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 Brian Mandelbaum, CEO and Co-Founder at Attain.
About Attain
Built for privacy — with visibility across all retailers, verticals and purchases — Attain provides solutions for the modern marketer. Its real-time measurement and optimization solutions coupled with high-fidelity audiences and proprietary insights enable marketers to drive valuable business outcomes.
The power of transaction-based audiences
Attain’s real-time transaction data provides a 360-degree view of consumer behavior. What makes this approach more effective than traditional demographic or behavioral targeting?
Attain is the industry’s most trusted source of live purchase data, powered by a robust panel of 8 million fully permissioned consumers. Our platform delivers unmatched, real-time visibility into consumer purchase behavior across retailers, industries, and payment methods. Marketers gain deep insights — such as in-store vs. online purchases, payment methods, purchase frequency, cart contents, and average transaction value — enabling more precise audience targeting and media strategies. With Attain’s rich, transaction-based data, marketers can optimize campaigns with direct, actionable sales signals.
Ensuring data accuracy and relevance
Attain curates audiences using real-time transaction data, but advertisers often ask whether this data is deterministic or probabilistic. Can you clarify your methodology, and if probabilistic, how do you ensure accuracy and representation across the entire US population?
Our transaction data comes directly from the largest live purchase data panel in the U.S. Covering over 10,000+ merchants and $600B in cumulative spend, our dataset offers a complete and dynamic view of real-world purchase behavior. Using advanced machine learning, we scale this data to represent the entire U.S. population with unmatched accuracy, ensuring a balanced and unbiased reflection of consumer spending patterns. Our rigorous methodology eliminates outliers, continuously optimizing for precision and stability, so marketers can trust our insights for better targeting, measurement, and optimization.
Privacy-first data practices
Attain is built on a privacy-first, consumer-permissioned model. There are many ways to capture purchase data—why did Attain choose a panel-based approach, and how does this method compare to other collection strategies in terms of accuracy, scale, and compliance?
Attain’s panel-based approach is the foundation of our privacy-first, consumer-permissioned model. By capturing real-time transaction data directly from our opted-in consumer panel, we ensure unmatched accuracy and ethical data sourcing — paramount in today’s privacy-conscious world.
In exchange for sharing their data, consumers receive valuable benefits like early wages, savings tools, and shopping rewards, with no hidden fees. Unlike legacy third party data providers, our directly sourced transaction data provides deeper, more precise insights, enabling highly granular and actionable audience segments.
Our continuously growing panel reflects a broad cross-section of U.S. consumers while maintaining strict privacy and compliance standards. We fully adhere to regulations like CCPA and GDPR, giving both consumers and advertisers confidence in the responsible use of data. Attain’s approach delivers the ideal balance of accuracy, scale, and compliance—while prioritizing consumer trust.
Cross-channel addressability
With brands activating audiences across display, mobile, and CTV, how does Attain’s purchase data help advertisers refine their cross-channel strategies?
Attain’s purchase data empowers advertisers to refine cross-channel strategies with smarter, data-driven insights. Our real-time transaction-based audiences enable scalable activation across display, social, online video, and addressable TV — ensuring campaigns reach high-intent buyers more likely to convert.
By applying purchase-based audiences across all channels, marketers are utilizing the strongest signals possible, which enables a more effective holistic strategy to drive to that ultimate sales outcome. Whether through social media, TV/CTV, mobile, or programmatic platforms, Attain helps brands connect with consumers at key moments in their buying journey, maximizing media impact with real behavioral insights instead of proxies.
With an expansive and growing network of media partners, Attain ensures brands reach their audiences wherever they are, delivering consistent, high-impact messaging. Whether optimizing for brand awareness or performance, our data helps marketers make smarter decisions to drive superior results.
Proven performance with live purchase feedback
Attain moves beyond traditional proxy metrics by providing live purchase data. How does this help advertisers optimize campaigns while they’re still running?
What sets Attain’s audiences apart isn’t just the data fidelity and holistic coverage of consumer behavior, it’s that they’re built and validated using live, privacy-safe purchase signals. Advertisers can execute campaigns confidently, knowing that they’re reaching real consumers based on recent, real-world transactions, not outdated models or inferred, probabilistic behaviors.
Attain’s ability to measure sales lift across a wide range of inputs means that marketers can easily understand which audiences are driving actual sales outcomes during flight. This unlocks smarter mid-campaign optimizations, discovering new audiences, and fine-tuning targeting — to ensure audience performance continually improves against real revenue goals.
