Today, at the Ad Age Digital Conference, Google introduced the Brand Activate Initiative, a Google effort to address these challenges and re-imagine online measurement for brand marketers.

With this initIative Google is partnering with the industry and supporting the IAB's Making Measurement Make Sense (3MS) coalition.

Google's first two Brand Activate solutions rolling out today include the 'Active View' and the 'Active GRP'.

Active View, a technology that will be submitted by Google for Media Rating Council (MRC) accreditation, will count "viewed" impressions (as defined by the IAB?s proposed standard, this is a display ad that is at least 50% viewable on the screen for at least one second).

This will first be available in coming weeks within Google Display Network Reserve. Google will also be making this metric a universal currency, offering it within advertisers and its publisher partners. Active View data will be immediately actionable - advertisers will be able to pay only for for viewed impressions.

Active GRP or a gross rating point, is at the heart of offline media measurement. For example, when a fashion brand wants their TV campaign to reach 2 million women with two ads each, they use GRP to measure that. Google is introducing a new version of this for the web:

- Built-in: Active GRP is built right into the ad serving tools that Google's publishers and marketers already use every day. Active GRP will enable real-time decision making, allowing advertisers to make adjustments to their campaigns at the speed of the web.

- Robust methodology: Active GRP is calculated by a statistical model that combines aggregated panel data and anonymous user data (either inferred or user-provided), and will work in conjunction with Active View to measure viewed impressions. This approach overcomes problems of potential panel skewing and reliance on a single data source.