Top 6 Approaches to Minimize Unfilled Impressions in Google Ad Manager

Using Google Ad Manager for businesses is essential as Statista data shows Google holds a search traffic share of around 91.5%. Understanding and leveraging Google’s advertising ecosystem due to its dominance in the search market is almost crucial for businesses to enhance their online presence.

However, one of the most pressing issues for publishers is encountering unfilled advertising impressions on their app or website’s ad inventories. Whether large or small scale, regardless of geographical location, publishers need to pay attention to this to avoid missing opportunities for revenue generation. Read on to find answers to this common issue.

What are Unfilled Impressions in Google Ad Manager?

In short, unfilled impressions in Google Ad Manager refer to ad opportunities that were not filled with an advertisement.

To simplify, imagine yourself as a user accessing an app or website. Upon access, an ad request is sent to the server. The server then contacts potential advertisers and initiates an auction. However, if no demand partners or ad networks select the ad inventory on your page, they will not participate in the auction. Consequently, the ad server generates blank impressions, causing the publisher to miss out on the chance to display ads and boost revenue.

While one or two turns of unfilled impressions may seem inconsequential, frequent occurrences or publishers overlooking them can create significant gaps in revenue maximization. Although servers do not charge for these blank impressions, publishers still suffer indirect consequences like revenue decline and disruptions in monetization strategies.

Why do publishers need to focus on Unfilled Impressions?

One of the most important reasons for publishers to pay attention to unfilled impressions is the potential impact on ad revenue. If your app or website experiences a decline in revenue, check whether this unfilled ad inventory may be a factor.

In the competitive landscape of digital advertising, when ad slots within a publisher’s inventory remain unoccupied, it signifies a missed opportunity to generate income through advertising. By carefully reviewing metrics and implementing strategies to minimize unfilled impressions, publishers can maximize ad inventory and ensure more advertising opportunities.

How to Check Unfilled Impressions in Google Ad Manager

You can review the data on unfilled impressions by logging in your ad server (Google Ad Manager) account.

1. Log in to your Google Ad Manager account.

2. Go to the Reporting section and select Reports.

3. Choose to create a New report; the default selection is the “Historical” report type.

4. Don’t forget to provide a name for your report.

5. Set the date range for your analysis.

6. Customize your report by including inventory dimensions:

• Explore ad unit levels under Inventory to examine unfilled impressions for all ad units.

• Analyze unfilled impressions based on requested ad sizes by selecting Requested ad sizes under Inventory.

7. Include Unfilled impressions from the “Total” category within the Metrics section.

8. Finalize by clicking the Run button to generate your report.

In the reporting section, you can view the yield type and select for unfilled impressions. This helps you to identify which ad units generate the highest number of unfilled impressions. With this insight, you can then optimise these ad units to minimise this situation.

What are the Reasons for Unfilled Impressions in Google Ad Manager?

There are several factors that can result in unfilled impressions, ranging from both subjective and objective factors. Recognizing why ad inventory remains unsold enables you to mitigate potential risks. Below are some typical causes of unfilled impressions:

Low-Quality Inventory

Certainly, when investing in product or service promotion, advertisers always aim for their ads to be placed in high-quality ad inventory and closely associated with their target audience. Therefore, it’s worth examining if the occurrence of unfilled impressions is due to low-quality placements. Some other factors to consider may include the position not being attractive to many advertisers, poor quality content on the page, or unengaged audiences.

Supply-Demand Imbalance

This imbalance occurs when publishers add too many ad units to their website or app in order to maximise revenue. Hence, audiences are likely to be overwhelmed and will leave a page inundated with ads. This diminishes user experience and reduces the value of each impression. As a result, the supply of ad inventory exceeds advertisers’ demand, leading to some ad inventory, or worst-case scenario, entire pages experiencing unfilled impressions.

High CPM Floor Price

One common reason for unfilled impressions is setting CPM (Cost Per Mille) floors too high, especially if advertisers are unwilling to bid above this threshold. This prevents advertisers with lower budgets or those implementing cost-effective strategies from participating, even though higher CPM floors theoretically help publishers to earn more money. Consequently, ad demand may decrease, resulting in unfilled impressions for ad units priced above the market’s willingness to pay.

Technical Issues

Technical issues in the ad distribution process are also a common reason for unfilled impressions. Various instances of these issues include slow loading times, which may deter ads from displaying promptly, resulting in missed opportunities to fill impressions. Additionally, server errors disrupting ad delivery or compatibility issues with ad formats also contribute to unfilled impressions.

Frequency Capping

This is an objective cause stemming from advertisers when they set a frequency cap for their advertising campaigns. This feature helps them limit the number of times an ad is shown to a particular user within a given time frame. Once the set limit is reached, the system will stop displaying ads, worst-case scenario, resulting in unfilled inventory.

