The ad tech glossary

309 terms, each answered in one sentence, then explained properly with an analogy and a worked example.

All Basics Programmatic Invalid traffic & fraud Measurement Data & identity Privacy & regulation CTV & video Mobile & app Retail & commerce Formats & creative Business & finance Search & social Supply chain Audio & DOOH

A

Ad fraud IVT: Ad fraud is the deliberate faking or misrepresenting of ad impressions, clicks, installs or conversions so that someone gets paid for advertising that no real, interested human saw or did.
Ad injection IVT: Ad injection is inserting ads into websites without the site owner's permission, usually via browser extensions, adware or compromised networks, so a third party earns money from someone else's pages.
Ad stacking IVT: Ad stacking is piling several ads on top of each other in one ad slot, so only the top ad is visible but every ad in the stack is counted and billed.
App spoofing IVT: App spoofing is misrepresenting which mobile or CTV app an ad slot belongs to, typically by faking the app's bundle ID, so cheap or fake inventory is sold as a popular app.
Attribution fraud IVT: Attribution fraud is manipulating how conversions are credited, so a fraudster claims payment for installs, sales or leads it did not actually cause, often by faking or timing clicks.
Auto-refresh abuse IVT: Auto-refresh abuse is reloading ad slots so often, or regardless of whether anyone is looking, that impressions multiply without real added attention, inflating counts and cutting advertiser value.

B

Behavioral analysis IVT: Behavioral analysis in fraud detection is examining how a visitor interacts, such as mouse movements, taps, scrolling, typing rhythm and session timing, to tell real humans from bots and scripted activity.
Bot traffic IVT: Bot traffic is visits, ad impressions or clicks generated by automated software rather than people, ranging from honest search crawlers to fraudulent bots built to look human.
Botnet IVT: A botnet is a network of computers, phones or smart devices infected with malware and remotely controlled by criminals, often used to generate fake ad impressions and clicks from real consumer devices.

C

Click farm IVT: A click farm is an operation where low-paid workers, or racks of phones, repeatedly click ads, install apps, like posts or watch videos to fake genuine engagement.
Click fraud IVT: Click fraud is generating fake or worthless clicks on pay-per-click ads, by bots, paid people or malware, to drain an advertiser's budget or inflate a publisher's earnings.
Click injection IVT: Click injection is mobile ad fraud where a malicious app detects another app being installed and fires a fake ad click just before the install completes, stealing the credit.
Click spamming IVT: Click spamming, or click flooding, is sending huge numbers of fake ad clicks for devices that never saw an ad, hoping some later install organically so the spammer gets attribution credit.
Cloaking IVT: Cloaking is showing different content to ad reviewers, crawlers or verification tools than to real users, so a harmful, fraudulent or policy-breaking ad or site slips past checks.
Cookie stuffing IVT: Cookie stuffing is secretly placing affiliate or tracking cookies on a person's browser without a real click or referral, so a fraudster gets commission if that person later buys something.

D

Data anomaly detection IVT: Data anomaly detection is spotting unusual patterns in traffic or campaign data, such as sudden spikes, impossible ratios or odd timing, that suggest fraud, errors or broken tracking.
Data center traffic IVT: Data center traffic is ad or web activity coming from IP addresses owned by cloud and hosting providers rather than homes or mobile networks, which usually means automation rather than a person.
Device farm IVT: A device farm is a physical collection of real phones or TVs, often racked on walls and controlled by scripts or workers, used to generate fake installs, ad views and engagement.
Device fingerprinting IVT: Device fingerprinting is identifying or characterising a device from the combination of its technical attributes, such as browser, fonts, screen, graphics and network traits, instead of a stored cookie or ID.
Device spoofing IVT: Device spoofing is faking the identity or type of device requesting an ad, such as a server posing as a smart TV or iPhone, to earn higher prices or dodge detection.
Domain spoofing IVT: Domain spoofing is misrepresenting the website where an ad will run, so that inventory from a low-quality or fake site is sold to advertisers as if it came from a premium publisher.

E

Emulator farm IVT: An emulator farm is a set of servers running many software-simulated phones or TVs, used to fake app installs, ad views and engagement at scale without real devices.

F

Fraud detection IVT: Fraud detection in advertising is the process and technology of identifying invalid or fraudulent impressions, clicks, installs and conversions, so they can be blocked in advance or excluded from billing.
Fraud rate IVT: Fraud rate is the percentage of impressions, clicks, installs or conversions judged to be deliberately fraudulent, a narrower measure than IVT rate, which also includes innocent invalid traffic.

G

GIVT (general invalid traffic) IVT: GIVT (general invalid traffic) is invalid traffic that can be identified with routine, list-based or parameter-based filtration, such as known crawlers, data-center traffic and non-browser user agents.

