makegoods

Definition

Compensatory advertising inventory provided when campaigns underdeliver on promised impressions or performance. The media equivalent of 'sorry we ruined your wedding, here's a gift card.'

Example Usage

After our TV spot got preempted by breaking news three times, the network offered makegoods during even worse timeslots.

Origin

Traditional media buying terminology dating back to early 20th century broadcast advertising

Fun Fact

Makegoods clauses are legally binding in most media contracts, but getting premium inventory as compensation is nearly impossible.

Source: Media buying and advertising sales terminology

Related Terms

Intermediate

CPM

Cost Per Mille, meaning cost per thousand impressions, because apparently saying per thousand wasn't pretentious enough so they used Latin. You pay for a thousand eyeballs to theoretically see your ad while actually staring at their phone during a meeting.

📣 Marketing / Advertising

Intermediate

ad fatigue

The phenomenon where repeated exposure to the same advertisement causes declining performance as audiences develop immunity to your creative genius. Your ad doesn't suck; people are just tired of your face.

📣 Marketing / Advertising

Beginner

boost

Marketing's favorite verb for describing any incremental improvement, no matter how modest. Whether it's engagement, sales, or morale, everything gets boosted in corporate communications. It's the professional alternative to saying "make bigger" and sounds way more impressive in quarterly reports.

📣 Marketing / Advertising

Advanced

programmatic buying

Using automated technology and algorithms to purchase digital ad inventory in real-time, replacing human media buyers with machines that work faster and complain less. It's the robot apocalypse, but for ad placement.

📣 Marketing / Advertising

Intermediate

competitive conquest

Marketing strategies targeting your competitors' customers directly, often by bidding on their brand names in search ads or comparing products head-to-head. The polite term for poaching.

📣 Marketing / Advertising

Intermediate

bounce

In email marketing, when your carefully crafted message gets rejected and returns to sender like an unwanted boomerang—the digital equivalent of your mail being marked "return to sender." Bounces come in hard (permanent failures like invalid addresses) and soft (temporary issues like full inboxes) varieties. High bounce rates are the email marketer's nightmare and ISPs' favorite excuse to label you as spam.

📣 Marketing / Advertising

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