Retail media glossary: terms buyers should know

Retail media comes with its own vocabulary, and new buyers often meet a dozen unfamiliar terms in their first proposal. This retail media glossary defines 25 of the most common ones in plain language, grouped by where they come up: planning, buying, measurement and creative. It's a reference to keep open while reading proposals and reports.

Definitions describe how terms are generally used in the industry. Individual networks may use some of them slightly differently, so it's worth confirming.

Which planning terms come up most?

Retail media is advertising sold by retailers or retail networks on their own properties, such as websites, apps and in-store screens. The retail media overview covers the category in depth. A retail media network is the organization that sells that advertising across a set of stores or properties.

DOOH, or digital out-of-home, is advertising on digital screens in public places, including stores.

Endemic advertisers sell products the store carries. Non-endemic advertisers sell products or services the store doesn't carry, such as insurance or entertainment.

A SKU, or stock keeping unit, is a specific item, such as one flavor in one size. SKU-level targeting focuses a campaign on specific items.

An audience index compares a location's characteristics or sales for a category with a baseline, where 100 means equal to the baseline. Networks build indexes differently, so ask how.

Geographic targeting limits a campaign to certain areas, such as metros or zip codes.

Which buying terms should you know?

A direct buy is a campaign purchased by working with the network's team.

Programmatic advertising is the purchase of ad inventory through technology platforms rather than manual negotiation.

A PMP, or private marketplace, is an invitation-only programmatic arrangement between a seller and selected buyers, usually with agreed terms.

A flight is the period a campaign runs, from start date to end date.

Pacing is how actual delivery compares with planned delivery at a point in the flight.

Share of rotation is how often an ad plays within a screen's loop of content, compared with other ads and content.

Which measurement terms matter?

An impression is one opportunity for an ad to be seen. In DOOH, impressions may be counted as plays or estimated as viewers, depending on the network.

Reach is the number of different people exposed to an ad. Frequency is the average number of times each of them was exposed.

CPM, or cost per mille, is the cost of 1,000 impressions.

Control stores are stores similar to the advertised ones that didn't run the campaign, used as a comparison.

Incrementality is the portion of results that the campaign actually caused, measured against a comparison.

ROAS, or return on ad spend, is sales attributed to a campaign divided by its cost. The method behind the attribution matters.

Share of category is a brand's sales divided by total category sales in the same stores and period.

Which creative terms will you see?

Creative specs are a network's technical requirements for ad files, such as dimensions, formats and durations. NRS Digital Media publishes its requirements on the creative specs page.

A safe area is the part of the screen where important text and images should stay so nothing is cut off.

Wear-out is the decline in an ad's effect as the same people see it repeatedly.

A glance test is a quick check: show the creative briefly, then ask what it said. If the viewer can't recall the product and message, the creative needs simplifying.