Key Takeaways
- • Jon Finnie, VP of International Sales at Yahoo Canada, argues that marketers evaluating an "above benchmark" claim should ask three questions: compared with what, built from what, and over what period.
- • Finnie says there is no universal measure of campaign success; advertisers should first define the business outcome they want, such as incremental sales, new customers, store visits or qualified leads.
- • Attention is described as a useful signal of exposure quality, but Finnie cautions it should not become a catch-all metric and must be connected to downstream outcomes.
- • Reach and frequency should be assessed for incrementality, with identity-based measurement across CTV, mobile, desktop and the open web cited as necessary to avoid double-counting the same person.
- • For smaller teams, Finnie recommends testing one media assumption against one business-relevant outcome this quarter rather than tracking many KPIs.
Summary
In an interview with Marketing News Canada, Jon Finnie, Vice President of International Sales at Yahoo, outlined how Canadian marketers should scrutinize the performance claims platforms report. His central advice on benchmarks is to ask three questions: compared with what, built from what, and over what period. He said an "above benchmark" result only carries meaning if the comparison shares the same market, category, channel and campaign objective, if the underlying data is recent, and if the sample is large enough to support the comparison. "The goal should not be to find the most flattering benchmark," Finnie said, "It should be to find the most relevant one."
On measuring success more broadly, Finnie said there is no single universal metric. Advertisers should first define the outcome they are pursuing, whether incremental sales, new customers, store visits or qualified leads, and then assess whether media is working toward it. He pointed to Unified TV reporting for reach and frequency visibility across TV investment, and to Yahoo In-Flight Outcomes, which Yahoo recently launched in Canada, for real-world outcome signals during a campaign rather than only at its end.
On attention, Finnie said it improves understanding of exposure quality beyond viewability, but warned against treating it as the outcome itself. He noted that attention varies by format, context and frequency of exposure, so cross-campaign comparisons can mislead. Yahoo DSP advertisers can use pre-bid attention segments, including through partner Adelaide, to target higher-attention opportunities.
On reach versus frequency, Finnie said neither is inherently superior. The key question is whether each additional impression adds value. He said identity helps advertisers measure unique reach across fragmented environments, and that first-party data and predictive modelling can help extend reach to relevant new consumers.
For smaller teams without a dedicated measurement specialist, Finnie recommended choosing one assumption about media performance and testing it against one business-relevant outcome, with a clearly defined objective agreed in advance. He cautioned against equating sophistication with more dashboards. Finnie also said the broader challenge in Canada and other markets is less a lack of data than connecting disparate signals into usable decisions, and he called for greater interoperability between platforms and more transparency about what each measurement approach can and cannot show.
On measuring success more broadly, Finnie said there is no single universal metric. Advertisers should first define the outcome they are pursuing, whether incremental sales, new customers, store visits or qualified leads, and then assess whether media is working toward it. He pointed to Unified TV reporting for reach and frequency visibility across TV investment, and to Yahoo In-Flight Outcomes, which Yahoo recently launched in Canada, for real-world outcome signals during a campaign rather than only at its end.
On attention, Finnie said it improves understanding of exposure quality beyond viewability, but warned against treating it as the outcome itself. He noted that attention varies by format, context and frequency of exposure, so cross-campaign comparisons can mislead. Yahoo DSP advertisers can use pre-bid attention segments, including through partner Adelaide, to target higher-attention opportunities.
On reach versus frequency, Finnie said neither is inherently superior. The key question is whether each additional impression adds value. He said identity helps advertisers measure unique reach across fragmented environments, and that first-party data and predictive modelling can help extend reach to relevant new consumers.
For smaller teams without a dedicated measurement specialist, Finnie recommended choosing one assumption about media performance and testing it against one business-relevant outcome, with a clearly defined objective agreed in advance. He cautioned against equating sophistication with more dashboards. Finnie also said the broader challenge in Canada and other markets is less a lack of data than connecting disparate signals into usable decisions, and he called for greater interoperability between platforms and more transparency about what each measurement approach can and cannot show.
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