Third-party advertising measurement becomes necessary once an ad budget is large enough for customers to demand independent scrutiny. This matters because in-platform A/B tests weren’t built to answer questions about efficiency or diminishing returns. Without that outside check, a growing budget can quietly become inefficient, since a platform has no reason to flag its own diminishing returns. This video explains why objective, third-party experiments benefit advertisers and ad platforms alike.
Why Third-Party Advertising Measurement Benefits Ad Platforms, Not Just Advertisers
Third-party advertising measurement benefits ad platforms, not just advertisers, because the in-platform A/B tests a platform already runs were never built to answer questions about efficiency or diminishing returns. In this video, John Wallace, CEO of LiftLab, explains that ad platforms themselves sometimes reach out to LiftLab, usually because their own customers are asking for objective, third-party scrutiny of a growing ad budget. That need for scrutiny isn’t new; it shows up as soon as a budget gets large enough to matter.
Wallace is careful to distinguish LiftLab’s incrementality tests from a platform’s built-in A/B tests: the two are complementary, not competing, since LiftLab is specifically designed to answer efficiency and diminishing returns questions the platform’s own tests don’t address. Crucially, the recommendations stay aligned with the advertiser’s interest either way. A LiftLab experiment might justify spending more, done efficiently, or it might recommend cutting spend, but only to increase profitability, in which case the platform still keeps the remaining budget intact rather than losing it outright. The same math and methodology scale cleanly too, from measuring a single ad platform to measuring a brand’s entire media plan at once.
In this video, you’ll learn:
Why growing ad budgets necessitate independent measurement
How external experimentation complements built-in platform tests
The importance of addressing efficiency and diminishing returns
How data-driven insights align with advertiser profitability goals
The value of consistent methodology across all media platforms
TIME STAMPFull Video Transcript: Third-Party Advertising Measurement Explained
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In this video, LiftLab CEO John Wallace explains why ad platforms themselves sometimes bring in LiftLab, and why that measurement stays aligned with the advertiser’s interest.
[0:00 – 0:22] Why Ad Platforms Reach Out to LiftLab
Why would ad platforms ever reach out to LiftLab? They are always curious about what we are up to, but sometimes their customers are driving a need for objective third-party measurement. This isn’t something new; it’s happened ever since ad budgets get large. There’s going to be a need for some kind of scrutiny of the performance of that budget, and the most objective way to do that is through an experiment.
[0:22 – 0:43] Complementary Experimentation
It turns out that the experiments that have already been built into the ad platforms are kind of complementary to a LiftLab experiment. LiftLab experiments differ from those A/B tests because our platform is designed to address questions of efficiency and diminishing returns. I just want to point out that our experiments are completely aligned with the advertisers’ interests.
[0:43 – 1:11] Alignment with Advertiser Interests
I can say that because one outcome from a LiftLab experiment may yield the opportunity to spend more budget and to be able to do that efficiently. If the opposite happens, if the recommendation is to cut the budget, it only would be done in order to increase profitability or increase efficiency. So in the cases where there is a reduction in spend, at least the ad platform now has a remaining budget that’s very much intact, and over at LiftLab, we actually enjoy these collaborations.
[1:11 – 1:37] Scalable Measurement Methodology
We know that the brands that are exposed to LiftLab tests for that ad platform are often going to have a need to do the same level of scrutiny on the rest of their media plan. We’re objective and indifferent; this can be measurement for a single ad platform, or it can be an engagement for a customer where we measure all their ad platforms. It’s the same math and the same methodology, and it works just as well.
Key Lessons: Why Third-Party Advertising Measurement Works for Everyone
Objective measurement: Third-party analysis provides the necessary scrutiny to evaluate the true performance of large ad budgets.
Complementary testing: LiftLab’s experiments work alongside existing platform tools to provide a deeper understanding of marketing effectiveness.
Strategic optimization: Recommendations to increase or decrease spend are strictly focused on maximizing profitability and overall efficiency.
Consistent approach: The same rigorous math and methodology apply equally to single ad platforms or a brand’s entire media ecosystem.
