At A Glance
Sell-side decisioning is changing how publishers and advertisers collaborate, improving efficiency and fostering more meaningful connections. Experian’s syndicated audiences and data solutions help both sides reach the right audiences with greater transparency and privacy.In our Ask the Expert Series, we interview leaders from our partner organizations who are helping lead their brands to new heights in AdTech. Today’s interview is with Paul Zovighian, VP of Marketplaces at Index Exchange.
Sell-side activation vs. buy-side packaging
What’s fundamentally changed with sell-side decisioning, and how does it now diverge from traditional buy-side packaging?
Sell-side decisioning is programmatic’s next major evolution – one that redefines how intelligence enters the transaction. Advances in infrastructure and computing power now allow supply-side platforms(SSPs) to act in the crucial pre-bid moment, enriching impressions with context, quality, and data before they reach the buy side.
This isn’t just about efficiency; it’s about unlocking new value. Smarter requests mean buyers see only the most relevant opportunities, while publishers gain recognition for the true worth of their audiences and environments.
We’re still at the beginning of this shift. Many players still package inventory without engaging in real pre-bid intelligence. As the market matures, the companies that evolve toward sell-side decisioning will be the ones to set the pace for programmatic’s future.
Economic shifts with scaled curation
As curation scales, what economic levers shift for both publishers and buyers, and how do those shifts influence deal structure and media planning?
As curation scales, one of the most powerful levers is data. It’s the industry’s most valuable asset, and on Index it keeps its full worth. We don’t take a platform cut or add hidden fees, so data partners benefit from the clearest, most efficient economics in the market. Data vendors gain confidence that their economics aren’t eroded by a platform tax.
For publishers, this means stronger yield and more ad spend flowing directly into working media. When data retains its full value, it enhances how impressions are packaged, priced, and differentiated—driving more competition for quality inventory and more opportunities for revenue.
For buyers, it means compressed supply paths and total transparency – they know exactly what they’re paying for. With no intermediaries and full transparency into economics, buyers gain a clearer view of where their budgets go and the confidence that their investments reach real audiences in trusted environments. They benefit from cleaner supply chains, better performance, and more meaningful alignment between spend and outcome. The result is a healthier marketplace where both sides benefit from efficiency, fairness, and scale.
Moving decisions upstream for value
What decisions historically made in DSPs should now move upstream to publishers or SSPs to unlock more value, and which should remain buy-side?
Decisioning is no longer confined to demand-side platforms(DSPs). We can enrich impressions by applying intelligence — via data, algorithms, creative technology, and more, before they even reach the buy side — adding context, filtering out low-quality supply, and expanding audience discovery.
This isn’t about shifting roles; DSPs remain critical for campaign strategy, optimization, and budget allocation. The sell side simply ensures every bid request is smarter from the start, creating more value for all parties.
In doing so, we also alleviate pressure on DSPs — enabling more comprehensive data discovery by searching for signals at the top of the funnel, prior to optimization. That means DSPs can focus on what they do best, supported by a cleaner, more transparent supply path.
Index Marketplaces use cases explained
Index Marketplaces is designed to enable the strength of our partners, and Experian brings one of the broadest sets of demographic and audience insights in the industry. That scale enables a wide variety of applications, from more precise audience activation to deeper measurement and analytics.
What’s different on the sell side is how those insights are applied. By activating Experian’s syndicated audiences directly at the point of decision, their value is realized in real time and across the full scale of the open internet. Buyers gain a clearer path to relevant audiences, and publishers benefit from stronger alignment between data and media.
It’s an approach that ensures partners like Experian can maximize the impact of their assets while helping the market move toward more intelligent, performance-driven activation.
Identity signals with stronger privacy
For identity partners like Experian, what’s the right way to bring audience, context, and propensity signals into sell-side activation?
The beauty of sell-side decisioning is that it reduces the hops in how identity signals are applied. Without it, IDs have to travel through multiple platforms, creating extra handoffs and additional risks of data loss or leakage.
With sell-side decisioning, those signals are obfuscated under a deal ID and applied directly at the point of decision. That means audience, context, and propensity data are activated securely, without ever leaving the sell-side environment.
For partners like Experian, it’s the cleanest path to value: fewer hops, stronger privacy protection, and clearer economics for everyone in the chain.
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FAQs
Sell-side decisioning allows publishers to add intelligence, like audience data and context, before ad impressions are sent to buyers. This makes the process more efficient and ensures advertisers see only the most relevant opportunities.
Traditional buy-side packaging happens after impressions are sent to demand-side platforms (DSPs). Sell-side decisioning moves some of that intelligence upstream, enriching impressions earlier and reducing inefficiencies.
Curation refers to the process of organizing and enriching ad inventory with data and context. For publishers, it leads to better yield and more ad spend going directly to their media. For advertisers, it means clearer, more transparent supply paths.
By applying audience and identity signals directly on the sell side, data stays within a secure environment. This reduces the number of platforms handling sensitive information, lowering the risk of data loss or leakage.
Experian provides demographic and audience insights that are activated directly at the point of decision. This helps advertisers reach the right audiences more effectively while ensuring publishers can maximize the value of their inventory.
When publishers and SSPs handle some decisioning earlier, DSPs can focus on campaign strategy and optimization. This creates a cleaner, more efficient process for everyone involved.
A deal ID is a unique identifier used in programmatic advertising to bundle audience and context signals securely. It ensures data is applied without being exposed or shared across multiple platforms.
