NEW YORK ? A Medialets executive at the 2013 IAB Mobile Marketplace said that marketers cannot adapt Web metrics to mobile since every device has a set of different technologies.

During the ?Where and How? Measuring Across Mobile Web and Apps? session, executives from Medialets and the IAB spoke about how marketers can most effectively measure their mobile initiatives. The session presented some of the standards that marketers need to continually work towards.

?The one thing that we like to talk about as being the defining characteristic of mobile when we combine both serving and measurement in this aspect is that it?s defined by heterogeneity,? said Eric Litman, chairman/CEO of Medialets, New York.

?Every environment is different,? he said. ?Every device has a different set of technologies that are required to be adopted and adapted to effectively make sure that an ad makes it to a device.?

?So bringing technology to mobile to be able to do the kind of counting that?s imperative to what we have learned and come to appreciate and adopt and sometimes revile in the digital space means building from the ground up for this environment and not simply trying to adapt what we have done in the display market.?

Mobile mess
Per Mr. Litman, the state of mobile measurement nowadays is a mess.

Marketers are frustrated when it comes to allocating budget money to mobile when the metrics used to define ROI are not completely credible.

Therefore, it is critical that mobile advertising standards get to a point where marketers can agree on some of the basics, such as when to count impressions and what to do with traffic that looks speculative.

Other more advanced metrics ? such as viewability and verification ? can be looked at as well, but it is more important for marketers right now to get the basics right first.

For example, Medialets can see accounting methodology discrepancies with brand and agency partners to be as low as two percent or as high as 80-90 percent, depending on the day.

?It?s not because anyone is trying to do poorly, it?s not because people are being shady,? Mr. Litman said.

?It?s because this stuff is really different and a lot of the publishers that have come into this sector with the thinking that this is just like digital,? he said.

?Now is the time for us all to start figuring it out.?

Measure on mobile
The IAB began creating measurement guidelines in 2004, when it published the first official set of guidelines from a trade association that focused on how to count the metric used to buy and sell in the PC industry.

Since then, the IAB has released approximately 11 sets of industry guidelines that cover digital media, including mobile. 

The guidelines are meant to help agencies and marketers understand what?s being sold and that they are getting what they paid for.

As digital marketing continues to evolve and grow, it is not enough for marketers to rely on trust to fund digital initiatives. Instead, marketers need to see the numbers and facts, according to Joe Laszlo, senior director at IAB Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence, New York.

When it comes to mobile, there are two IAB guideline documents ? one for mobile Web advertising and one for mobile application advertising.

?The question is with all these different aspects of digital media, ?Why? Why do we have measurement guidelines and why do we need them??? Mr. Lazlo said.

?From the IAB?s point of view, industry guidelines do seven key things for the industry,? he said. ?They are about getting everyone on the same page as far as vocabulary and the terms that we use.?

Final Take
Eric Litman is chairman/CEO of Medialets, New York