• by Masha Geller , June 5, 2002

The Online Publishers Association recently released a new White Paper entitled Internet Metrics: The Loyal Audience, the first in a series of OPA White Papers intended to provide marketers with a better understanding of audience measurement and the role of various metrics in evaluating a site's advertising potential.

Interestingly enough, the paper begins by exploring Total Reach (“unique visitors per month”), the dominant comparison metric to date, and explains why, despite its widespread adoption, it is not the most useful measure of a site's advertising value.

The paper was authored by Steve Coffey, an industry research veteran who co-founded Media Metrix in 1995 and was responsible for the first ratings release. Coffey is currently serving as a research consultant to OPA on its 2002 research initiatives.

The paper draws upon data from Media Metrix and comScore, and goes on to show how alternative statistics calculated from existing audience measurement data can offer a more appropriate understanding of the relative strengths of competing media packages.

Based on this analysis, the paper concludes that online media with loyal audiences provide rich advertising opportunities by both delivering reach and driving exposure frequency among desirable demographic targets. Since advertisers typically buy only a portion of a site's available inventory and the majority of a site's inventory is generated by Loyal Users, it is important to take frequency of site visits and demographics of Loyal Users into consideration when evaluating a site's advertising opportunity, OPA suggests.

The OPA has made the white paper available at their website. The organization plans to release the next White Paper, The Value of Media Audience Loyalty for Brand Advertisers, later this month.