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Moving Beyond Postal Codes: A More Precise Approach to Location with NetAcuity

Posted on May 11, 2026May 11, 2026 by Digital Element

Postal codes were never designed for modern targeting.

They’re broad, inconsistent, and often don’t reflect how people actually live. Originally built for mail delivery, not data-driven decisioning, postal codes can group together populations that behave very differently, creating gaps between location data and reality.

As use cases become more precise, that gap becomes harder to ignore.

The Need for More Precise Geographic Units

As use cases become more precise, the limitations of postal codes become more apparent.

They were never designed to support modern targeting, measurement, or analytics. Their size, inconsistency, and lack of standardization introduce gaps between location data and how people are actually distributed in the real world.

To close that gap, a more precise geographic foundation is required.

Many countries have developed standardized statistical units designed specifically to represent real-world populations and boundaries. These units offer smaller, more consistent geographic definitions that better reflect how people live.

Unlike postal codes, these units are purpose-built for analysis. They provide a clearer, more reliable way to understand location, making them better suited for modern targeting, measurement, and data-driven decisioning.

A Closer Look at Alternate Area Frameworks

While the concept is consistent globally, many regions have developed their own framework for defining these smaller geographic units.

Australia: SA1 (Statistical Area Level 1)

Defined by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, SA1s are the smallest unit used for census data collection. They are designed to be relatively uniform in population, typically containing between 200 and 800 people, with an average of around 400.

This structure creates highly granular, evenly distributed areas that enable precise analysis while maintaining privacy.

In the image above, the red lines show the postcodes in Melbourne, Australia and the white lines are SA1s.

France: IRIS (Ilots Regroupés pour l’Information Statistique)

Developed by Institut National de la Statistique et des Études Économiques (INSEE), IRIS zones represent coherent neighborhoods within cities and towns.

Each IRIS typically contains between 1,800 and 5,000 residents and is structured to reflect meaningful demographic groupings. Compared to postal codes, IRIS provides a more consistent and standardized way to analyze population distribution at a local level.

Germany: PLZ8

PLZ8 extends traditional postal codes into a more granular, eight-digit format, breaking larger postcode areas into smaller, more precise segments.

This added level of detail allows for improved geographic resolution in a market where standard postal codes can vary significantly in size and density.

Why Granularity Matters

When location data is too broad or inconsistent, it introduces noise into everything built on top of it.

Targeting becomes less precise
Measurement becomes harder to trust
Insights become less actionable

More data doesn’t solve that problem.

Better inputs do.

Smaller, standardized geographic units provide a stronger foundation—aligning data more closely with how people are actually distributed and enabling more accurate downstream outcomes.

NetAcuity’s Alternate Area Database

That’s exactly why Digital Element developed the Alternate Area Database (AADB).

AADB maps IP data to more granular geographic units like SA1, IRIS, and PLZ8, enabling organizations to move beyond postal code-level approximation and toward true geographic precision.

By aligning IP addresses to these standardized areas, organizations can:

Improve targeting accuracy with more relevant geographic inputs
Strengthen measurement by reducing inconsistencies
Gain deeper insight into audience distribution
Maintain privacy alignment through aggregated, non-identifiable location data

From Approximation to Precision

As location-based strategies continue to evolve, the quality of foundational data becomes increasingly important.

Postal codes served their purpose, but they were never designed for the demands of today’s ecosystem.

By mapping IP data to smaller, standardized geographic units, it becomes possible to move beyond approximation and toward true precision.

Because better inputs lead to better outcomes.

For more detail on how Alternate Area Database works and where it applies, reach out to support@digitalenvoy.com

Your Campaign Is Running. Your Audience Already Moved.

Posted on May 7, 2026May 7, 2026 by Digital Element

There’s a version of digital advertising where everything looks fine. The campaign launched on time. Impressions are serving. The dashboard shows delivery in the right regions. And yet, somewhere between the brief and the final report, performance quietly fell apart.

IP volatility is one of the most underreported causes of that gap, and it’s costing advertisers more than most realize.

The Problem With the Signal Everyone Relies On

The IP address has been the default location signal in digital advertising for decades. It’s what connects a household to a geography, anchors an audience segment, and ties an impression to a target market. The assumption baked into most campaign planning is that the IP address representing a given location today will still represent that location when the ad serves tomorrow, or next week, or at the end of a 30-day flight.

That assumption is wrong.

According to Digital Element’s IPC (IP Characteristics) database, over 40% of IP addresses are reallocated to new locations within a typical 30-day period. Network providers regularly reassign IP blocks to meet shifting infrastructure demands, and when that happens, the household your campaign was targeting is no longer where your data says it is.

The Problem Gets Worse the Longer You Run

IP volatility isn’t a static risk. It compounds over the life of a campaign.

At the household level, Digital Element’s data shows 24.75% volatility at two weeks. By four weeks, that figure climbs to 42.57%. By eight weeks, nearly 60% of household-level IP addresses have moved. What starts as a precision-targeted campaign gradually drifts into something far messier, and because the campaign continues to serve impressions and report delivery, the problem is rarely visible until it’s too late to fix.

The longer the campaign runs, the greater the gap between the audience you defined at the start and the one actually being reached.

What That Looks Like in Practice

Consider a local CTV campaign for a car dealership group, targeting audiences across four specific postcodes over 30 days with a frequency cap of three ads per day per IP. On paper, a clean, well-structured buy.

By the end of the campaign, Digital Element’s analysis found that of 2.65 million total impressions served, only 1.7 million (64%) were delivered within the intended target postcodes. The remaining 960,000 impressions, representing 36% of total spend, went out of market entirely. Spend that began the campaign flowing into the right geographies was, by week three, crossing over to audiences outside the target area entirely.

The campaign reported delivery. What it didn’t report was how much of that delivery was to the wrong people, in the wrong places.

The Real Cost Is Invisible

Wasted impressions are the obvious casualty. But the downstream effects go further. When IP addresses shift mid-campaign, measurement breaks down alongside targeting. Attribution data becomes unreliable because the location signal used to define the audience at the start is no longer the one present at the point of conversion. Budget clawbacks follow. Reporting becomes difficult to defend. And confidence in the channel, and the data underlying it, erodes.

