Weaponized Opacity: Self-Preferencing in Digital Audience Measurement

Independent audience measurement is crucial for the media and advertising ecosystem. It helps understand market dynamics, set ad prices, allocate revenue, and plan content. However, digital gatekeepers like Google and Meta have resisted independent measurement of the reach, frequency, and performance of their ad platforms. They prefer to “grade their own homework” with opaque, proprietary tools, which often over-attribute the success of their services while underreporting ad fraud. T