution built for Europe. EUID leverages encrypted email or phone number data to provide a privacy-conscious, secure, and accurate identity standard for the digital advertising ecosystem. It enables deterministic identity for advertising opportunities on the open internet for many participants across the advertising ecosystem. The EUID framework enables publisher websites, mobile apps, and Connected TV (CTV) apps to monetize through programmatic workflows. Built on the UID2 framework, EUID offers privacy controls designed to help participants meet market requirements in many European countries and some other regions such as the UK. For a quick overview of EUID, see Unified IDs. For details, see the EUID documentation.

F

FAST: An advertising model used by TV streaming services where the service or subscription is at no cost and advertising pays for content.
Feed: A feed is a continuous flow of structured or unstructured data that is provided in real-time or at regular intervals to a recipient or data processing system such as Snowflake or Amazon S3.
FEP: FEP, or full-episode player, refers to professionally produced, TV-like content that can appear on any device type, across apps and web browsers. This content is television length (typically 30-60 minutes) with commercial breaks in between.
First-party contract: A first-party contract is an agreement that a buyer makes with a publisher to purchase inventory.
First-party data: First-party data is data that you own and have collected on the websites that your company, brands, or advertisers manage. It may include user behaviors, actions, or interests demonstrated through your websites, subscriptions, or social media. It may include cross-platform data from mobile web or apps or data from your CRM. The most common types of first-party data are cookies, device IDs, and UID2s.
First-price auction: A first-price auction is a style of auction in which the winning bidder pays the bid amount, no matter how much higher it is than the amount of the second-highest bid. Compare this with a second-price auction, in which the winning bidder pays the amount of the second-highest bid plus one cent.
Flight: Flight refers to the length of an ad campaign from a set start date to a set end date. When you schedule a flight, you specify when you want your ads to run. A campaign with no flight continues for an indefinite period. A campaign can have a single flight with a single budget or it can have multiple flights with different budgets for each flight.
Floor price: A floor price is the minimum price for a valid bid set by the publisher. You cannot win an impression if you bid below the floor price.
Fold: The fold refers to the bottom of a visible webpage. Ads that are placed "above the fold" are positioned so that users can view them without scrolling down. Ads that are placed "below the fold" are only viewable after users scroll down.
Forecasted spend: Forecasted spend offers an estimate of how much of your budget you’ll spend in a campaign or ad group given the various targeting settings you’ve applied (audience, inventory, geography, bids, frequency, and so on). The platform shows forecasted spend for campaigns and ad groups pre-flight to enable you to get a better sense of how your campaign or ad group setup will impact scale. After a campaign is in flight, forecasted spend updates in real time, so you always know whether spend is on track. Forecasts are estimates only. Market conditions, supply, demand, and seasonal shifts can cause differences between forecasted and actual spend. Forecasted spend was formerly called projected spend.
Forecasting: Forecasting is a tool that uses historical data to estimate potential media spend or impressions and potential reach or frequency for an ad group configuration.
Forward market: A forward market is an environment in which media is bought and sold in advance. This purchasing system enables buyers and publishers to lock in prices for ad inventory that they anticipate will become more valuable over time.
Fractional compensation: The pricing model that supports multi-elemental bidding. When multiple segments from one or more data providers collectively inform a bid on a won impression, each contributing provider receives a fractional payout proportional to their segment's relative value rather than a single provider receiving full credit.
Frequency: Frequency is a setting that refers to the number of times a given user is served ads (not necessarily the same creative, but often within the same campaign, ad group, or advertiser) within a specified time period—typically within the same reporting context.
Frequency management: Frequency management enables you to control how many times a single user is served the same ad within a given time period.
Frequency cap: A frequency cap limits the number of impressions a single user can be served within a given time period. For example, a 1/3-hour cap indicates that a user can be served a maximum of 1 impression every 3 hours.
Frequency goal: A frequency goal specifies the desired number of impressions to be targeted for a user. For example, a 1/3-day goal indicates that a user should be served a minimum of 1 impression every 3 days.
Funnel location: Funnel location refers to each of the levels of the marketing funnel: awareness, consideration, and conversion. Awareness campaigns bring audiences into the top of the funnel, consideration campaigns help move those audiences along in their journey, and then conversion campaigns help drive them to take an action—like completing a purchase or signing up for a service. With Kokai, you can visualize which funnel locations are activated and how they’re performing throughout your ad groups.

G

GDPR: The GDPR, or General Data Protection Regulation, is a European privacy and security law that regulates how organizations target or collect data related to residents of the European Union.
Geo data: Geo data, or geographic data, defines real-world locations and areas, typically using coordinates (latitude and longitude), radiuses, or postal codes. In The Trade Desk platform, geo data is used to target users based on their physical location, enabling location-specific ad delivery and campaign strategies.
Geofence: Geofences are virtual boundaries around specific geographical areas. They are commonly used in location-based targeting and can be created using shapes such as circles or polygons.
Geography targeting: In The Trade Desk platform, geography targeting is a geographical strategy that involves setting up location lists to use to target people in specific countries, states, cities, or postal codes. The other geographical strategy is geofence targeting.
Geofence targeting: In The Trade Desk platform, geofence targeting is a strategy that involves setting up geofence lists to define virtual boundaries of geographical areas, or virtual radii, around locations to target. The other geographical strategy is geography targeting.
Geotargeting: Geotargeting is a method of targeting that enables you to serve ads to users based on their locations.
GIVT: GIVT, or general invalid traffic, is a form of invalid traffic that can be identified through routine methods of filtration.
Glossary: This glossary provides definitions for common and important terms to support you through your advertising efforts.
GPP: GPP, or Global Privacy Platform, is an IAB-recommended framework for publishers to communicate user consent and privacy preference signals to downstream partners.
Grains: Grains are the dimensions available for a given data set or API, which can be included in reports as columns. Grains can vary significantly by report, but examples include time range, ad format, media type, campaign, advertiser, and more.
GRP: GRP, or gross rating point, is a metric that is used to determine how many people within an advertiser's target audience saw an ad. GRP can be calculated by multiplying reach (expressed as a percentage) by the average frequency multiplied by 100.
GUID: A GUID, or a globally unique identifier, is a 36-character alphanumeric string (including dashes) that is defined in RFC 4122 and is used to uniquely identify users, devices, and other entities. For example, TDID and DAID are GUIDs.

