Audience Measurement

From an article I wrote for MediaPost a few weeks ago:

A question any practitioner of Internet-based analytics will be asked by many different stakeholders is “why don’t the numbers match?”  Counts of the identically named metrics from ad servers don’t match the web analytics tool, which don’t match the for-pay third party audience measurement tools, which don’t match the free audience measurement tools, which never match any of the homegrown internal measurement tools.  And none of them ever match each other.

In my last post, I discussed audience measurement - unique visitors, page views, time spent on site, and impressions - and why I believe time spent on site is not, contrary to what some are saying in the trade press, the best metric for measurement. Today, more details on why page views are not necessarily the best measure of visitor engagement…

Hello, everyone. Here’s a nice meaty post for you to sink your teeth into. And, it will be followed by several more, just as meaty, because I’ve decided to focus on one of the most controversial topics in the industry right now: audience measurement.

One of the many things on my mind in the online world these days is “deep packet inspection.” 

First, let me digress, packet sniffing isn’t new to web analytics.  From Accrue to Omniture (Visual Discover Sensor?) to AuriQ to Metronome Labs.  Packet sniffers are used to “do web analytics.”  It’s an uncommon method when compared to javascript page tags.

Back from another excellent eMetrics.  I’m a very big fan of the eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit…  Props go to Jim Sterne for growing this event from a little seed into an incredible, blogworthy blossom.  How involved is Jim in eMetrics?  I’d say he’s completely immersed in every little piece - he even came up to me at the SF WAW (way to go June D!) to find out about th

Next Sunday afternoon I am moderating a panel at eMetrics San Fran.  The panel is called ”Web Analytics -vs- Audience Measurement.”  Andrea Hadley at NetSetGo was the brainchild of this panel idea (and yes that is her picture on her site :).  In fact, I was a panelist on the same panel at eMetrics Toronto, filling in for my friend Marshall Sponder.  Since he’s going to be in San Fran, I yielded my seat 0n the panel and decided to stand up at the podium.   Other panelists include

Every month I write a column for MediaPost’s Metrics Insider.  This month I wanted tackle my evolving take on Internet video measurement.  Very few companies offer solutions in this space.  Only a few are really differentiated.  Check out Visible Measures, NedStat, TubeMogul, Divinity Metrics, and the usual suspects, Omniture, Unica,

Every month I write column for MediaPost.  This month I wrote  a short summary piece I thought I’d share with you in case you missed it.  Here it is:

As 2007 ends, I thought it worth looking back, from the practitioner perspective, at just a few of the issues that have shaped Internet measurement and thus online metrics over the last year:

I write a monthly column for Mediapost’s Metrics Insider.  This month I wanted to talk about the different schools of thought in online metrics because at the end of the day we are all in Internet measurement together. Hope you enjoy the read: