• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, June 23, 2010

Bad quality data can give the advertising industry a bad name. Good quality audience data segments can make the difference when it comes to successful ad targeting campaigns. AudienceScience on Wednesday will launch two programs designed to give advertisers confidence in the quality of data and audience segments they use.

The Quality Data Guarantee program makes sure all third-party and internal data meet high-quality standards regarding usage rights, choice, anonymity and security. The Audience Validation Reports leverage multiple third-party data sources and proprietary AudienceScience data to evaluate an advertiser's audience and gain intelligence for campaign targeting.

"Why not respect the integrity of the space," says Jeff Hirsch, the company's CEO. "We're putting our money where our mouth is to make sure companies have quality data." AudienceScience has been in the data business since 2003. The platform provides support to 84 publishers representing hundreds of sites in 16 countries.

Protecting consumers means using data collected in compliance to standards, as well as having the permission to use the data to target ads. The Quality Data Guarantee follows Network Advertising Initiative, Interactive Advertising Bureau and Federal Trade Commission guidelines to provide advertisers, agencies and publishers confidence that the data collected and used by AudienceScience are in full compliance with privacy laws and industry leading standards.

It's a strong statement to make that guarantee, but Hirsch wants to prove to the industry that in order to survive companies must create efficiencies around impressions. Guaranteeing the data tells the advertiser when an ad gets served you know it will reach the intended type of person.

AudienceScience also will start delivering Audience Validation Reports giving advertisers the ability to use a pre-campaign report that measures an audience for demographics, purchase propensity, and behavioral attributes in order to provide insight for audience targeting. This optimizes campaigns to validate the accuracy of the audience segments used.