I-COM worldmeasurementnews

Third-party certification a must for ad tracking transparency

Olesya Zinovieva writes: Advertisers and publishers can feel more confident about the data provided by ad networks with third-party certification. Here's why. Technology often fails to deliver accurate reports due to discrepancies in ad measuring and tracking. To solve this problem, in 2003 a global consortium of leading bodies within the ad agency, advertiser, media and research disciplines, started the process of developing US and global guidelines for the industry. More...

In US, IAB Commends First Media Companies on Passing Audits for Standardizing Click Measurement

NEW YORK (July 23, 2009) — Recognizing the need to protect buyers, sellers and ultimately all consumers from click fraud, the interactive advertising industry has made it a priority to standardize click-count measurement across media companies. The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) today applauded Business.com, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo! for being the first organizations to pass audits for the IAB’s recently released Click Measurement Guidelines. Issued last month, the guidelines provide a rigorous methodology for companies to define and measure valid clicks and identify and eliminate fraudulent ones, establishing parameters for the accurate buying and selling of cost-per-click advertising.

Independent, third-party audits that certify media companies against the Click Measurement Guidelines provide assurance to buyers of online media that those audited companies are adhering to high standards of rigor and transparency in their click-counting methodologies.

“The three largest search engines represent more than 95 percent of all U.S. searches, which in the month of May 2009 equaled more than 13 billion searches. Completing those companies’ click measurement audits represents a significant milestone in the war on click fraud,” said Joe Laszlo, research director of the IAB. More...

Uncovering the Discrepancies in Unique Measurement Data Generated by Panel & Census-Based Online Measurement Techniques

Bill Perry, Director, Special Projects, ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulations) US writes: Because ABC audits both panel and census-based data for the U.S. daily newspaper initiative Audience-FAX, I’d like to shed some light on how each of these measurement methods can generate different numbers for two of the most common metrics—unique user data and page impressions.

Panel measurements and census measurements have their own distinct advantages and disadvantages. An independent third-party audit can help limit the discrepancies associated with each type of measurement.

Since both methodologies have strengths and weaknesses, it’s impossible to endorse one over the other; nor is it ABC’s role as an independent auditor to do so. Rather it is important that both publishers and advertisers understand the inherent differences of the two methodologies and also understand how to best apply the data generated from either measurement method to buy and sell online advertising. More...

Australia’s Online Media Industry unites in launch of their ABC's Web Audit Service

June 2, 2009 will see leaders from the media industry join forces for the official launch of the ABA (Audit Bureaux of Australia, ABC Australia) Web Audit Service, creating a new standard for Australia’s online marketplace through the delivery of audited web audience data. The ABA Web Audit Service is a first and the culmination of industry-wide collaboration between the ABA, their media provider members, the MFA, AANA and IAB Australia.

“The ABA Web Audit Service will create a level playing field for online publishers by ensuring consistent application and use of the technology from both the provider and publisher. ABA Members can now deliver that type of certainty to their clients, making it the new standard in online media.”

The ABA Web Audit Service is being launched under the theme of ‘Numbers You Can Trust’ and guests at the function will learn more about the specific details of the service and hear from industry figures including Dr Stephen Hollings ABC Chairman and Director of Sales Strategy News Limited, Rob Yeomans, CAB President and Managing Director Rank Publishing, Paul Fisher CEO, IAB Australia, Carol Morris Executive Director MFA, Megan Clarken, Managing Director of Nielsen Online, and the ABA’s CEO Gordon Towell. More...

How Spyware-Driven Forced Visits Inflate Web Site Traffic Counts

Benjamin Edelman, Assistant Professor at the Harvard Business School writes: But there are other plausible reasons to buy spyware traffic. In particular, cheap spyware traffic can be used to inflate a site's traffic statistics. Buying widespread "forced visits" causes widely-used traffic measurements to overreport a site's popularity: Traffic measurements mistakenly assume users arrived at the site because they actually wanted to go there, without considering the possibility that the visit was involuntary. Nonetheless, from the site's perspective, forced visits offer real benefits: Investors will be willing to pay more to buy a site that seems to be more popular, and advertisers may be willing to pay more for their ads to appear. In some sectors, higher reported traffic may create a buzz of supposed popularity -- helping to recruit bona fide users in the future.

