Table of contents
Google Ad Manager’s reporting functionality is undoubtedly powerful – the sheer number of metrics on offer can be overwhelming. Over time, publishers tend to find their own group of core metrics to focus on, but there are a few report metrics that are most commonly used and useful to understand.
We’ve split the core metrics into three categories to help identify their value:
- Inventory Figures
- Revenue Data
- Potential Opportunities
The report metrics below can be found by navigating to the ‘Report’ tab on the Google Ad Manager user interface and clicking ‘New Report.’ Under the ‘Metrics’ section, click ‘All’ and tick the boxes of the metrics you’d like to view.
Inventory Report Metrics in Google Ad Manager
Total ad requests
What is it: Each time a user visits your site, this triggers a request for ads to be displayed. An ad request is reported each time the request was sent, regardless of whether an ad was returned. The total ad request metric, as the name suggests, refers to the total number of times an ad is requested.
How to find it: You can obtain this metric by running a report in Google Ad Manager and ticking ‘total ad requests’ under the ‘Total’ heading.
Total Impressions
What are they: This metric represents the total number of impressions from the Google Ad Manager server, Ad Exchange, AdSense and yield group partners. Google counts an impression each time an ad creative is rendered to the user’s device, regardless of whether the creative fully downloads and is viewed by the user.
Impression tracking is fundamental in digital advertising as this allows advertisers to measure the performance of ad campaigns. GAM publishers are also paid per thousand impressions (CPM).
How to find them: This metric can be viewed when generating a new report in Google Ad Manager and ticking ‘Total impressions’ under the ‘Total’ headin
Total Active View % Viewable Impressions
What is it: This metric measures the percentage of impressions that are considered as viewable out of all impressions that are deemed as measurable by Google’s Active View. Impressions are deemed as viewable if they meet the following criteria:
- 50% of the ad is visible in the browser for a minimum of 1 second.
- If the ad is large, at least 30% of the ad but be visible for a minimum of 1 second.
- For in-stream video ads, at least 50% of the ad must be visible in the browser for a minimum of 2 seconds.
Viewability is important to advertisers because they want to be certain that their ads are actually being seen to ensure they are maximizing their ROI.
How to find it: This metric can be viewed by generating a new report in Google Ad Manager and ticking ‘total active view % viewable impressions’ under the ‘Total’ heading. Google calculates this percentage by dividing viewable impressions by measurable impressions and multiplying the figure by 100.
Revenue Report Metrics in Google Ad Manager
Total CPM and CPC revenue
What is it: CPM stands for ‘Cost per mille’ and refers to the figure that publishers are paid by advertisers per 1000 impressions. CPC stands for cost-per-click and refers to the amount publishers are paid per click on an ad displayed on their website.
The total CPM and CPC revenue is a useful metric that’s based on the total amount of revenue generated from units served by the GAM server, AdSense, Ad Exchange and third-party mediation networks. The CPC metric alone is useful for publishers that are mostly trafficking AdSense.
How to find it: This metric can be obtained by running a report in Google Ad Manager and ticking ‘total CPM and CPC revenue’ under the ‘Total’ heading.
Total CPM, CPC, CPD and vCPM revenue
What is it: We’ve already discussed CPM and CPC, but what is CPD and vCPM? CPD stands for Cost per day and is a payment model that enables advertisers to pay publishers to display ads on their site on a day-by-day basis. Viewable Cost per mille (vCPM) is the cost per thousand viewable impressions shown to users. A viewable impression is an ad creative that is actually visible to a user.
Some advertisers run campaigns that have viewable impression-based objectives because they want to make sure that their ads are actually being seen. Therefore, vCPM is used when advertisers run viewable impression-based campaigns. This metric calculates the total CPM, CPC, CPD and vCPM revenue earned from Ad Manager, AdSense, Ad Exchange and other third-party demand partners.
How to find it: This metric can be obtained by running a report in Google Ad Manager and ticking ‘total CPM, CPC, CPD and eCPM revenue’ under the ‘Total’ heading.
