GSM Association takes the measure of mobile advertising

Stuart Corner
Friday, 05 February 2010 13:12

IT Industry - Strategy

The global GSM Association has teamed up with Internet measurement company, comScore to come up with a system for tracking the performance of mobile advertisements that, if adopted worldwide, could give the mobile advertising market a significant boost.

According to Ovum analyst, Eden Zoller, "The GSMA mobile metrics are a modest but much-needed first step and should be welcomed as they address one of the key factors that have slowed mobile advertising: the lack of standardised metrics for measuring audience engagement."

The behavioural insights provided by the current metrics include the number of unique visitors, the number of page impressions and time spent on any given site. Additional features include the ability to filter by device features and a directory classification of sites (such as social media, travel or sport).

According to Zoller, "Unlike print publishing, Internet and TV, there have been no widely established metrics in place for mobile advertising. This makes it a risky proposition for advertisers, which basically lack the tools they need to learn about user behaviour and measure audience engagement - both important elements in making the case for a clear RoI."

He added: "The GSMA has the goodwill of the industry behind it, and has created foundations that should see the metrics develop into a standardised tool with global reach.

"This will not in itself cause massive overnight growth in mobile advertising, but it should instil more confidence and hopefully persuade so far unconvinced advertisers that mobile advertising has finally come of age...

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