This isn’t a problem specific to one campaign type, one market, or one buying platform. It’s structural. IP was designed for network routing, not audience stability. Expecting it to hold a geotargeted campaign together for 30, 60, or 90 days is asking it to do something it was never built for.

The Fix Isn’t More IP Data. It’s a Different Foundation.

Optimizing against an unstable signal only goes so far. The real solution is anchoring campaigns to a signal that doesn’t move.

LocID is a persistent, privacy-compliant geospatial identifier that represents a fixed physical location — a building, a household, a place in the real world — rather than the IP address currently associated with it. Because LocID is tied to place rather than network infrastructure, it remains stable even as IP addresses underneath it shift. Targeting is set at campaign launch. Measurement aligns to the same identifier throughout. The audience doesn’t drift because the reference point doesn’t move.

LocID integrates across the supply chain, compatible with DSPs, SSPs, and measurement platforms via OpenRTB, so it doesn’t require rebuilding existing workflows. It’s designed to complement existing ID graphs and ensure audience alignment holds at every stage of the campaign lifecycle, from segment creation through to post-campaign reporting.

Location Should Be a Strength, Not a Liability

Geotargeting is one of the most powerful tools in an advertiser’s toolkit. Local campaigns, regional strategies, household-level reach — these are high-value capabilities when the location signal underneath them is reliable.

Right now, for most advertisers, it isn’t.

The 40% reallocation rate isn’t an edge case or a technical footnote. It’s a structural problem with the signal the industry has treated as stable for years. Advertisers who recognize it and build their campaigns on a foundation that accounts for it will see the difference in targeting accuracy, measurement confidence, and ultimately, in results.

Digital Envoy Appoints Steve Broadhead as VP Sales International

Posted on May 6, 2026May 6, 2026 by Digital Element

Digital Envoy, the global leader in IP intelligence and geolocation, is pleased to announce the appointment of Steve Broadhead as VP Sales International. As demand for deterministic IP intelligence accelerates across Europe and global markets, the appointment marks a deliberate investment in Digital Envoy’s international growth strategy.

Steve assumes the role from Charlie Johnson, who over the past decade has been instrumental in building Digital Envoy’s international business into the formidable operation it is today. Charlie moves on to a new chapter within the company as SVP of the LocID line of business, where she will lead one of Digital Envoy’s most strategically important growth areas.

Drawing on over 20 years of international commercial leadership in ad tech and media technology, Steve joins Digital Envoy to drive new business, expand strategic partnerships, and grow the company’s presence across Europe, EMEA, LATAM, and APAC. His experience leading sales organizations across EMEA — including senior roles at Video Intelligence, Unruly, and Nexxen — gives him a strong foundation to build on the global customer base Charlie has established.

Jerrod Stoller, CEO of Digital Envoy, commented:

“The international opportunity for IP intelligence has never been stronger — from programmatic advertising and content rights enforcement to fraud prevention and cybersecurity, global enterprises are increasingly relying on the kind of deterministic, privacy-forward data that Digital Envoy has delivered for over 25 years. Charlie has done an exceptional job building our international presence, and we’re excited to see her bring that same energy to LocID. Steve’s deep experience building commercial teams across EMEA and beyond makes him exactly the right person to take that foundation and accelerate our global growth even further. We’re thrilled to have him on board.”

On his appointment, Steve said:

“I’m genuinely thrilled to be joining Digital Envoy at such a pivotal moment. IP geolocation and intelligence sits at the heart of so many of today’s most critical business challenges — whether that’s delivering precision-targeted advertising, enforcing digital content rights, or protecting businesses from fraud, cybercrime and risk. The fact that Digital Envoy has been the trusted foundation for all of these use cases for over 25 years, across some of the world’s largest brands, platforms and security organisations, speaks for itself. The international opportunity is enormous and I can’t wait to get started.”

Steve is based in London and takes up the role with immediate effect.

Digital Advertising Taxes Are Expanding — Here’s Why Location Accuracy Now Matters More Than Ever

Posted on March 6, 2026March 6, 2026 by Digital Element

For years, digital advertising has lived in a gray area of state tax policy. Ads are created in one place, bought in another, served everywhere — and taxed almost nowhere.

That’s changing.

Washington State recently expanded its retail sales tax to include many digital advertising services, joining a growing group of states reconsidering how digital ads fit into existing tax frameworks. While Washington’s approach differs from Maryland’s standalone digital advertising tax, the signal is clear: states are moving to tax digital advertising based on where it is delivered, not just where it’s sold.

As more states explore similar laws, advertisers, agencies, and ad platforms face a new challenge: accurately determining where ads are actually served — at scale.

The Emerging Patchwork of Digital Advertising Taxes

Washington isn’t alone. Legislators in states like New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Minnesota have introduced or debated proposals aimed at taxing digital advertising or related digital services.

While the details vary, these proposals share common traits:

Taxes triggered by where ads are delivered or consumed
Increased scrutiny on digital services historically treated as non-taxable
A reliance on location-based sourcing rules to determine tax liability

This shift creates a fundamental operational problem for digital advertising: How do you prove where an ad was actually served?

Why “Location” Is Now a Tax Problem, Not Just a Marketing One

Digital advertising has traditionally optimized for performance metrics — impressions, clicks, conversions. Tax authorities care about something different: Jurisdictional accuracy.

For tax purposes, states increasingly want to know:

Which ads were delivered to users in their state
Whether ads crossed county, city, or local tax boundaries
How much taxable activity occurred inside vs. outside their jurisdiction

Without precise location intelligence, companies risk:

Over-collecting tax, inflating customer costs
Under-collecting tax, creating audit exposure
Inconsistent reporting across finance, legal, and ad operations teams

This is where IP intelligence moves from “nice to have” to critical infrastructure.

Why ZIP+4–Level IP Intelligence Is Essential

Many tax rules — especially sales and use taxes — are applied at the local jurisdiction level, not just the state level. Broad geolocation (country or state only) isn’t enough.

