Advertising (ADV)
Paid digital advertising. On this site, it refers to online advertising campaigns.
Adefence Glossary
The technical terms used on the site, explained clearly.
Paid media
Channels where advertisers pay to show ads and generate clicks or visits.
Invalid traffic (IVT)
Clicks and visits that do not represent genuine interest in a product or service.
GIVT
General Invalid Traffic: invalid traffic that is usually easy to identify, such as known bots and crawlers.
SIVT
Sophisticated Invalid Traffic: invalid traffic that is harder to identify because it can mimic human behavior.
Click fraud
Ad clicks made without genuine commercial interest that can consume advertising budget.
Bot
Software that visits pages or interacts with ads automatically. Not every bot is necessarily harmful.
Click farm
A network of people or systems used to generate clicks and interactions artificially.
AI agent
Software that can browse or perform online actions on a person’s behalf. Its interactions need to be assessed in context.
IP address
A network identifier associated with a device’s connection. By itself, it cannot establish the quality of a visit.
VPN
A connection that routes traffic through another server. Using one does not automatically indicate fraud.
Proxy
A server between a device and a website that can change the visible origin of a connection.
Fingerprinting
Analysis of technical characteristics of a visit to recognize patterns even when the IP address changes.
Risk score
A score summarizing the risk assigned to a visit after several signals have been analyzed.
Placement
The position or space where an ad appears.
Conversion
An action measured after an ad interaction, such as a purchase, form submission or signup.
Lead
A contact acquired through a campaign; not necessarily a customer.
Qualified lead
A contact assessed as matching the business’s sales goals.
Funnel
The path from the first visit to later actions, such as an inquiry, purchase and business outcome.
CRM
A system that manages contacts and sales opportunities and records lead outcomes.
First-party data
Data a business collects directly through its own systems and customer interactions.
Pixel
A small piece of code placed on a website to collect events for connection and analysis.
API
An interface that lets different software systems exchange data in a controlled way.
Conversion signal
Information sent to an advertising platform about an action and its value.
Bidding
The process of deciding how much to bid for an ad placement.
Smart Bidding
Automated Google Ads strategies that use conversion signals to optimize bids.
Value-based bidding
Bid optimization based on the value assigned to conversions, not just their number.
Conversion adjustment
An update to a conversion’s value or status when its real outcome changes.
ROAS
The ratio of revenue attributed to advertising to the amount spent on advertising.
NetROAS
A ratio comparing net value retained after relevant adjustments and costs with advertising spend.
Performance Max
A Google Ads campaign type that runs ads across multiple Google properties.
Search, Display and Shopping
Google Ads campaign types for search results, display placements and product listings, respectively.