June 2026 - Missing Required Metadata Fields

This month's Validation Monitor of the Month helps you catch campaigns missing critical metadata before they cause problems downstream.

Every campaign needs certain information to traffic properly and report accurately. Whether it's cost type, billing model, campaign classification, or advertiser category, missing metadata creates gaps that hurt billing, reporting, and operational efficiency. These gaps often don't cause delivery issues, but they silently break downstream processes.

This monitor flags any campaigns or placements that are missing the fields your team considers essential, so you can catch incomplete setups during trafficking rather than discovering them later during billing or reporting.

• Using Freewheel? Jump to the Freewheel setup ↓

• Using Google Ad Manager (GAM)? Jump to the GAM setup ↓

Incomplete campaign metadata quietly causes issues downstream. The campaign runs fine, delivers impressions, and everything looks normal. But without the proper metadata attached, you're missing crucial context for billing, reporting, compliance, and reconciliation.

Missing cost means you can't bill correctly. Missing metadata fields mean your reports are incomplete. Missing external IDs might create compliance issues. These problems often don't show up until weeks later when accounting or the finance team comes asking why something doesn't reconcile.

The best time to catch these issues is during setup, before the campaign goes live. This monitor does that automatically, flagging campaigns missing the metadata fields you've defined as required. It's a simple data quality check that prevents downstream headaches.

Example Use Case: Flag any active campaigns missing required fields like cost, external ID, or metadata.

1. Go to the Monitoring Module in the top hand rail of the Watching That interface

2. Select the 'Validation' tab within the Monitoring Module

3. Click the pink + Add Validation Monitor button at the top right

Open

4. In the 'From DataSource' dropdown, select your Freewheel source

5. In 'Dimension', select 'FW: Campaign'

6. In the first filter select 'Status' from the Field name dropdown. When you select 'Status' the filters change and the next field shows 'exists'. Change 'exists' to 'one of' This adds a third filter option, from this drop down select 'Active'

7. After setting the first filter row, click the blue 'Add Filter' button with the funnel icon at the bottom left. This adds another filter row

8. In the new filter row, search for the specific field you want to check. Common examples include InsertionOrder.external_id to flag missing campaign IDs, or cost.gross_cost / cost.net_cost to flag missing cost information. Select it from the Field name dropdown. Change the middle filter to 'doesn't exist'. This will flag any campaigns missing that field. Tip: Start with your most critical field and create separate monitors for different required metadata fields

9. From here we do recommend adding more filters to narrow your focus. (Tip: There's no limit to the amount of filters you can add to a Validation Monitor.) For example, add a filter for Advertiser or Campaign type to check metadata requirements only for campaigns where it matters most

10. Name your Monitor on the right-hand side (something like "Missing Campaign ID" or "Missing Gross Cost" works well)

11. Optionally, add a description for your Monitor

12. There is a notification channel option, but instant alerts are not currently available for Validation Monitors (VMs), so leave this blank for now

13. Click Save to finish

Your monitor should look like the below:

Open

Example Use Case: Flag any active line items missing required fields like advertiser category, custom labels, or billing information.

1. Go to the Monitoring Module in the top hand rail of the Watching That interface

2. Select the 'Validation' tab within the Monitoring Module

3. Click the pink + Add Validation Monitor button at the top right

Open

4. In the 'From DataSource' dropdown, select your GAM source

5. In 'Dimension', select 'GAM: Line Item'

6. In the first filter select 'Status' from the Field name dropdown. When you select 'Status' the filters change and the next field shows 'exists'. Change 'exists' to 'one of' This adds a third filter option, from this drop down select 'Ready' or 'Delivering'

7. After setting the first filter row, click the blue 'Add Filter' button with the funnel icon at the bottom left. This adds another filter row

8. In the second filter row, search for the metadata field you want to check (for example, Creatives.billingAttribute to flag missing billing information, or any other custom field your team requires) [Tip: searching for ‘billing’ brings up the filter you’ll need]. Select it from the Field name dropdown. Change the middle filter to 'doesn't exist' to flag line items missing that field. Tip: GAM custom fields and labels vary by setup—identify which ones are critical for your billing and reporting before creating monitors

9. From here we do recommend adding more filters (Tip: There's no limit to the amount of filters you can add to a Validation Monitor.) You can add filters for specific advertisers, order types, or other dimensions to check metadata requirements only where they matter

10. Name your Monitor on the right-hand side (e.g., "Missing Billing Attribute" or "Missing Custom Field")

11. Optionally, add a description for your Monitor

12. There is a notification channel option, but instant alerts are not currently available for Validation Monitors (VMs), so leave this blank

13. Click Save to finish

Your monitor should look like the below:

Open

• Prioritise your required fields: Not all metadata is equally important. Start with the fields that impact billing, reporting, or compliance first

• Create multiple monitors: Set up separate monitors for different metadata requirements rather than trying to check everything at once

• Update as processes change: Your required fields might evolve as your business grows or processes change—review your monitors quarterly

• Coordinate across teams: Make sure billing, finance, and operations agree on which fields are mandatory before you start monitoring

• Catch it early: Run these monitors as part of your pre-launch QA, not after campaigns have already gone live

• Document your requirements: Keep a reference guide of which metadata fields are required and why—this helps new team members understand the rules

• Validation Monitor email digest - After creating your monitor, contact support@watchingthat.com to set up a daily digest that delivers monitor status updates to your inbox