Attain’s closed-loop approach gives advertisers a faster path from targeting to transaction, helping brands maximize the value of every impression.
Industry-specific use cases
Beyond CPG, Attain supports industries like QSR, retail, and financial services. Can you share a compelling example of how brands in these verticals are utilizing your audiences?
Attain’s audiences provide a comprehensive view of the consumer, capturing all aspects of their purchase behaviors — from travel and dining to TV content consumption and shopping habits. This broad perspective offers brands a far richer set of buying signals than ever before, enabling them to make more informed decisions across the entire consumer journey.
- Quick service restaurants (QSR): With a comprehensive view across all transaction types (cash, credit, debit) – Attain enables QSRs to capture a full picture of customer spend at their nationwide locations. Ensuring these brands have holistic coverage across all sales channels, powered by a direct relationship with the consumer, Attain captures transactions both in-store, online, and through 3P delivery apps like UberEats and Grubhub. This powers Attain’s deep insights, which QSRs can use for intelligent, precise targeting- including frequent visitors, competitive share, products purchased, and more. QSRs can use this data to solve a variety of business objectives, like retention/growth, competitive conquesting, and more.
- Retail: In retail, Attain provides a wide range of audience segments, including loyalty shoppers, in-market buyers, competitive shoppers, and even adjacent buyers who may be interested in similar products. By combining these segments, retailers can optimize their campaigns to target real-time shoppers with the highest intent, rather than relying on outdated or generalized profiles that other providers might offer. Additionally, with our industry-leading refresh rate, brands benefit from the most up-to-date data, ensuring their campaigns are always aligned with the latest consumer behaviors.
- Financial services: In the financial services sector, Attain’s purchase data helps identify consumers who are actively considering financial products such as credit cards or loans. By understanding their purchasing behaviors, marketers can deliver highly personalized and relevant offers to those already displaying intent, leading to better conversion rates and more effective acquisition strategies.
Integration with Experian’s marketplace
Attain is now available through the Experian marketplace. How does this integration make it easier for advertisers to activate and scale your audiences?
Attain’s integration with Experian marketplace makes it easier than ever for advertisers to activate our purchase-based audiences across TV, social, and programmatic. This partnership makes Attain’s data even more accessible, supporting our mission to build the most comprehensive and trusted consumer data ecosystem.
With direct access to our real-time audiences within Experian’s marketplace, advertisers can more efficiently launch campaigns at scale and make more precise, data-driven decisions. As one of Experian’s inaugural partners, we’ve already seen strong adoption and demand, reinforcing the value of this partnership.
The future of transaction-based targeting
As the use of transaction data in advertising continues to grow, what changes do you anticipate in how brands will apply it for targeting and measurement? And how is Attain evolving its approach to support those shifts?
As transaction data reshapes advertising, brands can shift from targeting probabilistic audiences to reaching high-intent consumers for greater ad relevance and conversions. Purchase data also unlocks highly accurate incrementality measurement, closing the loop and revealing which tactics and channels drive true incremental sales.
Attain’s platform is built for outcomes-driven advertising, capturing data across the entire media cycle to continuously optimize performance. As we continue to make investments in AI and machine learning into our platform, our insights will become even more actionable and efficient — helping brands maximize impact, drive incrementality, and fuel long-term growth.
Thanks for the interview. Any recommendations for our readers if they want to learn more?
To explore our audience segments, visit the Attain website or contact your Experian account representative to schedule your free match test.
Contact us today
About our expert
Brian Mandelbaum, CEO and Co-Founder, Attain
Brian Mandelbaum, a veteran entrepreneur and investor, is the co-founder and CEO of Attain, North America’s largest opt-in purchase platform. Prior to Attain, Brian founded Clearstream TV, a data-enabled video distribution platform acquired by Engine Group in 2015. He brings over 20 years of experience in data-driven digital media, collaborating with top agencies and major brands.
