How to mitigate the reporting discrepancy between RITS Ads & DFP

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Reporting discrepancies are common and expected when multiple systems are used in your line items.  When DFP delivers line items that are hosted by RITS Ads or any third party server, reporting discrepancies between the two systems will occur, and it is common to see campaign variances of up to 20% and it is accepted by DFP users, even though internationally the acceptance rate is 10% only.

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There are several reason for this reporting discrepancy between Openx and DFP report.  You should consider the followings to investigate the reporting discrepancy:

  • Latency: Lag between an initial line item request and the appearance of the creative can lead to differences in counts. For instance, a user will often navigate away after the browser receives the DFP line item request but before the third party responds with the requested line item, or a user may click on a link but navigate elsewhere before the landing page has loaded.
  • Network connection and server reliability: A third-party ad server may fail briefly or encounter an issue that prevents it from logging an impression.
  • Ad blockers: Ad blocking software can prevent the line item from being delivered by the third party after DFP has already counted an impression.
  • Low impression goals: A small numerical discrepancy can cause a high percentage discrepancy if the line item delivered few total impressions. For example, if you have a campaign delivering 100 impressions per day, a single-day discrepancy of 30 impressions will lead to a single-day discrepancy of 30% even though the actual number of missed impressions is low.
  • Tracking methodologies: DFP counts line items requests, but a third party may record an impression at a different time (e.g., when a tracking pixel is rendered).
  • Filtering: Ad servers have different methods for filtering impressions from spammers, bots, spiders, back-to-back clicks, link analyzers, and other automated or non-representative web traffic.
  • Testing: DFP excludes impressions or clicks from anyone with an IP address that has signed in to a DFP account before. Third parties do not necessarily do so.