Adstra & InterMedia Study Shows Device‑Level IDs Beat IP Mapping for CTV Targeting

Adstra and InterMedia Advertising released a study that finds device‑level IDs outperform IP‑based mapping for connected television targeting, with 71% consistency versus 57% for IP addresses.

Only 23% of residential IP addresses reach their intended geographic target, while 71% of CTV IDs with high ID Connection Strength (ICS) scores remain linked to the same person month over month.

Adstra’s new ID Connection Strength framework rates identifiers on a 1‑6 scale across five criteria—recency, frequency, signal integrity, congruency, and cardinality—using user‑consented signals and third‑party fraud validation.

The framework is currently tied to Adstra’s network but will be broadly available in the third quarter, and early adopters include brands, agencies, and platforms testing its impact on audience targeting and budget allocation.

The research underscores that IP‑based targeting is often opaque and inaccurate, with Truthset studies reporting up to 40% waste in open auction CTV spend.

Adstra encourages advertisers to demand visibility into matching processes and to treat identity quality as a measurable standard.

The study suggests that moving away from IP mapping toward device‑level identifiers could improve targeting fidelity and measurement accuracy.