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Google announces changes to MRC accredited metrics in July 2025

Platform updates will significantly impact invalid impression counting for advertisers.

Luis Rijo

• 6 min read
Google DV360 July 2025 MRC metrics: 100% invalid traffic increase, 30% inactive impressions
Google DV360 July 2025 MRC metrics: 100% invalid traffic increase, 30% inactive impressions

Google announced upcoming modifications to Media Rating Council (MRC) accredited metrics within its Display & Video 360 platform, scheduled for implementation on July 14, 2025. These changes will fundamentally alter how invalid impressions are calculated and reported to advertisers.

According to Google's official documentation, the modifications will affect three primary MRC accredited metrics. Invalid Begin to Render Impressions will experience an estimated 100% increase. Similarly, General Invalid Traffic (GIVT) Begin to Render Impressions will increase by an estimated 100%. Inactive Impressions will see a more modest but still significant increase of approximately 30%.

The announcement appeared in Google's Display & Video 360 Help Center documentation, providing advance notice to platform users about the substantial reporting changes ahead. Google's timing allows advertisers several months to prepare for the metric adjustments and potential impacts on campaign analysis.

Summary

Who: Google Display & Video 360 platform users, including advertisers, agencies, and marketing professionals utilizing MRC accredited metrics for campaign measurement and optimization.

What: Implementation of changes to invalid impression counting methodology affecting three MRC accredited metrics: Invalid Begin to Render Impressions (estimated 100% increase), General Invalid Traffic Begin to Render Impressions (estimated 100% increase), and Inactive Impressions (estimated 30% increase).

When: July 14, 2025, with advance notice provided through Google's Display & Video 360 Help Center documentation to allow preparation time for affected users.

Where: Changes affect Google's Display & Video 360 advertising platform globally, impacting reporting across desktop display, desktop video, mobile app display, mobile app video, mobile web display, mobile web video, and select Connected TV environments.

Why: Enhanced invalid traffic detection capabilities aim to provide more accurate measurement of non-human traffic and improve overall advertising measurement quality in compliance with Media Rating Council standards and industry best practices for digital advertising transparency.

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Technical foundations of the changes

The modifications stem from enhanced invalid traffic detection methodologies within Google's advertising ecosystem. Invalid traffic represents web activity that fails to meet quality or completeness criteria, encompassing non-human traffic from bots, spiders, crawlers, and other automated systems.

According to the Media Rating Council, "Invalid Traffic (IVT) generally is traffic or associated media activity that does not meet certain quality or completeness criteria, or otherwise does not represent legitimate traffic that should be included in measurement counts." The organization established comprehensive standards for identifying and filtering such activity across digital advertising platforms.

Google's current Active View technology measures viewability through client-side code embedded in ad tags and mobile SDKs. The system monitors ad positioning within browser viewports and mobile applications, tracking visibility changes from scrolling, resizing, tab switching, and app backgrounding events.

For display advertisements, Active View requires at least 50% of ad pixels to remain visible for a minimum of one second. Video in-stream advertisements must maintain 50% visibility during at least two seconds of continuous playback. Large display advertisements exceeding 242,500 pixels apply a reduced 30% visibility threshold instead of the standard 50% requirement.

MRC accreditation significance

The Media Rating Council traces its origins to 1963, when a U.S. Congressional Committee investigated audience research accuracy in television and radio industries. Following the Harris Committee hearings, industry leaders established the Broadcast Rating Council, later renamed the Media Rating Council, to provide independent auditing of measurement services.

MRC accreditation requires measurement services to "supply Complete Information to the MRC" and "comply with MRC Minimum Standards." Services must also "submit to Annual Audits" and "pay for the Audit Costs (internal & external)," according to the organization's audit and accreditation process documentation.

The council's methodology emphasizes "the establishment and administration of Minimum Standards for measurement operations" alongside "the accreditation of measurement services on the basis of information submitted by such services." Independent CPA firms conduct detailed audits examining sample design, data collection processes, invalid traffic detection, and editing procedures.

Invalid traffic detection mechanisms

Google employs sophisticated multi-layered systems for identifying and filtering invalid activity across its advertising platforms. The company utilizes both General Invalid Traffic (GIVT) and Sophisticated Invalid Traffic (SIVT) detection techniques to comply with MRC guidelines.

