Overview
Optimization rules for impressions allow you to control how incoming impression traffic is handled when it does not meet specific conditions. Using these rules, you can decide whether such traffic should be redirected to the Advertiser or discarded. Discarded traffic is recorded as discarded impressions and can be reviewed in the Reports.
Where to Configure Impression Optimization Rules
Navigation path: Automation → Optimizations → Create → Rule Type: Impression
Rules
Traffic Volume & Frequency Control Rules
IP Recency: discards repeated impressions from the same IP address for the same offer within the defined time window (TTL).
Example: if TTL is set to 600 seconds, any 2nd and consequent impression from the same IP within that time is discarded.Recency: discards repeated impressions from the same user (based on user agent and IP address) for the same offer within the defined TTL.
Example: If TTL is 60 seconds and a 2nd impression occurs after 30 seconds, it will be discarded.
Targeting & Eligibility Rules:
Advance Targeting Mismatch: discards impressions that do not match the advanced targeting configured in the offer in Targeting section.
Example: If an offer targets the city New York and the impression comes from San Francisco, the impression is discarded and not forwarded to the advertiser.Advertiser Blocked Publisher: discards all impressions coming from a publisher that is blocked by the advertiser. This applies across all offers of the advertiser.
Blacklisted Sub ID: discards impressions coming from a sub ID that is blocked on the offer.
Invalid Request: discards impressions that are missing required information, such as: publisher id, and/or offer id.
Offer Targeting Mismatch: discards impressions that do not match the country and platform targeting set on General page of the Offer setting.
Example: if an offer targets the United States and the impressions comes from Poland, the impressions is discarded.Publisher not Approved: discards impressions from publishers that are not approved or have access status 'blocked' for the offer.
Traffic Control: discards impressions that does not comply with the configured Traffic Control rules. Learn more about Traffic Control here.
Budget & Caps Rules
Budget reached: discards impressions for an offer once its hourly, daily, monthly, or total conversion hard budget has been reached.
Click Budget Reached: discards impressions once the offer’s click cap (hourly, daily, monthly, or total) has been reached.
Impression Budget Reached: discards impressions for an offer once its impression cap (hourly, daily, monthly, or total) has been reached.
Platform & Status Rules
Inactive Offer: discards impressions for offers that are in status 'Pending', 'Paused', or 'Archived'.
Inactive Publisher: discards impressions coming from publishers with status 'Pending' or 'Blocked' in your Swaarm platform.
Reporting & Monitoring
If impressions are being discarded due to impression optimization rules, their impact can be reviewed directly in reports.
Where to check
You can analyse discarded clicks in the following reports:
Custom Report
Explorer
Superset (for impression-level exports)
What to look for
In reports, pay attention to the following metrics and dimensions:
Discarded Impressions - shows how many impressions were blocked by optimization rules.
Discard Reason:
Failed Impression Rules - indicates the impression optimization rule which blocked the impressions
Failed Impression Subrules - shows more specific rule that caused the impressions to be discarded.
This allows you to understand:
how many impressions were discarded,
which rule caused the discard
and whether a rule may be too strict.
Example: Investigating Discarded Impressions
In this example, you are reviewing an Explorer or Custom Report and notice discarded impressions for offer 29320
Impressions: 18
Discarded impressions: 10
This indicates that a portion of impressions was not delivered due to impression optimization rules.
Step 1: Identify the discard reason
In Explorer or Custom Report:
Filter by Offer ID = 29320
Add Impression Failed Impression Rules and Failed Impression Subrules dimensions
IMPRESSION_BUDGET_REACHEDandIMPRESSION_BUDGET_REACHED_HOURLY_OFFER- this means impressions were blocked because the offer’s impression hour cap was reached.
Step 2: Check the offer’s impression caps
Go to: Offer 29320 → Budgets and review the configured hourly impression cap:
Step 3: Confirm expected behaviour
Compare:
the number of impressions already delivered,
the configured impression caps,
the time window in which the cap applies.
Possible next steps
Based on your findings, you can:
keep the impression caps as configured,
increase or remove the impression cap if more delivery is required,
or adjust traffic distribution across publishers.
Advanced analysis
For deeper investigation or auditing, impression-level data can be exported from Superset (Reports → Studio), allowing you to:
analyse individual impressions,
review discard reasons in detail,
and identify patterns across publishers, offers, or traffic sources.
