IAB, MRC release augmented reality measurement guidelines

The Interactive Advertising Bureau and the Media Rating Council have issued guidelines designed to establish consistent terminology and metrics for ads served with augmented reality campaigns. The guidelines should help marketers and advertisers quantify delivery of ads and gauge performance.

The guidelines take account of both interactive and immersive AR formats, recognizing that users can engage in both virtual and physical interactions with products.

“The augmented reality advertising market is projected to generate $1.2 billion in revenue in the U.S. this year,” said Zoe Soon, VP at the IAB Experience Center in a release. “Thus, as an industry, we need to establish a greater consistency on how we define and measure AR advertising to foster fairness and transparency for buyers and sellers.”

The guidelines are subject to public review and comment until March 9, 2024.

Why we care. With the AR ad market growing at the rate projected, an early attempt to make clear what deliverability, viewability, engagement and performance mean can only be welcome. The IAB has already tackled in-game advertising. As indicated, AR presents a more complex scenario as users of AR can interact with the physical world as well as the virtual augmentation. The guidelines do not cover fully immersive virtual reality experiences.

Detailed guidelines. The guidelines consitute a substantial discussion of metrics, including:

• Impressions.
• Viewability.
• Invalid traffic.
• User attribution and audience.
• Performance.

They also discuss auditing, general reporting and disclosure (transparency of methods used for all the above).