To correctly calculate and allocate digital ad taxes, organizations need:

Accurate user location at the time an ad is served
Consistent, auditable location data
Coverage that scales across billions of ad impressions

This is where ZIP+4 granularity becomes especially valuable. ZIP code alone can still mask important local tax differences, while ZIP+4–level precision can help organizations better align ad delivery with real-world jurisdictional boundaries.

IP intelligence provides the only practical way to do this without relying on personal data or cookies.

How NetAcuity Supports Tax Accuracy for Digital Advertising

NetAcuity’s IP intelligence enables advertisers, platforms, and service providers to confidently determine where digital ads are delivered — down to the ZIP+4 level.

With NetAcuity, organizations can:

Determine tax jurisdiction at ad-delivery time
Map impressions to precise geographic locations without collecting personal identifiers
Support accurate tax calculation and allocation
Attribute ad activity to the correct state, county, city, or local tax authority
Reduce audit and compliance risk
Use consistent, independently validated location data across finance, legal, and operations teams.
Future-proof against expanding regulations

As more states adopt digital advertising taxes, location accuracy becomes a reusable compliance asset — not a one-off fix.

Critically, NetAcuity enables this without relying on cookies, device IDs, or personal data, aligning with modern privacy and data-minimization requirements.

Preparing for What Comes Next

Whether or not your state has enacted a digital advertising tax yet, the direction of travel is unmistakable. Tax authorities are catching up to the digital economy — and location accuracy is the foundation of enforcement.

The question is no longer if digital ad taxation expands, but how prepared your systems are when it does.

Organizations that invest now in ZIP+4–level IP intelligence will be best positioned to:
Adapt quickly to new laws
Avoid costly retroactive corrections
Maintain trust with regulators and customers alike

Digital advertising may be borderless — but taxes are not.

Want to explore how NetAcuity supports jurisdiction-level accuracy for digital advertising and compliance use cases?

Learn more about NetAcuity’s IP intelligence solutions.

FAQs

What are digital advertising taxes?

Digital advertising taxes are state or local taxes applied to revenue from digital ads, often based on where the ads are delivered or viewed, rather than where they are sold or where the advertiser is located.

Which states currently tax or are considering taxing digital advertising?

Maryland currently enforces a standalone digital advertising tax, while Washington State taxes certain digital advertising services under its retail sales tax. Other states — including New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Minnesota — have introduced or debated similar proposals.

Why does location matter for digital advertising tax compliance?

Location matters because many digital advertising taxes use location-based sourcing rules, meaning tax liability depends on where an ad is delivered to a user, not where the advertiser or platform is based.

How do states determine where a digital ad is delivered?

States typically rely on technical indicators such as IP address data to determine where a digital ad was served at the moment of delivery, allowing tax liability to be assigned to the correct jurisdiction.

Is state-level location accuracy enough for digital ad taxes?

No. Many tax rules apply at the county, city, or local level, meaning state-only location data can result in incorrect tax allocation and increased compliance risk.

Why is ZIP+4–level IP intelligence important for digital advertising taxes?

ZIP+4–level IP intelligence enables organizations to assign digital ad activity more precisely to local tax jurisdictions, supporting more accurate tax calculation, more consistent reporting, and stronger audit readiness.

How can companies determine where a digital ad was served?

Companies determine ad delivery location using IP intelligence, which identifies a user’s geographic location at the time an ad is served, without relying on cookies or personal data.

How does IP intelligence support digital advertising tax compliance?

IP intelligence helps companies map ad impressions to the correct jurisdiction, reduce under- or over-collection of tax, and maintain auditable, consistent location data across finance, legal, and advertising teams.

What risks do companies face if they lack accurate ad location data?

Without accurate ad location data, companies risk tax underpayment, audit exposure, retroactive assessments, and inconsistent regulatory reporting as digital advertising taxes expand.

Is digital advertising taxation expected to expand?

Yes. As states adapt tax laws to the digital economy, more jurisdictions are expected to tax digital advertising, making location accuracy a critical long-term compliance requirement.

Why Legitimate ISP IP Addresses Are Mistaken for Proxies

Posted on February 27, 2026February 27, 2026 by Digital Element

Streaming providers occasionally encounter situations where legitimate subscribers are blocked because their IP address appears to be operating as a VPN or proxy. In many cases, neither the subscriber nor the ISP has intentionally enabled any anonymization service, which can make these blocks difficult to explain and even harder to resolve.

What’s often misunderstood is why this happens. These classifications are not based on who owns the IP address or how the ISP’s network is designed. Instead, they are driven by observable traffic patterns. When an IP shows behavior that resembles how modern residential proxy networks operate, it may be flagged—even if the IP itself was issued by an ISP and is being used by a legitimate household.

As the internet has evolved, so has the way proxy networks are built. Today, many residential proxies do not rely on traditional data centers. Instead, they quietly operate inside real households using ISP-assigned IP addresses. This shift has made proxy detection more complex for streaming platforms and more confusing for everyone involved.

The Problem: Why Legitimate ISP IPs Get Blocked

A common entry point is the installation of free VPNs, browser extensions, or mobile apps that rely on peer-to-peer networking. These services often include permissions, disclosed only in the fine print, that allow a user’s internet connection to be reused as part of a broader proxy pool.

Once installed, the device becomes a relay node. Traffic from remote users flows through that household’s connection and exits the internet under the same public IP address assigned by the ISP. From the subscriber’s perspective, nothing appears unusual. From the ISP’s perspective, the network is functioning normally.

From the streaming provider’s perspective, however, the IP now carries mixed traffic patterns originating from multiple locations. This behavior closely resembles a residential proxy service, even though neither the subscriber nor the ISP has knowingly participated in one.

Why These Blocks Occur and Why ISPs Are Often Surprised

Streaming platforms make access decisions based on observed risk signals, not assumptions about intent. When an IP shows signs of relaying traffic, geographic instability, or anonymization behavior, it may be blocked to protect licensed content and reduce abuse.

In shared residential environments, such as apartment buildings or managed broadband networks, a single device acting as a relay can impact everyone behind the same public IP. This is why legitimate viewers may be blocked even when they are not using a VPN themselves.

