1. In your experience, how do ad formats that mimic social media interactions (e.g., swipeable, tap-to-reveal) perform compared to traditional banner or static ads? 

Our approach emphasizes thoughtful implementation of social-inspired elements across platforms, recognizing that each environment, whether mobile, desktop, or CTV, requires nuanced creative adaptation to maximize consumer connection. By carefully tailoring social interaction patterns to match platform-specific consumer behaviors and expectations, we create experiences that feel native and intuitive regardless of where they appear.

When familiar social features are used in the right context, they have been proven to drive a 5.81% engagement rate and 11X more exposure time than standard banner ads. This effectiveness is further validated by PadSquad's Social Skin creative, which is proven to outperform standard ad formats, driving 39% higher lift in brand favorability and 21% higher lift in purchase intent compared to standard ad formats. 

With a strategic application of familiar social mechanics, we’ve created a comfortable, engaging experience that resonates with audiences and drives measurable performance across diverse media environments. 

2. Which features of social platforms (polls, UGC, reactions, etc.) have you successfully adapted for your digital advertising strategy? 

We’ve successfully adapted a variety of social features into our display, video, and emerging formats—what we refer to as Social Replicas. These are ad experiences designed to emulate the familiar UI/UX of popular social platforms, creating a seamless and intuitive environment for the viewer. From social stories to feed-inspired layouts, these formats mirror the native content experience consumers are accustomed to, driving stronger engagement.

We’ve layered interactivity such as likes, shares, reactions, and swipe-ups, to invite consumers to engage with the ad the way they would on social platforms. We also incorporate both UGC-inspired and authentic UGC elements to build a sense of relatability and authenticity throughout our campaigns. Social-inspired overlays, familiar navigation cues, and contextual visual treatments reinforce the look and feel of the platforms where consumers spend the most time.

As we design these experiences, we’re mindful of how they translate across screens. What works well on mobile might need to be adapted for larger formats, including CTV, where viewing behaviors and interaction patterns differ. Social Replicas are designed with the environment, audience, and campaign goals in mind. This ensures each execution feels native and effective, no matter the screen.

3. How does your team ensure brand authenticity when designing ads to resemble user-generated or influencer-style content? 

Because we're not simply using the same exact asset in a new box, we're crafting unique ad experiences for each campaign to match its objective. Our belief is that the assets used in social are an incredible resource for brands, but our view is that you can't simply place it in another box outside of the social platforms.

4. What metrics do you use to evaluate the success of socially inspired ad formats (e.g., engagement rate, watch time, CTR)? 

Each campaign has unique objectives and outcomes, but many times we are designing the experience to hit on that key objective: video views, reach, engagement, site traffic, or even lifts in brand health metrics. The value of using the assets in new and different ways is what makes custom creative so valuable.

• Engagement metrics: interaction rate, completion rate

• Attention indicators: scroll depth, scroll speed, video completion

• Creative-specific actions: reactions, shares

• Traditional performance metrics: CTR, conversion rate, ROAS

• Brand impact: brand recall, brand preference, purchase intent

5. Is there any industry-specific compliance that limit your use of more informal, social-inspired ad styles? 

This is an area where it's not a compliance issue but one of technology limitations and lagging consumer behaviors/adoption: Interactive CTV. Unfortunately, the industry is asking for something that consumers don't innately grab the remote to do, more than that, the tech stacks for TV aren't in a place where there is uniformity in the ad serving standards, with new walled gardens in this ecosystem making the challenge even more prominent.

6. How frequently do you A/B test traditional versus social-style ad creatives?

Repetitive content risks ad fatigue and disengaged audiences. That’s why we experiment with a variety of creative formats and features, refreshing assets and messaging throughout the campaign to drive performance. Our testing goes beyond simply comparing traditional versus social-style ads. We continuously evaluate how different formats and features perform throughout the campaign. 

We also strategically adapt messaging to speak to different audiences and campaign phases. For example, the same ad format can be customized to highlight back-to-school essentials for younger students while showcasing back-to-college gear for older audiences. Similarly, an entertainment brand might evolve its messaging from “Coming Soon” to “Watch the New Trailer” to “See It This Weekend,” using unique creative assets and tailored CTAs at each stage.