H

Half-life: Half-life is the period after which the impact of an impression decays by half.
Hash: A hash is a string of characters transformed into an anonymous string of characters.
Header bidding: Header bidding is a technique whereby publishers insert a line of code into the header of a webpage that sells inventory in multiple programmatic auctions at the same time, before making a call to their ad server to auction off the inventory. Header bidding enables publishers to offer their ad inventory in multiple auctions simultaneously.
Household (TV-specific): Household refers to a group of people who live together and manage their bills and expenses as one unit.
Household Extension: Household Extension expands the reach of an ad campaign to every device covered by a user’s household IP address, which includes all tablets, smartphones, and other devices connected to a particular household’s WiFi network. This method is generally used by advertisers who want to deliver a targeted impression to all users in a specific household.
Household graph: Household graph assigns an anonymized identifier to each household and deterministically links all OTT devices in the household to that identifier using Smart TVs and streaming media players like Apple TV and FireTV, which never leave the home as anchors.
Household rating: Household rating is an audience measurement that represents the percentage of American households watching a TV program.
Hybrid pricing: Hybrid pricing is the data rate model required for all third-party data segments in The Trade Desk platform. A hybrid rate pairs a percentage of media (POM) value with a CPM cap, so data cost scales with the value of each impression without exceeding the maximum amount.

I

IBI: IBI, or Inferred Brand Intent, is a product that enables you to measure conversions that might have been influenced by exposure to ads and helps you analyze customer behavior to track conversions attributed to your campaign. If your customers require additional time before making a purchase decision or other conversion, then IBI can help you indicate how ads are influencing their behaviors. For example, a user who is exposed to an ad from a car manufacturer might not click it, but instead might go to auto-site.com and read about the advertised car model. IBI tracks this as a conversion attributed to your campaign and provides insights into what triggered the behavior.
ID token: A term used by OpenPass. In Open ID connect, the ID token is value returned by the authorization server after authentication of the user.; The OpenPass authorization server authenticates the user and then issues an authentication token (ID token), which also contains the user's email, and sends it back to the publisher. This completes a successful sign-in, and gives the user access to protected content on the current site and all sites that support OpenPass.; The type of ID token that OpenPass uses is a JWT bearer token.
Identity Alliance: Identity Alliance is a performance-enhancing feature that enables you to make the most of cross-device targeting. Identity Alliance combines all available cross-device vendors into a single graph. With this unified graph, your targeting works from a more complete picture of each user's devices for each impression.
Image pixel: An image pixel is a Static tracking tag that contains a piece of HTML code. More specifically, it contains an invisible image (1x1 pixel), which is loaded from The Trade Desk tracking domain (adsrvr.org) when a user visits a page.
Impression: An impression is a single ad that is served to a user. To count as an impression, an ad does not need to be clicked; it only has to be placed on a page and potentially visible to a user. Measuring the number of impressions enables you to better track the effectiveness of your campaigns.
Impression multiplier: An impression multiplier is a metric that indicates the expected reach of a single digital out-of-home (DOOH) ad play. Impression multipliers are provided by our partners (SSPs/media owners send impression multipliers in the bidstream) and are commonly sourced from verification partners, such as Route and Geopath.
In-app ad: An in-app ad is an ad served within a mobile application, rather than on a webpage or mobile browser.
In-app event tracking: In-app event tracking enables you to get a detailed overview of the post-installation activities inside your apps and insights into the way users interact with your apps.
In-banner video ad: An in-banner video ad is a video ad that is displayed within the banner space on a webpage.
In-stream video ad: An in-stream video ad is a video ad that is played directly before, during, or after the video content that a user has requested.
In-view rate: In-view rate is a metric that measures the number of impressions where an ad was in view for a certain period of time.
Incremental reach: You can set incremental reach as a KPI, or goal, for your campaign to focus on maximizing the number of unique viewers beyond those who have already been reached through linear TV. Incremental reach prioritizes spend toward households that are light- or non-viewers of linear TV.
InStream: InStream includes pre-roll, mid-roll, and post-roll ads that are played before, during, or after the streaming video content that the consumer has requested. InStream video must be set to "sound on" by default at player start, or have explicitly clear user intent to watch the video content. While there may be other content surrounding the player, the video content must be the focus of the user’s visit. It should remain the primary content on the page and the only video player in-view capable of audio when playing. If the player converts to floating or sticky, subsequent ad calls should accurately convey the updated player size.
Interest targeting: Interest Targeting is a Koa feature that helps you improve your behavioral audience targeting and save time with pre-built audience categories, such as Business & Finance, Computers & Technology, Education, and more. Interest Targeting enables Koa to identify the most relevant related segments based on lookalike modeling and include them in your audience.
Intermediary: An entity, such as an SSP, that facilitates ad inventory distribution but doesn't own inventory.
Interoperability: Interoperability refers to a product or system's ability to work with other products or systems, at present or in the future, in either implementation or access, without any restrictions.
Interstitial: An ad that is served while a user is navigating between two different pages or websites. Interstitial ads are generally full-screen overlays that appear during a natural pause in the use of a website or application (such as while a page is downloading or in between the levels of a game). Also known as a transition ad or a splash page.
Interstitial ad: An interstitial ad, also known as a transition ad or a splash page, is an ad that is served while a user is navigating between two different pages or websites. Interstitial ads are generally full-screen overlays that appear during a natural pause in the use of a website or application (such as while a page is downloading or in between the levels of a game).
Intraday spend: Intraday spend is the amount a campaign has spent so far today (based on UTC time). If intraday spend is equal to expected daily spend, that means your campaign is projected to have already spent as much as it’s going to today.
Invalid traffic: Invalid traffic is any traffic that doesn't come from authentic human sources. Invalid traffic involves false clicks or impressions that work to exaggerate the costs or earnings of online ad efforts.
Inventory: Inventory is the total number of ad views or impressions that a website has to sell over a given period of time (usually figured by the month).
Inventory adherence: A metric that measures how closely the avails coming through a commitment deal or endeavor deal match with what was negotiated for the deal.
Inventory contract: An inventory contract is a contract that references the individual terms of a specific deal between a buyer (advertiser or agency) and a seller (publisher).
IO: An IO, or insertion order, is a formal, written agreement between an advertiser and a publisher to run an ad campaign. It includes specifications like campaign name, flight dates, ad sizes, websites receiving the order, total cost, CPM, discounts to be applied, reporting requirements, and possible penalties or stipulations relative to failure to deliver the impressions.
Item: An item is a generic term that in some API suites is used to refer to a product or its SKU.
Itemset: An itemset is a UI term for a product list.

J

JSON Web Key

A term used by OpenPass. A JSON Web Key (JWK) is a JSON data structure that represents a cryptographic key (for example, an RSA key).

For information about the values in a JWK, see Parameters for RSA Keys in the JSON Web Algorithms (JWA) specification.

JSON Web Key Set

A term used by OpenPass. A JSON Web Key Set (JWKS) is a JSON data structure that represents a set of one or more JSON web keys.

The OAuth Provider publishes a JSON Web Key Set document, which includes one or more JSON web keys, used for signing the signature algorithm.

