Ad tech company DoubleVerify is launching the DV Attention Lab, a new measurement system designed to provide advertisers with more accurate engagement data, an alternative to cookies that the company says will help prevent third-party fraud. More than 50 data points power DoubleVerify’s Authentic Attention metrics, which analyzes ad exposure and consumer response analyzing campaign effectiveness in real time. “Disruption from regulatory shifts to cookie deprecation is hindering how brands can use existing tools. With that in mind, we are confident that privacy-friendly attention metrics will become the industry’s new performance currency,” DoubleVerify CEO Mark Zagorski says.

For those reasons, traditional KPIs such as viewability and clicks are no  longer effective at identifying whether digital ads are making an impact on end viewers, according to Zagorski. Even though Google is delaying to late 2024 plans to phase out third-party ad tracking cookies on its Chrome browser, the changes are creating immediate challenges for advertisers, creating what Adweek calls an “imperative for brands to adopt a new measurement tool to justify their spend.”

DoubleVerify says it has a core group of just over 20 employees globally. The DV Attention Lab will focus on providing advertisers with “attention-based insights and recommendations on campaign performance, powered by DV Authentic Attention, and covering industry benchmark reports, best practice guides, illustrative case studies, and more,” per the company’s news announcement.

DoubleVerify, which went public last year and has a current market cap of about $4 billion, lists brands such as AT&T, Unilever, Mondelez and Reddit among its clients. The company projects that in 2022 it will measure over 5 trillion media transactions.

“Consider a CPG brand that uses Authentic Attention to run a multiplatform campaign across CTV, mobile and desktop where the company can run ads in a brand-safe environment,” writes Adweek, explaining that the Attention Lab team will gather information allowing simultaneously comparison of a brand’s campaign “to other CPG company campaigns to understand effectiveness. Over time, the advertiser is able to optimize the campaign finding the best combination of publisher and creative.”

Zagorski calls that “a seismic change in the industry,” according to Adweek.

Gartner research director and analyst Eric Schmitt notes “there’s been an increase in activity around attention metrics, particularly for advertisers who sell indirectly without any purchase data, but it’s yet to be widely adopted by the ad industry.” Calling attention “one type of metric in a very broad portfolio,” Schmitt concludes “there’s lots of room for research there. My hope is that this attention market moves in that direction to provide media planners with real insights,” Adweek writes.