Analytics in performance marketing are crucial for both advertisers and publishers. Both parties have tons of metrics, which we can discuss, but let’s take one step at a time and focus on publishers.

Specifically, let’s talk about Ad Fill Rate; this metric helps to understand the efficiency of a particular traffic source by indicating the percentage of successfully served ads.

About 177,000 websites are created every day. Of course, not all of them end up being major traffic hubs, but nonetheless, the competition is stiff in the field.

That being said, you need to monitor your ad fill rate to stand out and attract as many advertisers as possible. Things get much easier when working with TwinRed, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves and take one step at a time…

Defining and Calculating Ad Fill Rate

Ad Fill Rate is the percentage of ads successfully served on a page. Every monetized website has an ad inventory, i.e., a set of vacant ad spots. These spots can either function like clockwork, being in high demand and serving the ads flawlessly, don’t work at all, or be somewhere in between — similar to a hotel booking.

If you want to know the exact number of how well your website serves the ads, you need to know your Ad Fill Rate. For that, you need to divide all the impressions served by the total number of requests and multiply it all by 100:

A website with a 0% Ad Fill Rate is a red flag for advertisers. Picture this: You have a budget and want to invest money to make a profit. Assume you can buy a billboard, knowing that it won’t have any ads and that no people will see them. That’s what Ad Fill Rate is about; it guides advertisers and informs them about their chances of making revenue with you.

Keeping the Ad Fill Rate up

Generally, advertisers are on the hunt for some sweet ad spots, creating a stable demand for publishers. However, this might not be the case if a website has a bad conversion history, lacks popularity, or is technically inferior. Let’s go through some of the most common issues that impede fill rates.

• Lack of demand. Remember the formula above? — Well, it’s hard to divide by zero if there are no ad requests. TwinRed cannot divide either, but we know how to boost the number of requests, so register on our platform as a Publisher and contact our support team to get a consultation and establish a partnership.
• Low-quality ad inventory. Some ad formats are more effective and efficient than others. If the ad formats available are either annoying, ineffective, or expensive, the users will stop coming in, and thus the advertisers will look elsewhere.
• Ad incompatibility (hard). Ads are categorized for a reason. There are Push notifications, Banners, Interstitials, and so on, all of which have unique sizes and applicability, so what works for desktops might not render on mobiles and vice versa. If you’re not into technicalities, you need to partner with a reputable ad network, as their specialists can handle all the nitty-gritty nuances.
• Ad incompatibility (soft). As a Publisher, you might be against specific types of ads or particularly aggressive marketing approaches. You might receive such ad requests but have reservations against accepting them — and that’s perfectly understandable. Nonetheless, getting the requests like that and failing to fulfill them will negatively impact your Fill Rate. TwinRed specialists can help block the undesirable requests in the first place.
• Ad blockers. Sometimes, users get fed up with ads and turn on ad blockers. This kind of software prevents ads from appearing, but it doesn’t change the website’s layout. This can lead to blank gaps, which can unwillingly ruin the user experience. The solution is to counter with anti-adblockers.
• Latency. Nobody likes to wait, so if a webpage takes too long to load, the user is likely to leave or give up. As a result, users can make a request on a webpage, ads will start to load, but visitors will quit before getting a result. 
• Technical issues. In addition to low speed, pages might rely on outdated ad tech and infrastructure, have conflicting software, or suffer from ad verification problems. Whatever the case, this won’t help your Fill Rate.

The 100% Fill Rate is not necessary, as sometimes it means lowering your CPM/CPC and accepting low-quality ads. This, in turn, can kill UX and ad revenue in the long run.

However, a 100% Fill Rate is possible. If you aim for perfection, you need credible partners and a good ad network.

Ways to increase Ad Fill Rate

While the 100% fill rate might be optional on an average ad network, it’s a standard you achieve when working with TwinRed. But besides working with a reputable ad network, you can also try out a few ways to increase your Fill Rate:

• Speed up your pages and keep them in check. Use Google PageSpeed Insights to see how well your webpages are doing. Make sure they load up in less than 3 seconds and are mobile-optimized. Google prioritizes mobile pages for indexing, plus the majority of traffic worldwide originates from mobiles.
• Counter ad blockers. You can either completely block access for ad-blocking users or gently nudge them toward turning it off, but make sure you have anti-adblockers installed so that your ads appear as intended.
• Attend major industry events. Conferences like TES offer a chance to meet the best people in the industry, get exclusive insights, and establish strong partnerships. Partnering with the right people helps improve the Ad Fill Rate.
• Pick a niche. It’s better to be first in a village than second in Rome. If you find a unique specialization, you might have a lower reach, but you’ll offer something unique to advertisers. This, in turn, helps to streamline the demand for ads.
• Diversify your ad network portfolio. Competition is generally good for business, preventing it from stagnating. We understand that at TwinRed — even though we are an ad network ourselves — and genuinely care for your success (we also have exclusive ad deals found nowhere else 😄).

Ad Fill Rate is an important metric for publishers if they want to continue monetizing their websites. You can improve it on your own, but it requires time, dedication, and resources to do so. If you’re not a Jack-of-all-Trades type of guy, it might be better to team up with industry professionals so you can focus on delivering unrivaled UX.

TwinRed will assist you in making your website lucrative for advertisers and maintaining its appeal for users. We don’t care how big your website is because every publisher counts. Register on our platform, and let’s profit together.