Live stream advertising glossary: 40 terms for brands

Live stream advertising is advertising shown to the viewers of live broadcasts on platforms such as Twitch, Kick, YouTube Live and TikTok Live: in the platform's ad breaks, in a streamer's sponsored segment or as a creative inside the stream itself. This glossary defines its 40 core terms in six groups; where APIQ uses a term in a specific way, the entry says so.

Payment and buying models

CPV (cost per view) — a pricing model in which the advertiser pays for each view of the ad. The seller defines what a view is and how the price is set: for YouTube in-stream ads, the price comes from an auction bid, and Google Ads Help counts a view when someone watches 30 seconds (or the whole ad, if shorter) or interacts with it. In APIQ: a fixed CPV rate, the same for every streamer in a format, set in the media plan; a guaranteed volume; and only verified views are billed.

CPM (cost per mille) — the price of 1,000 ad impressions, the common unit in digital display and video. An impression proves the ad was served, not that anyone watched it. The models compared: CPV, CPM or flat fee.

CPC (cost per click) — a pricing model in which the advertiser pays only when someone clicks the ad. It says nothing about how many people saw the brand. In APIQ, clicks are reported, but the billing unit is the verified view.

Flat fee (sponsorship, integration) — a fixed sum paid to a streamer for a mention, a segment or a branded stream. The price is known in advance; the audience at the moment of the mention is not, and proof is usually the streamer's own screenshots and figures.

Media buy — buying advertising as a media channel: a defined unit, a price per unit, a planned volume and one report, instead of a separate deal per placement. In APIQ: one contract, one invoice, one CPV rate and one report across hundreds of streamers. How to compare sellers: How to choose a live stream advertising platform.

Media plan — the document that turns a brief into a campaign: channels, formats, timing and a forecast. In APIQ: a longlist of streamers who fit the brief, with a view forecast, within 24 hours of the brief. You strike any streamer you don't want; launch follows 1–2 days after the streamer and creative list is approved.

Pilot — a small first campaign that gives the brand its own numbers for a channel before it scales up. In APIQ, a pilot is possible, and many clients start with one.

Closed circle (closed list) — APIQ's mode for a campaign that runs only on streamers the advertiser names, for example its own roster, possibly with a separate CPV rate for each. It runs without the volume guarantee, and delivery is the advertiser's responsibility.

APIQ rows: APIQ terms, October 2026. Others: common practice.

Audience metrics

CCV, ACV and peak viewers — CCV (concurrent viewers) is how many people watch a stream at the same moment. ACV (average concurrent viewers, or average viewers) is CCV averaged over a broadcast; Streams Charts (23.09.2026) calls it “the mean concurrent audience across the broadcast.” Peak viewers is “the single highest concurrent viewer count recorded during a broadcast,” a best moment that overstates the typical audience. More: Twitch average vs peak viewers.

Unique viewers — the number of different viewers who opened a stream at least once in a period. It is always higher than average viewers and marks the ceiling of an ad's reach, not the reach itself.

Hours watched — the total time all viewers spent on a stream or channel: average viewers multiplied by airtime.

Impression — one display of an ad, counted when the ad is served. Served is not seen: the IAB (31.03.2014), following the Media Rating Council, counts a display ad as viewable when at least 50% of its pixels are in view for one second, and an in-browser video for two.

View — one counted instance of someone watching an ad. Every seller sets its own definition, so compare definitions before prices. In APIQ, the audience size is recorded at the moment of each display.

Verified view — a view confirmed by checks, not taken from the seller's counter alone; there is no single industry definition, so ask what is checked. In APIQ: the creative was shown correctly, was fully visible to the viewer and met the campaign requirements; only verified views count toward delivery and appear on the invoice.

CTR (click-through rate) — clicks divided by the number of times the ad was shown; Google Ads Help gives the formula “clicks ÷ impressions = CTR.” APIQ divides clicks by verified views: the L'Oréal Paris campaign in Turkey (Twitch, 29.08–29.09.2025) had 11,762 clicks on 800,127 verified views, a CTR of 1.47%.

Conversion — the target action after an ad: an install, a sign-up, a purchase. Post-click conversions follow a click, post-view ones a view without a click. In APIQ, impression pixels on Twitch count both.

Ad formats

In-stream advertising — advertising placed inside the live broadcast itself, as part of the video; the stream keeps going. In APIQ, it runs only on channels the brand has approved. Not to be confused with YouTube's in-stream ads, video ads in YouTube's own player. Compared: In-stream ads vs platform ads.

Platform ads (pre-roll, mid-roll) — ads sold by the streaming platform and run in its own ad slots. On Twitch, ads are sold through Amazon Ads and appear “before streams as pre-roll or during streams as mid-roll ad breaks”; breaks last 30 seconds to three minutes, and video ads are unskippable, says the Amazon Ads Twitch guide (checked 27.10.2026). Streamers decide whether to run mid-rolls.

