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DFP Small Business

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Line items

Assess the progress of a line item's delivery


The most accurate measure of whether a line item in on schedule to deliver in full is the availability forecast found under the Availability tab for a line item. Use the availability forecast to check and see if there are still enough impressions for your line item to reach its goal by the end date. If there are not, you can see by how many impressions the line item will fall short and view a list of competing line items.

To review the 'Progress Indicator' status for line items, simply click the Orders tab, then click the order containing the appropriate line item. The Progress Indicator (PI) is the proportion of impressions delivered from the number expected to have delivered given the amount of time that has elapsed:

PI = (% of impression goal delivered) / (% of time elapsed)

Delivery progress assumes an even distribution of impressions. For example, a line item that has delivered half of its impression goal halfway through the campaign has a PI of 100%. However, a line item that’s delivered half of its impression goal at the end of day 3 of a 4-day-long campaign would have a PI of:

50/75= 67%

Because the DFP ad server paces delivery based on traffic patterns to your website, the PI is not always an accurate measure of overdelivery or underdelivery. For example, the PI for a line item might be above 100% during a time of high traffic if the ad server anticipates a low traffic period in the future.

Review the value under 'Progress Indicator':

  • If the value is 100%, the proportion of impressions delivered is even with the proportion of time elapsed in the campaign.
  • If the value is >100%, the proportion of impressions delivered is currently ahead given the proportion of time elapsed in the campaign.
  • If the value is <100%, the proportion of impressions delivered is currently behind given the proportion of time elapsed in the campaign.
  • If the value is N/A, the line item has no quantity goals, or sufficient information doesn't exist.
A line item with a PI below 100% is not necessarily on track to underdeliver. The ad server adjusts pacing as much as possible to correct delivery for line items that are ahead or behind schedule. For example, the ad server will attempt to serve more impressions from a line item with a PI below 100%. For this reason, PI values will change throughout a campaign as the pacing of delivery fluctuates.

The ad server’s attempts to correct delivery may not be successful if there is not enough available inventory (for example, if the line item was overbooked).

If you're using GPT ad tags on your website, you can use the on-screen debugging tool called the Google Publisher Console to troubleshoot delivery to your ad tags.

For more in-depth information, see the ad selection white paper.

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