Depending on the ad format, Index Exchange (Index) counts an impression from a publisher when the impression notification meets the impression counting criteria provided in the following table. The table also includes the Media Rating Council (MRC)'s recommended best practices for each format type.
| Format | Impression counting criteria | MRC counting best practice |
|---|---|---|
Web banner | Index expects to receive the billing notification in the | The MRC recommendation is that an impression is considered billable when the ad markup ( |
Mobile app banner |
| The MRC's recommendation is that an impression is considered billable when at least one pixel of the banner is painted in the viewport of the user's device. As a result, Index strongly recommends that Media Owners integrate with the OM SDK so that Index can measure impressions using OMID and avoid adm-based notification. For more information about ad impression measurements, see the MRC's Mobile Application Advertising Measurement Guidelines. |
Video (instream and outstream) on web, mobile app, and STV | Index expects to receive the billing notification from our VAST
| The MRC's recommendation is that an impression is considered billable when the first frame of the video creative is rendered on the player. For more information about ad impression measurements, see the MRC's Digital Video Impression Measurement Guidelines. |
Native on web and mobile app | Index expects to receive the billing notification in the | Not available |
Index does not count impressions in the following situations:
When billing notifications don't pass our invalid traffic (IVT) standards. Index uses industry-standard IP address and UserAgent blocklists, as well as proprietary methods and data sets to filter invalid traffic.
When the same billing notification is sent twice within a given TTL, the second notification will be discarded as a duplicate.
When billing notifications are sent after Index's TTL timeout value.
