What is ad inventory availability, and how do buyers confirm it?
Part of Programmatic media planning
The short answer
Ad inventory availability, or avails, is an estimate of the impressions a campaign could buy under its exact conditions: sites, dates, market, formats, sizes, suitability settings and bid. Buyers confirm it with a dated forecast from the buying platform or the publisher, using the plan's real targeting, and record the assumptions, because approving a site does not create supply.
Key takeaways
- Avails are a forecast for stated conditions, not a site's traffic and not a promise of delivery.
- Each condition in the plan, from geography to creative size to suitability setting, narrows the supply a site can offer.
- A useful availability check uses the campaign's real targeting and records its date, source and assumptions.
- An approved site can deliver nothing when its requests do not match the line item, the bid does not win or the forecast was run on different terms.
What are avails in advertising?
Definition
- Avails (available inventory)
- The number of ad impressions forecast to be available for a campaign's exact targeting and dates, before any are bought. A planning estimate, stated with its source and the date it was run.
The word gets used loosely, and four different numbers hide behind it. A site's audience or pageviews describe readers. Ad requests describe the slots the site offers to buyers. A forecast estimates how many of those requests will match a given campaign. Won impressions are what the campaign actually bought. A plan that treats the first number as if it were the third will overstate what the list can deliver.
| Number | What it measures | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Site audience or pageviews | Visits to the site, from all sources and for all purposes | Publisher analytics or public popularity data such as a Chrome UX Report rank band |
| Ad requests | Ad slots offered to buyers, which can be more or fewer than pageviews | Publisher ad server or the exchange |
| Forecast impressions | Requests expected to match one campaign's targeting and dates | A buying platform forecast or a publisher forecast |
| Impressions won | What the campaign bought after bidding | Buying platform reports |
Platforms are careful with their own wording. The Display & Video 360 Inventory Availability report (opens in a new tab) shows the "predicted number of impressions that match specific targeting criteria" and calls its main metric Potential Impressions. Predicted and potential are the right words for a plan too.
How can a buyer confirm that a site has buyable inventory?
Confirmation comes from two sides. The buyer runs a forecast in the buying platform with the campaign's targeting. The publisher, for a direct or deal arrangement, can run its own forecast with the same conditions. Google's Ad Manager help (opens in a new tab) shows what a publisher's check takes into account: the expected creative sizes, targeting, flight dates, and an option to "Consider the impact of advertiser protections," which applies the publisher's advertiser and ad exclusions to the forecast.
Five steps to confirm buyable inventory for a site list
- Confirm the selling path first. The site must be sold through the exchange the plan uses; the guide to deal inventory eligibility covers that check.
- Forecast with the real targeting. Run the buying platform forecast with the list, the market, the sizes and formats, the suitability setting and the dates the campaign will use.
- Ask the publisher for the same forecast. For deals and direct buys, send the publisher the sizes, dates, market and advertiser category so its forecast includes its own exclusions.
- Write down the date and the source. A forecast is a dated estimate; record which platform produced it and when.
- Rerun after any change. A new size, a stricter setting or a shorter flight changes the answer, so the forecast in the plan must match the final terms.
Treat data gaps as gaps. Google says inventory availability data "can be delayed for a few days" and may be withheld for targeting combinations that match fewer than 3,000 unique cookies. A blank row for a small site can mean the forecast cannot show it, not that the site has no inventory.
How do formats and geography change availability?
Each condition filters the supply left by the one before it. Geography removes requests from outside the market. Format and size remove slots that cannot take the creative: in OpenRTB 2.6 (opens in a new tab) a Banner object lists "the banner sizes permitted," and a Video object carries minimum and maximum ad durations, so a 30 second spot cannot fill a slot capped at 15. Location arrives in the Geo object, where region is an ISO 3166-2 code, the "2-letter state code if USA."
Platform settings narrow supply too. Display & Video 360 warns that changes "that result in more restrictive serving may lead to underdelivery of line items," and recommends reforecasting after them. Its planning forecasts (opens in a new tab) list budget, campaign duration, frequency caps, audience and geography targeting, and "Creative dimensions (display inventory)" among the factors that affect reach. Both the United States and Canada appear among the countries supported for reach forecasts.
Which assumptions about available inventory belong in the plan?
A forecast is only as good as the conditions it was run on. Write those conditions into the plan beside the number, so a reader can see what would change it and the buyer can rerun it on the same terms.
Inventory assumptions to record with each forecast
- The forecast's source (buying platform or publisher) and the date it was run.
- The flight dates, including any blackout days the publisher named.
