Ad slot
A space on a website where one banner shows. Each slot has a main size, optional extra sizes, and its own embed code. More positions on a page need more slots.
Help Glossary
Glossary of terms.
The words used across Sputnik Signal, the portal, and reports, each in a sentence or three. For how the numbers are calculated in reports, see reports and metrics.
Terms
Responsive slot
An ad slot with more than one size. When the page loads, Signal serves the largest of the slot's sizes that fits the space the slot has on that screen. One snippet covers desktop and mobile.
Banner exchange
A network where members show each other's banners. Showing other members' banners on your website earns credits, and credits pay for showing your own banners on theirs. No money changes hands.
Impression credit
The unit of the exchange. One credit pays for one showing of your banner. You earn 1 credit for each valid ad shown on your website.
Starter rate
The higher earning rate for new members. For the first 25,000 ads shown on a new member's websites, every 10 shown earn 11 credits. After that, each ad shown earns 1 credit.
Welcome credits
The 10,000 credits added to your account when you verify your email.
Ads shown (served)
Ads delivered into a slot for a real visitor. Rejected requests and likely bots are not counted.
Actually seen (viewable)
An ad shown that was really on screen: at least 50% of the ad visible for 1 second in an active browser tab. Large ads, such as the 970×250 billboard, need 30%.
Seen rate (viewability)
Ads actually seen divided by ads that loaded on the page, as a percentage. A low seen rate usually means the slot sits far down the page.
Clicks
Unique clicks on an ad. Repeat clicks from the same visitor on the same ad count once.
Click rate (CTR)
Clicks divided by ads shown, as a percentage.
Fill rate
The share of valid ad requests that got an ad: ads shown divided by ads shown plus empty slots.
Empty slot (no-fill)
A valid ad request with no eligible banner to show. The embed hides the slot unless the webmaster asks it to keep the space. Empty slots never earn credits.
House ad
A banner from the network itself, shown when no member campaign fits a slot. House ads never earn credits and never use a campaign's credits.
Remaining credits
A campaign's total shows minus the ads it has shown so far. It never goes below zero.
Self-promotion block
The rule that a campaign never serves on a website matching its own click URL domain. A member's campaigns can still show on the member's other websites; those shows earn no credits, and the member can block them per site.
First-party embed
The code a webmaster pastes for each slot: an empty container and one async script from the Signal host. The ad request, banner image, seen reports, and click redirect all use that same host.
Placement key
The public identifier inside a slot's embed code. It tells Signal which slot is asking for an ad. Do not edit it.
Approval queue
Where uploaded banners wait for an operator to review them. Pending and rejected banners do not serve.