Identity quality has become a critical factor in programmatic advertising as brands seek to improve targeting accuracy, audience reach, and campaign performance. Addressing this challenge, Adstra has launched ID Connection Strength (ICS), a new identity scoring framework designed to help advertisers evaluate the reliability of identity signals before campaign activation. Backed by research conducted with InterMedia Advertising, the framework aims to improve transparency in identity resolution and reduce wasted ad spend in connected TV (CTV) advertising.
As advertisers increase investments in connected TV and identity-based advertising, ensuring the accuracy of audience data has become a growing challenge. Traditional match rates confirm whether an identifier is connected, but they do not measure the reliability, recency, or integrity of those connections.
Adstra’s new ID Connection Strength framework addresses this gap by assigning scores from 1 (highest connection strength) to 6 (lowest connection strength) based on five measurable factors: recency, frequency, signal integrity, congruency, and cardinality. The scoring framework covers major identifier types including HEMs, UID2s, MAIDs, CTV IDs, TTD Cookies, and IP addresses.
Each score is calculated using user-consented signals from Adstra’s Match Partner Network and validated by a third-party fraud prevention provider to provide transparency and auditability.
To validate the framework, Adstra partnered with InterMedia Advertising on a study examining identity signal quality across programmatic CTV campaigns.
The research found that identity quality directly impacts campaign performance and audience stability. Key findings include:
These findings underscore the importance of measuring identity quality before campaign activation, rather than relying solely on downstream performance metrics.
Adstra designed ICS to provide advertisers with greater transparency into the quality of identity signals powering targeting, measurement, and attribution strategies.
“Many marketers still view capabilities like geo-targeting, household targeting, and identity-based activation as largely deterministic,” said David Nyurenberg, SVP of Digital at InterMedia Advertising. “The reality is that the underlying signals powering those capabilities are often dynamic, probabilistic, and subject to significant degradation over time. When those signals weaken, the impact extends far beyond targeting accuracy. It affects reach, frequency management, measurement, attribution, and ultimately confidence in campaign outcomes. As an industry, we do ourselves a disservice when we ignore these realities because they challenge long-held assumptions. The solution is not to pretend the problem doesn't exist. The solution is to confront it directly with greater transparency, better measurement, and more rigorous standards for evaluating identity quality. That's what makes ICS so valuable. It gives advertisers a practical framework for understanding the strength of the identity connections they are activating against before media dollars are spent, rather than discovering those weaknesses after a campaign is already in market.”
“CTV buying has become incredibly sophisticated, but too often the identity signals underneath it have not kept pace,” said Andy Johnson, Chief Data Officer of Adstra. “A campaign can have the right strategy, creative, DSP and frequency controls, yet still waste spend if the ID being activated is not reliably connected to a real person or household. ID Connection Strength gives buyers a transparent, actionable way to evaluate identity quality before activation, so they can protect budget, improve reach and make every impression work harder.”
Available through the Adstra Conexa Identity Network, ICS is designed to support different campaign objectives, allowing marketers to balance precision and scale depending on their goals.
By helping organizations assess identity quality before media dollars are committed, Adstra aims to improve audience targeting, optimize campaign performance, and strengthen trust in identity-based advertising across connected TV and other digital channels.
As CTV advertising continues to grow, solutions that bring transparency and accountability to identity resolution will become increasingly important. Adstra’s ID Connection Strength framework offers advertisers a measurable way to validate audience connections, improve campaign efficiency, and maximize media investment outcomes.
Adstra delivers identity resolution and data solutions for media and technology clients. Built on the Conexa Identity Network, Adstra's composable, cloud-based platform unifies customer identities across offline and online signals, enabling precise, privacy-first audience activation at scale. From brands and agencies to publishers and political media buyers, Adstra powers the data infrastructure behind smarter targeting and stronger results. Learn more at adstradata.com.
InterMedia Advertising® is a fully integrated $1 Billion+ advertising, media, and marketing organization known for its innovative blend of performance-driven strategies and brand-building techniques. Founded in 1974, the company offers comprehensive media solutions through its specialized business units covering all aspects of modern marketing – from media planning and buying to creative production, analytics, and technological innovation. InterMedia specializes in creating accountable, data-driven campaigns that deliver measurable results across diverse media channels.
