Wemf introduces new initiative for optimized online targeting

Predictions about users are necessary in order to target content or advertising in the digital world as precisely as possible. These predictions can be used by advertisers to target campaigns to specific groups. But who can guarantee that these predictions are complete, reliable and as accurate as possible? The WEMF's Better Prediction Initiative can help.

Better Prediction Initiative (BPI)

With this initiative, WEMF wants to support publishers, marketers and advertising clients in validating and optimizing their predictions. This is intended to create transparency vis-à-vis the advertising market and help in the targeted addressing of potential customers. Those who participate in the BPI can prove to the advertising market that their predictions meet high quality standards that have been confirmed by an independent and neutral body. This would clearly set participants apart from those online players who do not provide any insight into their prediction models, according to WEMF.

The initiative's first offering is the "Prediction Accuracy Check", which has now been carried out with Goldbach for the first time. Further offerings will be developed in the future as part of the initiative.

Prediction Accuracy Check (PAC)

"Accuracy" in this case shows how close predictions and their results are to the actual values. The PAC compares online targeting predictions of a publisher or marketer with the WEMF survey data. In other words, it analyzes whether aggregated prediction results, such as socio-demographic distributions, interests, purchase intentions and brand preferences, are congruent with the results from the independent and representative WEMF data set. High congruence between Prediction results and WEMF data indicates high predictive accuracy. A low congruence indicates existing optimization potential.

In addition to the congruence check, the participant provides a transparent insight into his data and into the procedure used to create his prediction. As part of the participation, he is also obliged to work on the improvement of his prediction. After completion of the testing process, the participant receives a detailed report of his results as well as a certificate. With the official labels "Better Prediction Initiative by WEMF" and "Prediction Accuracy Check certified by WEMF", the participant can demonstrate the validity and robustness of his online predictions to the advertising market (see Figure 1).

Swiss market solution

The BPI as well as the PAC were designed as market solutions from the very beginning and are now open to all interested market participants. The two major industry associations, Schweizerischer Werbeauftraggeber Verband (SWA) and Leading Swiss Agencies (LSA), also support the initiative for more transparency and quality in online targeting.

For the first implementation of the PAC, WEMF worked together with Goldbach. Together, the procedure was examined in particular with regard to technical feasibility and the resilience of the results.