Metafluence

Big Deal: Nielsen replaces the Page View with Time on Site

On Monday, Nielsen announced they are replacing Page View Ranking With Time Spent on Site. The reason this is a big deal is because Page Views have been the ultimate metric for online advertising spends since the web began. Also, Nielsen is a leading authority, if not the leading authority, for online ratings, which means they have a ton of influence.

The idea of time-based advertising on the web isn’t new. I can recall banner ads refreshing the page back in the mid-90s. At that time, however, there weren’t solutions like AJAX in place to provide a seamless experience for swapping out ads without refreshing the page. As Marshall Kirkpatrick points out, “The move was widely discussed as a key shift towards recognizing the importance of both improved website design and rich media like video.”

For me this is exciting because I see it as another step in the convergence of the internet and T.V. Advertising in television has been sold by time for decades and there is a lot of equity in terms of business practice and creative that lends itself toward the time based model. As the rich web continues to grow, webmasters and business owners out there will be well served to adapt to the new direction. Although, I think the cost for the time will still be based on the size and quality of the audience.

Not everyone is feeling positive about this shift. Scott Karp sees the move toward time on site as problematic as changing seats on the Titanic. He believes we need to focus on action metrics stating, “…those are OLD media metrics — proxies for things that matter, like actions. Google makes money by selling actions, i.e. clicks…Maybe it’s time we dropped the obsession with old media metrics and started thinking about Web native metrics.” While he does provide action as an example, he doesn’t really provide solid metrics that are “Web native”.

What do you think about shifting to time on site as the foundational metric for online advertising spending? Are there better metrics we should be focusing on? In what ways are you already moving toward time based advertising?