Once you've identified unfilled impressions as a real revenue leak (see our companion article on diagnosing the problem), the next step is actually closing the gap. Here's the tactical playbook.
Step 1: Segment before you change anything
Break the problem down by ad unit, device, and geography. A single account-wide fix rarely works, because the cause of unfilled impressions on desktop display is usually different from the cause on mobile video.
Step 2: Test floor price reductions on the worst segments
Start with the ad units showing the highest unfilled percentage. Lower the floor incrementally rather than removing it entirely, and measure the change in total realized revenue over at least two weeks.
Step 3: Simplify the waterfall for those segments
Too many sequential demand sources, each with their own timeout, means some requests never get a real shot before the page moves on. Consolidating into fewer, higher-quality demand sources competing simultaneously usually improves both fill and revenue.
Step 4: Check for coverage gaps
Confirm every meaningful geography and device combination actually has a line item or deal that can serve it. It's common to find an entire country or device type with essentially no active demand mapped to it.
Step 5: Re-measure and repeat
Unfilled impressions rarely get solved in one pass. Treat it as an ongoing maintenance task, not a one-time fix — which is exactly the kind of work AdPulse handles as part of continuous ad operations support.
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