H

Headless browser IVT: A headless browser is a web browser that runs without a visible window, controlled by code; widely used for testing and scraping, and by bots to fake human visits and ad views.
Hidden ads IVT: Hidden ads are ads that load and count as impressions but are placed where no one can see them, such as off-screen, behind other content, stacked or shrunk to tiny sizes.
Honeypot IVT: In ad fraud research, a honeypot is a decoy, such as a trap website or hidden form field, that no genuine person should touch, used to expose bots and fraud.
Human fraud farms IVT: Human fraud farms are organised groups of paid people who manually perform ad-related actions, such as clicking, installing, watching, signing up or reviewing, to fake genuine consumer engagement.

I

IAB/ABC Spiders & Bots List IVT: The IAB/ABC International Spiders & Bots List is an industry-maintained list of known crawler and bot user agents, plus valid browser patterns, used to filter general invalid traffic from ad measurement.
Incentivized traffic IVT: Incentivized traffic is visits, clicks, installs or ad views from people who were rewarded, with money, points, game currency or perks, to take the action, rather than acting from genuine interest.
Install fraud IVT: Install fraud is faking app installs, or stealing credit for real ones, so that advertisers pay cost-per-install fees for users who do not exist or would have installed anyway.
Invalid traffic (IVT) IVT: Invalid traffic (IVT) is any impression, click or visit not coming from a real person with a genuine chance to see the ad, whether caused by bots, fraud or error.
IVT rate IVT: IVT rate is the share of measured impressions, clicks or visits identified as invalid traffic, usually shown as a percentage and often split into GIVT and SIVT.

L

Lead generation fraud IVT: Lead generation fraud is submitting fake, stolen or incentivized form fills, such as sign-ups, quote requests or demo bookings, so that advertisers pay for leads that are not genuine prospects.

M

Malvertising IVT: Malvertising is using online ads to spread malware, scams or forced redirects, by sneaking harmful code or deceptive landing pages into ad creatives served through legitimate ad networks.
MRC IVT guidelines IVT: The MRC IVT guidelines are the Media Rating Council's standards for detecting and filtering invalid traffic in ad measurement, defining the GIVT and SIVT categories that accredited measurers must handle.

P

Pixel stuffing IVT: Pixel stuffing is squeezing an ad, or a whole page of ads, into a tiny frame, often 1x1 pixel, so it counts as served but no one can see it.
Post-bid measurement IVT: Post-bid measurement is analysing ads after they have been bought and served, checking for invalid traffic, viewability and brand safety in the real environment, to report quality and support refunds.
Pre-bid filtering IVT: Pre-bid filtering is checking each ad opportunity for invalid traffic, fraud or brand-safety risk before a buyer bids on it, so bad impressions are avoided rather than refunded later.

R

Refunds and clawbacks IVT: Refunds and clawbacks are the processes by which advertisers get money back, and publishers lose earnings, for impressions or clicks later identified as invalid traffic or fraud.
Residential proxy IVT: A residential proxy routes internet traffic through real home or mobile IP addresses, making automated or fraudulent traffic look as if it comes from ordinary households instead of servers.

S

SDK spoofing IVT: SDK spoofing is mobile ad fraud in which fabricated install or in-app event messages, mimicking a real measurement SDK, are sent straight to attribution servers without any real device or user.
SIVT (sophisticated invalid traffic) IVT: SIVT (sophisticated invalid traffic) is invalid traffic designed to look human or legitimate, which can only be found through advanced analytics, multi-point corroboration and often human review.
Sourced (purchased) traffic IVT: Sourced traffic is website or app visitors that a publisher buys from third parties, such as ad networks, content-recommendation widgets or traffic vendors, rather than attracting them organically.
SSAI spoofing IVT: SSAI spoofing is CTV and video fraud in which fraudsters imitate a server-side ad insertion system, sending fake ad requests that appear to come from real viewers watching real streams.

T

TAG Certified Against Fraud IVT: TAG Certified Against Fraud is a certification from the Trustworthy Accountability Group for companies that meet anti-fraud requirements such as MRC-standard IVT filtering and supply-chain transparency.
TQI Score™ (Traffic Quality Index) IVT: The TQI Score™ (Traffic Quality Index) is ClearTrust's traffic-quality metric, a 0-10 score with a risk level, built from 150+ filters checking for bots, unsafe traffic and fake clicks or impressions.
Traffic quality IVT: Traffic quality is how genuine, attentive and valuable a source of visitors or ad impressions is, combining invalid-traffic levels with signals like viewability, engagement, brand safety and conversion.