Study: Marketers fear data quality is hurting digital ads

Relevant, personalized messages are key to driving engagement, yet the quality of sourced data is negatively impacting results.



This was according to “More Data, More Problems: Trust, Transparency & Targeting in 2017.” The report from Bazaarvoice and Ad Age, is based on interviews of more than 300 agency and brand marketers.



Data from first- and third-party sources have become essential to reaching consumers with relevant and personalized messages that boost brand metrics and, ultimately, impact business. More than 60% of respondents said using their own internally collected first-party data is “very important” to their overall marketing strategy.



Additionally, respondents consider the ability to surface potential new customers as the No. 1 quality of “good” data. When asked what they considered the top indicator of “good” data, 50% of all respondents said engaging with ratings and reviews or product detail pages was the No. 1 indicator for predicting if a consumer will buy, the study revealed.



Despite the ubiquity of data among agencies and advertisers alike, marketers revealed that both the sources and quality of data they use is misunderstood and mistrusted. Of the 95% of the surveyed marketers that employ first- and third-party data in their media plans, 64% are not fully clear on the origins of their data sources. Additionally, nearly one-quarter of both brand marketers and agency buyers don’t know how often their data sources are refreshed.



Worse, three-out-of-four marketers surveyed said they are not entirely confident that their data is reaching in-market consumers. Further, only 23% of agency buyers are fully confident that their third-party data partners deliver against key performance indicators (KPIs).



“It’s clear that using data in digital advertising is not going away, but marketers must ask the right questions about their data and demand more transparency from their partners to achieve returns on their ad spend,” said Toby McKenna, senior VP of global advertising at Bazaarvoice. “Thirty-four percent of brand marketers and 24% of agency partners believe their data partnerships lack innovation, so there is a lot of room for improvement.”