The Addressability & Measurement Working Group (AMWG) this week opened submissions for its ID Matrix, a companion project to the already-completed ID-less solutions mapping. Companies have until February 6, 2026 to add their products and services to the shared framework. According to the announcement posted January 14, the initiative aims to create practical industry-wide clarity around which solutions support which use cases across five core areas: planning, activation, measurement, optimization, and infrastructure.

The advertising ecosystem confronts structural challenges. Signal loss, regulatory evolution, and technical constraints have forced the industry to rethink foundational approaches to addressability, activation, measurement, and optimization in privacy-first environments. The number of available solutions has grown rapidly, often outpacing shared understanding among practitioners.

"Across committees, markets, and conversations, we see the same challenge: a lack of shared, practical knowledge about available solutions, the problems they solve, and how they are used," according to the announcement document. This knowledge gap "slows adoption, creates confusion for publishers, advertisers, agencies, and platforms under growing regulatory and technical pressure."

The Solution Mapping Matrix addresses a straightforward question: which solutions support which use cases? The working group finalized a shared set of use cases spanning the advertising lifecycle after internal collaboration. These range from familiar capabilities like audience activation, contextual targeting, and campaign reporting to emerging areas including clean room-based planning, federated learning infrastructure, probabilistic cohorts, attention measurement, and machine-learning model training systems.

The matrix employs the same use-case framework for both ID and ID-less solutions, enabling direct comparison between approaches. The working group has already completed an initial matrix for ID-less solutions, which documented methods for targeting and measuring campaigns without traditional identifiers. That framework received final release from IAB Tech Lab in July 2025 after extensive public feedback periods.

Five core addressability categories

The planning category encompasses pre-campaign activities including universe-to-universe matching, audience discovery and creation, pre-campaign insights, media mix modeling, panel-based insights, incrementality testing, predictive analytics and forecasting, data clean rooms for planning purposes, consent-based audience segmentation, deal curation, and inventory curation capabilities.

Activation capabilities cover audience activation, contextual targeting, bidstream augmentation, seller-defined audiences, private marketplace deals, audience enrichment, cohort lookalikes, probabilistic cohorts, cross-context deterministic cohorts, authenticated IDs including UID2.0 and RampID, exchange IDs including first-party IDs, retail media targeting, CRM retargeting and first-party matchback, ad pacing, device-side pacing, recency capping, frequency capping, creative sequencing, brand safety and suitability controls, and competitive separation mechanisms.

Measurement use cases include campaign reporting, conversion tracking, aggregated attribution reporting, multi-touch attribution, probabilistic attribution, cross-device and cross-context attribution, attention measurement, attention scores, ad verification and invalid traffic detection, engagement metrics, brand lift studies, media mix modeling for post-campaign measurement, propagated keywords and content signals, predictive attribution models, data clean rooms for measurement purposes, and incremental sales lift analysis.

Optimization encompasses campaign optimization, A/B testing and variant testing, budget allocation optimization, real-time bidding strategy tuning, creative performance analysis, engagement-based optimization, frequency management for effectiveness, machine-learning-based dynamic bidding, lookalike expansion tuning, journey mapping for optimization, ad suppression for saturation or negative impact mitigation, and bring-your-own-algorithm capabilities.

Infrastructure components span customer data platforms, identity graphs, data clean rooms, ETL pipelines for advertising technology data, API integrations for data exchange, server-side tagging infrastructure, ad verification and measurement SDKs, device attestation and security tokens, real-time event and ad event streams, cloud-based reporting and business intelligence infrastructure, privacy-first machine learning model training systems, federated learning infrastructure, browser APIs, consent management platforms, private aggregation APIs, on-device auction capabilities, and conversion APIs.

Industry context and measurement challenges

European advertisers demonstrate knowledge gaps in addressability despite growing adoption. IAB Europe released research findings in November 2025 from its first pan-European study examining how organizations across 27 markets have adopted addressability and measurement solutions. That research revealed organizations with smaller budgets expressed greater concern about limited cross-platform data access and knowledge gaps.

The development of standardized frameworks and industry guidelines emerged as the top priority at 72%, underscoring strong demand for consistency and alignment. Consumer transparency ranked second at 59%, followed by educational initiatives at 56% and improved interoperability at 56%. Lucio Gagliardi, Digital Advertising Product Manager at IAB Europe, stated the findings demonstrate progress while highlighting that many organizations, particularly brands, require deeper support to assess and implement addressability and measurement solutions with confidence.

Publishers reported experiencing a higher total number of challenges than other stakeholder groups. This aligns with their dependence on sophisticated addressability and measurement capabilities for revenue generation. Publishers participating in the study highlighted particular concerns around signal loss and audience segmentation activation difficulties.

Wayne Tassie, Group Director NL at DoubleVerify and Chair of IAB Europe's Advertising & Media Committee, noted that addressability and measurement sit at the core of Europe's acceleration toward a privacy-first advertising ecosystem. Organizations require clarity to map their vision, regardless of whether they operate as advertisers, agencies, publishers, or technology providers.

