IAB Ad Measurement and Attribution 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What is last-touch attribution in digital advertising?
- Giving 100% of conversion credit to the final ad a user interacted with before converting (Correct answer)
- Measuring the last impression before an ad campaign ends
- Tracking the final destination URL a user visits
- Assigning credit to the last publisher in the supply chain
Correct answer: Giving 100% of conversion credit to the final ad a user interacted with before converting
Last-touch attribution assigns all conversion credit to the most recent ad touchpoint, which is simple to implement but ignores the role of earlier interactions in the customer journey.
Question 2: What is multi-touch attribution (MTA)?
- A method that distributes conversion credit across multiple ad touchpoints in the customer journey (Correct answer)
- A system for tracking users across multiple devices simultaneously
- A technique for measuring ads shown on multiple screens at once
- An approach to managing multiple advertising campaigns concurrently
Correct answer: A method that distributes conversion credit across multiple ad touchpoints in the customer journey
Multi-touch attribution distributes conversion credit across all ad interactions a consumer had before converting, providing a more complete view of which touchpoints drove the sale.
Question 3: What is a click-through rate (CTR) and how is it calculated?
- The percentage of ad impressions that resulted in a click, calculated as clicks divided by impressions times 100 (Correct answer)
- The number of clicks an ad receives in total
- The time it takes a user to click an ad after it loads
- The rate at which users click through multiple pages after an ad
Correct answer: The percentage of ad impressions that resulted in a click, calculated as clicks divided by impressions times 100
CTR measures ad engagement as a percentage: (Clicks ÷ Impressions) × 100, with industry display averages typically below 0.5%.
Question 4: What is view-through attribution (VTA)?
- Giving conversion credit to display ads that were seen but not clicked, if the user later converted (Correct answer)
- Measuring conversions that happen while a video ad is playing
- Attributing sales to ads that appear above the fold
- Tracking conversions from users who watched an entire video ad
Correct answer: Giving conversion credit to display ads that were seen but not clicked, if the user later converted
View-through attribution credits display or video ad impressions that were not clicked but may have influenced a conversion that occurred later, typically within a set window.
Question 5: What does ROAS stand for and how is it used?
- Return on Ad Spend, calculated as revenue generated divided by ad spend (Correct answer)
- Rate of Ad Success, a quality score metric
- Reach of Advertising Strategy, measuring campaign scale
- Revenue Over Advertising Sessions, a monthly metric
Correct answer: Return on Ad Spend, calculated as revenue generated divided by ad spend
ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) measures how much revenue is earned for every dollar spent on advertising, calculated as Revenue ÷ Ad Spend, and is a key campaign efficiency metric.
Question 6: What is incrementality testing in advertising measurement?
- A method to determine the true causal lift in conversions that advertising generated beyond what would have occurred organically (Correct answer)
- Testing incremental increases in ad spend to find the efficiency curve
- Measuring the improvement in ad performance over multiple campaign iterations
- Testing ads on small audience segments before full rollout
Correct answer: A method to determine the true causal lift in conversions that advertising generated beyond what would have occurred organically
Incrementality testing uses control and exposed groups to measure the true causal impact of advertising by comparing conversion rates between those who saw ads versus those who did not.
IAB Ad Measurement and Attribution 1
What is last-touch attribution in digital advertising?