Yet spyware-originating forced-visit traffic can cause serious harm. Harm may accrue to advertisers -- by overcharging them as well as by placing their ads in spyware they seek to avoid. Harm may accrue to investors, by causing them to overpay for sites whose true popularity is less than traffic statistics indicate. More...

ABCe interaction event in London underlines growing importance of audited data

Speakers at the ABCe event in London today underlined the growing need to justify the accuracy of data. As the advertising industry is becoming more data / analyics driven, having trusted 3rd party audited data is a necessity. More...

In Australia, ABC launches web audit to ensure traffic is being counted in the same way by all publishers

Lara Sinclair writes for The Australian: Gordon Towell, Chief Executive of the Audit Bureaux of Australia (ABA), said the Web Audit Service would give advertisers and media buyers "directly comparable data" for the first time when they were making advertising decisions. The Media Federation of Australia and the Australian Association of National Advertisers, as well as the Interactive Advertising Bureau, have sanctioned the new audit. Nielsen Online, Managing Director, Megan Clarken said sites that had never been included in the Market Intelligence system would now be seen as being more credible by advertisers and media agencies. More...

In UK, ASA finds Google Analytics numbers insufficient w/o 3rd party auditing

The ASA (Advertising Standards Authority), the independent body set up by the advertising industry in the UK to police the rules laid down in the advertising codes, writes in an Adjudication on 14 January 2009: "We told CUK to remove their unique visitor claims and to remove the claims "The UK's most visited IT Contractor Site" and "Online since 1998". We told them to ensure that they held robust evidence to support all claims capable of objective substantiation." A competitor "challenged whether CUK could substantiate that they had received 249,146 unique visitors to their website in March 2008."

In their assessment, the ASA "understood that the figures CUK referred to had not been independently audited and did not therefore ensure traffic claims adhered to industry agreed standards; we understood that, because they had not been audited, it was possible that CUK's figures could include double counting and could report invalid traffic due to spiders, robots, or internal usage. We understood that figures could be audited by ABCe, the industry owned auditor, which audited systems and data to standards defined by the Joint Industry Committee for Web Standards in the UK and Ireland (JICWEBS). We understood that the software used by CUK could deliver unique user figures to JICWEBS Industry agreed standards if it was correctly implemented. However, we understood that, because the figures had not been audited, it was not possible to know if the software had been correctly implemented. We considered that, because of those problems in the measuring of the data, the evidence CUK had sent was not sufficiently robust to substantiate their unique visitor claims. More...

In UK, ABCe welcomes Gemius as an Associate Subscriber

ABCe announces today that Gemius UK has registered with them as an Associate Subscriber and will be working with ABCe to support industry-agreed standards through the services they offer. The ABCe Associate Subscriber Scheme encourages and enables suppliers to the new media industry to demonstrate their support for industry-agreed standards, as set by JICWEBS.

Adriana Tailor, Operations Director at Gemius UK comments:
“The alignment to the industry-agreed standards is an important stage for us and we are delighted to become an ABCe associate. The move shows our commitment to build transparency for our digital measurement and give confidence to our clients that our numbers are credible.”

Richard Foan, Managing Director of ABCe comments:
“We are delighted to welcome Gemius UK as an Associate Subscriber, demonstrating their support for independent verification, transparency and the industry standards for electronic media measurement delivered by ABCe and JICWEBS.”
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In UK, ABCe welcomes Effective Measure as an Associate Subscriber

ABCe announces today that Effective Measure has registered with them as an Associate Subscriber and will be working with ABCe to support industry-agreed standards through the services they offer. The ABCe Associate Subscriber Scheme encourages and enables suppliers to the new media industry to demonstrate their support for industry-agreed standards, as set by JICWEBS (www.jicwebs.org).

Scott Julian, Chief Executive Officer at Effective Measure comments:
"We are proud to be associated with the ABCe and are confident that this association will further cement Effective Measure’s reputation for accurate, transparent and industry-supported online Audience Measurement”

Richard Foan, Managing Director of ABCe comments:
“We are delighted to welcome Effective Measure as an Associate Subscriber, demonstrating their support for independent verification, transparency and the industry standards for electronic media measurement delivered by ABCe and JICWEBS.”
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