At A Glance
Addressable advertising helps you reach addressable audiences with relevant messages across digital, TV, and streaming. As signals fragment across browsers, apps, and platforms, AI customer segmentation and privacy-first identity separate guesswork from accuracy. Experian brings trusted data, identity resolution, and activation partnerships together so you can connect with people in ways that feel relevant, respectful, and measurable.In this article…
A decade ago, you could buy media by broad categories and call it a day. But today, your audience lives in a curated world. They watch what they want, skip what they don’t, and expect what they see to match their interests. Research shows that when ads are tailored to households, people pay more attention, stay engaged longer, and are more likely to remember your ads.
That shift in expectations is why addressable advertising continues to grow. It’s a practical response to how media works today, with audiences moving fluidly across platforms, streaming spread across services, and measurement spanning screens and environments. Under these conditions, reaching the right people depends on clarity, not approximation.
Artificial intelligence (AI) strengthens that clarity. When applied responsibly, AI helps connect signals, deepen audience understanding, and deliver relevant messages while protecting consumer data. The result is advertising that feels more human, not less.
What is addressable advertising?
Addressable advertising is the ability to deliver personalized ads to specific individuals or households and measure results using privacy-safe data and identity. It works across digital, connected TV (CTV), linear TV, and over-the-top (OTT) streaming and relies on strong identity resolution and accurate data inputs to ensure your audience definitions remain consistent across channels and over time.
Benefits of addressable advertising
Addressable advertising changes how advertising performs by delivering messages to defined audiences, reducing wasted impressions, and making results simpler to measure.
| Benefit | What it means for you |
| Clarity | Reach the right audience with the personalized messages they want, instead of hoping the right people are watching |
| Efficiency | Avoid wasted impressions by focusing spend where interest already exists |
| Higher ROI | Improve conversion by delivering messages that feel relevant |
| Omnichannel consistency | Carry the same message across digital and TV without starting over |
| Measurable impact | Connect exposure to actions so performance is clear |
| Privacy and compliance | Activate audiences responsibly using privacy-safe data, clear governance, and compliant practices |
These are some of the reasons that addressable advertising has moved from a niche tactic to a core strategy. When audiences are clear, identity is connected, and measurement is built in, advertising becomes relevant, accountable, and easy to improve over time.
Addressable advertising vs. traditional advertising
Unlike traditional advertising, addressable advertising doesn’t depend on broad exposure or assumptions. It’s personalized by design and measurable by default, making it possible to connect ad exposure to outcomes. Another distinction is in how addressable delivers advertising to audiences and how performance is measured.
| Traditional media buys | Addressable advertising buys |
| You pay for broad reach | You pay for relevant reach to defined audiences |
| Ads run by placement or program | Ads are delivered to known households or individuals |
| Personalization is limited | Personalization is built into delivery |
| Measurement indicates trends, not who actually acted | Measurement connects exposure to actions by linking ads to defined audiences across channels |
But before you can activate addressable advertising, you need to understand who you’re actually trying to reach.
What is an addressable audience?
An addressable audience is a group of people you can identify and reach using data-based targeting. In other words, they’re not anonymous “maybe” viewers. They’re a defined audience you can activate across channels.
Here’s what typically builds addressable audiences:
| Factor | What it is | Why it matters |
| First-party data | Data from your own relationships (site activity, app activity, CRM, emails, purchases) | It’s your most direct view of existing customers and prospects |
| Third-party household and individual data | Demographic, behavioral, lifestyle, interest, and intent attributes from trusted providers | It fills gaps so your audience definitions don’t collapse when your own data is limited |
| Identity resolution | A privacy-first way to match people across devices, households, and channels | It improves accuracy so you don’t over-message the same people or miss them entirely |
| Contextual signals | Page-level, content, or viewing context where ads appear | It reinforces relevance in the moment and complements addressable targeting when identity signals are limited |
How Experian helps with addressable audiences
Experian helps you build and activate addressable audiences at scale without losing accuracy or trust. With more than 3,500 syndicated audiences available, you can activate consistently across 200+ destinations — including social platforms like Meta and Pinterest, TV and programmatic environments, and private marketplaces (PMPs) through Audigent.
