Google Inc. today rolled out two new ad measurement tools, one of which may seem familiar to offline marketers. The search giant and ad seller introduced an ad metric it is calling Active GRP, as in gross rating point, a measurement metric more commonly used to sell TV and radio ads. A gross rating point is calculated by multiplying the frequency with which an ad is aired by the percentage of the target audience reached.

Google says it calculates Active GRP by blending aggregated panel data and anonymous user data; the search engine provided no other immediate details. The measurement is first available to marketers that use its DoubleClick for Advertisers service; it will roll out to other Google products at a later date.

The company says the metric gives marketers a way to translate the performance of their ads across online and offline media. “Active GRP will enable real-time decision making, allowing advertisers to make adjustments to their campaigns at the speed of the web,” says Neal Mohan, vice president of display advertising at Google, in a blog post.  

Google also will soon rollout Active View, a metric that will allow marketers to pay only for impressions that are viewed, rather than impressions that are served, which is the standard way the online ad industry measures impressions. Google will calculate the Active View metric by combining the percentage of the ad that is viewable to the user on his device screen and the duration for which it is viewable; Google provided no further details. Users of Google’s Display Network Reserve service will see the Active View metric first; it will be available to DoubleClick for Advertisers users at a later date.