By: Sid Ross Audit Shows Undercounting By Panel-Based Research
(Adweek IQ) Talk about counting eyeballs. Usually, when it comes
to the presentation of Web data, the first things monitored are
page counts and ad impressions.
But in a new report published by online auditing firm ABC
Interactive, the monitors themselves are the ones being
monitored. And, according to ABCi, the numbers didn't always add
up.
In the study, ABC Interactive reported that unique user counts,
as well as counts of page impressions, were significantly
underreported by two "leading" research companies. Both Net
research firms use panel-based measurement methods, which,
according to Rolling Meadows, Ill.-based ABCi's Reconciliation
Analysis service, produce data that has been inconsistent with
those figures culled from companies' own census-based Web site
log file records.
ABCi concluded that between 40% and 57% of unique user and page
impression counts were underreported by the two research
companies. Dick Bennett, senior vice president of audit services
at ABC Interactive, said that while there is "less than total
perfect measurement in both [panel-based efforts and Web site log
file records]," Web file census records capture "every file that
is exchanged between the servers and the browsers. ... The panel,
obviously, is only working with the individual transactions that
the members of the panel are having with those Web sites. So
there always are certain issues with latency, with caching, etc."
Bennett said that there was evidence that a "number of Web sites
believed that they [were] being inaccurately measured by the
panel companies."
Rebecca Young, vice president of marketing for Milpitas, Calif.-
based Nielsen//NetRatings, disputes ABCi's analysis. Young said
that far from companies claiming substantial discrepancies
between independent, panel-based data and their own Web file
records, NetRatings "found that through reconciliation analysis
of some of our customers that they've done themselves, we're
actually very, very close to the server logs."
Young described NetRatings' method of data measurement as
"incredibly rigorous," and noted that the size of the company's
panel was now at about 225,000 worldwide. She also said that
methods of data measurement weren't an "either/or" proposition,
that there was room for both panel-based results and Web file
consensus data.
"A lot of the companies will use the data in combination," Young
said. "All companies are looking at their server logs."
Related story:
MEASURING WEB AUDIENCES STILL A CHALLENGE (07/03/01)
Copyright 2001, Editor & Publisher.
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