That means reaching people based on who they are, where they live, and their household makeup, using data governed with care. Our approach is built on accuracy first, which is why Experian data is ranked #1 in accuracy by Truthset for key demographic attributes.
And when standard customer segments aren’t enough, Experian Partner Audiences expand what’s possible. These unique audiences are available through Experian’s data marketplace, within Audigent for PMP activation, and directly on platforms like DIRECTV, Dish, Magnite, OpenAP, and The Trade Desk.
The evolution of addressability and why it matters more than ever
As the media ecosystem shifts, reaching people across browsers, apps, CTV, and streaming platforms has become more complex. Signals are fragmenting everywhere as expectations for relevant, personalized experiences continue to rise, while reliable identifiers become increasingly challenging to access.
In response, addressability is shifting from a channel-specific tactic to an identity-driven approach to reach and measure defined audiences across screens.
That evolution puts new pressure on performance. Marketing budgets require accuracy and accountability, which means targeting must deliver measurable reach and outcomes you can trust.
At the same time, the growth of CTV and streaming is expanding addressable TV opportunities. As CTV inventory grows, so does the need for cross-channel, identity-based activation that works consistently and supports reach, frequency, and measurement in one connected view. That’s why identity has become the foundation for making addressable advertising work today.
When to apply addressable advertising
You don’t need addressable for everything, but it shines when you need your spend to go farther with accurate targeting and resonant messaging.
| Scenario | Why addressable helps |
| Product launches and seasonal pushes | Reach people who are more likely to care without flooding everyone else |
| High-consideration purchases (auto, travel, financial services) | Focus on likely intent and suppress audiences that don’t fit |
| Cross-channel campaigns (digital, TV, mobile) | Keep messaging consistent across screens |
| When using first-party data with AI | Use AI customer segmentation to scale responsibly and improve performance without sacrificing accuracy |
| Regulated categories | Rely on compliant data practices and clearer controls for regulated industries |
Addressable advertising is one way to put relevance and respect into practice — but it shouldn’t be the only time these principles apply. Marketers are expected to be thoughtful about who they reach, how often they show up, and how data is used across every channel. Addressable simply makes it easier to live up to that standard when accuracy, accountability, and scale matter most.
Addressable advertising and third-party data
There’s a common misconception that third-party data is no longer useful, but what’s really changed is the environment around it.
In the early days of digital advertising, third-party data often felt like the Wild West. Today, modern third-party data is more transparent, better governed, and held to far higher standards with:
- Clear data sourcing
- Documented consent practices
- Regular quality audits
- Strict limits on how data can be used
Used responsibly, third-party data plays a critical role in addressable advertising by complementing your first-party data and keeping audience strategies flexible as signals change.
Benefits of third-party data
When paired with identity resolution, high-quality third-party data helps you:
- Fill first-party gaps: Add demographic, behavioral, and interest-based insight when your own data is limited.
- Expand prospecting: Reach new audiences through modeling and lookalike expansion.
- Enrich segmentation: Combine household, behavioral, and interest signals to tailor creative, offers, and messaging to interests for more accurate and personalized activation.
- Support cross-channel addressability: Maintain consistent audience reach across devices and channels even as individual signals change.
Why work with Experian for your data needs?
At Experian, we approach third-party data with the belief that trust comes first. Our data is privacy-compliant, ethically sourced, and governed by strict standards so you can use it confidently.
Accuracy matters just as much. Our identity and data-quality framework verifies that the data behind your audiences holds up in the real world — a key reason Experian is ranked #1 by Truthset for key demographic attributes.
And because addressable advertising only delivers value when audiences move seamlessly from planning to activation, our audiences are interoperable by design. You can activate them across digital, social, and CTV platforms without rebuilding or reformatting your strategy for each channel.
