Databricks Users Get Access to Truthset Data Quality Tools

The data being used to target advertising isn’t great. A recent report from Truthset, which assesses data accuracy, said that marketers are wasting $7.4 billion because of inaccurate data.

That’s good to know, but what can the industry do about it?

Now, Truthset says its data validation information is being made available via Delta Sharing within the Databricks data intelligence platform.

The upshot is that brands, agencies and publishers will be able to apply controls to the data they’re using in campaigns.

“For years, marketers have been stuck with a 'one-size-fits-all' approach to consumer data, often sacrificing accuracy for scale,” said Scott McKinley, CEO of Truthset. “Now, we can tune accuracy and scale at a census level, providing a new layer of control that makes advertising more profitable by eliminating the mis-targeting that erodes 30-60% of every ad dollar.”

The new arrangement gives Databricks’ customers easier access to data accuracy tools with the systems they are already using. Through Delta Sharing, they can use Truthset’s Data Rated Audience and Data Validation to evaluate the accuracy of first-party or licensed consumer data, configure accuracy with Truthset’s ratings, source rated audiences from members of the Truthset Data Collective and adjust accuracy and scale to align with campaign goals. 

Users can also employ the Truthset tools when using The Trade Desk's UID2 identity framework. 

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Speaking of waste, in its new State of Advertising report, Samba found that TV advertisers are reaching fewer unique households, even when they increase the number of impressions they buy. 

Samba says there’s a frequency problem, with the same households seeing commercials from one advertiser over and over again. Also, TV ads are often missing the audiences that are in the market for the products they’re selling. 

For example, car insurance marketers are reaching premium lifestyle audiences rather than the value-conscious, comparison-shopping consumers more likely to switch their policy. 

Samba also found a pattern in which companies and categories were increasing ad spending, and which were cutting back.

Samba says that companies involved in infrastructure and essential products bought more impressions in the second half of 2025. Utilities increased buying by 48%, insurance rose 18% and pharma grew 12%. 

Meanwhile, marketers selling more discretionary products bought fewer impressions, reflecting cautiousness by consumers. 

Of the top 20 advertisers, Samba said 12 had more impressions compared to the previous year. The top advertiser, Progressive, was up 3%. 

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Political campaigns spend a lot of money, and more of that money is going into connected TV. 

Ad tech company JamLoop said it has come up with a way to stop sending political ads to voters who have already cast their ballot. Sounds to me like a good reason for voting early.

The new product is called ActiveVoter, and it is available now to political advertisers, consultants and agencies.

JamLoop said it is working with Aristotle, which specializes in political data and technology to get state-reported early voting files where available. JamLoop uses that data to update its political audience segments, helping advertisers eliminate wasted impressions and focus spending on voters who can still be persuaded.

“Today’s political advertisers face a growing challenge of targeting inefficiency and wasted impressions, ultimately leading to wasted spend,” said Leif Welch, CEO of JamLoop. “ActiveVoter is built to eliminate the inefficiency that has plagued political CTV, pairing Aristotle’s best-in-class political data with JamLoop’s performance-driven CTV execution.”

The U.S. Census Bureau says that 60% of voters voted early or by mail in 2024.

“Starting now, campaigns will no longer waste dollars on voters who have already cast ballots or settle for platform minimums that drive up frequency and bloat,” Welch said.

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Speaking of elections, AdImpact said it launched AdMo+, which is designed to alert campaigns to ad spending on CTV by competitors in real time. 

“Streaming television is projected to see the biggest increase in spending during the 2026 midterms, so political campaigns need a platform designed for the new media mix,” said John Link, senior VP of sata at AdImpact. “By combining real-time streaming alerts, seamless comparison between linear and digital TV activity and comprehensive market coverage, AdMo+ gives advertisers the intelligence they need to move faster and compete more effectively at scale.” 

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Nielsen said it has introduced 200 new advanced audience segments. The segments are based on insights from Scarborough and cover categories including auto, retail, lifestyle and political. Some segments are based on media habits, enabling advertisers to target audiences who are consumers of local news, heavy radio listeners or big social media users. 

The segments are available via Nielsen One.