Ad Blocking

Nowadays, publishers’ efforts to monetize through advertising have been adversely affected by the prevalence of ad blockers, resulting in unfilled impressions. Ad blockers work by preventing ads from being displayed, directly impacting ad delivery and revenue generation. As a result, publishers may experience unfilled impressions, as ads are blocked from reaching their audience. 

Seasonality

Another factor impacting unfilled impressions is seasonality. This factor represents fluctuations in advertiser demand throughout the year. For instance, during peak seasons such as holidays, major shopping events like Black Friday, advertiser competition intensifies, resulting in higher ad fill rates and reduced unfilled impressions. Conversely, there are times when advertiser demand decreases, leading to unfilled impressions as available ad inventory outweighs demand.

How to Minimize Unfilled Impressions

1. Inventory Quality Enhancement

To enhance user experience and maximize revenue, publishers need to improve the quality of their inventory. Through content optimization strategies, you can attract audiences effectively. Additionally, interactive elements and personalized content can also increase ad interaction rates.

2. Reduce the Number of Ad Slots

Publishers should prioritize optimizing ad placements, positioning themselves from a user-centric standpoint to balance the density of ad placements with their page experience. Placing ad units in high-impact areas is key to maximizing revenue, rather than compromising ad fill rates or user engagement. For instance, consider refraining from increasing the number of ads and replacing non-standard small ad units with standard larger ad units.

3. Header Bidding

One of the modern digital advertising strategies that publishers can consider is Header Bidding. Generally, this technique allows them to maximize their revenue potential by conducting a simultaneous auction among numerous demand sources before a web page finishes loading. The beauty of this approach is that publishers can unlock a multitude of benefits, ranging from heightened ad fill rates to elevated CPMs. It also helps foster healthy competition among advertisers, driving up bid prices and ensuring that every impression is monetized to its fullest extent.

4. Inventory Segmentation

Publishers can try dividing the ad inventory to attract additional third-party demand partners. Segmentation enables targeting specific geographies, networks, etc., thereby increasing the likelihood of filling inventory. Additionally, consider implementing frequency caps on line items to optimize fill rates from third-party partners.

5. Optimizing Technical Efficiency

Ensuring regular attention to ad serving systems, including updates and security patches, as well as utilizing performance monitoring tools for real-time tracking, will help minimize technical issues leading to unfilled impressions. Publishers should also thoroughly test ad creatives to ensure compatibility across different devices and browsers, and foster collaboration between ad operations and technical teams for efficient issue resolution. Additionally, optimizing ad tags to reduce latency and enhance page load times not only improves user experience but also minimizes the risk of impressions not being served due to technical issues.

6. Mitigating Seasonal Ad Challenges

To minimise the impact of seasonality on unfilled impressions, publishers can implement the following strategies. Firstly, through analysing the past data and trends, you can try to predict seasonal fluctuations in advertiser demand, which allows for proactive adjustments to ad inventory levels and pricing strategies. Secondly, explore alternative advertising formats or partnerships to minimise the effects of seasonal downturns and also diversify revenue sources. Finally, prioritise content relevance during peak seasons to maximise ad performance and fill rates. By researching to select appropriate methods, publishers can effectively manage seasonality and optimise ad revenue throughout the year.

Conclusion

As a matter of fact, managing unfilled impressions in Google Ad Manager is a critical aspect of maximizing revenue and optimizing ad performance for publishers. By deeply understanding the various factors contributing to unfilled impressions publishers can implement effective strategies to mitigate these challenges. However, it’s important to notice that completely avoiding this issue for your apps or websites is nearly impossible. Therefore, keep monitoring them regularly to determine the most appropriate course of action for your specific situation.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How many percent of unfilled impressions is acceptable?

It is common to encounter unfilled impressions within the range of 5 to 10%, which is considered normal in the realm of digital advertising. However, if you notice unfilled impressions exceeding 10%, it’s crucial for you to immediately take proactive measures to address the issue. When this happens, it’s a good idea to look more closely at performance indicators so as to identify the root causes and put plans in place to lower the unfilled rate.

2. Why do unfilled impressions occur?

Unfilled impressions occur when there are available ad slots on a publisher’s website or app that remain vacant, which means no advertisements are displayed in those slots. 

3. What is the most common reason for high unfilled impressions?

Low fill rates or ad demand, which are sometimes caused by a lack of advertiser interest or market competitiveness, are the most frequent causes of high unfilled impressions.

4. How do unfilled impressions impact ad revenue?

Unfilled impressions can impact ad revenue negatively because it leads to missed opportunities to monetize ad inventory. When impressions go unfilled, publishers are not capable of generating revenue from those ad slots, leading to losses in overall revenue.