Marketers have an ever-growing selection of metrics to measure digital media at their disposal. But not all of them use the rigor of evidence-based methodologies to prove effectiveness.

Take viewability, for instance. According to the standards of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), a digital ad is considered viewable if 50% of the ad’s pixels are visible in the browser window for one second. It’s clearly valuable for marketers to know whether the audiences they are trying to reach can see their digital ads. But viewability, like other KPIs used in isolation, has limitations. And it’s a metric that can lead marketers astray when misapplied.

Marketers who use viewability to chase the lowest possible cost per thousand impressions (CPM) can end up wasting money on tiny ads on big screens that, in practice, rarely capture attention. To give brands a more transparent measure of ad quality, IRI has started working with Adelaide, which has devised a way to move beyond viewability and take media quality measurement to the next level using its metric, AU.

AU is an omnichannel media quality score proven to predict the likelihood and quality of attention and the probability of subsequent outcomes. Signals used to calculate AU are captured through Javascript, web scanning, eye-tracking panels and third-party data.

Advertisers who optimize their campaigns with AU can see up to an 80% improvement in ad impact.

IRI Lift™ can incorporate Adelaide AU into the final sales measurement deliverable. This functionality gives marketers the ability to test and learn by comparing the sales lift achieved from AU-optimized media and other optimization tactics, like viewability. IRI uses a forensic test and control method to ensure tightness of fit to accurately measure incrementality against various test groups.

Danone, a mutual client of IRI and Adelaide, has started using this approach as it is searching for media metrics that are predictive of KPIs across the entire marketing funnel. Initial results were successful, finding a correlation between AU-optimized media and sales lift. This combination of Adelaide AU Measurement with IRI Sales Lift Measurement is helping to provide Danone with the tools it needs to maximize every media dollar and improve sales results.

With consumer attention at a premium in our distracted world, marketers need proven tools that maximize their campaign results. This is another one that can get them closer to success.