Over 60 per cent of marketers don't know if they can trust the visitor profile online media owners claim, and do not trust click-through reports digital media owners give them, a study from the 2007 Global Marketing Effectiveness Report by The Fournaise Marketing Group reveals (precisonmarketing.co.uk).

Yet cynicism is inevitable in a business where the primary report on the campaign success comes directly from the people who benefit from it. So what can be done to restore marketers' faith in online spending?

Mighty Mouse Digital head of operations Jon Pollard says: "To build greater trust within the online advertising industry, there are responsibilities that lie with both parties: marketers and media owners. Responsible marketers should always ensure they have effective measurement tools and systems in place to report to their clients, and doing this on a campaign by campaign basis allows us most effectively to measure response against spend."

Pollard adds that marketers are still at the mercy of media owners when it comes to demographics as there is no way to ensure that marketers are being told the correct information about their campaign, as it is media owners who provide them with that information. He believes to overcome this an independent regulation would be welcome by the industry.

Pollard comments: "To create greater transparency within the industry, if there is an independent way of verifying online audience demographics this would be well received by clients and agencies alike and go a long way to create greater trust across the industry."

Equi=Media director Iain Dawson comments: "The IAB Ad Operations Council has recommended a 5 per cent variance on under and over delivery of campaign impressions or clicks. However, we often see a discrepancy in results due to the use of third party ad servers, which has led to a general tolerance level of 10 per cent in the UK. It is therefore important that agency and client agree the exact margins for under and over delivery before any campaign launch."