- The market as targeted: countries, states or provinces, and metros.
- Each creative format, size and video length the forecast assumed.
- The suitability or inventory setting applied, by name.
- Frequency caps and any audience layer added on top of the site list.
- The bid or price assumption, and whether it was a deal price or an open auction bid.
- Sites the forecast could not show, listed as no data rather than zero.
Keep the forecast number in the plan's language too. "Forecast potential impressions, October 14, buying platform, sizes 300x250 and 320x50, Idaho and Montana" tells the client what was measured. A bare number labeled available impressions invites the client to treat it as a commitment.
Why can an approved site deliver no impressions?
Approval says the site fits the brief. It says nothing about whether the site's requests match the line item. Google is direct about this: "Line items frequently can't purchase impressions because there isn't enough inventory that matches your targeting," in its targeting overview (opens in a new tab), which has a section headed "Watch out for restrictive targeting."
| Cause | Where it shows | What to change |
|---|---|---|
| No requests in the market | Few or no available requests from the targeted regions | Confirm the site's audience in that market before keeping it |
| Size or format not offered | Requests arrive but are filtered for creative mismatch | Add a size the site offers, or drop the site for this format |
| Settings too strict for the site | Requests filtered by suitability or other settings | Review the setting or accept the site's absence |
| Bid below the clearing price | Bid responses sent but few impressions won | Revisit the bid or the deal price |
| Forecast run on different terms | Plan forecast and live line item disagree | Rerun the forecast on the live settings |
The Display & Video 360 deal and line item troubleshooter (opens in a new tab) separates the stages: total available requests, bid responses, impressions won and win rate. Reading those stages in order shows whether a quiet site is short of supply, filtered by settings or losing at the bid.
How does PlacementGraph carry selling and format details into the plan?
What does an availability check look like on a regional brief?
Fictional example. The brand and sites are invented; no results or performance figures are implied.
A residential locksmith in Boise, Billings and Missoula
An agency plans fall display for an unnamed residential locksmith and smart lock installer serving Boise, Idaho, and Billings and Missoula, Montana. The approved list holds home improvement, local news and home technology sites. The creative comes in 300x250, 320x50 and a 970x250 billboard, plus a 30 second video.
The buyer runs the platform forecast with the list, the two states, the three sizes and the account's inventory setting. Two national home technology sites show supply in 300x250 and 320x50 but almost none for the billboard in these states, and none of the sites offers video longer than 15 seconds in the market. A Boise news site returns no forecast row at all; the plan lists it as no data and asks the publisher for its own forecast.
The plan records the date, the platform, each size, the states and the setting beside the forecast. The team drops the 30 second video for this flight, keeps the billboard only on the two sites that offer it locally, and notes that the forecast will be rerun after the client's final creative sizes are confirmed.
Frequently asked questions
Is a publisher's monthly pageview figure the same as avails?
No. Pageviews count visits to the site; avails count ad requests that match one campaign. A page can carry several ad slots or none, and only the slots in the plan's market, sizes and settings count. Ask for a forecast with the campaign's conditions rather than converting pageviews into impressions.
Why do two forecasts for the same site disagree?
The terms or the data behind them differ. A buying platform sees the requests it receives, while the publisher sees all of its own supply and applies its own exclusions. Different dates, sizes or settings also change the answer. Record both, with their conditions, and plan on the more cautious one.
How far ahead should inventory availability be checked?
Check it while the plan is being built and again shortly before launch, after creative sizes and settings are final. Publisher tools can look far ahead; Google's Ad Manager help says "You can run a forecast up to two years into the future." Those far dates are still estimates, so rerun them as the flight approaches.
Should the client see the availability figures in the plan?
Yes, with their conditions and date beside them, and labeled as forecasts. A client who sees the assumptions can judge the risk of a small market or a rare size, and will understand if a site delivers less than its forecast once real bids and settings apply.
Sources
- Inventory Availability report (opens in a new tab)Google, Display & Video 360 Help
- Create a plan for a campaign (opens in a new tab)Google, Display & Video 360 Help
- About targeting in Display & Video 360 (opens in a new tab)Google, Display & Video 360 Help
- Troubleshoot your deals and line items (opens in a new tab)Google, Display & Video 360 Help
- Brand suitability (opens in a new tab)Google, Display & Video 360 Help
- Check available inventory (opens in a new tab)Google Ad Manager Help
- OpenRTB 2.6 specification (opens in a new tab)IAB Tech Lab
Researched and written by PlacementGraph Research. Read how we research, source and update these pages. Corrections: diana@placementgraph.com.