Navigating the digital marketing landscape starts with understanding the language. Our Beginner’s Online Advertising Glossary is your go-to guide for learning essential terms—from A to Z.

Whether you’re exploring programmatic, eCommerce, SEM, or performance marketing, this glossary breaks down complex terms into simple explanations to boost your confidence and strategy skills.

Start learning the lingo and sharpen your digital marketing game today!

D

Data Alliance: A data provider that blank-labels third-party audience data and charges based on a percentage of an ad campaign’s total media cost.

Data management platform (DMP): Collects, processes, and stores large amounts of audience data such as cookie IDs, first-party data, and third-party data, while handling vast quantities of information in real time to better target online ads at specific audiences on a given website.

Data marketplace: An online platform that facilitates the buying and selling of data.

Data onboarding: When advertisers move data from one technology platform to another.

Data-driven marketing: Reaching 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.

Dayparting: A strategy that enables advertisers to schedule and display ads for specific times of day or days of the week to reach audiences more effectively.

Deal ID: A unique number in a private marketplace, assigned to an ad buy that enables buyers and sellers to identify and match with one another based on pre-negotiated criteria.

Are you looking to learn Online Advertising jargons? Here is the comprehensive online advertising glossary for beginners to learn digital marketing key terms from our Online Advertising Glossary.

Decisioning: The power advertisers have in programmatic advertising to make decisions on who, where, when, what, and how to spend.

De-duplication window: The period of time during which duplicate clicks or conversions are disregarded for attribution in order to filter out user errors.

Demand-side platform (DSP): An ad platform that helps advertisers buy ads through real-time bidding exchanges and manage multiple ad exchange accounts in order to optimize bidding processes using a single interface.

Demographic data: Information about a person’s age range and/​or gender.

Demographic targeting: Targeting audiences based on age range and/​or gender.

Deterministic data: Data that is known to be true when linking to an individual and used to identify them 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: Hardware that is used to consume digital media and that supports digital advertising.

Device ID: A unique string of numbers and letters that identifies an individual smartphone or tablet that can be retrieved by an app.

Digital advertising campaign: A type of marketing plan, or campaign, that is facilitated via online channels like mobile, websites, streaming, and more.

Digital out-of-home (DOOH): An ad environment made up of outdoor ad placements like digital billboards and signs in a variety of locations.

Direct response marketing: A marketing technique designed to elicit an instant response by encouraging prospective customers to take a specific action.

Direct-to-consumer (DTC): The act of selling products directly to people without the use of third-party intermediaries or brick-and-mortar stores.

Display advertising: Advertising in which ads are served in standard, reserved spaces on webpages, generally at the top, middle, side, or bottom.

Dynamic creative: Personalizes advertising by assembling multiple iterations of an ad based on audience, context, browsing data, ad engagement, or historical performance.

Dynamic creative optimization (DCO): Personalizes advertising by assembling multiple iterations of an ad based on audience, context, browsing data, ad engagement, or historical performance.

Dynamic Creative Rules: The guardrails put in place when using dynamic creative optimization to ensure that the correct combination of messages and images are swapped out and shown to the right audience.

Dynamic parameters: Code that advertisers add to images or universal pixels to allow sites to pass specific information from the page about revenue, order size, and any details that may be present on a page based on a user’s activity.

Data Pixel: A small piece of code placed on a website to track user behavior and collect data. It helps advertisers understand how visitors interact with a site, such as tracking page views, conversions, or ad performance.

Data Retargeting: A technique where previously collected user data is used to serve ads to people who have already interacted with a brand. It helps re-engage potential customers and guide them further down the sales funnel.

Data Segment: A group of users that share similar characteristics or behaviors, grouped together for targeting purposes. For example, users who have visited a product page can be part of a “product interest” segment.

Default Ad: A fallback ad that is displayed when no other ads are available to fill an impression. It’s typically a low-priority or house ad used to ensure that inventory doesn’t go unfilled.

Digital Media Plan: A strategic document that outlines where, when, and how digital ads will run. It includes budgets, targeting details, and KPIs to ensure the campaign aligns with overall marketing goals.

Digital Touchpoint: Any interaction a consumer has with a brand in the digital space—such as website visits, social media interactions, or email opens. Advertisers map these touchpoints to optimize the customer journey.

Discrepancy (Ad Tracking): The difference in reported metrics between ad platforms (e.g., impressions or clicks reported by the publisher vs. the advertiser). This can occur due to timing differences, ad blockers, or tracking errors.

Domain Spoofing: A type of ad fraud where bad actors misrepresent low-quality websites as premium ones. It tricks advertisers into paying premium prices for low-value inventory.

Download Tracking: Used to measure when users download an app or file after engaging with an ad. It helps advertisers determine campaign effectiveness, especially in mobile marketing.

Drip Campaign: An automated series of messages sent over time to guide leads through a marketing funnel. While more common in email marketing, it can also apply to display or retargeting campaigns.

Drop-off Rate: The percentage of users who leave a site or abandon a process before completing a desired action, like filling out a form. High drop-off rates often signal friction in the user experience.

Duplicate Impression: Occurs when the same ad is shown to the same user multiple times in a short span. Managing this is important to avoid ad fatigue and wasted spend.

Dynamic Bid Adjustment: A bidding strategy where the ad platform automatically increases or decreases bids in real time based on factors like device, location, or time of day. It helps optimize performance and budget efficiency.

Digital Attribution: A method of evaluating which digital channels or touchpoints contributed to a conversion. Attribution models help marketers understand what’s driving results and how to allocate budgets.

Source: The TradeDesk