The Attribution Goldilocks Problem; Video Is No Escape Pod | AdExchanger

"There are dozens if not hundreds of scaled, credible retail media or first-party data players that boast of their closed-loop attribution capabilities and shoppable media. So why is attribution still an absolute mess? Purchase attribution partnerships like those between OpenAI and Target, Pinterest and Albertsons and Paypal and Ulta, to name a few, improve matters. But with these deals, "attribution only gets muddier," writes."

"Nowadays, the problem is that transactions are being attributed by too many advertising and data companies. Everyone's taking credit. Marketers are drowning in a sea of self-credited conversions and it's hard to separate genuine business results from inflated metrics. So many different players - from credit card companies, telcos, retailers and mobile apps to hardware manufacturers, web-tracking platforms, data brokers and Big Tech - all want to claim the same conversions as their own."

"While looking at a screen, there are "other options competing for your attention," so ads need to pull an audience in almost immediately, says Giles Martin, EVP of strategy at podcast advertising agency Oxford Road. Plus, podcast listeners tend to deliberately select shows to consume, whereas YouTube audiences often find new content via algorithmic recommendations, he added. But this doesn't mean that video podcast ads work."

Many scaled retail media and first-party data providers claim closed-loop attribution and shoppable media, yet attribution remains fragmented and unreliable. Purchase attribution partnerships between retailers, payment platforms, and other companies can improve visibility but often create overlapping claims that muddy results. Historically, multitouch attribution struggled because many genuine conversions could not be tracked, forcing reliance on third-party cookies and views or clicks. Today, too many advertising and data companies claim the same transactions, producing self-credited conversions and inflated metrics. Marketers therefore face difficulty separating genuine business outcomes from noisy attribution. Video podcasts are growing but ad effectiveness lags due to attention competition and selective listening behavior.

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