How AI is redefining customer segmentation
Addressable advertising depends on audiences that stay accurate as people move across devices, platforms, and moments. Traditional segmentation built on static rules and snapshots in time can’t keep up with that reality.
AI customer segmentation analyzes massive sets of household and individual data (such as intent, household demographics, purchase behavior, and content consumption) to identify patterns, predict intent, and group people into addressable audiences.
As the AI advertising ecosystem continues to mature, reflected in industry frameworks like the LUMA AI Lumascape, segmentation and identity have become foundational layers rather than standalone tools. Those audiences update as conditions change, so they stay relevant instead of aging out.
Here’s how AI-driven segmentation supports addressable advertising.
| What AI enables | Why it matters |
| Predictive, intent-based audiences | Analyze behavioral and transactional data to group people based on likely next actions |
| Broader audience availability | As more data signals are incorporated responsibly, AI makes it possible to support a wider range of addressable audience options without sacrificing accuracy |
| Deeper insights from data | Discover what people care about, how intent is forming, and which signals are most important with larger, more diverse data sets |
| Real-time audience updates | Keep segments aligned as behaviors change, not weeks later |
| Higher accuracy, less guesswork | Rely on data-driven patterns for decision-making instead of assumptions |
| Ongoing optimization | Refine audiences throughout the campaign lifecycle as performance signals come in |
We’ve used machine learning and analytics for decades to support responsible segmentation — balancing performance with privacy and transparency.
That foundation now supports addressable advertising that adapts in real time while staying grounded in trust.
Addressable TV: Targeting in the streaming era
TV has become an addressable channel powered by data and identity resolution. CTV and OTT streaming are booming, while linear TV continues to decline, reshaping how people watch and how advertising works alongside it. For the first time, CTV spending is expected to outpace traditional TV ad spending in 2028, reaching $46.89 billion and signaling that addressable TV is now central to the media mix.
With CTV and OTT platforms, advertising can now be delivered at the household level. That means two homes watching the same show can see different ads based on who lives there and what they like. This is what makes addressable TV possible.
Benefits of addressable TV
As streaming inventory continues to grow, addressable TV creates new ways to bring relevance and accountability to a channel once defined by broad exposure. Experian links identity data across streaming, linear, and digital platforms to help you manage frequency, attribution, and household-level insights in one connected view.
Addressable TV also raises the bar. To manage reach, frequency, and measurement across streaming and linear environments, addressable TV depends on identity resolution that connects households across screens.
Here’s how addressable TV helps you when identity is in place.
| What addressable TV enables | Why it matters |
| Household-level targeting | Deliver messages that reflect who’s watching, not just what’s on |
| Frequency control across screens | Reduce overexposure and improve viewer experience |
| Cross-channel measurement and attribution | Connect TV exposure to digital actions, site visits, and conversions |
| More efficient use of TV spend | Bring accuracy, accountability, and outcome-based insight to premium inventory and improve reach of streaming-first, harder-to-reach viewer segments |
Ultimately, addressable TV isn’t a replacement for linear TV, but it is an evolution. As streaming becomes the default viewing experience, the ability to engage TV audiences with the same care and clarity as digital is essential.
Use cases for addressable advertising
Addressable advertising works across industries because it adapts to how people make decisions. The examples below are illustrative scenarios that show how addressable audiences, identity resolution, and AI-driven segmentation can come together in practice using Experian solutions.
Retail: Seasonal promotions
A home décor retailer could use identity resolution and AI-driven segmentation to build addressable audiences, such as holiday decorators and recent movers, who are more likely to engage during peak seasonal periods.
Campaigns could then be activated across CTV, display, and social, helping the retailer stay visible across screens while tailoring creative to seasonal intent.
Automotive: In-market car buyers
An auto brand might identify consumers nearing lease expiration using automotive-specific data tied to household and individual attributes.
By suppressing current owners, the brand could avoid wasted impressions and activate addressable audiences across OTT and mobile to reach likely buyers during active consideration.
