You know the drill… See an ad, click it, and find yourself at a company landing page. Pretty easy, huh? Well how many other people did exactly what you did? That answer might not be so simple.

This past week the New York Times cited page hit and click tracking issues as one of the foremost problems facing our industry, one that could stunt the growth of internet advertising as an increasing number of companies become wary of these discrepancies. And who could blame them? Small differences can add up to big dollars, especially as larger and larger campaigns are making their way into the digital realm.

The problem arises from myriad companies putting out their own versions of the “correct” tracking solution, but nobody collaborating on a universal solution. Most buyers and sellers are operating on totally different platforms, with their own tracking technology or 3rd party product. These numbers usually don’t match up, with whose numbers to bill off of usually becoming a very sticky subject. It’s like trying to build a car with an engine from one company and a body from another in which neither party has talked. It just doesn’t work.

So with so many different options for reporting, coupled with the lack of standards in a fledgling industry, how can Advertisers, Publishers, and Networks protect themselves from the revenue consuming numbers game? They can start by uniting on a common platform.

An ad exchange utilizes the same technology to track performance, regardless of entity type: Publisher, Advertiser, Network, or something in between, everybody is linked through one system. The same methodology is used to track clicks, performance, and impressions. No more worries about whose numbers to bill off of, how to settle the difference, or why you have to take the financial burden of inaccuracies. Link to partners across the Right Media Exchange and rest assured that everyone is counting on the same trusted technology that has evolved over years of experience in the space.

Heck, we all know there are better games to play.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 2nd, 2007 at 12:13 pm and is filed under Right Media Exchange, Advertisers, Publishers, Ad Networks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.