Methodology

A2CR Calculation

Sincera evaluates both the dimensions of the creative and the ad slot, using the larger of the two values to calculate the ad-to-content ratio.

Before Dec 4th 2023, Sincera calculated A2CR by looking for and using “Creative Boundaries”. While this approach was valid, we were seeing jitter day over day due to varying rendered ad unit sizes in a given Ad Slot.

As of Dec 4th 2023, we switched over our methodology to use Ad Slot dimension instead of the Creative itself which should provide a more accurate and consistent calculation.

You can read about this change in our blog post.

Ad Overlap Calculation

Sincera calculates Ad Overlap by comparing the Ad Slots positions on a webpage, at each viewport, and determine if there is any overlapping pixels at any point in time.

While a given page visit may not reveal the same outcome due to a smaller creative being used, using this methodology helps identify if a given collision can happen with larger creatives.

Ads in View Calculation

Sincera calculates “Ads in View” at the viewport level by using the provided Adserver’s functions or the Ad Slot coordinates, whatever is available for the given Ad Unit, and compare that to a given viewport on the page. We will return up to 4 viewports by default in our Global Dataset but you are able to configure a custom viewport number in our Private Jobs.

Domain Speed Metrics Calculations

While Sincera uses Google’s Lighthouse metrics to calculate a Publisher’s page speed, we convert some of the numbers to text in our platform for easier understanding. We use the below value to word conversions:

• Speed Conclusion (based on “Speed Percentile”)

  • 0 -> 0.2: Very Slow
  • 0.2 -> 0.4: Slow
  • 0.4 -> 0.65: Average
  • 0.65 -> 1: Fast

Top Identifiers

Top Identifiers are determined by publisher configuration - a publisher needs to be intentionally deploying an identifier for it to “count” in this chart. These detection sources include:

1. Direct tag deployment within a publisher’s domain space
2. Inclusion by way of HB Wrapper configuration (i.e. Prebid) or secure signal provider (i.e. Google)

Top Identifiers is calculated across Header Bidding providers (Prebid, Index Exchange, Google Encrypted Signals, and Amazon APS), with identifiers being normalized and de-duplicated, to avoid over counting an identifier on a given publisher.

As of March 1st 2022, Sincera moved to Methodology 2.0, which is a more accurate representation of identifier configuration and deployment within the digital advertising industry. These counts are collected by monitoring over 300,000+ of the internet’s most popular properties

Identifier Generation

On Sincera, each identifier has their own unique methodology and workflow designed to ensure an identifier is successfully created / provided, so that Absorption can be effectively measured. For some deterministic identifiers, like RampId and UnifiedID 2.0 this means logging into a publisher, or using a debug-based input that always returns an identifier. For some identifiers, such as ID5, it’s as simple as visiting the site and awaiting the provider to return an identifier. If you’re an Identity Provider that wants to validate our detection, or if you just have general questions or feedback, feel free to reach out at support@sincera.io!

Identity Absorption

Absorption measures how effective a given publisher, identity provider, or supply-side platform is at picking up (“absorbing”) an identifier when it is present in a given environment.

The absorption chart tracks the identifier absorption rate amongst the most popular identifiers in the digital advertising ecosystem. Absorption is defined as the percentage of times is an identifier (when present) is “absorbed” into outbound bid requests versus the times an identifier is available for absorption and ingestion into a bid stream.

Absorption isn’t affected by:

• Email or deterministic inputs, or whether or not an identifier is a “cookie” - Absorption is only calculated if an identifier and SSP Bidder adapters are present. Note that each identifier’s absorption rate is calculated independently of other identifiers.
• An identifier’s rarity (how frequent it is seen) does not affect it’s absorption rate - since the metric is only generated when the identifier is present.

A common misconception is that Absorption is measured when the identifier is sent to the DSP - those are server side activities, and are not measured by Sincera. Instead, Absorption occurs “upstream” of server-side RTB events - we’re observing activity between the publisher and the SSP Bidder in the context of “is this identifier present, and is it being absorbed into the bid stream?”