Online Agencies Call For Ad-Serving Software Audit
The lack of an industry agreed standard for web-advertising technology has prompted a number of leading online agencies to call on media owners to get their ad-serving software audited.
Real Media, Profero, Outrider, Media.Com and i-level have come together to put their weight behind an initiative that will see third party ad-servers independently audited to industry agreed standards by ABC Electronic.
The initiative is designed to improve confidence in ad-serving statistics and reduce the discrepancies in the figures reported by media owners and online agencies. It is also hoped that an independent audit will provide better value for advertisers in terms of media spend and agency performance comparisons.
Richard Foan, managing director of ABC Electronic, said: “The industry deserves credible and independent data to demonstrate and to encourage advertisers to invest more in the medium. It’s great to see commercial organisations within the industry supporting such an initiative and building on the agreements already in place.”
Real Media is currently the only agency to have its third party advertising software audited by ABC Electronic on a regular basis. However, it wants the auditing of third party ad-servers to an industry agreed standard to become a common a practice among websites (see ABCe Completes First Audit Of Ad Tracking System).
Richard Foster, sales and marketing director, of Real Media, said: “Real Media is building confidence in this emerging media by ensuring the transparency of reporting throughout our applications. We are wholly committed to ensuring that advertisers have the utmost confidence in the delivery and reporting of their online campaigns.”
Charlie Dobres, chief executive officer of i-level, claims it is crucial to instil as much confidence in clients as possible when choosing to invest online. He said: “We can only do that if we are confident in the figures we’re delivering. ABC Electronic is crucial in ensuring that we have industry standards in place, in order to demonstrate the accountability and transparency that the channel can provide.”
Tom Peacock, managing partner, Outrider, added: “Both agencies and advertisers have to rely on publishers’ or ad-serving technologies’ numbers and we consistently find discrepancies. If ABC Electronic’s involvement can bring greater transparency to how these numbers are generated then greater accountability will be the result.”
Over the past few years ISBA has been working to ensure that ABC Electronic becomes established as the standard auditing service for UK websites. It has been urging advertisers to make use of the industry-wide audit to ensure their online media spend is based on credible audience data (see ISBA Urges Online Media Buyers To Support ABCe Audits).
ABC Electronic: 01442 870800 www.abce.org.uk
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