Spanish advertisers call for a new approach to tracking online ad spend

With advertisers investing increasingly higher percentages of their ad spend online (18.6% in Q4/2014 against 10% in Q4/2010, according to the most recent AEA Panel), the Association of Spanish Advertisers (AEA) calls for a more efficient approach to tracking total online ad spend.

The solution to the current shortcomings is to approximate the total number of impressions, since robots capture only a part of them, AEA says. To this end, AEA calls on advertisers and their agencies to facilitate the access to data (i.e. number of impressions per type of format, site, advertiser and period) of Arce Media and Infoadex. The data would be similar to the information Kantar offers (Grps/advertiser) for different television networks.

"The positive results of the blind tests carried out have proven that the system works. This would be flexible enough to incorporate various innovations that will be implemented in the sector," said Lidia Sanz, the General Manager of AEA.

Through its Digital Committee, AEA has spent some years monitoring digital trends, identifying advertisers' needs and looking for possible improvements. In this respect, it has ventured into partnerships with the Institute for the Development of the Internet (ISDI) and with the Universidad Cumplutense de Madrid University (UCM) to launch the Digital Barometer, which allows a better understanding of the degree of digitisation of advertisers and the aspects that should be improved.