IP-Based CTV Targeting Fails 3 In Every 4 Times, New Research Finds

That proposed remedy is a new framework from Adstra called ID Connection Strength (ICS), designed to rate how reliably a given digital identifier (whether an IP address, a CTV ID, a cookie, or a mobile advertising ID) is accurately linked to a real person or household. 

The framework assigns a 1-6 rating across five distinct criteria: recency, frequency, signal integrity (or traffic quality), congruency (the extent to which various signals about the same device match across different identity data categories), and cardinality (how many other identifiers a given signal is linked to). Each score is determined using user-consented signals from Adstra’s network and is validated by a third-party fraud prevention firm, though Adstra declined to name them.

ICS was used to guide the research with InterMedia. It has been in testing since January with a handful of brands, agencies, and platforms, who are using it to help validate identity data, improve audience targeting, and adjust media budget allocations. Adstra declined to name these clients and partners. 

ICS will become more widely available in the third quarter. While it’s tied to Adstra’s network for now, Johnson said the company is “open” to partnerships, including collaboration with industry trade groups to help seed adoption 

The industry needs to become “more honest…about the confidence we have in the signals we’re using,” said David Nyurenberg, svp of digital at InterMedia. “We should stop treating identity quality as an assumption and start treating it as a measurable standard. That’s how we build greater confidence in targeting, measurement, attribution, and every AI system that increasingly depends on those signals.”

It’s too early to tell whether ICS will meaningfully move the needle on ID mapping accuracy, but early signals are promising; the team claims that 71% of CTV IDs with high ICS scores maintained their connection to the same person month over month. 

For the time being, Johnson has some simple advice for advertisers: “Demand more visibility in how matching is done, because for most partners, there isn’t any today.”