The OpenID Connect specification explains how the JWKS works:

"Rotation of signing keys can be accomplished with the following approach. The signer publishes its keys in a JWK Set at its jwks_uri location and includes the kid of the signing key in the JOSE Header of each message to indicate to the verifier which key is to be used to validate the signature. Keys can be rolled over by periodically adding new keys to the JWK Set at the jwks_uri location. The signer can begin using a new key at its discretion and signals the change to the verifier using the kid value. The verifier knows to go back to the jwks_uri location to re-retrieve the keys when it sees an unfamiliar kid value. The JWK Set document at the jwks_uri SHOULD retain recently decommissioned signing keys for a reasonable period of time to facilitate a smooth transition."

For details, see JWK Set Format in the JSON Web Key (JWK) specification.

JSON Web Signature

A term used by OpenPass. The JSON Web Signature (JWS) standard provides detailed information for securing JSON content with a digital signature.

For details, see JSON Web Signature (JWS).

JSON Web Token

A term used by OpenPass. A JSON Web Token (JWT) is a type of bearer token), meaning that it contains all the information needed to allow the bearer to get access to a protected resource. With a JWT, the information is structured as a JSON object in a predefined format. It is URL-safe and digitally signed.

The JWT token has three URL-encoded and dot-separated parts:

Header—Includes metadata about the token, including key ID, token type, and encryption algorithm.
Payload—The token itself.
Signature—The digital signature, which you can decode with the OpenPass public key. Public keys are available at the OpenPass JWKS endpoint.

K

Knowledge Portal: The Knowledge Portal that provides in-depth descriptions of the platform features and concepts and includes detailed instructions on how to use the platform UI.
Koa: Koa is the artificial intelligence that powers The Trade Desk platform. Koa Optimizations is a machine-learning algorithm that selects and prioritizes the best-performing and most relevant inventory based on an ad group's goals, while ensuring that you pay the right price on impressions. Koa’s goal is to spend your budget on the highest-performing impressions available.
Kokai: Kokai is The Trade Desk's new approach to digital advertising innovation that incorporates major advances in distributed artificial intelligence (AI), measurement, partner integrations, and a revolutionary, intuitive user experience. With these innovations, Kokai ensures that marketers at all levels can easily benefit from the full power and sophistication of programmatic advertising.
KPI: A KPI, or key performance indicator, is a metric that enables you to measure the success of your ad campaigns, while driving performance and delivering results. You can set primary, secondary, and tertiary KPIs to align with your high-level objective, like awareness or conversion. Available KPIs include CPA, CPCV, Reach, Nielsen OTP, ROAS, vCPM, and more.

L

Label: A label, or campaign label, is a marker that you can attach to your campaigns to help you keep track of them. For example, you can use labels to categorize campaigns by tactic, region, and more.
Last-touch attribution: Last-touch attribution, also known as last-click attribution, is the type of attribution that only gives credit to conversions that last touch a user. In ad campaigns with multiple partners, this means that the partner with the last impression or click before a user engages with an ad and completes an action wins the attribution.
Lift study: A lift study is an experiment that measures incremental conversions or sales attributable to advertising.
Linear TV: Linear TV refers to traditional TV, or the classic system in which users watch a scheduled TV program when it airs on its original channel via cable or satellite.
Live: Live describes the status of a campaign or ad group. A campaign or ad group that is live is one that is currently running and serving ads.
Livestreaming: Livestreaming refers to the process of streaming TV content in real time over the internet.
Local TV: Local TV refers to affiliates of the broadcast networks that provide local content as opposed to, for example, national content.
Lookalike modeling: Lookalike modeling is a technique that identifies an audience of potential new users based on the known characteristics and behaviors of an audience of existing users. Through lookalike modeling, you can select a specific group of users and have an algorithm compare the users in that group to members of the general population in order to generate a second audience that shares statistically significant characteristics with the original group. Koa uses lookalike modeling data for performance-enhancing features like Audience Predictor and Prism.
Lookback window: A lookback window is the period of time during which data is collected for attribution credit or reporting purposes. For example, if an impression’s lookback window is set to 30 days, conversions or actions that take place 31 days after that impression is served do not count toward attribution credit and are not included in any reports.

M

Macros: Macros are strings of characters in a creative's code. Macros enable ad managers to replace these strings with other values to tailor the creative's settings. When a macro goes through DCO, it is passed within a creative URL and results in dynamic creatives.
Marketing funnel: A marketing funnel is a model used to describe the path that a customer takes toward the purchase of goods or services. The funnel begins with awareness (of a company, brand, or product) and ends with action, or conversion (purchase, download, signup, and so on). Depending on the part of the funnel you want to target, you can set specific goals, or KPIs.
Marketplace quality: Marketplace quality is a general term covering desirable aspects of inventory. It is typically used in conversations about ad fraud.
Max bid: A max bid is the upper bound of a bid. In other words, it is the highest amount you are willing to spend on an impression and limits the bid price after your base bid is multiplied by your bid factor. Regardless of your applied bid factors, you will never pay more than your max bid. For example, if your base bid is $2, your max bid is $5, and your bid factor is 3x, then your bid is $5, rather than $6 ($2 multiplied by 3).
Media CPM: Media CPM is the winning price, or raw cost, of media per 1000 impressions, excluding additional fees such as data costs or platform margins. Media CPM was formerly called Normalized Media CPM.
Media budget: Media budget is the amount of money you plan to spend to buy impressions (media).
Media planning: Media planning refers to the process advertisers go through to select optimal media strategies for a brand to use in order to reach its desired audiences. The goal is to determine the best combination of media to achieve campaign objectives.
Media quality: Media quality is a calculated metric combining CPM, attention, and engagement to reflect placement value.
Media spend goal: The amount of media spend agreed to as part of a deal. Applies to commitments and some endeavors. Only spend on qualified avails counts toward meeting the go.
Merchant: A merchant is a generic term that refers to any entity with direct consumer interactions across multiple items. For example, a retailer that sells products, a hotel that offers overnight accommodation, meals, and other services, a car dealership that purchases new vehicles for selling or leasing to customers, and more. As a merchant, you can upload data for your own use as an advertiser. You can also sell it to others for monetization purposes. For details on merchant types, see Getting started for merchants.
Metrics: Metrics are types of grains that we’ve calculated values for based on other dimensions and raw data. Metrics can be included in reports as rows. Examples include bids, impressions, win rates, and clicks calculated based on different time ranges.
Mid-roll: Mid-roll describes video ads that play in-stream, partway through users' requested content. Mid-roll video ads generally offer a higher completion rate compared to pre- and post-roll video ads.
MMM: MMM, or marketing mix modeling, is a statistical analysis technique that helps you predict business outcomes based on different combinations of spend and marketing tactics.
MMP: An MMP, or Mobile Measurement Partner, is an impartial third-party provider that works to attribute campaigns to different user behaviors, or conversion events, within mobile apps. The Trade Desk has integrated with some of the largest MMPs to help you optimize for app event goals, build and retarget audiences based on app events, and connect your campaigns to the in-app outcomes that matter most to you.
Mobile: Mobile refers to the smaller, handheld devices that consumers can carry with them on-the-go. This includes smart phones and tablets.
Mobile advertising: Mobile advertising is a type of advertising in which mobile users are served high-performance full-screen ads across their mobile browsing experiences, both on the web and in-app.
Mobile OTT: Mobile OTT, or mobile over-the-top, refers to television content that is served over the internet and viewed on a mobile device, such as a smartphone.
Multi-elemental bidding: The method by which The Trade Desk prioritizes bids on impressions where the most relevant data elements are present. When a campaign has multiple target segments, the bidder scores each available impression against all applicable segments and favors impressions where the highest-value, most relevant combination is present.
MVPD: MVPD, or multichannel video programming distributor, is a subscription service that provides multiple broadcast or satellite television channels either live or on demand.

