Television has the GRP. Mobile deserves the same.
That’s the thinking at comScore. Starting Wednesday, the measurement company will make mobile ad reporting for apps and mobile web generally available within its validated Campaign Essentials (vCE) product.
ComScore had done custom delivery of mobile measurement in the past on a client-by-client basis. That same data will now be available alongside desktop measurement via a user interface within vCE.
By combining desktop and mobile reporting into a single tool, brands and agencies will be able to get a deduped view of audience and campaign performance across platforms, said Anne Hunter, SVP of global marketing strategy at comScore.
“The ultimate goal for marketers is not to have a lot of metrics – the ultimate goal is for them to understand how many people could actually buy their product,” Hunter told AdExchanger. “By putting desktop and mobile together, we’re giving marketers a chance to understand digital’s complete impact on their sales process.”
That’s been a particular painpoint for both brands and agencies, said Kate Sirkin, EVP of global audience and measurement solutions at Starcom MediaVest Group.
“The biggest challenge is measurement against key business goals such as sales and attribution of mobile-specific impact in total campaign analysis,” Sirkin said. “As people spend more time accessing content via mobile devices, we need tools to accurately measure the delivery of campaigns on those devices against the appropriate audience segments.”
If an ad is deemed to have been viewable, served with brand-safe content to humans in the right geography, comScore considers it to be a “validated GRP.”
“That means your ad was delivered to who you wanted in the way you wanted,” Hunter said. “That’s what useful to marketers and it’s also the way measurement in delivered in every other medium, including TV.”
Over the past year, comScore tested its mobile metrics with about 30 clients in custom trials. ComScore also worked with several data partners, including Pandora, to inform its understanding of mobile demography. Twelve mobile ad sellers, including Amobee, Tremor, Mediabrix, Kargo and Kiip, were certified as part of comScore’s Mobile Authorized Tagging Partners Program to help it provide measurement across iOS and Android. Roughly 20 more mobile tagging partners are on the way.
Nielsen has its own Digital Ad Ratings tool, formerly Online Campaign Ratings, and other vendors provide viewability measurement, but Hunter said comScore differentiates by making vCE a one stop shop.
“This is about a unified view,” she said. “If you know what half of the ads you deliver are to the right person and half of the ads are viewable, without a single system you don’t know the actual number of ads delivered that had a chance to impact the brand.”
For the moment, comScore is using a version of its MRC-accredited desktop viewability tool in order to measure mobile viewability. ComScore plans to pursue accreditation for mobile viewability when the Media Rating Council opens that up at the end of this year.
From Sirkin’s point of view, the “creation of more standardized cross-channel measurement” can only be a good thing.
“Both comScore and Nielsen are making progress with measurement against demographics. … This needs to be done in a similar way to the development of campaign management and optimization for the PC world,” Sirkin said. “Brands who can quickly sense and respond to marketplace opportunities on a day-by-day basis will realize additional efficiencies and/or increased effectiveness.”
In related news, comScore added mobile ad network ratings to its Media Metrix product suite in May. Agencies and advertisers use Media Metrix for audience measurement and media planning.
