Connected TV’s fragmentation challenges extend beyond inventory distribution to fundamental identity resolution issues that erode audience fidelity as buyers extend campaigns across multiple activation endpoints.
“The fragmentation problem in CTV is real, but we as an industry often talk about it as an inventory problem, but it’s very much an identity problem as well,” Alex Ibarguen, director, platform sales, independent & political agencies at FreeWheel, told Beet.TV contributor David Kaplan. “By the time the buyer has built their audience in one platform, they’ve matched it to a file, they’re extending it across multiple activation endpoints. Really what they’re left with is a shadow of what they started with from an audience and actual data fidelity standpoint.”
Platforms lacking deterministic datasets will continue struggling with this fundamental challenge moving forward.
End-to-end ecosystem preserves fidelity
FreeWheel’s position as ad server infrastructure behind premium CTV publishers enables creation of a unified ecosystem where ad server, data, identity, and demand-side platforms operate from a shared foundation.
“FreeWheel… is creating an end-to-end ecosystem where the ad server, the data, the identity and the DSP all operate off of that same foundation,” Ibarguen said.
This architecture captures buy-side and sell-side signals while translating them appropriately, ensuring consistent signal availability end-to-end because the same entity controls both supply and demand sides.
Political’s closed-loop attribution value
Political advertising represents prime vertical for closed-loop attribution given clear voter identification, optimization capabilities, and data-driven success measurement, though traditional buying models scatter these functions across disparate platforms.
“When we talk about closed loop attribution, we often do it in the context of DTC brands or performance marketing, but really from a vertical standpoint, political is primed for this as well,” Ibarguen said. “We know who we’re targeting. We can optimize against it. And then finally, that success story is very data driven as well.”
FreeWheel encourages end-to-end solutions that consolidate buying, measurement, and audience building for improved consistency and success.
Reducing inefficiencies
Buyers should minimize data hops that create latency, additional margins, and data degradation by prioritizing platforms with direct vendor integrations rather than relying solely on data marketplaces.
“What we’re trying to encourage is buyers to remove as many hops as possible. With each hop, there creates additional inefficiencies, whether it’s latency creep, additional margins, staleness of the actual data itself,” Ibarguen said.
FreeWheel maintains direct integrations with L2, i360, DataTrust, and others to enable scaling across identity networks without fidelity loss.
Ghost-bidding and ad spend waste
Ibarguen also brought up the topic of ghost-bidding, which is sometimes referred to as ghost ads. It’s a measurement technique used in digital advertising where a platform simulates an ad impression that could have been shown to a user but intentionally withholds the actual ad. The technique allows advertisers to compare outcomes between users who saw the ad and similar users who would have seen it but didn’t.
As Ibarguen notes, attribution studies using ghost-bidding create algorithmic sample groups before actual bidding rather than setting aside budget portions for holdout groups, ensuring no campaign funds remain unused.
“With ghost-bidding, you don’t have to leave any money on the table. Rather than take 10% of your budget out for some sort of holdout group, you can now do so algorithmically where you are creating the sample before the actual bid itself,” Ibarguen said.
This enables real-time understanding of message resonance with voter segments and deal performance measurement without budget sacrifice.
“Campaign managers looking ahead to an upcoming busy season might ask themselves how their platforms are actually resolving identity, what they’re doing about deterministic data, how they’re working from a data fidelity standpoint, because that’s going to become more and more of a conversation as accuracy is really on the table,” Ibarguen said.
You’re watching “Unlocking the True Potential of CTV Through the Power of Deterministic Data,” a Beet.TV Leadership Series at CES 2026, presented by Intuit SMB MediaLabs. For more videos from this series, please visit this page.
