Ad bodies want ‘viewable impressions’ from digital media measurement

Top of the list is a desire to move to a “viewable impressions” standard – one that counts real exposures rather than the “served impressions” which are recorded by ad servers whether or not the ad units are in a viewable space or load fully on the screen.

The Association of National Advertisers (ANA), the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and the American Association of Advertising Agencies ( 4As) also want to move to a currency based on audience impressions so as to better understand the quality and number of exposures against their targets and the reach and frequency of such exposures. “The existing digital currency makes this extremely difficult,” the organisations said.

Other priorities are for a transparent classification system for ad units, a set of interactivity metrics that are reelvant to advertisers – going beyond click-throughs – and to make digital media measurement comparable and integrated with other media.

ANA, IAB and the 4As kicked off the Making Measurement Make Sense initiative in March, pursuing a common approach to measuring online exposures as well as generally accepted standards for brand impact measurement to help simplify the planning, buying and evaluation process.

Sherrill Mane (pictured), IAB’s senior vice president of industry services, said: “Now that industry leaders have defined guiding principles of digital measurement, the initiative is refining and vetting concrete means of advancing these principles. The process of developing recommended solutions and communicating a detailed implementation plan is expected to be completed this summer.”