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The Page View is Dead Long Live Engagement!

Earlier this month Nielsen Net Ratings announced (press release) that it will focus on 'time spent on site’ as its primary measurement for audience engagement and site popularity.

While this may not entirely spell the end of the Page View, it will definitely take more of back seat as advertisers move to align themselves with sites that engage and retain audience attention.  “Is it better to have 10,000 people spending a minute interacting with your brand than 100,000 exposed to it for 10 seconds?" OMD’s managing partner, Leigh Terry as quoted in SMH.

Thursdays article Google, ninemsn may face revenue loss as advertisers click with time online highlights some of the potential outcomes of this important shift in focus.

Monique Talbot, the chief executive of online ad sales company Tempest Media, said Seek, eBay and Carsales all stood to benefit from the shift. "We've been banging on about engagement for a long time. But now it seems that they are listening." She said advertisers had not been using time spent as a buying lever. "Now they are realising that they are not just buying a click but learning the value of it."

The big questions here are, ‘How long will it take for this to have a meaningful impact on media buying behaviour?’ and ‘Which agencies will lead the way?’

Related Voice posts:

• Page View Metric RIP
• Two More Interesting Posts on the Page View Metric 
• Ajax & the page view metric?

'Visits' could replace the 'Page View'

According to an article on ClickZ today 'Visits' could be the new 'Page View'.

"In an attempt to provide advertisers with a new way to measure site traffic and engagement, comScore has added a new metric to its Media Metrix subscription reports: the visit. A visit measures the number of distinct times people visit a site per day, with at least 30 minutes between each visit."

For the full details check out the press relase comScore Announces New “Visits” Metric For Measuring User Engagement

Previous posts on the Page View Metric: Page View Metric RIP ; Two More Interesting Posts on the Page View Metric; Ajax & the page view metric?

Page View Metric RIP

According to conversations online the ‘page view’ is dying a slow death. Typing ‘Death Page View’ into Google will give you an idea of the amount of discussion that is taking place, and rightly so. Page views are a metric that we have depended on for far to long and their relevance is rapidly diminishing.

With the increasing push for more dynamic content and better usability delivered through technologies such as Flash and AJAX, there is a growing debate about the accuracy of data provided by the likes of comScore and Nielson//NetRatings. As Tom Hespos points out in his post “Death of the page View” both Flash and AJAX “can significantly wreak havoc with the notion that one page view equals one request for content.” He goes on to state that “The page view, as we've come to understand it, is no longer a reliable surrogate for audience engagement”.

His post goes to the root of the issue, the inability of the page view metric to accurately measure a sites reach and the extent to which its audience’s attention is engage. So what’s the solution?

With the dynamic content push coming from industries leaders such as Yahoo7, and channel 9’s My Home, it is yet to be seen whether such publishers alone can bring about a change in how we measure traffic online. What is needed is rigorous debate and meaningful consensus from publishers, advertises and agencies alike.

Previous posts: 
AJAX and the Page View Metric
Two More Interesting Posts on the Page View Metric

Two More Interesting Posts on the Page View Metric

As we mentioned in our previous post Ajax& the page view metric? there are a lot’s of people posing the question ‘what will happen to the page view metric?’. Is it out of date, what will replace it? Here are two more posts by Max Kalehoff  and Steve Rubel  respectively that make some interesting points on the subject.

• The Web’s Imperfect Method of Measuring Audience Attention & Value
• What Will Replace the Almighty Page View?

Ajax & the page view metric?

Ajax websites are popping up all over the place, with their clean designs and powerful functionally it is obvious that usability is the big winner here!  The question that beckons is ‘what will happen to our beloved page impression metric?’ Here are a few articles that may shed some light on this subject for you!

• Page Views Weaken As Metric, But Won't Die in 2007
• 2007: The End Of The Page View