IAB retires Monthly Unique Browser metric

Posted by IAB Australia On December 03, 2012 Media Releases

3rd December 2012: IAB Australia has issued a Notice of Intent to the industry advising it is retiring the Monthly Unique Browser (UB) metric in Australia as of 1st February 2013. Following that date, IAB has advised the Monthly UB metric should not be used as an audience proxy and in line with this move Nielsen will stop reporting this metric within its Market Intelligence product.  Instead, the use of a people-based metric Unique Audience (UA) should be used.

The Monthly UB metric is being retired as it is no longer in line with the active online population or even total population.  Monthly UBs now total over 90 million in Australia – outnumbering the actual human online population by a factor of more than five.  The decision to retire the metric was made by the IAB Measurement Council with the MFA and has the support of AANA.

Gai Le Roy, IAB Australia’s Director of Research, commented:  “The Monthly UB metric has been used in the Australian market for more than 15 years but now that it no longer equals a person, it has outlived its usefulness as a proxy for monthly visitation to website figures and should not be used.

“As an industry we are looking for more accurate and meaningful data and it’s clear that the Monthly UB metric is become increasingly inaccurate, less useful and even misleading.  Indeed with the proliferation of devices and browsers in use by consumers, the disparity between browsers and actual people will only accelerate,” said Le Roy.

While the Monthly UB metric is being retired, the Average Daily UB metric may still be used as the IAB Measurement Council has determined that the active online population in Australia is aligned with the Average Daily UB numbers.

In conducting its review, the Measurement Council found that while the Monthly Unique Browsers inflation is most noticeable at a Market Aggregate level, the top five Publishers in Nielsen’s Market Intelligence (MI) often have a greater number of Monthly Unique Browsers than total Australian Active Online universe of 16.1 million people – an impossible and implausible amount.

/Ends

About the Interactive Advertising Bureau 
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Limited is the peak trade association for online advertising in Australia and was incorporated in July 2010. As one of over 40 IAB offices globally, and with a rapidly growing membership, IAB Australia’s principal objective is to increase the share of advertising and marketing dollars that interactive media captures in the marketplace.

IAB Australia’s board includes representatives of AIMIA, APN News & Media, Carsales.com, Fairfax Media, Google, Mi9, Network Ten, News Australia Sales, REA Group, SBS, Telstra Advertising Network, TressCox Lawyers and Yahoo!7. It has four objectives:

  • To develop, coordinate and promote industry standards and guidelines that make interactive advertising a simpler and more attractive medium for agencies, advertisers and marketers
  • To prove and promote the effectiveness of interactive advertising to advertisers, agencies, marketers, and the press
  • To be the primary advocate for the interactive marketing and advertising industry
  • To expand the breadth and depth of IAB membership while increasing direct value to members

For further information about IAB Australia please visit: www.iabaustralia.com.au

For more editorial information please contact:
Pru Quinlan
Einsteinz Communications
T: (02) 8905 0995
E: pru@einsteinz.com.au

 

IAB Australia

IAB Australia is the peak trade association for online advertising in Australia. As one of over 43 IAB offices globally and with a rapidly growing membership, the role of the IAB is to support sustainable and diverse investment in digital advertising across all platforms in Australia.

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