AdXpose + Comscore: A Gamechanger for Online Advertising Measurement

Online GRPs: Necessary, but Not Sufficient
Recently, there has been a significant amount of discussion about the value of online GRPs, a metric that Comscore has been reporting for several years. The analysis we’ve done across thousands of campaigns during that time has led us to an overwhelming conclusion: GRPs, while important and necessary in that they create a bridge to traditional media, are simply not sufficient for effectively managing the dynamics of how advertising works in the digital environment.

Consider the ad delivery process online. Unlike traditional media, as much as 80% of all online ads are delivered through third parties. As a result, the advertiser is often unaware of how, where and to whom these ads are actually delivered, which presents some significant challenges. In some cases, a portion of these ads are delivered but are not seen. In other cases, they appear alongside content that, in the advertiser’s view, would be damaging to the brand. Sometimes, within the complex multi-party hand-offs involved in delivering an ad, unscrupulous players (often unknown to other parties in the transaction) can even game the system and introduce fraud into the delivery.

Even when an ad is legitimately placed next to content that is not objectionable, it is often delivered to people who are outside the intended target, either demographically or geographically. In addition, ads may be delivered on target but at too high or too low a frequency. In the thousands of campaigns we’ve analyzed, it’s not uncommon for 25% of exposed people to see just one impression (which is typically not enough), and 25% or more of exposed people see it 10 or more times (which is typically too high). Collectively, these factors contribute to significant difficulty in achieving the objective of an advertising campaign, which is to deliver ads to the right people in the right context at the right frequency in order for advertising to have the desired impact. The current environment leads to sub-optimal campaign performance and a lot of unnecessary waste.

This reality is not good for anyone in the digital ecosystem — advertisers, publishers, agencies, ad networks, ad exchanges, etc. — and it inhibits the growth and development of the digital medium. What is needed is a way to understand the Validated GRP; in other words, a measure of impressions that were legitimately delivered to a user, in the right context, within the right frequency range, to the desired target.

Digital Media Industry Supports Need for Enhanced Transparency in Ad Measurement
It is not just Comscore that has come to this conclusion about the need for Validated GRPs. Recently, the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA), and the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) collaborated on standards to better report advertising exposure as part of their Making Measurement Make Sense (3MS) initiative. One of the core standards they suggested was to report on viewable impressions in campaign delivery and effectiveness, which would bolster confidence that ads being delivered online were properly seen. The 3MS initiative also aims to reduce the cost of doing business in digital advertising, where the proliferation of media and advertising technology suppliers has made executing a digital ad buy have a greater proportional operational cost than other media. Comscore and AdXpose will reduce this complexity by providing a “single tag” solution to measure all of the metrics needed to ensure valid advertising delivery to the right audience. The single tag eliminates operational costs and reduces discrepancies for all parties in the online ecosystem.

In order for digital advertising to fulfill its potential as a strong component of the marketing mix, our industry requires greater transparency in understanding the complex dynamics of ad delivery. Enhanced measurement capabilities are needed to help proactively manage campaigns, and to take corrective actions when inefficiencies occur. Comscore’s acquisition of AdXpose sets out to accomplish exactly that by integrating its unique ad validation and optimization tools into our Campaign Essentials product. While these products will initially be sold side-by-side, we are already working to combine them into a fully integrated, end-to-end solution where these metrics can all be delivered, managed and optimized in real-time, within a unified system.

In summary, we are excited about welcoming the AdXpose team and its world-class technology, and we look forward to the new value we can deliver to the industry together. Stay tuned for more developments!