Home Improvement Brands Should Demand More Data Visibility

Pre­pared by Brun­ner, a 2024 Strate­gic Part­ner of HIRI. Learn more about HIR­I’s Strate­gic Partners.

No mat­ter the indus­try, data dri­ves valu­able mar­ket­ing results. Whether it is gath­er­ing insights into the res­i­den­tial pro’s buy­ing behav­ior or appro­pri­ate­ly allo­cat­ing mar­ket­ing resources dur­ing peak con­struc­tion sea­son, the right data can help make good mar­ket­ing deci­sions. How­ev­er, obtain­ing that data has become a chal­lenge for many, includ­ing those adver­tis­ing in the home improve­ment industry.

In a 2023 study, the Asso­ci­a­tion of Nation­al Adver­tis­ers found that of $88 bil­lion spent in open web adver­tis­ing, a stag­ger­ing $22 bil­lion is waste­ful or unpro­duc­tive. Much of that waste comes from data trans­paren­cy issues, such as unreg­u­lat­ed indus­try stan­dards, new and unproven plat­forms, and adver­tis­ing fraud.

Unregulated Industry Standardization

A lot of ad dol­lars flow through big tech com­pa­nies, who often change their plat­forms and poli­cies. These changes can dis­rupt how home improve­ment brands col­lect and use data, mak­ing it hard­er to get con­sis­tent and reli­able infor­ma­tion. Because what one chan­nel may call a spe­cif­ic KPI or mea­sure­ment anoth­er sim­i­lar media chan­nel can use a dif­fer­ent term. This lack of stan­dard­iza­tion leads to issues in bud­get real­lo­ca­tion and a lim­it­ed view of the whole data picture.

New, Unproven Platforms

When a new media chan­nel enters the ad indus­try, many flock to get in on the ground floor. Only to lat­er dis­cov­er con­cerns about return on invest­ment, per­for­mance, and data trans­paren­cy.

Retail media net­works are one of those new­er chan­nels. How­ev­er, the adver­tis­ing indus­try has recent­ly turned its atten­tion to the lack of trans­paren­cy. In order to take in more ad dol­lars, these net­works have expand­ed offer­ings to off-site chan­nels, such as search or social. The data offered is lack­ing, mak­ing it dif­fi­cult to deter­mine an accu­rate return on investment.

Increase in Ad Fraud

Dig­i­tal adver­tis­ing is a huge­ly pop­u­lar part of mar­ket­ing cam­paigns. It gets home improve­ment brand mes­sag­ing in front of mil­lions of eye­balls dai­ly, mak­ing it an extreme­ly valu­able tool. But it has become appar­ent that dig­i­tal ad fraud has become a preva­lent trans­paren­cy prob­lem.

Ad fraud can be seen promi­nent­ly in pro­gram­mat­ic adver­tis­ing, which is a data-dri­ven, auto­mat­ed process for buy­ing, sell­ing, deliv­er­ing, and mea­sur­ing dig­i­tal adver­tis­ing. It oper­ates on real-time bid­ding, where ad impres­sions are bought and sold in mil­lisec­onds. This means thou­sands of trans­ac­tions can occur in a short time, mak­ing it dif­fi­cult to ver­i­fy each one.

Fraud­sters take advan­tage of this sce­nario, mask­ing low-qual­i­ty web­sites or apps to trick brands into buy­ing ad space on plat­forms that may not exist or have over­in­flat­ed audi­ence claims. Fraud­sters will also use advanced bots and human-oper­at­ed fraud farms that can mim­ic legit­i­mate user behav­ior. All these fraud­u­lent activ­i­ties can slip through basic ad fraud detec­tion solu­tions, high­light­ing the need for dynam­ic and adap­tive defense mechanisms.

How to Demand Data Visibility

It’s imper­a­tive to get the right data. With it, cor­re­la­tions can be made, insights can be drawn, and res­i­den­tial con­struc­tion and home improve­ment audi­ences can be reached.

The best way to com­bat the lack of under­stand­ing, vis­i­bil­i­ty, or trans­paren­cy, is to demand the infor­ma­tion need­ed. That means ask­ing the right ques­tions, dig­ging a bit deep­er, and rely­ing on trust­ed part­ners to pro­vide brands with the nec­es­sary infor­ma­tion to make informed deci­sions.

Whether a retail­er, man­u­fac­tur­er, or oth­ers serv­ing the home improve­ment indus­try, inter­nal buy­ing teams or out­side agen­cies must have process­es to pre­vent and respond to the lack of data trans­paren­cy effec­tive­ly. A few best prac­tices include:

1. Work close­ly with pub­lish­ers to ensure inven­to­ry is accessed through pre­ferred suppliers.
2. Main­tain allow-list and deny-lists for where your ads can/​cannot be displayed.
3. Use bot-detec­tion ser­vices, pre- and post-bid processes.
4. Ensure access to per­for­mance data and mon­i­tor advanced dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing metrics.

To make the sup­ply chain safer while still allow­ing inno­v­a­tive media and adver­tis­ing solu­tions to flour­ish, ensure all inter­nal teams and ad agen­cies are mem­bers of orga­ni­za­tions that fight for data trans­paren­cy, includ­ing The Amer­i­can Asso­ci­a­tion of Adver­tis­ing Agen­cies (4As), Asso­ci­a­tion of Nation­al Adver­tis­ers (ANA), and the Inter­ac­tive Adver­tis­ing Bureau (IAB), who col­lec­tive­ly cre­at­ed the Trust­wor­thy Account­abil­i­ty Group (TAG) — a glob­al ini­tia­tive that seeks to build trust, increase trans­paren­cy, and fight fraud in the adver­tis­ing industry.

About Brunner

Brun­ner, a 2024 strate­gic part­ner of HIRI and a spon­sor of the HIRI Sum­mit, is a lead­ing inde­pen­dent inte­grat­ed mar­ket­ing agency that’s proud to have Good Peo­ple, Cre­at­ing Great Work for Our Clients. Brun­ner sim­pli­fies the com­plex­i­ties of mar­ket­ing by lever­ag­ing data insights to devel­op cre­ative solu­tions for clients’ mar­ket­ing chal­lenges. Brunner’s client port­fo­lio includes notable nation­al brands like The Home Depot Rental, Great South­ern Wood Pre­serv­ing, Mit­subishi North Amer­i­ca, Owens Corn­ing, and Rin­nai, among oth­ers. Brun­ner is head­quar­tered in Pitts­burgh, PA, with addi­tion­al offices in Atlanta, GA.