The Ultimate Guide to Unified Marketing Measurement
Unified Marketing Measurement (UMM) integrates multiple analytic methodologies for a…
Read
The Loss of Signal and The Impact on Media Buying
The 'easy data' era is over. Discover how signal loss impacts media buying and why first-party data is essential.
I am embarrassed to admit that my insights into how media buying is executed and prioritized on the buy-side is strikingly poor. Having listened to Olle Bråne recap the latest survey at the IAB SWEDEN event last fall (2025) I just couldn’t understand the reasoning of the respondents to the survey, I thought “What am I missing?”
Having worked 15+ years in media, digital marketing and data I realize that my perspective is different, maybe skewed from my background in publishing and media, maybe because of my focus on first-party data, maybe because of a knowledge gap. It is obvious that what I have is a different perspective than the perspective most of the media buyers have.
The question that was asked to the respondents at IAB Programmatic Day 2025: “Where does the data come from that enriches your programmatic buys?”.
15% said 1st party data (media data). What scored higher was contextual data. A followup question was “How important do you think first-party data is?” Where buyers said “Not very…” and media sellers said “Very important!”.
And this is where semantics and/or understanding comes into play. Context is for me, in my own personal opinion, first-party data.
It is information that is based on the unstructured content data of the publishers. Without the media content – no context. Behaviour is often based on context over time, i.e. read 5 sports articles = Sports interested. Again based on the content from the media. For me, this is also first-party data. Even though it gets collected by third parties. It becomes 3rd party data when it moves from the domain where it was generated, to another domain.
About me
I started working in media at TTELA, a small local newspaper in Trollhättan north of Gothenburg. I was webmaster, did banner production, assisted the editorial desk with new concepts and did almost anything digital that bounced my way.
I later started at Mktmedia, which is now Samhub. Mktmedia was an inhouse innovation hub owned by the majority of Swedish local media. Here I helped create new digital business concepts, did strategic projects and developed into the product owner of all digital projects.
In 2017 we did a management buyout and brought with us the then called “Brain” data platform, built to cater to all the local media houses a unified data platform that worked cross-domain, cross-ad tech and cross-CMS and delivered a unified data taxonomy across all 150 websites.
Today, this platform is Samhub
The signal loss
Ever since the invention of ad blockers there has been an increasing signal loss for digital and programmatic media. Then came the 3rd party cookie depreciation, GDPR, default VPN from Apple, and so on. All these measures impact the signal availability. Everything from IP-address, geo location, URLs and user history.
The most direct comparison is 3rd vs. 1st party cookies.
|
3rd party cookies |
1st party ID’s |
|
|
Pre-depreciation |
+ Long user history + Cross-domain signals + High addressability + Multi-domain behaviour + high audience volumes + Empower buy-side |
+ Network limitation + Limited audience volumes + Low data usage + No data leverage |
|
Post-depreciation |
+ Single signal decisions + No user history + No multi-domain behaviour + High volumes with less history/quality |
+ Longer user history + Consent = Compliance + Increasing demand + Higher data quality + Behavioral data + Network limitation |
As a provider of data solutions I can see an increase in the data usage amongst our customers. Our client Stampen Media has increased their share of targeted impressions by 9x in the past 18 months.
So, there is a shift that has happened and is happening. I think that the awareness of this impact, on the buy-side, is lower that you might expect. Because in the platforms the targeting options still look the same. But there is a loss of signal in the actual targeting, which of course impacts the quality of the targeting.
The Data Quality & Reach
If we look at this table, we see that the “signal density” is significantly higher on the sell-side than on the buy-side. The implications of this I leave up to you for consideration.
What I have focused on the last decade is to ensure that all those signals get leveraged for our media customers. But it is not easy to drive change when the buyers are the ones with the money (and the power). But I also see this shift as a necessity for both buyers and sellers, and my job is to facilitate the use of safe and secure data for better online experiences and better media monetization.
|
Sell-side data |
Buy-side data |
|
Multi-website Behaviour |
Single domain data |
|
Login information |
No login data |
|
1st Party ID’s |
3rd party ID’s |
|
Long user history |
Single observation history |
|
Behaviour over time |
Single observation behaviour/Context |
|
Context |
Context |
|
Geo signals, over time |
Single observation geo |
|
Direct consent |
Indirect consent |
If we look at this table, we see that the “signal density” is significantly higher on the sell-side than on the buy-side. The implications of this I leave up to you for consideration.
What I have focused on the last decade is to ensure that all those signals get leveraged for our media customers. But it is not easy to drive change when the buyers are the ones with the money (and the power). But I also see this shift as a necessity for both buyers and sellers, and my job is to facilitate the use of safe and secure data for better online experiences and better media monetization.
The Challenge
I see that all of us (providers, agencies, consultants and media) that participate in the digital media ecosystem need to work towards 3 things:
- Delivering effect for advertisers
- Increasing transparency
- Making it easy to use secure, high quality data
How we have contributed so far:
- Created a platform that leverages all signal types (personal identifiers, 1st party ID, 3rd party ID, geo, context, behaviour) into a standardized audience taxonomy, one platform – all targeting options, from identified to anonymous users, from context to household data enrichment.
- Created a method for secure data sharing between media and external sales partners that does not require sharing of ID’s or PII.
- Ensured that our media customers can use their data in direct campaigns, in SSP deals and in programmatic sales in order to maximize data monetization.
What I will continue to work on:
- Simplifying how media buyers can leverage first-party data on the buy-side.
- Increasing data transparency for media buyers.
- Get a better understanding how media buyers want to buy and use data.
Final Thoughts
The shift we are observing is not just a technical challenge; it is a repositioning of value in the digital advertising supply chain. The signal loss marks the end of the “easy data” era and points to the necessity for a more intentional, compliant, and qualitative approach to audience targeting. For media buyers, only relying on increasingly diluted third-party signals means accepting diminishing returns and prioritizing control over quality, reach and effect.
I think that the future of effective programmatic media buying relies on closing the current information gap and embracing high-quality, privacy-compliant first-party data. This transition is necessary for restoring advertiser ROI, ensuring the sustainable monetization of high quality media content, and ultimately, delivering better user experiences.
Martin Bergqvist
Founder & CEO, Samhub
More from the blog
The Ultimate Guide to Cookieless Website Analytics
Introduction to Website Analytics In the digital age, understanding the…
Read
A Comprehensive Guide to Omnichannel Marketing
Omnichannel marketing integrates all channels, ensuring a consistent customer experience.…
Read
IN THIS ARTICLE
SHARE
Book a demo
Put your customers at the heart of your marketing
Schedule a personalized demo to see what Samhub can do, or discover on your own with a free account.