Financial services: Credit card launch
For a new credit card launch, a national bank could use modeled financial segments to reach credit-qualified prospects.
Addressable digital advertising campaigns could apply frequency controls and personalized messaging, balancing reach with relevance while seamlessly measuring response.
Streaming media: New subscriber growth
A streaming platform looking to grow subscriptions could use an identity graph to exclude current subscribers.
Likely viewers could then be targeted across CTV based on content preferences and viewing behavior, keeping spend focused on net-new growth.
Media and entertainment: Audience expansion for a new release
Ahead of a new release, a film studio could use behavioral and lifestyle data to identify likely moviegoers and fans of similar franchises.
Addressable campaigns across CTV and digital video could help drive awareness and opening weekend attendance.
Travel: High-value traveler acquisition
A travel brand could use travel propensity data and household-level demographics to identify frequent flyers and family vacation planners.
Personalized offers could then be activated across display, social, and programmatic channels to increase bookings while keeping spend focused on higher-value travelers.
How Experian enables more effective addressable campaigns
Addressable advertising is most effective when identity, data, and activation are connected from the start.
Experian brings trusted household and individual data, privacy-first identity resolution, and broad activation partnerships together so you can move from audience insights to activation with minimal friction. Here’s how that comes to life across our core offerings.
Identity resolution with Consumer Sync
Consumer Sync connects devices, emails, digital identifiers, and offline data into a single, privacy-safe identity foundation. This connection helps your audiences stay consistent across streaming, linear TV, mobile, and digital despite changing signals.
Audience insight and segmentation with Consumer View
Consumer View supports clear segmentation, prospecting, and enrichment across industries. It combines demographic, behavioral, and interest-based data to help you build accurate, intent-driven audiences that reflect real people, not assumptions. Data is continuously updated and governed for accuracy.
Omnichannel activation with Audience Engine
Audience Engine enables direct activation of Experian audiences across CTV, digital, social, and programmatic platforms. It supports suppression, frequency management, and cross-channel consistency to keep messaging aligned and exposure controlled.
More efficient media through curation and Curated Deals
Curation combines data, identity, and inventory through Experian Curated Deals. These deal IDs, available off-the-shelf or privately, make it easier to activate high-quality audiences and premium inventory in the platforms you already use without custom setup.
AI-enhanced segmentation and optimization
Our AI-enhanced models analyze large data sets to create and refresh addressable audiences in real time, supporting intent-based targeting and ongoing optimization throughout the campaign lifecycle. These models work seamlessly with demand-side platforms (DSPs), ad platforms, and data clean rooms, so audience insights flow directly into activation and measurement without added complexity.
Seamless integration with your ecosystem
As an advertiser, you want addressable advertising to fit naturally into how you already plan and buy media. That’s why integration matters as much as insight.
Experian integrates with leading DSPs, ad platforms, and data clean rooms, so you can activate addressable audiences in the environments you already use without reworking your strategy or adding complexity. This approach helps you:
- Build and activate addressable audiences: Reach the people you want with accuracy and respect.
- Activate across channels: Keep messaging consistent across digital, TV, and streaming.
- Optimize with data ranked #1 in accuracy by Truthset: Improve performance using the industry’s most reliable data.
When identity, data, AI, and activation come together, addressable advertising does what it’s supposed to do: deliver relevance naturally, measure impact clearly, and give you confidence in every decision along the way.
That’s the foundation for campaigns people want to engage with.
Start creating campaigns audiences want to see
Experian can help you apply addressable advertising in ways that respect consumers, perform across channels, and stand up to real-world measurement.
Connect with our experts today to explore how addressable audiences, AI-driven segmentation, and identity-powered activation can work together in support of your goals.
FAQs about addressable advertising
Addressable data-driven advertising involves delivering personalized ads to specific individuals or households using privacy-safe data and identity.
An addressable audience is a defined group of consumers you can identify and reach based on known household or individual attributes.
