Implementation of the International IAB/ABC Spiders & Robots List is a key step to prevent non-human traffic being counted in web analytics, says the ABC.
This comprehensive list, updated monthly, enables filtering of non-human activity from known spiders and robots that otherwise can significantly inflate ad impression and site traffic counts. Removal of spiders and robots provides more transparent and accurate measurement for ad impressions and site traffic claims.
The Spiders & Robots service from ABC UK will be available to any business, whether an ABC Member or not. In addition, any industry body in the EU wanting to partner with ABC UK will be able to make this service available to its community.
With digital ad spend in 2012 reaching €24.3 billion in the EU and £5.4 billion in the UK alone, advertisers and agencies want to ensure advertising campaigns reach their intended consumer audience. By applying the International IAB/ABC Spiders & Robots List publishers can report figures more accurately reflecting actual consumer interaction.
The IAB Europe is delivering this service to its members by working with ABC UK. IAB Europe recognises its importance and is demonstrating support for working to industry agreed standards.
David Ellison, at ISBA said: “Using industry standards as a base from which to create statistics is crucial to building advertisers understanding, confidence and subsequent use of such data. We encourage all of our members’ suppliers to employ best practice that is reliably maintained and can be trusted.”
Larry Goldstein, Vice President, Research Audit Services at comScore said: “Accurately accounting for human user-intended activity is fundamental to comScore’s measurement of audiences, and our traffic filtration processes are therefore designed to exclude activity that is not initiated by humans in accordance with the standards published by JICWEBS and the IAB. The International IAB/ABC Spiders & Robots List is a critical resource toward this end, providing a central repository where search engines and others committed to transparency have declared themselves. ABC/IAB’s globally coordinated resources provide a significant benefit as compared to individual measurement companies duplicating their efforts. As such, it serves comScore and its clients well, providing foundational support for effective filtration of non-human traffic.”
Kimon Zorbas, Vice President, IAB Europe said: “All responsible companies should use the International IAB/ABC Spiders & Robots List to demonstrate their commitment to increase transparency in the market. We are excited teaming up with ABC to offer this benefit to IAB Europe members.”
Richard Foan, Group Executive Director, Communication & Innovation, ABC said:
“Delivering global standards for local markets through initiatives like this is key to the growth in confidence in digital advertising.”