This agile, audience-first approach not only helps prevent ad fatigue but ensures sustained engagement over time. By emulating the feel of social media interactions, we create a more seamless and familiar ad experience—one that drives deeper, more meaningful audience engagement.

1. What are the potential benefits of adopting a managed services model for marketing services compared to traditional in-house teams or agency engagements? 

As a MarTech expert, I've seen firsthand how managed services can transform marketing operations by providing unprecedented flexibility in navigating complex technology landscapes. Our model allows companies to quickly shift experts across platforms like MAP, ABX platform, data providers, and ad platforms without the costly overhead of continuous retraining or new hires. We help organizations optimize workflows, reduce technical debt, and leverage best practices developed across multiple B2B clients, ultimately enabling them to do more with less. By offering an external perspective and deep expertise, managed services can unlock efficiencies that traditional in-house teams often miss.

2. How does the integration of AI tools streamline the go-to-market processes, leading to increased efficiency and cost savings?  

AI tools are revolutionizing go-to-market processes by dramatically improving efficiency across multiple key areas, including engagement, sales enablement, operations, content creation, marketing planning, and performance reporting. We're seeing significant time savings in content development through AI-powered co-creation and editing tools, which allow marketers to generate and refine content much faster than traditional methods. Performance metrics are also being enhanced, with AI enabling more sophisticated tracking of campaign effectiveness, engagement rates, and potential cost reductions across marketing and sales initiatives. By automating manual tasks and providing advanced insights, AI is helping marketing teams focus on strategic activities while reducing overall operational costs and improving workflow productivity.

3. What metrics should we use to evaluate the effectiveness of AI-powered marketing initiatives? 

When evaluating AI-powered marketing initiatives, we focus primarily on efficiency metrics like the speed and quality of content creation and editing. Conversion and engagement metrics remain critical, tracking performance from initial interaction through pipeline and revenue generation. We're exploring emerging KPIs that assess AI's ability to engage with new accounts or target personas previously difficult to reach. Tracking cost savings and performance improvements across specific use cases helps organizations understand the tangible value of their AI investments.

4. How does the integration of AI in marketing workflows impact the roles and responsibilities of our marketing teams? 

AI is reshaping marketing roles by automating manual tasks while introducing new responsibilities for content verification and strategic oversight. While AI streamlines processes like market research and content ideation, marketing professionals now need to invest more time in editing and quality assurance. Marketers must adopt an AI-forward mentality, focusing on leveraging tools to automate workflows and create strategic value. As AI evolves, marketing roles will increasingly require skills in AI tool management and the ability to critically evaluate AI-generated content.

5. How can we ensure data security and privacy when utilizing AI platforms in our marketing operations? 

Ensuring data security and privacy when utilizing AI in marketing operations requires strict adherence to company information security policies and a cautious approach to handling sensitive data. Marketers should integrate AI in ways that enhance workflows while operating in controlled environments, avoiding the input of confidential information into public or unsecured platforms. Staying informed on evolving data privacy regulations, investing in team AI literacy, and maintaining human oversight alongside AI capabilities will help organizations maximize AI’s potential while safeguarding their data.

6. How can integrating AI-powered platforms enhance our marketing and sales workflows? 

By providing specific use cases that improve existing processes, such as ad testing, email copywriting, and strategic market planning. By ramping up the capabilities of in-house teams and sellers, organizations can leverage AI tools for research, automation of sales cadences, and intelligent trigger-based enablement strategies. The key is to focus on targeted AI applications that solve specific pain points and incrementally improve efficiency, rather than attempting a wholesale transformation of all workflows at once.

1. What strategies can businesses use to attract high-performing affiliates and maximize conversions? 

Top affiliates reach that level because they’re strategic with their time and choose programs that genuinely invest in them. So, if a business wants to attract those high-performers, it needs to make joining and promoting the program as easy and rewarding as possible. 

That starts with a straightforward commission structure affiliates should instantly understand the value. Providing ready-to-use materials like templates and copy removes friction and helps them start promoting right away. 

