New Report Finds That Quality Pays Off In Programmatic – And It’s Not More Expensive | AdExchanger

image/svg+xml:

Topics
Latest
Marketers
Agencies
Publishers
Technology
Platforms
Identity
Measurement
Data Privacy
Artificial Intelligence
CTV
Commerce
AdExplainer
Exclusive Report
Daily News Roundup

Opinion
All Columns
Data-Driven Thinking
On TV & Video
The Sell Sider
Content Studio
Comic
Contributor Guidelines

About Us
Advertise
Newsletter
AdExchanger Advisory Board
About Us
Contact Us

Events
Programmatic I/O New York
AdExchanger Awards
Webinars
All Events
Network Events

Podcasts
AdExchanger Talks
The Big Story
Inside the Stack

Programmatic I/O New York

Become an AdHero

Subscribe

Sign In

Sign In

Topics
Latest
Marketers
Agencies
Publishers
Technology
Platforms
Identity
Measurement
Data Privacy
Artificial Intelligence
CTV
Commerce
AdExplainer
Exclusive Report
Daily News Roundup

Opinion
All Columns
Data-Driven Thinking
On TV & Video
The Sell Sider
Content Studio
Comic
Contributor Guidelines

Events & Awards
Programmatic I/O New York
AdExchanger Awards
Webinars
All Events
Network Events

Podcasts
AdExchanger Talks
The Big Story
Inside the Stack

Subscribe Free
Sign Up

About Us
Advertise
Newsletter
AdExchanger Advisory Board
About Us
Contact Us

CONNECT

Home Data New Report Finds That Quality Pays Off In Programmatic – And It’s Not More Expensive

programmatic transparency
New Report Finds That Quality Pays Off In Programmatic – And It’s Not More Expensive By Allison Schiff

Thursday, December 4th, 2025 – 9:00 am
SHARE:

We all know that we’re supposed to eat our veggies and skip the junk food. But knowing isn’t the same as doing.
Marketers instinctively know that better data and higher-quality media drive better outcomes. But bad habits are sticky and they die hard, said Jamie Barnard, CEO of Compliant, a startup that tracks data quality standards across digital media.
The ad industry has “a volume-based mentality,” said Barnard, who knows that struggle firsthand. He spent nearly 16 years at Unilever as its general counsel focused on global marketing, media and ecommerce before leaving in 2022.
So, what needs to happen for the industry to stop eating so much junk food?

Quality doesn’t have to cost
That’s the question Compliant set out to answer earlier this year by running a set of controlled tests with four global brands spanning CPG, financial services, consumer electronics and consumer health care.
The results, released on Thursday, will shock no one (not that people don’t need to hear this): Quality drives performance and efficiency, buying low-quality inventory is money down the drain and, as it turns out, spending on better media doesn’t have to cost more.
According to Compliant’s findings, advertisers who prioritize data integrity and make a point of buying impressions from high-value publishers with better data practices see a 33% lower cost per action, a 32% reduction in CPMs and a 5% higher return on ad spend.
But as obvious as that sounds, the reality is more complicated, said Sameer Amin, VP of data-driven marketing at Reckitt, one of the advertisers that participated in the study, whose portfolio includes everything from Lysol, Mucinex and Clearasil to Durex, K-Y and baby formula brand Enfamil.
One of the reasons why buyers continue to chase cheap, high-volume inventory is because of inadequate measurement.
“Econometric models, marketing mix analysis – these things tend to give good ROI to low-cost inventory without really looking at the quality of the impressions,” Amin said. “But we’ve found that if we look at the right data and prioritize things like viewability and brand safety, we can get better results without necessarily having to pay more.”

Subscribe

AdExchanger Daily
Get our editors’ roundup delivered to your inbox every weekday.

