New Study Proves Data Integrity Is Critical Growth Driver in Digital Advertising

Groundbreaking research shows why leading brands are enhancing media quality, targeting efficiency and performance through data integrity optimization

Compliant, a media technology company and strategic partner to the WFA, released findings from a comprehensive “Data Integrity Impact Study” that challenges fundamental assumptions about programmatic advertising quality and cost.

The global study shows that advertisers can direct spend toward high-value, high-integrity impressions without increasing cost, and significantly reduce the number of publishers in their campaigns without sacrificing reach or performance. By curating quality inventory upstream, AI systems scale efficiency instead of amplifying waste.

Four multinational brands in CPG, Financial Services, Consumer Electronics, and Consumer Healthcare in the UK, Germany, Spain and Switzerland participated in controlled tests to measure the impact of data integrity signals on media outcomes. The findings prove that publishers with better data practices consistently deliver better campaign performance, with advertisers achieving a 33% lower cost per action (CPA), a 5% higher return on ad spend (ROAS), and a significant 32% TrueCPM reduction.¹

Marketing Technology News: MarTech Interview with Miguel Lopes, CPO @ TrafficGuard

“Data and input quality become exponentially more important as media buying shifts from volume to value, and from programmatic to agentic. This study proves that curating high-integrity inventory upstream creates compounding value downstream in terms of transparency, efficiency and performance,” said Jamie Barnard, CEO and co-founder of Compliant. “Is the juice worth the squeeze? With easy activation driving incremental lift and measurable cost savings, the answer is a definitive ‘yes’ for brands and media owners alike.”

“As AI transforms digital advertising and privacy expectations continue to rise, transparent and trustworthy data practices across the media supply chain are becoming critical drivers of campaign performance. Ensuring the quality and reliability of the data underpinning each impression reflects the ambition of the advertising industry and of WFA’s Global Media Charter and helps pave the way for more reliable, effective business outcomes for brands,” said Stephan Loerke, CEO, WFA.

Key Findings

• Quality Over Volume
  • Brands reduced the number of publishers in campaigns by as much as 21% (removing ~7,000 domains) with no impact to media KPIs
  • The top 1,000 high-performing publishers deliver 90% of campaign impressions, making the problematic long tail of 30,000 domains an unnecessary cost and risk ²
  • By redistributing 8% of campaign spend from inventory with low data integrity to high data integrity, one major CPG company identified a 32% lower TrueCPM efficiency with a $128K / £98K cost saving
• Data Integrity Directly Impacts Performance
  • Campaigns optimized for data integrity delivered:
    • 33% lower cost per action (CPA)
    • 5% higher return on ad spend (ROAS)
    • 17% viewable CPM improvement (vCPM)
    • 6% video completion rate improvement
• Transparency at Scale
  • Analysis revealed that the data standards of supplier inventory available in 9 out of 10 European SSPs were in the mid to low range, exposing supply chain quality issues
• Post-Cookie Infrastructure Built on Quicksand
  • Independent analysis of nine major Universal ID (UID) providers found that nearly all concentrate overwhelmingly on publisher inventory with low data integrity standards.
  • If user data is collected from domains with bad data practices, it undermines the integrity of identity graphs and UIDs.
• AI Demands Better Data
  • 85% of media leaders express high or extreme concern about data protection and privacy when using AI for media purposes³
  • The DII provides a critical governance layer, enabling autonomous AI agents to make responsible and effective investment decisions.

Marketing Technology News: Is the Traditional CDP Already Out of Date?

Follow PressReleaseDistribution on Instagram