Privacy-compliant identity solutions have gained prominence across European markets. Telecommunications-powered approaches like Utiq have integrated with major publishers including RTL Deutschland, demonstrating that consent-based addressability functions effectively across digital properties. According to companies operating in the space, 50% of inventories are already no longer addressable through traditional cookie-based methods. This shift has accelerated across non-Chrome browsers, where third-party cookie restrictions have become standard.

Signal loss presents significant operational challenges. Research from Comscore released January 21, 2025 revealed that 54% of mobile impressions lack identifier coverage, while 36% of desktop impressions operate without traditional tracking capabilities. These changes force marketers to adopt new strategies, with only 1% reporting no plans to implement cookie-free targeting by the end of 2025.

Contextual targeting emerged as the primary solution for 41% of marketers, slightly outpacing first-party data strategies at 40%. The industry demonstrates growing confidence in privacy-compliant approaches, with 54% of marketers planning to increase their use of contextual data in 2025. These approaches analyze content characteristics to place advertisements alongside relevant material without relying on individual user tracking.

Data collaboration infrastructure expansion

Clean room technology has proliferated throughout 2025, though implementation quality varies significantly. The Federal Trade Commission issued guidance in November 2024 warning that data clean rooms present complicated privacy implications despite marketing claims. The regulatory body emphasized that most clean room services are not privacy-preserving by default without appropriate constraints.

Clean rooms are cloud data processing services that enable companies to exchange and analyze data under specific usage rules. What differentiates a clean room from standard data transfers are the constraints—rules limiting data analysis within the clean room and controlling what can be exported. These constraints must be appropriately designed, implemented, and monitored to effectively limit data usage and disclosure.

Major platforms launched clean room capabilities throughout 2025. Uber Advertising announced Uber Intelligence on December 8, 2025, a data collaboration platform enabling brands to analyze consumer behavior patterns derived from millions of monthly users. NIQ introduced its data clean room on Snowflake in October, enabling marketers to enrich first-party data and measure campaign outcomes across global markets.

LiveRamp expanded measurement capabilities in October 2025, enabling retail media networks to analyze how Meta advertising campaigns perform against first-party sales data. The system operates through the LiveRamp Clean Room, a data collaboration platform that allows retailers to connect Meta campaign results with their own sales information while maintaining privacy controls.

Privacy-preserving measurement technologies have attracted multiple technology providers offering various approaches. Mozilla-owned Anonym partnered with Pinterest to enable brands to measure campaign performance using tightly governed first-party data through encrypted infrastructure. The partnership announcement emphasizes measurement and insight rather than audience targeting or campaign activation.

Framework development and standardization efforts

IAB Tech Lab developed comprehensive frameworks throughout 2025. The organization's technical standards roadmap announced January 29 outlined 31 new specifications or updates addressing privacy regulations, data handling, and streaming media challenges. The organization completed 79 initiatives in 2024, developed with input from over 800 member companies.

Programmatic curation standards gained traction after major platforms integrated frameworks into their operations. Google announced curation capabilities within Google Ad Manager in November 2024. The system allows agencies to work directly with curation partners through their Agency Seat, targeting data segments and curated auction packages while maintaining streamlined operations.

The curation framework consists of four fundamental components. Specification and protocol components provide standardized data formats and interfaces between buyers and sellers. Taxonomies form another critical component, providing standardized language for describing content and audiences. Data Transparency Standards provide ingredient labels similar to those found on food products. The SupplyChain object functions as a real-time ledger that tracks inventory provenance between buyers and original sellers.

Privacy signal monitoring emerged as a critical verification requirement. IAB Tech Lab announced the finalization of its Accountability Platform specification in November 2024, establishing a standardized framework for validating user preference signals across the digital advertising ecosystem. The platform focuses on ensuring accurate transmission of user preference signals, such as the Global Privacy Platform string and Transparency & Consent Framework string, throughout the digital supply chain.

Regulatory compliance requirements

Microsoft Advertising mandated that advertisers must provide user consent signals by May 5, 2025. This requirement marks a significant development in how advertisers must handle user data in regions with strict privacy regulations. Microsoft emphasizes that failing to provide consent signals by that deadline will impact advertising performance for site visits originating from the European Economic Area, United Kingdom, and Switzerland.

The technical documentation clarifies how Microsoft Advertising handles consent signals through the Transparency & Consent Framework. By enforcing consent mode, Microsoft helps businesses comply with privacy laws such as GDPR, avoiding potential fines and penalties. The implementation aims to balance advertising effectiveness with user privacy preferences.

State privacy laws continue expanding across United States markets. Google announced in December 2025 that publishers using its AdSense platform can now activate privacy compliance messages for users in Indiana, Kentucky, and Rhode Island. The update addresses upcoming state privacy legislation taking effect January 1, 2026 across all three jurisdictions.

