Nature of Internet Measurements

Updated: December 7, 2009

Nature of Internet Measurements

BBE created a VINDICO Ad impression counting methodology which provides an executive summary of counting, client impression submission, tracking methodology, Internet measurements and data retention.

This methodology outlines how campaigns and digital assets using an in-stream ad-tracking system records key metrics.

Name of Measurement Report

URL:
http://Login.vindicosuite.com

Publisher Report URL:
http://login.vindicosuite.com/PublisherReportingInterface/chooseCampaign.asp?syndicationOutlet=XXX&siteId=XXX

Business Intelligence URL:
http://64.15.238.81/microstrategy/asp/Main.aspx

Reporting:
http://login.vindicosuite.com/Reporting/Framework/index.asp

Types of Measurements Reported

Start COUNT (rows), Start count (Unique IP by day by Placement), Mid, End, Video click, Companion Banner Impression and Companion Banner Click.

Formats of Reported Data

• Video Unit (Instream, Video in banner)
• Companion Unit

Basis for Measurement

VINDICO tracks campaigns and digital assets using an in-stream ad-tracking system to record key metrics such as impressions, unique reach, user engagement, click-through rate, and time spent.

This tracking data is collected in real-time and is available for immediate review and analysis.

Sampling/Projections Used

As VINDICO doesn’t use Cookies for measurement, this is not applicable. VINDICO, Campaign Summary at the footer of the login UI uses sampling to provide an overall time spent % on VIDEO.

Special Page Serving Types

Pop-Ups
Ad impressions delivered via pop-up or pop-under ads may be blocked from displaying by a pop-up blocker. When ad tags are properly implemented by the publisher, a pop-up blocker which would prevent the pop-up window from opening would also prevent the ad tag from being requested, and therefore, the ad impression would not be recorded. However an impression will be recorded if the ad creative opens up a pop-up although the pop-up might be blocked by a pop-up blocker.

Auto-Refresh
Certain web pages automatically refresh content based on the passage of time regardless of user status. This may be set by the publisher or the user. Every refresh of the page results in new requests being made to the ad server and hence additional impressions being counted. This may result in over-counting.

Frames
A valid ad impression is counted when VINDICO receives and responds to an HTTP request for a tracking tag or beacon (1×1 pixel image) from client based on activity originating at the user’s browser. The count occurs after the initiation of retrieval of underlying content. Specifically, measurement does not occur when the buffer is initiated, but when the ad itself begins to appear on the user’s browser. The implementation technique is HTTP requests generated by IFRAME. BBE recommends that sites tracking internally and submitting 3rd party audit pixels to record an impression in the same manner in which they announce the impression to the 3rd party.

Data Collection Methods

VINDICO tracks start of advertising or unit of measure, quarterly video progress, video click, banner impression, banner click, enhanced video engagements such as mouse over or overlay click, etc.

Cookie Types

While a cookie is set at impression counting time, the cookie is in no way stored alongside the impression within VINDICO.

Computation of Reported Results

While a cookie is set at impression counting time, the cookie is in no way stored alongside the impression within VINDICO.

How estimates are calculated
For Campaign Summary report footer, VINDICO will only include impressions in this statistic if the site + asset record a full proper set of data from start, mid, end.

Reprocessing or Error Correction Rules
It is the strict policy of Broadband Enterprises that measurement data is never adjusted prior to client reporting. The only exception is if a measurement error occurs due to incorrect tag implementation by the publisher (i.e. 50% or 100% tag counts are greater than 0%). In this circumstance the adjustment assumes that the greatest count belongs to the 0% tag, the next greatest to the 50% tag, and the lowest to the 100% tag. Any such adjustment is made in consultation with and with the approval of the client to whom the results are being furnished.

Requirement for Inclusion in Reports Based on Minimum Activity Levels
Once an impression is consumed by the client, the tracking pixel is recorded without filtering on one of many VINDICO tracking servers (Node Server.) All data is committed to the database in real time. VINDICO doesn’t use log files as a capture point. The Node Server will store the impression until the time that the Data Warehouse is ready to compute. The impression is then transferred to the Data Warehouse in raw message form.

The raw message form is a proprietary format used to describe an impression. Raw messages are stored for one trailing month. Once the trailing month has expired the message audit for that month is truncated. In a time interval acceptable by BBE standards (30s to 1min), a raw message is converted in to a transmission, which is the unit of measure used to compute impressions. Impressions are stored indefinitely or until a client approves the truncating of audit. Once computed the transmissions are stored in a reporting server that is used for all subsequent requests of impression data.