Comscore expands certified deals with Adelaide attention metrics

Three major advertising technology companies announced a strategic partnership five days ago that combines inventory quality rankings with attention-based measurement for programmatic advertising buyers. Comscore, Adelaide, and PubMatic revealed on June 10, 2025, the expansion of Comscore-Certified Deal IDs to integrate Adelaide's attention metrics across PubMatic's premium supply-side platform.

The collaboration marks a significant development in programmatic advertising infrastructure. Media buyers can now access inventory that meets dual criteria: Comscore's trusted quality rankings and Adelaide's attention-based optimization metrics. This integration spans PubMatic's premium inventory, including many leading Connected TV publishers.

The partnership leverages Comscore's established ranking methodology through its MMX and Video Metrix measurement systems. These rankings, which evaluate publisher content quality and audience reach, now incorporate Adelaide's proprietary attention unit (AU) metric. According to Adelaide, the AU measures the likelihood of an advertisement placement capturing viewer attention and generating positive campaign outcomes.

Comscore-Certified Deal IDs represents a fusion of two flagship solutions from the measurement company. The system combines Comscore's industry-leading content measurement capabilities with its Proximic programmatic targeting technology. This integration enables advertisers to target publisher properties based on their position in Comscore's rankings while simultaneously optimizing for attention-based performance indicators.

PubMatic's supply-side platform provides the technological foundation for this collaboration. The platform's infrastructure supports private marketplace transactions that utilize the combined Comscore and Adelaide measurement criteria. Advertisers can access these curated deals through standard programmatic buying processes while benefiting from the enhanced quality and attention optimization.

The partnership addresses persistent challenges in programmatic advertising quality assurance. Advertisers have historically struggled to balance automation efficiency with inventory quality control. Manual inclusion and exclusion list management has proven time-intensive and often ineffective at scale.

PubMatic's platform reaches significant scale within the programmatic ecosystem. According to March 2025 data from the Jounce Supply Benchmarking Report, Magnite, another major supply-side platform, covers 96% of overall omnichannel supply through direct publisher relationships. PubMatic operates at similar scale levels within the premium inventory segment.

Connected TV inventory represents a particularly important component of this partnership. The streaming television advertising market continues rapid expansion, with programmatic CTV showing substantial growth rates. PubMatic reported over 50% year-over-year growth in CTV revenue during the first quarter of 2025, highlighting the format's increasing importance for advertisers.

Rachel Gantz, Managing Director of Proximic by Comscore, emphasized the partnership's alignment with broader market consolidation trends. "At Comscore, we are committed to providing media buyers with the tools they need to drive performance and transparency in programmatic advertising," according to Gantz. "This integration aligns with Comscore's mission to unify disparate parts of the ad ecosystem, bringing together trusted Comscore data solutions with key industry partners to enable advertisers to activate campaigns with confidence and drive outcomes that matter."

Adelaide CEO and co-founder Marc Guldimann highlighted the streamlined targeting capabilities the partnership enables. "Combining Adelaide's media quality metric, AU, with Comscore's trusted independent inventory quality signals in PubMatic makes targeting premium inventory easy for media buyers," according to Guldimann. "With this partnership, advertisers can seamlessly activate programmatic campaigns with confidence that they're getting the best value for their media investment."

Howard Luks, VP of Audience Solutions at PubMatic, positioned the collaboration within broader industry infrastructure development goals. "By enabling Comscore-Certified Deal IDs in our SSP, we are expanding opportunities for advertisers to buy high-quality inventory with enhanced transparency and efficiency," according to Luks. "This initiative is part of PubMatic's vision to develop the technology, infrastructure and partnerships that power a performant open internet. Through programmatic advertising with data-driven curation, we are committed to creating a more transparent, efficient and impactful digital ecosystem. We're excited to partner with Comscore and Adelaide to empower media buyers with the data they need to maximize their ad spend."

The partnership announcement occurs amid significant programmatic advertising growth. Comscore's 2025 State of Programmatic Report, released in January, revealed that 72% of marketers plan to increase programmatic investment this year. This represents substantial growth from 62% in 2024, indicating continued confidence in automated buying channels despite quality concerns.

Attention-based measurement has gained prominence as traditional metrics face limitations. Click-through rates and impression counts provide limited insight into actual consumer engagement with advertising content. Adelaide's AU metric attempts to predict whether attention will translate into meaningful business outcomes for advertisers.

