First-Party Ad Solutions: A Case for 3rd-Party Oversight

TikTok has made waves all over the advertising landscape for a few years now. And their latest big announcement — unveiling their first-party measurement solution that allows marketers to go beyond the last-click model and truly understand their customers’ journeys on TikTok — has lots of folks in the industry excited. But we’d recommend assessing this news with a critical eye.

First-party analytics are ideal if you’re all in on one platform, but that’s not a media mix strategy most advertisers pursue. Not to mention, reporting on the site you’re advertising on has a significant caveat: They rely on positive reports and outcomes to keep you coming back and spending more on their site. To achieve true media transparency, you need to use a cross-platform tool that rises above information silos and provides an objective view of your advertising investment. Let’s break down a few key concepts so you get where we’re coming from.

To achieve true media transparency, you need to use a cross-platform tool that rises above information silos and provides an objective view of your advertising investment. Let’s break down a few key concepts so you get where we’re coming from. 

Go Beyond Reporting

Reporting isn't just about tracking metrics; it's about understanding the impact of your advertising on your target audience by assessing which creative resonated best on each channel. Effective reporting helps facilitate alignment toward common goals and enables marketers to discover and leverage valuable insights, all of which significantly impact the potency of your advertising efforts.

Uncovering Your Ultimate Media Mix

A hurdle advertisers run into is that platforms like TikTok enclose your campaigns within their ecosystem because they can only report on the data they have available. And while there are plenty of useful takeaways you can glean from their reporting, it often tells an incomplete story. Especially since, as we already know, media consumption habits extend far beyond a single platform. That's why you need analytics that covers multiple channels and formats to accurately inform your media planning, buying, and creative efforts.

When allocating your media budget, this question always comes up: Where is our largest opportunity to test? While every aspect of media advertising is a test-and-learn process, 3rd-party advertising platforms can help you see exactly what works and what doesn't, highlighting actionable insights and making data-backed recommendations on what you should test. There's no definitive answer to where you should put your advertising dollars; it requires ongoing experimentation to gauge your audience's responses.

The complexity of all this emphasizes the need for thorough and efficient validation through experimentation across platforms, which is much easier to do with the right tool.

Insights You Can Act On

Building your brand's presence on platforms like TikTok can be fruitful. However, to do it right takes a robust content engine and, just as importantly, data to support your decisions. And while TikTok's recent attribution analytics announcement opens doors for advertisers to look under the hood of their campaigns in a new way, it's committing to a cross-platform test-and-learn approach that will take your advertising to the next level.

Interested in knowing how your campaigns are really performing across all platforms? Sign up for a FREE Ad Health Check and get a clear and simple view of what’s working for you — and recommendations on actions to take.