IP address targeting proves 87% inaccurate for household advertising

A landmark study released on November 5, 2025, has exposed fundamental flaws in how the advertising industry targets households through IP addresses. The research found that IP-to-postal address linkages achieve just 13% accuracy on average, while IP-to-email connections perform only marginally better at 16%.

The Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement and Go Addressable jointly commissioned the study, with data validation firm Truthset conducting the analysis. Nearly one billion IP address records from six major data providers were benchmarked against accurate databases from two Internet Service Providers and one Multichannel Video Programming Distributor.

"The state of IP data today is messy, despite the billions spent trading on it," said Kathryn Barnitt, head of data science at Truthset. The validation against ISP truth sets allowed researchers to quantify where errors enter the supply chain.

Critical signal for billions in advertising spending

IP addresses serve as a foundational identifier for Connected TV advertising, programmatic campaigns, and addressable marketing. The study's timing coincides with Google's February 2025 policy changes permitting IP address use for CTV advertising through privacy-enhancing technologies.

Tim Myers, executive director at Go Addressable, stated that the research demonstrates IP addresses cannot accurately identify and serve ads to consumers or households as the primary targeting and measurement method. "This sets the stage for industry-wide improvements and reinforces why advertisers and agencies should be using more deterministic identifiers," Myers said.

Go Addressable represents a trade organization founded by AMC Networks, Comcast Advertising, DIRECTV Advertising, DISH Media, and Spectrum Reach. The group's member companies distribute television content to millions of households across the United States.

Massive discrepancies across data providers

The accuracy gap varies dramatically by provider. The most accurate vendor achieved 18% precision for IP-to-postal linkages, while the lowest-performing provider managed just 4%. That 4.5x performance difference means advertisers face wildly inconsistent results depending on their data source selection.

For IP-to-email connections, accuracy ranged from 7% to 30% across providers. The best-performing vendor delivered 4.3 times more accurate linkages than the worst performer.

Data providers rarely agree on the same connections. Vendors matched on IP-to-postal linkages only 6.4% of the time, while IP-to-email agreement occurred in just 2.8% of cases. An overwhelming 93% of linkages remained unique to a single data provider across the 90-day study period from December 1, 2024, through February 28, 2025.

Three times too many IP addresses per household

The research identified systematic overcounting in commercial datasets. Data providers report an average of 3.2 IP addresses per postal address, compared to 1.2 IPs per address in actual ISP records. This threefold inflation means advertisers attempting household-level targeting waste substantial budget reaching incorrect addresses.

Similarly, commercial data sources show 1.8 postals per IP address, while ISP records demonstrate 1.0 postal per IP. The excess postal addresses linked to individual IPs create further targeting inefficiencies.

IPv6 addresses severely underrepresented

Commercial datasets capture only 15% IPv6 addresses despite 54% IPv6 adoption in the United States, creating a 72% underrepresentation gap. Individual data providers showed IPv6 coverage ranging from 0% to 32% of their files.

IPv6 represents the current Internet Protocol version, designed to replace the older IPv4 system as available address space diminishes. The underrepresentation means advertisers miss substantial portions of modern internet-connected households.

Timestamp inconsistencies undermine recency claims

Data providers lack standardized definitions for IP address timestamps. Some vendors apply large weekly batch updates, while others implement small daily refreshes. Provider interpretations of "first seen," "last seen," or "versioned" timestamps conflict across the industry.

The study documented IP linkage accuracy fluctuating daily based on network activity changes, address rotation, and consumer behavior patterns. During the 2024 holiday season, daily accuracy variations demonstrated how purchase timing affects which households actually receive targeted advertisements.

Geographic and temporal accuracy variations

State-level geographic analysis revealed IP-to-postal accuracy ranging from 5% to 17% across U.S. regions. Higher population states showed marginally better performance, while states with population centers near borders demonstrated reduced accuracy as geolocation precision decreased.

Measurement challenges in CTV advertising have prompted multiple industry partnerships aimed at improving addressability. The fragmented streaming environment creates particular difficulties when advertisers attempt household-level targeting across different platforms and devices.

Cascading accuracy losses through targeting chain

The research illustrated how errors compound through the advertising value chain. Starting with $1.00 of media investment, 13% accuracy at the IP-to-postal stage reduces effective reach to $0.13. Subsequent email matching at 51% accuracy drops the figure to $0.07. Finally, demographic targeting at 43% accuracy means only $0.03 of each advertising dollar reaches the intended audience.

