AI Pushes Attribution Changes For Ad Industry
Foursquare will give advertisers the ability through data to confirm whether or not ads influence an increase in consumer spending in stores. The product, Sales Impact, will launch in September this year.
This capability is now being tested with a handful of companies. Features like this can influence how media buys are made, and demonstrate how companies should bring their own data (BYOD) and how this will change attribution and targeting.
“Think about your own browsing behavior,” said Michele Morelli, head of marketing and communications at Foursquare, a privately held company. “When people think about going into stores to either evaluate a product or pass the time, we can now tie whether or not advertising improved in-store purchases.”
Morelli said Foursquare developers built an attribution methodology and partnered with data partners that can combine it with transactional and financial data. Previously, the company only analyzed whether it drove in-store traffic.
She also pointed to data released by Emarketer earlier this year. The firm forecast that total retail sales for the 2024 holiday season will reach $1.37 trillion -- up 4.8% YoY. It’s not clear whether the percentage of increase factors in inflation or declining consumer confidence.
The prediction was released well before Friday’s weak jobs report that reignited recession fears on Wall Street -- sending stocks lower, with The Dow closing down 600 points, the Nasdaq dropping 2.4% and the S&P selling off 6% from its recent all-time high.
The rapid integration of AI in the ad industry, particularly in areas like attribution, is a development that conservative campaigns should approach with both interest and caution. On one hand, AI-driven attribution models can offer more precise insights into which channels and messages are driving voter engagement, helping campaigns allocate resources more effectively. However, there’s also a risk that over-reliance on AI could lead to a disconnect from the human elements that are vital in political messaging—values, integrity, and personal connection. Conservative campaigns should leverage AI as a tool to enhance their strategies, but not at the expense of the foundational principles that resonate deeply with voters.
~Political Media