That said, data obtained from cookie based attribution models can still be insightful, as long as you are looking at the right data, path lengths, frequency of touchpoints in that conversion path, time stamps etc etc

A lot of work still be done.

Thank you for saying what I've been plugging away with media partners for ages now. Some ad networks are happy to chuck impressions around until the whole UK online audience and call that direct response.

Some advertisers and waking up and smelling the roses and starting to question the the effect of display like they will with TV. Hence the rise of product retargeting which has become very popular.

Those advertisers that do accept post-view often a) don't understand last click wins attribution or are ignoring it and short-cutting around attribution in order to report short-term returns to the board.

But the wider problem is that fundamentally display is based on a bunch of 1×1 pixels or cookie stored temporarily in a browser. When clients start to question the REAL value of display, it boils down to a lack of believe in it's power to persuade. The reason people got into online in the first place (measurement and attribution) is the reason that many people are starting to lose faith in it.

“Maybe we have to start accepting that there may never be a perfect attribution model”

There is alot more econometrics to be done regarding the impact of offline onto online, however like you say we have to work with the best we have got right now.

The post was also on the subject of DSPs and facilitating the use of advertiser's own attributed data; Tagman was just one example of this.

Thanks for your comments.

That said, data obtained from cookie based attribution models can still be insightful, as long as you are looking at the right data, path lengths, frequency of touchpoints in that conversion path, time stamps etc etc

A lot of work still be done.

Thank you for saying what I’ve been plugging away with media partners for ages now. Some ad networks are happy to chuck impressions around until the whole UK online audience and call that direct response.

Some advertisers and waking up and smelling the roses and starting to question the the effect of display like they will with TV. Hence the rise of product retargeting which has become very popular.

Those advertisers that do accept post-view often a) don’t understand last click wins attribution or are ignoring it and short-cutting around attribution in order to report short-term returns to the board.

But the wider problem is that fundamentally display is based on a bunch of 1×1 pixels or cookie stored temporarily in a browser. When clients start to question the REAL value of display, it boils down to a lack of believe in it’s power to persuade. The reason people got into online in the first place (measurement and attribution) is the reason that many people are starting to lose faith in it.

“Maybe we have to start accepting that there may never be a perfect attribution model”

There is alot more econometrics to be done regarding the impact of offline onto online, however like you say we have to work with the best we have got right now.

The post was also on the subject of DSPs and facilitating the use of advertiser’s own attributed data; Tagman was just one example of this.

Thanks for your comments.

But that's just it – how can you attribute offline sales and brand favourability with a pixel in a creative or on a landing page? Tagman or some other universal tagging system cannot help you with that piece. Yet this has not stopped Brand Advertising in Print or TV.

Maybe we have to start accepting that there may never be a perfect attribution model for display ads and use the metrics we do have – which however flawed are much stronger than what is available offline.

But that’s just it – how can you attribute offline sales and brand favourability with a pixel in a creative or on a landing page? Tagman or some other universal tagging system cannot help you with that piece. Yet this has not stopped Brand Advertising in Print or TV.

Maybe we have to start accepting that there may never be a perfect attribution model for display ads and use the metrics we do have – which however flawed are much stronger than what is available offline.