Latest posts
The rise of streaming TV advertising is revolutionizing the marketing landscape, bringing together the best of traditional television's broad audience reach and digital's precise targeting capabilities. Marketers now have a new platform to explore, but it comes with its own set of challenges and opportunities. To shed light on this topic, we hosted a panel discussion at Cannes, featuring industry leaders from AMC Networks, Disney, OMG, Paramount, Roku, and Experian. In this blog post, we'll explore the effectiveness of TV as a performance channel and audience targeting. TV as a performance channel Television has come a long way over the years. The evolution of linear TV to connected TV (CTV) is opening new possibilities for targeting and performance measurement, like what we're accustomed to in search and display. However, there's still a way to go. What's preventing us from fully realizing the potential of CTV? Let's explore what's holding us back. Three challenges Advertisers are captivated by CTV, a media platform that combines the best features of TV and digital advertising. With its unparalleled data and identity capabilities, alongside the immersive TV experience, it has the potential to be a powerful performance channel. However, we still face three challenges as performance dollars take center stage. "CTV is a valuable household device that provides direct audience insights. However, to gain a comprehensive understanding of the household and the individuals in the household, we need different techniques. The implementation of such methodologies from user level profiles to algorithmic inferences are still evolving across different companies." Louqman parampath, vp, product, roku Client education Performance marketers and agencies are still primarily focused on social and search. It's important to reassure them that CTV aligns with their established standards. Optimize KPIs We need to address the challenges around attribution and incrementality. We should optimize for the KPIs that performance marketers desire, which are different from the metrics commonly used in social media and search marketing. Results-driven interactions You should invest in interactive ad formats and novel experiences to give users clickable options that deliver the instant impact of performance marketing. While conversions and purchases can happen after seeing an ad thanks to view-through attribution, your goal should be to make video ad experiences feel like performance-based engagements. This transition is crucial to building trust and familiarity among performance marketers and agencies. Strategies to effectively reach audiences across different mediums There are various mediums to connect with consumers — TV, digital, and mobile offer multiple avenues. Which strategies should you prioritize? Data interoperability When it comes to buying unified audiences, programmatically is the easiest route. By prioritizing data interoperability, you can ensure a seamless buying experience across all screens. "At Disney, we focus on data interoperability with industry solutions such as The Trade Desk/UID2, Google PAIR, and Experian and the LUID, making it effortless to buy unified audiences programmatically across all screens. With an identity graph as the foundation of our tech stack, we help our clients reach their target audience across linear, digital, and streaming properties."jamie power, SVP, addressable sales, disney Advanced targeting capabilities in linear TV Don't limit your perspective on television consumption to traditional streaming platforms alone. While streaming is popular, it's equally exciting to see advanced targeting capabilities integrated into linear television. Viewer habits are shifting, with appointment TV becoming a thing of the past. Today, viewers have more options to watch a variety of programming, regardless of its age. "Streaming has become another platform for viewers to consume programming, and it's exciting to see digital targeting capabilities being applied to linear TV. Viewer behavior has changed, with more opportunities to consume programs at different times, so it's important to use targeting capabilities like linear addressable to effectively reach the audience across multiple channels."evan adlman, Evp, commercial sales & revenue operations, amc networks While live premieres still attract a substantial audience, utilize linear addressable targeting to reach viewers across channels. By doing so, you can ensure your message reaches the right viewers at the right time. The viewership landscape has diversified – it's time to adjust our strategies. Make TV viewing patterns predictable To bring predictability to the unpredictable and fragmented landscape of TV, advertisers can create products that simplify and unify the viewing experience. This allows users to effortlessly transition between episodes, resulting in a cohesive and engaging viewing journey. Watch our Cannes panel for more on the future of streaming TV advertising We hosted a panel in Cannes that covered the future of streaming TV advertising. Check out the full recording below to hear what leaders from AMC Networks, Disney, OMG, Paramount, Roku, and Experian had to say. Watch now Check out more Cannes content: Our key takeaways from Cannes Lions 2023 Insights from a first-time attendee Four new marketing strategies for 2023 The future of identity in cookieless advertising Maximize ad targeting with supply-side advertising Follow us on LinkedIn or sign up for our email newsletter for more informative content on the latest industry insights and data-driven marketing. Get in touch Latest posts
