The New York Times ran an article yesterday about the increasing importance of measurement and data analysis in online display advertising. Titled, Put Ad on Wed. Count Clicks. Revise., the article is mainly focused on changes going on in traditional, Madison Avenue agencies. The rise of advertising exchanges (or networks) like RightMedia and DoubleClick, coupled with the increasing availability of demographic and behavioral data, is allowing media buyers to start taking advantage of the real benefits of internet advertising. All we can say is: It’s about time.

While Madison Avenue has slowly come around to online media, the rest of the world has been putting it to good use. The headline of the article has been the mantra of search marketers for at least a decade. The web makes advertising testable. Knowledge about which measage your customers prefer appears as fast as the clicks come in. With traditional marketing it might take months before the results come back. But as the NYT notes, “Online, though, advertisers get instant measurements and can make instant changes to a media plan.” Imagine that.

Not everything in the article was old-hat for internet marketers. They did bring up the relatively new consumer data aggregators BlueKai and eXelate who are quitely constructing profiles of individual consumers on the web. These firms have deals in place with major websites across the web which allow them to place cookies on those sites. By connecting the dots in the cookies, they can get a pretty good idea about your commercial interests (like if you are planning to travel, buy a new car, get a new job, etc.). They sell their data to the exchanges who use it to offer highly targeted advertising.

As long as consumers don’t revolt over privacy issues, which is a real possiblity, these techniques could be a major boon to display advertisers. The nice thing about search advertising is that consumers are telling advertisers what they want with their search query. No sneaky cookies necessary. Still, consumers may choose to give up a little privacy in exchange for more relevant ads. Madison Avenue sure hopes so.