Digital advertising was built on the promise of precision, but bad data is quietly draining budgets.

The State of Data Accuracy 2026 exposes how identity and demographic errors across the programmatic open web are fueling an estimated $39B in wasted U.S. ad spend, and why validated data has become essential to both performance and profitability.

• Reducing waste Reducing waste tied to inaccurate identity and audience signals.
• Stopping errors from compounding across the supply chain, from IP to demographics.
• Using validated, transparent data to compete with walled gardens and restore confidence in the open internet.