The Programmatic Glossary
A practical glossary designed to help marketers, advertisers and ad-tech professionals understand the terminology that powers programmatic advertising
Measurement & Analytics
Fill Rate
The percentage of ad requests that actually result in an ad being shown. If your page requests 1,000 ads and 800 of those slots get filled, your fill rate is 80%. A low fill rate means lost revenue: empty slots that generated no income.
HOW IT WORKS
When a page loads, an ad request is sent. If demand partners bid above the floor price, the slot is filled. If no one bids above the floor, or if there is a technical error, the slot goes unfilled. Fill rate is affected by floor prices (too high means fewer bids), QPS (Queries Per Second) limits, the range of demand partners connected and the quality and timing of the inventory.
EXAMPLE
A publisher has a 65% fill rate on their mobile inventory. Investigation reveals the floor price is too high for weekend mobile traffic, and they only have three DSPs (Demand-Side Platforms) connected to that supply. By lowering weekend floors and adding five more DSP integrations, fill rate jumps to 88%: a significant revenue increase.
RELATED TERMS
CPM | Bid Floor | QPS (Queries Per Second) | ARC (Adaptive Rules Centre) | Yield Optimisation
★ LIMELIGHT INSIGHT: Limelight partners have reported fill rate improvements of over 900% using ARC's automated optimisation rules, through better demand management and intelligent floor pricing.