As a marketer, you know that the digital landscape is always changing. That's why it's important to make sure you're equipped with the right tools every step of the way – no matter how rapidly things change. You want to ensure your strategies and tactics stay ahead of any changes in technology or consumer behavior, so what new marketing strategies should be in your toolbox in 2023? Discover what industry leaders from Experian, Adweek, FreeWheel, Tubi, and Instacart had to say about what should be in every marketer's toolbox in 2023 at Cannes. Keep reading to learn the top four new marketing strategies you need in your marketing toolbox for 2023 and beyond. 1. A plan for signal loss The first item you should have in your marketing toolbox is a plan for signal loss. The phasing out of third-party cookies presents both a challenge and an opportunity. This shift not only poses challenges but also opens up opportunities for alternative strategies. 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Four things to consider when planning for signal loss There are four things you should consider when building out a plan to address signal loss and fragmentation. Channel diversification You need to reach your customers on the channels where they are already spending time, such as social media, email, and your own website. You should work with platforms that have first-party data to understand how your customers interact with your brand. Data privacy You need to be transparent about how you are collecting and using customer data. You should also anonymize data whenever possible. First-party data First-party data is now more crucial than ever, awakening its importance in shaping our actions. The combination of channel diversification and first-party data will be essential in the years to come. By focusing on these two areas, you can build stronger customer relationships and create more effective marketing campaigns. Contextual targeting Contextual targeting is emerging as a viable method to deliver more relevant content to your intended audience. By embracing signal loss, the alternative new marketing strategies that are emerging as a result, and adopting a privacy-centric mindset, you can navigate cookie deprecation. 2. Collaboration The second item you should have in your marketing toolbox is collaboration within the AdTech ecosystem. To address signal loss and changes in privacy, moving toward a more collaborative, holistic marketing ecosystem is key. Two ways we can achieve better collaboration Here are two ways we can create better collaboration in the AdTech ecosystem. Enable interoperability We should aim to create an ecosystem that fosters collaboration between marketers, publishers, advertisers, ad tech companies, and more. When we enable seamless interoperability, everyone can use the best data available. Use clean rooms We are witnessing a growing trend of collaboration between parties, where buyers and sellers share data in these secure environments. Clean rooms can help us develop data strategies in a controlled manner. 3. Generative artificial intelligence (AI) The third tool you should have in your marketing toolbox is generative AI. Benefits of implementing AI There are three main benefits to implementing AI within your marketing strategy. Enables creativity Although AI and machine learning have long been part of our toolbox, this moment marks an extraordinary acceleration that expands our capabilities. Copywriters can now create visuals, and art directors can write compelling copy. It's an extension of what we're capable of, potentially alleviating the burden of repetitive tasks and enabling more time for collaboration, creativity, and strategic thinking. By embracing generative AI, we can preserve valuable talent, prevent burnout, and invigorate the advertising industry. Enables more personalization The rise of personalization with AI has significantly increased the demand for tailored experiences. People now willingly allow AI agents to read their emails, hoping for quicker and easier responses. This shift signifies a change in the previous emphasis on privacy and consumer preferences. Consumers now see the value in exchanging personal information for more targeted services. E-commerce has already witnessed this transformation with customized ads based on individual preferences and behaviors. For instance, if a CPG brand notices you're not purchasing meat, they won't serve you ads for meat products. However, it's crucial to strike the right balance between being useful and intrusive. Users want relevant information that aligns with their needs without feeling intruded upon. As we navigate this path, we must ensure that personalization remains beneficial and respectful of user preferences. Helps drive impactful results and customer satisfaction The tool is a perfect analogy for improving your job performance and business operations. Having the right data input to feed the machine is crucial, just like using the right ingredients to cook a perfect meal. Keeping the consumer in mind throughout the process is key. You can ensure customer satisfaction by putting the right ingredients in and allowing the machine to work its magic. Scaling up, repeating, and refining the process will drive impactful results. 4. First-party data The fourth item you should have in your marketing toolbox is first-party data. Benefits of implementing a first-party data strategy Moving from a third-party cookie world to a first-party cookie world brings about significant transformation. Here are two benefits of implementing a first-party data strategy. Greater accuracy The shift to first-party cookies ensures greater accuracy, enabling us to establish critical mass through secure partnerships. This empowers us to strengthen and refine our personalization capabilities, much like Amazon's ability to anticipate customer needs before they arise. When you can predict and understand customer behaviors with remarkable precision, you can reach your customers with tailored and creative ads. "Building a robust first-party data strategy should be a central discussion for marketers, involving key stakeholders such as CEOs and CMOs. Quality and precise data are paramount, and while first-party relationships with consumers form the foundation, even established brands