The announcement introduces a significant operational change for publishers managing privacy compliance across multiple states. Google launched a toggle allowing publishers to target messages to "all current and future supported US States," which automatically extends privacy messaging to newly regulated states as their laws take effect. Publishers operating national advertising inventory face the complexity of determining user location, applying appropriate privacy notices based on that location, honoring opt-out requests according to each state's specific requirements, and maintaining compliant data processing practices across varying legal definitions and technical specifications.

Measurement standardization initiatives

IAB Europe released updated retail media definitions for European markets in July 2025. The framework applies across European markets through IAB Europe's network, addressing the continent's €11.1 billion retail media market that achieved 22.1% growth in 2024. The standardization addresses industry fragmentation challenges, with 70% of buyers citing lack of retail media standards as investment barriers.

The definitions establish clear parameters for on-site retail media as "advertising sold on a commerce platform or retailer's own digital properties." These typically encompass owned and operated websites and applications, featuring formats including Sponsored Products, Sponsored Display, and Display and Video advertisements. The updated definitions complement ongoing standardization efforts. IAB Europe previously released the first industry-wide measurement standards for in-store retail media in September 2024.

Market mix modeling adoption has experienced significant growth following reduced signals from traditional attribution methods and changes to privacy legislation. The Interactive Advertising Bureau Australia released a comprehensive landscape report in September 2025, profiling twelve active market mix modeling vendors operating in the Australian market. The document provides detailed analysis of methodologies, data requirements, and capabilities as advertisers increasingly turn to MMM solutions amid ongoing attribution challenges.

The report emphasizes MMM's role within broader measurement frameworks rather than standalone implementation. Industry perspectives collected from agency and media owner executives reinforce this multi-tool approach as attribution becomes increasingly difficult due to privacy changes and fragmented consumer journeys. The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising advocates combining MMM with experimentation and attribution methodologies through structured frameworks.

Strategic implications for marketing professionals

The Solution Mapping Matrix initiative reflects fundamental shifts in advertising technology infrastructure. The working group plans to convert the completed mappings into clear, accessible infographics once both ID and ID-less matrices are complete. The organization will explore a more interactive version of the landscape and potentially develop a conversational interface through custom GPT to allow stakeholders to query the ecosystem directly.

The initiative also aims to collect short and long-form use-case definitions, written by practitioners, to bring consistency to how these concepts are understood and discussed across the industry. This standardization addresses persistent communication challenges where different organizations use varying terminology to describe similar capabilities or apply identical terms to fundamentally different approaches.

Marie-Clare Puffett and Lucio Gagliardi serve as primary contacts for the initiative. Companies wishing to participate should review the shared document and add their company and products in the "ID Matrix" tab, selecting the appropriate use-case checkboxes. Examples are already included to guide submissions. The deadline to participate is Friday, February 6, 2026.

The working group's approach builds on the Addressability & Measurement Solutions Report to turn insights into tangible and usable references. By grounding the discussion in clearly defined use cases, the Solution Mapping Matrix aims to reduce ambiguity around addressability and measurement solutions, provide a neutral reference point for privacy-first approaches, help the ecosystem move from theory to implementation, and support future work including infographics, interactive tools, and deeper educational content.

The initiative arrives as digital advertising leaders converged for IAB Europe's H1 2025 insights in July. That hybrid event, broadcast from Rakuten Advertising's London offices, featured panel discussions covering programmatic fundamentals, omnichannel strategies, curation practices, and attention measurement. Industry executives emphasized that the first-half period saw significant growth in retail media investments and stronger performance than expected across European markets.

The first-half period demonstrated that digital advertising achieved unprecedented growth with 16% year-over-year expansion in Europe. Connected television emerged as a standout performer across multiple discussions. When including digital extensions like connected television and digital out-of-home, digital's share reaches 81% of global advertising revenue. These growth patterns underscore the strategic importance of maintaining effective targeting and measurement capabilities even as traditional methods face restrictions.

Timeline

Summary

Who: IAB Europe's Addressability & Measurement Working Group (AMWG), led by contacts Marie-Clare Puffett and Lucio Gagliardi, launched the initiative targeting advertising technology companies, publishers, advertisers, agencies, and platforms across European markets and beyond.

What: An industry-wide solution mapping initiative creating a comprehensive matrix cataloging which ID-based addressability and measurement solutions support which specific use cases across five categories: planning, activation, measurement, optimization, and infrastructure. The matrix employs the same framework as the already-completed ID-less solutions mapping, enabling direct comparison between approaches.

When: The announcement was posted January 14, 2026, with submissions accepted through Friday, February 6, 2026. Once complete, the working group will develop infographics, interactive tools, and potentially conversational interfaces for ecosystem queries.

Where: The initiative operates through IAB Europe's Addressability & Measurement Working Group, with submissions managed via shared documentation. The framework will apply across global advertising markets, particularly addressing European ecosystem needs where privacy regulations and signal loss challenges are most acute.

Why: The advertising ecosystem confronts structural challenges from signal loss, evolving regulations, and technical constraints requiring fundamental rethinking of addressability, activation, measurement, and optimization. The rapid proliferation of available solutions has outpaced shared understanding, creating confusion that slows adoption and hampers decision-making under growing regulatory and technical pressure.

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