But more than that, it’s about building a real relationship. Affiliates want to know there’s someone on the other end who actually cares about their success. The best performers also expect a bit of a VIP experience, so making them feel valued from the beginning and continuing to show up for them is what keeps them engaged and delivering results. 

2. How do higher commission structures impact affiliate engagement and long-term loyalty? 

High commissions are great for grabbing attention, but they’re not enough to keep affiliates around. If it’s just about the payout, it’s easy for them to bounce from one program to the next. 

What really drives long-term loyalty is the relationship making affiliates feel genuinely valued, heard, and supported. If a business wants to build a program that stands the test of time, it has to go beyond commissions. That means offering ongoing incentives and creating an experience that keeps affiliates engaged and excited to stick around. In our updated GetResponse Affiliate Program, we are committed to providing ongoing support to our affiliates. This includes monthly update newsletters, quarterly one-on-one sessions with our team, and exclusive access to the GetResponse Affiliate Slack channel available at the Gold subscription level. 

3. What are the key performance indicators (KPIs) for measuring affiliate marketing success? 

At the end of the day, revenue is the ultimate KPI. Metrics like traffic, clicks, and free trials matter they help gauge the quality of the traffic an affiliate is driving. But on their own, they don’t move the needle. They’re leading indicators, not end goals. If those actions aren’t converting into real revenue, they don’t hold much weight in the long run. 

4. How can businesses align their affiliate program with broader digital marketing strategies? 

Your affiliate program should function like an extension of your sales team. That means keeping brand messaging consistent and making sure affiliates are in sync with your broader marketing efforts. Share product updates, upcoming launches, and campaign roadmaps when you can and stay connected through regular newsletters or check-ins. 

Cross-channel alignment is key. If your SEO team knows what keywords are driving traffic, pass that insight to affiliates so they can fine-tune their content. And make sure affiliates play nicely with other channels, like influencers or paid media, so they’re adding value not stepping on toes. 

5. How can brands ensure transparency and trust in their affiliate partnerships? 

Transparency and trust start on day one. Your website should lay it all out - how affiliates earn, the exact commission structure, how and when payments happen, and what kind of support they can expect. Real success stories help too, giving potential partners a glimpse of what’s possible. 

Setting clear expectations from the start builds trust. From there, it’s about consistency - keeping affiliates in the loop with resources, monthly updates, and being available when they need help. When affiliates feel informed and supported, they’re far more likely to stick around and succeed. 

6. What challenges do companies face when scaling an affiliate marketing program, and how can they overcome them? 

The biggest challenge in scaling an affiliate program is doing it without sacrificing efficiency. What works fine with 20 affiliates can quickly break down with 200. That’s why it’s crucial to build with scale in mind from the start.

Automation is key especially when it comes to onboarding and giving affiliates easy, self-serve access to the resources they need. A solid affiliate management platform, like PartnerStack, can make a big difference by streamlining workflows and keeping operations smooth as the program grows.

1. How do AI agents enhance process automation, and what key inefficiencies do they help eliminate? 

AI agents enhance process automation by handling high-volume, repetitive tasks with speed, precision, and consistency. They streamline workflows by validating contracts, generating content, making rule-based decisions, and executing complex calculations. By eliminating bottlenecks such as manual data processing, human errors, and delays in decision-making, AI agents not only increase operational efficiency but also improve compliance, reduce costs, and enhance scalability. Additionally, they enable real-time data analysis, ensuring faster insights and better decision-making, while freeing up teams to focus on innovation and high-value strategic initiatives.

2. What role does natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning play in AI-driven automation? 

In the Pipefy context, the connection between natural language and AI enables us to scale our solutions. NLP acts as a bridge between humans and AI, allowing agents to process, interpret, and generate human language naturally. With Pipefy’s AI Agents, NLP ensures fluid interactions by adapting to users' language and behavior to deliver increasingly accurate and relevant responses.

Generative AI allows us to easily create agents that can operate within processes, continuously improve their performance, and optimize process automation in a smart and efficient way.

