Differences in campaign statistics

Our advertisers and partners may experience differences in the statistics on ad impressions. If there is a discrepancy of more than 10%, we want to check if there has been a technical error. In this case, we first ask for a detailed report from the agency on a daily level, so that we can see if there are any days or devices that stand out. In addition, we like to check the ad codes we have received, as well as dialog and changes during the campaign period. Nevertheless, our advertisers and partners may experience differences in the statistics on ad impressions, clicks, click rate and unique users. The reason is that different third-party suppliers and suppliers of ad management systems base their statistics on different technical bases. For Dagbladet , statistics from Google Ads Manager (GAM) apply. We do not often see differences of more than 10% that cannot be explained by changes in material, and if there is a difference of more than 10%, we will investigate this further.

Possible causes of discrepancies:
- Differences in counting methodology. The ad management system (GAM) counts when a campaign is assigned an impression, while third-party systems count when the call goes to their servers. Some systems count when the call is made, while others count when the ad has finished loading. There will always be a delay here. Some requests will, by some systems, be classified as robot based on user agent or IP, and these will be deducted from the statistics in the third-party system.

- Technical response time. The first request is usually made to the third-party server, and only then is it counted based on a 1x1 pixel counter. Often it then takes 0.2-0.8 seconds for the ad to be retrieved, depending on the user's connection and bandwidth to both Dagbladet and the third-party system. During this delay, there may be interruptions, either due to the user's active actions (such as closed browser, interrupted page load by moving forward or clicking "back"/"forward", etc.) or lost internet connection.

- Abnormally slow page load. Poor or interrupted internet access, or problems connecting to elements on the page (elements from external sources, e.g. images, scripts, etc.), may lead to interruptions and deviations.

- User behavior. A user may navigate further before all content on the page has finished loading. A user may also close a browser tab or window before all content has finished loading.

- Ad blockers. Different ad blockers can block different ad servers. This may mean that Dagblad's ad management system is not blocked, while the third-party ad management system is blocked. The third-party system will then in these cases not count impressions, while the Dagbladet ad management system does.

- Campaign with a low impression target. A small numerical deviation can lead to a high percentage deviation if there is a low total number of impressions. For example, if you have a campaign that delivers 100 impressions per day, a single day's deviation of 30 impressions will result in a deviation of 30% on that day. You then need to look at the campaign as a whole.