The frequent disparity between census-based site analytics data and panel-based audience measurement data has long been the Achilles Heel of digital media measurement. Because the two measurement techniques have different objectives, they employ different counting technologies, which often results in differing metrics that can cause confusion and uncertainty among publishers and advertisers.

With the introduction of Unified Digital Measurement™, comScore implemented a ‘panel-centric hybrid’ solution to digital audience measurement, creating a blend of these two methodologies into a ‘best of breed’ approach that will provide a direct linkage and reconciliation between the census and panel approaches. This approach combines person-level measurement from the 2 million person comScore global panel with server-side metrics in order to account for 100 percent of a Web site’s audience.

Participating companies place tags on their content and ads, and these calls are recorded by comScore servers every time content is accessed. comScore is able to view these calls on its global panel in addition to measuring the direct server calls. This unique perspective allows comScore to validate that the tags are measuring activities consistent with its audience measurement methodology. comScore applies proprietary data cleansing and validation processes, and once validated the tag counts are used to set the usage levels by site. Additionally, comScore has developed a proprietary methodology to combine panel and server-side metrics in order to calculate audience reach in a manner that is not affected by variables such as cookie deletion and cookie blocking/rejection.