Quantcast Gets a Makeover - So Close to a comScore Alternative!
July 16, 2008 – 4:22 pm
It looks as though the guys at Quantcast have been busy!
If you haven’t heard of Quantcast yet then I strongly recommend you check it out. Quantcast (as well as Google Trends) are looking to give companies like comScore and Neilsen a run for their money.
A long standing problem in the Canadian marketplace has been the difficulty of finding viable alternatives to comScore. By all means, comScore isn’t some evil corporation but there are a few major problems with it:
- They cost way too much
- Their panel is biased which means…
- Their data is often inaccurate
It’s a situation found often in Canada because we just don’t have the population to support the marketplace needed for real competition in some of these industries. Luckily though, companies like Google and Quantcast are changing all that.
Three reasons the Canadian Media Industry should push to adopt Quantcast
Before I dip into the “big three” I’ll warn that Quantcast’s panel is composed completely of US citizens. Before Canadians take the big Quantcast plunge, I’d urge that we ask Quantcast to look into panels that are composed of Canadian-only audiences - I know the big media companies would really support this kind of move.
Reason 1: It’s Free!
I think it’s kind of enough said here. 
Reason 2: Far better data model and more accurate than comScore
Quantcast’s data collection model combines both that pesky panel-based data as well as JavaScript-tag based data (like the stuff collected by Google Analytics, Omniture, WebTrends or Coremetrics). Using some pretty sophisticated mathematical techniques, Quantcast is actually able to combine these two data sets to improve on the weaknesses inherit in both.
- Panel-based data sucks because it represents only a sample of your audience and it could be a poor sample at that. So including JavaScript-tag based data helps out because it’s an actual measure of who visited your site and what they looked at.
- JavaScript-tag based data sucks because it’s fundamental tracking method for unique visitors is based on cookies. Cookies can be deleted, toyed with and duplicated when the same person uses two different computers or two different browsers on the same computer. So including some panel-based data is great where a metric like “unique visitors” corresponds to actual “people” in the sample, not just cookies.
Reason 3: Quantcast provides the tools that Media buyers need
Recently released (and very much needed), Quantcast has released a Media Planner tool on their site specifically designed for ad agencies. This is a critical feature that they’ve been needing and I’m so happy to see they’ve taken this step.
After all, our media industry moving towards a new measurement standard isn’t much good if all of our advertisers and their agencies are still tied to the old one. If we’re going to switch to Quantcast or a similar tool, we need the backing of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and I can’t see those guys giving a blessing to any tool that doesn’t support some kind of a media planning tool.
I would be more than happy to work with any of the media companies in Canada to support Quantcast and look into opportunities to support their growth in Canada. Just send me an e-mail or post a comment if you are interested!
4 Responses to “Quantcast Gets a Makeover - So Close to a comScore Alternative!”
Hi Mike,
Interesting post. Having an alternative is always good for the market. But as we are talking about alternatives, how about considering Google Ad Planner.
http://www.google.com/support/adplanner/bin/answer.py?answer=98132&topic=14715
They seem to have mixed sources of information. Perhaps the depth of the data is not the same a panel would have, but they for sure have a bigger sample. Does the fact that it’s free make the data less accurate or useful?
Let me know your thoughts on this topic.
Thanks,
Jose
By Jose D. on Aug 28, 2008
In response to Jose’s post - Thanks for posting! I’m a huge fan of Ad Planner actually I just see the industry being at first slightly more hesitant about using Google for all competitive intelligence. There is somewhat of a conflict of interest when the company selling advertising also provides you traffic analysis.
I personally don’t believe Google is up to anything sneaky, but I understand the complaint here.
Best,
Mike
By Mike Sukmanowsky on Sep 3, 2008
Hey Mike - great post. I agree, Quantcast has come a long way and while comScore does some great stuff, the margin between these two are rapidly decreasing. I’ve always believed that there is so much more to gain by making data accessible than cost prohibitive.
Cheers,
Paul
By Paul Neto on Dec 23, 2008
Hi, Mike.
We are an Omniture shop and just started to investigate some of the additional tools available in the market. After examining Quantcast we also ran across Crowd Science and Vizu. Have you had a chance to check these guys out? If so, how do they compare with what Quantcast is doing?
Thanks,
Chris
By Chris Sterbenc on Mar 13, 2009