As belts tighten across the industry, everyone is being asked to do more with less and to account for every dollar spent. That’s especially true for digital advertising, where every decision seems to be under the microscope.

“There’s what we call a ‘ruthless prioritization’ going on,” observes Alicia Perrotta, head of Canadian sales at programmatic advertising leader Quantcast. “More than ever, our teams are being asked to focus on what moves the needle, and that spans the entire industry.”

As we continue down a path of disruption and change, the spectre of a potential recession has only upped the ante. To come through unscathed – or even thrive in this environment – companies need to embrace solutions that allow them to strike a balance between cutting costs and investing in growth. 

That’s why Quantcast is betting on the adaptive future of adtech, says Perrotta. Advertising is increasingly about being nimble, and that starts with better data and tools – like real-time measurement and responsiveness that allow marketers to be smarter with their dollars.

As the third-party cookie begins to fade away and privacy becomes increasingly paramount, it’s incumbent on the industry to turn to other signals to get the information it needs to model and measure. But too often, cautions Perrotta, third-party data is stale and unreliable – you just don’t know when, or how often, it’s updated.

In response, Quantcast has built an expansive ecosystem powered by multiple signals from first-party data sets. These signals feed a data stream that’s refreshed every four seconds – a frequency that is only possible with the help of AI which is why the company developed Ara, a proprietary machine-learning tool that sorts through those streams to create audience intelligence and modeling solutions without cookies that help clients drive outcomes.

In the end, the deprecation of the cookie might be a blessing, says Perrotta: “We’ve found there has been a tremendous benefit when clients have unlocked a holistic cookieless strategy, understanding how it not only drives to new audiences and increases performance, but also allows media plans to be more efficient.”

Accurate, real-time measurement is especially helpful in identifying how brand dollars contribute to mid- and lower-funnel outcomes – something that’s going to be tremendously important in the coming year. When marketers can see the impact of their decisions in real-time, they can fine-tune and optimize their campaigns on the fly.

“There’s a bit of an education gap in terms of understanding what the audience opportunity is in cookieless environments,” Perrotta says. “There was a thought that, ‘Well, in my cookie solution I’m reaching this many people, and it’s working really well.’ And now marketers’ eyes have been opened to the fact that they’re leaving a massive amount of audience on the table.

“You need to have a plan to be able to reach those audiences. And it’s not so much about cookie depreciation being pushed out to 2024, but rather thinking about what the opportunity is now. If you’re not acting on it, rest assured your competitors are.”

By pairing tools that make the most of real-time measurement with a comprehensive cookieless approach, it’s possible to extend audience reach since more than 50 percent of browsing is cookieless in North America, Perrotta notes. Furthermore, she adds, this real-time understanding of consumer behavior based on Quantcast’s data footprint is crucial to driving the mid or lower-funnel tactics that make omnichannel strategies so highly efficient. 

And in today’s macroeconomic environment, the ability to deliver better outcomes for a brand is more urgent than ever. “Some marketers and agencies have been taking a ‘wait and see’ approach,” Perrotta says. “But we’re not at the stage right now where anyone can continue to work that way. You have to jump in and take those big bets. If your dollars are being scrutinized, you need all the tools available to justify how and why you’re choosing to invest.” 

For more info contact Alicia Perrotta, Quantcast head of sales, Canada at alicia.perrotta@quantcast.com