How to Use AU to Distinguish Media Price from Media Quality

As audiences and media consumption fragment across hundreds of channels and millions of placements the same CPM can mask very different underlying realities Two ad units can deliver similar audiences at similar prices while one is far more likely to capture attention and drive outcomes Price measures what the media costs Value measures what it is worthIn recent years due to a range of industry dynamics media price and media value have become increasingly misaligned The measure that helps close the gap between them is media qualityAt Adelaide we define media quality as the probability that an ad placement will capture attention and contribute to a business outcome We express that probability through our proprietary metric AU a 0100 score built from attention research exposure signals and real outcome data AU has been independently audited by MediaSense and has completed a preaudit with the Media Rating CouncilTo tell cost apart from quality advertisers need a way to evaluate both side by side Hereamp8217s how AU can help1 Observe that price and quality are not correlatedIf we start with the assumption that you get what you pay for in the media marketplace then the more expensive impression should be the better one But that is not what we see in the dataIn one Adelaide analysis of more than 80000 placements with CPMs ranging from 010 to 60 media quality and price showed no meaningful correlation Some of the lowestcost inventory earned the highest AU scores signaling strong opportunities to capture attention and drive impact while some of the most expensive earned very littleAU vs CPM By Individual PlacementsFigure 1 Source Adelaide Metrics placement analysisA 5000 placement10 CPM cap subset of our placement analysis including approximately 80000 distinct placements across formats channels devices and sitesCheap media can look far less efficient once quality is accounted for while highquality media can look more efficient than its CPM alone would suggest Traditional digital performance metrics like viewability do not convey quality they merely confirm that an ad was visible not whether it made an impact2 Assess the price of the quality not just of the impressionTo compare cost and quality advertisers need a common frame of reference Adelaide recommends establishing clientspecific AU thresholds based on the level of media quality needed to support a brandamp8217s business goals Those thresholds make it possible to evaluate impressions not only by what they cost but by the attention and impact they are expected to deliverMore quality is not always worth more money The goal is not to achieve the highest AU in every instance It is to achieve the strongest quality per dollar up to the point where paying more stops producing a returnAdelaide provides clients with quality thresholdfinding tools to identify the minimum level of media quality required to support their outcomes Advertisers buying above their thresholds see 33 higher upperfunnel lift and 53 stronger lowerfunnel lift at comparable CPMs Source Adelaide 2025 Outcomes Guide3 Decide how much quality is worth paying forAdelaideamp8217s client Haleon has publicly demonstrated how this idea can work in practice The consumerhealth company behind Sensodyne Panadol and Centrum has spent the last several years rebuilding how it evaluates and buys media moving away from cost efficiency as the primary signal toward a more balanced view of quality effectiveness and valueThat shift was supported by a rigorous evidence base including a firsttomarket Amazon DSP study with Publicis and Adelaide in which highAU media drove 34 more conversions at a 25 lower cost per conversionToday Haleon applies that thinking globally through a granular media value framework Rather than applying one universal quality floor or chasing the highest AU in every environment it sets quality standards by brand market and KPI The goal is to understand the level of media quality needed to support a specific business outcome then buy against that standard as efficiently as possibleIn practice that means using AU to curate highattention private marketplaces inform campaign optimization and negotiate preferred deals all in service of buying the best quality per dollar not the most quality at any priceAU vs CPM By Publisher and Placement Volume Example Curation ViewFigure 2 Source Adelaide Metrics client data4 Bring procurement inMedia procurement teams exist to protect the advertiseramp8217s money by ensuring the agency delivers what it promised and the brand is not overcharged For years in the absence of a durable quality measure procurement has focused largely on one number unit costOther industries have evolved their approach to procurement and cost management Manufacturing and IT moved from lowest unit price to total cost of ownership decades ago Procurement teams in those industries buy the highestvalue part not the lowestpriced Media industry adoption of similar practices has lagged because buyers and sellers have lacked a precise media quality metric that could be evaluated alongside priceAU gives procurement a way to make that comparison It can be benchmarked across 19 media channels creating broad comparability while Adelaideamp8217s participation in independent audits helps meet procurement39s need for transparencyWith a qualityadjusted brandspecific AU threshold in hand media buyers can also change what they ask for Instead of asking publishers and partners only for impressions at a target CPM they can ask for a qualitybased package that includes transparency into how inventory scores curation that meets or exceeds the brandamp8217s quality threshold and pricing that reflects qualityadjusted delivery The best publishers are ready to have that conversation5 Change what procurement can evaluateA new metric only matters if it changes incentives Give procurement teams a relevant media quality metric and their operating model can shift from policing price to protecting valueWhen agency targets include a quality threshold incentives shift from booking savings to ensuring efficient outcomes plus the agency is no longer penalized for recommending the higherquality slightly pricier buyFigure 3 Source Adelaide Metrics illustrativeWorkflows can evolve alongside these new quality requirements Quality thresholds can be incorporated into RFPs insertion orders and programmatic guaranteed deals backed by thirdpartyaudited reporting A delivery guarantee can become a quality guaranteeAudits can widen to match Independent media audits already verify delivery and price With an audited quality metric they can also verify whether the media delivered met the set quality standard None of this requires procurement to surrender its rigor instead it gives teams a more complete basis for measuring value beyond volumeAdvertisersamp8217 conversations with publishers and agencies can also change moving from pressure on unit price alone to a more productive discussion about qualityadjusted value Both sides can work from a shared auditable definition of quality a shift Haleon was early to recognizeThis is ultimately a story about aligning incentives When buyers sellers agencies and procurement are all rewarded for delivering value instead of the lowest price quality stops being undercut by inventory that looks identical on a rate card and the cheapest media stops being the default optionFrom price to valueAdelaide is not proposing a new metric for its own sake We are suggesting a change in the metrics that the market prioritizesPrice tells you what you spent Quality tells you what you bought Value is the distance between them and AU finally lets buyers and sellers measure itThe media industry does not need more complexity at the negotiating table it needs better decision criteriaPosted at MediaVillage through the Thought Leadership selfpublishing platformClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillageorgMyersBizNet

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How to Use AU to Distinguish Media Price from Media Quality

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Claire Browne

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