3. What industries or business functions can benefit the most from AI-driven workflow automation? 

Companies from all sectors can benefit from using AI Agents in their workflows, as they bring increased autonomy, efficiency, and precision to processes. Pipefy brings together the powerful combination of a no-code platform—enabling autonomy for business teams—with deep knowledge of the service management market, delivering solutions and use cases across industries like insurance, financial services, and HR, along with artificial intelligence that powers cognitive reasoning within workflows.

In insurance, for example, AI can streamline claims processing and risk assessment. In financial services, it helps automate compliance checks, fraud detection, and data analysis, driving significant improvements in operational efficiency and cost reduction.

4. How does AI-powered automation help businesses scale operations with the existing infrastructure? 

AI Agents are capable of profound transformations in operations and changing the working style between humans and agents, evolving the traditional automations. They allow processes to become more agile, intelligent and strategic, bringing a new era of operational efficiency and also allowing team members to focus on higher-value activities. They unlock technology within the company due to their easy setup and adoption, offering an intuitive interface and recommended agents for each type of process, without the need for any technical team for this implementation. AI-powered automation helps organizations accelerate digital transformation - empowering business areas without requiring IT support.

5. What are the biggest risks companies should be aware of when implementing AI in process automation? 

One of the biggest risks is failing to adopt AI, as companies that do not integrate AI into their operations may fall behind in AI transformation. However, even for those implementing AI, challenges remain. Businesses should be aware of potential risks such as data privacy and security concerns, probabilistic decision-making, and over-reliance on automation without human oversight. Ensuring proper governance and clear AI ethics policies can help mitigate these risks and maximize the benefits of AI-powered automation.

Additionally, it’s important to understand the use cases where AI is recommended to operate autonomously, under supervision, or not recommended at all. Because AI operates probabilistically, caution is needed to ensure appropriate oversight and avoid unintended consequences.

6. How do you see the role of AI evolving in process automation, and what’s next for the industry? 

Today, AI is no longer just hype, it’s becoming practical and accessible for companies.

Here at Pipefy, we are focused on this evolution, building an intuitive solution that democratizes AI adoption, empowering both technical and non-technical teams to automate processes with ease.

Looking ahead, we aim to further enhance agent decision-making, outcome prediction, and enable hyper-personalized workflows that drive efficiency and innovation across industries.

Because of Agentic AI, business process automation (BPA) is no longer just about automation, but delivering agents that understand the process and act independently.With Pipefy, our agents and assistants actively participate in processes in a simple and intuitive way, enhancing human-agent interactions.

1. What are the biggest emerging SEO trends that businesses should be preparing for in 2025 and beyond?

I think the biggest trend in search is the possibility that Google may not continue to drive traffic as they have historically over the past two decades. The movement of the search experience over the past few years will continually be influenced by artificial intelligence and machine learning. The ideal way to deal with this is to focus on EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) and Brand marketing. Reaching your audience continues to increase in complexity, whether it be through visual search, voice search, video, interactive content, or whatever is around the corner, figuring out where they are and what they engage with will be valuable to continued success in digital marketing.

2. How can businesses ensure that their SEO strategies align with evolving search engine algorithms?

Focus on your current audience or the audience you are trying to reach. User intent drives what is seen in search results, so understanding what people expect to see in the result for particular queries is what you need to provide to effectively rank and convert them when they reach your content. Contextual relationships with topics and brand relevance for these topics will be the key to continuing to rank, whether it be AI driven or keyword searches in traditional search engines or generative engines. To do this effectively, brands will need to leverage structured data that ties their content to their entity, helping the algorithms and AI to understand why your content is valuable for the person searching.

3. What are the biggest challenges brands face in local vs. global SEO strategies?

Localization will continue to limit traditional global SEO strategies because if it is relevant to a local company, search engines will likely provide them within search results more favorably because they are more relevant or apparent to a person in a particular location. This will make it harder for global brands to rank competitively across markets unless they have a known footprint, relevancy or awareness for a localized result. Local businesses that are leveraging location-based content and signals (e.g., Google Business Profiles, Yelp, Apple Maps, Bing Maps) have an advantage over these larger organizations’ higher authority signals that have historically helped them rank highly across the majority of search.

