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The long-held advertising adage, "all media isn’t created equal," is being resurrected and rigorously tested within the sophisticated ecosystem of programmatic advertising. While this sentiment has been a familiar refrain in marketing circles for decades, the prevailing operational logic in programmatic ad buying often subordinates the intrinsic quality of media and its content to a singular focus on audience targeting. The dominant theory posits that ad formats and creative elements are increasingly standardized and commoditized, rendering the specific placement and context of an ad less critical than the precise audience segment it reaches. However, a forthcoming paper from the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM) aims to fundamentally challenge this paradigm, particularly as it applies to the burgeoning Connected TV (CTV) inventory. A pre-release review of the paper, teased during CIMM’s recent East event in New York City, reveals a comprehensive argument that not only demonstrates the measurability of media quality differences but also contends that the industry’s fixation on short-term performance metrics has perpetuated systemic challenges, including the proliferation of made-for-advertising (MFA) sites, inefficient brand spending on suboptimal CTV placements, and ad tech vendors that prioritize audience data over media integrity.
Erez Levin, founder of ad tech consultancy Emet Advisory and a co-author of the paper, articulated the motivation behind the initiative: "Quality has been a buzzword for a while in this industry, and no one’s really defined it, except, for the most part, in self-serving ways." CIMM’s objective, according to Levin, is to establish an "objective, industry-wide shared consensus and framework" to elevate the discourse around media quality measurement, moving beyond the perceived "limbo" the industry currently inhabits. The paper is not intended to introduce novel measurement standards but rather to foster a comprehensive industry-wide conversation, compelling agencies, tech platforms, and publishers to articulate and defend their approaches to assessing media quality.
The Imperative for Industry Consensus in a Fragmented Landscape
The impetus for CIMM’s paper stems from the explosive growth and diversification of services dedicated to media quality, curation, and programmatic verification. This burgeoning market includes innovative startups such as Jounce Media, DeepSee, Sincera, Adalytics, and Gamera, each approaching the complex challenge of media quality from distinct angles. The landscape has also been revitalized by the emergence of publicly traded incumbents like DoubleVerify and Integral Ad Science, re-energizing a previously less prominent category. Furthermore, recent trends in attention measurement and deal curation have introduced new methodologies for transacting based on quality signals, adding further layers of complexity and opportunity.
The research for this pivotal paper originated from CIMM’s collaboration with the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) on the Attention Measurement Playbook for Marketers, released in late 2023. During the development of those attention standards, the working group repeatedly encountered a critical deficiency: a lack of industry-wide consensus on how to accurately measure the quality of ad impressions. This realization underscored the urgent need for a unified approach.
Progress is indeed being made, and the CIMM paper seeks to illuminate the array of new tools and methodologies now available to advertisers. Levin has been a vocal advocate for enhanced quality and attention measurement since at least 2017, a period when he served as a product specialist for Google Marketing Platform, engaging with both buy-side and sell-side stakeholders. Gabriel Dorosz, the paper’s other co-author and global advertising initiative lead at the International News Media Association, and formerly head of audience strategy for The New York Times, brought a crucial publisher-side perspective to the project. "In the premium news publisher space, there’s a belief that the market is not serving those kinds of publishers well," Dorosz stated. "My passion is that quality publishers ought to be getting more of their fair share of ad spend, and this paper is a way to advance that."
Dispelling Myths and Redefining Value in the Digital Ad Sphere
Dorosz emphasized that the paper’s scope extends beyond empowering publishers to showcase their media’s value. It also aims to equip buyers with the insights needed to prevent wasteful expenditure on ads that are perceived as more effective than they actually are. To achieve this, the authors endeavor to dismantle ingrained myths that have arisen from what Dorosz describes as buyers being "oversold on the value of certainty."
