• February 17, 2009

The GSM Association has developed a method to measure mobile users' browsing behavior that is intended to remove roadblocks to advertising on cellular phones.

Securing credible stats on the effectiveness of mobile ad campaigns has been a challenge because of privacy concerns and a fragmented industry full of numerous carriers that tend to keep customer data close to the vest. The industry group, which represents about 750 mobile operators, worked on the project to create new measurements with five carriers: 3, Orange, Telefonica, T-Mobile and Vodafone.

The feasibility study unveiled Monday measures the effectiveness of mobile ads and gives brands, publishers and agencies access to aggregated user behavior data, enabling comparison with other media. For example, mobile users accessing Facebook spend an average of 24 minutes per day on the site, similar to the 27.5 minutes spent by PC users. Mobile users on Facebook averaged 3.3 visits per day versus 2.3 visits per day by PC users.--Laurie Sullivan