Importantly, this behavior does not originate from ISP infrastructure. Shared IPs and NAT (Network Address Translation) are standard across residential networks and do not cause proxy classification on their own. The activity triggering these signals occurs inside the subscriber environment, outside the ISP’s visibility or control. This is why ISPs are often blindsided by these situations and why ownership of the IP alone does not explain the behavior being observed.

Adding Time-Based Context to Proxy Detection

One of the core challenges in proxy detection is understanding recency. Many systems rely on simple indicators that show whether an IP was seen acting like a proxy within a fixed window of time. These signals lack the context needed to determine whether the behavior is ongoing or historical.

Nodify addresses this by adding time-aware proxy intelligence. Each observed proxy event is recorded with precise timestamps and frequency data. This allows streaming providers to see when proxy behavior occurred, how often it was observed, and whether it is still active.

With this level of detail, platforms can distinguish between a short-lived relay event and sustained proxy activity. This helps reduce false positives while still enforcing content protection policies effectively.

Using Behavioral Signals to Reduce False Positives

While Nodify answers when proxy behavior occurred, IP Characteristics helps explain how an IP is being used over time.

IPC analyzes behavioral and environmental signals such as device counts, geographic stability, and connection volatility. These signals provide insight into whether an IP behaves like a normal residential connection or shows patterns consistent with proxy or automated traffic.

For streaming providers, this additional context helps validate enforcement decisions. IPC allows teams to understand whether unusual behavior reflects normal residential usage patterns or something more anomalous, enabling more proportional responses that protect content without unnecessarily disrupting legitimate viewers.

A More Accurate Way Forward for Streaming Platforms

An ISP-issued IP address no longer represents a single household’s activity in all cases. In today’s internet, many residential IPs are quietly reused as part of proxy networks without the knowledge of the subscriber or the ISP.

For streaming providers, recognizing this reality is key to reducing confusion and improving resolution times. Combining time-based proxy intelligence with behavioral context allows platforms to separate real risk from unintended side effects, protecting content while minimizing disruption for legitimate subscribers.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why would a legitimate ISP IP address be mistaken for a proxy?

Proxy detection systems evaluate observable traffic behavior, not IP ownership or intent. If an ISP-issued IP shows patterns such as traffic relaying, geographic instability, or mixed usage consistent with modern residential proxy networks, it may be classified as proxy-like—even when the subscriber and ISP have not knowingly enabled any anonymization service.

Are shared IPs or NAT the reason these blocks happen?

No. Shared IPs and Network Address Translation (NAT) are standard features of residential ISP networks and do not cause proxy classification on their own. Proxy-related flags are triggered by activity that occurs inside the subscriber environment, not by normal ISP infrastructure or IP sharing practices.

How can a residential IP start behaving like a proxy without the user realizing it?

Some free VPNs, browser extensions, or mobile apps use peer-to-peer networking models. When installed, these tools may allow a device to act as a relay for third-party traffic. From the user’s perspective, nothing appears unusual, but externally the IP may exhibit traffic patterns that resemble a residential proxy service.

How can streaming platforms reduce false positives without weakening enforcement?

By adding time-based proxy intelligence and behavioral context, platforms can distinguish between short-lived, historical proxy activity and sustained risk. This allows teams to make more proportional enforcement decisions—protecting licensed content while minimizing unnecessary disruption for legitimate subscribers.

CTV Advertising in 2026: Navigating an Era of Abundant Data and Trust Scarcity

Posted on February 13, 2026March 6, 2026 by Digital Element

CTV viewership continues its upward trajectory, growing both in terms of number of viewers and time CTV viewership continues its upward trajectory, growing both in terms of number of viewers and time spent consuming content.

According to the latest Comscore State of Streaming data, CTV usage continues its rapid ascent — by 2025, 96.4 million U.S. households were streaming content on connected TV devices, with total streaming time reaching 13.9 billion hours. This isn’t surprising given the number of options now available to consumers to watch their favorite shows at any time, day or night, that’s convenient to them, and on any device of their choosing.

Those options include ad-supported video on demand (AVOD), free video on demand (FVOD), free ad supported television (FAST) and virtual multichannel video programming distributor (vMVPD).

It’s a truism in advertising: where consumers go, brands must follow. But are advertisers reaping the full benefit of digital advertising when they buy CTV inventory? The data says no, largely due to a lack of standardized measurement and verification.

A report from Xenoss succinctly highlights the lack of common identifiers, myriad measurement methodologies, and complex device identification as key challenges. Its authors discuss the need for ad platforms to pull data from multiple sources to give a complete picture of ad performance, and the challenges of cross-media measurement and data fragmentation.

Meanwhile, DoubleVerify reports that CTV advertisers confront multiple types of ad fraud, including bot traffic, fake apps and fake traffic, and urgently need sophisticated fraud detection mechanisms to combat ad fraud in the CTV environment.

This leads us to the most notable trend for 2026: CTV advertisers will demand assurance that their ads were delivered to real people, not bots, and were seen by the right consumer or household as promised.

Lack of Measurement Stymies CTV Advertising

There’s no denying that the TV advertising landscape is in the midst of a radical transformation. Notably, projections indicate that spending for streaming ads will exceed those of traditional linear TV by 2025. Within the next three years it will account for 68% of total TV ad spend.

For its part, spending on linear TV will decline from $61.31 billion in 2023 to $56.83 billion in 2027, according to Insider Intelligence. In that same time period, CTV ad spend will grow from $25.09 billion to $40.9 billion.

So what are the implications of this shift in focus? To begin, as more ad dollars flow into CTV, the more advertisers will be confronted with the challenges of measurement and the scourge of ad fraud. Without trusted and standard tools, how will they feel confident that the impressions they pay for were actually seen by real users?

This contrasts with linear TV, which had a standard mechanism for buying and measuring TV for 50 years: Nielsen’s panels and the gross rating point (GRP).

Say what you will about the efficacy of linear TV, at least it was standardized, and enabled marketers to compare performance across all publishers.

