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ComScore Aims To Bring Transparency To Programmatic With Independent Metrics

New data set gives media buyers access to comScore's pre-bid advertising metrics within programmatic platforms.

Ginny Marvin on January 22, 2015 at 12:12 pm

That programmatic has long had a transparency problem has been well documented. Buyers have had less than adequate insights into the quality of the inventory they’re buying. Hoping to help fix the problem, comScore has announced a new set of independent, pre-bid advertising metrics that media buyers can look at within programmatic trading platforms.

The combined metrics are packaged in what are called Trust Profiles to offer what media buyers already get from comScore’s products for traditional ad buys — Media Metrix Multi-Platform and validated Campaign Essentials (vCE) — including non-human traffic certifications, top properties rankings and viewability and demographic statistics.

“Buyers want to know that there is consistent quality across the inventory they are buying, ensuring that their money and impressions are not being wasted,” said Serge Matta, CEO of comScore in a statement. “Sellers want to get full value for their quality inventory. As an independent measurement company, we believe that offering consistent, independent metrics in both programmatic and direct environments will instill greater confidence in the industry.”

To start, comScore Trust Profiles will be available in MediaMath, Turn, The Trade Desk, Rubicon Project and Eyereturn Marketing throughout 2015. More programmatic buying and selling platforms are expected to adopt the product.

Publishers that are comScore clients will have access to their own Trust Profiles to see how they are being represented to buyers in programmatic platforms. They can then package their inventory as they see fit.

“Giving premium publishers the ability to showcase their high-quality inventory using independent metrics will undoubtedly help them raise their value in the increasingly crowded programmatic supply landscape. Enhancing transparency represents a step forward in raising the level of trust marketers have in the ecosystem, by reducing the chances cloaked, obfuscated, and spoofed media can penetrate marketer wallets,” said Andrew Casale, President and CEO of Index Exchange.

ComScore says it will be introducing a seller certification program along with additional products as part of the company’s Industry Trust Initiative this year.

“Initiatives like comScore Industry Trust help give buyers and sellers the assurance that they are transacting upon quality inventory, whether those transactions are done programmatically or through a traditional buy. Having comparable metrics in both programmatic and traditional is a critical step forward in enhancing the value of digital advertising overall,” said Kate Sirkin, Executive Vice President of Global Research, Starcom MediaVest Group, in the announcement.

About The Author

Ginny Marvin

Ginny Marvin is Third Door Media's Editor-in-Chief, managing day-to-day editorial operations across all of our publications. Ginny writes about paid online marketing topics including paid search, paid social, display and retargeting for Search Engine Land, Marketing Land and MarTech Today. With more than 15 years of marketing experience, she has held both in-house and agency management positions. She can be found on Twitter as @ginnymarvin.