The Programmatic Glossary
A practical glossary designed to help marketers, advertisers and ad-tech professionals understand the terminology that powers programmatic advertising
Technical Infrastructure
JavaScript Tag
A small piece of JavaScript code that a publisher places on their webpage to connect it to an ad server, SSP or other advertising technology. When the page loads, the tag runs and triggers the ad-serving process.
HOW IT WORKS
The tag is placed in the HTML of the webpage. When a user visits the page, their browser runs the JavaScript, which calls out to the ad technology platform (SSP, ad server, etc.), passes information about the page and user, and receives an ad to display. Everything happens automatically each time the page loads.
EXAMPLE
A publisher signs up with an SSP. The SSP gives them a JavaScript tag to paste into their website's code. From that point, every time the page loads, the tag fires, connects to the SSP, and the SSP fills the ad slot programmatically — without the publisher needing to do anything further.
RELATED TERMS
Ad Server | SSP | SDK | Prebid | Header Bidding
★ LIMELIGHT INSIGHT: Publishers integrating with Limelight can do so via JavaScript tags, among other methods. The Limelight team provides implementation support to make integration as simple as possible.