Three Vectors for Linear TV

The linear TV framework offers three vectors for audience audience targeting:

Content: Marketers select shows based on content — sports, soap opera, news, etc., — which serves as a proxy for the viewers’ demographics. This, of course, is based on assumptions, such as “kids watch cartoons” and “adults watch the news.”
Time of day: Day parts help advertisers match products to consumers. For instance, breakfast cereal brands target consumers while they’re likely to be eating breakfast, and fast casual restaurants show their lunch specials at noon time.
Geography: Where a consumer is located helps advertisers hone their targeting further. For instance, a tire company will show regular tires to markets in the south, and ads for snow tires for markets likely to experience winter weather.

Measurement was done through the GRP, which is a metric for gauging the effectiveness of linear television ads. GRP is calculated based on the percentage of the total potential TV viewership that the ad reaches. Specifically, one GRP represents the ad being seen by 1% of the entire potential TV audience.

Then vs. Now

While linear TV relied on content, time of day, and geography as proxies for audience targeting, modern CTV advertisers expect deterministic and real-time signals. They want to understand not just what content was viewed, but where the viewer was located, what device was used, and whether the impression was valid. This shift in expectations highlights the growing gap between legacy TV buying models and digitally driven CTV strategies.

Digital Expectations for a Critical Digital Channel

The linear model doesn’t translate well to CTV for multiple reasons. To begin, day parts are no longer relevant, as anyone can watch any content at any time. And while IP address signals have historically supported location targeting in digital advertising, they are often inconsistent, obfuscated, or missing in programmatic CTV bid streams — making location difficult to ascertain. This issue grows more severe as the surge in programmatic TV continues.

There is also the issue of the ad buyer’s expectations. CTV is a digital channel, and its inventory is traded by people who are steeped in the digital landscape. They are marketers who are accustomed to a plethora of attributes for targeting, measuring and optimizing campaigns. This absence of reliable geographic signals in the programmatic CTV ecosystem has created what many advertisers refer to as a “location gap,” where ads can be served without consistent insight into where or to whom they were actually delivered. Simply put, the location gap occurs when ads are delivered without consistent or dependable insight into where — or to whom — they were actually served.

While some platforms can derive household identity and enhanced geographic signals through authenticated logins and cross-device graphs, these capabilities are not universally available. Across the broader programmatic CTV ecosystem, such signals remain fragmented and inconsistent, allowing the location gap to persist.

As a result, advertisers and their agencies know there are hundreds of data variables they should be able to use for targeting, measurement, and optimization but often cannot, including:

IP location address, and all the insight that surrounds it, including locations down to the +4 ZIP code, home vs. business, mobile carrier, device type, among others.
Time spent watching TV, when did they stop watching TV. ACR is opt-in and powerful on smart TVs, but coverage is uneven across device types. Data availability varies by provider and location often isn’t consistently available in a usable form.
Precise audience segmentation based on demographics and psycho-demographics (e.g. users in these households who love fashion, or east coast moms who shop at Trader Joes). The city, neighborhood and block can contain a great many types of consumers, which is why digital advertisers place a premium on creating unique audience segments.
Tracking and attribution. Advertisers are keen to track the outcomes of their ad spend. Of the users who saw their ads, how many visited the website or retail outlet? How many conversions or sales did the ad spend generate?

The State of CTV Measurement

CTV measurement has been a topic of concern for advertisers since the channel’s rapid acceleration during the pandemic years. In response, CTV platforms, verification providers, and measurement companies have continued to introduce new approaches — though challenges around consistency, transparency, and standardization remain.

For digital advertisers, CTV measurement feels opaque because it lacks the transparency, consistency, and interoperability they expect from other digital channels. Performance data is fragmented across platforms, measurement methodologies vary widely, and buyers often have limited visibility into how audiences are defined or impressions are validated. This disconnect makes it difficult to compare CTV performance to channels like display, search, or social.

In some cases, the old way of measuring TV is being shoehorned into CTV. This is an important point, because buyers say they don’t trust such methodologies. That lack of trust, in turn, is putting a damper on ad spend, preventing it from reaching its full potential.

How do we build trust in CTV measurement? We need to resolve the complexities in the current CTV landscape, which include:

A lack of common identifiers. CTV measurement lacks common identifiers, making it difficult to track and measure ad performance across different platforms and devices.
Data fragmentation. Advertisers have little visibility into where their CTV ad runs and who they reach, due to highly fragmented data. This, in turn, makes it difficult to measure and track campaign KPIs.
Inconsistent measurement. Unlike the GRP, CTV is plagued with inconsistent measurement practices. What’s more, advertisers don’t have transparency into how audiences are measured and how outcomes are attributed to ad spend.
Opaque practices. Ad buyers often think they’re buying premium CTV inventory when, in fact, it can be less than premium or even fraudulent.

The bottom line is that CTV measurement today faces significant challenges for marketers who are accustomed to digital campaigns. At present, advertisers can’t accurately determine whether the intended audience for an ad is indeed the one who views it. Panels, although valuable, do not paint a complete picture, as precise geolocation is often lacking.

If all panels were to disclose the geographical reach of their data (which is currently not a widespread practice), ad buyers would have a standardized understanding of their viewership, even if different panel measurement companies provide varying insights.

Many ad buyers already rely on multiple measurement companies, and with access to location-based data, they can better comprehend the origins of their viewers and the demographic information provided by the panel company.

Until a standardized approach to television measurement comes to market, advertising will be stymied. That said, given the increasing importance of CTV in reaching and engaging consumers, 2026 will be a year when substantial innovation occurs.

State of Fraud in CTV

Ad fraud in CTV has been a significant concern for advertisers, as nefarious players deploy deceptive tactics, such as bots or fake CTV devices to simulate viewership in order to inflate video ad impressions. In some cases, these sophisticated schemes are the work of organized crime rings.

In 2024, bot fraud made up 65% of all fraud in CTV environments; a share significantly higher than in other digital channels.

The billions of dollars that flow into CTV advertising is irresistible to fraudsters, many of whom have significant technical skills and resources at their disposal to ply their craft. As more dollars move into the CTV space, the greater the opportunity for fraud.

