COLOGNE — It’s one of the biggest problems in advertising, even though many ad-tech vendors think they have solved the issue.
“On average, anything from 40% to 60% of ads are served to the wrong audiences,” according to Stephen Webb, the EMEA regional director for Facebook’s Atlas ad server platform.
“Which is why men are getting served mascara ads, why OAPs (old-age pensioners) are getting served student loan ads. Solving that problem is what we focus on.”
Webb didn’t cite a source for his assertion. But everyone recognizes when a deliberately-targeted ad misses its target so spectacularly. It’s jarring.
Webb thinks Facebook’s Atlas can show the way ahead. And it recently signed deals with Nielsen Catalina Solutions, Oracle Data Cloud, Visual IQ and Neustar to help advertisers understand cross-device audiences better.
“Digital advertising has evolved around the cookie,” he tells Beet.TV. “It’s being challenged by consumers moving on to multiple devices, the cookie doesn’t work. Many companies are trying to make sense of that conundrum.
“We’re taking a fundamentally different approach to that. Because we’re able to leverage insights from the Facebook audience, we’re able to join together clicks, interactions from a digital campaign, and tie it back to that Facebook audience. We’re able to show advertisers people-based metrics.”
This interview was taped at DMEXCO ’16. It is part of a video series of industry leaders. The series is sponsored by Videology. For more Beet.TV coverage of DMEXCO, please visit this page.
