Our Mission for Radical Transparency
April 30th, 2017 Devan Fearman
At Metamarkets we believe that you empower people when you provide them with the information they need to make decisions. That’s why it’s always been our mission to put data at people’s fingertips so they can instantly see what’s happening in their business, discover trends and take action. As an independent data and analytics provider, we’ve spent the last few years providing programmatic buyers and sellers with the tools needed to turn mountains of data into revenue driving insights.
While our interactive analytics offering has met the needs of the world’s leading exchanges and DSPs, the demand for intuitive access to data and transparency into core business metrics is now coming from the top of the value chain. As brands feel the pressure to prove ROI on their digital marketing investments, the data generated from every campaign is becoming equally as important as the outcome itself. The problem is the industry has created an ecosystem where brands and marketers don’t get transparent access to their data and many intermediaries have benefited from that. Even with the best intentions, incentives have become misaligned.
Before we point fingers, it’s not the fault of one company or a particular layer of intermediaries. It’s an ecosystem problem – and together we need to help course correct. It’s time we challenge the status quo; it’s time for radical transparency in programmatic marketing.
We recently commissioned research (The Transparency Opportunity) that found a lack of data transparency is inhibiting the growth of programmatic media buying. The results of the survey revealed the attitudes of brands, agencies and publishers that influence the purchase of digital media. Among the key findings, 75 percent of marketers said they are concerned about the lack of data transparency in programmatic advertising. Additionally, 41 percent of respondents agreed they would not significantly increase their programmatic budgets until there was better transparency around data. It’s clear from these results that market transparency will be a major factor in driving market activity as programmatic buying and selling evolves.
As an ecosystem, one of the first steps we need to take is working together to separate the measurement of programmatic markets from the monetization paths to ensure open and honest information flows. By decoupling the execution function from the measurement system, this will enforce accountability across the board and increase trust with marketers.
Additionally, we can work together to increase trust and accountability by granting access to the data and insights marketers need to make investment decisions. We’ve already seen this business practice yield positive results with our customers. Metamarkets works with the leading media exchanges and when they expose their buyers to key pieces of programmatic data, they’ve been able to increase fill rates, lift eCPMs, build trust between partners and drive revenue for their internal teams and buyers.
At Metamarkets, we’re looking forward to taking this journey with our customers. Together, we can move toward a model that supports trusted, transparent data standards that marketers are demanding.
We believe radical transparency is the future of data and analytics for programmatic marketing.