Advertising becomes addressable when it’s possible to identify the audience by linking devices and households to people through identity graphs. This allows you to measure ad performance at the audience level and provide more personalized advertising.
Addressable advertising isn’t just for TV; it also works across digital, mobile, streaming, and social channels.
AI improves addressable advertising by analyzing large data sets to predict intent, build more accurate audiences, boost performance over time, and improve your ability to find and build your audiences.
Yes — identity resolution and first-party data are key to cookieless addressability.
Experian supports addressable advertising by providing trusted consumer data, privacy-centric identity resolution, and curated audience segments that activate across CTV, digital, mobile, and streaming platforms.
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Curation — the intelligent packaging of data and inventory actionable in a private marketplace deal — can no longer be considered a trend or buzzword. With over 66% of all open exchange – representing $100 billion in annual spend – being transacted through private marketplace deals (PMPs), curation is a key part of how data and identity are addressed and actioned in programmatic media. Programmatic advertising is certainly known for big shifts, but as shared by Index Exchange CEO Andrew Casale, “Curation will be bigger than header bidding and as big as programmatic or real-time bidding (RTB) – that’s our bet.” And we agree. But why has curation become a critical component of brands and media agencies' digital advertising strategies? Put simply, the math. Case study after case study empirically shows curation performs well for both the buy and sell-sides. For media agencies and brands, curation consistently shows four main benefits: Significant cost efficiencies Buying curated PMPs shows significant cost efficiencies when compared to buying data from the buy-side alone. Strong performance Data-enriched, curated PMPs can be optimized through the supply path, unlike a data management platform (DMP) segment, which leads to strong performance. Futureproofs media buying When data is curated through the supply path, it does not need to rely on legacy identifiers (like cookies), and the door is open to robust, next-gen addressability which better futureproofs media buying opportunities. Value-added insights Curation comes with robust log-level data that can be used for value-added data science including analytics, insights, reporting, and attribution – all critical in a world where addressability and identity resolution are becoming even more challenging. Curation introduced efficiency into homeopathic brand Boiron’s media buys, reducing the brand’s data costs by 30%, which enabled the brand to reinvest the same budget in brand awareness goals. Curation not only met but also exceeded the CPA for display by 82% and for video by 41%. “Audigent has been a top 5 performer in terms of CPA during our testing, helping our teams deliver 44% more efficient spend for brands across CTV campaigns."Sam Bloom, Head of Partnerships at agency PMG A big boost for addressability Legacy identity signals are changing. Whether it’s by browser, device, or platform, both buy-side and sell-side platforms need strong identity signals to reach their intended audiences, and this has become harder than ever before. Curation, with its real-time data connection and enrichment capabilities, solves signal loss challenges by directly connecting to the supply path and using a broader spectrum of identity solutions to boost addressability. Curation allows platforms to target first-party, third-party, contextual, indexed and modeled audiences. This alleviates the dependence on any one identifier and boosts the relevant bidding opportunities for brands and media agencies to target audiences. Not all curation is created equally As with any hot innovation, AdTech is notorious for companies jumping on the bandwagon of the largest trends. Curation is no different, with seemingly everyone now claiming to be a “curator.” As the industry works to define what is and isn’t “curation," we are uniquely positioned to define this as Audigent has pioneered curation for seven years and is the industry leader. The definition of curation is the intelligent packaging and optimization of data curated against the inventory supply path. There are three definitional elements to any curation product: Unique audience data Curation must include first-party, third-party, contextual, indexed and/or modeled data. Robust SSP integration To apply data in real-time to the inventory supply path, a curator must have deep partnerships and integrations that enable the combination of data and inventory into a single package. Optimization The whole point of curating data against the supply path is that it opens the door for robust real-time optimization to drive performance. If the solution ticks all three boxes, then brands and agencies should test curation and gauge its results