Circ figures, distribution, print run, readership, unique browsers, pageviews… Navigating your way through the lingo of audience metrics to actually find value in quarterly spreadsheets can be a difficult task. Audience metrics is a numbers game, and here are the rules.
Some handy definitions…
Circulation: According to the Australian Bureau of Circulations (ABC), a non-profit organisation that determines the average of net paid sales (ANPS) per issue in a nominated audit period, circulation is the actual number of sales per issue of publications, reported as ANPS. Publications pay an annual fee to be audited.
Distribution: Similar to circulation, distribution includes free and controlled distribution titles.
Print run: Simply put, print run refers to the number of copies of a magazine or newspaper printed by the publisher.
Readership: Some publishers will estimate a readership figure based on the circulation figure. A more reliable figure in the eyes of ad agencies and media buyers is the readership figure determined by research company Roy Morgan Research. The company uses different methods to measure different types of publications, but determine a figure based on an annual sample size of more than 50,000 interviews.
And some online definitions…
Visits: Visits refers to the number of times people have logged onto a website. Once a user has entered the website domain, they can click on as many pages as they like, but it will be measured as one visit.
Unique Browsers (sometimes called UBs or UVs): While the number of visits counts every time people log onto a domain, unique browsers recognises the IP address and counts it only once, so the same person isn’t counted repeatedly. Therefore the number of unique browsers is generally less than visits.
Pageviews: Every time a user clicks on a different link within the same webpage, it’s considered a pageview. Therefore this number is generally quite high. An average number of pageviews per person can be determined by dividing this figure by the number of visits.
Publishing claims vs. audited figures
According to Eloise Tams, media planner and buyer for the Quattro Group, publishing claim figures are not as reliable as audited figures. Publishing claim figures are an estimate of readership based on [the publisher’s] own calculations, which is usually 2.5 to 3 times the circulation figures,” she explains. If the title is audited by Roy Morgan Research, that tells me how many people are actually reading the magazine. I usually rely more on the circulation and readership that’s audited as opposed to publisher claim or print run, just because they’re verified by an external company.”
Who qualifies for auditing?
Having a publication audited is a costly and time-consuming exercise. Any magazine with a majority paid circulation (this excludes things like free membership magazines) can become a member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations for the cost of an annual membership fee. According to Heather Craven, director of marketing for the ABC, membership works on a sliding scale based on the circulation of the publication, and starts from $527 from July to June each year, while the audit fee is usually charged at $605 per audit. The average annual fee for a publication to be audited is around $1200,” Craven says.
How is this information gathered?
The audits looks at every issue published in the audit period and checks for sales for each issue. Average net paid sales includes copies sold through retailers, distributors, subscriptions and other regular channels of distribution. Other categories, such as accommodation and hotel sales, bundled sales, event sales and tertiary education subscription sales are included in the ANPS, but reported as their own percentage as well.
How is this information used?
Tams says that when she gets briefed on magazine activity, the first thing she’ll do is log onto Roy Morgan’s research program Asteroid, which provides users with very specific insights into reader habits. I’ll create a specific demographic in the system, and I’ll run that against all the magazines based on my target market, and it will rank all the audited magazines in the system,” Tams explains. Based on the readership figures, Asteroid will tell me what percentage of my target market are reading that particular magazine.”
How is this information relevant?
The ANPS figure is a recognised industry standard that’s used as a barometer of the health of the magazine industry in Australia, says Craven. ABC audited-circulation figures are an integral tool in the sale of display advertising and act as a guarantee for media buyers that the circulation figures quoted to them are accurate.”
Google Analytics
Anyone with a website or blog is able to measure their site traffic using Google Analytics. Users register here (https://www.google.com/analytics/provision/) by entering in their location and website details. Google then generates a HTML tracking code, which you copy and paste onto every page you want to track. You can then log into your Google Analytics account using your login details, and obtain visitors, unique browsers and pageviews from any given day, week, month or year – whatever time frame you’d like, really. For users wanting something a little more advanced, you can look at the various ways people are finding your site (from social media to Google searches), and even watch people log on and off your site in real time.