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With more content at their fingertips and more time to consume it, today’s audiences are everywhere, moving seamlessly between all screens. This fragmentation has made reaching consumers with the right ad at the right time even more challenging. It has also heightened the importance of comprehensive, comparable cross-platform audience measurement that enables media buyers and sellers to understand the performance of campaigns across platforms. 

Over the past year, we’ve seen how consumers have shifted their media habits and embraced a more digital-first mentality. In fact, Nielsen data shows that on average, U.S. adults are spending more than 5 hours per day with video (69% linear and 31% digital), with digital consumption increasing by 16% from last year. This shift in consumption has amplified the need for continuous digital ad data that measures all ad impressions.

Today, most digital audience measurement requires individual campaign enablement. But what if this measurement were continuous, similar to how linear TV is measured today? Continuous, “always on,” digital measurement means visibility into the performance of all ad impressions and a simplified campaign enablement process, which makes it quicker and easier to launch campaigns. The nature of this type of measurement means even more impression data and a broader view of performance metrics. This allows advertisers to make more informed decisions about where to spend their ad dollars and enables publishers to more easily prove the value of their platform. 

At Nielsen, we’re enhancing our capabilities within Digital Ad Ratings (DAR) by facilitating  continuous measurement for participating publishers to account for all digital ad impressions on their platform. For both marketers and publishers, “Always On” DAR equates to more comprehensive data, trust and transparency, and flexibility. Ultimately, “always on” enables the continuous measurement of digital ads in a manner comparable to TV. For an industry that is going through transformational changes, “always on” digital measurement can bring new benefits, including: 

• Holistic, data-driven insights: With more campaign data available, advertisers have a  better understanding of how their brand messages are reaching consumers, allowing them to make more informed decisions about where and how to allocate spend to best reach their target audiences. They can also better analyze performance metrics across all campaigns to drive ad strategy by product category or specific brand. For example, equipped with data from “always on” measurement, an auto maker placing ads intended to reach males 25-54 years old can decide how to allocate ad dollars more effectively based on a plethora of publisher performance data from prior campaigns.
• Ad sales credibility: With continuous measurement, publishers have a strong understanding of the unique audiences their properties reach and are able to confidently enter ad sales negotiations knowing they can command the true value of their inventory. With more data on hand, publishers can negotiate with confidence on their ability to reach an advertiser’s target audience, guarantee delivery of ad impressions and validate the performance of their platform.
• Ease of campaign enablement: Since the measurement is always on, it’s automatic by nature, meaning a more simple campaign and placement set up process. For advertisers and publishers that enable continuous measurement, it will be easier and faster to launch campaigns, streamlining resources and making the workflow more efficient. 

Continuous digital measurement is a significant step towards true, comparable cross-media measurement across digital, connected TV (CTV), addressable and linear TV. With the introduction of “always on” measurement in DAR, Nielsen is taking a major stride forward and advancing its work with the industry to make cross-media currency a reality. “Always On” DAR will strengthen Nielsen Total Ad Ratings, and ultimately Nielsen ONE, our cross-media measurement solution. Launching in 2022, Nielsen ONE will produce a single, deduplicated number and place TV and digital on an even playing field, underpinning the advertising ecosystem long into the future. 

This article was originally published on Next TV.