Wise Startup Blog

Measuring Internet traffic is a dicey game. Publishers will always say that the measuring tools are way too low, and advertisers will always say the numbers are way too high.

This constant battle causes huge headaches for publishers trying to sell out their inventory and for advertisers trying to avoid being over charged.

So after experimenting for a little more than 6 months with different metrics tools, I wanted to share with you what we’re using at Grooveshark.

Quantcast Traffic Reporting

So after wondering why our Compete rankings don’t look anything like our Google Analytics and internal awStats numbers, we finally stumbled upon Quantcast.

The best indication that Quantcast is providing us with quality tracking can be seen in the graphs below:

Google Analytics

Quantcast

In web trending, you don’t often see graphs that actually resemble one another.

Quantcast Uses a Plugin

So with Compete, they don’t use any sort of plugins or site monitoring on the actual publisher site, so their results can vary dramatically.

However, with Quanctast, you install the plugin on your site, giving Quantcast the best metrics available for any web reporting site.

Real Numbers for Advertisers

So for publishers, thanks to Quantcast, the numbers you quote advertisers can be backed up by their infrastructure, and the huge clients that use them including MTV, NBC, Fox Entertainment, BusinessWeek, Time, etc.

Best of all, Quantcast is free, so make sure to sign up and get your site Quantified.