Buzz Words
CLICK THROUGH
How often a viewer will respond to an ad by clicking on it. Also known as the Click Rate.
COOKIES
Information from a site that gets stored on a viewer's Web browser to help identify that particular person--or at least that particular browser--the next time it visits. Cookies can help determine traffic to Web sites by keeping track of how often a particular surfer returns--info that advertisers covet.
COST PER CLICK (CPC)
The ad rate charged only if the surfer responds to a displayed ad.
COST PER LEAD/SALE
The rate charged to advertisers only if the viewer responds with personal info such as E-mail address or hobbies. The info must provide either a sales lead or product sale to obtain the fee.
COST PER THOUSAND (CPM)
The ad rate Web sites charge for displaying a particular ad one thousand times, or ''impressions.''
IMPRESSIONS
The total number of times an ad is displayed on a Web page. Impressions are not the same as ''hits,'' which count the number of times each page or element in a page is retrieved. Since a single complicated page on a Web site could consist of five or more individual elements, including graphics and text, one viewer calling up that page would register multiple hits but just a single impression.
KEYWORD ADS
Featured primarily on Web search-engine sites, such as Yahoo!, advertisers can link a specific ad to text or subject matter that an information seeker may enter. Miller Brewing, for example, bought the word ''beer'' on Yahoo! so that every time someone conducts a search using that term, an ad for ''Miller Genuine Draft Beer'' pops up.
INTERSTITIALS, OR IN-YOUR-FACE ADS
Akin to TV ads, these use video and sound. When users click on the ''nutrition'' site at Phys.com, a health site produced by Conde Nast, a separate window pops up to display an animated ad for Procter & Gamble's Sunny Delight drink. These ads are controversial, however, because they can be intrusive--sometimes appearing before the Web page that was called up.
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