Article updated: 12/04/17

There are a few different ways that people and companies have defined impressions in the digital world, and it's important to know the most popular definitions, and how those relate to the Mixpo platform. This is important to your understanding of how your ads perform and what your success metrics are.

Below is an outline of all of the different ad types that you can use in the Mixpo platform, and along with a description of how we classify an impression. You'll also see the overlaps with DFP (Double-click For Publishers — Google) and IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau). These are the industry leaders and are always updating their standards (so make sure to check out the recent publication date for this article, and know what changes in DFP and IAB might have occured since it was last updated).

In Banner Video (IBV)

Definition: Ads that appear in banners that have videos in them.  

What counts as an impression: When a viewer is loading a web page, there's a call that's made to our JavaScript, and if it's able to properly scan through the page and get all the info that it needs with no errors, then it will begin building our assets to the page.  We will count an impression once we are able to execute a call to one of the first assets we build that is not apart of the ad tag.

Rich Media 

Definition: Ads that contain media that is not video, like an image or .gif. (Other companies use this ad type to also describe video ads in banners.) 

What counts as an impression: Same as IBV. 

VPAID

Definition: In-stream video in a video player that uses our JavaScript player. (It's added before, during or after the video it's assigned to.)

What counts as an impression: An ad impression is called when the ad is started and we’ve certified on our end–along with the video player–that all of the code and info for the ad can ensure that the two players (our Mixpo player and the video player) have the necessary assets to communicate.  This all happens after an agreement (or handshake) occurs first between the Mixpo server and the video player, and after the ad has loaded on the backend. (We follow IAB standards here, and we’re pretty close to having our standards matched.)

VAST

Definition: In-stream video that plays using the player of the site. (It's embedded in the video it plays in.)

What counts as an impression:  The vast video player has established has its  own guidelines for when an impression is counted—this is not unique to Mixpo or DFP and IAB–it's based on whatever vast parameters are set. The player will fire the VAST impression node which will send the log where we record our impression.

If you have more questions about IAB standards, check out their guide for impression measurements. And, if you have questions for us, please email productsupport@netsertive.com.