Without a doubt, the rapid growth in Internet use around the world provides great opportunities for publishers and marketers; however, as it continues to expand quickly, it also presents a few roadblocks. Getting accurate data on relevant metrics about audience size and engagement can be difficult.
Adobe is looking to quell this issue with the immediate availability of Adobe Audience Research, a brand new audience measurement tool for publishers and digital marketers that allows them to see “certified metrics on the size and engagement of digital audiences for websites, mobile applications and digital magazine editions.”
These valuable metrics are acquired and organized by Adobe SiteCatalyst, the company’s very own online analytics application. Publishers will then be provided with crucial information that will help them attract advertisers. All customers currently using SiteCatalyst will receive AudienceResearch for free.
In addition to the release of AudienceResearch, the company also unveiled the Adobe Audience Certification Program. This program is what allows regular publishers to become Adobe Certified Publishers, which simply means that Adobe has certified all of their digital audience data to ensure that it meets specific criteria regarding the accuracy of the data collection and reporting. These publishers will be able to “contribute their data to the AudienceResearch tool.”
Much of this has to do with Adobe’s recent Media Ratings Council (MRC) accreditation for their SiteCatalyst metrics. The company earned this certification by providing innovative methods of auditing site impletentations of SiteCatalyst and cleansing and certifying raw site traffic to give advertisers and publishers a highly accurate view of digital audience metrics.
What helps set AudienceResearch apart is a census-based measurement of metrics that are generated by counting all relevant traffic, which is “a method considered more accurate and representative of actual traffic and behavior than panel-based methods.” The more traditional panel-based approach monitors the behavior of just a small group of volunteers (and then uses the data gathered to create estimate metrics), but now Adobe offers its Certified Publishers the ability to reject this controversial method.
Publishers can now equip their direct sales teams with these highly-accurate and certified metrics (some of which are accredited by the MRC) to show to advertisers as they “make media planning decisions.”
“AudienceResearch has the potential to provide the industry with reliable, cross-channel currency for measuring digital audience size and engagement,” says Brad Rencher, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Adobe’s Digital Marketing Business Unit, “Bringing greater confidence into the digital advertising planning, buying and selling process.”