PebblePost, which created programmatic direct mail, recently closed a $25 million series C funding round led by Advance Venture Partners (AVP).

The model analyzes "attribute density" in a new way to identify the type of consumers the campaign reaches, and then measure the return on investment on those people who buy a product or service. "There's probably a million data segments, so we cannot measure them all overnight," McConnell said. "But we think that if data's the problem, data quality is the next frontier of marketing."

Before launching a campaign, marketers need to determine whether it should target a household or individual. When audience data ties to the household, it becomes the primary focus.

A recently released platform takes metrics and tracking to another level. This time it's about tracking interactions within the playable ad, known as a mini-game.