Driving Success with Cross-Platform Measurement

How IPG Mediabrands connects social to business outcomes across the funnel

Once an experimental line item, social media now sits at the center of modern media plans. While its creative influence and cultural reach are undisputed, its role in driving measurable business outcomes is still widely debated. Not because the outcomes aren’t there but because they’re often under-measured, misattributed, or dismissed as unprovable. 

During a recent webinar, “Driving Success with Cross-Platform Measurement," cohosted by DISQO and Ad Age, Laura Williams, VP, Director of Tune-In Analytics at IPG Mediabrands, joined DISQO’s Stephen Jepson to unpack how her team is using DISQO’s person-level social media benchmarks, cross-platform measurement, and in-flight campaign optimization to show exactly how social moves the needle, from awareness to action.

Here’s how IPG is challenging outdated assumptions, refining client expectations, and unlocking social’s full-funnel potential.

Q&A with Laura Williams

Q: How are you combining audience insights and outcome signals to connect media exposure with real engagement? 

At IPG Mediabrands, we sit at the intersection where data, media, and human behavior converge. My role is all about helping clients navigate an increasingly fragmented landscape by understanding what drives audience engagement and translating that into effective media strategy.

We approach this from both ends of the campaign timeline. Up front, we’ve moved beyond traditional demographic targeting. Instead, we focus on understanding motivations, mindsets, and behaviors. Using tools like Interact, IPG’s comprehensive marketing platform, we layer psychographics, purchase behavior, and content consumption habits. That lets us segment audiences not just by who they are but also by why they act.

On the back end, we combine exposure data with performance signals like web traffic, app downloads, and search lift to understand incremental impact. For us, this allows us to go beyond attribution and understand causality, which feeds into dynamic media optimization.

If we see a particular creative and messaging combination resonating with a specific audience or platform, we pivot quickly and adjust the media plan in near real-time. Ultimately, it’s not just about reaching people but truly resonating with them. By marrying deep audience understanding with outcome-based measurement, we’re helping our clients create meaningful, measurable connections that drive business results. 

Q: How are you using outcomes data to bring more structure and accountability to socials' role in the media mix? 

Social media is often pigeonholed as a top-of-funnel, reach-only channel. DISQO’s lower-funnel benchmarks help shift that narrative by showing tangible outcomes like site visits, brand search, and e-commerce activity. That kind of data helps us to set more realistic expectations for social performance and use benchmarks as a baseline in testing frameworks for sharper, more accountable strategies.

To take it further, we integrate these outcome metrics into our multi-touch attribution models. That allows us to show how social works with other channels throughout the funnel rather than evaluating it in isolation. 

We also move away from metrics like impressions and likes and instead translate social impact into business terms like lift in consideration, increase in intent, and cost per incremental action. That language resonates with performance-focused stakeholders and helps position social alongside other tactics that drive lower funnel results. 

Q: How do clients respond when you compare their campaign performance to normative benchmarks?

Clients often have an aha moment when they see how their social campaigns compare to lower-funnel category norms. For many, it’s the first time they’ve seen social media held to the same performance standard as search or programmatic channels. 

Once that benchmark is in place, we start to see real changes. Briefs get sharper, performance goals improve, and clients begin to develop social creative that drives specific behaviors. Building on the demand for more creative testing, KPIs evolve into measurable business outcomes that we can track and compare across platforms.

As performance metrics improve, clients also become more confident in reallocating spend into the social tactics driving results. That works to our benefit and theirs. Social starts to be seen not as a niche tactic, but as a flexible, full-funnel contributor and a core part of their overall media strategy. 

Q: How do you help clients move toward more always-on, first-party measurement strategies so they can build on their benchmarks over time?

This is such a critical mindset shift for any brand that is serious about performance. DISQO’s benchmarks are a great starting point for matching the average and aiming to redefine it. At IPG Mediabrands, we push our clients to move beyond one-off studies and invest in ongoing measurement infrastructure. That includes persistent Brand Lift and convergence studies across platforms, not just episodic reads. We also build rolling test-and-learn calendars so every campaign contributes to a growing data set rather than operating in isolation. 

This is all part of our effort to design agile campaigns that can be optimized in real time. We support that by encouraging clients to treat measurement as a growth engine, not just a reporting function. That means embedding analytics throughout every stage of the campaign to ensure alignment across teams and strategies. When you do that, social and other measurable media channels shift from being reactive tools to proactive insight engines that drive continuous improvement.

Q: How are you helping clients plan and measure campaigns that connect brand and performance goals?

