Decoding the jargon behind Google’s antitrust ad tech trial: a glossary for the confused

If we’ve missed any, let us know.

AdSense

Google’s ad network — a proprietary platform that allows publishers to place ads on their sites and earn money whenever users click on them.

AdX

Google’s programmatic marketplace for buying and selling display ad space, where deals happen in real time.

Ad exchange

A virtual marketplace where advertisers and publishers meet to buy and sell ad space, usually in real-time auctions.

Ad server

Software that publishers use to manage, sell and serve up ad space on their websites.

Ad stack

A toolkit of ad technologies designed to deliver, target and measure digital ads with precision.

Ad tech

Short for advertising technology, it encompasses all the software and tools used to deliver, target and analyze digital ads.

Authorized buyers

Ad tech that isn’t Google-owned but still gets a pass to sell on its AdX programmatic auctions.

Demand-side platform (DSP)

A system that lets advertisers purchase ad inventory from various ad exchanges all in one place, using a single interface.

Display & Video 360 (DV360)

Formerly known as DoubleClick Bid Manager, DV360 was Google’s DSP. It had a full suite of tools for planning campaigns, managing creatives, organizing audience data, buying ad inventory and optimizing performance. It was rebranded under the Google Marketing Platform umbrella on July 24, 2018.

DoubleClick

An ad tech company acquired by Google in 2008, which provided various advertising services and technologies.

DoubleClick DART (or Dynamic Advertising, Reporting and Targeting)

Once the flagship product of DoubleClick, designed to boost ad efficiency and reduce unsold inventory for publishers. Over time, it evolved into what we now know as Google Ad Manager, Google’s comprehensive ad-serving platform for publishers.

DoubleClick for Publishers

Google’s ad server for publishers, which eventually merged into the all-inclusive Google Ad Manager.

Enhanced Dynamic Allocation (EDA)

A Doubleclick for Publishers feature that lets indirect sales go head-to-head with direct sales, even the ones with guaranteed deals.

First-Price Auction

A programmatic auction system where the highest bidder wins and pays their exact bid amount.

Google Ads

This is what Google calls its advertiser-facing tool, letting businesses run campaigns across Google’s own platforms and third-party partner sites.

Google Ad Manager

The rebranded version of DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP), a comprehensive ad management platform.

Header bidding

Header bidding challenged Google’s dominance in digital advertising by allowing publishers to offer ad inventory to multiple exchanges simultaneously, rather than giving Google’s ad exchange first priority. This increased competition reduced Google’s preferential access, potentially lowering ad prices and impacting its market share.

Header bidding wrapper

A container for header bidding code.

Jedi Blue

The codename for a secret deal where, back in 2018, Google allegedly cut a slick arrangement with Facebook: In return for Facebook shelving its own header bidding plans, Google would dish out intel and other advantages in programmatic auctions.

Last-look

Google’s ad server used to give its own ad exchange a “last-look” edge, which annoyed publishers and sparked the rise of header bidding. But as of 2017, that advantage is officially history.

Open auction transaction

A digital ad auction where the impression is up for grabs, and nearly all buyers with exchange access can jump in.

Open bidding

Open bidding was Google’s response to header bidding, offering a server-side solution that integrated multiple ad exchanges within Google’s ad server. This allowed Google to streamline the auction process, reduce page load times and maintain control over ad inventory, countering the increased competition and transparency introduced by header bidding.

Preferred deal

A programmatic direct deal where a specific buyer gets first dibs on an impression, but there’s no guarantee they’ll seal the deal.

Private auction/private marketplace

A digital ad deal where an impression is offered to a handpicked group of buyers or advertisers chosen by the publisher.

Programmatic direct

A direct deal with a dash of automation handling the details.

Programmatic guaranteed

A programmatic direct deal where a publisher’s inventory is locked in and guaranteed for a specific buyer.

Project Bernanke

In 2013, Google launched Project Bernanke to boost the win rates of its advertiser clients on its ad exchange, AdX, ensuring they outperformed competitors using other platforms. While helping clients win more auctions isn’t inherently wrong, the issue lies in how Google achieved this. By altering the auction process to favor its own buyers, Google may have unfairly suppressed competition and reduced publishers’ earnings on AdX.

Project NERA

Google’s alleged codename for a plan to transform the web into its own walled garden — something it said was called “not owned but operated.”

Project Poirot

An internal Google initiative allegedly designed to sabotage header bidding, which allowed rival ad exchanges to compete more directly. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Google used Project Poirot to tweak its ad tech products to undercut competitors and disadvantage publishers.

Publisher ad server

A tool for publishers to manage and sell their ad space, deciding which ad to show to a user and displaying it on their site. Publisher ad servers handle both direct and indirect sales, with the final say on how ad inventory gets divvied up.

Real-time bidding

A fast bidding method for impressions, customized to the impression’s specifics, happening in the split seconds between when a user lands on a site and the impression gets sold.

Reserve price optimization

An alleged scheme to manipulate ad auction prices, spotlighted more in the state attorneys general’s complaint than in the DOJ’s lawsuit.

Second-price auction

This is a bidding system where the highest bidder wins, but instead of paying their own bid amount, they pay the amount of the second-highest bid. The advantage of a second-price auction is that it encourages bidders to bid their true value, since the winning bidder pays just enough to beat the second-highest bidder, not necessarily their full bid.

Supply-side platform (SSP)

A technology platform that publishers use to manage, sell and optimize their available ad space across multiple ad networks.

Take rate

An industry term for the cut ad tech intermediaries take. For instance, if an ad exchange keeps 20% of what buyers spend, its take rate or revenue share is 20%.

Unified pricing

A feature that lets publishers set and unify price floors across all programmatic demand in Google Ad Manager (GAM).

Waterfall

A process where publisher ad servers ping different demand sources one by one to sell an ad impression.