In programmatic, it’s a given that low-quality, invalid or non-brand safe impressions are part of the mix. Which is why marketers pay millions to use ad verification companies.
But the tools don’t catch everything.
When it comes to rooting out made-for-advertising schemes or spotting discrepancies between what’s in a bid request and a served impression, these companies haven’t been as helpful analyzing the data after the fact.
As it turns out, according to a story our senior editor James Hercher wrote about inconsistently declared IDs, some ad agencies are advising clients to avoid using third-party measurement technologies altogether. Instead, they point their clients to tech that analyzes campaigns after the fact.
To add to the pile on: DoubleVerify’s stock is down 47% year to date, and Integral Ad Science’s stock is down 36% for the same period. And both companies had brutal earnings in the past week. A Marketecture newsletter from ad tech commentator Ari Paparo also outlined the business problems verification companies face.
On this week’s podcast, we tie together disparate themes in made-for-advertising, ad verification and the growing use of the data exhaust spit out by programmatic. There is blood in the water, both for the targets of these exposés and the companies that buy, sell or verify inventory that isn’t quite what it seems.