4. How should brands balance organic SEO efforts with paid search strategies for maximum ROI?

Understanding that SEO is not simply an acquisition channel, it provides awareness and can help brands gain traction that then can be converted through paid search can help you improve your return on ad spend. Additionally, leveraging high performing keywords in paid search to inform content strategies for organic search can help you increase your return by widening your funnel; what are the non-brand topics that are driving a lower cost per acquisition in paid that can be targeted in organic to reach them higher up in the funnel and turn to lower cost brand searches in paid. To find a balance, it is necessary to evaluate the blended ROI of all your marketing channels to find the right balance, no single channel is an island and there is value in being in all of the ones that your audience engages with.

5. What are the best practices for businesses to future-proof their SEO strategies against constant algorithm updates?

If you are producing content that is relevant, highlights your topical expertise and experience you will gain trust in your brand. Maintaining the experience on your site (navigation, UX/UI and performance) and making it easier to complete the desired task or find an answer will reinforce the purpose of your site to users and engines. If your brand earns this engagement and you can maintain it, your brand demand will increase, and you will prove to search engines that you should be included in results relevant to your brand. The easiest way to future-proof your strategy is to focus on what the engines are trying to do, deliver the most relevant results for a request based on the intent of the person making the request.

6. What impact will zero-click searches and AI-generated answers have on SEO strategies?

The short answer is less traffic, especially for informational queries. People will continue to search for these, and it will still be important for brands to have content that is relevant to these topics, because it shows
what brands and sites have expertise and authority for them. If you simply want to increase traffic, identifying other areas of the SERP like “no answer” queries, local search, people also asked, image results, product results, etc. that are present for keywords that have high demand will help your brand continue to stand out even if the result isn’t driving traffic to your website.

Key Takeaways – search engines will continue to award traffic to websites that focus on the user, leverage multi-format content that provide value. My recommendation is to ensure that SEO is part of your holistic marketing strategy, build owned assets and increase your engagement with the community where your brand operates. You can invest in tools, such as AI, to do this more efficiently, but effective content, analysis and engagement comes from human oversight and understanding.

1. What impact do changes in third-party cookie deprecation and privacy laws have on attribution models? 

The privacy landscape evolution hasn't just challenged attribution models—it's completely transformed them. Traditional attribution frameworks are fundamentally outdated in today's privacy-first ecosystem.

Rather than attempting to retrofit legacy tracking methodologies, we are encouraging businesses to take a more comprehensive approach that blends robust first-party data strategies with privacy-safe cross-platform attribution. This methodology not only honors user privacy commitments but delivers the precise insights businesses require to identify their most effective channels for customer acquisition, engagement, and retention optimization.

At its core, successful attribution in 2025 is about striking the perfect balance between preserving user trust and fulfilling critical business intelligence needs—a balance our platform uniquely delivers.

2. How can brands ensure accurate cross-channel attribution in a privacy-first digital landscape? 

The stakes for brands are tremendous—losing visibility into ad effectiveness directly impacts bottom lines. When Facebook reported a staggering $10B revenue loss in 2022 following Apple's privacy changes, it underscored the critical nature of this challenge. Without reliable identity resolution, measurement becomes exponentially more complex.

Our approach combines deterministic deep linking with sophisticated probabilistic modeling, maintaining attribution accuracy while prioritizing privacy compliance. The paradigm shift we're spearheading moves beyond individual tracking toward understanding aggregated, anonymized user journeys. This empowers brands to optimize performance while building sustainable trust relationships with their audiences.

We've conclusively demonstrated that retargeting and optimization goals remain achievable through innovative applications of aggregated identifiers and privacy-preserving technologies—proving that privacy and performance aren't mutually exclusive.

3. How is privacy-centric attribution changing the way marketers evaluate campaign performance and customer journeys? 

Privacy-centric attribution represents a fundamental shift from granular individual tracking to sophisticated pattern recognition across user segments. Today's most successful marketers understand that the future lies not in tracking clicks but in capturing meaningful, consent-driven insights that strengthen user trust while enabling smarter decision-making.

