New Study Proves Data Integrity Is Critical Growth Driver in Digital Advertising

Groundbreaking research shows why leading brands are enhancing media quality, targeting efficiency and performance through data integrity optimization

NEW YORK, Dec. 04, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Compliant, a media technology company and strategic partner to the WFA, today released findings from a comprehensive “Data Integrity Impact Study” that challenges fundamental assumptions about programmatic advertising quality and cost.

The global study shows that advertisers can direct spend toward high-value, high-integrity impressions without increasing cost, and significantly reduce the number of publishers in their campaigns without sacrificing reach or performance. By curating quality inventory upstream, AI systems scale efficiency instead of amplifying waste.

Four multinational brands in CPG, Financial Services, Consumer Electronics, and Consumer Healthcare in the UK, Germany, Spain and Switzerland participated in controlled tests to measure the impact of data integrity signals on media outcomes. The findings prove that publishers with better data practices consistently deliver better campaign performance, with advertisers achieving a 33% lower cost per action (CPA), a 5% higher return on ad spend (ROAS), and a significant 32% TrueCPM reduction.¹

“Data and input quality become exponentially more important as media buying shifts from volume to value, and from programmatic to agentic. This study proves that curating high-integrity inventory upstream creates compounding value downstream in terms of transparency, efficiency and performance,” said Jamie Barnard, CEO and co-founder of Compliant. “Is the juice worth the squeeze? With easy activation driving incremental lift and measurable cost savings, the answer is a definitive ‘yes’ for brands and media owners alike.”

"As AI transforms digital advertising and privacy expectations continue to rise, transparent and trustworthy data practices across the media supply chain are becoming critical drivers of campaign performance. Ensuring the quality and reliability of the data underpinning each impression reflects the ambition of the advertising industry and of WFA’s Global Media Charter and helps pave the way for more reliable, effective business outcomes for brands," said Stephan Loerke, CEO, WFA.

Key Findings

Quality Over Volume
- Brands reduced the number of publishers in campaigns by as much as 21% (removing ~7,000 domains) with no impact to media KPIs
- The top 1,000 high-performing publishers deliver 90% of campaign impressions, making the problematic long tail of 30,000 domains an unnecessary cost and risk ²
- By redistributing 8% of campaign spend from inventory with low data integrity to high data integrity, one major CPG company identified a 32% lower TrueCPM efficiency with a $128K / £98K cost saving
Data Integrity Directly Impacts Performance
- Campaigns optimized for data integrity delivered:
  - 33% lower cost per action (CPA)
  - 5% higher return on ad spend (ROAS)
  - 17% viewable CPM improvement (vCPM)
  - 6% video completion rate improvement
Transparency at Scale
- Analysis revealed that the data standards of supplier inventory available in 9 out of 10 European SSPs were in the mid to low range, exposing supply chain quality issues
Post-Cookie Infrastructure Built on Quicksand
- Independent analysis of nine major Universal ID (UID) providers found that nearly all concentrate overwhelmingly on publisher inventory with low data integrity standards.
- If user data is collected from domains with bad data practices, it undermines the integrity of identity graphs and UIDs.
AI Demands Better Data
- 85% of media leaders express high or extreme concern about data protection and privacy when using AI for media purposes³
- The DII provides a critical governance layer, enabling autonomous AI agents to make responsible and effective investment decisions.

The research report, “Data Integrity: A Super-Signal for the AI Era”, is available here. Advertisers interested in conducting their own "Proof of Impact" assessment can contact Compliant at contact@compliant.global.

Methodology
The Data Integrity Impact Study was conducted by Compliant from April to August 2025. The research involved controlled A/B tests across multinational brands (CPG, Financial Services, Consumer Electronics, and Consumer Healthcare) spanning the UK, Germany, Switzerland, and Spain. The DII methodology, the testing protocol and the findings from four advertiser campaigns (selected at random from a wider pool of six DII-optimized activations) were independently reviewed and validated by global media advisor, mediasense.

About Data Integrity Index (DII)
The DII is a 0-100 scoring framework measuring data practices of digital publishers, covering more than 92% of open-web inventory by spend. The methodology evaluates consent solutions, tracking technologies, data collection and sharing practices, supply chain complexity, and regulatory alignment.
The Data Integrity Index (DII) has been integrated into the Association of National Advertisers' (ANA) Programmatic Transparency Benchmark Report and Fiducia's TrueCPM metric, enabling widespread industry adoption.

About Compliant
Compliant is a leading provider of AI-powered data integrity signals for media planning, buying and optimization. The company assesses data integrity standards across owned and paid media, empowering brands and agencies to curate high-value inventory and deliver measurable improvements in targeting efficiency, performance and supply path optimization. Data integrity is quickly becoming a media standard, and Compliant is leading the charge. Compliant boasts unmatched expertise at the intersection of media, technology and data, including Jamie Barnard (formerly at Unilever), Magid Souhami (formerly at P&G) and Elliot Bell (formerly at Facebook). Compliant is a strategic partner of the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) and works closely with the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and the Brand Safety Institutes (BSI). Learn more at www.compliant.global.

About mediasense
mediasense is a global, independent advisor that brings the clarity, connection, and confidence modern marketers need to fuel growth. We help marketers eliminate waste and maximize the impact of their most significant investments at scale. Through Unified Marketing Intelligence, we elevate how clients operate, how agencies deliver, how platforms perform, and how all parts of the ecosystem connect.

Press Contact
Kite Hill for Compliant
compliant@kitehillpr.com

^¹ ^{Statistics relate to a series of different campaigns with different KPIs. This is a collection of results from different tests, rather than a series of results a brand could expect to achieve in the cumulative sense.}
^² ^{Per the ANA's Q2 Transparency Benchmark Report. The top 1,000 publishers attract 90% of spend.}
^³ ^{WFA report, ‘The Impact of GenAI on Media Practices’ - July 2025}

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