Media biz shifts focus in 2017 to explaining ad data

The media and advertising industry is shifting its focus this year from collecting audience data to figuring out better ways to measure and explain the data to advertising and marketing clients, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau's annual Outlook study .

The study finds that 71% of industry executives expect to increase spending on data and related services this year.

Why the change? As media businesses become more sophisticated in collecting data on advertising and marketing, they've lagged in showing what that data means for clients and brands. Also, as data becomes more sophisticated, they have to prove they're measuring it properly. You may recall that Twitter and Facebook faced industry backlash for misreporting performance metrics in 2016.

Why it matters: Accurate measurement and attribution has major business implications. A C-suite agency executive told Axios that their company returned almost $10 million back to publishers last year, in part because of measurement and reporting complications around data-driven ad programs.