Tips for reducing discrepancies between the number of counted impressions

Make sure that your reporting data is in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).

Make sure that you are reporting in gross bid prices.

Make sure that you are reporting in USD and no other currency.

Make sure that your DSP Demand-Side Platform (DSP). A software platform that automates bidding decisions in real-time and efficiently connects buyers and audiences through an ad exchange or SSP. Also known as a buy-side platform.'s TTL (time to live) is either the same or greater (greater is preferred) than Index's TTL. For more information about the TTL for various ad formats, see How Index counts impressions.

If your TTL is set to anything lower than the values above, you may not be counting impressions that Index is counting.

Make sure that you are counting impressions accurately for various formats such as web, mobile app, video, and native. We recommend using the Media Rating Council (MRC) guidelines.

Use the billing notification (burl, or the ${AUCTION_PRICE} callback in adm) to validate impressions Index has counted. Do not count impressions from nurl: it fires at auction time, before the ad is delivered. See Sending the win notice URL (nurl) in bid responses. If you choose to count impressions using different metrics or an impression tracker, there may be discrepancies. For more information, see How Index counts impressions.

Make sure that you respond to bid requests with secure elements, and include the auction price macro in your bid response An OpenRTB response that is sent by the DSP in response to the SSP's or ad exchange's bid request. It is an event directed back to the seller expressing a valuation for the request and conditions of sale.. For more information, see Auction price macros.

Make sure that you use encryption correctly and that you are not using values from any examples we have provided. For more information, see Encrypting clear prices.

Check your creative A digital ad made available in various creative types, defined by their size in pixels such as 300x250px. for any errors that may be causing a discrepancy for an impression that is counted or not counted between you and Index.

Make sure that you support burl for receiving billing notifications. For more information, see Sending the billing notice URL (burl) in bid responses.