I wanted to update you on some important developments regarding the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Click Measurement Working Group. Earlier this month, Kevin Embree and I attended the first meeting of the working group in San Francisco. The meeting was well attended in San Francisco and others joined in New York and by phone. We are excited about the launch of this process and feel that the IAB and Media Rating Council (MRC) efforts to develop standards around click fraud are very important. It is clear, however, that this will be a difficult and long process involving lots of companies with competing interests in our industry.
The IAB has asked the members to hold meeting information confidential and we will of course honor that request. I will bring public information to your attention when permitted along with commentary. Most importantly we need to hear your input so advertisers have an unfiltered voice in the process. Feel free to email us with your ideas, concerns and ideas around development of click measurement guidelines.
As you may have read, Kevin Embree, former Trust and Safety Director at eBay, Inc. has joined Click Forensics and he is serving along with me on the IAB working group. Kevin has spent that last six years at eBay working on global initiatives around trust and safety. Or news release about Kevin can be found here.
The initiative set out by the IAB is a step in the right direction. We have been calling for industry standards since our company’s inception and applaud the involvement of the search providers. Online advertising is a terrific medium to acquire new customers, but there must be accountability built into the process. We take seriously our role to represent the over 2,500 members of the Click Fraud Network in this process.