The collaboration follows Comscore's broader expansion of certified deal capabilities. In May 2025, the company announced a similar partnership with Magnite, another major supply-side platform. This strategy suggests Comscore aims to establish its ranking data as standardized quality signals across multiple programmatic platforms.

Privacy regulations continue reshaping measurement methodologies across digital advertising. Traditional cookie-based tracking faces increasing restrictions, driving demand for alternative measurement approaches. Attention-based metrics offer potential solutions that rely less on individual user tracking while providing campaign optimization insights.

This partnership represents another step toward programmatic advertising maturation. The combination of established content measurement with attention-based optimization addresses two persistent industry challenges: inventory quality assurance and campaign performance measurement.

Marketing teams can expect more sophisticated targeting options through these enhanced deal structures. Rather than managing complex inclusion and exclusion lists manually, advertisers can leverage pre-curated inventory that meets dual quality and attention criteria. This approach potentially reduces campaign setup time while improving performance predictability.

The integration also signals continued consolidation within advertising technology infrastructure. Major platforms increasingly partner to offer comprehensive solutions rather than standalone capabilities. This trend suggests marketing professionals may need to evaluate technology partners based on their integration capabilities rather than individual feature sets.

Connected TV advertising receives particular emphasis through this partnership. The format's rapid growth, combined with attention-based optimization, positions CTV as a premium inventory category for performance-focused campaigns. Marketing teams should consider how attention metrics might influence their video advertising strategies.

Supply path optimization gains additional relevance through these developments. PubMatic reported that over 55% of platform activity now flows through SPO arrangements, indicating advertiser preference for direct, transparent buying relationships. The Comscore-Adelaide integration supports this trend by providing clear quality and performance signals.

The partnership utilizes existing programmatic infrastructure while adding new data layers. Advertisers access the enhanced inventory through standard demand-side platform interfaces, requiring minimal technical modifications to existing workflows. Deal IDs function as private marketplace arrangements that incorporate the combined measurement criteria.

Campaign optimization occurs through attention-based signals integrated into real-time bidding decisions. Adelaide's AU metric provides performance indicators that complement traditional campaign metrics. This dual measurement approach enables more nuanced campaign optimization strategies.

Cross-platform measurement capabilities receive enhancement through the partnership. Comscore's established measurement methodologies extend across multiple media channels, while Adelaide's attention metrics provide performance insights. Combined, these capabilities support comprehensive campaign evaluation across programmatic channels.

The collaboration maintains compatibility with existing campaign management processes. Media buyers can implement attention-optimized campaigns without abandoning current targeting strategies or measurement frameworks. This approach facilitates adoption while preserving established optimization practices.

The partnership positions all three companies strategically within evolving programmatic infrastructure. Comscore strengthens its role as an independent measurement authority, while Adelaide expands its attention-based metric adoption. PubMatic enhances its premium inventory positioning through quality assurance integration.

Competition within supply-side platforms intensifies as inventory differentiation becomes increasingly important. Platforms must demonstrate clear value propositions beyond basic reach and frequency capabilities. Quality assurance and performance optimization represent key differentiation factors for premium inventory positioning.

The collaboration may influence broader industry adoption of attention-based measurement. As major platforms integrate these metrics, other advertising technology providers face pressure to develop similar capabilities. This trend could accelerate attention measurement standardization across programmatic channels.

Privacy-compliant measurement methodologies gain additional validation through this partnership. Attention-based metrics operate independently of individual user tracking, supporting compliance with evolving privacy regulations. This approach provides sustainable measurement solutions as cookie deprecation continues.

Timeline

June 10, 2025: Comscore, Adelaide, and PubMatic announce expanded partnership integrating attention metrics into certified deal IDs across premium inventory

May 11, 2025: Comscore launches certified deal IDs with Magnite, establishing foundation for programmatic quality assurance solutions

May 11, 2025: PubMatic reports Q1 2025 results showing 50%+ CTV growth despite overall revenue decline

February 9, 2025: Comscore State of Programmatic Report reveals 72% of marketers plan increased programmatic investment

December 7, 2024: X platform expands programmatic access through multiple DSPs including PubMatic with competitive $0.39 CPMs

December 4, 2024: PubMatic partners with DIGITS to transform local grocery retail media advertising

April 1, 2024: Adelaide attention measurement report establishes YouTube as leading platform for consumer attention with highest AU scores