N

Native advertising: Native advertising is the type of advertising in which ads are formatted to blend in with the design, function, and tone of the page on which they are placed. The disguised nature of native ads means consumers may not be able to easily distinguish a native ad from the publisher’s own content.
NBR: NBR, or no-bid reason, is a code in the bid response that indicates the reason for not bidding on an impression.
News Navigator: News Navigator is an ad group inventory control that uses data from expert third-party organizations to find, assess, and regularly update an ecosystem of journalism, down to the page level.
No Content/Standalone: No Content/Standalone includes video ads that are played without streaming video content. This can be in placements such as slideshows, native feeds, in-banner, or sticky or floating players.
Normalization: To normalize a data set means to bring it to a standard condition or state. For example, a data set that includes varying telephone number formats, including 123 456-7890, 123-456-7890, and (123) 456-7890, might be normalized so that all telephone numbers are represented as (123) 456-7890.

O

OAuth 2.0: A term used by OpenPass. OAuth is a popular security protocol for authorization. It allows you to share private resources stored on one site with another site without having to share credentials. OAuth 2.0 is the current version.; OpenPass uses OAuth to manage the user login, with Open ID connect for the user authentication.; For details, see The OAuth 2.0 Authorization Framework.
OLV: OLV, or online video, refers to movies, TV programs, or video clips that are streamed from the internet.
Omnichannel: Omnichannel describes an approach to advertising that incorporates all available channels (including mobile, display, native, video, audio, and TV) into a unified strategy and ensures that ads are delivered seamlessly and consistently to consumers across channels, devices, and platforms.
Omnichannel RTB: Omnichannel RTB, or omnichannel real-time bidding, enables you to run campaigns on multiple devices with different types of targeting all in one platform to reach the right audience in the right context.
Open exchange: An open exchange is a programmatic ad buying and selling marketplace that enables buyers to buy publishers’ inventory through real-time bidding technology. In contrast to a private marketplace, in an open exchange, any user of an SSP or DSP can conduct media transactions on an impression-by-impression basis.
Open internet: The open internet is a competitive, privacy-conscious, transparent, and open marketplace of ideas, content, and commerce that is powered by relevant advertising.
Open market: Open market refers to the entirety of the inventory you can buy from our platform. In contrast to the Sellers and Publishers 500+, the open market lacks curation, control, and safety mechanisms and should generally be used only to improve scale.
OpenAds: OpenAds is an initiative by The Trade Desk to create a cleaner, more transparent programmatic ad auction. It's a high-integrity auction environment powered by Prebid-derived open-source auction logic, which provides a transparent programmatic demand wrapper that publishers can use to validate auction fairness.
Open Agentic Kit (OAK): The Open Agentic Kit (OAK) is the Trade Desk's AI-native platform interface. It utilizes an MCP connector allow AI-assistants to chat with the Koa Agent to perform tasks that range from querying data and answering help questions to creating a campaign and monitoring live campaigns. Anything that can be done in the platform UI or API is available through OAK.
OpenID Connect: A term used by OpenPass. OpenID Connect (OIDC) is an identity layer on top of the OAuth 2.0 protocol that allows the client to verify the identity of an end-user based on authentication by an authorization server.; In the context of OpenPass, the authorization server is the OpenPass server, the client is the publisher, and the end-user is the consumer.; For details, see OpenID Connect Basic Client Implementer's Guide 1.0 - draft 40.
OpenID Connect Provider: A term used by OpenPass. In the Open ID connect standard, the entity that provides authentication via OpenID Connect is called the OpenID Connect Provider. The entity receiving authentication services is called the Relying Party.; In the context of OpenPass, OpenPass is the OpenID Connect Provider, and the publisher is the Relying Party.
OpenPass: OpenPass is a streamlined single sign-on solution that enables consumers to view content in exchange for their email address, ensuring a frictionless experience when logging into gated website content across publishers on the open Internet.
OpenPath: OpenPath is a simplified, direct connection to premium publishers supporting an objective, transparent supply path that maximizes value for advertisers and publishers. Not a supply-side platform, OpenPath provides buyers with an alternative efficient path to each impression, cleaning up supply chains by reducing the number of intermediaries required in the real-time bidding process.
OpenRTB: OpenRTB is the communication protocol that enables real-time bidding (RTB). It was designed to spur growth in RTB marketplaces by providing an open industry standard for communication and interoperability between buyers and sellers in the digital advertising industry.
Optimal bid: An optimal bid is a suggested bid for inventory that is likely to win an impression.
Optimization: Optimization is the process of changing the settings or features of an ad in order to produce the most desirable outcome for a campaign. There are many ways to optimize an ad. For example, optimizing an ad for CTR means specifically targeting an ad at the users who are most likely to click on it.
Optimizations: Optimizations are the bid factors you can assign to certain items that enable you to indicate how much you value an item by bidding higher or lower for it. You can do it manually or use Koa Optimizations.
Options TV buy: Options TV buy refers to a negotiated condition whereby an advertiser can cancel a percentage of purchased inventory by pre-established dates each quarter.
Originating ID: The identifier used to target a user, such as a raw UID2, UID2 token, or RampID, sourced from your first-party or third-party data segments. It is used to ensure the identifier a vendor originally used to target a user is preserved in reporting, even if the impression was purchased using a different identifier.
OTP: OTP, or on-target percentage, is a metric that measures effectiveness in reaching intended audiences using a third-party measurement partner like Nielsen. For instance, 70% OTP of "Gender – Female" means that 70% of the audiences that a campaign has reached is female. You can set Nielsen OTP as a KPI, or goal, for your campaign to focus on optimizing toward a determined percentage of impressions delivered to a chosen demographic.
OTT: OTT, or over-the-top, refers to television content that is served over the internet rather than through a cable or broadcast provider. OTT also refers to devices that connect a viewing device to the internet such as smart TVs and devices like Roku.
Outstream video ad: Outstream video ads are video ads that are shown independently from other video content. These ads load and play once a user has scrolled through a visible portion of the website’s content. For example, they may appear between the paragraphs of a written article.

