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IAB, MMA collaborate on industry standards for measuring mobile Web ad delivery

Please click here to view the guidelines

To standardize key metrics for the mobile interactive industry, the Interactive Advertising Bureau and the Mobile Marketing Association have released ?Mobile Web Advertising Measurement Guidelines? for public comment.

Developed with the assistance of the Media Rating Council, the guidelines will provide a framework to govern how ad impressions are counted on the mobile Web.

?The industry is looking for standards in order to have effective and consistent measurement of programs," said Michael Becker, San Francisco-based managing director of North America at the MMA. "Effective and reliable measurement standards are a cornerstone requirement for the health and future growth of the mobile marketing industry. 

"Among other things, they provide transparency to the marketplace and the ability to compare programs across organizations and industries both today and over time," he said.

"Once marketers are able to reliably measure and track their programs they?ll then be able to calculate the ROI of their programs and invest their marketing budgets to optimize value to their customers and their businesses. ?

The objectives of the ?Mobile Web Advertising Measurement Guidelines? include:

? Defining the mobile Web ad impression

? Creating a common definition and methodology that will become widely adopted in the U.S. and globally for counting mobile Web ad impressions

? Encouraging U.S. mobile Web ad servers to have their impression counts audited by an independent third party

? Distinguishing between the established IAB Web ad impression and the mobile Web ad impression, and when each metric is appropriate

? Providing marketers and agencies with greater clarity and certainty via the auditing process that key metrics used for buying mobile Web ads are methodologically sound and meet the highest standards available to the media industry

? Reducing levels of discrepancies and spurring the industry?s growth by offering  Internet publishers and ad servers a consistent, rigorous way to count the delivery of ad impressions

Members of the industry?advertising agencies, advertisers, online publishers and technology vendors?are encouraged to read the proposed guidelines and submit comments.

For IAB members, the guidelines can be reviewed and comments submitted at http://www.iab.net/mobilewebmeasurementguidelines

For MMA members, the guidelines can be reviewed at http://mmaglobal.com/MobileWebMeasurementGuidelines.pdf and comments can be submitted via email at .

The public comment period for the guidelines will remain open until Dec. 10.

Mobile Marketer?s Dan Butcher interviewed Joe Laszlo, research director at the IAB, New York. Here is what he had to say: 

What factors made these Mobile Web Advertising Measurement Guidelines necessary?
Being able to measure impressions in advertising is critical to the monetization of all advertising platforms.

Guidelines assure marketers and agencies that those measures are reliable and accurate in line with best industry practices, and that they get what they purchase when buying mobile Web advertising. 

Members of both the MMA and the IAB approached our organizations to let us know they felt the lack of ?Web-quality? standards for mobile advertising measurement was beginning to cause serious concern for agencies and marketers, potentially slowing the growth of mobile Web advertising.

The MMA and IAB, along with the MRC, discussed the project and realized that the best strategy was to pursue a joint project to create a single set of industry guidelines, tapping the IAB?s expertise as an industry pioneer in setting standards for interactive advertising. 

What objectives are these guidelines intended to achieve?
These guidelines should help give buyers confidence that their mobile Web buys are being measured accurately?and that they?re only writing checks for impressions delivered.

These guidelines are consistent with the IAB Web impression measurement guidelines, with some distinctions that take into account differences in the mobile data infrastructure that impact the measurement process.

It was therefore another of our goals with these guidelines to distinguish between the mobile ad impression and a standard IAB Web ad impression. 

What effects could these have on the mobile advertising ecosystem going forward? 
Bringing clarity and consistency to the mobile advertising marketplace gives marketers greater confidence in buying advertising, and that means continued strong growth in mobile ad revenue.

These guidelines help ensure that marketers are able to buy those impressions based on rigorous standards and that?s good for the entire ecosystem.

They also create a baseline for extending rigorous measurement to other aspects of the mobile landscape?for example, mobile in-application advertising or measurement of mobile messaging ads?as needed and appropriate.

Please click here to view the guidelines

Final Take
The MMA's Michael Becker

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