Digital Media Buzz > Omniture and comScore’s Hybrid Metrics

Omniture and comScore’s Hybrid Metrics

By Ken Liebeskind

Mimicking the “Show me the Carfax” line from the TV commercials, online advertisers may one day say, “Show me the Hybrid Metric Number.” The Hybrid Metric Number isn’t a brand name yet, but that’s only because comScore and Omniture haven’t created one. What they have created is a new digital audience measurement product the companies hope will one day become the standard the industry has been waiting for.

“If it works, we may see advertisers demand accurate numbers from publishers, they’ll want a hybrid metric number they can base their buy on,” says Jon Lovett, a Forrester Research analyst.

Lovett says the new product, which merges comScore’s Media Metrix 360 measurement system with Omniture’s Web analytics software, may be extremely valuable because “up until this point it’s been educated guesswork for measuring digital audiences. Online advertisers make assumptions about traffic and visitors.”

They’re making assumptions because the two ways of measuring digital audiences provide alternative numbers and aren’t wholly accurate. comScore’s panel-based measurement, derived from audience panels who use special tools to track their Internet surfing patterns, generates numbers for the most visited sites, but undercounts the niche sites. Omniture’s analytic measurement software, which provides specific data on time spent and what parts of a site users visit, relies on cookie data, which users frequently delete, which generates miscounts.

“Historically publishers use site tools [like Omniture’s] to understand visitor behavior, while advertisers use audience measurement numbers [like comScore’s],” Lovett says. “You have two different yardsticks and advertisers and publishers have never spoken the same language, so the partnership offers the opportunity for the two forms of measurement to come together.”

This will happen when Omniture provides its data to comScore, which will merge it with its own data to create a more comprehensive product that will be made available to both companies’ clients. “The end result is a unified set of metrics that reflects the landscape of activity that flows into our monthly reports,” says Linda Abraham, comScore’s chief marketing officer.

Matt Langie, director of product marketing at Omniture, says having both sets of metrics will enable advertisers to see what sites people visit via the comScore data and what they do once they’re in the sites via Omniture’s.

When asked how the new data would change the monthly visitor reports it currently provides, Abraham says, “At the high level sites like Google, AOL and Yahoo we don’t expect things changing much, but we’re seeing the rankings move around quite a bit with the niche-oriented sites, such as financial and gaming sites. Our panels aren’t always good at measuring activity from the niche groups, so the hybrid numbers will have a big impact on niche activity.”

As a result of the new measurement system, advertisers and publishers can get a better view of the audiences on the sites and the activities they perform, Langie says. “comScore provides demographics and we provide activity data, so if they’re looking for females who shop at Macy’s in New York, comScore has the geo numbers and we can say how much time they spent online and what they bought or looked at.”

DigitalMediaBuzz asked comScore for old and new reports to see how they differ, but they weren’t provided, so we can’t actually see what the new measurement reports look like. Abraham says they have already begun to prepare them for customers who have requested them.

The new data will only be available to the customers of the companies who buy it. Between the two companies, there are about 6,300 clients. “They’re starting out from a small customer base,” says Forrester’s Lovett, adding that the small sample size will make it difficult for the companies to standardize the research across the Web. “But Omniture has a relationship with WPP, so it gets them in the door with agencies that are responsible for media buying and ad placement.”

Abraham says the reconciliation of the two measurement methods “is a breath of fresh air that instills more confidence in digital metrics. It remains to be seen whether advertisers will spend more money, but the comprehensive view will give them more trust in the channel.”

Langie admits the new data is still in the formative stages but promised “there will be stories to be told.”