While Meta's Aggregate Measurement and Google's gbraid have pioneered new attribution methodologies using aggregated identifiers, they remain limited to their respective ecosystems. This limitation drove our development of Predictive Aggregate Measurement—utilizing the same technical foundations as AEM and gbraid but expanding capabilities across all ad networks to deliver 100% modeled attribution coverage.

The results speak for themselves: we consistently achieve an average 118% lift in iOS installs compared to SKAN installations. We're actively driving the industry-wide adoption of aggregate identifiers for optimization, setting new standards for privacy-compliant measurement. 

4. How can companies leverage privacy-first measurement techniques without sacrificing marketing effectiveness? 

The critical insight is focusing on market-level intelligence rather than individual user information. Brands need attribution clarity—understanding that specific conversions occurred under particular circumstances—without requiring exhaustive personal data. The marketing insights remain equally valuable while the methodology evolves.

Our industry must continue innovating to address marketers' fundamental question—”How effectively are my investments performing?”—while simultaneously advancing measurement practices that respect evolving privacy expectations. Our platform sits at this precise intersection, delivering comprehensive performance insights within privacy-first frameworks.

5. What are the biggest challenges businesses face in balancing ad performance tracking and data privacy regulations?

Businesses today face a three-pronged challenge: keeping pace with rapidly evolving privacy regulations, maintaining targeting and personalization capabilities, and optimizing marketing investments in an increasingly complex landscape.

We're committed to help businesses avoid the scenario where they allocate marketing budgets based on assumptions rather than insights, attributing measurement limitations to privacy changes. This commitment drives our development of solutions that bridge iOS measurement gaps, eliminate cross-platform fragmentation, and unify cost and attribution data—all while maintaining strict privacy compliance.

The persistent challenge of managing multiple networks with distinct attribution models underscores why accurate, privacy-conscious measurement is more critical than ever. Our platform provides that ultimate source of truth, enabling confident allocation of marketing investments based on reliable performance data rather than guesswork.

1. How have shifting business and consumer behaviors changed the way organizations approach events and travel?

In B2B GTM, where I’ve spent the majority of my 20+ year career, the shifts we see are usually in response to external factors. How is our market changing? How do we keep our Events relevant to the audiences we care about? How are economic conditions impacting my attendee’s ability to travel? And more recently, how does the political climate contribute to this uncertainty? All too often Events are among the first things to be cut when the economy softens, and so organizers are in a constant battle to innovate while also maintaining budget (and staff!). Event attendees, whether in a B2B or B2C setting, are still humans first, and would-be attendees are more discerning than ever with their money and their time. No doubt these are challenging times, but it’s certainly no time to wilt under the pressure. We must remind ourselves that Events offer unique value that can’t be replicated in another channel. Recent research on B2B Events budgets shows they are holding firm and tracking to a 10+ year average. So it’s important to acknowledge the power that our attendees hold, and the need to innovate, but also to remain steadfast about the impact that an effective Events program brings to our organizations.

2. What are some common mistakes companies make when designing their meetings and travel programs, and how can they be avoided?

It seems cliche to say that ‘strategy is critical to event success’, but we see it all the time where Event objectives are poorly defined, too generic, or simply not in line with what business stakeholders expect from the program investments. The onus is squarely on event leaders to better align Event objectives for any with core business goals. Most B2B Events have the potential to impact several different objectives simultaneously, sometimes cloudying the picture of what could be the standout objective. To deal with this, I’m an advocate for an ‘Audience first’ approach - starting with a specific Audience segment and building the event experience to optimize around only a handful of essential objectives for that audience. Narrow in focus but deep in impact.

3. How should organizations integrate meetings and events into their broader go-to-market (GTM) strategy? 

The ‘portfolio’ concept has become more mainstream in recent years and I’m an advocate for this approach. A portfolio strategy considers the various types of Events that are possible as a ‘portfolio of experiences’ to cover a spectrum of business objectives - creating brand awareness, launching a new product,  collaborating with partners or suppliers, deepening customer relationships, closing new business, etc. With a range of possibilities, we can be very intentional about how to use each type of experience to do a very specific job with a very concrete objective. As a channel, Events should also be combined with other channels or tactics in the construct of a campaign. So in some ways Events stand alone because of the unique value they deliver, but in most ways they are part of an integrated GTM strategy.

