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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Conventional TV advertising campaigns have historically relied on general audience metrics like impressions and ratings to measure outcomes. These metrics can help marketers understand how many people have seen an ad, but they don’t reveal its real-world impact, which leaves a gap between ad exposure and results. Outcome-based TV measurement bridges this gap and helps marketers tie ad spending directly to their business goals. Instead of counting eyeballs alone, TV measurement zeroes in on what viewers do after seeing an ad — whether signing up for a service, visiting your website, or purchasing a product. TV ad measurement helps marketers adjust campaigns based on clear, trackable outcomes rather than guesswork. Let’s talk about how marketers can get started with outcome-based TV measurement and start experiencing tangible results. Why outcome-based TV measurement matters Outcome-based measurement indicates a massive shift in how marketers evaluate TV advertising success. As a principal analyst at Forrester explained, the industry is about to “move into a whole different world" where multiple metrics are tailored to advertisers’ unique goals, such as sales, store traffic, or web engagement. This shift is driven by improved tools for tracking TV outcomes, which help justify spending and clarify ROI. With TV measurement, you can see how your campaigns impact aspects of your marketing like sales and engagement. Aligning TV ad spend with business goals Every business has distinct objectives. Outcome-based measurement ties your marketing efforts to business goals and enables smarter decisions, campaign optimization, and ROI improvements. Whether you're a B2C brand wanting immediate sales or a B2B organization looking to drive website traffic, this method provides the insights needed for strategic decision-making. Marketers can deliver the most value by adjusting TV ad spending to maximize desired results: Sales goals: Identify which ads and platforms directly influence purchases to ensure TV ad spend contributes to revenue growth. Customer engagement: Link actions like website visits or app downloads to TV campaigns and refine messaging to deepen audience connections. Desired outcomes: Align ad spend with goals like consumer awareness or repeat purchases to allocate resources effectively for measurable success. Reducing wasted spend on ineffective channels Outcome-based TV measurement allows you to pinpoint which networks, times, or programs drive the most engagement and conversion. When you know your underperforming channels, you can reallocate budgets to those with a higher ROI and avoid waste. Core metrics in outcome-based TV measurement The effective implementation of outcome-based measurement requires advanced TV advertising analytics and tracking metrics that shed light on TV ad performance. Incremental lift This metric measures the increase in desired actions and business results — like purchases or site visits — that can be attributed directly to a TV campaign. Incremental lift quantifies your campaign’s impact and separates organic activity from the results your ads have driven. Let’s say a meal kit service experiences a 20% lift in subscriptions within a single week of running TV ads compared to a week without ads. They’d want to be able to isolate the impact of their ad from their organic growth so they can determine if the growth is actually a result of the TV ads or another effort. Attribution and conversions Attribution links TV ad exposure to specific customer actions, such as newsletter sign-ups and product purchases. Conversion data helps marketers understand the whole customer journey to optimize messaging, targeting, and channel mix to improve conversion rates. A retailer that knows 50% of TV ad viewers visit its e-commerce site within 36 hours of exposure could use that information to adjust the timing of its retargeting and align with site visit spikes. Audience segmentation for targeted measurement Outcome-based measurement breaks down performance across target demographics and allows for granular audience segmentation so TV ads resonate with the right audiences. For example, if a luxury brand saw better TV ad performance with high-earning Millennials, they’d want to refine their campaign messaging based on this group’s habits and preferences. Customer journey tracking Knowing how viewers move from awareness to conversion is critical. Outcome-based TV measurement helps you track the customer journey by pinpointing touchpoints where engagement happens and tying these to your TV campaigns. If a fitness brand found that TV campaigns drive app downloads, it could combine app analytics and TV exposure data to find out when most of their conversions happen after ad exposure and create follow-up messaging for that window of time. Integrating these insights with other marketing channels allows you to fine-tune your messaging, channel mix, and audience targeting to drive better outcomes and deliver more personalized customer experiences. Lifetime value (LTV) Beyond immediate conversions, outcome-based TV ad measurement helps brands identify which TV campaigns attract high-value customers with long-term revenue potential. If a financial institution ran a TV ad campaign centered on its new credit card, for instance, it could use LTV to track new cardholders and determine whether ads occurring during financial news airtime produced customers with higher average annual spend compared to other segments. How outcome-based TV measurement works Outcome-based measurement is a data-driven process that involves collecting, analyzing, and applying insights to improve TV ad performance. 