P

Pacing: Pacing refers to how slowly or quickly an ad campaign spends its budget during its flight. The Trade Desk pacing algorithms—pace evenly and pace ahead—automatically set a daily cap for your campaigns, with no manual calculations needed. These algorithms update multiple times a day, deciding on the spend needed to pace evenly or pace ahead by dividing your remaining budget by the time left in your campaign.
Partner: In the context of The Trade Desk, a partner is a company that has a "seat" on The Trade Desk platform. Each partner has a unique partner ID. One partner might represent multiple advertisers.; In addition, one partner might have multiple partner "seats" on The Trade Desk platform, each with its own unique partner ID and each representing one or more advertisers.; A client, advertiser, buyer, or other participant with an account at The Trade Desk might have access to more than one partner, identified by a partner ID. In this context, a partner is a logical grouping of one or more advertisers.
Partner CPM: Partner CPM is a measurement of the partner cost per 1000 user impressions, normalized to value at a single user level. Partner CPM was formerly called Normalized Partner CPM.
Pause ads: Pause ads are a TV ad experience initiated when the viewer uses a remote to pause the content being watched.
Programmatic Guaranteed: Programmatic Guaranteed (PG) describes deals between advertisers and publishers in which the two parties negotiate a fixed price for ad inventory in advance. In PG deals, advertisers buy a certain number of impressions and publishers deliver those impressions. PG campaigns are based exclusively on contracts signed between publishers and advertisers that enable advertisers to bid on ad inventory using real-time bidding while being guaranteed a certain number of impressions from the publisher.
PGP: A term used by OpenPass. PGP is an acronym for Pretty Good Privacy, a secure encryption program used for signing, encrypting, and decrypting. PGP encryption includes several steps.; For details, see Proof Key for Code Exchange by OAuth Public Clients.
PII: PII, or personally identifiable information, refers to personal data, such as email addresses, phone numbers, credit card numbers, social security numbers, and other types of data, that can be used to identify a specific user. The term is similar to DII, which is often used in relation to UID2.
Pixel: A pixel is a piece of code that loads an anonymous cookie every time a new user lands on a website. When a user leaves a site, the cookie continues to track their behavior. Pixels enable retargeting, which means that the same ads might be displayed on other websites that the user visits.
PKCE: A term used by OpenPass. PKCE is an acronym for Proof Key for Code Exchange, which is a security extension to OAuth 2.0, intended for public clients on mobile devices. PKCE is designed to help prevent malicious interception of information in the authentication process.; With the optional PKCE feature enabled, the authorization request message includes an additional value, and the token request message includes another value that has a relationship to the first value. By comparing these two values, the authorization server can verify that the token request message is genuine. A malicious actor intercepting the response to the first message cannot impersonate the publisher and falsely receive the ID token. Per the PKCE standard, the value can be sent in plain text or can also be hashed and encoded.; The OpenPass JavaScript SDK uses PKCE, and also hashes and encodes the value.
PMP: A PMP, or private marketplace, is an auction that requires an invitation (in the form of a deal ID) to access. PMPs combine the auction environment of real-time bidding with the buyer-seller relationship of direct buys.
Political advertiser: A political advertiser buys online ad space to inform voters about key issues and candidates running for office.
Post-roll: Post-roll describes video ads that play in-stream, directly after the video content that the user has requested ends. This form of ad placement is particularly suitable for ads offering a call to action, or that follow branded video content.
Potential spend: Potential spend is an estimate of how much a given ad group would have spent within its targeting parameters if it had an unlimited budget. If your spend is equal to your potential spend, this means your ad group is already spending all that it can within its targeting parameters. Potential spend is based on the measurement of possible impressions during the given 24-hour (UTC) time period. Potential spend for today is a projection of the rest of the UTC day based on data since the last UTC midnight. Potential spend for yesterday is a measurement of midnight to midnight from yesterday's date.
Pre-bid targeting: Pre-bid targeting offers unique intelligence for informed ad buying and enables you to only bid on traffic that falls within certain parameters. Through pre-bid targeting, you can control the efficiency and safety of your digital ad buys. For example, you can block fraudulent traffic, bid only on ads likely to be in view of a user, or target pages related to relevant contextual categories.
Pre-roll: Pre-roll describes video ads that play in-stream, directly before the video content that the user has requested begins. Some publishers offer users the chance to skip pre-roll ads after a few seconds, while others require them to watch the entire ad before they can view the requested content.
Predictive Clearing: Predictive Clearing is a cost-saving feature that helps you win more impressions at a lower CPM while optimizing ad spend and improving campaign performance. When you enable Predictive Clearing, you allow Koa to analyze historical clearing prices to find a lower, optimal bid for each impression served in a first-price auction by increasing or decreasing your win rate as needed.
Preferred deal: A preferred deal is a fixed-price deal between a single advertiser and a single publisher that is accomplished using a deal ID. Preferred deals enable publishers to offer inventory to a selection of preferred buyers at a fixed price before the inventory is offered at open auction.
Premium distributors: Premium distributors are CTV inventory sources that mirror the look and feel of digital cable or satellite TV providers. When you execute CTV ads through premium distributors, you are often able to access users' registration data and better target large, scalable audiences. In some instances, premium distributors also create and own proprietary content (for example, Hulu).
Prime time: The block of time during which TV shows are expected to have the largest audience. Typically between 7:30 PM and 10:00 PM.
Primetime: Primetime describes the block of time during which TV shows are expected to have the largest audience. Primetime typically covers the time between 7:30 PM and 10 PM.
Priors: Priors are ranges of values a marketing mix model (MMM) uses to test assumptions (for example, frequency, half-life).
Prism: Prism uses lookalike model data to create and continuously update an audience of users who are least likely to convert, and remove them from your audience. By automatically filtering out low-value impressions unlikely to benefit your campaign, it increases value by ensuring that your campaigns bid only on the most valuable impressions.
Privacy: Privacy is the act of keeping consumer information anonymized, safe, and unable to be linked to a specific individual, and within consumer control on the internet.
Probabilistic: Probabilistic refers to data that use probability, or a likelihood of something occurring, to link an individual. It is made up of individual pieces of data, like the IP address or operating system, to identify a user across apps, websites, channels, and devices.
Product catalog: A product catalog, or catalog, is a listing of a merchant's products organized by categories and brands. Product information in a catalog requires a minimum of product SKU numbers and names but may also include product categories, URLs, descriptions, brand names, and images. Each merchant can build their own product catalog and share it with selected brands and advertisers for audience building and measurement.
Product category: A product category, or category, is a group of products in a catalog that share similar characteristics. Product categories can be as broad as Groceries and Clothing, or as narrow as Bottled Water and t-shirts. Related categories may be organized in a parent-child hierarchy within a catalog.
Product list: A product list is a group of products from a catalog that an advertiser creates and uses to do measurement against.
Programmatic advertising: Programmatic advertising refers to the automated buying and selling of ad inventory that takes place using software. Programmatic advertising helps you improve performance through data-driven decisions and saves you time by centralizing the buying experience in a single platform where you are empowered to customize your target audience, channels, publishers, geographies, and more with just a few clicks.
Programmatic audio: Programmatic audio is digital audio inventory that is available for programmatic purchase.
Proximity targeting: Proximity targeting is an ID-free way of targeting customers in real time based on their current location. It uses GPS and mobile network triangulation to understand a user’s precise location and proximity to a reference point. For example, with proximity targeting, when a user enters a defined geographic area, such as a shopping mall or a store, they can receive a push notification on their smartphone.
Publisher: A publisher is a company, website, or entity that owns and provides digital content. Publishers make money by selling ad inventory to agencies and advertisers.
Publisher direct: Publisher direct describes the act of purchasing inventory directly with the publisher.
Publisher Management Platform: The Publisher Management Platform is the space within The Trade Desk platform where you can create, access, and manage private deals.

