The guidelines aim to help interested parties determine the quality of ad analytics and measurements as well as the completeness of disclosure. It requires client-side counting for mobile application ad impressions to ensure reliability and consistency, as well as to reduce discrepancies across measurement models.

Although principally applicable to organisations that develop apps and use the platform as a marketing vehicle to connect with customers, the guidelines can be applied to third-party measurement organisations in the mobile industry, the partners say.

In the past year, the number of US consumers using mobile apps has nearly doubled to 101.8m while mobile advertising spend is now estimated at $4bn annually.

“With mobile becoming a key part of brand marketers’ ad buying strategies, it is critical that we establish clearly defined principles for measuring both mobile web and in-app ads,” said Anna Bager, vice-president and general manager, at IAB’s Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence.

• The guidelines come as media measurement firm Nielsen launches a new service to measure the brand effect of in-app advertising. Nielsen will capture consumer sentiment using an in-app survey and score campaigns using metrics such as awareness, attitude, favourability and purchase intent.