Comments sought on mobile web ad measurement guidelines

The organisations aim to standardise key metrics for the mobile internet industry, providing “a framework to govern how ad impressions are counted on the mobile web”.

The guidelines have been developed with the help of the Media Rating Council (MRC) and the mobile industry body GSMA. Dozens of firms contributed, including web publishers, audience measurement agencies, management consultancies, mobile network operators and ad networks.

“Consumers have brought mobile devices into their daily lives at an astonishing pace,” said Randall Rothenberg, president of the IAB. “The [guidelines] will give marketers greater assurance that their advertising messages are reaching consumers on these mobile devices and that’s critical for continued growth.”

The organisations said the draft guidelines (which can be viewed here) follow the “general principles” of the IAB’s existing guidelines for web ad measurement, but that they differ in some areas because of “technical differences inherent in the mobile web environment”.

The guidelines are designed for the use of mobile marketers, wireless operators, mobile publishers and ad serving organisations. They cover definition and tracking of ad impressions, considerations relating to click measurement, and guidelines for methodological disclosure, but they do not cover advertising delivered through messaging, apps or certain audio and video technologies.

Comments are sought by 10 December on whether the guidelines adequately reflect the capabilities of mobile technologies, whether they will give marketers sufficient confidence and whether publishers and ad servers will be willing to comply.

The organisations also seek comment on how well the guidelines address concerns about measurement of advertising in mobile apps, with a view to possibly developing a separate set of guidelines specifically for that purpose.