Transparency in Big Data. Based on true story.
Big Data is the word that generated a billion dollar industry. We won’t make the Big Data 101, but will try to understand what is the true data transparency in the Programmatic, OpenRTB or any other type of the digital marketing.
So let’s take the simple case. You want to place your banners/video/native ads somewhere where they would be seen and will make the best impact on your target audience. You go to the “Super Best Ever Platform for Digital Advertising” and try to adjust a fancy campaign with A/B testing and black jack. You even upload your bullet-proof domain/app whitelist. You run it and get nice CTRs and even some conversions. Next logical step is to spend some sweaty time on the reporting. And what you see in your domains column? Some strange numbers like “231231”. You would possible think that it’s some kind of a glitch and ask your account manager to help and would probably hear — we do not disclose our publishers. A common situation with many platforms I know. Why do they do that? For many reasons, usually because the traffic comes from the toolbars, injected users or somewhere else. Is that transparent - NO!
After the previous experience you might be upset, especially if you are an agency and have to report to the client. No-one would like to see a bunch of numbers in the final report instead of the fancy well-known websites. But you are a skilled marketeer right? You would go to another platform that is called “Data Big Data Data platform” you know guys of that kind, I know you do. So what would happen next. They would tell you nice sell stories about the 1st party data the CRM data and the Big Data of course and the fingerprints and the super technology to detect users multi-screen and the segments and did I mention Big Data? And never answer your straight uncomfortable questions. Cause you know they are big and fancy and spent a lot into marketing so TRUST them for God’s sake. And you probably will. But occasionally you would be approached by another company telling you the same story and promising that the data they own is more 1st party than the competitors. And guess what, not going into details, when you compare the results — they would be totally different. Looking at the unpleasant truth, the data was not that 1st party (we should come up with the terms first I guess), the cookies were 1 year old (but who cares), and the super proprietary algorithms and the look-alike and the out-of segment audience tactics do not work as they were supposed to. Well, you might be disappointed and you would probably be told that you did not spend enough to make the machine learn. But the good news are that you would have super fancy reports (and if the name of the company who provided you with the analysis is big enough) the client would bless you for more money. The truth is that no company can speak transparently about that.
Maybe some of my colleagues (especially from the types of the companies mentioned above) would argue with me. But if they do, I bet that is easy to separate goats from the sheep by asking few uncomfortable questions straight. Anyone ready to be transparent? I will be happy to interview those brave who do!