• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, June 13, 2011

When it comes to reaching targeted audiences, the Web isn't much better than TV, according to the initial findings from Nielsen's Online Campaign Ratings service. Announced last September and in beta testing since March, the service aims to unify online and TV audience tracking by creating reach, frequency and Gross Ratings Points (GRP) for the Web comparable to TV ratings.

It also promises to more accurately measure the actual audience of an online ad campaign through a "hybrid" approach, combining its panel data with aggregated, anonymous demographic data from online data providers. Nielsen says early results from testing the Online Campaign Ratings system on 40 brands across more than 20 categories undercuts the Internet's claim to being the most "targetable" medium.

For example, narrowly targeted campaigns -- those geared to a demographic with less than a 20-year age span -- typically delivered that audience only 30% of the time, compared to 77% of campaigns focused on a broader age range. Campaigns targeting by age and gender reached the intended audience with only 27% success.

"In one instance, Nielsen Online Campaigns Ratings showed that, in a campaign in which a CPG advertiser intended to reach females 18-34 for a personal care product, 55% of the impressions were served to men, according to a blog post Monday by Charles Buchwalter, who leads Nielsen's cross-platform tracking initiative. He added that better online audience measurement would "answer the industry's need for transparency and accountability."

Buchwalter noted that sample coverage via Campaign Ratings, defined as "the % of impressions that can be directly tied to a logged-in user from a contributing data provider," is 42%. That compares to an average of less than 3% for traditional panel-based samples, which is the percentage of impressions delivered to panelists. Sample coverage across six major industry categories ranges from a high of 47% for technology to 37% for food and beverage.

Nielsen has been testing the new service with various companies, including Procter & Gamble, Verizon Wireless, Facebook and media agency Starcom MediaVest. It is expected to launch commercially on August 15.