AttentionMax

MediaPost reported on the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s first Audience Measurement Leadership Forum, which took place in New York yesterday:

The conference was aimed at demystifying Web metrics at a time when marketers and agencies have more ways of measuring online audiences than ever. The downside is that there’s more confusion than ever because of the abundance of information available to media buyers from multiple sources that don’t always agree...Panelists underscored the need for greater simplicity and clarity in Web metrics to help draw ad dollars away from traditional media.

I don’t think “simplicity and clarity” should be a means to siphoning “ad dollars away from traditional media.” Simplicity and clarity should be the result of Web metrics firms honing in on what truly matters and siphoning the rest — and that’s a herculean challenge, but a huge opportunity nonetheless. While proxies and opportunity for audience will always matter, actual audience and, more importantly, real business outcome is what truly will matter most in this splintering digital economy. That’s where advertising and Web metrics will move with continuing velocity, and we can expect the eventual result will be a leaner, more efficient and nimble advertising economy.

In full disclosure, my past includes building and working with a few of the leading third-party audience measurement services. I think they’ll continue to evolve and play an important role, and their differing approaches and experimentations are very important in credentialing the Web in this still premature phase. However, I think the greatest action and momentum will occur in advertising transactional platforms and performance systems aimed at achieving simplicity, transparency and action. This viewpoint heavily influenced my recent decision to join the team at Clickable.