media seo analytics | push2digital

The Interactive Advertising Bureau is quietly trying to change that, spearheading the creation of a gold standard for Web measurement.

“The limitations and the confusion are very disruptive to our conversation with the client,” said Chris Hiland, president of media networks at Geomentum, a hyper-local marketing unit of IPG. “When you see a different number on the ad server and a different number on a log-based server, you don’t have confidence, and that keeps spend rates down,” said Dave Morgan, founder of Simulmedia, a company that helps TV companies improve the effectiveness of tune-in spots. ... Local newspapers have it tough because panel-based measurement isn’t well-suited to local sites, resulting in erratic results.

That’s why Mark Contreras is a vocal backer of the IAB’s standardization effort. He’s svp of newspapers for Scripps, he said that third-party audience estimates for Scripps’ sites range from 30 million all the way to nearly 100 million.

-- Comment --
Pick your company -- NielsenNet, Comscore, Compete -- their web audience measurements all have their flaws. So this IAB initiative is a good start to address some glaring weaknesses. Take for example that panel-based systems virtually ignore the workplace audience, which is pretty darn important to digital media properties. Add to that Scripps' audience estimates that range from 30M to 100M (really?) for their sites, and you can see why advertisers say, "Uh, I'm not paying top dollar until I'm sure how many people I'm really reaching."