According to research by comScore, a Mobile browser views two articles and spends ten minutes whereas tablet browser views four articles in twenty minutes. With comScore’s Multi-Platform Analytics the measurement would be one browser thirty minutes and six articles where as, as per standard analytics it would be average fifteen minutes and average three articles for two browsers.*

It is important to arrive at Standard Digital Measurement techniques to guide your Digital Media Buying and Evaluation. Here are Five Guiding Principles of Digital Measurement shared by  Leading Publishers, agencies and Marketers.

Principle #1 – Move to a “viewable impressions” standard and count real exposures online in
place of “served impressions” as recorded by ad servers. Often, ad units are not in a viewable space to the end-user or fail to fully load on the screen – potentially resulting in substantial  over-counting of impressions. Viewable exposures are increasingly the norm across other media and better address the needs of brand marketers.

Principle #2 – Online advertising must migrate to a currency based on audience impressions, not gross ad impressions.
Brand marketers target specific audiences. Marketers need to understand the quality and number of exposures against their targets – and the respective reach and frequency of such exposures.
The existing digital currency makes this extremely difficult. Moreover, the practice of selling ad impressions makes cross-media comparisons extremely difficult, if not impossible.

Principle #3 – Because all ad units are not created equal, there is a need to qualify and assign weight for each type of audience impression.
Unlike traditional media, which have a limited number of inventory types (e.g., 30-sec spot,
full-page back cover), digital has a myriad of units. Making Measurement Make Sense advocates a transparent classification system, adhered to by all publishers. Such a system will enable marketers to identify and spotlight the best offerings for brand building, and for other marketing objectives.

Principle #4 – Determine interactivity “metrics that matter” for brand marketers, so that marketers can better evaluate online’s contribution to brand building.
Currently, the industry is awash in digital interaction metrics. However, these metrics are not
necessarily relevant for brand marketers. Aside from click-through, there are few standards for  enabling reliable comparison across sites. The industry must identify and define the specific metrics most valuable to brand marketers and define and implement reliable standards for existing metrics.

Principle #5 – Digital media measurement must become increasingly comparable and integrated with other media.
Measurement solutions must facilitate cross media platform planning, buying and evaluating of marketing and media.

Source:  *Multi-Platform Measurement in a Brave New Digital World, Guiding Principles of Digital Measurement

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