October 27th, 2006
Is Audience Measurement Still Relevant?
In the continuing (and, I predict, growing) audience measurement saga, Fred Wilson chastises Mike Arrington for calling comScore’s audience metrics “flaky” vis-a-vis Digg’s audience:
My guess is that Digg has something like 5mm monthly unique visitors worldwide. Not 20mm. The difference probably results from cookie counting, multiple browsers, and a few other factors.
Perhaps a better question is whether these audience measurements even matter. Google has $10 billion in advertising and has never had to report a single audience metric to advertisers. I think this comment from one of my previous posts nails the issue:
Why do we care about any of these metrics? Gross audience measurements like impressions are “pre-metrics†which can tell us about reach and a little bit about targeting, but very little about whether our advertising dollars are being well spent. “Post-metrics†such as conversion rates and average deal size tell us whether to keep spending or not - that’s what we really want to know. We need advertising outlets that make the transaction costs of setting up a campaign low, something that companies like Google and Spotrunner do remarkably well. We also need to be able to collect “post-metrics†quickly, something that the internet generally allows for (at least in the case of direct marketing spend). We dont’ really need more “pre-metricsâ€.
The problem is that New Media is still thinking like Old Media — how big is the audience? I though this was supposed to be the end of mass media. What happened to community? It feels like 1999 all over again with online media — with the exception of search — failing to live up to the promise of measureability and accountability.
I guess when your only business model is to get bought by an Old Media company, Old Media audience metrics matter a lot.
Topics: Business Models | Digg | Google | New Media | Traditional Media
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Scott,
A few points of clarification. The one reason Google doesn’t have to release numbers is because of audience measurement services like comScore’s qSearch. Every top sell-side and major media company subscribes to this service to keep track of Google today.
Maybe general metrics such as total audience is less appealing than other data, but there are many metrics that are even more important than ever before. Understanding who these web properties reach, how often, what is the repeat rate, loyalty, how can you combine specific properties to understand the combined big picture, etc…
With more brand advertising moving online, the usage of audience measurement is becoming even more important to brand marketers and the Fortune 1,000. It is all around control, transparency, and consolidation of the niches.
Data that can be compared and drilled into is critical.
Hi Scott, I think you should take a look at the following link, where Magid Abraham, CEO of Comscore is explaining why Comscore failed to give accurate measure of pages vues and can overestimate it from 0 to 300% !
http://www.comscore.com/method/industry_letter.asp
Jim,
Search audience metrics may help advertisers keep track of search engine scale, but that’s not how search advertising is bought. Google wins on scale, but the proof is in the clicks, not some third party metrics. And I’m sure the long tale of small buisnesses and affiliate marketers that generate most of Google’s revenue don’t subscribe to comScore.
I agree that Fortune 1000 brand advertisers are still going to want old fashioned metrics — but I can’t tell you how many stories I’ve heard of ostensible brand advertisers obsessing over click rates. As long as brand advertisers’ goals remain ill-defined, they will want to buy based on old audience measures. But I suspect a sea change is coming.
väldigt bra. SÃ¥lunda: • Murdoch fortsätter sin internet-strategi och har nu lagt ögonen pÃ¥ juvelen Digg, en “social bokmärkessajt”. Digg kostar 150 miljoner dollar, det är för mycket. Läs hos Greenslade. Läs hos Publishing 2.0 om invändningarna mot det kloka i köpet. • Jag har lagt ner planerna pÃ¥ att starta en sidoblogg, “Kassa Eggen” som skulle skriva om alla fel här och om hur dÃ¥lig Vassa Eggen är. • Andrew Ross Sorkin
Click here
Unterschied ob Digg nun $9,75 Mio (7,5*1,3) wert ist oder $150 Mio. Da leider im Moment, die wenigsten Socialmedia-Start-Ups versuchen ein Geschäftsmodell zu Entwickeln, das nicht darauf hinaus läuft von den Großen gekauft zu werden, sind die Traffic-Zahlen natürlich das wichtigste Messinstrument bei der Bewertung dieser Unternehmen.The problem is that New Media is still thinking like Old Media — how big is the audience? I though this was supposed to be the end of mass media. What happened to community? It feels like 1999 all over again with online media
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