$700bn delusion: Does using data to target specific audiences make advertising more effective? Latest studies suggest not | Mi3
Ever wondered how come martech is a US$700bn industry, but the ads you see are still crap? Clue – it's because the data foundations are crap, says Brand Traction's Jon Bradshaw. Following former UM privacy chief Arielle Garcia's takedown of the "garbage" data broking sector, Bradshaw challenges industry to provide proof that data-driven targeting actually makes advertising more effective – or in fact makes it worse. He's spoiling for a debate – and has three deep, recent studies that show: broad reach beats targeting for incremental growth; that the cost of targeting outweighs the return; and that second and third party data does not outperform a random sample. First party data does beat the random sample – but contextual ads massively outperform even first party data. And they are much, much cheaper. Now, says Bradshaw, let's see some counter-evidence from those making a killing.