Inventory quality is an ongoing challenge, to say the least. But Comscore and Magnite are teaming up to try and address it.
Comscore today announced the launch of Certified Deal IDs, designed to make it easier for advertisers to buy inventory vetted and measured by Comscore. The Certified Deal IDs will be available through PMPs in SSP Magnite, allowing buyers to target top-ranked publishers based on Comscore’s Top 100, 500, or 2,000 site lists. Ultimately, the goal here is to give advertisers greater confidence in the inventory they buy through curation and quality.
Comscore says it’s tapping Magnite as its launch partner due to the company’s breadth of “direct relationships with premium media owners, covering 96% of overall omnichannel supply.”
Why This Matters:
Last year, WARC released a report naming brand safety and suitability the top concern among 100 programmatic experts. Viewability (51%) and ad fraud (46%) were also cited as major issues. In short, media quality remains the dominant concern in programmatic advertising.
SSPs—whether we’re talking Magnite or others—are often dinged for not doing enough to address these challenges. Partnering with Comscore to launch Certified Deal IDs is a solid win for Magnite, signaling a stronger commitment to quality. For Comscore, it’s an opportunity to lead on curation, a topic that continues to have staying power in programmatic media buying.
And this isn’t strictly about inventory curation, either. Comscore also owns Proximic, which provides audience and content targeting segments. An advertiser could use Comscore Certified Deal IDs to curate Magnite’s supply, then layer on segments for more granular addressability.
Experts React:
In the press release, Kristen Williams, SVP of Strategic Partnerships at Magnite, says that “making Comscore’s rankings available within Magnite’s SSP” will give buyers “turn-key access to Comscore-vetted inventory.”
That turn-key aspect is key—managing quality can be time-consuming. Exclusion and inclusion lists take effort to build and maintain. The ability to simply “turn on” Comscore-vetted inventory is, yes, a boost for quality but also a more manageable solution for buyers.
Our Take:
Comscore may have found a smarter niche in media quality for itself by basically helping to automate inclusion and exclusion lists through Certified Deal IDs. While Comscore has historically competed with verification companies (to varying degrees), this launch leans into its more obvious strength: its widely used publisher rankings data. It appears that advertisers will still be able to apply protections from their preferred third-party verification providers (assuming they’re integrated with Magnite), so this move doesn’t necessarily put Comscore in greater conflict with those companies.
This also looks like a clear opportunity for SSPs beyond Magnite. As DSPs like The Trade Desk roll out tools like the SP500, SSPs are well positioned to deliver on quality, given their direct access to inventory and supply-side data. Partnering with third-party providers like Comscore is a smart move because it allows SSPs to claim independent auditing and measurement. They’re not favoring any specific inventory themselves, but rather allowing advertisers to curate using a neutral, third-party data source.