benefit from strategic partnerships. Together, we can unlock the potential of accurate and meaningful data-driven marketing."jeremy hlavacek, cco, experian Identify high-growth audiences First-party data can help you identify audiences with the greatest growth potential, ultimately optimizing marketing dollars for greater efficiency. Watch our Cannes panel for more new marketing strategies for 2023 We hosted a panel with Adweek in Cannes that covered what should be in every marketer's toolbox this year. Check out the full recording below to hear from leaders at Tubi, Freewheel, Instacart, Adweek, and Experian. Watch now Check out more Cannes content: Our key takeaways from Cannes Lions 2023 Insights from a first-time attendee Exploring the opportunities in streaming TV advertising The future of identity in cookieless advertising Maximize ad targeting with supply-side advertising Follow us on LinkedIn or sign up for our email newsletter for more informative content on the latest industry insights and data-driven marketing. Get in touch Latest posts
It's back-to-school season. Knowing your target audience is an essential piece of planning a successful back-to-school marketing campaign. To get the most out of your marketing investment this back-to-school season, it’s important to understand how to identify and segment back-to-school shoppers so you can make sure that the right message reaches the right group at the right time. In this blog post, we'll cover how you can segment your target audience to create and deliver custom messaging tailored to individual groups. We'll discuss segmentation methods that uncover: Who they are Where they live What type of person they are How they behave and spend Here are our tips to accurately define and target your back-to-school marketing audience. Maximize back-to-school marketing with customer segmentation Customer segmentation is the process of dividing your audience into smaller groups based on common characteristics such as demographics, behaviors, psychographics, geographics, and more. The purpose of customer segmentation is to create a more personalized and effective approach to marketing. By understanding the unique needs and preferences of each segment, you can tailor your messaging, campaigns, and content to resonate with your customers on a deeper level. Benefits of customer segmentation Three benefits of customer segmentation include: Improved audience targeting Higher engagement rates Increased ROI Instead of addressing your entire customer base with generic messaging, segmentation enables you to deliver custom campaign messaging that speaks directly to each group. This personalized approach helps build trust and loyalty with your customers over time. Customer segmentation also allows you to better understand your customers, their motivations, and pain points, ultimately leading to more effective marketing campaigns. Types of customer segmentation When it comes to segmenting your customers, there are several methods to consider. By experimenting with different approaches, you can find the best fit for your business. Keep in mind that the most effective customer segments will differ depending on the industry. Let's review four types of customer segmentation that you can implement as part of your back-to-school marketing strategy. 1. Demographic segmentation Demographic segmentation categorizes consumers into groups based on shared demographic characteristics such as age, gender, income, occupation, marital status, and family size. For example, targeting college students during the back-to-school season with promotions on laptops is likely to be more effective than targeting retirees who may have less interest in such products. 2. Behavioral segmentation Behavioral segmentation divides customers into groups based on their demonstrated behaviors. This method sorts customers by their knowledge of products or services, attitudes toward brands, likes/dislikes about offers, responses to promotions, purchasing tendencies, and usage of products/services. Behavioral segmentation can help you identify the highest-spending customer segments, so you can budget and target more effectively. Through this type of segmentation, you can analyze each group's patterns, discover trends, and plan informed marketing moves for the future. In a back-to-school campaign, you could use behavioral segmentation to identify students who prefer to shop locally. You could then target students who value supporting local businesses and emphasize the importance of buying from local retailers during the back-to-school season. 3. Geographic segmentation Geographic segmentation involves dividing your target market into groups based on their physical locations. Geographic segmentation reveals aspects of a local market, including physical location, climate, culture, population density, and language. In a back-to-school campaign, you could use geographic segmentation to identify target audiences in colder climates who may be more interested in winter clothing and gear. You could also use geographic segmentation to target students living in college towns with messaging that speaks directly to campus life. 4. Psychographic segmentation Psychographic segmentation groups customers based on psychological factors such as lifestyle, interests, personality, and values. In a back-to-school campaign, you could use psychographic segmentation to target students who value sustainable practices, promote eco-friendly products, or offer incentives for recycling and reusing items. Watch our 2024 video for tips from industry leaders for back-to-school In our new Q&A video with Experian experts, we explore changing consumer behaviors surrounding back-to-school shopping in 2024. In the video, we discuss: Anticipated shifts in consumer behaviors and shopping habits Tactics we predict marketers will employ to navigate signal loss Which channels will be the most successful And more! Watch now Get in touch Latest posts