Make fewer ads: Why the future of advertising depends on better data strategies

There’s a misconception that planning fewer ads in order to reduce waste will lead to poorer results. But with intelligent modelling, strategic data partnerships and more metrics available, we can make ads more efficient and more effective.

As we move into a world of less user-level data, advertisers will require alternative sources of data to meet their goals. But the outlook is far from bleak.

With intelligent modelling, strategic data partnerships and more metrics, marketers are in a stronger position than ever to reach their audiences with more relevancy and less waste.

Cutting-edge techniques like the application of contextual data and custom-fit algorithms mean that we can still reach consumers with a high degree of relevance. In fact, the move towards first-party data, perhaps supplemented by synthetic data, will continue to improve results with or without cookies.

What does this look like in real terms? Delivering on the results clients care about, by giving our audiences only the most relevant content, by adopting more efficient strategies from the data we have access to. That’s a future we can all get around.

Quality over quantity

There’s a misconception that planning fewer ads to reduce waste will lead to poorer results, but quantity of ads has never been the only solution.

Well-placed ads that are more relevant to the consumer are far more likely to have the desired result, with 71% of consumers now expecting brands to offer them a more personalised customer experience — and this includes their advertising experience. And each advertising channel has its role to play, whether that’s display, digital OOH or connected TV.

But calculating where and when to spend each pound — the precise mix of your cross-channel marketing campaign — requires a little more sophistication.

Intelligent modelling is the best way to predict an effective marketing mix.

GroupM recently built a cross-planning tool to do this in the audio space. It has already helped many of our clients achieve incremental reach across linear and digital audio. This innovation was able to calculate not just what percentage of spend needed to be reallocated from linear to digital, but also told us what the expected incremental reach would be. For one particular client, we were able to drive a 21.4% lift in incremental reach.

Without increasing the overall budget or altering the creative strategy, we showed that a smarter, data-driven cross-channel mix can unlock significant gains.

Intelligent modelling allows us to fine-tune our ad strategies, ensuring each touchpoint is optimally placed and highly relevant to the audience. By leveraging predictive insights and a smarter allocation of resources, we can achieve greater accuracy in reaching consumers without overloading them with unnecessary messaging — ultimately reducing waste while improving engagement and outcomes.

Power of partnerships

Many brands have a wealth of consented first-party data that they are not utilising effectively. But thanks to strategic data partnerships with key media owners and best-in-class tech providers, we can amplify the potential of this first-party data to make it go further.

One such example is with Infosum, whose data-clean-room technology will allow GroupM clients in the US to develop relevant audiences, optimise media strategies and activate media downstream. Rather than specifically seeking out individual users, we can effectively categorise larger audience segments to place relevant ads in front of them. And where the ads are well-placed and relevant, fewer are required to make a strong impact.

Data partnerships in this area, as opposed to data ownership, allow us to get a strong continuous feed of updated data that better reflects the audiences we want to reach. With all these things combined, we can get an accurate picture of our audience while maintaining consumer privacy, serving them only the most relevant content.

Measure for measure

Central to proving why “more relevancy, less wastage” is a successful strategy is, of course, measurement. It’s the one constant in any campaign or work we do as marketers, but it’s also the one element where the goalposts seem to move often, especially when new or more popular metrics get introduced.

Metrics vary depending on which channel is being used and that can make comparison difficult. One universal metric may seem impossible, but it is the marketing scientist’s ultimate goal.

A particular metric that has been getting a lot of attention is, well, “attention”.

While it’s an industry currency gaining more ground, attention is not the sole answer to measurement. It is best utilised as a starting point, not end goal, for linking media to business outcomes. Sure, it is more qualitative than traditional media KPIs. But the goal isn’t to only maximise attention, but instead to understand how much attention is needed to deliver on clients’ business outcomes.

We recently worked with a car manufacturer and used attention to reach its pure business outcome: increase test drives. By identifying that device, domain and creative size were all key elements impacting attention propensity, we were able to optimise towards attention and increase the conversion rate by 57%. In this scenario, attention was used as a measurement to the end goal or outcome.

Measurement is evolving and, with more advanced metrics like attention, we can move beyond surface-level insights to gain a deeper understanding of how to drive meaningful results. By focusing on the right metrics, we not only validate the relevance of our ads, but also ensure that every interaction is purposeful, minimising wasted impressions and maximising impact.

As we embrace more innovative data strategies, we’re moving towards a future where ads are more efficient, relevant and respectful of the consumer experience. Through intelligent modelling, strategic partnerships and smarter metrics, we are ensuring that advertising is both effective and streamlined — delivering value for both brands and audiences while cutting down on waste.

Phil Tolliday is global head of marketing science at GroupM Nexus