Raising the Verification Bar with More Impactful Media KPIs & Currencies
posted by Michael Stoeckel on February 20, 2024
Programmatic supply chain transparency and the ever-increasing fees and pains associated with programmatic ad delivery have been a topic of interest for many of us for some time now. While many factors have contributed to this industry-wide challenge, focusing on problems with more straightforward solutions is always helpful. Two topical areas in particular, highlighted in the December 2023 ANA Programmatic Media Supply Chain Transparency Study, come to mind: (1) “Advertisers Prioritize Cost Over Value,” and (2) “Measurability, Viewability, and Invalid Traffic (IVT).”
The quest continues: Measuring the true ROI of an ad buy
When we talk about misaligned incentives, it is essential to consider a key recommendation from this same ANA study: the concept of “TrueCPM,” or the True “Cost per 1,000 Impressions”, only taking impressions matching the requirements of an advertiser into account. Since most advertisers looking to measure TrueCPM most likely require that their impressions be measurable, viewable, fraud-free, or abide by other verification thresholds to meet their unique “True” criteria, true CPM and IVT are often very closely linked.
The concept of a custom, “true” measure defined at the advertiser or product category level is appealing, especially since priorities and KPIs can vary considerably from brand to brand. However, as an industry, we haven’t even been able to master the conversion of any individual KPI to a currency beyond the infamous click (CPC).
The late—and extraordinary—Ari Bluman, former Chief Digital Investment Officer at GroupM, began demanding alternative Digital currencies tied to viewability and fraud detection as early as 2014. "What we're asking for is that we no longer want to buy ads that are not viewed by human beings," shared Bluman that year, echoing a sentiment already widely held by ad execs across the industry. Still, a decade later, challenges linger, only at a much larger, more omnichannel level. In a conversation about Nielsen alternatives, Brad Stockton, SVP of US National Video Innovation at Dentsu, observed, “The plumbing is a really core element' to actually using alt currencies at scale.”
So, following this reasoning, has this plumbing simply been clogged for a decade?
The quest for better measurement starts with better tech
Despite resounding customer demand for better measurement standards, incumbent technologies uphold the status quo. Looking at the currencies and KPIs historically enabled by media management systems, this disparity is even more pronounced. Today, advertisers now use dozens of effective ad performance metrics for in-flight optimization and post-campaign evaluation, including effective cost-per-lead (eCPL), and modern Programmatic and Social buying platforms allow users to pay for their media against cost-per-click (CPC) and Viewable CPM (VCPM). Still, legacy media management platforms force buyers to rely on standard CPM typically, for Digital Direct, based on delivery tracking sourced from ad servers. This creates a resource drain as teams work outside their media management platforms to steward and actualize campaigns against advanced currencies.
Therein lies the solution. The Hudson MX team has embraced integrations with Verification Services, Ad Servers (including “secondary”), and others in the ad tech ecosystem. This can make it possible to ingest the data necessary to enable these advanced media executions and evaluations. By enabling users to view all their available performance metrics while at the same time offering logic functionality to identify which KPI is a currency for a particular order—and even applying KPI-based billing rules—we can make it “as easy to buy with advanced currencies as it is to buy via CPM today", while also providing unmatched performance and optimization insights.
Enabling verification, attribution, and more
Want to dive deeper?
Let’s talk! Reach out to a member of our expert team to discuss your media team’s goals and how we can help.
Why stop there? Within the verification space, hybrid currencies can also become a scalable reality. For example, sellers can be rewarded for high viewability via threshold pricing. CPM paid across all impressions could be $5 if the seller’s viewability rate is below 70% but $10 above 70%. While many of us on both the buy and sell side have imagined these more sophisticated buy types, it is only truly possible at scale with an end-to-end, automated platform, bypassing manual calculations, duplicative work, and spreadsheets.
Beyond verification, the same methodology and logic, combined with proper attribution tracking, can be applied to conversions and conversion values to open us up to cost-per-action (CPA) like currencies and true return-on-and-spend (ROAS) monitoring. Sure, professional marketers manage such KPIs today, but is it even remotely as easy to measure as eCPM, eCPC, and others relying on low-hanging metrics? Not quite.
Conversely, ad sellers despise direct response currencies as they marginalize content creation and audience-driving efforts turning publishers’ heavily invested properties into “shelf space” for ads. However, what about Retail Media, where retailers have served as “shelf space” for their top consumer packaged goods and similar advertisers for decades?
It’s a shame when legacy roadblocks hinder innovation. Advertising, especially Digital Direct, suffered through stagnation as the technology around it has experienced hyper-evolutions. So, while ad spending has migrated to evolving areas such as search, social, and programmatic, low costs on the surface have come at the expense of measurability, viewability, invalid traffic, and other quality measures. Ultimately, we can smash these roadblocks by simplifying and automating data transfers and workflows.
About the Author
Michael Stoeckel
Head of Platform Partnerships, Hudson MX
Michael is a digital advertising executive with diversified business and technology skills at the intersection of media, mathematics, and organizational leadership. With a strong reputation for navigating diverse stakeholder needs and mobilizing resources, Michael has over 3 decades of experience effectively partnering with technology, marketing, and sales teams to drive innovation in disruptive industries. Michael lives on the Jersey Shore with his wife and daughter. He enjoys sports activities like golf, softball, bicycle riding, body surfing, attending athletic and music events, and traveling with friends and family. Connect with Michael here.