firsthand. Curation done right drives results for brands, agencies, and publishers When done well, curation improves media buying efficiency and performance for brands and agencies. Importantly, it also drives results for publishers and content creators. Advertisers realize average data segment savings of 36-81% when using PMPs over the open exchange (Internal data) Advertisers see 10-70% lower CPC, 1.5x-3.0x higher CTR, and 10-30% higher video completion rate when using data-enriched PMPs over the open exchange (Internal data) When including their inventory in curated PMPs, publishers see an average 70% revenue uplift for mobile and 13% for connected TV (CTV) Beyond voting with budgets, media agencies and brands are also weighing in on the curation conversation: “Our Conditions Marketplace strategies have driven a 48% improvement in eCPM and a 26% improvement in CPA across our pharma client portfolio as of May 2024. For one client, we saw ROAS improve by 58% compared to their overall omnichannel performance while maintaining quality. These results aren’t outliers—they’re proof that curation is no longer a nice-to-have; it’s a must-have for marketers who want performance, precision, and scale working in lockstep.”Amanda DeVito, Butler/Till Industry-leading curation with Experian Tapping into an end-to-end solution that enables marketers to understand and reach their desired customers across channels through curation is a win-win for all parties. In the past three years, Experian and curation company Audigent have delivered a range of industry-leading innovations together, including the integration of Experian data into Audigent’s PMPs. As one company now, Experian's unique identity and data capabilities amplify how curation activates on the buy-side at scale, setting a new standard for audience targeting with added benefits like audience customization and flexible activation through Audigent’s PMPs or demand-side platforms. Connect with us Latest posts
The partnership between Experian and Fusion92 exemplifies how collaboration can deliver real marketing impact. This article explores the ways Fusion92 relies on Experian’s data to sharpen its audience targeting, streamline engagement across channels, and achieve measurable success. A need for unified audiences When Fusion92 set out to advance how their clients connect with precise audiences, they needed a data partner that could deliver comprehensive and actionable insights. Enter Experian. By using Experian’s marketing data and digital identity graph as a core source of data, Fusion92 built a solid foundation for their tools, DIOS (Data Input Output Solution), DAX (Data Advertising Exchange), and NoMi (pronounced “Know Me”). These powerful technologies enable Fusion92’s clients to control audiences more precisely, connect with the right people across optimal channels, avoid wasted impressions, and measure results with confidence. Why Fusion92 chose Experian Quality and reliability Experian’s commitment to data accuracy has earned the #1 ranking from Truthset, ensuring Fusion92’s campaigns are built on precise, actionable, and privacy compliant data that businesses can trust. Breadth and depth By offering demographic, behavioral, and channel preference data, Experian enables Fusion92 to have greater control over precision activation, empowering better results. Expert support Experian works closely with Fusion92 to provide tailored solutions and dependable expertise, adapting to meet the unique needs of their diverse clients. “Experian never really let me down in terms of data quality, data accuracy, and data reliability.”Dave Nugent, EVP of Data Science & Strategy, Fusion92 The power of teaming up Challenge A regional amusement park needed to increase membership renewal sales during peak season while reducing spend on households unlikely to visit. Solution Fusion92 combined the park’s first-party buyer file with Experian consumer data and custom geographic boundaries, built an advanced targeting model, and used Experian’s channel-preference insights to prioritize the media mix. The unified audience was then delivered omnichannel through Fusion92’s in-house proprietary DAX activation technology, with Experian’s identity graph supporting attribution. Result The marketing conversions beat the park’s stretch goal by 70%, confirming that accurate data and coordinated activation drive revenue lift. