Traffic
Jargon
If you are new
to selling traffic, you are likely to come across some
new terms. This section explains some of the most important
terms.
Hit
– technically a hit occurs when
a file is loaded from a web server. Several hits will
occur when a web page is loaded – e.g. one hit
for each image on the page and one hit for the page
itself. In common usage, however, people are referring
to visits when they use the term hit.
Visit
– a visit
occurs when someone loads a web page from your server
thus “visiting” your site. The number of
hits will always be equal to or greater than the number
of visits.
Impression
– usually used to
refer to a single display of a banner ad. For example,
1,000 impressions of a banner implies that the banner
was seen 1,000 times. Some traffic services use the
term impression to refer to a visit
CPM
– short
for Cost Per Thousand (in case you are wondering, the
M is the roman numeral for 1,000). Prices are often
quoted as “$X CPM” - for example, $2 CPM
indicates a price of $2 per thousand. (Note: it is not
correct to say “$X per CPM”)
CPC
– short for cost per click. Often used in banner
advertising to sell or buy banner clicks. For example
$0.15 CPC means 15 cents per click.
Unique
Traffic – 1,000
visits could be achieved by having one person load a
page 1,000 times or by having 1,000 people load a page
one time. If visits are unique, a single user is counted
only once in a certain period of time. Usually, a level
of uniqueness is specified such as: “X hour unique”
– that is, the same user is only counted once
every X hours. Most commonly, traffic is 6, 12 or 24
hour unique. Usually, a user is identified by his/her
IP address, which is unique to every computer on the
internet. In some cases, the determination of whether
a hit is unique depends on the server’s ability
to store a small identifying file on a visitor’s
computer (a“cookie”).
Raw Traffic
– refers
to traffic with no specified level of uniqueness. The
same user could be counted several times is he/she reloads
the campaign page. On average, raw traffic is 50-75%
unique.
Popup
– a popup window is a new browser window. Usually,
the window will open automatically when a page is loaded
or unloaded. There could be more than one popup window
loaded by a page.
Pop
under
–
A popup window that is displayed under the main browser
windows
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