By Denise Cornelissen, Head of Product Marketing at RTB House
One of the perceived advantages of digital advertising over other types of marketing is how easy it is to measure the outcomes of digital campaigns. Every impression, click, and conversion can be tracked, analysed, and optimised, which we assume to be a good thing for marketers.
However, the ability to precisely monitor these chosen metrics could be masking a cold reality. The truth is that not everything that can be measured reflects genuine customer interest or intent.
With marketers under pressure for short-term results, performance budgets continue to climb, but so too does the scale of invalid traffic. This problem is currently estimated to cost the industry $63 billion (£47.2 billion) each year.
At the heart of the issue is a structural mismatch. Brands want to reach potential customers who are curious, engaged, and likely to convert. All too often, though, what they end up buying is traffic, and more specifically, clicks.
The ‘click’ disconnect
For many years, cost-per-click (CPC) models have dominated digital acquisition strategies because they are simple, scalable, and easy to measure. A click is a trackable action, for sure, but, in reality, it is a low-friction, low-value interaction that says very little about intent.
Clicks can be generated accidentally or driven by misleading placements that ultimately deliver poor user experiences. Alternatively, they can also be manufactured at scale by bots or further driven by AI agents, resulting in high bounce rates, short session durations, and negligible downstream conversions. In reality, the signs point to the fact that most rigorously measured ‘traffic’ is worthless and will never lead to a conversion.
This disconnect has serious consequences. Marketers begin to question the value of their investments, particularly in the mid-funnel, where outcomes are less immediate and harder to tie directly to sales. New research has found that 50% of Gen Z shoppers require two or more days of “in-cart dwell time”, so marketers would be making a mistake if they abandon their mid-funnel strategies. Instead, budgets are shifting toward multi-touch attribution models, enabling marketers to see the added value of mid-funnel campaigns, even from a performance perspective.
Signals of intent
To move forward, advertisers must rethink their optimisation strategies and replace surface-level metrics like clicks with deeper, more meaningful intent signals.
A user may have landed on a page, but what did they do once they got there? Did they scroll? Did they engage with content? Did they spend time exploring? These behaviours provide a far richer picture of genuine interest than a single click ever could.
Fortunately for marketers, the tools needed to make this shift are already available. Rather than treating all visits as equal, advanced analytics and artificial intelligence can identify patterns that can distinguish casual or accidental traffic from genuinely engaged audiences.
Unlike traditional models that rely on predefined rules or limited datasets, Deep Learning systems can process vast amounts of data in real time, uncovering complex relationships between user actions and eventual conversions.
Real-time data processing allows for continuous feedback loops, where insights from on-site behaviour inform advertisers’ bidding decisions almost instantly.
Value over volume
The implications for the industry are profound. By aligning success metrics with genuine human engagement, advertisers can protect their budgets from wasted spend and improve overall campaign performance. What’s more, they can begin to rebuild trust in mid-funnel strategies currently hampered by the prevalence of low-quality traffic.
As the industry is facing massive upheaval, we cannot continue to reward volume over value. If digital advertising is to fulfil its promise of precision, transparency, and efficiency, it must move beyond the click as its primary currency.
The key is to stop paying for noise and start investing in intent. By leveraging advanced AI to identify and optimise for meaningful engagement, marketers can ensure their budgets reach real people with real interest. In an ecosystem increasingly shaped by automation and scale, the true differentiator will be the ability to recognise and act on genuine human behaviour.
The economics of digital advertising have changed. The days of bidding for clicks indiscriminately are long gone. If marketers focus their spend on users who are more likely to deliver value, they can leverage digital channels to drive both performance and sustainable, long-term growth.
The convergence of tech and brands 