If you are using a 3rd-party reporting tool (Ad Server, Ad Verification Vendor, etc.), your reporting may not match reporting on quantcast.com exactly, as the reports come from different sources. If you would like to investigate a reporting discrepancy, follow the steps in this report discrepancies troubleshooting guide.
Reasons for why discrepancies may exist
It’s important to remember that any time two different systems are used for counting, the numbers may be different. The variance depends on a few factors, but is often due to differences in counting methodologies.
Ad Blocking
Ad Blocking is a software that prevents your ad from being delivered by serving a Public Service Announcement (PSA) according to the settings you enabled with your Ad Blocking vendor (domains, keywords, or geo). Because an ad was delivered (even though it was a PSA), Quantcast has counted and reported the impression, while your vendor did not count the impression. This results in a discrepancy due to counting methodology.
In the Quantcast Delivery by Website report, you will see domains where the PSA was delivered because Quantcast served and counted an ad. While your brand’s ad didn’t show, we do not filter it out from Quantcast reporting. To see a report showing only domains to which your brand’s ad was delivered, please ask your Adblocking vendor.
Conversion Tracking with an Ad Server
Ad Servers track delivery and performance across partners and attribute conversions based on the conversion event’s campaign configuration and attribution methodology.
Because Quantcast does not track other vendors, if an ad has been delivered and a conversion (as defined in the campaign configuration) was completed within the set conversion window, the conversion will be attributed to Quantcast and reflected in reporting. Depending on the number of partners and their retargeting volume, conversion discrepancy can vary drastically. This is not an error; the systems are using different views (Quantcast vs. all partners) to attribute conversions.
Configuration may also lead to discrepancies. To track conversions, Quantcast is using the Conversion Audience configured in the line items of your campaign. If your Conversion Audiences are set differently between Quantcast and the Ad Server, or the data associated with the audience is different (e.g., Quantcast Conversion Audience includes Purchases and Newsletter Signups, and the Ad Server only tracks Purchases), the conversion counts will be different. Check the Campaign Manager, and check that the conversion audience is the same as your Ad Server. You should also inspect your tag to review your site and confirm that your Conversion Audience is not firing on non-conversion pages.
Impression Tracking with an Ad Server
An Ad Server has its own counting methodology which may differ from Quantcast’s methodology. Counting discrepancies can result from:
- Impression filtering methodologies not counting spam, bots, spiders, non-present web traffic, etc.
- Impression tracking rules for counting an impression (e.g., only count if ad rendered fully)
- Low volume of aggregated impressions can lead to big discrepancies. Check that what is being flagged is aggregated delivery >1k impressions to confirm delivery volume/discrepancy is large enough to troubleshoot.