1. Collect data When someone sees your TV ad, they might take action, like downloading your app or buying something. Outcome-based TV measurement begins by tracking these actions and gathering data from various sources, such as: TV viewership CRM Digital engagement Purchase behavior Cross-platform interactions And more Data integration with digital platforms Combining TV data with insights from platforms like social media or website analytics creates a more unified view of campaign performance. This integration powers easier retargeting and better alignment between digital and TV advertising strategies. Some marketers enhance this integration further using artificial intelligence (AI) to streamline data coordination and ensure campaigns are optimized for effectiveness and ROI. 2. Connect the dots Next, marketers need to find out which actions were influenced by TV ads. It’s important to ask questions like these as you work to connect the dots: Did website traffic spike right after the ad aired? Did the ad viewers match the people who signed up for the service or made a purchase? You can link TV exposure to real-world behaviors with tools and identifiers like hashed emails, device IDs, surveys, and privacy-safe data-matching techniques. 3. Analyze the data Then, the data needs to be analyzed for patterns like these: Which TV ads or time slots drove the most engagement? Did certain customer groups respond better than others? Was there a noticeable lift in sales or signups after the ad campaign? This step can help you uncover what’s working and what’s not. Role of advanced analytics and machine learning The data analysis required in this process can be overwhelming, time-consuming, and risky without the right tools. Fortunately, advanced analytics and fast, effective artificial intelligence tools can process large amounts of data from digital platforms, TV viewership, and customer interactions in less time to reveal accurate, actionable insights and patterns. They can also predict which audiences, messages, and channels will be most profitable so campaigns can adapt in real time, whether by reallocating spend to higher-performing channels or refining audience targeting. 4. Turn insights into action Once you have your data-derived insights, you can tweak your campaign in a number of ways, whether you decide to: Adjust your ads: If one message works better than another, lean into it. Refine your targeting: Focus on the audience segments most likely to act. Optimize your spend: Invest in channels or times that deliver the best return. For example, if you see that ads during prime time lead to more purchases than morning slots, you can shift your budget accordingly. This type of knowledge can be used to continuously improve your campaigns. Each time you run a new ad, you measure again, building on past insights to make your outcome-based TV advertising even smarter. Applications of outcome-based TV measurement Outcome-based TV measurement has wide-ranging applications across industries. Here’s how it’s helping businesses link TV ad exposure to real-world actions and optimize campaigns for better results. E-commerce and retail: Retailers can track how TV ads influence purchases and use those insights to refine their assets and target specific customer groups. A clothing retailer may track how well a TV ad boosts online traffic and in-store purchases. For instance, if a seasonal sale commercial correlates with a spike in website visits or mobile app downloads, the brand can refine its ad placement to focus on the most responsive demographics. Automotive: Automakers use outcome-based TV measurement insights to determine how ads drive dealership visits, test drives, or inquiries. A car manufacturer could analyze whether TV spots featuring a new vehicle increase traffic to its dealership locator or car configuration tool online. Healthcare: Pharmaceutical companies could assess whether TV spots lead to increased prescription fills, or a health provider could test how ads promoting flu shots result in appointment bookings through its website or app. If any messages resonate more with families, the provider can create similar campaigns for the future. How Experian enhances outcome-based TV measurement Experian has recently partnered with EDO, an outcomes-based measurement provider, to offer more granular TV measurement across platforms. Our identity resolution and matching capabilities enhance EDO’s IdentitySpine™ solution with rich consumer data, including age, gender, and household income, all in a privacy-centric way. Integrating these demographic attributes is helping advertisers achieve more precise audience insights and connect their first-party data to actionable outcomes. As a result of this collaboration, brands, agencies, and networks can optimize their TV campaigns by identifying which ads drive the most decisive engagement among specific audience segments. We’re improving accuracy, targeting, and more so advertisers can maximize the performance of their CTV strategies. Get in touch with Experian’s TV experts If you’re ready to take your data-driven TV advertising strategies to the next level, connect with our team. We combine advanced data and identity solutions as well as strong industry collaborations to help brands optimize their TV campaigns. Whether you're navigating traditional or advanced TV formats, our expertise ensures your efforts deliver maximum impact. Connect with us today to drive engagement, connect with audiences, and achieve better ROI. Let’s transform the way you measure success on TV. Reach out to our TV experts Contact us Latest posts
