The advertising industry is facing a number of widely-reported challenges today — but there’s an under-the-radar issue that’s threatening the efficiency and effectiveness of marketing: media waste. With global ad spend expected to reach one trillion dollars by 2024, it’s crucial to ensure that every dollar yields the intended result.

In this data-driven age, the ability to measure and optimize ad campaigns in real-time can separate leading brands from the pack. Historically, the lack of tangible, real-world, real-time measurement tools for online advertising campaigns resulted in a scattergun approach and wasted opportunity. Brands would shoot in the dark, hoping that their campaigns resonated with limited means to verify or adjust inflight. This led to inevitable media waste as ad spend was pumped into campaigns that, despite how flashy or compelling, may not have delivered on objectives or driven key KPIs.

Enter the era of measuring real-world outcomes in real-time.

Attribution, which is defined as “the practice of evaluating the marketing touchpoints a consumer encounters on their path to purchase,” allows marketers to take a more rigorous and always-on approach to tracking the success of their media campaigns. With attribution, marketers are no longer wandering in the dark—they’re monitoring, assessing and optimizing their campaigns with surgical precision in real-time.

The result is a remarkable shift in how campaigns optimize media spend. By employing detailed analytics that identify what campaign dimensions drive brand, visit and sales lift, marketers that frequently and consistently optimize campaigns see dramatic improvements in their advertising performance and defined KPIs. Driving better outcomes against these key KPIs can also help marketers extend the performance of their campaigns and drive media efficiency yielding much more bang for the buck.

In fact, a recent study conducted by InMarket and the CMO Council, Getting Smart About Ad Waste, found that brands using InMarket’s advanced attribution technology, including real-time inflight optimization, can achieve up to an 11x reduction in media waste compared to brands that don’t. The highest performers in the study drove positive incremental results for 94% of their media spends.

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As overall campaign spend increases, the cost of media waste can be detrimental. The study also found that for a $20 million campaign, failing to optimize against 75% of non-performing impressions equates to $15 million in media waste. That budget can be re-routed and more effectively spent in a way that drives incremental visits and sales and helps marketing teams move further towards their most important KPIs. Traditional approaches, such as reviewing and analyzing post campaign reports, to inform future campaigns efforts no longer make the cut in today’s real-time world. Tying impressions to incremental visits and sales with real-time, in-flight optimization provides that marketer the ability to drive greater efficiency against a potential $15 million in media waste.

To offer a real-world example: Snapchat has rapidly grown into one of the world’s most influential social media platforms, especially among younger demographics like Gen Z. With the power to engage and captivate millions, it’s crucial for advertisers to understand and optimize their reach on such a platform. Snap and InMarket began working together by introducing InMarket’s Lift Conversion Index (LCI) to Snap’s ad ecosystem. This collaboration is helping provide insights into the real-world actions and behaviors of Snap’s target audiences, measuring outcomes like Incremental Visits, & Sales, Transaction Rate, Shop Rate and Basket Size when leveraging Retail Sales Lift capabilities.

In the early days of the internet, advertisers were primarily concerned with driving clicks and views on their campaigns; however, as technology evolved and data became more refined, the demand shifted towards more precise measurement tools. Advertisers want to know how their campaigns influence behaviors and shape decisions. Platforms that don’t adapt to this demand risk becoming obsolete.

To avoid media waste, the imperative is clear: embrace the tools and partnerships that provide deeper insights and pave the way for more efficient ad spending. It’s not just about being seen—it’s about making a tangible impact.

Brands that leverage platforms like Snapchat and Pinterest, armed with the intelligence offered by tools like LCI, position themselves for success in today’s intricate advertising ecosystem. Brands need to be more judicious, data-driven and in sync with the real-world implications of their campaigns. This is the path to avoiding media waste and maximizing ROI in our digital age.

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