Frame-roll — APIQ's in-stream format in which the stream picture smoothly shrinks to about 80% and moves to the top-left corner, while the brand's creative fills the L-shaped zone on the right and bottom, 36% of the screen. The broadcast keeps going, and the link stays in chat afterwards. Details: What is Frame-roll.

Full-screen video — a video creative that covers the whole stream frame. In APIQ: 15–30 seconds, cannot be skipped; a ready TV or online spot fits without re-editing, and the QR code is added automatically.

Banner — a static or animated creative that occupies part of the screen while the stream continues. In APIQ: a bottom banner, a strip under the stream picture (1920×360), or a vertical side banner (640×1080) with a click-through; GIF and video are accepted.

Overlay — a graphic layer placed on top of the stream video in the broadcasting software, such as OBS. It becomes part of the video: every viewer sees it, ad blockers don't remove it, and it stays in the recording. In APIQ, the streamer adds the ad layer once, can't change the creative, and displays with the layer off don't count.

Interactive poll — a question shown inside the stream; viewers vote and see the results live. In APIQ: the poll is announced in chat and the brand's video plays after the results; up to 75 characters per question (64 on Kick), 2 to 4 answer options, results in the report.

Rich media — ads with advanced features such as video, audio, animation or interactive elements, rather than a static image; Google uses the term for “an ad that includes advanced features like video, audio, or other elements.” In APIQ: an animated full-screen layer with transparent zones, so the live stream stays visible through it; a 1920×1080 canvas, WebM with an alpha channel, 15–30 seconds.

Creative specs — the technical requirements for ad files: size, duration, file type and weight. In APIQ, video for Frame-roll and full-screen video is MP4 (H.264, 30 fps) or WebM, up to 30 MB per file; a summary for every format is on the formats page, full specs are on each format's page and arrive with the media plan.

Verification and brand safety

Anti-fraud — the checks that separate a real audience from fake or invalid traffic. In APIQ, the audience is scored on 14 parameters, including chat activity, sudden spikes in viewers, user behavior, clicks and conversions. Suspicious traffic is excluded from the report and the invoice, and a streamer caught with bots is removed.

Viewbot — software that inflates a stream's viewer counter with fake viewers. Viewbots distort CCV and every price calculated from it. Warning signs: Twitch viewbots and fake viewers.

Screenshot verification and computer vision — automatic proof that an ad appeared: a screenshot taken at the moment of display and analyzed by computer vision. In APIQ, it checks the creative's presence, its position and whether clickable elements work, and on Twitch and Kick that the chat link is posted and pinned. Audit guide: How to check that your ad actually ran.

Brand safety — keeping ads away from content that could harm the brand. In APIQ, every streamer's contract rules out advertising next to politics, violence, sex, drugs and other toxic content; channels are checked automatically, and gambling and betting are excluded. More: Brand safety in live streams.

Category exclusion — rules for which stream categories a campaign may run in (whitelist) and which it must avoid (blacklist), such as politics or adult humor. In APIQ, you can exclude categories and streamers before and during the campaign. Category exclusivity is a different thing: for a set period, competitors' ads don't run on your campaign's streamers.

Reporting and attribution

Attribution — linking a result, such as an install or a purchase, to the ad and channel behind it. In APIQ: AppsFlyer, Adjust, tracking links, UTM tags and pixels, with a separate link per channel to show each streamer's result.

Chat link — a link posted in the stream chat while the ad is on air. On average across APIQ campaigns, about 80% of clicks come from the chat link, about 10% from the QR code and about 10% from a click on the screen. Details: Where clicks come from.

QR code — a scannable code on screen that takes the viewer to the brand's page from a phone. It also reaches viewers on a Smart TV, where there is nothing to click. In APIQ, QR codes are generated and inserted automatically, so no separate creative versions are needed.

Promo code — a code shown in the creative or in chat that the viewer enters at checkout. In APIQ, banners and Frame-roll suit offers with a promo code or a QR code.

UTM tags — parameters added to a link so analytics can tell where a visit came from. Google Analytics Help says to always use utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign; utm_content tells creatives apart.

Market players

Streamer — a creator who broadcasts live and builds the audience an advertiser buys. In APIQ, streamers are paid per verified view during the live broadcast; casino, betting and iGaming ads are excluded. More: How streamers earn from ads.

Streamer agency — a company that manages a roster of streamers and negotiates on their behalf. In APIQ, an agency invites its streamers with one link, sets each streamer's commission, which the streamer confirms, and sees views, income and payouts in one dashboard.

Creator network — a company or platform that brings many creators together so advertisers can buy them as one channel. APIQ's network includes more than 2,300 streamers on Twitch, Kick, YouTube and TikTok.

Brand (advertiser) — the company whose product the campaign promotes. In APIQ, the brand approves the streamer list before launch and can exclude any streamer during the campaign.

Media agency — an agency that plans and buys media for brands. For it, in-stream advertising on CPV fits the media mix like any channel: one order instead of dozens of deals, one report for the client.