Above the fold
The part of an email message or webpage that is visible without scrolling. Material in this area is considered more valuable because the reader sees it first. Also refers to a printing term for the top half of a newspaper above the fold. (IAB)
Aggregate
A summary measure made by adding two or more separate measures.
Ascription
Ascription is a model that is used to achieve a complete data set. The technique ascribes missing data by assigning responses from respondents who did not complete the product questionnaire (but completed readership) by “marrying” it to a respondent with similar demographic characteristics who did.
Attribute
A single piece of information known about a user and stored in a behavioural profile which may be used to match ad content to users. Attributes consist of demographic information (age, gender, geographical location), segment or cluster information (auto enthusiast), and retargeting information (visited Site X 2 days ago).
Audience
The total number of people or households usually expressed within a defined geographic area, who may receive an advertising message delivered by a medium or a combination of media.
Audited circulation
The distribution of a publication as certified by a recognized independent industry circulation auditing body.
Audience composition
The demographic makeup of people represented in an audience with respect to income group, age, sex, geography, etc.
Audience duplication
The measured overlap of potential exposure between different issues of the same publication or among issues of different publications.
Audience intelligence (AI)
The use of first- and third- party data to determine an advertiser’s audience.
Audience modelling
Potential customers modelled after an advertiser’s 1st party data (usually data from their customers who visit and make purchases from their websites). Attributes of the advertiser’s customers are matched against a larger audience, creating a pool of highly targetable and ‘pre-qualified’ users. Some companies refer to this also as ‘pre-targeting’.
Average
The most common average is the arithmetic mean. This is computed by adding a group of values together and dividing by the total number of values in the group.
Average age
Average age is based on all respondents who provided their age/ year of birth. Age was estimated for those who did not provide their year of birth by asking them to select an appropriate age range. The estimate was attained by assigning them to the mid-point of that range. The average age reflects the 18+ population as only adults are interviewed in the study.
Average frequency
Average number of times a consumer has been exposed to an advertisement in any medium that is part of an advertising campaign.
Average income
This is calculated by multiplying the total number of responses in each income range by the mid-point of the range and dividing by the total population. It does not include those who have no income. This is available for both household and personal income.
Average Issue Audience/Average issue readership (AIR)
An estimate of the number of people who read or looked into a surveyed issue of any given publication within its publication interval e.g. within the last seven days for a weekly publication.