Kantar bolsters ad measurement offerings with Google data integration
Marketing analytics company Kantar is bolstering its Brand Lift Insights, which provides campaign effectiveness measurement, with data from Google’s Ads Data Hub for YouTube ads, the company announced today.
“Advertisers prefer cross-publisher ad effectiveness measurement,” Jane Ostler, Kantar’s global head of advertising effectiveness, said in a statement. “Today’s announcement is a further giant step in that direction.”
Ads Data Hub allows advertisers access to comprehensive measurement and insights on how their advertising is performing across screens, including mobile apps, for YouTube media bought via YouTube and Google ad platforms, including Google Ads, Display & Video 360. At the same time, it ensures end-user privacy by enforcing privacy checks and aggregating Google data before it leaves the Google-owned Cloud project.
Kantar says the data will help clients better measure ad and campaign performance on YouTube by using more individual, granular data on users. To obtain this data, Kantar said it had to ensure it complied with guidelines and regulations set up by Google to protect user consent and privacy.
“The barriers of entry are not insignificant,” says Corey Jeffery, global head of product, Kantar.
Jeffery says Kantar decided it was necessary to go through compliance with Google’s policies because of the insight such data would provide. Jeffery says the industry’s shift to user privacy and data protection, particularly Google and Apple’s shift away from third-party cookies, Apple’s new privacy controls and recent legislation from California, have all upended how ad tech does business. “The whole thing is fundamentally changing the economics of research supply in some fascinating ways,” says Jeffery.
Data from YouTube might be particularly valuable. YouTube parent company Alphabet beat analyst expectations in its fourth quarter results announced yesterday, with much of that surge attributed to a bounce back in ad spending. YouTube advertising revenue was up 46% compared to the same time last year. Google CFO Ruth Porat said advertisers reversed initial freezes on spending as advertisers saw value in audiences staying largely at home due to the pandemic.
