Taking the hot seat

Conventional wisdom suggests that lack of online measurement standards stunts the growth of the ad market.

But a major hindrance to building measurement standards is rivalry between competing trade groups, reports ClickZ.

At present two trade groups, the Interactive Advertising Bureau and the Online Lead Generation Association, are attempting to build best practices standards for online lead generation. Each has developed unique guidelines for member adoption.

That two trade groups are racing one another to the same goal has worried uniform standards proponents. Dissension is also rife within the groups themselves.
The Federal Trade Commission has begun looking into online lead generation practices, specifically investigating bait-and-switch tactics.

If the industry cannot agree upon one set of standards, the FTC may set them on its behalf.