Advertising today is more complex than ever. Consumers demand personalized, relevant experiences from brands, making it increasingly challenging to meet expectations without external support. Businesses must work with publishers, retailers, and platforms to thrive, using these partnerships for data insights that refine their strategies and fuel growth. We spoke with industry leaders from Ampersand, AppsFlyer, Audigent, Comcast Advertising, Fox, ID5, and Snowflake to gather insights on how strategic collaboration can expand audience reach, improve targeting precision, and drive measurable advertising success. 1. Expand your reach with strategic collaborations Gone are the days when brands relied solely on third-party data. By linking their first-party insights with equally valuable data from partners, brands develop a far more comprehensive understanding of their audiences. This collaborative approach creates richer audience profiles, improves targeting, and enhances campaign performance. Partnerships also create opportunities for operational efficiencies. For instance, brands that share data and expertise with collaborators can expand their audience reach without overhauling existing systems. These collaborations allow marketers to work smarter, turning shared knowledge into strategic wins. "Partnerships are everything. We can't fulfill our goals on the sale side, marketers can't fulfill their goals of finding their audience where they need to reach them and with the right level of outcomes without partnering together. Why? Because each of them has their own line of sight to the data that they have access to and the data that they know best."Justin Rosen, Ampersand 2. Identify the right partnership model Choosing the right partnership model is key to achieving your business objectives. For some, pairing first-party data with publishers' insights creates better targeting. For others, aligning with complementary brands allows them to engage shared audiences. For large-scale efforts, agencies can unify collaboration frameworks, making onboarding and activation seamless. Meanwhile, emerging categories like FinTech, hospitality, and commerce media provide brands new avenues for impactful partnerships. Evaluating these options thoroughly will ensure your collaboration aligns with long-term marketing goals. "With first-party data being really the central point of signal today, we see more and more of our advertisers identifying partnerships with maybe potentially historical competitors or partners they would've never considered."Tami Harrigan, AppsFlyer 3. Utilize the power of pooled insights Combining various data sources, like CRM records, browsing behavior, and shopping receipts, creates an in-depth view of your customers. By understanding what motivates consumers at every stage of their journey, brands can better tailor messaging and funnel marketing spend to where it matters most. This approach also enables data-driven agility. Real-time insights help brands make informed adjustments, whether it’s shifting strategies mid-campaign or identifying new growth opportunities. When brands share data responsibly, the results are campaigns that resonate and deliver measurable improvements. "A lot of advertisers have gotten smarter about their data than they were just two, three years ago. They’re now doing that segmentation on their side with their data and bringing that to Fox and saying, ‘Look, match this segment against your entire user base.’ In order to do that, we can work with providers like Experian, or with data clean rooms to really bring that data and do a direct match without going through a third party."Darren Sherriff, Fox 4. Adopt the right tools and technology The right tools empower a collaborative data ecosystem. Solutions like data clean rooms ensure privacy-first data matching and measurement. Identity frameworks, such as Unified ID 2.0 (UID2) or ID5, enable secure data alignment across platforms, simplifying audience targeting while safeguarding sensitive information. Shared dashboards are another crucial tool, providing all collaborators with clear, co-owned performance metrics. Yet, while technology is an enabler, success ultimately depends on how well tools align with each partner’s goals and build trust within the collaboration. “You have to make it accessible to non-technical personas and you have to have the ability to have it stood up and pay dividends in a short amount of time. The other thing is interoperability. We very much think as an industry we need to have interoperability with clean rooms, ones that operate on different frameworks.” David Wells, Snowflake 5. Overcome barriers to collaboration Collaboration often faces obstacles, like differing goals, fragmented data, or resource gaps. Brands can tackle these issues by aligning stakeholders on clear KPIs, standardizing data-sharing practices, and selecting tools that integrate smoothly with existing systems. Breaking down barriers early fosters fluid cooperation and improves outcomes for everyone involved. When goals, tools, and resources are in sync, these partnerships deliver lasting value and stronger results. “The key is to bring together data assets and work collaboratively to address fragmentation. The way to solve that is with more interoperability and connect the data in very privacy-safe ways, offering more opportunity to reach high fidelity audiences and incorporate better measurement methodologies.”Carmela Fournier, Comcast Advertising The path to growth through partnership Those who prioritize collaboration will outrun the competition and drive sustainable growth through smarter, more connected advertising. By choosing the right models, using powerful technology, and addressing potential obstacles, brands can co-create campaigns that resonate deeply with their audiences. Connect with our experts Latest posts