About our expert
Paul Zovighian, VP of Marketplaces, Index Exchange
Paul Zovighian carries over a decade of industry expertise, stemming from his analytics and optimization roots to his current post as VP, Marketplaces, where he is focused on the commercial activation of Index’s newest product, Index Marketplaces. Previously, in his role as VP of corporate development, Paul led Index’s first-ever business acquisition. In his spare time, he enjoys long walks on the beach and befriending cats in NYC’s thriving bodega community.
About Index Exchange
Index Exchange is a global advertising supply-side platform enabling media owners to maximize the value of their content on any screen. They’re a proud industry pioneer with over 20 years of experience connecting leading experience makers with the world’s largest brands to ensure a quality experience for consumers.
Latest posts
Strong Revenue Performance and Thriving Culture Contribute to Industry Recognition NEW YORK, Sept. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — Tapad, the leader in cross-device marketing technology and now a part of Experian, was named a top company on Inc. Magazine’s list of the 5000 fastest-growing private companies in the U.S. In addition, Tapad won the TMCnet 2016 Tech Culture Award. The exclusive Inc. 5000 ranking highlights the fastest-growing privately-held* companies in America. These distinguished companies have achieved success in strategy, service and innovation. TMCnet recognizes talented tech professionals who are committed to building a culture that prioritizes employee growth, collaboration and engagement. Tapad continues to broaden their presence into new markets, having launched in APAC earlier this year, as well as continuing their European expansion. Tapad’s proprietary technology, The Device Graph™ is leveraged by more marketers and brands to understand digital engagement across devices. The company’s rapidly expanding client base includes numerous Fortune 500 company brands as well as all four major advertising holding companies in the U.S. “We have an exceptional team of innovative people who are all working very hard to achieve the kind of results these publications are recognizing,” said Tapad CEO and Founder, Are Traasdahl. “Given that, we have an even greater responsibility to our talent to create an environment that fosters innovation and nurtures open communication. Ultimately, this is how we will continue to reach our very ambitious goals of becoming the world’s leading unified marketing technology provider.” Tapad’s award-winning work culture is defined by its gold-standard benefits which include a six-month parental leave policy, unlimited vacation time, company-sponsored meals and office space designed to facilitate collaboration and open communication. Tapad’s highly talented team has also received multiple customer service awards in 2016. These awards include the iMedia ASPY awards for Best Customer Service and Best Mobile Partner as well as recognition from The Communicator Awards of Excellence in Interactive Media. *Prior to Tapad’s acquisition by Telenor in February 2016. Contact us today
The Tapad Device GraphTM Had Twice the Precision and Three Times the Scale as Next Competitor New York, September 14, 2016 – Just-released findings of a Hotels.com® study revealed that Tapad’s (part of Experian) cross-screen marketing technology achieved the highest levels of precision and scale among competitors. According to the leading online accommodation booking website, after a rigorous, three-and-a-half month vendor analysis, Tapad achieved twice the precision of the next highest-scoring cross-screen offering and three times greater scale. The two other companies evaluated were not named. Said Helene Cameron-Heslop, Senior Manager of Analytics of the Hotels.com brand, “Our team implemented an extremely rigorous vetting of open, cross-screen technology vendors. At the outset, we assumed we would have to compromise on either scale or accuracy – particularly given the importance to our brand of operating in a privacy-safe setting. We were surprised to find a complete package, but Tapad’s Device Graph won out on scale, accuracy and privacy; making our choice of partners very clear.” In another metric critical to the Hotels.com brand, The Tapad Device GraphTM was eight times more “unique” than the next closest offering, meaning Tapad’s graph was found to have a much greater number of connections not seen in any of the other graphs. In addition to precision, uniqueness and scale, the Tapad Device GraphTM was found to have: ● 100% higher recall● 47% more incremental matches● 53% higher North American market coverage● 101% higher F-Score* “A valuable cross-device solution should enable partners to get everything they’re looking for from a single vendor,” said Tapad Founder and CEO, Are Traasdahl. “We are deeply impressed with how thorough Hotels.com was in their vetting, and we confidently tackle the complex challenges of the martech industry thanks to our superior technology. Everyone loves a bake-off, and Tapad is no exception – delivering best-in-class results in areas that really count.” *F-score is a statistical measurement that takes precision and recall together. The calculation is 2*(precision*recall)/precision + recall). It gives you one number instead of two numbers to look at and judge performance. Contact us today
Five Norwegian startups selected to establish U.S. presence NEW YORK, Aug. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — Tapad, the leader in cross-device marketing technology and now a part of Experian, has announced its new entrepreneurial mentorship initiative, the Propeller Program. Five early-stage startups from Norway have been chosen by Are Traasdahl, native of Norway and Tapad’s CEO and founder. The selected companies will share Tapad’s New York City workspace, receive C-level guidance and help establish a U.S. presence. The following companies have been selected to participate in the inaugural Propeller Program – a 12-month program beginning September 19, 2016: Bubbly – Developers of a platform that enables in-store customer feedback with dashboards and tools that facilitate real-time store response BylineMe – A marketplace for freelancers, publishers and brands to connect for content creation and distribution services Eventum – A property-sharing group that digitally assists in securing venues for meetings and corporate events Xeneta – A database that organizes the best contracted freight rates in real time and on demand “We are supporting startups that we feel represent the future of service offerings,” said Traasdahl. “It is with incredible pride that we invite these entrepreneurial teams from Norway to join us in New York Citythis year. Mentorship opportunities for early-stage companies are so important, particularly for those based outside the U.S. I look forward to giving the Propeller Program participants access to the expertise of my seasoned team and to our wide network of resources. Hopefully, it will be a game-changing year for many of them.” Contact us today