Global marketing research firm Nielsen has launched India’s first digital advertisement measurement system that will help marketers in the country find out the return on investment of their campaigns on the internet and mobile platforms. The Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings (DAR) system can measure all kinds of display and video ads across all digital platforms.

The new system can measure online advertising audiences, reach and frequency of digital ad campaigns, and gross rating points (GRP) of the ads like age group and gender of the audience who viewed the ad. DAR is already operational in more than a dozen countries including the US, China, Brazil and France.

Now more than ever, companies are looking to shift to digital platforms on the Internet to meet their marketing and advertising needs. With more and more people relying on search engines and social media to find the services they need, it only makes sense for those offering said services to cater to them on these platforms.

Smartphones have given us the freedom to find what we want with the click of a button, so people are naturally going to leverage them to make life more convenient. Besides that, the Internet offers more in terms of decision-making, with website traffic, reviews, and followers defining consumer trends and letting people know of trustworthy and top-rated companies.

The traction gained by a certain company is often dependent on its reliability, which is in turn dependent on the number of followers or positive reviews garnered from their customer base. Whether companies choose to Buy followers for a boost to their social media fame, or utilize digital ads to publicize themselves, online marketing strategies need to be watched closely. This allows businesses to understand what techniques are working in favour of them and what are not. Changes can be made accordingly. This is what Nielsen’s DAR aims to help companies with.

Social media giant Facebook provides backend support and big data information to help Nielsen publish the report in all the markets except China where local firm Tencent partners the market tracker. Nielsen DAR has come to India at a time when there is an explosive digital advertising growth in the country.