4. How can organizations use data and insights from meetings and events to improve marketing and sales outcomes?

Building on the idea that each type of event experience has a specific job to do with a very concrete objective - every objective should ultimately align with the corresponding metrics and KPIs that best measure each objective (awareness, demand, deal velocity, product adoption, etc.). These are performance measures that are not specific to only Events, but to every channel or tactic in our arsenal. This approach lets us understand the performance of the Events channel relative to other channels, but it also positions Events to contribute to the core outcomes we expect sales and marketing investments to drive. 

5. How can companies leverage events as a demand generation and customer acquisition tool? 

Setting aside the ‘demand gen vs. lead gen’ debate, Events can be an extremely effective means of creating or capturing demand. The notion of ‘Event led growth’ also stems from this - by its very nature, what is so unique about the Events channel, and in particular live Events, is that we create the opportunity for buyer and seller to interact in a very meaningful way, in a very short span of time, and oftentimes at a reasonable scale. In the face of challenging market conditions, economic uncertainty, and political unrest, this should bolster even the faint of heart to trust in the power of events. 

1. How does sustainability in audience data collection and processing impact the broader digital advertising landscape ?

Thanks to research done in 2019 by The Shift Project, we know that the internet is responsible for approximately 3.7% of global Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. And digital marketing is a contributing factor. All the data transfer required to serve a single ad impression is powered by servers, many of which are powered by fossil fuel-based energy sources. As an industry, if we can get smarter and more efficient about how we operate, we can help make the digital advertising ecosystem more environmentally sustainable.

2. Tell us about Datonics' carbon-neutral initiative and the journey ?

Datonics has taken the same steps and followed the same standards and protocols as other companies in other sectors have been following for many years. We start measuring, because as we all know, you can’t manage what you don’t measure. Datonics has completed 2 GHG inventories, which have been independently verified by Cameron-Cole, an accredited emissions verifying organization.  We made the decision to further our sustainability by offsetting our residual emissions by investing in verified carbon reduction, avoidance and removal projects through Climate Impact Partners, one of the most trusted providers of carbon offset projects. In doing so, Datonics became the first and only audience data platform to be certified as a CarbonNeutral ® company. So brands and agencies that work with Datonics know that the work they do with us will have a much smaller carbon footprint when compared to working with other companies that have not gone through this rigorous process.

3. What future innovations do you see in green data processing and sustainable advertising technology ?

We believe we are at the very beginning of a trend throughout the advertising technology industry where every company will do what Datonics has done, in measuring, reducing and removing the GHG emissions from their business operations. This is not a new trend. Thousands of companies in dozens of other sectors have been taking real corporate climate action for a decade or more. As the advertising industry continues to catch up with the rest of the world, we expect new innovations to be created. We expect more ad tech platforms to migrate away from on premises data centers to cloud platforms like Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud Platform (GCP), which will make a huge impact on our collective efforts to decarbonize. 

4. What are the biggest environmental challenges facing data providers today, and how can they be mitigated ?

We know that there is huge waste in the programmatic ecosystem. The sheer volume of data being transferred between demand and supply side platforms through ad calls and bid requests is staggering. And the vast majority of this data transfer doesn’t even result in a delivered ad impression, let alone an impression that is seen by an actual human. The biggest challenge facing data providers today is that we need to be more efficient in how we conduct business and this starts by taking the first step - measuring the environmental impact of our business operations so we can make smarter decisions about how to start reducing data waste and the carbon emissions that come from it.

5. How can companies ensure that sustainability efforts don’t compromise data accuracy and performance ?

Sustainability is directly linked to efficiency and efficiency is directly linked to performance. If you are reducing waste in your advertising, it typically means you are creating a more direct connection to your target audience through a more efficient buying path. By reducing waste, you’re making your advertising more efficient and as a result lowering its carbon impact.