• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, August 14, 2006

Nielsen//NetRatings' AdRelevance unit will begin tracking online ads containing video, other than video pre-roll ads, as part of an effort to expand reporting on rich media advertising.

The move reflects growing interest among marketers in measuring the effectiveness of online video ads. While AdRelevance doesn't yet have the ability to track pre-roll ads, which run inside media players, it will instead track usage of video in banners and other types of online ads.

AdRelevance will also begin tracking expanding ads. During the first week of August, for example, expanding ads accounted for only 1 percent of impressions served.

The unit also added two platforms to the roster of rich media technologies it follows: DoubleClick's DART Motif and that made by Interpolls. PointRoll is by far the biggest player in serving rich media ads--accounting for 60 percent of impressions, according to AdRelevance.

Eyeblaster was the second-largest, with about 15 percent of impressions, followed by Klipmart (11 percent), DART Motif (7 percent), and EyeWonder (5 percent).