Dispute Spotlights comScore Ad Network Rankings

YuMe site screenshotThe home page of video ad network YuMe aggressively touts the company breaking into the Top 10 online ad networks as ranked in comScore's June Ad Focus report.

One box highlight's YuMe's no. 8 ranking just ahead of Google and behind Tribal Fusion, while another prominently displays the video ad network's impressive audience metrics: more than 134 million unique visitors, reaching 71% of the U.S. Internet users.

The only problem: comScore's June Ad Focus report ranks YuMe at No. 32, with 59.2 million unique visitors, representing 32% reach. What gives? The Web measurement service had revised the initial rankings in its July 21 press release, downgrading YuMe without notifying the company or noting a correction.

ComScore spokesman Andrew Lipsman said that some traffic from MSN had been "inappropriately assigned" to YuMe and that the traffic was subsequently removed, dropping the video ad network back down in the rankings.

In June, YuMe had struck a high-profile deal with Microsoft to serve ads on the software giant's Web properties including sports and entertainment videos on MSN. On the strength of that deal, it appeared YuMe had vaulted from no. 44 to no. 8 in comScore's ad network rankings, more than tripling its traffic in the space of a month.

YuMe's traffic had also gotten a boost during the spring through new video ad-serving deals with publishers including Demand Media and blip.tv. This is quite a feat for an ad network that specializes in video advertising, as opposed to the traditional display ad networks such as Advertising.com, the Yahoo Network and ValueClick Networks.

But when YuMe's traffic ballooned in June, competitors and other observers complained that comScore had given the video network credit for all of MSN's page views, although it was only serving ads on a portion of the site's unsold inventory. The controversy over YuMe's ranking was first reported on the NewTeeVee blog last week.

In measuring ad network traffic, comScore says it counts a unique visitor when someone views a rendered ad on a publisher's Web site. So, if Advertising.com serves ads to 80 million of Yahoo.com's 140 million visitors, the ad network would only get credit for 80 million uniques.

In an interview on Friday, Molly Gallatin, YuMe's director of marketing, said comScore is applying different rules to the company in revising its traffic downward. "It's fine if comScore decided the way visitors are rolled up in the Ad Focus report is not ideal and they want to change how the report is compiled," she said. "But then they have to change it for everyone, not just one network."

In effect, YuMe is arguing that ad networks typically get credit for all of a site's traffic, regardless of how much inventory they actually sell ads on.

Since most of MSN's pages carry video, Gallatin maintains that YuMe should get credit for unique visitors to those pages because the traffic represents the potential audience for its video ads across the Web portal.

"We agree--unique visitors may not be the best number to use for video but that's the number the majority of agencies ask for" in evaluating audience size, said Gallatin. The issue hadn't arisen for YuMe before because most of the sites it serves ads on are purely video-focused, she added.

Measuring traffic for video ads is especially tricky because they can run both within videos and in standard display units.

In-banner video ads typically play whenever someone visits a Web page, while in-stream ads are not viewed unless someone chooses to play a video. YuMe's video advertising spans in-stream formats including pre-roll, mid-roll, and post-roll and overlays as well as in-banner spots.

Rival video ad network Tremor Media, ranked 18th among ad networks with 101 million unique visitors, says it placed as high as it did mainly because a large portion of its video ads run in banners. Gallatin would not disclose whether its agreement with Microsoft includes in-banner video ads.

Randy Kilgore, Tremor's chief revenue officer, said YuMe was trying to game the system by claiming more than its fair share of traffic from Microsoft's Web properties.

Gallatin said YuMe is working with comScore to provide additional documentation on its publisher agreements and hopes to either have the no. 8 ranking restored or arrive at a mutually acceptable revision of its numbers.

Ideally, comScore should separate out video ad networks from the display ad networks in its rankings to avoid and apples-and-oranges comparisons, she said. Video networks could then be rated based on unique viewers rather than site visitors.

Through its Video Metrix report, comScore separately ranks sites based on the number of unique video viewers they have and by the number of videos viewed. But those ratings do not include video networks.

Microsoft sites had 29 million unique video viewers in May, according to comScore. That's far less than the approximately 120 million visitors it had overall in June--and, some might argue, a better proxy for its MSN-related traffic.

Until it resolves its ratings dispute with comScore, however, Gallatin said that YuMe does not plan to take down the top 10 ad network ranking posted prominently on its home page. "We're still hoping to get comScore to reevaluate the situation in a way that reflects our traffic more accurately," she said.

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