Over the years, Pathmatics has made several optimizations and expansions to our panel data in order to deliver the most complete and accurate picture of the digital advertising ecosystem. Some of these optimizations produce a significant change in reporting when comparing time periods before and after a major change event.
We’ve outlined these changes and their impact on data that is particularly important to pay attention to when conducting time series analysis across the time periods noted.
Desktop Display and Desktop Video
Desktop Display and Video Panel Expansion
- Date effective: May 1, 2023 and onwards
-
Updates made:
- Switch from data aggregators to Desktop Panel (UK, DE, AU, NZ)
- Significant increase in panelists (US, CA)
-
Impact:
- Improved coverage and accuracy of targeted/programmatic ad campaigns in these regions
- Even more Display and Video creatives and websites
- Access to ads published on websites with login walls
- Deeper publisher coverage
- Links to further details:
Canada Desktop Panel
- Date effective: Oct 1, 2021 and onwards
- Update made: Switch from data aggregators to Desktop Panel
-
Impact:
- Improved coverage and accuracy of targeted / programmatic ad campaigns in these regions
- Even more Display and Video creatives and websites
- Access to ads published on websites with login walls
- Deeper publisher coverage
US Desktop Panel
- Date effective: Jan 1, 2019 and onwards
- Update made: Switch from data aggregators to Desktop Panel
-
Impact:
- Improved coverage and accuracy of targeted / programmatic ad campaigns in these regions
- Even more Display and Video creatives and websites
- Access to ads published on websites with login walls
- Deeper publisher coverage
Global Facebook optimization
- Date effective: Jan 1, 2023 and onwards
- Update made: Changes to panel composition
- Impact: Modeling improvements, further improving the accuracy of impressions and spend estimates at the advertiser and brand level.
- Links to further details:
Facebook US Panel expansion
- Date effective: Oct 1, 2021 and onwards
- Update made: Addition of new mobile panelists
- Impact: Improvement in overall accuracy and better spend and impression estimates for a small set of advertisers previously over-or-under-indexed in Facebook data prior to Oct 1, 2021.
X (formerly Twitter)
X (formerly Twitter) US optimization
- Date effective: January 1, 2023 and onwards
- Update made: Changes to panel composition
- Impact: Comparisons of data before and after Jan 1, 2023 are not advised due to the significant differences in both the size and composition of the underlying panel data.
YouTube
Increased YouTube coverage
- Date effective: Jan 1, 2023 and onwards
- Update made: Addition of Mobile (all regions) and CTV (US only) panelists
- Impact: Comparisons of data before and after Jan 1, 2023 are not advised due to the significant differences in both the size and composition of the underlying panel data.
- Link to further details:
YouTube International (Desktop Video):
- Date effective: Jun 1, 2022 and onwards
- Update made: Switch from data aggregators to Desktop Panel
- Regions impacted: UK, DE, AU, NZ
-
Impact: Data collection switched from data aggregators to panel-based, which means:
- Significant increase in the number of advertisers and creatives reported on before and after Jun 1, 2022
- Improved tracking of targeted campaigns