Follow the Money: Gain radical transparency with Total Visibility from IAS and Amino Payments

This week, the ISBA published a groundbreaking report that sought to answer a seemingly simple question: what does the programmatic supply chain look like? The results are astonishing. The topline finding, that publishers received just half of advertiser spend, will leave many advertisers scratching their heads. Where did the rest of their budgets go? Even worse – PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) found that 15% of advertiser spend–representing around one-third of supply chain costs–could not be attributed.

So what is there to do?

The ISBA set out to understand each aspect of the supply chain from start to finish, in order to provide a transparent view of the ad supply process. At a high level, there is a lack of understanding over how the industry shares its data and information. As they researched, a number of overly complex methodologies and practices were found across the board. The ISBA found that on a number of occasions, up to 4 different parties would end up doing the same job at the same time, a job that only needs to be done once, by one party, for only one data set. They also saw a large number of advertisers had almost 300 distinct supply chains to reach only 12 publishers. With little to no communication between parties, an informational bottleneck is created. Transparency for both advertisers and publishers during the ad supply process would bypass these access delays, easing the current strain on the overall campaign timeline and saving wasted money.

In an effort to close this transparency gap, Amino and IAS have partnered to form Total Visibility. With Total Visibility, advertisers will be able to see not only the percentage of wasted media but also the financial impact, allowing them to optimise campaigns toward paths and publishers that are delivering cost-efficient and quality media. Using a single tag, Total Visibility provides access to the cost of video impressions that were partially viewed, mostly viewed, completely viewed or not viewed at all. Advertisers can then refine verification settings to reduce waste and better utilise every media dollar. In other words, Total Visibility narrows down discrepancies to determine the true margins of each party in the supply chain, ensuring that ad spend is trackable from start to finish.

The PwC study cannot specifically pin down where the 15% actually went. At best, the “missing” money can be attributed to a number of factors. But at the end of the day, no matter the issue, the message remains the same: The digital industry as a whole needs to improve their lines of communication or else time and money will continue to be wasted. With Total Visibility, IAS and Amino provide advertisers with the tools to verify their media quality, quantify the value of their media, and optimise the efficiency and reach of their campaigns.

Gain radical transparency into your programmatic buys with IAS and Amino, so you never waste a cent.

Learn more about our partnership with Amino Payments.