How Advertisers Can Rethink Programmatic Ads: Measurement Beyond the Click

A path forward for better programmatic advertising metrics

More measurement doesn’t always mean more understanding, especially in programmatic advertising. Marketers today are inundated with data and campaign performance metrics, but most of it hinges on what’s easiest to track, not what's indicative of true effectiveness. While click-through rates, impressions, and cost-per-click continue to dominate dashboards, they offer little insight into outcomes like whether an ad changed a mind, sparked intent, or drove action. 

With most industry infrastructure optimized for accessibility, not effectiveness, as reported in DISQO and AdExchanger’s State of Programmatic report, 78% of advertisers say they’re only moderately satisfied with how they’re measuring programmatic today. Just 38% believe it performs better than other channels. That’s not just a confidence gap—it’s a clarity gap driven by low expectations and even lower measurement standards.

With a mission to empower marketers with true ad effectiveness insights and advocates to move beyond legacy metrics that hold advertisers back, it’s worth exploring how expectations got so low and what it takes to raise the bar—with unified, deterministic ad measurement that tracks what drives brand and performance outcomes across 17 full-funnel metrics. 

1. The cost of complacency and vanity metrics

2. The real measurement gap: trust, attribution, and fragmented truths

3. What unified ad measurement looks like

4. Raising the bar for what measurement should be

5. Start measuring what matters

The cost of complacency and vanity metrics

Despite programmatic advertising’s complexity, advertisers continue to rely on a narrow set of familiar metrics – clicks, impressions, CPC – that are easy to benchmark and easy to explain. But as a stand-in for impact, they’re woefully insufficient. These metrics measure activity, not outcomes. They tell us someone saw an ad, but reveal nothing about whether it moved the needle on awareness, perception, or behavior.

Generally, this overreliance persists not because marketers believe in the inherent value of a click but because more meaningful metrics have historically been hard to access. With behavioral insights often locked behind siloed platforms and performance data fractured across devices, formats, and partners, advertisers often settle for the data that’s available, even if it lacks relevance.

There’s a prevailing mindset in programmatic advertising that because you can measure quickly, you should optimize immediately. But the longer you wait for quality data, the better the result. Vanity metrics give you a fast signal—but not a true one. In chasing what’s trackable, advertisers miss the chance to understand—and optimize for—what actually drives business outcomes.

The real measurement gap: trust, attribution, and fragmented truths

Even when advertisers think they’re measuring effectively, they’re often only seeing part of the picture. Cross-platform measurement is still disconnected and compounded by a trust issue. Reported data isn’t always transparent or unbiased. Stitching together fragmented datasets—from DSPs, analytics platforms, and siloed platforms—introduces overlap, degradation, and duplication. It’s patchwork at best, and a blind spot at worst.

As a result, only one in three advertisers can confidently tie ROI to at least half of their campaigns. While 51% say they’re satisfied with attribution, many still struggle with attribution hurdles linking exposures to outcomes across devices, media types, and platforms. These aren’t just technical hurdles—they’re structural. Overlap, drop-off, and duplication continue to erode confidence in what should be foundational insights.

Skepticism extends beyond internal reporting. Only 38% of advertisers believe programmatic measurement outperforms other media measurement, proving that industry expectations are often calibrated around limitations, not progress.

What unified ad measurement looks like

Siloed metrics lead to siloed decisions. When brand lift is measured separately from behavioral outcomes, and different platforms use conflicting methodologies, advertisers lose sight of what’s actually driving results. 

The promised land of unified measurement brings attitudinal and behavioral signals together in a single framework, enabling marketers to see how metrics like awareness and favorability translate into intent, engagement, and conversion.

Instead of relying on isolated snapshots, smart brands are adopting continuous, always-on measurement. Episodic approaches—like quarterly brand lift studies or one-off post-campaign reports—simply can’t keep pace with the velocity of modern media. Campaigns don’t wait, and neither should insights. Real-time visibility allows for in-flight optimization—adjusting creative, refining audiences, reallocating spend—based on what’s truly working, not what worked weeks ago.

And this isn’t just about speed. Always-on strategies allow advertisers to benchmark performance over time, catch inefficiencies early, and build lasting intelligence from every campaign to close the gap between insight and action.

Critically, this model must be independent of platform-reported data. When media sellers control both delivery and measurement, objectivity is compromised. Brands need a consistent, deterministic lens across all channels—social, digital, and CTV—that doesn’t rely on cookies, IP addresses, or fading identifiers. For brands and advertisers, it’s the only way to move beyond surface-level signals and understand the true impact of media investment.

Raising the bar for what measurement should be

While advertisers have adapted to a fragmented ecosystem, adaptation isn’t the same as progress. Many still rely on platform-reported metrics, episodic studies, and outdated identifiers like cookies to gauge success. It’s not just unsustainable—it’s already obsolete.

As third-party identifiers continue to disappear and signal loss accelerates, measurement strategies built on patchwork data will become increasingly fragile. Brands that want to future-proof their attribution need to prioritize persistent, privacy-safe identity solutions and independent, cross-platform measurement that doesn’t rely on siloed platforms to self-report results.

Yet, even as new technologies like AI, predictive analytics, and automation emerge, the fundamentals haven’t changed. What’s needed is clarity, accountability, and consistency. Advertisers should no longer be satisfied with partial truths or performance “insights” that shift depending on the platform. 

At DISQO, our Brand Lift and Outcomes Lift solutions work together to give advertisers, brands, and media companies a unified, unbiased third-party view of performance, connecting ad exposure to consumer actions. 

While Brand Lift captures attitudinal shifts like awareness, favorability, and consideration, Outcomes Lift measures real post-exposure behavior—search, site visits, and commerce activity—across every major media channel, including CTV and social. Combined, they give marketers a complete picture of what’s working, what’s not, and where to optimize in real time.

Ready to stop guessing? Start measuring what matters

As an ad measurement solution built for today and tomorrow’s media, DISQO helps you move beyond assumptions, vanity metrics, and fragmented reporting. With Brand Lift and Outcomes Lift, you can finally see the full impact of your programmatic campaigns—across every channel, platform, and tactic. It’s time to expect more from your measurement.