ABA Web Audit Rules and Guidelines FAQ

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Where can I download the latest version of the ABA rules?
Download the ABA Web Audit Rules and Guidelines (Last updated October 2009). Please contact Alexx Cass, Digital Services Manager (02 8912 6009) for rules related enquiries.

Why should websites follow these measurement rules?
Publishers who ignore the ABA's measurement rules do so at their own risk. They may be drastically overestimating or underestimating their web metrics in comparison to their competitors simply because they are unaware of what content can be included and how it should be measured according to the industry agreed rules and practices. In some cases, publishers have decreased their traffic by 50% or even increased by 35% after an audit was completed.

Is it worth the risk to make short-sighted measurement decisions and just assume your website is already rules-compliant? How will you explain to the rest of your business, media buyers and advertisers that your metrics have been cut in half overnight? How will this impact your credibility in the market?

Websites with rich media elements (such as video, flash and AJAX) carry the most risk because page sub-elements and user actions can potentially be counted separately, easily inflating or deflating your figures incorrectly.

The Media Federation of Australia (MFA) and media-buyers in general are increasingly demanding audited web metrics to ensure these metrics are reliable and consistent. Kerry Field, MFA Digital Sub-Committee Chair and Partner, Innovation, Mindshare welcomed the delivery of rules and guidelines that set the benchmark for the reporting of audited web audience data:

“The ABA’s role as independent monitor and auditor of online media will give media buyers greater visibility, confidence and understanding of traffic fluctuations and other anomalies. There are a number of ways that measurement data using the tagging methodology can be manipulated. The release of these rules and guidelines and the audits conducted by the ABA ensures publishers data collection procedure are compliant and reported on a consistent basis – an important achievement for the online medium.”

Who created these rules?
These rules were formulated by the ABA Digital Watchdog Committee which has representation from audited publishers, media agencies and the Media Federation of Australia (MFA).

Who do these measurement rules apply to?
These rules apply to ad-supported websites who wish to be audited by the ABA in order to provide credible audience figures to the Australian digital media market. Websites that are rules-compliant receive the ABA audit symbol of trust (a green tick ) in Nielsen Online’s Market Intelligence platform and within their promotional material. These rules can also be also be used by non-commercial sites as guidelines for measurement best practise.

What do these rules cover and how do they relate to other international or industry group standards?
The ABA Audit Rules and Guidelines cover measurement practises in regards to reporting website audience metrics at a brand/site level for the purposes of competitive intelligence and media-planning. The work of other JICs, IABs and international auditing bodies has been duly considered during the formulation of the ABA rules.

Why are auto-refresh pages excluded from what can be measured?
Our members have unanimously agreed on the core principles regarding what type of content can be included in the audited metrics. One of these key principles is that only user-initiated content should be measured since this more closely reflects what was actually viewed by the end user. The inclusion of auto-refreshed content has been known to significantly inflate page impression metrics by as much as 40%. Unique Browser and Session Duration metrics are also inflated by this practise because they are calculated based on the core page impression metric.

Neil Ackland, Managing Director, Sound Alliance comments “Now that it is mandatory for sites to cease counting auto-refresh to comply with the ABA Web Audit, this should hopefully eradicate the practice once and for all. Auto-refresh gives some publishers an unfair advantage because it artificially inflates traffic figures which in turn influences ad-spend. The new standards will ensure all audited websites are on an even playing field.”

Does this mean that publishers will need to change their site design to become rules-compliant?
Publishers can continue to use auto-refresh pages and design their site in any way but they will need to change their measurement practises to exclude these non-user initiated pages from the audited data set. In other words, publishers may continue to auto-refresh the news feed to bring in new articles but they will be required to modify the tracking code to exclude these pages from the user’s session.

Are these basic principles detailed enough to cover the complex measurement of rich media sites that may have AJAX and streaming video elements?
As a solid foundation the ABA has created a core framework of principles that supports measurement of most of these rich media and mobile technologies. Streaming video is not currently reported at a market level, and therefore not audited, so does not require separate rules at this time. The ABA will continue to work with our Digital Watchdog committee to update our rules to include video and other emerging technologies and related market reporting systems (as directed by our members).

The rules allow publishers to comply with the rules using individual measurement solutions. Will this lead to inconsistencies in how measurement is being implemented?
A key purpose and deliverable of the ABA Web Audit is to ensure measurement is consistent. As an independent body we can monitor audited publisher’s implementation techniques and practises and ensure consistency. For example, discussions in previous Digital Watchdog committee meetings unveiled and resolved inconsistent practises in regards to measuring embedded photo galleries and slide shows.

Where can I find out which publishers have passed an ABA audit to be rules-compliant?
Our members’ audited figures can be found in the two main digital media-planning destinations:

1. The ABA CrossMedia Directory (eData):
The ABA's reporting system displays audited cross-media data for Print, Websites, Digital Editions, Mobile and Email Newsletters.

2. Nielsen Online Market Intelligence
MI displays daily website rankings and media-planning metrics. Audited sites in MI appear with a green audit symbol .

 

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