Data spend continues to rise

Marketers, publishers, marketing service firms, and technology developers said their spending on data and data-related services will increase in 2019, according to The Outlook for Data 2019: A Snapshot Into the Evolving Role of Audience Insight – the fourth annual bench-marking report from the IAB Data Center of Excellence with research and consulting firm, Winterberry Group.

Sixty-nine per cent of respondents said they had increased their spending on audience data and related tools in 2018 compared with the previous year. Seventy-eight percent expect to invest more in 2019, while only 15% expect to invest the same amount and just 3% expect to spend less.

According to the study, the increased investment is aimed at navigating the complex media landscape. The vast majority of survey participants noted that cross-channel data measurement and attribution, and audience identification/matching are the most important areas of focus for the coming year.

Fifty-three percent of industry executives said increased government data regulation was the main threat to deriving value from data. Other ongoing issues cited were the difficulty in proving ROI, lack of internal experience and insufficient availability/functionality of supporting technology.

In the IAB’s earlier State of Data report, it found that US companies spent nearly $19.2bn on acquiring audience data as well as on tools to manage, process and analyse this data in 2018.   

Orchid Richardson, vice-president and managing director, IAB Data Center of Excellence, said: “While the industry is becoming more sophisticated in its application of data in marketing, communications and analytics, rapid growth in data analytics and solutions also presents challenges.”