Ad tech glossary: what a line item is in ad servers and DSPs
· 48m ago · Originally reported by PPC Land
This is a glossary-style explainer of the term 'line item' rather than a news event. A line item is the unit inside an ad server or DSP that holds one buy's flight dates, pricing, targeting rules and creatives. It sits beneath a parent order or insertion order.
Why it matters
Line items are the basic building blocks of every programmatic or direct campaign, so understanding them helps beginners follow how media buys are actually configured and executed.
Explain it like I’m new here
Think of a campaign as a book, the insertion order as a chapter, and the line item as a single page where all the specific instructions — budget, timing, who sees the ad — are written down.
Terms in this story
Ad server
An ad server is the software that stores ads, decides which ad to show in each slot based on rules and priorities, delivers it, and counts impressions and clicks.
DSP (demand-side platform)
A DSP (demand-side platform) is software that advertisers and agencies use to buy ad impressions automatically across many exchanges and publishers, deciding which impressions to bid on and how much.
Targeting
Targeting is choosing which people, contexts, places, devices or times should see an ad, so that the budget is spent on the audiences most likely to respond.
Creative
A creative is the actual ad content a person sees or hears, such as an image, video, audio spot, HTML5 animation or native text, delivered into an ad slot.
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