Ground Truth Launches Mobile Metrics Company, AdMob’s a Fan


There are new reports flying around about what mobile users are doing, who they are, and why they do it on any given day. Metrics are the heart of business, and without solid numbers about an industry, it becomes difficult to determine what services and technology to develop, invest in or acquire.

Enter Seattle’s latest mobile metrics offering Ground Truth, which launched today. Backed by Steamboat Ventures and Voyager Capital, the company claims that it has the first mobile measurement service to use census-based measures of actual Mobile Internet usage from millions of mobile subscribers in the United States. The data comes directly from mobile operators and other data providers to report aggregate mobile data usage on any visited mobile site.

“As more advertising dollars are being allocated to mobile campaigns, marketers must have access to data that can illustrate where consumers are going on the Mobile Web and which sites are most engaging,” said Jason Spero, vice president and general manager, North America, AdMob, in a statement.  “Ground Truth has brought data to market that will help marketers optimize their spend and justify a mobile strategy.”

Ground Truth’s patent-pending methodology, True View, takes non-personally identifying usage data from mobile operators and other data providers to establish precise, actionable mobile metrics, such as: number of unique visitors, page views, sessions, session length and advertising clicks. It also offers insights into the mobile click stream: for example where a site’s traffic comes from, where it goes and the other properties commonly visited by a site’s audience. This data, which is critical to media planning and site optimization, had been unavailable to advertisers and publishers until today.

The company claims that after a week of measurement, the technology “dispels many commonly held beliefs about how consumers interact with the Mobile Internet.” After measuring the weekly activities of a diverse set of 2.5 million Mobile Internet users across the United States in aggregate, Ground Truth found that more than half of most popular sites accessed by mobile users are mobile-oriented sites such as: Mocospace, AirG, CrushOrFlsh, Myxer and Cellufun. These stats do not match the reports that say the sites that dominate the Fixed Internet are also in the lead for Mobile Internet traffic.