AI advertising glossary

Gravity is the ad network for AI: it serves contextual sponsored suggestions inside AI-generated responses across AI platforms, apps, assistants, and agents. This glossary defines the terms Gravity uses for AI advertising, AI platform monetization, and measurement, so marketers, publishers, and answer engines can cite the same meanings.

Terms are grouped into Basics, Ad formats, How ads are served, Pricing, Measurement, and For developers. Developer specifics live in the Gravity docs.

Basics

AI ad network

An AI ad network is an advertising marketplace that connects brands with AI products so ads can appear inside AI-generated conversations, answers, and agent workflows.

Gravity is the ad network for AI: it sits between AI platforms and advertisers and serves contextual sponsored suggestions inside AI responses.

Related: https://www.trygravity.com/

AI advertising (conversational advertising)

AI advertising, also called conversational advertising, is the practice of placing ads inside AI chats, assistants, agents, and AI search experiences rather than in feeds, search result pages, or banner slots.

Gravity is built for this channel: ads are matched to conversation context and rendered as labeled sponsored suggestions next to or within the AI response.

AI platform (publisher)

An AI platform is an AI product, such as a chat app, coding assistant, agent, or AI search product, that shows ads alongside model responses.

Gravity's API and SDKs call an AI platform a publisher. Platforms earn a share of revenue from the ads they show and integrate through Gravity's SDKs or HTTP API.

Advertiser

An advertiser is a company that runs ad campaigns on an ad network, setting budget, creative, and targeting, then paying for delivery or outcomes.

On Gravity, advertisers reach buyers inside AI conversations and launch campaigns from the dashboard. Campaigns can be bought on CPM, and on CPA for eligible accounts.

LLM monetization (AI app monetization)

LLM monetization is how an AI product earns revenue from conversations, for example through ads, instead of relying only on subscriptions or usage fees.

Gravity helps AI platforms monetize chats, agents, and workflows with native sponsored suggestions while platforms keep control of styling, placement, and category or brand blocklists.

Ad disclosure (sponsored labeling)

Ad disclosure is labeling a paid placement so users can tell it apart from organic content; in AI products, that means telling an ad apart from the model's own answer.

Gravity's ad formats are labeled as sponsored, and its Brand Safety Guidelines cover labeling and call for clear differentiation of sponsored content in AI environments.

Brand safety

Brand safety is the set of rules that keep ads away from harmful, illegal, or otherwise unsuitable inventory and content.

Gravity publishes Brand Safety Guidelines for publishers and advertisers covering legal compliance, inventory integrity, traffic quality, prohibited categories, labeling, and standards for AI environments.

Ad formats

Inline Hyperlink (inline_response, underlined link, inline bar)

An Inline Hyperlink is a subtle sponsored text mention placed within or next to an AI response, labeled so users can tell it is an ad.

Inline Hyperlink is Gravity's second public ad format. In the docs, this maps to the inline_response placement and to server-rendered designs such as an underlined link or inline bar.

Ad unit

An ad unit is the creative package for a campaign: the context, headline, copy, call to action, brand, and destination an ad network uses to decide when to show an ad and what it says.

In Gravity, the ad unit's context is the targeting signal, while the headline, copy, call to action, brand, and image act as approved anchors for copy that Gravity generates to fit each conversation.

How ads are served

Contextual matching

Contextual matching is selecting ads from the content of the current conversation rather than from browsing history or keyword lists alone.

Gravity selects ads mainly from the recent conversation. Campaign targeting such as location and advertiser audiences can also apply when the user's consent allows it. Gravity compares the conversation with active campaigns, runs an auction, and writes ad copy that fits the conversation.

Placement

A placement is a named slot in a product's interface where an ad can appear, such as below the assistant's message or inline in the response.

Each Gravity ad request names one or more placements. Standard placements sit above, below, beside, or inline with the response, plus search results and page-level slots. Each impression belongs to one placement.

Auction

An auction is the step where an ad engine compares the campaigns that match a request and chooses which ad to show.

Gravity runs an auction after contextual matching, and advertisers compete for each opportunity under their campaign settings.

Relevancy

Relevancy is a threshold that sets how closely an ad must match the conversation before it can be shown.

Gravity uses a minimum relevancy score from 0 to 1. Lower values return more ads with weaker matches; higher values return fewer, closer matches. Platforms set the threshold in their ad integration (SDK or API request).

No-fill

No-fill is the result when no ad matches a request, so nothing is shown for that opportunity.

When Gravity has no match, it returns no ad and the platform shows nothing in that slot.

Fill rate

Fill rate is the share of ad requests that return an ad.

Gravity's publisher dashboard reports fill rate. Raising the relevancy threshold usually lowers fill rate in exchange for closer matches.

