Counting impressions and clicks

Digital advertising can provide detailed metrics on how advertising campaigns are performing. The most fundamental metrics are impressions (the number of times an ad has been delivered) and clicks. Understanding how these are counted is crucial for accurate campaign analysis and troubleshooting. This article provides insights into how Ad Manager counts impressions and clicks, filters invalid activity, and how counting differs for various ad formats.

Note: It's important to note that discrepancies can sometimes occur between Ad Manager's reported metrics and those from other platforms (for example, Display & Video 360, third-party trackers, or publisher reports). Minor discrepancies are often due to different counting methodologies, latency, invalid traffic filtering, and reporting cut-off times. Significant discrepancies may indicate issues with tag implementation or trafficking.

For tracking ads specifically, if clicks are recorded but no, or very few, impressions are seen, it often points to an issue where the click tracker was implemented without the corresponding impression tracker, or the impression tracker is not firing correctly.

On this page:

• Counting impressions
• Counting clicks
• Filtering invalid impressions and clicks
• Video versus display impression and click tracking

You can also learn more about third-party impression tracking URL counting for display and native ads, or about video tracking events with third-party URLs.

Tip: Use the Delivery Inspector to investigate why a line item isn't recording impressions, and creative preview to validate whether a creative will count clicks.

Counting impressions

Depending on the ad format, Ad Manager measures impressions based on the format’s measurement methodology. Ad Manager counts an impression each time a creative is downloaded and has begun to load in the user's device. Note that the impression is counted before the creative is fully downloaded and viewed by the end user.

Note: Google Ad Manager counts "mobile app impressions" in alignment with industry standards. A mobile app impression is counted when one or more pixels of the ad creative is visible on a device's screen. Currently, Ad Exchange creatives, some Ad Manager creative formats, and Open Bidding use this methodology.

Learn more about how Google Ad Manager counts mobile app impressions

Line item statistics

On the line item details page, the number of impressions shown in the summary section includes only impressions served by master creatives. To see the number of impressions served by companion creatives, run a "historical report" and add the "Master and companion" creative dimension.

Delayed impressions

All creative types use delayed impressions. This means that Ad Manager doesn't count an impression until the creative sends an impression request to Ad Manager. Because of this secondary request, the "Total code served count" metric total can be greater than the "Total impressions" value for these creative types.

Note: Ad Manager must receive a follow-up impression request from the creative from the time the creative code is delivered to the end user. The following timeframes apply.

• App Open requests: 4 hours
• Server-side requests: 4-6 hours
• Podded in-stream video inventory: 4-6 hours
• All other inventory: 1 hour

Manual impression counting for banner ads in mobile apps

By default, Ad Manager counts a mobile app impression when one or more pixels of the ad creative is visible on a device's screen, but there is also the option to control impression counting for banners by using the manual impression counting feature of the Google Mobile Ads SDK, which utilizes delayed impression counting.

Manual impression counting is compatible only with creatives trafficked directly in Ad Manager. It should not be used when requesting ads to ad units that can serve backfill, such as Ad Exchange, AdSense, or AdMob, or ads from third-party networks, including SDK mediation.

If your Ad Manager-trafficked creative has third-party impression tracking pixels, those will be triggered when the mAdView.recordManualImpression() function is triggered.

Interstitial impressions in mobile apps

Ad Manager counts an impression when the interstitial is shown to the user, not when a creative is served from Ad Manager. If an interstitial request is made and Ad Manager sends the creative to the app, but the app never shows the interstitial, an impression isn't counted.

• Implementation guidelines
• Learn more about serving ads in mobile apps

Audio impressions

Ad Manager counts an impression for any audio ad once the IMA SDK integrated audio player has begun playback of the ad.

Counting clicks

When a user clicks on an ad creative, a click request is sent to the Ad Manager ad server. Ad Manager counts a click as soon as it receives the click request and then sends the user the defined click-through URL. Note that Ad Manager counts the click when it's received, not when the user is redirected to the click-through URL.

Line item statistics

On the line item details page, the number of clicks shown in the summary section includes clicks served by both master and companion creatives.

Filtering invalid impressions and clicks

Ad Manager discards impressions and clicks that are considered invalid. Learn more about Ad Manager invalid traffic detection and filtration methodology

Handling multiple clicks for the same impression

Ad Manager will count a maximum of two clicks associated with the same ad impression.

Clicks (and impressions) are discarded if they're considered invalid. For instance:

• Our systems evaluate duplicate clicks based solely on the impression (it doesn't matter if the user is the same, or if the same impression was served across 100 users). If two clicks happen rapidly, the earlier click is filtered (for example, if a user double-clicks an ad).
• Also counted are the number of times the same impression is clicked. We keep a maximum of two clicks as valid. If too many clicks occur, then all clicks are marked as invalid.

Learn more about invalid traffic and filtration methodology.

Capturing a click without a related impression

All clicks are attributed back to an impression.

If the corresponding ad request (query) for a click can't be identified, the click is considered invalid.

Video versus display impression and click tracking

The IAB categorizes video and display ads differently based on page/ad loads, impression counting, and tracking.

Display ads Page loads Ad loads and Impression is recorded Click tracking is recorded (if applicable)

Video ads Page loads (with video player) Ad loads Video plays and Impression is recorded Click & interaction tracking is recorded (if applicable)

Here are the details:

• Page loads: Both pages load similarly. However, the video tag is located within the player, while the display tag is directly on the page.
• Ad loads: Both ads load similarly from the corresponding ad tag. However, video ads require the player to begin playing the ad before the impression can be counted.
• Impression counted: Display ad impressions are counted immediately on ad load, while video ad tags are counted after the player begins playing the ad.
• Additional tracking counted: Display ads can record an additional click metric, while video ads can record many additional interaction metrics, including the number of times the video reached its first quartile, midpoint, third quartile, or completion.

Learn about what qualifies as a viewable impression for video versus display.