Money & metrics · also called finalized earnings, confirmed revenue, final revenue
Finalised revenue
Finalised revenue is the confirmed amount a feed will actually pay for a period, after invalid clicks and other adjustments have been deducted from the estimate.
At the end of each month the feed closes its books. It reviews the period's traffic, removes earnings tied to invalid traffic, credits the affected advertisers, and posts the amount it will actually pay. For a direct Google AdSense account, the previous month's earnings are finalised and posted around the 3rd of the following month, with payment issued between the 21st and the 26th if the balance clears the threshold.
Finalised revenue is the only number that counts for the accounts. The difference between it and estimated revenue is the clawback, and it lands after the traffic has already been paid for.
Operators working through a feed provider sit one step further away. The provider receives final figures from the search engine, applies its own revenue share and any adjustments of its own, and then reports to the publisher, sometimes on a longer timetable set by contract. Good practice is to reconcile every month: compare estimated and final by campaign and Channel ID, and find out which traffic source the deductions came from.
An example
Say October shows $50,000 estimated. In early November the final figure is $46,000, a deduction of $4,000 or 8%. With October ad spend of $41,000, expected profit of $9,000 becomes $5,000.
Related terms
Estimated revenue
Estimated revenue is the provisional earnings figure a search feed reports soon after clicks happen, before final checks for invalid traffic are complete.
Clawback (revenue deduction)
A clawback is revenue a feed removes from a publisher's earnings after the fact, usually because clicks were judged invalid and the advertiser was refunded.
Net payment terms (Net 30/60)
Net payment terms state how many days after a period ends a payment is due; Net 30 means payment about 30 days after month end.
Invalid traffic (IVT)
Invalid traffic is any click, search or ad view that does not come from a real person with genuine interest, whether caused by bots, fraud or honest accident.
Revenue reporting delay
Revenue reporting delay is the gap between a visitor clicking a feed ad and the arbitrageur seeing, and later confirming, the revenue for that click.
Cash-flow float
Cash-flow float is the money an arbitrage business must fund between paying for traffic today and receiving the matching feed revenue weeks later.
Sources: Google AdSense Help: Clicks and earnings removed from your reports, Google AdSense Help: Payment timelines, Google AdSense Help: Invalid traffic