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SDK / Player ↔ Measurement / Verification: runtime event segment

Purpose

This document explains what happens after an ad is actually rendered: impression, click, quartile, viewability, and verification. The goal is to keep runtime events separate from the verification layer.

Key Takeaways

  • Runtime actors such as SDKs, players, and tags are best positioned to know when an ad was actually rendered or progressed.
  • In video, tracking is strongly tied to VAST elements such as Impression, ClickTracking, and TrackingEvents.
  • Verification vendors typically rely on standard interfaces such as OM SDK / OMID.
  • impression, viewability, and verification are not the same event.

Main concerns in this segment

ConcernDescription
Exposure eventsruntime events such as impression, click, quartile, and complete
Verificationviewability, audibility, invalid traffic, and fraud-related signals
Tracking trustwho confirms which event at what moment
Reconciliationhandling differences among server win, render, impression, and billable events

Standard protocol status

ItemAssessment
Video tracking standardVAST is a strong baseline
Verification interface standardOM SDK / OMID is central
Single end-to-end message format for all formatsWeak

Data often seen in this segment

  • impression
  • click
  • quartile
  • error code
  • viewability state
  • AdVerifications
  • OM session context
  • event timestamp

Practical interpretation

  • imp is a request-side object.
  • impression is a runtime event.
  • viewability is closer to a verification result.

This means that even though the SDK or player knows the runtime state best, measurement is not simply a matter of the SDK calling arbitrary scripts. In video, VAST and OMID work together; in display, creative markup and trackers may execute more directly in the runtime.