The Nielsen Company announced an update today, towards improving the development of Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings. This seeks advancement for the media industry with more accurate results from a wider range of audiences, with faster turn-around than the existing system. The changes are the latest in Nielsen’s efforts to keep up with changing technology around market research and media metrics.

“This is a major step forward for both Nielsen and our industry. This new system will provide marketers with a better understanding of their ROI, and will give media companies a much needed tool to prove the value of their audiences,” said Steve Hasker, President, Media Products, Nielsen.

“Perhaps most importantly, marketers and media companies alike will now have a simpler way to measure the combined reach of TV, the web and even mobile advertising. Reach alone doesn’t tell the whole story, however, and Nielsen intends to combine the ratings with cross-platform advertising effectiveness metrics to provide a complete view.”

This newest offering from Nielsen will be tested this last quarter of the year by several leaders in the industry. The line up of partners includes Procter and Gamble, Verizon Wireless Starcom, MediaVest and Facebook.

There are a number of startups aggregating audience data for reporting purposes these days, with some creating targeted research opportunities. This could be via clicks, views, shares, mobile check-ins and the like which are some of the emerging ways of determining an audience’s value. Audience measurement is becoming a more interactive from a consumer stand-point, meaning there are countless ways in which metrics and research firms will have to determine engagement and the value of various marketing forms.