Google/You Tube, Facebook agree to audits from Media Rating Council

Amid industry clamor, Google is joining Facebook in announcing they are willing to do an independent audit by a third-party. The Media Rating Council (MRC) is an independent industry group that accredits media measurement and isn’t afraid to deny that accreditation if the measurement isn’t up to industry standards. They’ve denied or withheld accreditation from some heavy hitters, including Nielsen and ComScore measurement products, as well as Google and DFP.

Facebook said it is releasing data so the MRC can audit some of its ad metrics. Now Google has committed to a series of audits for YouTube. MRC will take a look at how other independent metric collecters (Moat, DoubleVerify, and Integral Ad Science) collect data on impressions and duration. It will also take a look at DoubleClick and AdWords services.

“Google’s announcement that they are undertaking an independent audit of their 3rd party viewability reporting integrations is a positive step forward for marketers. At the ANA, our goal is to create transparency for the advertising supply chain. This action from Google today demonstrates their commitment to partnering with us to deliver this goal." -  Bob Liodice, President and CEO, Association for National Advertisers

“The audit will validate that data collection, aggregation and reporting for served video impressions, viewable impressions, related viewability statistics and General Invalid Traffic (GIVT) across desktop and mobile for each integration adheres to MRC and IAB standards,” according to a Google blog post.

Google has gotten MRC accreditation for video impressions and viewability for desktop and mobile recently.

"Google's commitment to MRC's initiatives has been unwavering over time, and their participation in industry standards projects has been helpful. We look forward to working on these new audits and expanding the industry's trust as it relates to YouTube's third party integrations and DoubleClick Bid Manager." —  George Ivie, CEO and Executive Director, Media Rating Council in  Google blog post