Daily Roundup

Daily News Roundup
AI Mode, Activate; The Trade Desk Bends On Agency Incentives

Quality by design
Not that there’s a switch marketers can flip to go from prioritizing scale to focusing on quality.
The best thing they can do, Amin said, is to educate themselves and roll up their sleeves.
“You need to invest in the data, you need to invest in the tools and you need to invest in the talent that can use the data and the tools,” he said. “It’s easier just to trust the big platforms, like Google and Facebook, but if you want improvement, you have to do the work.”
Reckitt, for example, curates inclusion lists for its supply partners to identify quality inventory and excludes publishers that fall below a set data integrity threshold. Then, it strikes private marketplace deals directly with preferred publishers, Amin said, which gives brands more control over the quality and context of their media buys.
There are dedicated staff to oversee these partnerships and deals who make sure that investments align with brand objectives and marketing goals and that trusted suppliers are recognized and prioritized over time.
Reckitt also created brand safety and suitability frameworks tailored to each of its brands, reflecting the different requirements across its portfolio.
“It doesn’t really make sense to have the same protocols for a sexual intimacy brand like Durex as you would for a baby milk formula brand,” Amin said. “What would work for one you’d exclude for the other and vice versa.”
In other words, decisions about audience and media are driven by strategy, he said, and not by procurement or solely based on price. Although it is nice to know that one can get quality supply without having to overspend, he added.
Will this time be different?
Hold up, though. This isn’t the first time marketers have clear evidence that quality trumps quantity.
Remember, in 2017, when JPMorgan Chase cut its programmatic site list from 400,000 to 5,000 without any drop-off in performance? And recall that high-profile ANA transparency report from a few years ago that exposed an astounding amount of waste in the programmatic supply chain?
Point being, even with clear proof, change has been slow. 
“New Report Finds That Quality Pays Off In Programmatic” – the headline of this article – really shouldn’t be a revelation in 2025, and yet, somehow, it is.
So what makes this time different?
One big factor is artificial intelligence. With AI starting to play a major role in media buying and optimization, the need for transparency and high-quality data is more pressing than ever, Barnard said, which might finally be enough to push brands to act on what they know.
The rise of generative AI and agentic tools makes detailed data and real-time analytics possible, but also amplifies the need to fix data quality issues from the get-go.
“If you buy media from publishers with bad data practices, then no amount of downstream optimization can reverse the impact that will have on targeting and efficiency,” Barnard said. “It’s really important that marketers and their generative tools have transparency into the quality of media on the supply side.”
As part of its platform, Compliant has a scoring framework, which it calls the Data Integrity Index, that independently verifies and measures whether publishers are adhering to responsible data practices and industry standards, including privacy compliance.
It provides a transparency score that marketers can use to guide their media buying decisions.
“It’s very easy to look at everything that’s wrong with programmatic, but there is actually so much good inventory out there,” Barnard said. “Shifting toward a value-based model means rethinking which metrics matter, and good data standards should really just be part of the fabric of programmatic.”

Next In Data

Media Intelligence Startup Guideline.ai Aims To Take The Guesswork Out Of Media Planning

Must Read

Agencies
Google Ad Buyers Are (Still) Being Duped By Sophisticated Account Takeover Scams

Agency buyers are facing a new wave of Google account hijackings that steal funds and lock out admins for weeks or even months.

Platforms
The Trade Desk Loses Jud Spencer, Its Longtime Engineering Lead

Spencer has exited The Trade Desk after 12 years, marking another major leadership change amid friction with ad tech trade groups and intensifying competition across the DSP landscape.

Commerce
How America’s Biggest Retailers Are Rethinking Their Businesses And Their Stores

America’s biggest department stores are changing, and changing fast.

Technology
How AudienceMix Is Mixing Up The Data Sales Business

AudienceMix, a new curation startup, aims to make it more cost effective to mix and match different audience segments using only the data brands need to execute their campaigns.

Digital Out-Of-Home
Broadsign Acquires Place Exchange As The DOOH Category Hits Its Stride

On Tuesday, digital out-of-home (DOOH) ad tech startup Place Exchange was acquired by Broadsign, another out-of-home SSP.

Social Media
Meta’s Ad Platform Is Going Haywire In Time For The Holidays (Again)

For the uninitiated, “Glitchmas” is our name for what’s become an annual tradition when, from between roughly late October through November, Meta’s ad platform just seems to go bonkers.

Popular

Platforms
The Trade Desk Loses Jud Spencer, Its Longtime Engineering Lead

Spencer has exited The Trade Desk after 12 years, marking another major leadership change amid friction with ad tech trade groups and intensifying competition across the DSP landscape.