Total average eCPM
What is it: eCPM is an acronym for effective cost per mille. Total average eCPM enables you to measure the average performance of various ad units based on revenue and use the results as a benchmark when experimenting. The higher the average eCPM, the more money earned.
How to find it: eCPM is calculated by dividing total revenue by total impressions and multiplying by 1000. You can obtain this metric by running a report in Google Ad Manager and ticking ‘total average eCPM’ under the ‘Total’ heading.
Opportunity Report Metrics in Google Ad Manager
Unfilled Impressions
What are they: Unfilled impressions are ad requests for which Google Ad Manager was not able to serve a line item, usually because no ads were eligible to serve. This type of unfilled impression represents lost revenue for a true impression. Unfilled impressions can also occur when ad units are defined but not displayed. This type of unfilled impression does not represent immediately lost revenue but can bring down your viewability, skew reporting and trigger invalid traffic warnings.
How to find them: In Google Ad Manager, there are two ways of finding unfilled impressions. The first is to view the demand comparison card in the Google Ad Manager homepage, which shows unfilled impressions as a green line on the chart. The second way is to generate a new report in Google Ad Manager and then tick the ‘unfilled impressions’ metric under the ‘Total’ heading. Google calculates the number of unfilled impressions by subtracting the total code served count from the total number of ad requests.
Total fill rate
What is it: Fill rate is measured in terms of percentage and refers to the number of ads that were successfully served on-page. It is an important metric because every ad opportunity that does not get filled represents a loss of potential earnings. A higher fill rate will lead to more ad revenue.
How to find it: You can find out your total fill rate by generating a new report in Google Ad Manager and ticking ‘total fill rate’ under the ‘Total’ heading. Total fill rate is calculated by dividing the total number of impressions by the total number of ad requests.
Total unmatched ad requests
What is it: Fill rate is measured in terms of percentage and refers to the number of ads that were successfully served on-page. It is an important metric because every ad opportunity that does not get filled represents a loss of potential earnings. A higher fill rate will lead to more ad revenue.
How to find it: You can find out your total fill rate by generating a new report in Google Ad Manager and ticking ‘total fill rate’ under the ‘Total’ heading. Total fill rate is calculated by dividing the total number of impressions by the total number of ad requests.
Total unmatched ad requests
What is it: Unmatched ad requests are ad requests that go unfilled because no ads are eligible to serve. These result in either a backup ad being shown, or blank ad space which leads to a loss of potential earnings. This metric accounts for the total number of unmatched ad requests.
How to find it: You can find out the total number of unmatched ad requests by generating a report in Google Ad Manager and ticking ‘total unmatched ad requests’ under the ‘Total’ heading.
Impressions not competing
What is it: This metric measures the total eligible Ad Exchange impressions for the network minus impressions competing in Ad Exchange for the network. Ad Exchange impressions are the total number of impressions delivered by the Ad Exchange. It is an important metric to look into as it can often represent a potential lost revenue opportunity. This figure represents impressions that could have been eligible for Ad Exchange in dynamic allocation but are not competing against Ad Exchange.
This is usually because the impressions were set under a line item type that is not competing against Ad Exchange, such as house ads or sponsorship ads. If this figure is high, ensure you understand line item priorities in order to maximize your revenue.
How to find it: This metric can be viewed by generating a new report in Google Ad Manager and ticking ‘impressions not competing’ under the ‘Dynamic allocation opportunity’ heading. Impressions not competing can be expressed as a percentage as well as a total, however, the total figure gives a better indication of the size of the lost revenue opportunity.
What’s next: Now that you’ve gotten the rundown on how all of these metrics work, all you need is a platform that can compile these reports for you whenever you need them — and help you make those numbers work for you. OKO’s full ad management platform can help you collect, optimize, and monetize these numbers with ease, allowing you to spend more time focusing on other parts of your business. To find out more, go to https://oko.uk/contact
