IAB Australia has identified the Future of Measurement as one of its three strategic focus areas for 2026. This initiative reflects the scale of change underway in advertising planning, buying and evaluation, and the need for industry-aligned solutions that can support confidence in media decision-making. The Future of Measurement workstream will undertake a comprehensive review of current practices, datasets and measurement approaches in the Australian market to identify gaps and define future requirements. IAB Australia are consulting marketers, agencies, media owners, platforms, measurement vendors and data partners to contribute their thoughts and experience to inform a 2027 strategy focused on developing industry-driven measurement infrastructure that enables transparent, consistent and robust audience and advertising measurement.
IAB Australia’s The Future of Measurement will help define the industry-led measurement infrastructure required to support transparent, consistent and robust measurement, so marketers, agencies and media owners can make confident media decisions and assess advertising effectiveness into the future.
Why now?
This focus comes at a pivotal moment. Over recent years, structural change across the industry has accelerated, driven by shifts in consumer behaviour, technology and regulation. The industry is also entering another major phase of transformation as artificial intelligence becomes more deeply embedded across media and marketing. Together, these forces have brought measurement to a critical juncture, where significant evolution is required to support robust audience and advertising effectiveness measurement within a cross-media, privacy-first environment.
Media consumption has become increasingly fragmented as audiences spread their time across a growing range of platforms, formats and devices. At the same time, the loss of cross-platform identifiers and the decline of addressable signals have made consistent and comparable measurement more difficult. These changes have weakened marketers’ ability to link advertising exposure to business outcomes, compare channels fairly, and understand how channels work together to deliver impact.
Alongside these structural changes, there is heightened scrutiny from the c-suite and marketing leaders. Recent years of slower economic growth have been characterised by cautious marketing investment and increased pressure to demonstrate return on investment. This has driven a clear shift toward outcomes-based measurement and a growing demand for privacy-compliant, reliable and holistic approaches that can assess effectiveness across channels and support confident allocation decisions in an increasingly complex ecosystem.
Industry media currencies are under increasing economic pressure
IAB Australia has for over 15 years set the standard and endorsed a preferred supplier of content audience measurement for planning digital media. The Australian market has led the world with currency-grade digital audience measurement that provides a whole of market view with independent, standardised, comparable, transparent and audited data used by advertisers, agencies and media owners to plan media, compare, understand and evaluate digital media audiences and ad environments. However, globally industry media currencies are under increasing economic pressure, and cross-media audience measurement remains an unresolved challenge.
Privacy compliant currency-grade establishment surveys, representative consumer panels and tracking technology to measure across fragmenting devices and channels is costly. Significant resourcing is also provided by industry bodies and cross-industry technical groups who perform the governance and oversight function for these measurement systems to ensure adherence to KPIs, best practice methodology and data integrity. With local publishers and media owners contributing most of the investment and resourcing required to maintain (often multiple) industry audience measurement systems, the economics has become increasingly challenged.
Audience and advertising measurement systems function as shared industry infrastructure. Maintaining them requires collaboration across buyers, sellers, platforms, measurement providers and industry bodies to ensure that the systems remain robust, transparent and economically sustainable for the whole market.
IAB Australia’s Future of Measurement will evaluate if there are opportunities for industry collaboration on shared assets—such as enumeration studies, taxonomies, frameworks, and closer integration between outcomes and currency measurement— that could improve economic sustainability and deliver greater value to marketers, agencies and media owners.
Standardised cross-media measurement is often cited as a priority by Australian advertisers. There are audience and advertising cross-media measurement systems in other markets for IAB Australia to draw experience, however these use a variety of approaches using diverse methodologies, datasets, governance structures, and funding models that would need to be evaluated for viability locally. As an example, Origin (the UK cross-media advertising campaign reach and frequency measurement program built on the WFA’s open-source Halo framework), highlights the challenges of scale and complexity in replicating such a solution in a smaller market like Australia. Announced in 2019, Origin delivered its first data in 2025 after substantial investment from advertiser organisations and platforms. Locally we will be watching closely if and how Origin data will integrate with outcomes-based measurement and whether quality advertising reach and frequency inputs can drive greater accuracy in outcomes-based measurement.
Increasing focus on measuring outcomes but a lack of consistent frameworks and data structures
The industry wants to measure real business results from advertising, but the systems, standards, and data needed to do this consistently across all media channels are not yet aligned.
Insights from the IAB US State of Data 2026 Report based on research with more than 400 senior planning and analytics decision-makers from U.S. brands and agencies, found that a majority of buy-side respondents use at least one advanced measurement approach, across incrementality testing, attribution analysis and marketing mix modelling. However, only 39% reported using all three together, despite their complementary roles. This suggests that while adoption of advanced techniques is widespread, practical complexity continues to limit the ability to integrate approaches into a single, holistic view of performance.
