We describe a procedure for extending the inner measure \(\beta _{_{\mathcal {I}}}\) associated to an operator ideal \(\mathcal {I}\) to a measure \(\beta _{_{\mathfrak {J}}}\) for bounded bilinear operators T. When \(\mathcal {I}\) is injective and closed, we show that \(\beta _{_{\mathfrak {J}}}(T)=0\) if and only if \(T=RS\) for some bounded bilinear operator S and \(R\in \mathcal {I}\) . If \(\mathcal {I}\) satisfies the \(\Sigma _r\) -condition, then we establish a convexity inequality for the measure \(\beta _{_{\mathfrak {J}}}\) of a bilinear operator interpolated by the real method.