Ad Dropper reports: impressions, viewability and clicks

Ad Dropper 2.0 counts impressions, viewable impressions and clicks the way advertisers measure them, and shows them under Ad Dropper > Reports. Reporting needs to be on: go to Ad Dropper > Settings and check Enable Reporting.

What gets counted

• Impressions: an ad actually displayed in a visitor's browser. An ad hidden on that device (a Desktop only ad on a phone, for example) is not counted.
• Viewable impressions: the ad was at least half on screen for one second while the browser tab was visible. This is the industry standard advertisers ask about.
• Viewability: viewable impressions as a percentage of impressions.
• Clicks: recorded before the visitor leaves your site, then sent on to the ad's link (or the advertiser's click tracker).
• CTR: clicks as a percentage of impressions.

Known bots are not counted, including search engine crawlers, uptime monitors, page speed tools and link previews from social networks.

Using the Reports screen

1. Pick a date range: Today, Yesterday, Last 7 days, Last 30 days, This month, Last month or Custom.
2. Choose All ads or a single ad.
3. Check Compare to previous period to see the change against the same length of time just before.
4. Click Apply.

The chart shows impressions, viewable impressions and clicks by day. Below it, the table breaks the period down By ad, By zone or By device. Click a column heading to sort.

Today's numbers are live and update as visitors see the ads.

Send a report to an advertiser

Set the date range and pick the advertiser's ad, then click Export table (CSV) for the breakdown or Export daily (CSV) for one row per day. Both open in Excel or Google Sheets.

Numbers in the ads list

The ads list under Ad Dropper > Ads shows Impressions (30 days) and Clicks (30 days) for each ad. Click a column heading to sort, and use the stats filter to switch between the last 30 days and all time.

Why your numbers dropped after updating to 2.0

Before 2.0, Ad Dropper counted a view every time an ad was put on a page. That included bots, ads below the fold that nobody scrolled to, and ads on pages loaded by crawlers. Viewability was not measured at all.

Version 2.0 counts only real impressions, so the numbers are lower but accurate, and they are the numbers to quote to advertisers. Older numbers are not comparable. When a date range includes days before you updated, the Reports screen shows a notice with the date the new counting started.

Sites with page caching

Impressions are counted in the visitor's browser, so they are recorded even when the page itself is served from a cache. If ads on your site never seem to rotate, turn on Load Ads After Page Load. See Use Ad Dropper with page caching.

For developers

• ad_dropper_is_bot: filter whether a request is treated as a bot. Receives the current result and the user agent.