The same research highlights ongoing dissatisfaction with advanced measurement solutions. Between 60% and 75% of US ad buyers reported that current approaches fall short on rigour, timeliness, trust and efficiency, and none believed that all channels are well represented in marketing mix models today. Locally, IAB Australia is seeking to better understand how Australian marketers are using these approaches, whether similar levels of dissatisfaction exist, and our role in helping to address these challenges.
As first-party datasets have expanded across brands, agencies, media owners, platforms and vendors, they have become a critical input for measurement, particularly in response to signal loss and evolving privacy regulation. This growth in first-party data availability along with more sophisticated modelling techniques, developments in Privacy Enhancing Technologies and the emergence of accessible open-source or self-managed solutions have provided the capability for organisations and ad agencies to build their own measurement systems. While these approaches can offer convenience and affordability, limited transparency can make it difficult for marketers to understand how these systems differ in terms of quality standards, fair channel comparability or best practice in model validation and audience deduplication.
Through industry engagement as part of the Future of Measurement project, IAB Australia will assess whether there is a need for greater industry support in outcomes measurement. This may include initiatives on metric definitions, input data quality, methodological frameworks, governance, validation or calibration processes, and the potential establishment of minimum standards or accreditation programs.
The next phase of industry transformation will be shaped by artificial intelligence.
AI is already influencing how consumers access content, discover brands and engage with products, while also delivering efficiency gains across advertising operations and enabling new analytical capabilities. The IAB US State of Data 2026 Report estimates that AI-driven measurement improvements could unlock significant value through increased media investment and productivity. Over the next one to two years, AI is expected to play a larger role in incrementality test design and analysis, attribution matching and marketing mix model optimisation. A key consideration for IAB Australia’s Future of Measurement work will be to gauge whether these AI driven approaches can help address persistent measurement challenges with sufficient transparency and whether they can make cross-media solutions more affordable.
The measurement challenge is global
Measurement challenges are global in nature, and many measurement vendors and platforms operate across markets. As a result, global standards and frameworks, adapted for local needs, offer opportunities for greater consistency and efficiency. As part of the Future of Measurement project, IAB Australia will examine relevant global initiatives, standards and best practices to inform local progress. Key among these is IAB US Project Eidos, a US industry-wide initiative focused on establishing shared principles, standards and frameworks for measurement development, evaluation and comparison. Project Eidos spans outcomes measurement, attribution and incrementality, marketing mix modelling and advanced analytics, as well as emerging channels such as creator-led media, gaming, retail media, audio and video. A strong emphasis is being placed on privacy-by-design approaches that support scalable, AI-enabled measurement systems, with learnings also informing technical standards developed through IAB Tech Lab.
In January 2026, the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM) and the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) announced a new strategic review of cross-media measurement in Europe, to evaluate various initiatives’ methodological strengths and limitations, requirements for scale and adoption, and the roles advertisers, agencies, media owners and measurement providers must play to ensure long-term viability. It will not seek to mandate a single solution or currency, instead providing a clear decision framework that each market can use to achieve greater alignment and collaboration across the ecosystem. CIMM and WFA are also concerned that the commercial sustainability of different solutions is unclear and this new study aims to facilitate alignment and understanding about the prospects for cross-media measurement in Europe, the meaningful differences between the available solutions, and the challenges and priorities ahead – which will also be relevant to buyers and sellers in every market.
Collaborate with us on the future of measurement
IAB Australia are inviting measurement decision makers, influencers, practitioners and stakeholders across media owners, ad agencies, brands, suppliers, vendors and industry bodies to participate in research for the Future of Measurement project to help us define the industry-led measurement infrastructure needed. Get in touch with us if you would like to participate in the research (email natalie@iabaustralia.com.au).
IAB Australia will also be holding the 10th Annual MeasureUp in Sydney on 2nd September 2026 where we will be unveiling the findings from our Future of Measurement review to help the industry understand where measurement stands today and how it’s likely to evolve into the future. For our landmark anniversary, we’re also on the hunt for bold, data-driven ideas, evidence-based research, and actionable insights that will shape the future of our industry. Whether it’s a presentation, panel discussion, fireside chat, debate, workshop, hackathon or challenge session, submit your pitch today to be considered for MeasureUp.
IAB Australia’s Audience Measurement and Ad Effectiveness Councils will progress their existing programmes, including further development of Ipsos iris and educational resources to improve the quality of experiments and awareness of appropriate data sources for ad effectiveness measurement.
Together, these initiatives reflect a year of significant collaboration and progress as the industry works toward a more effective, transparent and sustainable measurement future for Australia.