Season 5, Episode 20: The scientific approach to advertising measurement (with Andrew Covato)
May 14, 2025
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Andrew Covato, founder of Growth by Science and a veteran from Meta, Google, and Snap, dives deep into the world of advertising measurement. He highlights common misconceptions advertisers have about major platforms. Andrew emphasizes a scientific approach to measurement, advocating for critical analysis of marketing spend's effectiveness. He discusses strategies for future-proofing advertising methods and the importance of integrating brand and performance advertising. Listeners get insights on optimizing startup strategies and navigating data complexities for growth.
Advertisers often misunderstand how major ad platforms operate, which leads to flawed expectations regarding measurement and effectiveness.
Adopting a culture of experimentation is crucial for improving measurement practices, encouraging organizations to embrace learning from failures.
Robust measurement practices that focus on aggregate-level data are essential for navigating future privacy regulations in digital advertising.
Deep dives
The Role of AI in Advertising
AI has significantly transformed the advertising industry by enhancing targeting, optimization, and modeling attribution. This technology allows ad platforms to not only generate creative ideas but also predict lifetime values (LTVs) for customers. However, despite these advancements in ad technology, measurement practices have lagged behind, remaining outdated. Incremental proposes solutions that aim to revolutionize measurement in advertising, just as Excel redefined accounting.
Challenges in Marketing Measurement
Advertisers frequently struggle with accurately measuring the effectiveness of their marketing strategies. The expectation for new ad platforms is often misguided, as they may neglect to establish adequate measurement programs before launching advertising products. This admission becomes evident as platforms like Uber and Netflix integrate measurement after their advertising systems are already in place, often leading to a mismatch in expectations from advertisers. Understanding the complexity of building effective measurement solutions is critical for both advertisers and ad platforms to enhance overall success.
The Importance of Incrementality
A key misconception among advertisers is the reliance on post-exposure attribution, which may obscure the true effectiveness of their marketing efforts. Advertisers need to understand that the fundamental goal of ad platforms is to optimize their own revenue, not necessarily to achieve results for advertisers. Incrementality, defined as the value generated solely from advertising spend, should be prioritized to understand true marketing effectiveness. Advertisers must adopt a proactive approach to measurement, ensuring they question the validity of their spend and seek out deeper insights.
Learning Cultures and Testing Methodologies
Implementing a culture of experimentation is essential for advertisers aiming to refine their strategies. Unfortunately, organizations often fear failure, leading to a lack of testing and a reluctance to question established practices. Creating a learning agenda that prioritizes experimentation can foster an environment where hypotheses can be tested and insights gleaned, ultimately enhancing the marketing function. Shifting from a mindset that punishes failure to one that values learning can significantly improve measurement practices and results.
Future-Proofing Marketing Strategies
To mitigate the impact of future policy changes and privacy regulations, advertisers should prioritize robust measurement practices that do not rely on user-level data. By focusing on aggregate-level data and using advanced analytical techniques, marketers can establish more resilient measurement systems. This approach not only aligns with privacy concerns but also allows for the exploration of various advertising channels without the constraints of user identification. Ultimately, a focus on causal analytics and innovative testing will better prepare marketers for the evolving landscape of digital advertising.
My guest on this week's episode of the podcast is Andrew Covato, a veteran of the largest digital advertising platforms -- including Meta, Google, and Snap -- and the founder and managing director of Growth by Science, an advertising measurement and technology consultancy.
Andrew and I discuss the topic of advertising measurement broadly, including:
The misconceptions that advertisers have about how the largest walled garden advertising platforms function;
The principal mistakes companies make related to marketing-driven growth;
The scientific approach to measurement;
How companies can future-proof their advertising measurement;
The analytical constraints that prevent most advertisers from growing spend;
Creative analytics;
A systematic approach to channel diversification.
Thanks to the sponsors of this week’s episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast:
ContextSDK. ContextSDK uses over 200 smartphone signals to detect a user’s real-world context, allowing apps to deliver perfectly timed push notifications and in-app offers.
INCRMNTAL. True attribution measures incrementality, always on.
Interested in sponsoring the Mobile Dev Memo podcast? Contact Marketecture.
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