Residential IP proxy networks are another issue of concern for streaming TV providers. Consumers, crime rings and VPNs seeking to circumvent digital rights management (DRM) restrictions are leveraging residential IP proxy networks to circumvent geo-restrictions, a topic we’ve covered in the past. Quality teams need greater visibility into residential IP proxy networks to safeguard premium CTV inventory and support accurate household targeting. These networks can obscure fraudulent activity, undermining advertiser trust and complicating efforts to validate real audiences.. When fraudulent traffic is masked behind residential IP proxy networks, it can contaminate premium CTV inventory, reduce advertiser confidence, and make it harder to distinguish legitimate household viewers from automated or coordinated fraud schemes.

This leads to a defining trend for CTV advertising in 2026.

Solving challenges related to location accuracy, fraud detection, and audience validation requires high-quality IP intelligence that can operate at scale across fragmented CTV environments.

What Comes Next for CTV Advertising

As CTV matures, the conversation is shifting from rapid growth to long-term sustainability. Advertisers are no longer evaluating the channel solely on reach or scale, but on whether it can deliver the same level of accountability they expect from other digital media investments.

The next phase of CTV advertising will be shaped by how effectively the ecosystem addresses structural blind spots — particularly around geographic validation, impression legitimacy, and cross-platform comparability. Solutions that bring greater clarity to these areas will help reduce friction between buyers and sellers and support more confident budget allocation.

Rather than relying on legacy TV constructs, the industry is moving toward data-driven approaches that better reflect how streaming content is consumed and monetized. As this shift continues, trusted data foundations and verification capabilities will play an increasingly important role in establishing consistency and rebuilding confidence across the CTV supply chain.

The Data Backbone Advertisers Can Trust

This evolution is already underway, and the progress made in 2026 will define how CTV is measured, valued, and trusted moving forward. Digital Element helps make that progress possible by delivering the data foundation the CTV ecosystem depends on.

Through consistent geographic validation, household and device context where available, and advanced detection of VPNs, proxies, and residential proxy traffic, our Digital Element products bring greater accuracy and accountability to programmatic CTV. Combined with supply-path transparency and alignment with verification standards, these capabilities enable advertisers to measure performance with confidence, validate delivery, and build trust at scale.

Contact us to learn more about our range of Digital Element CTV advertising intelligence platforms.

Now Available: IRIS – Unlocking Granular Geolocation Data in France with NetAcuity

Posted on March 25, 2025August 22, 2025 by Digital Element

For decades, marketers have relied on postal codes as a core component of location-based targeting. While this level of data has delivered meaningful insights and campaign results, today’s competitive digital landscape demands even greater precision. That’s why Digital Element continues to innovate, expanding the boundaries of IP geolocation with the launch of IRIS – France’s standardized geographic unit – now available through NetAcuity’s Alternate Area Database.

What Is IRIS?

In France, IRIS (Ilots Regroupés pour l’Information Statistique) refers to statistical blocks used by the French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE) to collect and analyze data. Each IRIS zone contains approximately 2,000 residents and is designed to represent a coherent area from a demographic and urban planning perspective. While postal codes in France can be large and sometimes inconsistent, IRIS zones offer a standardized, fine-tuned way to understand population characteristics and trends at the neighborhood level.

Think of IRIS as France’s equivalent to Australia’s SA1 or Germany’s PLZ8 regions—purpose-built for statistical analysis, yet perfectly suited for marketers seeking smarter geolocation targeting.

More Granularity, Same Commitment to Privacy

By integrating IRIS into the Alternate Area Database, Digital Element enables businesses to map IP addresses to these smaller statistical units. This upgrade delivers sharper geographic resolution than traditional postal codes, unlocking new levels of campaign precision and audience understanding—without sacrificing user privacy.

IRIS areas are small enough to deliver actionable insight but aggregated enough to ensure individual data remains protected. This makes them ideal for privacy-compliant demographic profiling, content localization, and fraud prevention.

Why It Matters for Your Business

More relevant targeting: Deliver messages tailored to hyper-local communities
Smarter planning: Understand audience distribution and behavior across smaller, more meaningful areas
Greater campaign ROI: Boost conversion rates by aligning offers with the real-world context of your audience

Whether you’re managing digital advertising, localizing content, or conducting market analysis, IRIS gives your team a deeper, more accurate picture of the French market.

Now Available in NetAcuity

IRIS is now available through NetAcuity’s Alternate Area Database and can be licensed on its own or alongside any of Digital Element’s 18 other databases for maximum insight.

And this is just the beginning. Following the successful rollout of SA1 in Australia and now IRIS in France, Digital Element will soon be adding PLZ8 regions in Germany to the Alternate Area Database—further expanding global access to hyper-local IP intelligence.

For a deeper dive into the launch of IRIS and what it means for location-based data innovation in France, be sure to check out our official press release. It highlights how IRIS complements our Alternate Area Database strategy and what’s next as we continue expanding across global markets.

Ready to go deeper with your location targeting in France?
Learn more about the power of IRIS and how it can enhance your marketing, analytics, and security strategies by reaching out to support@digitalenvoy.com.

How to Unlock Granular Insights with NetAcuity’s Alternate Area Database

Posted on October 8, 2024May 7, 2026 by Digital Element

Since commerce has gone online, marketers have relied on IP addresses for targeted marketing campaigns. In today’s competitive marketplace, the ability to target marketing efforts with precision is more critical than ever.

Since 1999, Digital Element has been helping marketers target their audiences precisely by postal code globally. This level of detail not only enhances the effectiveness of marketing campaigns but also drives higher conversion rates and better ROI.

While postal codes are granular, advertisers are always eager for even more precise data to gain deeper insights and improve performance of their targeted campaigns, and Digital Element has the answer.

A Deeper Understanding of Your Marketing Campaign

For census and planning purposes, many countries have created standardized geographic areas in addition to postal codes. These alternate areas help governments collect and analyze population data, but they also unlock valuable opportunities for marketers who need more precision than postal codes alone can offer.

In Australia, for example, these areas are known as Statistical Areas Level 1 (SA1), defined by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). SA1s are designed to be relatively small and consistent in population size—typically between 200 and 800 people, with an average of about 400.

SA1s represent the smallest unit in Australia’s statistical area hierarchy. Other countries use similar systems, such as PLZ8 regions in Germany and IRIS zones in France.

