The sophistication of comScore’s methodology offers critical advantages over other digital measurement sources. The combination of comScore’s technology and methodology transcends the limitations of traditional measurement systems, including:
- Website server logs
- ISP Clickstream data
Website Server Logs
While these can provide important insight into the behavior of a website’s visitors, they provide little or no visibility into the flow of customers into and out of a company’s site. Web logs also do not report consumer transactions at competitive sites, and thus fail to report data about consumer loyalty (e.g. share of wallet). Server data also cannot reliably track time spent on a website, an increasingly important dimension in understanding the Internet audience. And, web logs can’t provide demographic data, which are needed to identify and describe core targeting opportunities.
Additionally, it is now well-accepted that server data typically inflate counts of unique visitors, sometimes by as much as 250%. The primary cause of this overstatement is cookie deletion, which makes a returning computer that has had its cookies deleted appear to be a new visitor. In addition, non-human and international traffic are also significant causes of inflation in server-side counts of unique audiences. The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) has recently published guidelines for measuring website audiences, which stress the need to count unique persons visiting a website from teh user-side, not the the server-side. The comScore panel meets these guidelines.
Unlike website server data, the comScore panel provides a 360-degree view of Internet user activity, with the ability to integrate offline activity and attitudinal data, for a representative and actionable view of the online population. comScore sees Internet users flow into and out of each website. We can also track e-commerce spending across the Web, helping marketers to understand, for example, the spending patterns of their most important customers at competitors’ sites. In addition, only through panel-based research can an audience measurement company disentangle website visits into reach and frequency — the core metrics for developing and evaluating a media plan.
ISP Clickstream Data
Because of privacy concerns, the vast majority of ISPs do not allow third party companies to license their subscribers’ activity files. The few that do are mainly providers of dial-up Internet connectivity. The other method of collecting clickstream data involves the installation of software such as browser plug-ins and file sharing applications, which contain embedded software that relays users’ page view activity to a central server for analysis.
First and foremost, these approaches are questionable because “participants” are often unaware that they are being monitored. Beyond these privacy issues, these methods are limited to capturing non-secure clickstream activity. Additionally, even ISPs cannot practically capture the complete content within every user session, and they are unwilling to provide secure session data to third parties. Demographic data are generally not provided by the ISP, and it is not possible to identify which individual is using the computer at any point in time. As a result, when using ISP data, one cannot obtain the person-level audience data required by media planners and analysts. Finally, the behavior and characteristics of users of a given ISP or software package will often show strong skews that make the sample strikingly unrepresentative.
In contrast, comScore openly enlists panelist participation, with full disclosure that allows them to make an informed, opt-in choice of whether to participate. comScore captures the complete detail of all Internet activity for its panelists across all ISPs – both in the U.S. and beyond. And, all comScore panelist data are handled in accordance with strict, industry-leading privacy practices.
