Web Measurement
The aim of the IFABC is the sharing of knowledge and experience to encourage best practice. This is especially the case for electronic media such as the Internet, where the IFABC as a group has taken the initiative to create and evolve a globally agreed set of metrics. This has been achieved through the IFABC www standards group which has delivered agreed metrics for many areas of site centric (i.e. census based) measurement of electronic media. The most popular area to date is in the measurement of website traffic.
It is important to note that the industry as a whole has been keen to ensure that IFABC does not impose a single methodology at this early stage in the development of these new media.
That said, the metrics have also been agreed on the basis that any website can use them and that most of the counting tools currently available can, when properly configured and managed, deliver data to these standards.
The details of the audits that individual IFABC member Audit Bureaux deliver for websites are available direct from those Bureaux.
The common metrics are based on agreed principles. These include the exclusion of internal traffic, the exclusion of robotic traffic based on a common list of robots and then interpretive tests by the auditor. This latter area is important as the volume of robotic traffic may be as high as 60% or even more in some cases.
For further information on this work please email richard.foan@abc.org.uk
Web Standards
IFABC web standards define the key metrics relevant in buying and selling digital media.
They cover everything from page impressions to email delivery and are truly global in their application.