A new industry study provides concrete evidence that data integrity is a direct driver of advertising efficiency and performance, challenging conventional programmatic practices. The "Data Integrity Impact Study" from Compliant reveals that by prioritizing high-integrity inventory, advertisers can significantly reduce costs and improve returns without losing campaign reach, offering a strategic blueprint for the AI and post-cookie era.
A new study proves data integrity is a critical growth driver for digital advertising performance.
Campaigns optimized for data integrity saw a 33% lower Cost Per Action and 5% higher Return on Ad Spend.
Brands reduced publisher domains by up to 21% with no negative impact on reach or key metrics.
Shifting spend to high-integrity inventory yielded a 32% reduction in TrueCPM, generating major cost savings.
The research highlights that most supply-side platform inventory has mid-to-low data integrity standards.
Data integrity is identified as a essential governance layer for effective AI-powered media buying.
The study's key finding underscores that reducing the vast, often wasteful "long tail" of publishers improves efficiency. Brands were able to cut thousands of domains from campaigns without harming media KPIs, as the top-performing publishers delivered the vast majority of valuable impressions. By reallocating a small percentage of spend from low to high-integrity inventory, one major advertiser achieved a 32% lower TrueCPM, resulting in substantial cost savings. “This study proves that curating high-integrity inventory upstream creates compounding value downstream in terms of transparency, efficiency and performance,” said Jamie Barnard, CEO of Compliant.
The controlled tests demonstrated a clear, measurable impact on core business metrics. Beyond the 33% lower CPA and 5% higher ROAS, optimized campaigns also showed a 17% improvement in viewable CPM and a 6% increase in video completion rates. This data validates that the technical quality of a publisher's data practices directly influences campaign effectiveness, making data integrity a powerful "super-signal" for optimization.
The research raises critical concerns about the infrastructure of modern advertising. It found that most inventory in European SSPs has mid-to-low data integrity, and that many Universal ID solutions are built on low-integrity data, undermining their reliability. With 85% of media leaders concerned about data protection in AI use, the study positions data integrity as a non-negotiable governance layer for responsible and effective autonomous media buying.
This study provides a data-backed mandate for brands and agencies to prioritize data integrity in their media strategies. By focusing on quality signals upstream, advertisers can build more transparent, efficient, and high-performing media ecosystems that are fit for the future of AI-driven advertising.
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).
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.
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