This guide will teach you how to use the VAST Statistics Reports sub-section under Statistics. This is where you can create, download, and schedule emails of reports about the performance of your VAST 2.0 and VAST 4.2 ads.

To learn how to make custom reports about non-VAST ads, read How to create custom reports.

You will learn:

1. How to create a custom VAST report.
2. How to save a VAST report.
3. How to download a VAST report.
4. How to send VAST reports regularly via email.
5. About the metrics and other information in a VAST report.

How to create a custom VAST report

1. Click on Statistics near the bottom of the left navigation menu, then click on VAST Statistics Reports. The Statistics Reports subsection will appear.

2. Click on New Report. The New VAST Report page will appear.

Here are the filters that you can use to specify the contents of your VAST report:

• Report - This is where you choose the subject of the report. The report can feature data about ad items, campaigns, zones, publishers, advertisers, geographic targets, or an overview.
• Gear icon - This is where you choose which metrics or information to include in the report. Simply check or uncheck the options to include or exclude them, respectively. See The information and metrics in a custom report for details.
• Filters - This is where you can further narrow down the included subjects of the report. Let's say you have three Publishers in your account, but you want to create a report about only one of them. To do so, Choose Publishers under Report. Then click on the Publishers dropdown menu under Filters and uncheck the names of the two publishers that you wish to exclude from the report. You can apply multiple filters to a single custom report.
• Dates - This is where you specify the period that will be covered in the report. The first dropdown menu is where you enter a start date and an end date, or simply choose from the various preset periods. The second dropdown menu is where you choose how the information will be broken down - as a summary, daily, monthly, yearly, or based on a specific day of the week. The clock icon is where you choose the time zone that will be used as the basis for the report.

3. After you've selected your filters, click Generate Report. Your custom VAST report will load shortly at the bottom of the page. If you're not satisfied with the generated report, simply make your changes then click Generate Report again.

4. Once you are satisfied with the generated VAST report, you have three more optional actions that you can take. You can save the report, download the report, and tell AdButler to regularly generate and email the report.

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How to save a VAST report

Click Save this report to save the set of filters you chose for future use. You will be prompted to name the custom report. You can save multiple custom reports. To load a saved report, click Load Settings...

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How to download a VAST report

Click Download as CSV to download the generated VAST report (i.e. the one that is currently displayed at the bottom of the page) as a CSV file.

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How to send reports regularly via email

AdButler can automatically generate and email custom reports on a regular basis. To enable this feature, you must first save the report that you want to email on a regular basis. Once you have saved the report (or loaded a saved report), click Schedule this report to show the scheduling window.

1. Give the regular report a name. It can be different from the name you used to save the report.
2. Choose how often AdButler will email the report.
3. Choose when AdButler will start sending the report.
4. Enter the email addresses of the people who will receive the report. Click +Add another recipient to add more email addresses. The recipients don't need to have AdButler accounts.
5. Choose what link the recipient will receive. The first option is a link to a page where they can view and download a CSV copy of the report. The second option is a link to a page where the recipient can only download a CSV copy of the report.

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The information and metrics in a custom report

These are the possible details - presented as columns - that you can include in a custom report. Note that some of them are applicable only to certain subjects or only within certain periods. For example, you may have campaigns in which conversions and the conversion rate (CVR) are not relevant, or will always be zero.

The rows in a custom report are arranged chronologically by default. You can rearrange the order of the rows by clicking on the name of a column. For example, clicking on Impressions will sort the rows by descending order of impressions. Clicking on Impressions again will sort the rows by ascending order of impressions.

Date

This is a mandatory column. It's the default way by which the report is organized, and easily lets you pinpoint trends if there are any.

Parent

This is a mandatory column. This contains the subject of the report. For example, if you chose ad items to be the subject of your report, then each row in the Parent column will list a specific ad item, and the rest of the details in that row will pertain to that ad item.

Requests

This indicates how many times the VAST zone sent a request to AdButler. Depending on your setup, the number of requests sent may not match the number of impressions that you get. For more information, read VAST impressions vs. requests.

Impressions

This indicates how many times AdButler delivered a VAST ad to the requesting site or app within the chosen period. Depending on your setup, this metric may not be accurate. For more information, read VAST impressions vs. requests.

Non Linear View

This indicates how many times the non-linear creatives of the VAST ad were viewed within the chosen period. If your non-linear ad has multiple creatives, it's possible for users to view more than one creative within one impression.

