Recently, a coalition of some of the primary trade groups in the mobile and Internet marketing industries gathered together to draft an updated version of the "Mobile Web Advertising Measurement Guidelines," which was unveiled today for public comment.
The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) joined together with the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and its Mobile Marketing Center for Excellence division and the Media Rating Council (MRC) to come up with a new framework for the regulation of the measurement of Web-based mobile advertisements across an interactive mobile ecosystem.
This document mostly concerns the work of mobile marketers, wireless operators, mobile publishers and ad serving organizations, although the guidelines can also be used by people who plan or buy mobile media advertising to determine its measurement quality. For instance, the newly updated guidelines will require client-side counting of mobile Web ad impressions in order to increase the consistency with computer-based ad measurement, provide more robust and reliable impression counts and reduce other mobile discrepancies.
Also covered in this updated version are measurement definitions, ad measurement guidelines, click measurement considerations, general reporting parameters, disclosure guidance, auditing recommendations, information on improving the accuracy of ad impression tracking and the importance of the "viewable impressions" that are being established by the Making Measurement Make Sense initiative. While this currently devised version doesn't require professionals to measure viewable impressions on the mobile Web, it does make it clear that mobile media providers should begin making considerations for viewable impressions as soon as possible.
You can review the new guidelines here. Public comment is already open and will close on December 21. To comment, simply send an email to mobile@iab.net.