In the image above, the red lines show the postcodes in Melbourne, Australia and the white lines are SA1s.

Traditional postal codes in Australia can be quite broad, often covering multiple towns or large urban populations. There are approximately 3,333 postal codes nationwide. By comparison, the number of SA1s expands to more than 61,800 distinct areas.

In metro Sydney alone, a single postal code can contain as many as 40 individual SA1s. Each SA1’s smaller footprint enables more accurate targeting and more meaningful insights—without narrowing data down to an individual level.

This balance is critical. SA1s are granular enough to support detailed analysis and localized engagement, yet large enough to preserve anonymity and protect privacy. By focusing on smaller, more defined geographic units, companies can deliver personalized content that resonates with the right audience, at the right time, in the right place.

Why This Level of Granularity Matters in a Cookieless World

As third-party cookies continue to disappear, marketers are relying more heavily on signals that do not depend on personal identifiers. IP-based geolocation has emerged as a durable alternative because it enables geographic relevance without tracking individual behavior.

By working at the level of postal codes, cities, or alternate areas like SA1s, brands can:

Localize messaging and offers without cookies
Maintain reach and scale across browsers and devices
Support privacy-compliant advertising strategies

This makes geographic intelligence especially valuable for campaigns where relevance is tied to where someone is, not who they are.

1. Get More Granularity without Sacrificing Privacy

Digital Element is taking IP-based location targeting to the next level with the introduction of its new Alternate Area Database.

This innovative feature maps IP addresses to individual SA1s in Australia, providing more precise geographic data by aggregating IP addresses from specific areas smaller than traditional postal codes. By leveraging these detailed geographic boundaries, companies can enhance the granularity and accuracy of location-based data without compromising privacy.

The Alternate Area Database can be licensed as a standalone product or in conjunction with NetAcuity’s 18 other databases for more detailed insights.

2. Supporting More Accurate Targeting, Measurement, and Localization

With access to Alternate Area data, marketers can refine how they use location intelligence across multiple use cases.

For advertising and marketing, this means serving campaigns that are more closely aligned with local context, reducing wasted impressions and improving relevance at the neighborhood or community level.

For content and commerce experiences, alternate area data supports automatic localization. Product catalogs, pricing, language, subtitles, and regulatory messaging can adapt dynamically based on estimated regional location, without requiring logins or persistent tracking.

For analytics and measurement, greater geographic precision improves confidence. When campaigns are evaluated using consistent, deterministic location signals, marketers can better understand performance by region even as traditional cookie-based attribution becomes less reliable.

3. Designed to Complement Verification and Measurement Partners

NetAcuity’s Alternate Area Database is designed to work alongside existing verification, fraud prevention, and measurement solutions, not replace them.

By adding a stable, privacy-safe geographic signal, it helps preserve campaign scale and consistency as cookies fade, while enhancing the overall quality of location-based insights. This makes it a strong foundational layer within modern, privacy-first advertising stacks.

Looking Ahead: Expanding to France and Germany

The introduction of the Alternate Area Database in Australia is just the beginning. NetAcuity plans to extend this feature to other regions, including Germany and France. In Germany, the focus will be on PLZ 8 regions, and in France, the IRIS system will be utilized. These expansions will further enhance the granularity and accuracy of IP geolocation, providing valuable insights and targeting capabilities across Europe.

Revolutionizing IP Geolocation for Smarter Marketing

NetAcuity’s Alternate Area Database represents the next evolution of IP-based geolocation. By mapping IP addresses to smaller, well-defined geographic areas, it empowers businesses to make more informed decisions. Whether it’s for precise ad targeting, in-depth demographic analysis, or enhanced cybersecurity, the ability to map IP addresses to smaller, more accurate regions like SA1s unlocks new potential while maintaining alignment with Digital Element’s privacy-centric approach.

As this capability expands globally, it will continue to open new possibilities for brands that need precision, performance, and compliance in a cookieless digital environment.

Learn More About Our Portfolio of Products

For more info on our capabilities, check out the resource center or reach out to support@digitalenvoy.com.

Fortifying Digital Defenses: Revolutionizing Account Security with IP Intelligence to Combat Account Takeover

Posted on July 17, 2024August 24, 2025 by Digital Element

Account takeover (ATO) refers to the unauthorized access and control of user accounts by malicious actors.

Such breaches pose significant risks to individuals, organizations, and their sensitive data. These breaches lead to financial losses, reputational damage, and privacy violation. Given the evolving sophistication of cyber threats, traditional security measures alone may not suffice to detect and prevent ATO incidents effectively.

As cyber threats become more sophisticated, security measures need effective rules in place to outmaneuver the bad actor without causing user friction. Leveraging advanced tools that incorporate contextual data, especially IP address data, becomes imperative in leveling-up account security measures and thwarting nefarious activity.

The Growing Threat of Account Takeover (ATO)

In October 2023, three major online services had a flawed implementation of the Open Authorization (OAuth) standard that left millions of users vulnerable for account takeovers on dozens of websites. For users, account takeovers could create life-changing devastation such as credential theft and financial fraud.
With the rise of AI, bad actors have more tools at their fingertips to take over a user’s account. As AI technology progresses, it can create a convincing mimicry of a person’s voice, photo, and even their writing style. These AI “deep fakes” could lead to higher rates of 401(K) account takeover fraud, according to the National Association of Plan Advisors.
In September 2022, TechRepublic shared a report citing SEON data that almost 25% of people in the US had been victims of ATOs and the average value of financial losses was $12,000.

The Critical Role of IP Intelligence in ATO Mitigation

Contextual Understanding
IP address intelligence data offers crucial contextual understanding by providing insights into the geographical origins of login attempts.

This context enables security teams to differentiate between legitimate users and potential threats, facilitating more accurate detection and mitigation of ATO incidents.
Real-Time Monitoring
Platform providers that incorporate IP address intelligence as a contextual dataset enable real-time monitoring of login activities, allowing security teams to promptly identify suspicious behavior indicative of ATO attempts.

