Measuring Online Advertising Response

We recently found a very interesting article in AdAge by Kathryn Koegel looking into measurement of online advertising and calls for definitions to be changed for when an ad is viewed.

Making Measurement Make Sense, or 3Ms, is an initiative backed by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, 4A's, the Association of National Advertisers, the Media Ratings Council, MediaLink and Bain Consulting and calls for a whole new definition of an ad, based on whether anyone actually saw it.

According to a recent study by ComScore in the US of 18 campaigns from advertisers including Kellogg's, Allstate, Ford and eTrade, up to 31% of online ad impressions served were never viewed, even though they counted as impressions in the campaigns.

This is because whether an ad is viewed or not is based upon whether the ad technically loaded on to a page rather than whether someone had the opportununity to see it.  

IAB Senior VP of Research, Analytics and Measurement Sherrill Mane commented,  "We want to put display-ad units on an equal footing with other media. The adoption of viewable impressions will ... give the media community comfort and security for brand advertisers to move forward."

Linda Abraham, CMO of ComScore commented, " Typically, top-of-page placements command highest prices, but research shows that in many cases these are overlooked in favour of in-content or below-the-fold placements -- it all depends on the type of content and how people consume it. What's surprising is how little of these publishers know and use.

"As an example, recipe sites actually have higher viewability rates of ads below-the-fold than top of page placements and we're now "able to unearth the gold below the fold."

This may be US focussed but an interesting article on measurement of online advertising and how it is being addressed.

Read the full article here. And you can find out more about 'making Measurement Make Sense' and their five principles here.