Over the past week four major players in the online media space have announced accreditation to the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Click Measurement Guidelines.  This list includes Yahoo!, Google, Microsoft and Business.com.  I wanted to take a moment and explore why you should care about this development and what accreditation means for advertisers.

The IAB is a publisher-focused organization that has led the process to develop click measurement guidelines.  The task force is made up of thirty or so companies representing the online advertising community.  Click Forensics has been a member since day one and participated in every step of the process.

There are three main benefits for advertisers and conversely, three concerns advertisers need to keep in mind associated with the entire process.  First, the benefits;

IAB Accreditation Represents a Commitment
The process to become accredited to the IAB guidelines is time consuming and certainly not free.  At Click Forensics, we have first hand knowledge of this and can assure you that any company that takes time and spends the money to become accredited is committed to their customers.  The level of detail the auditors go into is amazing.  Our community is fortunate to have auditors that have demonstrated a deep commitment to both the development of the process and the implementation of the guidelines.

IAB Accreditation Demonstrates Leadership
The IAB established a gating period to allow member companies and others to become accredited to the guidelines.  The companies mentioned above were the first to announce compliance.  This is important because it represents a sense of urgency among these four that enhances the urgency for others.  As an advertiser, you should reward these leaders with business.  They were first out of the gate and in my book that demonstrates leadership.

IAB Accreditation Means Better Quality Traffic
The IAB Guidelines are a lengthy narrative of “best practices” and rules in delivering quality traffic to advertisers.  While it is not intended to be a complete list, it serves as a firm foundation and includes practical steps to help ensure advertisers get what they pay for.  By working with an accredited ad provider, advertisers will be assured that the clicks they are buying have met the guidelines established by the industry.  This is a good thing and an excellent first step.

While we applaud the efforts of the IAB, Media Rating Council and member companies who participated in this process, there are things advertisers need to keep in mind.  There was a great deal of discussion and debate during the nearly three years of meetings it took to develop these guidelines.  In that process, there were a lot of valuable and important items that fell to the floor.  This is a good start, not a perfect process.  Keep in mind the following;

IAB Accreditation is a “Moment in Time” Process
The process for an ad provider to become accredited is a long one.  The auditor is invited in for a pre-assessment then the actual audit begins.  At the end of the process accreditation is awarded.  The problem is there is no mechanism for ongoing compliance.  When we buy gas at the gas station there is a meter that is routinely calibrated to ensure that when we fill our tank with 20 gallons of gasoline, we get 20 gallons.  This approach is not taken nor addressed in the guidelines.  While an annual audit is suggested in the guidelines, it is still important for advertisers to be monitoring their campaigns and holding the ad providers feet to the fire for every click.

IAB Accreditation Does Not Cover Everything
The 27 page Guideline document is quite comprehensive.  Our task force worked hard to ensure that both the guidelines are made clear and that the standard for measurement is defined.  However, when you consider that the dominant constituency in this process was multibillion-dollar ad providers, you might imagine not everything met their liking.  A few examples of chaff that hit the threshing room floor included:

Click ID – Each click should have a unique identifier so investigations can be “apples to apples”
Persistent Cookie – It’s important that ad providers can identify unique visitors to ensure they are billed for only once.
Standards for Investigation – Advertisers deserve to feel confident that they get what they pay for.  By setting an investigation format and agreeing to a timeline, ad providers can build trust with customers.

IAB Accreditation is a Roadmap
There is a Japanese proverb that says, “Beginning is easy and continuing is hard”.  There is truth in this as it relates to the guidelines.  We have begun the process.  We have released guidelines that will make the world of online advertising a better place.  Now we should look to leadership to take the next step and continue what we have begun.  The current guidelines will serve as a roadmap to the future standards.  We need to examine the items removed, listen to the community and think of better ways to ensure advertisers get what they pay for in the future.  The roadmap has been built.  Now we need to move on.

In January of 2006 as Click Forensics was just beginning as a company, I wrote the following challenge to our industry:

“Define standards for what an unwanted click looks like. We believe that there are certain characteristics or attributes that are common to a large percentage of click fraud. We are working with publishers and advertisers to agree on common ground and work together to expose it. Once this is developed it should be published so that the entire community can benefit from it.”

Today, over three years later, we have the cooperation of community leaders, the foundation of technical standards and the desire to continue to improve on what we have built.  I invite you, to join us as we build a future of ongoing growth and improving effectiveness by enhancing the process of online advertising.  I can assure you that both the Click Quality Council and Click Forensics will continue to support the work of the IAB and other industry organizations to work together to make our community a better place.  Let’s not stop with the foundation.

Q1 2009 internet media revenues were announced by the IAB today, with the industry experiencing an overall drop of 5.5% from Q1 last year.   Given all the bad economic news over the first three months of 2009, along with poor results announced by internet stalwarts Google, Yahoo, AOL and MSN, it’s not much of a surprise.  However, it is the first time since 2002 that the IAB reported number experienced a year-over-year decline.

There is some solace that online media results fell at a much lower rate than offline:  newspaper ad revenue plummeted 28% and radio revenues sunk over 24% – both some of the YOY worst declines in our lifetime.  TV revenues are also sure to fall, as soon as TNS reports Q1 results later this month.  That said, it’s never good to see our industry experience a YOY decline, no matter how small.  And, frankly, it was only a few months ago where I predicted that online media would show (much slower) YOY growth.