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a beginner or an expert. Experian will help you make the best use out of an incredible set of data assets.”Dave Nugent, EVP of Data Science & Strategy, Fusion92 Using marketing data to power omnichannel marketing Tools built by Fusion92 that meet client needs Fusion92’s suite of tools handles every essential phase of a campaign. DIOS starts by creating audience definitions and setting a foundation for strategy. Once these insights are established, DAX takes over, activating consistent, controlled engagement with tailored messaging. Detailed performance metrics throughout help optimize strategy along the way, ensuring campaigns remain impactful and cost efficient. DIOS in action DIOS eliminates guesswork, combining Experian’s data with advanced analytics to create precise audience models. This capability enables Fusion92 to define customer segments with accuracy, providing businesses with a roadmap to success from the outset. While currently in use as a managed service by Fusion92, a public-facing SaaS version is expected to be released in 2025. Activating every channel through DAX The campaign execution phase is pivotal, and DAX ensures smooth delivery and transparent measurement across channels. By incorporating Experian’s identity graph, DAX provides a clear picture of cross-channel behaviors and preferences, and how they impact business goals. This holistic approach enhances personalization, connecting online and offline interactions to create campaigns that resonate with consumers and drive ROI. Getting to know NoMi NoMi offers next-generation audience intelligence, empowering businesses with audience profiles built from behavioral insights, like transactional activity or in-market signals. This ensures that campaigns connect with people authentically and at scale. With NoMi, Fusion92 clients streamline targeting efforts, improving efficiency while reducing wasted spend. Thinking about your own transformation? Whether you’re tackling siloed activation, enhancing attribution models, or aiming for improved targeting, Experian’s data solutions can help amplify your efforts – just ask Fusion92. Explore how we can help you target smarter, engage better, and measure success confidently. Connect with an Experian representative today About our experts Dave Nugent, EVP of Data Science & Strategy, Fusion92 Dave Nugent, EVP of Data Science & Strategy at Fusion92, has over 27 years of experience in data-driven services, helping organizations better understand and target their audiences through predictive modeling and segmentation. Before joining Fusion92, he spent 11 years at American Spirit Corporation as VP of Data Solutions and co-founded Market Reason, where he secured a patent for an identity technology known as "identity solutions." Dave’s expertise bridges traditional, digital, and social advertising, offering innovative approaches to data utilization. He also shares his knowledge as a guest lecturer at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Crystal Jacques, VP of Enterprise Partnerships, Experian Crystal Jacques is the VP of Enterprise Partnerships, leading Experian's go-to-market team across all verticals. With over ten years of experience in the Identity space, Crystal brings a wealth of expertise to her role. She joined Experian in 2020 through the Tapad acquisition, following her successful stint as the head of Global Channel Partnerships for Adbrain, which The Trade Desk later acquired.
Audio platforms that overcome consumer identity challenges are winning new advertisers and driving higher ROAS. In this article, you’ll hear from leading audio platforms that are solving these challenges—and seeing results. Digital audio is evolving fast. What was once a niche channel of host-read sponsorships and direct buys is now a must-have in the modern media mix. Streaming platforms, podcasts, and digital radio are drawing more ad dollars thanks to audio’s ability to capture attention and connect with listeners. But with growth comes new pressure. Advertisers expect accuracy, scale, and to see results. At the same time, listeners want more relevant content and more personalized ad experiences. That’s where identity becomes essential. With Experian’s identity and audience solutions, audio platforms can: Bolster addressable audience targeting and personalization capabilities. Gain a comprehensive view of listeners’ digital identity to reach audiences across channels. Better understand consumer preferences, enabling advertisers to reach audiences with greater accuracy. Enhance the listening experience with more relevant content. Let’s break down the key challenges in audio—and how Experian can help solve them. Challenge 1: Anonymous listening limits addressability Most listening happens in environments where people aren’t logged in—via apps, smart speakers, and mobile devices. Without logged-in data, platforms struggle to know who’s listening and advertisers are unable to reach those anonymous listeners who don’t have an addressable ID. To overcome the identity gap in unauthenticated listening environments, leading audio platforms are turning to partners that connect fragmented signals—like device type, location, and behavioral patterns—to broader household and individual profiles. By using hashed emails and other alternative identifiers, platforms can begin to make anonymous sessions more addressable. This increase in addressability ensures the platform’s entire userbase can be reached, which leads to an increase in revenue. Experian’s solution Experian's identity spine, comprised of our Digital and Offline Graphs, helps you recognize listeners even when they’re outside your ecosystem. Platforms like Audacy are already