I/PRO Offers Demo Reports for Smaller Sites

Web site auditing mainstay I/PRO has added demographic reports to its suite of services, which already include site traffic and audience behavioral data reports.

The Audience Profile and Business Demographics Reports were announced at the AD:TECH 2005 show in San Francisco by I/PRO CEO Allan Kaplan during a panel on online media buying. Kaplan said the new reports, compiled at the request of media buyers in I/PRO’s Agencies for Interactive Audits (A4IA), were aimed at providing information about mid-tier Web site publishers.

“It’s often a challenge for media buyers to find good audience data from panel-based research on sites beyond the top 50,” said David Barlin, VP of marketing for I/PRO. “By looking at verifiable research based on MRI’s strict statistical methods, media buyers can compare demographics of sites across publishers.”

The new reports were created in conjunction with magazine audience measurement service Mediamark Research Inc. (MRI). They give consumer-focused sites an Audience Profile Report, which provides anonymous personal data such as age, income, gender, education, and presence of children. Business-focused sites can opt for the Business Demographics Report, which includes data such as job title, job function, corporate size, purchasing authority, and intention for visiting a site.

The reports are compiled based on results of standardized surveys performed on a site-by-site basis. The reports use a standard methodology influenced by members of I/PRO’s A4IA program and based on MRI’s offline media research methods.

“Being able to analyze data on sites that arent available on mainstream panels is crucial,” said Kyle Sherwin, a media director at Beyond Interactive. Sherwin said the reports are especially helpful for clients with a wide portfolio — and thus a varied target audience for its brands — or for frequent advertisers who have “maxed out” their core opportunities and are trying to reach new audiences.

A standard report starts at $5,000, depending on the size of the site and its traffic levels. Both consumer and business sites can add up to ten customizable research questions to the basic set for an additional fee, starting at $12,500. I/PRO said the frequency of the reports is left up to the publisher, but recommends refreshing the data at least every six months.

Advertisers are used to seeing other audience data in as little as a month of lag time, as with comScore’s online data, while TV advertisers are used to seeing ratings data that’s three to four months old.

“The data needs to be recent to be useful,” Beyond’s Sherwin said. “As long as we can see data that’s trendable, and shows whether it’s growing, or if it’s seasonal, then we can make planning and buying decisions.”

Having detailed data to show clients can also help win a bigger share of the advertising budget for online, he added. “It’s frustrating to know the client wants to reach an audience that’s well represented online, and yet still have online getting a minority of the budget.”