Q

QPS: QPS, or queries per second, is a metric that indicates the number of requests that a server is receiving each second. In other words, QPS is the measure of the traffic that an ad server, ad exchange, DSP, or SSP can handle.
QRI: The Quality Reach Index (QRI) measures how effectively different strategies align with target audiences and helps identify which inventory offers the most relevant reach that matches the seed.
Qualified avails: Avails that match the declared inventory terms of a commitment or an endeavor with a media spend goal. For commitments, only these count toward the agreed terms.
Quality Alliance Player Size: Quality Alliance Player Size targeting enables you to bid exclusively on sites and publishers that accurately share the size of their video players.
Quality Alliance Viewability: Quality Alliance Viewability targeting enables you to target only the websites and publishers that have historically served video or display ads at a high in-view rate.

R

Rails: In the platform UI, Rails are filters for ad groups that control what will be bid on. Rails do not detail how much an ad group should bid for any one item. You can apply a rail to an ad group to define guidelines for that ad group and outline what should be targeted and what should be blocked.
RampID: A RampID (previously known as IdentityLink or IDL) is a 49-character or 70-character string from LiveRamp. When onboarding data to the platform RampIDs must be mapped specifically for The Trade Desk. For details about mapping a RampID, see the LiveRamp documentation.
Rate card: A rate card is a record of assigned third-party data rates for a partner or advertiser, detailing data segment pricing, permission levels, and other details.
Reach: Reach refers to the total number of unique users who are exposed to an ad. You can set reach as a KPI, or goal, for your campaign to focus on maximizing the percentage of your target audience that is exposed to an ad. With this KPI, CPMs are lowered and frequency capping is allowed to determine how often a user should be targeted.
Reach (TV-specific): Reach refers to the number of unique users who are exposed to an ad. It indicates the percentage of the targeted population that has seen at least one TV spot. Reach is often shown as a percentage of a specific audience; for example, 75% of 18-24-year-olds.
Received IDs: Received IDs are a representation of all the IDs within a data segment considered targetable that are sent and received by The Trade Desk (whether or not they've been determined to be active). Received IDs are only shown in imported data. See also Unique ID counting methodologies.
Recency: Recency is a metric that refers to how long it's been since users enter into an audience segment that you're currently targeting. Your ad group's recency schedule enables you to increase or decrease your bidding amount based on the age of your audience data. Thus, you can bid more aggressively on ads that users have been served recently and less aggressively on older ads that may have less impact on users' decisions.
Recommendations: Recommendations are suggestions that Koa makes to improve ad group performance.
Redirect URI: A term used by OpenPass. As part of the Open ID connect authentication process used with OpenPass, the publisher sends a value, redirect_uri, to the authentication server. The Redirect URI must be a valid URL with the scheme https. As part of setting up an account with OpenPass, the publisher also sets up one or more redirect URI values. The value sent in the redirect_uri parameter in the API call must exactly match one of the values set up in the account. If there is no match, authentication fails.; IMPORTANT: The redirect URI is case sensitive.
REDS: REDS, or Raw Event Data Stream, is raw, log-level data that includes bidding events from won auctions and pixels in near real time. The stream consists of five feeds: impressions, clicks, video events, conversions, and GDPR consent information.
Relevance: Relevance represents how much more likely a given strategy is to find people who match your seed (the kinds of people who drive your business forward by buying, signing up, or downloading your product) than if you were to target the general population. To unlock relevance in The Trade Desk platform, create a seed to represent your target customers. The platform uses your seed to provide relevance scores that show you how relevant your audiences, campaigns, and ad groups are. This makes it easier for you to understand how well your strategies align with your desired audience.
Relevance score: A relevance score is a number that represents how an audience overlaps with a specific population, compared to how it overlaps with the general population. Relevance tells you how closely your audiences match your seed data, and thus how likely your strategies are to reach your target audiences.
Retail media: Retail media is a way to buy advertising space that applies data collected from retailers, including loyalty shopper data and purchase history. Advertisers can use it to target consumers.
Retail media platform: An ad buying technology that commerce provider brands develop to monetize their consumer shopping data and also sell advertising space on their digital channels (for example, websites and apps).
Retailer: A retailer could be a physical store, e-commerce platform, or omni-channel where manufacturers sell their products.
Retargeting: Retargeting is the strategy of targeting ads at users who have previously interacted with a website or an app. This strategy is designed to recapture the interest of users who have demonstrated interest in a website or app, so retargeting retains existing customers and can convert potential new customers.
Rich media: Rich media describes ads that include multimedia features like embedded videos and interactive elements.
ROAS: ROAS, or return on ad spend, is the ratio of total revenue to total ad spend. ROAS measures campaign effectiveness and tells you how much revenue you're getting in return for each dollar you spend on advertising according to how you define the value of different conversions. You can set ROAS as a KPI, or goal, for your campaign to pass specific revenue amounts to the platform in your conversion pixel.
ROI: ROI, or return on investment, refers to the ratio of total revenue to total spend, or money invested. For example, if your revenue is $40,000 and your total media spend is $10,000, your ROI is 4:1.
RON: Run of network, also known as run of exchange (ROE), is advertising that targets an entire ad network for bidding or direct buys, as opposed to targeting only parts of an area.
RSI: The Retail Sales Index (RSI) measures attributed sales from multiple retailers to understand consumer behavior.
RTB: RTB, or real-time bidding, refers to the buying and selling of ad impressions in real time. In RTB, auctions are automated and occur within milliseconds. During this time, the ad exchange invites advertisers to bid on an impression through DSPs, and the winning bid has its ad served.
Run of network: Run of network describes advertising that targets an entire ad network for bidding or direct buys, as opposed to targeting only parts of an area. In run-of-site advertising, you choose to have your ads placed on any pages of any websites within an network.
Run of schedule: Run of schedule describes advertising in which you choose to have your ads placed across various dayparts, rather than in a specific program.
Run of site: Run of site describes advertising that targets an entire website for bidding or direct buys, as opposed to targeting only certain pages of a website. In run-of-site advertising, you choose to have your ads placed somewhere on an individual website. However, you can't choose the exact pages within that website that you want to place ads on.

