#15 -- Investigation into Completion Rate Drop (IronSource / Publisher Compatibility)

Priority: High Status: Pending Category: Reporting Raised by: Trung Pham, Feb 2026

Problem

Completion rates are dropping on certain publishers/exchanges, particularly IronSource. The question is whether Cavai creatives are incompatible with certain ad exchanges or publishers.

Kevin's Assessment (Discord)

For this one, I need more info or still need to do more digging thro mail chains and docs they have sent. Maybe there's something in there.

Kevin needs more information to investigate. Relevant mail chains and docs from Humology may contain additional context.

What We Know

• Interaction counting changes (CM360 alignment, #6) were expected to partly resolve this
• Analytics parsing bug fixes patched 27 Apr (#27) may have partially helped
• VAST/transcoding fixes from May (23a, 23b) landed but only gave marginal VCR improvement by 19 May
• Lars confirmed (27 Apr) that Cavai infrastructure is industry-standard -- no inherent incompatibility with exchanges

Cavai Feasibility Assessment

Can we fix this from our side? Partially.

• The VAST fixes (#23a, #23b, #29) already shipped and should help
• But the root cause may be exchange-specific behavior (e.g., IronSource handling of VAST tags) that's outside Cavai's control
• The VCR breakdown work (#23d) is directly related -- exchange/OS data will inform whether specific publishers are the problem
• Need: specific campaign data, exchange breakdown, publisher list from Humology

Codebase Findings

• No references to IronSource found anywhere in the codebase or documentation
• VCR tracked as watched_25/50/75/100 columns in Bunny Parquet files
• Completion rate = watched_100 / impressions * 100
• Exchange/app data available in the VCR/CTR comparison Excel (1937 rows) -- can be analyzed for IronSource-specific entries

Next Steps

1. Kevin needs to dig through mail chains and docs for more info
2. Cross-reference with #23d (VCR by exchange/OS) data once available
3. Search the VCR/CTR comparison Excel (1937 rows of exchange/app data) for IronSource-specific entries
4. Consider whether the Bunny Analytics custom layer (#24) can surface publisher-level completion rates

Related Items

• #23d (VCR breakdown by exchange/OS)
• #23a/#23b (VAST fixes -- released)
• #6 (interaction rate alignment)
• #27 (analytics parsing bug fixes)