Linear View

This indicates how many times the linear creatives of the VAST ad were viewed within the chosen period. If your linear ad has multiple creatives, it's possible for users to view more than one creative within one impression.

Clicks

This indicates how many times the linear and non-linear ads were clicked within the chosen period.

Conversions

This indicates how many times users took the desired action directly resulting from clicking the ad. In other words, a conversion is the ultimate goal of your ad. Examples of a conversion include the customer clicking your ad and then making a purchase from your store, signing up for your newsletter, or downloading your application on the page to which they were taken. Some ads may not have an applicable conversion goal.

All Clicks

This indicates the total number of clicks received across all the VAST ad components - linear, non-linear, and companion - within the chosen period.

Companion

This indicates the total number of impressions that the companion ads received within the chosen period.

CTR (Click-through rate)

This is the percentage of people who clicked on the ad among the number of impressions within the chosen period. Its formula is Clicks/Total impressions.

CVR (Conversion ratio)

This is the percentage of people who clicked on the ad and took your desired action (as discussed in Conversion) among the number of impressions within the chosen period.

Start

For linear ads only. This indicates how many times a creative was loaded and started playing.

1/4 (First quartile)

For linear ads only. This indicates how many times a creative played continuously for at least 25% of the total duration at normal speed.

2/4 (Midpoint)

For linear ads only. This indicates many times a creative played continuously for at least 50% of the total duration at normal speed.

3/3 (Third quartile)

For linear ads only. This indicates how many times a creative played continuously for at least 75% of the duration at normal speed.

4/4 (Complete)

For linear ads only. This indicates how many times a creative played from start to finish at normal speed.

Mute

This indicates how many times users activated the mute control and muted the creative.

Unmute

This indicates how many times users activated the mute control and unmuted the creative.

Rewind

This indicates how many times users activated the rewind control to access a previous point in the creative timeline.

Pause

This indicates how many times users activated the pause control and paused the creative.

Fullscreen

This indicates how many times users activated a control to increase the media player's size.

Exit Fullscreen

This indicates how many times users activated a control to reduce the media player's size.

Accept Invitation

For non-linear ads only. This indicates how many times users clicked or otherwise activated a control used to pause streaming content, allowing the ad to expand within the player’s viewable area or “takes-over” the streaming content area by launching an additional portion of the ad.

Close

For linear ads only. This indicates how many times users closed the linear ad.

Skip

This indicates how many times users activated a skip control to skip the creative.

eCPM (Effective Cost per mille)

This is how much the publisher earned from ad impressions within the chosen period. Its formula is (Ad revenue/Total impressions) x 1,000. It's best to think of eCPM as the average of multiple CPMs. This is especially important in programmatic setups because different advertisers (the bidders) will have different CPMs.

eCPC (Effective Cost per click)

This is how much the publisher earned from clicks within the chosen period. Its formula is Ad revenue/Clicks. It's best to think of eCPC as the average of multiple CPCs. This is especially important in programmatic setups because different advertisers (the bidders) will have different CPCs.

eCPA (Effective Cost per action)

This is how much the publisher earned from conversions within the chosen period. Its formula is Ad revenue/Conversions. It's best to think of eCPA as the average of multiple CPAs. This is especially important in programmatic setups because different advertisers (the bidders) will have different CPAs.

Payout

This is how much the publisher will earn based on the values that were entered in the Financial section when the campaign or ad item was assigned to a zone. For more information, read About Assignments and Financial settings.

Revenue

This is how much the Administrator will earn based on the values that were entered in the Financial section when the campaign or ad item was assigned to a zone. For more information, read About Assignments and Financial settings.

View%

This indicates the percentage of requests that received impressions within the chosen period (Impressions/Requests).

Start%

For linear ads only. This indicates the percentage of impressions in which a creative was loaded and played (Start/Impressions).

1/4% (First quartile percentage)

For linear ads only. This indicates the percentage of impressions in which a creative played continuously for at least 25% of the total duration at normal speed (First quartile/Impressions).

2/4% (Midpoint percentage)

For linear ads only. This indicates the percentage of impressions in which a creative played continuously for at least 50% of the total duration at normal speed (Midpoint/Impressions).

3/3% (Third quartile percentage)

For linear ads only. This indicates the percentage of impressions in which a creative played continuously for at least 75% of the duration at normal speed (Third quartile/Impressions).

4/4% (Complete percentage)

For linear ads only. This indicates the percentage of impressions in which a creative played from start to finish at normal speed (Complete/Impressions).

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