S

Scatter TV buy: Scatter TV buy is a media-purchasing strategy that is used by both TV networks and ad agencies. TV networks use this strategy to sell air time at higher ad rates while ad agencies use it to position a product at the last minute.
schain: schain is the OpenRTB SupplyChain object that ensures documentation of all parties that are selling or reselling a given impression. This information is important to increase the transparency of the supply chain, ensuring that all intermediaries are known and vetted. It enables buyers to quickly understand who is participating in and financially benefiting from the sale of the impression represented by the bid request.
Search ad fraud: Search ad fraud is a type of ad fraud that involves a party creating a fake website that contains popular keywords to attract advertisers, who don't realize that they aren’t buying from a real website.
Second-party data: Second-party data is data that you collect from a partner that owns it. In order words, second-party data is a partner's first-party data that you get permission to use. Second-party data enables you to increase your data's scale and reach new audiences. It may include activity on websites, surveys, social media profiles, and more.
Second-price auction: A second-price auction is a style of auction in which the winning bidder pays an amount equal to the second-highest bid plus one cent. For example, winning with a bid of $5.00 over a second-highest bid of $4.50 in a second-price auction means that the winner pays $4.51.
Seed: A great seed comprises individuals who have successfully taken valuable actions, such as making purchases, signing up, installing applications, and so on. When you create a seed in The Trade Desk platform and attach it to your campaigns, you are taking the first step to find more people who have similar traits as your ideal customer and unlocking relevance—our metric gauging alignment between your campaign targeting and your seed. Seeds power your buying experience, including Koa, lookalike modeling, segment recommendations, automated targeting strategies, and measuring relevant reach.
Segment: A segment is a group of users that can be targeted as an audience because they share a defining characteristic, such as gender, region, or an action that they’ve taken online.
Self-serve: Self-serve describes any platform that enables users to create, run, and manage ad campaigns themselves.
Sell side: Sell side, also known as supply side, describes the side of the ad industry that sells ad space online. This includes publishers and supply-side platforms.
Seller: A seller is a publisher who is selling the negotiated deals. Publishers are identified by the seller ID from the sellers.json file or any unique ID from the seller SSP.
sellers.json: sellers.json is an IAB standard that provides a mechanism to determine the legal entity, in other words, a business tied to a certain seller ID. These can be either direct sellers (owners) of digital advertising inventory or intermediaries. A published and accessible sellers.json file allows buyers to discover the identity of a seller, who is getting paid for the impression and shows whether the entity is a publisher or intermediary. For details, see Inventory policies.
Sensitive categories: At this time, for data management, the advertiser categories The Trade Desk considers sensitive include health conditions, ethnicity, race, religious affiliation, union membership, crime victim status, children's data, and sexual orientation.
Shopping Cart: The Shopping Cart refers to the top-right area of the Kokai Platform UI that displays all key decision metrics in one place. Key metric examples include forecasted spend, relevance, seed quality, and more. These metrics help determine how pre-flight and mid-flight campaigns and ad groups are performing.
SIVT: SIVT, or sophisticated invalid traffic, is a form of invalid traffic that requires advanced detection and analytics tools to identify.
SKU: A stock keeping unit is a unique number combination used by retailers to identify and track their products. It is used as the item ID.
Smart TV: A smart TV is a TV set with a built-in connection to the internet.
Spend: Spend, or ad spend, is the amount of money you spend on advertising efforts in The Trade Desk platform.
SP500+: The Sellers and Publishers 500+ (SP500+) is a marketplace with over 500 publishers and sellers curated by The Trade Desk using inventory quality metrics such as ad refresh, ad load, direct sales, and placement level viewability.
SSO: Acronym for Single Sign-On. SSO allows a user to log in with the same credentials (usually, but not always, ID and password) to one of several software systems, such as apps or websites, that are independent but related. SSO allows the user to log in once to multiple applications or sites, which means that users do not have to remember multiple sets of credentials and also means that multiple sites/apps do not have to maintain their own authentication systems. Often, the authentication is managed by a trusted third party.; OpenPass offers a single sign-on service. The OpenPass server manages the authentication and the user provides only an email address.
SSP: An SSP, or supply-side platform, is a technology company that enables publishers to manage and automate the selling of their ad inventory so they can generate the maximum amount of revenue per ad impression.
State parameter: A term used by OpenPass. The state parameter is a security parameter to prevent forgery attacks, defined in the OAuth 2.0 specification and used in Open ID connect. Often, this parameter is a random string with sufficient length and entropy.; For details, see Authorization Request in the OAuth 2.0 specification.
Streaming: Streaming is the act of viewing video content or TV programs through an internet connection.
Streaming device: Streaming device refers to the sticks, dongles, and cubes through which media is sent from the internet to a home TV in a continuous "stream."
Sub-provider: A data entity that owns data coming to The Trade Desk through an onboarder. With a sub-provider ID, non-direct data brands can access our Third-Party Segments Dashboard to see taxonomies they manage through onboarder partners.
SPO: Supply path optimization (SPO) is used by advertisers to look at all the ways they buy media on the internet, remove any redundant intermediaries, and streamline their access to supply.
SVOD: SVOD, or subscription video on demand (VOD), is a type of VOD monetization where users pay a certain fee upfront to get access to content.
Synthetic users: Simulated users used by Sincera to mimic typical consumer behavior online and better understand the interactions between privacy, real-time bidding, and user identity.

T

Tag: A tag, or an ad tag, is a piece of HTML code that is used as a placeholder before an ad is displayed. Tags instruct a webpage to get the appropriate ad from an ad server and display it when a user opens the page.
Tactic: The pre-bid tactic determines how advertisers discover contextual categories in The Trade Desk platform and indicates how advertisers can use them for pre-bid targeting and blocking.
Targeting: With targeting strategies, you can define details about the ideal audience they want to serve ads to. You can target users through demographic targeting, geographic targeting, contextual targeting, and more.
TDID: TDID is the user ID that The Trade Desk stores for a user on a web-based browser.
Temperature tagging: Temperature tagging involves using real-time weather data to target users and dynamically control an ad campaign.
Third-party contract: A third-party contract is a contract that is shared between specific partners or a contract that The Trade Desk manages and makes available to all partners.
Third-party data: Third-party data is user data that a single company collects on various platforms, but does not own. This company acts as a third party and sells the data to other companies, advertisers, or brands. For example, a third-party data provider might collect data on users who tend to frequent pet sites, and an advertiser selling pet food might pay to use that data for a campaign.
Traders: Traders are employees at agencies who set up and manage programmatic ad campaigns.
Trading desk: A trading desk is a sub-unit within an ad agency that optimizes the purchase of programmatic ads to offer clients increased value from each impression.
Tracking Tag: See Pixel.
Traffic: Traffic refers to the number, or volume, of visitors to a website or specific webpage.
TV content owners: TV content owners are CTV inventory sources that most closely resemble traditional TV channels or networks. Viewers watch TV content hosted by content owners either through CTV and mobile applications or directly from a content owner’s website.
TTD Connector: A TTD Connector is a purpose-built integration that enables secure, automated, and privacy-compliant data transfer between a client's external environment—such as Snowflake or Databricks—and The Trade Desk platform. Authored and supported by The Trade Desk, a connector might take the form of an app, an SDK, data feeds, or some other mechanism. Aligned with the platform it supports, a connector is designed to streamline the movement of key data types including logs, audiences, conversion events, and product information. It typically includes guided setup, managed authentication, and scalable automated workflows, reducing the technical overhead of direct API integration.
TVQI: The TV Quality Index (TVQI) measures the quality of inventory a campaign runs, on a scale of 1 - 100. It is an aggregate of the weighted scores for eight criteria (content, addressability, playback type, device type, content duration, production quality, content signal transparency, and market type) across three pillars of quality (content, ad experience, and signals).

