Brian Andersen of Luma Partners recently spoke at the Truth in Measurement summit, where leading brands and publishers gathered to discuss adopting a common approach for measurement that balances transparency, privacy, and consumer data protection. His presentation on the evolution of digital measurement touches upon the historical and current ways of measurement as background for understanding how things came to be, and what marketers want today. The full presentation is included below, but here are some highlights from his talk:
The Highlights:
- Measurement started out focused purely on desktop website traffic, with metrics such as page views, click path, exit rates, etc.
- The industry became increasingly complicated with the rise of mobile, programmatic, and walled gardens
- Mobile became particularly complicated because 90%+ of time spent was in apps rather than on the mobile web. This led to the need for specific mobile analytics and measurement companies
- The emergence of programmatic advertising led to more complicated processes, which created opportunities for bad actors to exploit
- At the same time, walled gardens have become more ubiquitous. Unfortunately, each take a slightly different approach towards measurement
- People-based measurement has emerged as the solution embraced by marketers, with a focus on real results (such as revenue) rather than proxy metrics (such as impressions, cookies)
- The biggest challenge facing marketers today is apply these principles across platforms to get log-level data, which is exactly what Truth in Measurement is trying to tackle
