Ep 1: Request, impression, viewable impression

A thousand ads requested. Only six hundred could be seen.

That’s because ad tech counts an ad three ways. Request, impression, and viewable impression.

Take news.example. A reader opens an article, and the page sends an ad request, a call asking for an ad. A thousand page loads, one thousand requests. Say nine hundred come back with an ad. That’s nine hundred impressions. From February twenty twenty-seven, Google counts an impression only once the ad starts to render. Now, viewable. At least half the ad’s pixels on screen for one full second, or two seconds for video. Only six hundred qualify. Six hundred out of nine hundred is about sixty-seven percent viewability.

Find all three numbers for one ad unit today. Each gap shows where ads get lost.

Next, CPM, eCPM and RPM. Which number actually pays you.