Exchange Buyers: Third-Party Data Costs Not Always Justified
ClickZ, 4/24/11
The volume of online ad inventory purchased through exchanges continues to grow. Yet, the cost of third-party data on which to target those buys remains prohibitively high for many advertisers, agencies suggest. Most advertisers currently buying ads on a real-time basis are therefore doing so based on their own first-party data, rather than audience information acquired from vendors.
The number of real-time impressions bought by Publicis-owned technology unit VivaKi has increased roughly 300 percent, year-over-year, according to SVP and director of the organization’s Nerve Center operation, Kurt Unkel.
Despite that fact, less than half of the 150 advertisers currently buying real-time impressions through its Audience on Demand (AOD) platform are doing so based on third-party data, he said, stating, “For some advertisers the results often aren’t effective enough to warrant the cost of the data. The question is – is the data adding substantive value to the campaign?”