Report: Adtech and data tracking use is up, but attribution sophistication still lacking

Agencies are stepping up their use of attribution modelling, ad fraud detection, data management platforms, brand safety and ad viewability tracking as they strive for more effective results, a new report from IAB has found.

The State of the Industry: Marketing and Advertising Technology Report was commissioned by the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s technology council to investigate the use of adtech and martech across the industry.

Overall, agencies and marketers are starting to take better control of their ad spending and campaign monitoring, with increasing use of tracking technologies. For example, agencies, clients and publishers are all increasing their use of data management platforms (DMPs) and tag management as they look to improve their ability to better track and optimise marketing activity.

The top five list of technologies with increased usage year-on-year were attribution modelling (12 per cent), ad viewability tracking (12 per cent), DSPs (12 per cent), tag management (10 per cent) and DMPs (9 per cent).

But despite seeing a 13 per cent lift in attribution modelling technology investment year-on-year, the report showed only half of marketers are actually using attribution modelling at present, something the IAB suggested showed the gap between familiarity and usage of attribution modelling and the need for more industry-wide education around the subject.

Other technologies identified as investment in the next six months were data visualisation, DMPs and ad fraud detection technology.

The most used technologies in 2015 were Web analytics (90 per cent), ad serving (88 per cent), tag management (85 per cent), mobile analytics (84 per cent) and retargeting (83 per cent). Not surprisingly, these technologies, along with CRM and ad viewability tracking, were the technologies publishers said they were most familiar with.

“It’s clear attribution is now both a need and an opportunity for marketers, highlighting the ongoing importance of the measurement of effectiveness,” commented IAB Australia CEO, Vijay Solanki. “This is a core part of our brand, so IAB will continue to work closely with marketers to provide them the support they need.”

The report is the second annual adtech study by IAB and was based on a survey of nearly 200 Australian agency and marketing representatives. IAB says the majority had at least six years’industry experience, and held senior positions in their organisations.

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