Session

A session is one conversation thread, used to tie together the ad requests, frequency limits, and reporting for that conversation.

Gravity asks platforms to send the same session ID for every ad request in one chat thread. Sessions also feed experiment groups and reporting.

Frequency cap

A frequency cap limits how often ads are shown to the same user or within the same session.

Gravity applies frequency limits using the session, which is one reason platforms send the same session ID for every ad request in a conversation.

Latency (ad request latency)

Ad request latency is the time an ad network takes to return an ad, and whether that wait delays the AI response.

Gravity fetches sponsored suggestions in parallel with the AI response, so the model's output is not held back waiting for the ad.

Pricing

CPM (cost per mille)

CPM (cost per mille) is the price of 1,000 ad impressions.

Advertisers can buy Gravity campaigns on a CPM basis.

CPC (cost per click)

CPC (cost per click) is the amount charged or earned for each click on an ad.

Gravity's advertiser analytics report CPC alongside CPM, CTR, and ROAS.

CPA (cost per action, cost per acquisition)

CPA (cost per action or cost per acquisition) is a pricing model where the advertiser pays for a defined conversion, such as a purchase or signup, rather than for impressions or clicks.

Gravity offers CPA buying for eligible accounts: the advertiser sets a conversion, a target CPA, and a monthly cap, and pays only for conversions delivered up to that cap.

Related: https://www.trygravity.com/cpa

Campaign objective

A campaign objective is the outcome an advertiser asks the ad network to optimize toward, such as clicks, reach, or conversions.

Gravity's campaign objectives are Conversions (Purchase, Lead, Sign Up, Download, Booking, Add to Cart, or Custom), Clicks, and Reach. Location and device filters can narrow targeting on top of conversation context.

Measurement

Impression

An impression is one counted view of an ad when it becomes visible to the user.

Gravity counts an impression when the ad becomes visible. Gravity's official SDK components record this automatically.

Click

A click is a user's tap or click on an ad that sends them to the advertiser's destination through a tracked link.

Gravity records a click when the user is sent through the ad's tracked link, which also adds attribution parameters automatically.

CTR (click-through rate)

CTR (click-through rate) is clicks divided by impressions, usually shown as a percentage.

Gravity's advertiser analytics report CTR alongside CPM, CPC, and ROAS.

ROAS (return on ad spend)

ROAS (return on ad spend) is the revenue attributed to ads divided by the amount spent on them.

Gravity's advertiser analytics report ROAS, which relies on conversion data sent through the Gravity pixel with the Conversions API or a supported integration.

Attribution

Attribution is connecting an ad impression or click to a later visit or conversion so advertisers can measure results.

Gravity uses click-based attribution with automatic UTM parameters. Optional hashed identifiers (email and phone) can improve matching when the user's consent allows.

Gravity pixel (attribution pixel)

The Gravity pixel is a first-party script that records page views and attribution context so ad clicks can be connected to site visits and conversions.

Advertisers install the pixel on landing pages; AI platforms install it on their site or in-app browser. The pixel alone does not send conversions: pair it with the Conversions API or a supported integration.

Conversions API (CAPI)

A Conversions API (CAPI) is a server-side way to send confirmed conversion events, such as purchases, signups, and bookings, back to the ad network for more reliable attribution.

Gravity's Conversions API uses the attribution context the Gravity pixel captures. Advertisers can also connect integrations such as Shopify and Calendly from Events Manager.

For developers

Ad request

An ad request is the API call that asks an ad network for an ad to show for a given conversation and placement.

A Gravity ad request sends recent conversation messages, a session ID, and one or more placements. Platforms start it in parallel with the LLM call so the response isn't held up.

SDK (software development kit)

An SDK (software development kit) is a library that handles requesting ads, rendering them, and sending tracking, so developers don't wire every HTTP call by hand.

Gravity offers SDKs for JavaScript and React, Python, React Native, iOS, and Android. Platforms can also call Gravity's HTTP API directly.

Server-rendered design (custom design unit (designer), sponsored Block, inline Hyperlink)

A server-rendered design is an ad layout the ad network sends along with the ad, so the app can draw a placement-specific design without its own redesign.

Gravity's official SDK components draw the layout sent with each ad, so Gravity can update a placement's design, such as a card, underlined link, or inline bar, without an app code change. Marketing names Sponsored Block and Inline Hyperlink map to these designs and placements.

Gravity Index

Gravity Index is a recommendation API that AI agents call to find developer services and consumer products when the agent can't fulfill a need itself.

Publishers call Gravity Index with a publisher API key. Developer-service searches return one recommendation with reasons and a tracked link; product searches return a ranked list. Gravity charges the recommended service only after a confirmed conversion, not on a click alone.