What’s changed was the depth of the economic crisis and the swift response by marketers to tighten up their spend.  Combine this with the free-fall in traditionally strong categories (finance, automotive to name a couple), and its surprising overall online media revenue hasn’t fallen more severely.   And, frankly, I don’t think the decline is over.  Based on conversations I’ve had over the last few months with folks whose opinions I respect, it seems like Display Media may have bottomed out, but we may see a continued decline in CPC spend.  This is being driven mainly by cuts in spending on second and third tier providers, as advertisers concentrate their spend with perceived higher quality networks and providers.

In an environment of shrinking budgets and more demanding buyers, increased transparency and tangible ROI are becoming requirements not “nice to haves.”  Those networks that actively manage and cull their traffic sources to ensure high quality traffic will continue to win out as advertisers increase demand that they “get what they pay for.”

The New York Times ran a feature article this week on click fraud.  Why you ask?  Because, like spam, click fraud is still a big problem for advertisers. The article pointed out that as the economy tilts downward, advertisers cannot afford to waste dollars. This is a good news, bad news scenario for online advertising.

The good news is that online advertising is highly measurable.  Large advertisers that traditionally have been offline are now shifting dollars online.  This fact has contributed to online advertising continuing to grow as traditional media is in decline.

The bad news however, is that this window of opportunity is narrow.  The online advertising community must embrace measurability and enhance trust to gain share of spend from the big guys. 

There was a significant event this week that helped in that effort.  The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) released from draft the Click Measurement Guidelines.  This document, three years in the making, is a great start for our community to come together around standards and enhance trust. Dozens of ad providers are busily working with third party audit firms to become accredited to the new guidelines.  Advertisers will have a way to gauge the level of commitment from ad provides when this list is made public.

Click Forensics was proud to represent advertisers in this process.  In fact, we were the only traffic quality management firm to participate and were quoted in the press release from the IAB.  Many thanks are in order for the 38 members of the working group for a job well done.

Now, we find ourselves at the beginning.  An opportunity exists to build on the foundation laid by the IAB member companies.  Click fraud is going to be a problem for a long time to come.  Progress is being made.  But in order to re-accelerate the growth of online advertising we need more than standards.  We need a community effort to work together to ensure advertisers have confidence that they get what they pay for.  Articles raise awareness, documents create a process and awareness builds urgency.  But ultimately it will take the effort of everyone in the community to get to the day where trust is commonplace and online advertising becomes the marvelous, measurable media it can be.  We look forward to continuing our efforts toward that goal.

Last week I wrote about the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s release of the Click Measurement Guidelines. This document is extremely important for advertisers, agencies and ad providers. It defines the process that will be used to measure and deliver clicks to advertisers. The Click Quality Council is hosting a call to discuss the guidelines, describe the process used to develop them and the impact for the industry.

The call will be Wednesday March 18th at 4 PM ET/ 1 PM PT and is open to all members of the online advertising ecosystem. We will have George Ivie of the Media Rating Council as our speaker. George worked directly with the IAB in facilitating discussion and building the guidelines. Registration is available by clicking here.

tRight off the bat, you need to know that quality traffic is NOT a commodity.

I am attending the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Ecosystem 2009 conference in Orlando.  There are over 500 attendees at the beautiful Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress hotel and of those, I have found five advertisers.  There is no doubt, nor is the fact hidden, that the IAB is a publisher driven organization.  But it has struck me just how narrow that view is as I heard Wenda Harris Millard speak.  The title of her presentation was titled, “Am I in the Wrong Class? Why Advertising Isn’t and Shouldn’t Be (Just) Math and Science” . It could have easily been titled, ‘Too Much Emphasis On Data Is The Problem, Not A Solution’

Wenda is very smart and has obviously been quite successful, but to me, she seems to be missing the obvious.  It is the science aspect of online advertising that differentiates it from traditional media.  Online is much more measurable, has easier to access data that is more accurate and can be enhanced from a performance standpoint by leveraging the data wisely.  Randall Rothenberg, CEO of the IAB, noted, ”We need a creative renaissance in interactive advertising, the business has lived under the tyranny of the click for too long”

The tyranny of the click?  Isn’t it the “click” that has driven the growth of online?  While traditional media flails in the wind (or gets blown away completely, think print…) online has lots of upside.  The renaissance we need to better leverage data to improve traffic quality.

I was part of an agency for eight years and understand the value of good creative messaging and branding.  But I deliberately moved into online because of the measurability and accountability it can create.  At Click Forensics, our goal as a company is to enable advertisers to get what they pay for.  That is delivered through transparency, accountability and measurement.  The successful seller of digital media will embrace these ideas and work to demonstrate their commitment to quality.  They will look through the lens of the advertiser to deliver traffic that meets the goals set out in the campaign.  The IAB is doing a great job in developing standards to enhance measurement and we continue our efforts as part of the Click Measurement Working Group.  I applaud their work and am pleased to be a member.

But now is time for us to find better ways to communicate the value of online advertising.  Let’s give the people what they want.  Let’s prove to them that quality traffic is NOT a commodity.   Instead of trying to “tame the data dragon” we should should work together to unleash the beast.