IPA Calls On Media Owners To Tackle Accountability
The IPA’s digital marketing group has called on media owners to address the problem of discrepancies in ad serving statistics.
New research of over 40 different campaigns across 320 media owners has highlighted the extent of the problem by revealing that 90% to 95% of all ad serving discrepancies are caused by the incorrect implementation of cache-busting technology within campaigns.
Cache-busting technology stops ads being served from a locally stored cache on an individual’s PC, which is not registered by third party ad servers and is often used by media agencies.
Agencies cannot control these ad impressions, which undermines attempts to accurately measure click through rates and return on investment data. The IPA claims that considerable agency and media owner time is wasted having to handle discrepancies and the credit management issues they create.
Commenting on the proposals, Nigel Gwilliam, e-commerce and new media consultant at the IPA, said: “An agency loses control of the campaign if ads don’t use cache-busting technology. Contrary to belief cache-busting technology is extremely easy to use and vital for accountability.”
The IPA recommends agencies insert a clause in their contracts with media owners stipulating that cache-busting technology must be applied to all campaigns. The group further recommends that agencies have their ad server audited by ABC Electronic to ensure the accuracy of reporting.
Accountability will be a key issue for the online ad industry as it moves forward and attempts to compete with traditional media for a bigger market share.
The IPA recently joined forces with the Interactive Advertising Bureau to tackle the problems of online audience measurement (see IAB And IPA To Tackle Online Measurement Issues).
IPA: 020 7235 7020 www.ipa.co.uk
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