Ad Results Media Warns on Meta, Google Metric Dependence.

Marketers who rely heavily on performance metrics from Meta and Google may be limiting their own long-term growth by depending on platforms that measure and validate their own results, according to executives at Ad Results Media.

They argue that the industry’s emphasis on quick clicks and short-term return on ad spend has pushed advertisers toward platforms that provide the most convenient — but not necessarily the most accurate — picture of performance.

For years, Meta and Google have trained marketers to optimize for immediate conversions. Executives at Ad Results Media say that approach has led brands to equate what is most trackable with what is most valuable, even as platform-controlled attribution systems obscure the true impact of other channels. They say Facebook, Instagram, Google Search and YouTube operate closed ecosystems that set their own audience definitions, measurement standards and attribution logic, often without independent oversight.

As Gretchen Dubois, Vice President of Media at Ad Results Media, explains: “When you’re optimizing inside a closed system, every lever you pull reinforces the illusion that the platform is performing. But what it’s really doing is reallocating attention — not necessarily growing it.”

According to the firm, this self-attribution often makes Meta and Google appear to outperform other channels because the platforms claim credit using frameworks designed to validate their own effectiveness. They also note that these companies frequently impose barriers to adding third-party verification tools, making independent measurement difficult or slow to implement.

Ad Results Media says this dynamic has led some brands to question the value of upper- and mid-funnel channels such as podcasts, streaming audio and connected TV. These formats do not produce the immediate, clickable behaviors that boost short-term metrics on social or search platforms. Instead, executives say, these channels influence consumers more gradually and often contribute to conversions that occur days or weeks later — contributions that last-touch attribution rarely captures.

The firm points to results from its own campaigns. After a programmatic audio campaign for a client, Ad Results Media observed a significant lift in brand and nonbrand search activity during and after the run. The company found that one in three conversions attributed to paid search followed earlier exposure to the audio ad, suggesting that upper- and mid-funnel activity was driving results credited to other platforms.

Executives say such patterns are common. A consumer may hear a podcast ad, remember the message later and finally click a social ad, resulting in Meta receiving the conversion credit. Dubois says this reflects the deeper role audio plays in shaping long-term behavior: “Audio doesn’t always win the last click. It wins the first memory. And that’s the foundation every performance marketer actually needs.”

To bridge the measurement gap, Ad Results Media points to independent attribution partners such as Podscribe and Claritas. Yet executives say many brands remain skeptical of outside measurement while continuing to accept numbers from Meta and Google without similar scrutiny. They argue this demonstrates how deeply performance culture has normalized the belief that if something is not clickable, it is not measurable — and therefore not valuable.

The firm emphasizes that marketers do not need to move away from Meta or Google but should avoid treating platform-reported metrics as definitive. Imran Ismail, Managing Director at Ad Results Media, says, “If you’re only measuring what’s easy to measure, you’re optimizing out of your own future. The next era of performance marketing won’t be about who can optimize fastest — it’ll be about who can attribute smartest.”