What are the biggest challenges in measuring display advertising metrics across platforms?

2 Data fragmentation

Another challenge in measuring display advertising metrics across platforms is that the data is often fragmented and scattered across different sources and tools. You may use multiple platforms to run your display advertising campaigns, such as Google Ads, Facebook Ads, LinkedIn Ads, or other networks and exchanges. Each platform may have its own dashboard, reporting system, and analytics tool that provides you with different data and insights. However, to get a holistic and comprehensive view of your display advertising performance across platforms, you need to aggregate and integrate the data from all these sources and tools. This can be a time-consuming and complex process that requires manual work, technical skills, and compatible formats and standards.

3 Attribution challenges

A third challenge in measuring display advertising metrics across platforms is that attribution can be tricky and inaccurate. Attribution is the process of assigning credit or value to the different touchpoints that influence a user's journey and decision to convert. However, attribution can be challenging for display advertising because users may interact with multiple ads on multiple platforms before they take action. For example, a user may see your banner ad on a website, then watch your video ad on YouTube, then click on your native ad on Facebook, and then finally convert on your landing page. How do you attribute the conversion to the different ads and platforms that influenced the user? There are different attribution models that you can use, such as last-click, first-click, linear, or time-decay, but none of them can capture the full complexity and nuance of the user journey and behavior.

4 Privacy regulations

A fourth challenge in measuring display advertising metrics across platforms is that privacy regulations and user preferences can limit your access and use of data. Privacy regulations such as GDPR and CCPA aim to protect the personal data and rights of users online, and they impose strict rules and requirements on how advertisers can collect, store, process, and share user data. Users can also opt out of tracking and targeting by using ad blockers, browsers, or settings that prevent or restrict the use of cookies, pixels, or other identifiers. These factors can affect your ability to measure and optimize your display advertising metrics across platforms, as you may lose visibility and accuracy into your audience's behavior, preferences, and actions.

5 How to overcome these challenges

Measuring display advertising metrics across platforms can be challenging, but it is not impossible. To overcome these difficulties and improve performance and measurement, you should use common and consistent definitions and standards for your display advertising metrics across platforms. Refer to industry guidelines and best practices, such as those from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), to ensure that you use the same terms, methods, and criteria to measure and report your display advertising metrics. Additionally, consider using a data management platform (DMP) or a data integration tool to aggregate and integrate your display advertising data from different sources and tools. For attribution, you can use a multi-touch attribution (MTA) model or a marketing mix modeling (MMM) approach. Finally, make sure to comply with the privacy regulations and respect user preferences when collecting and using your display advertising data across platforms.