Advertising Agencies Key Terms

Understanding terms advertising agencies might throw at you

As your business grows, you may find you need to hire an advertising agency to help you come up with new and creative ways to make consumers aware of your products or services. If you're not familiar with the advertising industry, an agency may suggest ideas to you that you don't fully understand. Be on the same page with an advertising agency by familiarizing yourself with these key terms before you hire one.

AE

AE stands for account executive. The AE is the employee of an advertising agency who deals directly with the client and conveys the client's needs and desires to the advertising team. The AE will help you maintain your advertising budget and will present new advertising ideas to you from the creative team.

Share of voice

Share of voice, also known as SOV, is the total percentage that your company possesses of your target market. For example, if you own a house-cleaning business and target working mothers, your SOV is the percentage of working mothers that actually use your service.

Branding

Branding is increasing consumer recognition of your company's product or service through advertising and quality. Typically, it is a name, logo, slogan or label that allows your product to stand out from the competition based upon the product's performance and recognition through advertising mediums.

Above the fold

Above the fold indicates a headline or advertising banner that is completely visible to the consumer without the need to scroll on a Web page or unfold a newspaper or magazine. Some agencies refer to this as "before the scroll."

Campaign

An advertising campaign is a specific set of coordinated marketing strategies with the common goal of conveying a specific need or desire within the consumer and the ability of a company's product or service to wholly meet that need.

CPA

CPA stands for cost per action. This phrase is interchangeable with CPL (cost per lead) or CPS (cost per sale). Basically, CPL means that a publisher charges your company so much for each individual who clicks on the ad at the publisher's Web site, which results in lead generation through a specific action (such as signing up for a quote or making a purchase through your Web site).

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