138. Does Digital Advertising Work?

Josh Sternberg

October 22, 2020

Listen to full episode :

“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” - John Wanamaker

In this episode Josh Sternberg and Gabriella discuss the thorny issue of whether or not the $325B business of digital advertising … actually works.

Topics include:

• What is encompassed by the term “digital advertising” and why definitions are critical to an evaluation of digital advertising’s efficacy.

• The two component parts one must consider when evaluating digital advertising’s effectiveness.

• The current state of targeting – and where it’s headed.

• The Lumascape – what it is, how it has evolved over time and what this evolution tells us.

• How walled gardens and their behavioral targeting has avoided fraud and succeeded in avoiding many of the problems associated with programmatic digital advertising.

• Why answering our central question with, ‘it depends’ … isn’t a cop out.

Josh Sternberg, a journalist covering media, tech and business, is the editor of The Media Nut, a newsletter for all legs of the media industry stool: brands, publishers, agencies and ad tech.

Learn more about Josh:

• Twitter at @joshsternberg

• See past issues (and sign up!) for the Media Nut newsletter: Media Nut