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IAB dismisses page impression metric in search for best online measurement

iabaustralia-logo-colour-4-cropped-to-useThe relevancy of the page impression metric has been called into question by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) the day after the Audited Media Association of Australia (AMAA) announced it would begin to report the numbers for websites which automatically refresh their pages.

The IAB Measurement Council will release its audience measurement direction paper on Monday seeking to establish which are the most meaningful metrics for media planners and buyers, ahead of a town hall meeting on the subject on Wednesday.

Gai LeRoy, director of research for IAB Australia, said media planners and buyers are after the “old school” measurement of reach and frequency that will work across the modern landscape of mobiles, apps and infinite pages.

She told Mumbrella that while publishers will look at a myriad of metrics, the IAB wants to provide guidance to advertisers to help them make informed decisions on audiences and inventory.

This includes looking at campaigns and actual ad impressions, through measurements like the Nielsen online campaign ratings and Commscore’s recently introduced VCE products that look at the ads actually served and viewed by people.

“Agencies aren’t buying page impressions,” she said. “They are buying ad impressions and audiences, so we want to move our metrics closer to what’s actually being traded.

“The problem with page impressions or page views is they’re not necessarily comparable across different environments, so we’re trying to give information to planners and buyers where they can compare different sites and look at audience sessions.”

However AMAA CEO Paul Dovas argues page impressions are of interest to its members.

“My understanding is the IAB think page impressions are not important. My response to that is they are very important to our members and they include agencies, advertisers and publishers. They are entitled to their views and we will hold our views in terms of what our members want.”

The IAB audience measurement direction paper comes as the IAB continues its tender process for a measurement provider, before the current contract with Nielsen ends in December.

“It’s a long expensive hard path, we’re trying to build the fundamentals for the digital channels and will then work with other media bodies to bring those altogether,” LeRoy said.

“There will probably be a few different solutions, but we want to make sure from an IAB point of view that the digital data is meaningful.”

The IAB Measurement council has 17 members from publishers and agencies.

Megan Reynolds

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