Everything You Need to Know About Discrepancy Reports

Overview: 

Discrepancy Reports compare your impression data against our tag's impression data to ensure everything is tracking properly. By monitoring this variance, we can identify issues like the following: 

  • Placements that haven't been tagged (which is especially useful for new rotations throughout the campaign's lifecycle)
  • Placements that are under-tracking
  • Placements that are over-tracking
  • Pixel drop-offs
  • Broken macros (which prohibit cut-level insights)
  • etc. 

It's important Discrepancy Reports are run soon after your Media Start Date so any issues are caught and resolved quickly to maximize your measurement. The Media Start date that you inputted when creating the campaign is what we use as an indicator. 

Requirements: 

In order to run Discrepancy Reports, two things are required: 

  1. Your media is live, and has at least 3 full days worth of data
  2. You've scheduled reporting for your tag(s) that meet our reporting guidelines: 
    1. If your tags are CM360-integrated: How to Set Up Impression Reports for DCM Integrated Tags
    2. If your tags are not CM360-integrated: How to Set Up Impression Reports for non-DCM Integrated Tags

How to Read Your Discrepancy Reports: 

The Discrepancy Report will be attached to your email. Within that spreadsheet, you'll find 5 tabs: 

  1. Summary: 
    • On this tab, you'll find a high-level overview of how your tag tracked during the given Date Range (which will range from 3-7 days). The data displayed here is cumulative for that Date Range.
    • On the upper-left of this tab, you'll find:
      • Upwave Impressions: This is the total number of impressions that Upwave tracked on this tag for the given Date Range. 
      • Partner Impressions: This is the total number of impressions included in your report for the given Date Range (we will automatically remove any placements from your report that Upwave does not measure). 
      • Variance %: Overall variance % for the given Date Range.
      • Date Range: The Date Range for which the Discrepancy Report was calculated. 
    • Any specific callouts will be mentioned on the body of this tab (which we'll review further under the "Errors & Common Troubleshooting Steps" section). The variance threshold for piping placements into these categories is +/- 35%, and they must have >1K impressions in both the Partner Report and Upwave Report.      
      • NOTE: If the body of this tab is {blank}, there are no callouts. 
  2. Daily Variance: 
    • This tab includes a more granular look at your variance. It's broken out by placement and date so you can pinpoint when variances are where variances are happening. It also includes any other information available for those placements (sourced from your report) that may assist with your troubleshoot. 
      • TIP! Use this tab to evaluate variance trends over time for a certain placement. It's possible the variance resolved. 
  3. Partner Report: 
    • This is the data from the report that you've scheduled from your Ad Server (for the date range being run).  
  4. Upwave Report
    1. This is the data that the tag is receiving (for the date range being run).
  5. Placements Not Measured: 
    • These are the placements that we've excluded from the comparison either because you've (a) marked them as "Not Measured" within your CM360-integrated tag Management page, or (b) told us verbally that they should be excluded. That way, we're not inflating variance by including placements you don't intend for us to measure. 

Remember! Discrepancy Reports are specific to individual tags. You'll know what tag the Discrepancy Report is associated with by the Media Platform designated in the file name. This correlates to the Media Platform for that tag in your Tag Manager. This is especially useful for campaigns that are using multiple tags.

Errors & Common Troubleshooting Steps:


OVER TRACKING
What this means: 
  • The Upwave tag is tracking more impressions than what appears in your report. 

Risks: 

  • Our tag may be implemented on the same placement multiple times. This could result in inflated measures of reach for the campaign.
  • Tracking more impressions than intended may result in reaching your contracted amount sooner than expected.
How to fix: 
  • Review implementation, and ensure the Upwave tag is only implemented once per placement. 
  • Ensure there are no filters applied to your report that could result in your report not including all impressions for that placement. 

UNDER TRACKING
What this means: 
  • The Upwave tag is tracking less impressions than what appears in your report. 

Risks: 

  • The campaign may not reach minimum respondent thresholds to produce overall performance metrics in the platform. 
  • Cuts that are composed of these placements may not reach minimum respondent thresholds to produce cut-level reads. 

  • The control group could be contaminated, reducing the observed brand lift.

How to fix: 
  • Ensure your tag(s) were implemented across all partners and/or placements that Upwave was intended to measure. Especially any placements that have been newly rotated in since initial implementation. 
  • If there are placements that we're not tracking, that we're not meant to measure, please remove them from your report. 
  • Tags fire in order (not at the same time), so ensure our tag is implemented within the top 4 firing positions for most accurate tracking. 
  • If you're running video media, ensure our tag is implemented on the impression rather than a quartile view (since the latter would not register all exposures). 

UPWAVE PIDS NOT FOUND IN PARTNER REPORT
What this means: 
  • Upwave is tracking impressions for IDs that do not appear in your report. 

Risks: 

  • It’s possible the Upwave tag was implemented on different Campaign IDs than intended, which will lead to inaccurate measurement on this campaign. 
  • These placements may just not be added to your report, leading to an inaccurate perception of variance. 
How to fix: 
  • Confirm that we’re meant to measure the “Not Found” placements:
    • If we are: Ensure those placements are added to your report. 
    • If we’re not: Remove the Upwave tag from those placements.

MACROS NOT EXPANDING
What this means: 
  • Upwave is receiving impressions for macros that are not expanding into usable IDs. 
Risks: 
  • Respondents that are received through these impressions will only get an overall read (rather than a cut-level read). Even once fixed, this could result in low sample size for audiences composed of these IDs if they don’t reach our minimum respondent thresholds. 
  • Insights may be skewed toward audiences that are composed of IDs that are expanding due to low/no sample for those that aren’t. 
 How to fix: 
  • In almost all cases, this is due to the tag being implemented within an ad server using macros that were not intended for that ad server. Review all areas of implementation to ensure your tag(s) leverage the proprietary, dynamic macros for the ad server in which they’re intended. 
  • Ensure you’ve implemented the tag exactly as provided (i.e. do not alter macros, macro positions, or other code as this could impact the tag’s functionality). 

Still need help? 

If after troubleshooting, you have further questions for resolving your variance, please send your questions to support@upwave.com.

To avoid delays: Please provide the following in your request: 

  1. The tag code that you have implemented
  2. The ad server in which you implemented the tag
  3. A screenshot of implementation
  4. A test page
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