RampUp 2025 brought together some of the smartest minds in AdTech to talk about the future of our industry. I had the opportunity to ask attendees key questions about AI, data collaboration, and the challenges they wish they could solve instantly. Here’s what they had to say. Watch my interviews here AI is everywhere in ads—How is it changing things? AI’s influence on advertising is undeniable, and industry leaders at RampUp 2025 emphasized how it is transforming the way data is used across marketing workflows. The increasing presence of Generative AI like ChatGPT is making it easier to stitch together data from various sources and act on insights, helping marketers execute campaigns with more efficiency. AI is no longer just about automation; it is now deeply embedded in audience building, personalization, and measurement, enabling marketers to optimize every step of the customer journey. What’s the one AdTech headache you’d fix forever? AdTech leaders agreed that some industry challenges have lingered for too long. Many expressed frustrations with the ongoing conversation about unifying cross-screen targeting and measurement. While the technology exists, aligning business priorities remains a roadblock. Others highlighted issues like the complexity of billing and reporting, which still needs to be faster and more reliable. There was also a strong push to educate brand marketers on the continued impact of offline media, such as billboards, and how data-driven strategies can enhance the effectiveness of out-of-home advertising. Beyond these operational challenges, another recurring theme was the increasing importance of identity as the backbone of effective advertising. While brands are focused on collecting first-party data, the true challenge lies in activating that data at scale. Without a strong identity resolution strategy, first-party data alone is not enough to create meaningful audience connections across multiple platforms and devices. What's one AdTech tool or strategy you can’t live without? When it comes to must-have tools and strategies, data collaboration and clean rooms emerged as essential. These solutions help companies, agencies, and publishers work together seamlessly while maintaining security and efficiency. Another key strategy discussed was traffic shaping, which allows advertisers to push activation closer to publishers, reducing data leakage and improving overall performance. Both of these approaches are critical for advertisers aiming to scale. However, as brands continue to seek more flexibility and efficiency, the conversation at RampUp expanded beyond individual tools toward a broader industry transformation. Interoperability has become a top priority, with brands, platforms, and data providers focused on ensuring seamless connectivity across clean rooms, customer data platforms (CDPs), and activation partners. The days of being locked into a single walled garden are over—the future is about data portability. "RampUp made it clear that the industry is shifting toward curated, interoperable, and always-on identity solutions—and Experian is perfectly positioned to lead this next phase of growth."Suzanna Stevens, Sr. Enterprise Partnerships Manager This shift is also driving changes in how brands manage identity. Rather than relying on one-off data onboarding, companies are increasingly adopting subscription-based identity solutions that provide an always-on, continuously refreshed identity graph. This model ensures that brands have up-to-date customer profiles while reducing inefficiencies associated with batch processing. What privacy regulations should marketers be watching? Privacy remains one of the most pressing concerns in AdTech, and industry experts highlighted the need for a better approach to regulation. Consent management was identified as a major priority since it is fluid and directly impacts how marketers engage with consumers. There was also a strong sentiment that the current state-by-state approach to privacy regulation in the U.S. is unsustainable. Instead, the industry would benefit from a national framework that simplifies compliance and ensures more consistent data governance across all states. Final thoughts from RampUp 2025 RampUp 2025 showcased the rapid shifts happening in AdTech, from AI-driven efficiencies to the growing importance of data collaboration and privacy-first strategies. As the industry works to solve long-standing challenges, such as unification and regulatory fragmentation, innovation continues to drive new opportunities. Experian remains committed to helping advertisers and marketers navigate these changes by enabling smarter, more connected, and privacy-conscious advertising solutions. We’re excited to see how these themes evolve throughout the year and look forward to collaborating with our partners to shape the future of digital advertising. Follow us on LinkedIn or sign up for our email newsletter for more insights on the latest industry trends and data-driven marketing strategies. Contact us Latest posts