We are encouraging clients to stop splitting campaigns into brand or performance. Instead, we guide them to brief and budget around dual objectives, supporting brand building and product consideration in one cohesive campaign.

For us, it’s about focusing on outcomes and maximizing efficiency. From a measurement standpoint, we help clients build unified reporting dashboards that show Brand Lift, engagement, and conversions side by side. We are also creating composite KPIs and layering in brand studies, like those from DISQO, to connect awareness directly to action. 

That way, clients can see how brand investment is not separate from performance but actually fuels it. And the reverse is true as well, with a more complete view of how campaigns work across the funnel.

Q: Why are independent benchmarks so important when evaluating performance across siloed platforms?

This is such a critical question, especially in an environment where platform incentives don’t always align with advertiser truth. Independent benchmarks bring objectivity, comparability, and confidence to cross-channel measurement.

Social platforms like Meta, TikTok, and YouTube often report performance in isolation using their own methodologies and metrics. Independent benchmarks help normalize that, so we are comparing apples to apples, not relying on platform-defined KPIs.

They also help us spot inflation or bias in self-reported results. That gives our clients a more grounded understanding of what is actually driving impact. It removes the platform spin and gets us closer to the truth. 

This kind of validation strengthens our client relationships, allowing us to have honest conversations about what’s working, what’s not, and where to invest. It also reinforces our position as trusted media advisors focused on outcomes, not just outputs.

Q: What do you look for in a measurement partner as complexity increases?

As complexity scales, the best measurement partners do more than deliver dashboards. They help interpret, operationalize, and optimize what the data actually means. 

At IPG Mediabrands, we look for partners who go beyond surfacing insights. We need those who can provide clear narrative context and actionable recommendations based on benchmarks and performance gaps.

With campaign cycles moving faster than ever, we prioritize partners who can deliver real-time or near-real-time results. Accessibility, collaboration, and continuous support for in-flight optimization matter more than ever. It’s not just about reporting, but helping us move faster and smarter.

Q: What value led you to partner with DISQO to understand advertising effectiveness better?

At IPG Mediabrands, we are focused on delivering measurable business outcomes, not just media outputs. That means partnering with organizations that share our values around transparency, accountability, and innovation.

We were drawn to DISQO because your measurement goes beyond vanity metrics. You help show how advertising truly influences consumer behavior. Your ability to connect brand and performance outcomes within a single framework aligns with how we plan and measure through the funnel.

Just as important, DISQO has been a strategic partner. You are collaborative, flexible, and focused on translating insights into action. In a fragmented media environment, that clarity and rigor have been invaluable in helping our clients invest smarter and grow stronger. 

Q: What shift will define the next era of media measurement, and what should marketers start preparing for now?

One of the biggest shifts we see coming is the move from retrospective reporting to real-time, predictive decision-making. That kind of agile measurement is a top priority for us and our clients because it enables quick-turn optimization and drives both effectiveness and cost efficiency.

We are focused on speed and optimization, and we support that through tools like Interact, our proprietary platform that integrates seamlessly with partner data from companies like DISQO. It allows us to deliver more efficient, end-to-end client engagement.

As economic pressures grow, measurement has to evolve. It needs to prove incremental ROI across the full funnel and tie brand investments to real business growth. That means shifting from channel-specific KPIs to broader, business-level impact. The next era of measurement will demand more than asking whether an ad worked. It will require systems that continuously learn, adapt, and help marketers grow in real time.

Q: With so many data sources, how do you determine which insights matter most for optimizing performance?

This is one of the biggest challenges facing modern marketers and also one of the biggest opportunities. The goal is not to chase a single source of truth but to build a trusted framework that helps focus on the right truths for the decision at hand.

Before we even look at the data, we start by defining what success looks like. Are we trying to drive reach, consideration, or incremental sales? That clarity helps us filter out the noise and focus only on the signals that matter.

It also helps us choose the right data sources for each objective because not every metric matters equally. By anchoring to specific goals, we can distinguish between what’s useful and what’s just interesting.

Q: How does campaign measurement inform future optimizations and the broader learning agenda?

That is such an important question because it gets to the core of how measurement should function: as a strategic growth engine, not just a post-campaign analysis.

We believe advertising measurement should directly fuel the learning agenda. It should guide tactical optimizations and larger decisions around creative strategy, media mix, and audience investment.

We bring insights into QBRs, planning sessions, and creative briefs to make that happen. We create feedback loops where performance data directly informs choices like media allocation and targeting. And we update our playbooks based on real outcomes, not just assumptions or past experience.

One of my favorite ways to describe it is this: measurement is not just a mirror, it’s a compass. Its value is not just in reflecting what happened but in shaping what comes next.