Continuous analysis of IP addresses associated with login activities alerts security teams to anomalies so that they can address them with a curated list of customer-specific traffic trends, minimizing risk of successful ATO attempts.
Enhanced Threat Detection
IP address intelligence data enhances threat detection capabilities by enabling the indicators of compromise (IOCs) associated with ATO attacks. For example, monitoring unusual sign-in attempts—people’s habits are predictable—they usually sign in from the same locations and times during the week.

Security professionals can effectively detect compromised accounts by odd sign-in times and from unusual geographies, such as a country where an organization doesn’t have an office or do business.

IP address characteristics also allow for the detection of common ways attackers obfuscate their activities to evade detection, such as the use of VPNs or proxys, botnets, high-risk IP addresses, and IP address location instability. Organizations that integrate IP address contextual data into threat detection algorithms can bolster their defenses against ATO attempts and mitigate risks effectively.
Adaptive Security Measures
Leveraging IP address Intelligence data allows for the implementation of adaptive security measures that respond dynamically to emerging threats. Security systems that equip their threat intelligence feeds with continuous IP address contextual data can adapt their defenses in real-time, thereby staying ahead of evolving ATO tactics and techniques.

This adaptive approach enhances the resilience of account security measures and minimizes the likelihood of successful ATO incidents.
Comprehensive Risk Assessment
Integrating IP address contextual data into a risk assessment framework enables organizations to conduct more comprehensive evaluations of ATO risks.

When organizations have insights into factors such as VPN usage, botnet activity, and IP address location stability, they can assign risk scores to login attempts based on their likelihood of being associated with ATO incidents.

This contextual data enables security teams to prioritize response efforts and allocate resources effectively, thereby enhancing overall account security risk assessment.

Partnering with Digital Element for Superior ATO Defense

Digital Element, the authoritative source of IP intelligence data, offers insights that will enhance your organization’s security measures to detect and mitigate account takeover incidents through valuable contextual information associated with IP addresses.

Digital Element revolutionizes fraud detection with our IP address intelligence, offering sophisticated geographic-based insights.

By analyzing sign-in locations, we empower security teams to identify potential fraud through the lens of geographic origin with precision. Additionally, our comprehensive insights into VPN and proxy IP usage equip cybersecurity professionals with crucial contextual data.

This information is pivotal for uncovering and thwarting malicious actors’ efforts to disguise their fraudulent activities. We’re committed to collaborating closely with your data science and development teams, tailoring our best practices to meet your specific Account Takeover (ATO) mitigation requirements.

Interested in enhancing your security measures? Reach out to us to learn more and to have a free assessment specific to your ATO mitigation needs.

Combatting Residential Proxy Threats: Essential Strategies for Payment Service Providers

Posted on June 19, 2024August 21, 2025 by Digital Element

Payment Service Providers (PSPs) face countless challenges when it comes to safeguarding their clients against nefarious or fraudulent activities while ensuring compliance with stringent regulatory requirements.

A particular point of contention in this complex security matrix is the increasing use of “residential proxies” by malicious actors. This issue introduces a nuanced layer of difficulty for PSPs as they strive to ensure robust security and risk management for their direct and indirect customers.

Understanding Residential Proxies

At the heart of this challenge lies the residential proxy, an intermediary that distinguishes itself from other proxy types by utilizing IP addresses allocated by Internet Service Providers (ISPs), rather than those originating from data centers. This key difference is pivotal as it bestows upon these proxies a veil of legitimacy that can easily bypass conventional security measures designed to filter out less sophisticated threats.

The Threat of Residential Proxies to PSPs

Residential proxies emerge as a formidable threat to PSPs primarily due to their high level of anonymity and their low likelihood of being blocked.

These proxies enable nefarious entities to masquerade their nefarious activities under the guise of legitimacy, rendering traditional detection methods less effective. The operational similarity of residential proxies to mobile proxies exacerbates the problem, with both leveraging legitimate-looking IP addresses from reputable ISPs around the globe, thus complicating the task of distinguishing malicious traffic from benign.

The Importance of Identifying Residential Proxies

The popularity of residential proxies among cybercriminals stems from their ability to imitate the digital footprint of ordinary Internet users. This camouflage facilitates activities ranging from fraud to money laundering, under the radar of usual security protocols.

For PSPs, the ability to pinpoint transactions originating from residential proxies is not just a technical necessity; it’s a strategic imperative that enables the discernment of potentially risky transactions that warrant closer scrutiny or immediate intervention.

Digital Element’s Role in Enhancing PSP Security

Our work with numerous global PSPs at Digital Element has underscored the value of leveraging sophisticated IP Intelligence data, including insights into residential proxies. Our collaborations have shed light on several critical areas where PSPs can benefit from identifying and flagging residential proxies, namely:

Fraud Detection & Risk Assessment – By tailoring IP geolocation and proxy detection mechanisms to specifically target residential proxies, PSPs can significantly enhance their fraud detection capabilities. This approach allows for the accurate identification of suspicious transactions, thereby minimizing the incidence of false positives and bolstering overall security posture.
Regulatory Compliance – The mandate from regulatory bodies for PSPs to actively combat fraud and money laundering places a premium on the ability to detect and mitigate risks associated with residential proxy IP addresses. Incorporating advanced IP geolocation and proxy insights serves as a cornerstone for achieving compliance, ensuring that PSPs can navigate the regulatory landscape with confidence.
Security Measures – The use of residential proxies in perpetrating security threats, such as account takeovers (ATO), highlights the critical need for PSPs to integrate advanced proxy detection in their security frameworks. By analyzing IP addresses and proxy data specific to residential proxies, PSPs can proactively block malicious activities, safeguarding both their systems and their customers’ accounts.

Empowering PSPs Against Cyber Threats

The integration of Digital Element’s IP geolocation insights, with a focus on identifying residential proxies, is paramount for PSPs aiming to fortify their defenses against the sophisticated tactics employed by today’s cybercriminals. This strategic approach not only enhances the integrity of PSPs’ solutions and services but also reinforces the trust that customers place in these online payment providers.

Contact Us for a Consultation

Whether you’re a PSP, working with one, or have specific needs within your own fraud, risk, or security use cases, our dedicated Customer Success Managers (CSMs) are ready to assist. Interested in learning more about our new IP address stability insights? Reach out to support@digitalenvoy.com