Simplifying Digital Advertising: How to Sell Without the Jargon

What Is Digital Advertising Jargon? 

There’s no single definition for what falls under this umbrella. Often, jargon appears when explaining things like campaign performance metrics or how digital ads work.  

Here are some examples: 

• Clicks are a well-known metric for any kind of ad. It’s universal, but it’s still jargon. Instead of using clicks, say website traffic. That’s what a click is, and it makes more sense to the business.
• Programmatic advertising is another term with broad understanding. It includes display, geofencing and OTT/CTV. It’s definitely an industry term. It’s easier just to talk about tactics themselves, such as banner ads on websites and streaming ads. Your customers will be able to relate to this more. 

The Best Ways to Present Digital Without the Jargon

If this is your first conversation with a local company about digital, you’ll already have a sense of their digital knowledge. You’ve completed your due diligence of checking out their website, social profiles and digital footprint.

Regardless of whether they’ve had one digital campaign or 100, this is a new opportunity. You can start by asking them some simple questions about digital:

• What kind of ads do you think of when I say digital?
• Where would you like ads about your business to show up?
• How do people currently find you online?

The answers to these will give you a good idea of how digitally savvy they are and provide some clues about expectations.

You can then present different ad categories, how they work and why they are a good option for their goals. This is where it’s easy to slip into jargon, using terms like third-party digital, flighting or CPM (cost per mille).

You can lose someone quickly, even if they know what these terms are. It can be hard to correct this if you’re used to using these phrases. If you want to change this habit, try some role play with your fellow sellers. You could even make a game, with the person using the least jargon winning.

Jargon vs. Simple Language

Here are some examples.

Flighting vs. Budget Scheduling

Flighting means being able to schedule spending strategically. A campaign could have multiple “flights.” It allows for spending to be higher in some durations, which may be a wise move depending on the promotion and audience.

Instead of calling it flighting, just say it’s budget scheduling. Then explain how it may be beneficial to increase or decrease dollars for specific periods.

CPM vs. Impression Costs

CPM is jargon, but also well-known in the advertising world. It’s the cost for 1,000 impressions. It’s much easier just to say it’s the cost for impressions. You may also want to explain impressions just in case.

Geotargeting or Location-Based Target vs. Location

A big part of a local digital ad campaign is the geography. It may be as small as one ZIP code. Geotargeting and location-based targeting can be a mouthful. While not too hard to understand, you can just call it location. Let advertisers know you can get very specific here to reach folks just in certain neighborhoods.

Completion Rate vs. Watches

For any type of video ad (display, streaming, etc.), completion rate will be part of the metrics. It indicates the percentage of people who watched it all the way through. So, why not just call it watches? It’s simple and to the point!

OTT/CTV vs. Streaming Ads

OTT and CTV ads are how we classify them, but again, it’s jargon. If you ask the everyday person what OTT and CTV are, they may be clueless. However, if you said streaming ads, they’d know what you mean.

That’s the approach to take with advertisers. They are most likely streamers, and they understand the concept of these ads. Just remember to enlighten them on how different they are from traditional TV spots.