A prime example of this entrenched belief system is the industry’s heavy reliance on deterministic attribution as a proxy for audience value. In the current programmatic paradigm, a bid request containing a deterministic identifier is often automatically assigned higher intrinsic value than one lacking such an identifier. Consequently, factors like time of day, contextual data, and device type are frequently relegated to secondary importance, their influence diminished in comparison to the perceived certainty offered by deterministic IDs.
However, the CIMM paper presents a compelling counter-argument, asserting that probabilistic modeling, rather than solely deterministic data, offers marketers a more accurate and comprehensive understanding of the true value across a diverse spectrum of ad impressions. The paper advocates for the integration of probabilistic metrics, such as attention scoring and contextual relevance, to better assess an impression’s likelihood of advancing a brand’s stated campaign objectives. It meticulously details how these metrics can fluctuate significantly based on temporal factors and other contextual elements, underscoring the dynamic nature of ad effectiveness.
The paper also scrutinizes the prevailing high price points for premium CTV inventory. Levin points out that major streaming platforms often command similar premium pricing irrespective of the time of day, even during overnight hours when audience receptivity is generally lower. This observation suggests a potential disconnect between pricing and actual audience engagement. In essence, Levin argues, advertisers should possess a clear rationale for allocating significant portions of their streaming budget to overnight campaigns and should exercise caution if such allocations appear disproportionate or unexplained.
A New Quality Model: The Quality Trifecta
To effectively reorient the industry’s focus toward media quality, the CIMM paper introduces a novel framework designed to reconnect with the foundational principles of marketing. This new model is largely centered on "The Quality Trifecta," a concept that Levin has been advocating for since last year. The core tenet of this trifecta is the independent measurement of three critical pillars: media quality, creative quality, and audience quality.
Within this framework, media quality is further delineated into two key components: "attention," referring to the prominence and visibility of an ad placement, and "situational context," which encompasses the likelihood that the surrounding media environment fosters a receptive mood in the viewer.
The paper strongly advises marketers to transcend binary quality assessment methodologies. Instead of relying on simple yes/no indicators, such as the presence of an ID in a bid request or whether an ad meets a minimum viewability threshold, the paper champions the adoption of "non-binary, relative and probabilistic" measurements. These nuanced approaches, exemplified by attention scoring, enable a more granular assessment of media quality along a spectrum of effectiveness. Levin asserts that these non-binary methods are not only superior for cross-media comparisons but are also more adept at capturing the intricate variations influenced by audience demographics, time of day, and other contextual factors.
Furthermore, the paper underscores the importance of considering both short-term performance metrics and long-term brand-building opportunities. While acknowledging that smaller brands heavily reliant on immediate returns may need to prioritize short-term outcomes, the broader implication is that a balanced approach is crucial for sustainable growth and brand equity.
CTV as the Proving Ground and the Buy-Side Imperative
While the CIMM paper is intended as a guiding document for the entire open web, the authors identify streaming media and CTV inventory as the critical proving ground for these new quality-centric approaches. This strategic focus is driven by CTV’s status as a high-stakes market characterized by elevated CPMs, intense demand competition, and expansive creative canvases.
Dorosz highlights an additional advantage of CTV: its relative freedom from the entrenched practices dictated by over two decades of third-party cookie dependency. The CTV ecosystem, he notes, is less bound by the existing status quo, and many traditional pixel-based measurement techniques that are effective on other platforms are ill-suited for CTV. For instance, the paper advocates for a complete reevaluation of viewability measurement in the CTV context. Given that CTV ads typically autoplay with sound and occupy the full screen, the conventional viewability question is rendered largely obsolete, necessitating new metrics that reflect the actual viewing experience.
Despite the ambition for industry-wide adoption, the authors concur that the buy side must take the lead in driving this transformative shift. Dorosz concludes, "These theories only matter if the buy side demonstrates success and drives repeatability." The ultimate validation of CIMM’s proposed framework will hinge on its practical application and demonstrable effectiveness in driving better outcomes for advertisers, thereby compelling broader adoption across the digital advertising landscape. The paper’s release marks a significant step towards a more nuanced and effective approach to media valuation in the programmatic era.
