Ad verification glossary
The words that decide what an impression report means, defined plainly. Where Pixtru's own practice differs from the standard, the entry says so.
Pixtru guides · updated
- Ad server
- The system that delivers a creative and counts its impressions. An advertiser's ad server (Campaign Manager 360, for one) is often treated as the independent record of what ran.
- Billed impression
- An impression you were charged for. Usually the DSP's count, taken when it wins the auction — before anyone knows whether the ad arrived. Served, measurable, viewable.
- Controlling Measurement
- In the 4A's/IAB standard terms, the count used for invoicing when both sides track delivery. If the other count differs by more than 10% and the Controlling Measurement is lower, the parties reconcile. What gap is acceptable.
- CPM
- Cost per mille: the price of a thousand impressions. The cost of a discrepancy is the missing impressions times the CPM, divided by a thousand. Discrepancy calculator.
- Cross-domain iframe
- A frame from another site that an ad is placed inside. The browser does not tell code in the frame where the frame sits on the page, which is the usual reason an impression cannot be measured.
- DSP
- Demand-side platform: the software a buyer uses to bid for and buy impressions. Its count is normally the one on the invoice.
- General invalid traffic (GIVT)
- Invalid traffic that a list or a rule can identify: declared crawlers, known bots, headless and automated browsers, and pages that were only prerendered. Pixtru removes this kind.
- Impression discrepancy
- The difference between two systems' counts of the same campaign, usually quoted as a share of the billed count: (billed − measured) ÷ billed. Why the numbers do not match.
- Invalid traffic (IVT)
- Impressions that were not shown to a person: bots, crawlers, automated browsers and fraud. Divided into general (GIVT) and sophisticated (SIVT).
- Macro
- A placeholder in an ad tag, such as ${AUCTION_ID}, that the ad server replaces with a real value for each impression. Each ad server has its own. Macros by ad server.
- Measurable impression
- A rendered impression whose position and size on screen the verification code could determine. Only a measurable impression can be judged viewable or not.
- Measurable rate
- Measurable impressions as a share of rendered ones. A low measurable rate means a viewability figure describes only part of a campaign.
- Media Rating Council (MRC)
- The US industry body that sets measurement standards, including viewability and invalid traffic, and accredits the companies that apply them. Pixtru applies MRC display viewability and GIVT; it is not accredited. Standards Pixtru applies.
- Prerendered page
- A page a browser loaded in advance, before the reader asked for it. An ad on it has not been shown to anyone, so under MRC rules it is not an impression.
- Reconciliation
- Matching two counts of the same campaign to explain the difference. Done on totals it sizes the gap; done impression by impression, on an ID both sides recorded, it says where each missing impression went.
- Rendered impression
- An impression whose creative loaded in the browser and whose verification code ran. The first count a verification vendor can report.
- SafeFrame
- An IAB standard iframe that lets an ad ask the page for limited information, including its position, without full access to the page.
- Served impression
- An impression the exchange or ad server delivered to the page. It says nothing about whether the ad loaded or was seen.
- Sophisticated invalid traffic (SIVT)
- Invalid traffic built to look human, which needs behavioural and network analysis to detect. Pixtru does not yet detect this kind, and says so.
- SSP
- Supply-side platform: the software a publisher uses to sell impressions. Its log records what was served.
- Unexpanded macro
- A macro that reached the verification server still as a placeholder — ${AUCTION_ID} or %%CACHEBUSTER%% instead of a value — because the ad server did not recognise it. The most common integration failure. When the tag never fires.
- Valid impression
- A viewable impression that passed the invalid-traffic checks: the thing a buyer was paying for.
- Verification tag
- A small ad tracking script placed inside the creative that reports whether the ad rendered, where it was, and how long it was on screen. It measures only what it is inside. The Pixtru tag.
- Viewability rate
- Viewable impressions as a share of measurable ones — not of billed ones. A high viewability rate can sit on top of a low measurable rate.
- Viewable impression
- Under the MRC display standard, at least 50% of an ad's pixels in view for one continuous second; 30% for ads of 242,500 pixels or more. Video needs two continuous seconds.