Industry Still Unprepared for Historical Measurement Practices to Disappear; First-Party Data Investments Flatline As Third-Party Data Investments Grow

IAB‘s State of Data Report is raising alarm bells, indicating that advertisers are on the brink of losing their ability to measure advertising campaigns with no industry consensus about what to do next.

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“If we don’t diversify our approach to the market, soon we’ll be operating by the equivalent of candlelight,” said Angelina Eng, Vice President, Measurement and Attribution, Programmatic+Data Center, IAB. “The industry risks losing $10 billion in annual sales —— without a serious plan for what happens when everyone’s in the dark.”

For its fifth annual State of Data report, IAB commissioned Ipsos to execute a quantitative and qualitative analysis to examine how privacy legislation, deprecation of third-party cookies/IDs, and cross-media addressability constraints and innovations are impacting advertising measurement.

Advertisers trust that publishers and ad tech will find workable solutions, but it simply isn’t happening.

• More than two-thirds (69%) of the industry are not increasing their use of AI over last year.
• 66% are not adjusting their measurement strategies.
• While first-party data was what everyone talked about non-stop in 2021, surprisingly it’s spending on third-party data that actually continues to grow. Nearly 60% are not increasing their investment in first-party data.

This study found that while nearly 60% of industry leaders expect ad campaign measurement to be impacted by the loss of third-party cookies/IDs, less than half the industry has a real understanding of Google’s Privacy Sandbox (46%), never mind other proposed solutions like The Trade Desk’s Unified ID 2.0, and Microsoft’s Parakeet. Just 15% of ad tech and publishers have adopted IAB’s Open Measurement SDK tech standard signal checks— which are integral to standardized, privacy-compliant video and app measurement.

Three Things The Industry Must Do Now to Avoid a Measurement Blackout

1. Develop a common language, universal standards, and universal KPIs
2. Develop new privacy-centric solutions for addressability and measurement
3. Leverage existing tech standards and build on them in a cross-channel approach

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