• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, August 21, 2013

A lack of standard metrics in mobile is often cited as one of the barriers to higher levels of ad spending in the medium. That problem leads to fragmentation in mobile analytics, with a host of different vendors offering different measurement solutions. A Forrester study this week showed while many brands have tools in place, less than half (46%) of online professionals have a complete solution.

When it comes to establishing uniform metrics, panelists at the Mobile Insider Summit today suggested there needs to be more standardization around contextual factors like screen size, device type, how people are using their devices to deliver better campaigns and content. “Standards for that sort of thing are really lacking,” said Josh Levine, national director of mobile for CPG and Ffnance, Yahoo. He added responsive design can help with that effort from a technical standpoint but that it’s not a “be all, end all” answer.

Brett Leary, VP of mobile marketing, Digitas, said that to sort through all the disparate, contextual data mobile pulls in, the agency has begun developing its own attribution tool as an alternative to third-party services from Google or others. By sifting that data, Digitas hopes to find the “moments that matter” to get an ad in front of a mobile user at the right time, and right place. But he acknowledged that getting all that data “into a nice neat dashboard is a difficult thing to do.”