10 Questions to Ask a Data Provider for Advanced TV Success
Last year, U.S. connected TV (CTV) advertising spending topped $28 billion, a figure that’s expected to grow to more than $46 billion by 2027. This growth is well warranted, given shifting viewer behaviors. But the rapid pace of adoption represents a steep learning curve for advertisers.
Advanced TV (ATV), including the fast-growing CTV space, has introduced a new level of complexity into TV advertising—especially when it comes to data. Success in ATV depends on the ability to target across fragmented platforms, screens, and audience behaviors. Data is the lynchpin that sits at the intersection of the advertiser’s targeting strategy, the TV buying platforms, and the campaign performance advertisers are aiming to achieve.
With advertisers of all shapes and sizes entering the ATV space, it’s important to have a strong understanding of what it takes to properly apply third-party data and audiences to modern TV buys. This data utility guide outlines questions to ask data providers before activating your next, or first, ATV campaign.
How is the data collected?
The foundation of good data is transparency regarding its origins. Ask whether the data is sourced from direct consumer transactions, modeled behaviors, or scraped digital signals. Whether it’s transactional, behavioral, psychographic or other being used as a foundational data source, investigating how data is collected is a necessary first step in the discovery process to understanding the data, but also its compliance.
While less in-focus than it was years ago, the advent of cookie deprecation also should come to mind when evaluating a data provider’s collection methodology. What ID spaces are they collecting in/matching too, and how does that translate to your business’s long-term strategy? Whatever your strategy, having compliantly source data with multiple ID options relative to TV will lay a strong foundation.
How often is the data refreshed?
Recency matters. In the ATV space, where optimization can happen on an ongoing basis, stale data won’t cut it. You need to know how often audience segments are refreshed and whether they can adapt mid-flight.
When using fluid identifiers to target audiences, refreshing data is also of paramount importance. A tighter refresh cadence will help ensure more in-market delivery by cycling out IDs that may no longer warrant inclusion in a specific audience.
Ask if your data provider updates its data assets on a rolling basis, with cadences ranging from weekly to quarterly depending on the source. This regularity ensures audiences reflect up-to-date consumer activity.
What is the volume of the data?
Scale matters, but it should be meaningful. A large data set allows for better targeting across more platforms, but not if it’s padded with low-quality signals. Ask how extensive the data is—and how much of it is usable and verified.
Are the data assets widely leveraged by agency holding companies and Fortune 500 brands because of their ability to deliver scale without compromising precision? You want to ensure there’s a sizable and accurate identity map in play.
Is the data compliant with privacy standards?
Privacy compliance can’t be an afterthought. It should be built into how the data is sourced, processed, and delivered. If your provider can’t clearly explain their data governance practices—or isn’t tracking future regulations—you should be cautious.
Look for certifications like SOC2, IAB Tech Lab’s Data Transparency Standard, and Neutronian’s NQI that validate a data provider’s dedication to privacy and compliance.
What are the pricing and mark-up details?
Opaque pricing models make it difficult to evaluate ROI. Marketers should expect clarity on how data is priced, including platform mark-ups and activation fees. Quality data is worth the investment—but costs must be transparent.
Seek out a partner that works with clients to ensure data costs are predictable and clear, supporting smarter budgeting and more effective media allocation.
Where and how readily is your data available?
Data access needs to match the way and where you buy TV advertising. If a provider’s audiences are hard to find, or only available on limited platforms, that inhibits scale and flexibility.
Your provider should offer seamless audience activation within known MVPDs and programmatic TV platforms and DSPs. And vice versa, are your platform partners aware of your data provider? Ask around.
Do you have TV audience success?
A data provider claiming TV, should offer a suite of optimized for TV audiences that factors in viewing behavior, subscription type, and content interest data specific to television. Streaming TV is the fastest-growing channel and a data provider that doesn’t have their hands on TV-based purchase, and behavioral data isn’t a major player.
Next, ask if they can provide case studies that showcase solid performance metrics of TV advertisers that leverage their data.
How are you building custom audiences?
Your campaign goals aren’t one-size-fits-all, and your audiences shouldn’t be either. Ask how your provider partners to create audiences that reflect your brand’s unique needs.
Look for a collaborative approach to building tailored audiences using proprietary data or by integrating brand-specific first-party data—ensuring the resulting segment is relevant, compliant, and actionable. Custom segment building shouldn’t be laborious, it should be a light lift to execute and deliver to your destination.
What level of support and services do you offer?
The ATV space is complex, and having experts to guide you can make the difference between a test campaign and a successful long-term strategy. Your provider should offer support that goes beyond technical FAQs.
Are they willing to pair clients with experienced data strategists who know how to navigate the ATV space—from campaign planning to in-flight optimization to measurement strategies.
What kind of performance and match rates should I expect?
Don’t settle for vague claims. Ask for specifics. Your data partner should be upfront about historical match rates, audience performance, and how they benchmark success.
Seek out a provider that regularly publishes performance benchmarks and quality scores from third-party validators like Truthset, so marketers can set clear expectations and ensure their campaigns are hitting their marks.
Ultimately, data partnerships should make Advanced TV simpler—not harder.
With fragmented and expensive inventory, varied measurement standards, and increasing scrutiny around privacy, success in ATV demands a data partner you can trust to deliver accurate and actionable audiences. ATV is not the channel to settle for the average data provider. Instead, make it a point to demand best-in-class data strategy, transparency, and support to ensure your campaigns succeed.
[Editor's note: This is a contributed article from Alliant. Streaming Media accepts vendor bylines based solely on their value to our readers.]