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WTF is cheap reach?

This article is a WTF explainer, in which we break down media and marketing’s most confusing terms. More from the series →

“Cheap” and “reach” are typically favored terms among advertisers. But taken together, they spell the next potential target for the digital ad industry to weed out.

“Cheap reach” refers to a subset of digital ad inventory that may be often overlooked — literally — and may be a necessary new taxonomy to prevent legitimate publishers from getting caught up in the crackdown on made-for-advertising sites. In the video below, Digiday media editor Kayleigh Barber helps to break down what cheap reach is, why this inventory category was created and why advertisers are not yet scrambling to excise it from their ad buys.

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