"Inaccuracies in IP-to-household data can erode advertiser confidence in its reliability for audience targeting, attribution and measurement," said Jon Watts, managing director at CIMM. The organization emphasized that greater transparency and stronger standards represent essential next steps for unlocking scalable, accurate addressable advertising.

Known technical limitations create systematic problems

Several factors contribute to IP address unreliability. Internet Service Providers and MVPDs frequently reassign IP addresses for privacy protection, security enhancement, and limited address pool management. Virtual Private Network usage masks true household IPs by routing connections through remote servers.

Consumer address changes create postal and demographic mismatches as people relocate. Data providers often prioritize match rate and scale over recency and accuracy, maintaining stale linkages rather than refreshing connections.

Probabilistic modeling introduces imprecision as providers infer connections rather than establishing deterministic links. IP geolocation technology shows limited accuracy beyond city-level positioning, performing poorly in dense urban areas or border regions.

Industry implications and opportunities

The study's implications extend across the advertising ecosystem. Most audiences built on IP data will reach incorrect households given 13-16% average linkage accuracy. Any system relying on IP-to-postal or IP-to-email mappings for audience construction or campaign measurement faces significant accuracy challenges.

Attribution measurement problems become more severe when inaccurate IP linkages compound with other data quality issues throughout the customer journey. Post-campaign measurement itself depends on IP linkages, potentially obscuring the extent of data accuracy problems.

CIMM previously commissioned Truthset to examine hashed email-to-household address accuracy, finding match rates as low as 32%. The current study demonstrates how complex supply chains erode media dollar value across multiple connection points.

The organizations outlined several paths forward. Real-world tests could measure how IP data accuracy affects campaign and business outcomes, quantifying the financial impact of accurate versus inaccurate linkages on media performance and return on investment.

Advertisers should develop perspectives on data accuracy and understand business impacts, select partners carefully given 4.5x performance gaps between best and worst providers, and prioritize sources like MVPDs with deterministic IP linkage data.

Truthset plans to assess the feasibility of creating a collaborative IP validation asset serving as an independent, privacy-safe source of truth. This industry benchmark would validate IP linkages and improve IP-driven advertising accuracy across the ecosystem.

Timeline

• December 1, 2024 – Study data collection begins across six data providers and three validation sources
• December 2024 – Google announces IP address targeting policy changes for CTV advertising
• February 28, 2025 – Study data collection concludes after 90-day measurement period
• February 16, 2025 – Google's new IP targeting policies take effect
• April 8, 2025 – Smartclip integrates deterministic TV measurement platform addressing CTV accuracy challenges
• June 5, 2025 – ID5 partners with Future Today for enhanced CTV addressability
• July 8, 2025 – MNTN partners with ZoomInfo bringing B2B targeting to connected TV
• September 28, 2025 – Utiq and Visoon launch consent-based identifiers for TV advertising
• November 5, 2025 – CIMM and Go Addressable release comprehensive IP accuracy study at Go Addressable Summit

Summary

Who: The Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement and Go Addressable commissioned the research, with Truthset conducting the analysis. Six major data providers and three validation sources participated, representing billions of advertising dollars spent on IP-based targeting.

What: A validation study of nearly one billion IP address records revealed that IP-to-postal linkages achieve only 13% accuracy while IP-to-email connections reach 16% accuracy. Data providers agree on linkages just 6.4% of the time for postal addresses and 2.8% for email addresses, with accuracy varying 4.5x between best and worst performers.

When: The study analyzed data from December 1, 2024, through February 28, 2025, with results announced November 5, 2025, at the Go Addressable Summit.

Where: The research focused on United States IP address data, examining geographic variations across states and measuring performance against Internet Service Provider and Multichannel Video Programming Distributor validation sets.

Why: This matters because IP addresses serve as a foundational identifier for Connected TV advertising, programmatic campaigns, and addressable marketing worth billions of dollars. The low accuracy rates mean most advertising spend fails to reach intended households, eroding campaign effectiveness and measurement reliability. The findings challenge fundamental assumptions about digital advertising targeting as the industry shifts toward streaming platforms and privacy-compliant solutions.