Increasing dependence on proprietary data from walled-garden platforms is undermining informed decision-making about media budgets, according to a new IPA white paper.
Signals in the Noise 2: Doing the right things — jointly authored by outgoing Barb chief executive Justin Sampson and Work Research managing partner Tony Regan — outlines the explosion of digital media over the past 30 years, and why, with over £20bn invested in advertising annually, media accountability and joint-industry oversight of audience research is so important.
Building on 2023’s Signals in the Noise, the paper argues that a culture of short-termism and the abundance of performance data drives advertisers towards the platforms that are the most measurable and attributable, but not necessarily the most effective.
The solution, according to the IPA, is independent, joint-industry governance. It says that effectiveness experts need consistent audience data to enable comparable evaluation across different media and allow informed media investment decisions.
Tony Regan said: ‘We have never had a better scientific understanding of how advertising works, yet the data environment makes the measurable the enemy of the meaningful.’
To address these issues, the paper outlines the following actions:
- The joint-industry bodies invest in making their data work harder for the next generation of analysts and modellers who need it.
- The data-science community should bring the same rigour to assessing the quality of their inputs that they apply to building your models.
- The online platforms need to engage seriously with joint-industry principles rather than treating transparency and comparability as inconvenient constraints.
- Advertisers and agencies should remember that the freedom to invest with confidence — rather than with faith, or with resignation — depends on the quality of the evidence on which their decisions are based.
Dan Flynn, the joint research director at IPA, added: ‘This new paper is a call to action for all sides of the industry to prioritise the use of trusted, joint-industry sources as a foundation stone for strategic planning and campaign evaluation.’
Along with the white paper, this week the IPA also released its Digital Media Owners Spring 2026 Survey — with Loop Me named the best overall media owner to work with.
In the survey, which details which media owners deliver the highest levels of service, and which have shown a commitment to continually improving their digital standards, 90.5% of respondents said that their overall experience of working with Loop Me was a good one.
In addition to securing the overall top spot, Loop Me also led for Ad Networks/Exchanges, DSP and Sales Houses. Meanwhile, Reddit came top among Online Pure Plays and Mail Metro Media was the best-performing Crossover Media Owner.
Five other media owners had an overall score of 80% or above: Reddit (87.3.%), GumGum (86.3%), Blis (83.8.%), Mail Metro Media (83.3%) and Captify (82.9%).
