It is the first time that Nielsen’s ratings, which provide an equivalent to the gross rating points (GRPs) used for TV, have been integrated into an online video ad platform.

The system works by tagging ads to count how many times they are viewed, and combining this data with aggregated demographic information about the users who have been shown them, obtained through partnerships with online publishers including Facebook. The resulting data can be combined with information from Nielsen’s TV and online panels to provide a complete picture of who saw an ad in terms of reach, frequency and GRPs.

Steve Hasker, president of media products and advertiser solutions at Nielsen, said: “Marketers want to cleanly compare the reach of online video media to other media – principally TV. Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings provides a standard GRP across platforms, so that online can be measured the same way we measure GRPs on TV.”

Kelly McEttrick, director of platform strategy for VideoHub, said: “Advertisers can now look at their demographic reach, and then evaluate how their campaign performed within each audience segment.”