Google Ad Exchange Metrics Explained: What do they mean to Publishers?

This post was most recently updated on September 14th, 2021

We are all aware that Google has their way of providing a wide range of reports consisting of industry trends performance metrics and benchmarks that accompany Ad Exchange. Today, we’ll review the vital metrics that most of the publishers need and why each report is important. One thing to bear in mind is to understand your campaign goals and use the appropriate metrics to reach them.

The following is a list of the metrics that tend to be the most useful to publishers.

Impressions – total impressions delivered by Ad Exchange.

Clicks – total clicks delivered by Ad Exchange.

Click through rates (CTR) – the percentage of impressions served by Ad Exchange that resulted in users clicking on an ad. It is calculated as Ad Exchange clicks/Ad Exchange impressions) x 100. CTR is important because it measures how visitors initiated an action in an advertisement.

Ad requests – the number of times an ad appears on your website.

Ad request eCPM – ad request per thousand impressions.

Matched requests – the number of ad units or search queries that showed ads.

Ad request CTR – the number of clicks divided by the number of ad requests.

Cost per click (CPC) – the amount a publisher earns each time a user clicks on an ad. It’s calculated as Estimated revenue/number of clicks received. This metric is also an indicator as an advertisement displays when a keyword query matches an advertiser’s keyword list or when a content site displays a relevant content.

eCPM – the total number of effective cost-per-thousand-impressions. This is important because this measures the efficacy of your campaigns and advertisements.

Ad Exchange average eCPM – the average effective cost-per-thousand-impressions earned from the ads delivered by Ad Exchange through line item dynamic allocation.

Lift – how optimization effectiveness is measured. Zero/ negative lift means that the system cannot optimize the ads effectively. Make sure to keenly look at this metric once in a while.

Ad Exchange revenue – this is the revenue generated from the Ad Exchange through line item dynamic allocation, calculated in your network’s currency and time zone.

Estimated revenue – Net revenue generated from ad impressions served (with adjustments for ad spam and other factors).

Other available report metrics in Ad Exchange:

1) Bid Metrics

• Bids – the number of total winning and losing bids
• Mean bid CPM – Ave CPM value of both wins and lost bids
• Estimated earnings from Bids – revenue generated from winning bids
• Impressions Won – bids resulted in an ad impression
• Winning bid CPM – average winning bid price
• Close CPM Win % – the percentage of times the bids won impressions

 2) Active View Metrics

• Active view measurable – the percentage of impressions that the active view technology can measure.
• Active view viewable – the percentage of impressions that the active view technology reports are viewable.

Your defined campaign goals will direct you to the appropriate and important metrics that you need to reach. Keep in mind that success differs from advertiser to advertiser and from campaign to campaign. Understanding Ad Exchange’s goals and metrics can be tough. At MonetizeMore can help you understand, define, and hit your campaign goals. We can help you take your ad revenue to the next level! Try a smater reports by PubGuru today

Related Reads:

• How to Find Adsense Insights and Trends in Google Analytics
• DFP Order Report Check-In: 6 Reasons You Could See Impression Discrepancies
• DFP Cheat Sheet for Beginners: Creating Reports

Kean Graham

Kean Graham is the CEO and founder of MonetizeMore & a pioneer in the Adtech Industry. He is the resident expert in Ad Optimization, covering areas like Adsense Optimization,GAM Management, and third-party ad network partnerships. Kean believes in the supremacy of direct publisher deals and holistic optimization as keys to effective and consistent ad revenue increases.