U

UGC: UGC, or user-generated content, is content that consumers (rather than brands) create and publish. Because this content is user-generated, it is usually not as regulated.
UID: UID is a generic term that's used to refer collectively to UID2 and EUID. For a quick overview of UID2 and EUID, see Unified IDs.
UID2: UID2 is an acronym for Unified ID 2.0.
Unified ID 2.0: Unified ID 2.0, also known as UID2 and UID 2.0, is an open-source ID framework that publishers, advertisers, and digital advertising platforms can use to establish identity of a user across the open internet, while also offering users transparency and privacy controls. UID2 takes directly identifying information (DII), such as a user’s email or phone number. To avoid revealing the source data, the input value is hashed if it was not already hashed, and then hashed again using a secret salt value to create a non-reversible UID2 identifier that enables logged-in experiences from publisher websites, mobile apps, and CTV apps to monetize through programmatic workflows. For additional security, the identifier is encrypted into a token before sending. Only authorized parties can decrypt the token into the non-reversible UID2 identifier. For a quick overview of UID2, see Unified IDs. For details, see the UID2 documentation.
Unified auction: A unified auction is a programmatic tactic where multiple demand sources, such as SSPs, exchanges, or DSPs, compete for the same publisher inventory at the same time and bid accordingly.
Universal pixel: A Universal pixel is a tracking tag that contains JavaScript and enables you to manage multiple processes with just one pixel added to an entire website. Unlike static image pixels, universal pixels are dynamic, helping you capture every website visitor no matter what page they're on. Universal pixels also enable you to segment all website visitors based on the different pages they visit.
Upfront TV buy: Upfront TV buy refers to a commercial investment for the upcoming year based on a negotiated CPM and guaranteed demographic as dictated by Nielsen.
UTC: UTC is an abbreviation for Coordinated Universal Time, also called Zulu time, which is the primary time standard in general use. UTC essentially equates to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), but is more scientifically precise. Time values returned in the JWT ID token are represented in UTC.

V

Value: Value is a metric that helps you choose the right data elements to add to campaigns by considering relevance and cost. You can use the value slider in the platform to filter and select data segments with the right value for you. A higher value score means that the data element is more likely to contain users similar to those in your seed.
Value-based buying: Value-based buying is a way to buy media rooted in the return on the media cost (real-world results) instead of focusing on the price of media itself.
VAP: A value-added provider (VAP) is a data vendor who offers products or services not fully integrated with The Trade Desk but that clients use to enhance their work within The Trade Desk platform. These vendors typically provide "bring your own algorithm" (BYOA) services or data for measurement, reach, or other demographics.
VAST: VAST, or video ad-serving template, is an IAB specification that transfers an ad's metadata from the ad server to a video player. VAST sets up consistent instructions for how video players should handle and serve ads and includes information on where an ad can be shown, how long an ad should play, and where a video clicks through to if someone interacts with an ad. When you use VAST with VPAID, you gain more interactive abilities.
VC: A VC, or venture capitalist, is an investor who provides capital to firms that exhibit a high-growth potential in exchange for an equity stake. VCs target firms that are at the stage where they are looking to commercialize their idea.
vCPM: vCPM, or viewable CPM, is the estimated percentage of CPM impressions that are in-view. vCPM is calculated by dividing the estimated CPM by the number of impressions that were in-view. You can set vCPM as a KPI, or goal, for your campaign to focus on the cost of viewable inventory.
VCR: VCR, or video completion rate, is a performance metric that is the percentage of video ads that are played in their entirety.
View-through conversion: A view-through conversion occurs when a user views an ad served to them, goes to the advertiser’s site organically (without clicking the ad), and then converts via the conversion action.
Video Event: A video event is a special type of impression that occurs when the user is served a single video ad.
Viewability: Viewability is a metric that measures whether an ad has been viewed by a user (rather than only served on a webpage and not viewed). You can calculate viewability by dividing viewed impressions by tracked impressions. You can set viewability as a KPI, or goal, for your campaign to focus on optimizing against a specific target in-view percentage.
VOD: VOD, or video on demand, refers to video content that users can stream or download whenever they want after it airs.
Volume control: Volume control is an optimization strategy that enables you to spend more or less money on an item without changing the actual bid-factor values. Volume control directs more spend to your higher-performing data segments while directing spend away from your lower-performing segments.
VPAID: VPAID, or video player ad-serving interface definition, is an IAB specification that establishes a common interface between video players and ad units, and thus enables them to interact with one another. Through VPAID, you can provide dynamic, interactive in-stream ad experiences (such as allowing users to click links in ads or share ads through social media) and collect rich interaction details.

W

Walled garden: Walled garden refers to an organization that keeps its technology, information, and user data to itself, with no intention of sharing it. In other words, a walled garden is a closed ecosystem, operated by people within the ecosystem, without the involvement of an outside organization. This term is often used to describe Google, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.
Well-known: A term used by OpenPass. In Open ID connect, the Open ID connect provider publishes certain pieces of information at specific "well-known" endpoints. These endpoints include well-known as part of the URL. Each endpoint provides a different type of information that should be shared publicly for anyone using the specific OpenID provider.; For example, the well-known configuration endpoint, also called the discovery endpoint or discovery URL, is a specific endpoint, published by the OpenID Connect provider, that returns a list of key values for different aspects of the OpenID Connect standard that the provider supports, such as the grant types, response types, and signature algorithms supported.; For OpenPass, the well-known configuration endpoint is https://auth.myopenpass.com/.well-known/openid-configuration.
Win: A win is the count of impressions won through auctions.
Win rate: Win rate is a percentage that measures the total number of impressions won divided by the total number of bids.

Y

Yield management: Yield management is the practice of adjusting the price of a product in response to market factors, like demand or competition. In programmatic advertising, the cost of impressions goes up or down based on the number of advertisers bidding for that impression.