Understanding Ghost Ads in Advertising

My guest on this week's episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast is Garrett Johnson, an Associate Professor of Marketing at Boston University's Questrom School of Business.

I was delighted to bring Garrett back to the podcast -- we recorded an episode about advertising auctions back in February 2022 -- because his seminal paper on the concept of Ghost Ads deeply informed my understanding of incrementality measurement in advertising, which is the topic of discussion in the episode. In our conversation, we cover:

• What advertising incrementality is;
• How a marketing team can measure incremental contribution from advertising;
• Whether incrementality is truly knowable;
• The concept of Ghost Ads;
• How ghost ads fit into an advertising workflow;
• Whether incrementality measurement necessitates prolonged advertising reaction cycles;
• The commercial risks of ignoring or neglecting incrementality measurement.

Thanks to the sponsors of this week’s episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast:

• Kayzen. A mobile-first DSP that is built to democratize programmatic advertising.
• INCRMNTAL⁠⁠. True attribution measures incrementality, always on.

Interested in sponsoring the Mobile Dev Memo podcast? Contact ⁠Marketecture⁠.