leading the way. By integrating Experian’s Digital Graph, they’re gaining a more complete view of listeners’ digital identifiers—enhancing the experience across their app and website. With a better audience understanding, Audacy can deliver personalized content while helping advertisers reach specific groups with greater accuracy. Challenge 2: IP-based targeting falls short Audio has traditionally relied on IP addresses, but that’s no longer enough. A single IP could represent an entire household—or a public setting like a coffee shop. It’s not precise. Forward-thinking platforms are moving beyond IP-based targeting by integrating identity resolution technologies that combine household-level data with device-level intelligence. These solutions help distinguish between shared devices and individual listeners, allowing advertisers to serve more relevant messages without over-reliance on a single signal like an IP address. This layered approach improves precision—especially in dynamic listening environments like vehicles or communal spaces. Experian’s solution Our identity spine links home IPs to households, then connects them to specific devices and individuals. This helps platforms move beyond basic IPs and target real people based on accurate signals—even in shared listening environments like smart speakers and cars. We also help platforms and advertisers integrate alternative IDs—like Unified I.D. 2.0 (UID2)—into their programmatic audio campaigns. That means more reach, without compromising consumer trust. Challenge 3: Audio buying is fragmented From podcasts to streaming to radio, audio lacks consistency in how inventory is packaged and bought. It’s hard for advertisers to run scaled campaigns across channels—and harder still to measure performance. Plus, advertisers don’t think in silos—they think in strategies. If audio can’t connect to their display, connected TV (CTV), and social buys, it loses ground. What they need is a way to define audiences once and activate everywhere. To reduce friction in audio ad buying, platforms are investing in infrastructure that unifies audience insights across formats. By building a centralized view of the listener—regardless of whether they're tuning in via podcast, stream, or radio—publishers can offer advertisers consistent targeting parameters, clearer reporting, and better campaign orchestration. Identity graphs and audiences are playing a growing role in streamlining this complexity and unlocking scale. Experian’s solution Experian helps simplify audio buying. Experian audiences are built on top of our identity graph and are expanded to a deep set of digital identifiers, ensuring accuracy, scale and maximum addressability across channels. Platforms can blend their first-party data with advertiser data and our audiences—then deploy those audiences onsite or activate programmatically across open web and CTV. DAX is doing just that. DAX's partnership with Experian combines Experian’s 2,400+ audiences for targeting and activation with DAX’s innovative audio advertising approach. We’re helping advertisers connect with passionate and engaged listeners nationwide. "Through our partnership with Experian Marketing Services, advertisers can unlock deeper audience insights and execute more impactful digital audio campaigns. By combining our shared market presence, knowledge, and forward-thinking approach, we’re strengthening our digital audio network offering and delivering value to all our advertising partners." Brian Conlan, President of DAX United States In addition to integrating Experian’s Digital Graph, Audacy is also integrating Experian's syndicated audiences to unlock accurate insights like demographics, shopping behavior, and interests – providing listeners with a more personalized advertising experience and advertisers with a higher return on investment. “Historically, audio advertising lacked precise targeting capabilities, making it challenging for advertisers to reach specific audiences. By integrating our digital identity graph and syndicated audiences with Audacy’s platform, we’re transforming how advertisers connect with listeners. This collaboration enables more effective audience targeting and delivers personalized, impactful audio experiences across all channels.”Chris Feo, Chief Business Officer, Experian Privacy is non-negotiable Everything we do is privacy-forward by design. Backed by Experian’s Global Data Principles and decades as a regulated institution, we rigorously vet every data source to ensure compliance with all federal and state laws. Build an audio strategy that performs with Experian Your advertisers want more from their audio investments. With Experian, you can give it to them. We help you: Expand digital addressability to maximize reach for marketers and drive revenue growth for your platform. Create and activate addressable audiences across all channels. Enhance the listening experience with relevant content and personalized ads. Audio has always been a powerful way to connect. Now, it’s ready to perform. Let's connect Latest posts