OPINION: Data-Driven Thinking
CTV Is Less Transparent Than YouTube. That Should Alarm Everyone

CTV spending is flattening, performance is plateauing and buyers are hesitant to push budgets further. The reason is not complicated. When buyers cannot see what they are buying, they cannot commit their spend with conviction.

Commerce
How America’s Biggest Retailers Are Rethinking Their Businesses And Their Stores

America’s biggest department stores are changing, and changing fast.

Agencies
Google Ad Buyers Are (Still) Being Duped By Sophisticated Account Takeover Scams

Agency buyers are facing a new wave of Google account hijackings that steal funds and lock out admins for weeks or even months.

Data
Media Intelligence Startup Guideline.ai Aims To Take The Guesswork Out Of Media Planning

Meet Guideline, a marketing intelligence platform that aggregates anonymized agency billing data to generate data-driven insights on media spend, pricing and market trends.

Join the AdExchanger Community
Join Now

Your trusted source for in-depth programmatic news, views, education and events.
AdExchanger is where marketers, agencies, publishers and tech companies go for the latest information on the trends that are transforming digital media and marketing, from data, privacy, identity and AI to commerce, CTV, measurement and mobile.

NEXT EVENT
Most Powerful Women
December 4, 2025CurrentNew York, NY
Learn More

ABOUT ADEXCHANGER
About Us
Advertise
Contact Us
Events
Subscribe
RSS
Cookie Settings
Privacy & Terms
Accessibility
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging

CONNECT

© 2025 Access Intelligence, LLC - All Rights Reserved

The core of the recent report, released by Compliant, underscores a critical shift in the programmatic advertising landscape: quality consistently delivers superior performance and efficiency. Jamie Barnard, CEO of Compliant and formerly General Counsel at Unilever, highlights a persistent “volume-based mentality” within the industry, a mindset that historically favored maximizing reach over focused, high-quality media buys. The report’s findings—a 33% lower cost per action, a 32% reduction in CPMs, and a 5% higher return on ad spend—demonstrate the direct correlation between prioritizing data integrity and working with high-value publishers—a shift in approach that’s not a new revelation but one that’s struggled to gain traction.

However, the reality is frequently complicated by inadequate measurement, as pointed out by Reckitt’s VP of data-driven marketing, Sameer Amin. Marketers often fall prey to relying on econometric models and marketing mix analysis without rigorously assessing the underlying quality of the impressions. The key takeaway is that focusing on metrics like viewability and brand safety, rather than simply chasing low prices, can yield significantly better results. This commitment to quality isn’t simply about choosing “good” inventory; it necessitates a proactive approach, exemplified by Reckitt’s curated inclusion lists and direct private marketplace deals.

Reckitt’s strategic approach – establishing dedicated staff to oversee these partnerships and deals – emphasizes a value-based model. This involves tailoring brand safety and suitability frameworks for each of its diverse brands, acknowledging the critical distinctions inherent across its portfolio. The creation of the Data Integrity Index, independently verifying publishers’ adherence to responsible data practices and industry standards, further illustrates a tangible commitment to transparency and accountability. This scoring framework serves as a readily available tool for marketers to guide their buying decisions.

The report recognizes that despite previous evidence, change has been slow. The revelation that quality outperforms quantity isn't a groundbreaking concept in 2025; it’s a realization that’s been articulated repeatedly over the years, including JPMorgan Chase’s successful 400,000 to 5,000 site reduction in 2017 and the ANA’s revealing 2023 transparency report. The current momentum, however, is fueled by the rise of artificial intelligence. As generative AI and agentic tools become more prevalent, the need for detailed data and real-time analytics is amplified, coupled with the imperative to address data quality issues upfront. If marketers purchase media from publishers with poor data practices, the impact will inevitably diminish their targeting accuracy and efficiency.

Compliant’s Data Integrity Index provides a transparent score helping guides buying decisions. Ultimately, the shift towards a value-based model—rethinking key metrics and establishing data standards—represents a fundamental change in the programmatic landscape, a move toward a more informed and effective approach to media buying.