GIVT identification focuses on "routine and list based means that flag: bots, spiders & crawlers, non-browser user agent headers, and prefetch traffic," according to Google's Active View methodology documentation. The system compares user agents against known robot identification lists, including the IAB Industry Robot List, updated monthly through automated processes.

Sophisticated Invalid Traffic detection analyzes behavioral patterns, IP addresses, timing sequences, and user interaction data. Google's Ad Traffic Quality team maintains comprehensive filtration procedures that "include (but are not limited to)" various identification methods for non-human activity.

The company's internal traffic exclusion policies prevent Google employees and internal systems from skewing measurement statistics. All traffic originating from Google's internal network addresses is automatically excluded from Active View reports across all products.

Platform-specific implications

The July 14, 2025 changes will affect multiple environments within Google's advertising ecosystem. MRC accredited metrics apply to desktop display, desktop video, mobile app display, mobile app video, mobile web display, mobile web video, and select Connected TV video formats.

Display & Video 360 YouTube & partners line items maintain accreditation for in-stream advertisements, excluding Google TV inventory sources and YouTube TV placements. Non-in-stream advertisements, including YouTube Shorts metrics, currently lack MRC accreditation status.

Campaign Manager 360 and Display & Video 360 users must apply specific filtering criteria to access accredited metrics within their reporting interfaces. Required filters include media type specifications, platform type selections, environment designations, impression counting method parameters, and measurement source verification.

The digital advertising industry continues grappling with invalid traffic challenges across multiple platforms. Recent research from Pixalate indicated social media platforms experienced varying Invalid Traffic rates, with TikTok mobile app traffic reaching 18% in May 2024.

According to Integral Ad Science's Media Quality Report 2024, viewability rates declined to new lows in the second half of 2023, while time-in-view metrics reached concerning minimums. The report highlighted increased brand risk during election cycles, particularly within Americas markets.

DoubleVerify research suggests over one-third of Connected TV ad impressions deliver in environments where advertisements play while televisions remain powered off. This phenomenon contributes an estimated $1 billion in annual wasted advertising spend within the CTV market alone.

Technical implementation details

Google's Active View system polls viewability parameters every 100 milliseconds for web-based display advertisements and 200 milliseconds for both mobile SDK display advertisements and video content. The platform employs cache control mechanisms including "Pragma: no-cache, Cache-Control: no-cache, must-revalidate, and Expires: 0" headers.

Cross-domain measurement capabilities utilize Intersection Observer API on modern browsers, while Internet Explorer implementations rely on pixel-based measurement techniques. Active View does not provide cross-domain solutions for older browser versions lacking Intersection Observer support.

The system maintains raw viewability data for 12 weeks, enabling reprocessing when system issues arise or additional analysis requirements emerge. Invalid traffic impressions undergo filtration before reporting any impression counts, including total impressions, viewable impressions, and measurable impressions.

Advertiser preparation recommendations

Marketing professionals should anticipate significant changes in their invalid traffic reporting metrics beginning July 14, 2025. The substantial percentage increases will require adjustments to performance benchmarks, campaign analysis methodologies, and reporting dashboard configurations.

Organizations utilizing automated bidding strategies based on impression metrics may need to recalibrate their algorithms to account for the enhanced invalid traffic detection. Historical performance comparisons spanning the implementation date will require careful contextual analysis to maintain accuracy.

Third-party measurement verification partners offering MRC accredited solutions should coordinate with Google's implementation timeline to ensure consistent reporting across platforms. Advertisers may benefit from establishing baseline measurements before the July 14 implementation to quantify the changes' impact.

The modifications align with broader industry efforts to enhance measurement transparency and combat sophisticated invalid traffic threats. As digital advertising ecosystems become increasingly complex, enhanced detection capabilities provide advertisers with more accurate performance insights despite apparent metric increases.

This news matters for the marketing community because it represents a fundamental shift in how invalid traffic is identified and reported across Google's advertising platforms. Previous platform updates have demonstrated the substantial impact measurement methodology changes can have on campaign performance analysis and optimization strategies.

Timeline

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