Nice Idea, Forbes

You may have missed it last year, but there’s been a bit of a dust-up about whether or not digital ads on websites are being seen. The theory is fairly sound: if your ad appears on the lower section of a webpage and if, in particular, the user is using a small screen, it’s possible the user could click away without seeing an ad, yet the ad view gets counted.

On one hand, I could argue that unless you’re into brand advertising, it doesn’t matter… after all, advertisers really want clicks, engagement, etc. But that argument aside, it’s a worthwhile concern, particularly as websites (and digital editions) morph into entities that might make it easier or more difficult for your ads to be seen.

Forbes is launching a new service that will guarantee that if they say your ad was seen, it was really seen. On its service, this is a little silly, but when you consider the ways we measure print traffic, well, it’s at least a lot better than that. Read more about the Forbes technology here.