The holiday season brings joy, celebration, and, for advertisers, plenty of decisions about how to execute their media plans. Competition rises for premium ad placements, which means so does the price. Customers are busier, so their attention is split. And the pressure of meeting annual goals grows every day.
To make the right decisions about which campaigns to invest in, which to optimize, and which to pause, advertisers need accurate, precise data. They rely on advertising platforms to highlight what’s working and with who. Unfortunately, not all ad platforms require the same level of accuracy.
To help advertisers determine which platforms to trust during the most crucial months of the year, we put together a list of the signs that your platform is providing your team with precise, useful data that can help you drive growth.
1. Data Matches Offline Trends and Data
Metrics that focus on online behavior can help in specific kinds of campaigns, like retargeting campaigns. But often, it’s difficult to prove their accuracy. Vanity metrics, video views, for example, can be inflated across different platforms.
Ad platforms that focus on offline behavior tend to have a much higher threshold for accuracy. Metrics like incremental sales or foot traffic can be verified by the data collected in your POS. When you have other ways to verify the campaign performance, you can be sure that the data you’re looking at is accurate.
2. You See a Complete Picture of Audiences
Another way to verify the data used by your ad platform is to investigate its audience segmentation. Ask about the criteria put in place to determine who is included in an audience segment and who is not.
Make sure that the audiences are built on intent to purchase (or visit) rather than a passive interest in your product or service. Verify that the platform considers multiple signals so that audiences aren’t artificially inflated. The way the platform builds the parameters around their audience segments directly impacts how far each dollar of your media spend will go. It’s imperative they are built with the right data.
3. Third-Party Confirmation
Whenever possible, investing in ad platforms that use first-party data will provide a more precise and accurate understanding of campaign performance and audience segments. That doesn’t mean that third-party data is unreliable. But, whenever possible, look for verification from a third-party about the quality of the data they use.
Check the platform’s website for badges that speak to its accuracy and precision. Also, consider the case studies and reviews from previous customers. They can give you a more complete picture of the kinds of results their platform drives and how clients verified those metrics.
Learn More About GroundTruth’s Precise Audience Data
Before launching your most important campaigns of the year, make sure that you’re using the best possible data to reach your target audiences. If you’d like to understand how GroundTruth customers use our proprietary Blueprint technology to drive real business results for our customers, contact us today!
