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Retail media networks (RMNs) are an exciting innovation within the advertising industry. A retail media network refers to an advertising platform that a retailer owns, providing marketers with the opportunity to buy advertising space on the retailer’s digital platforms as well as extend their reach offsite with key platforms the retailer has partnered with to open up their media buying to advertisers. The retailer uses first-party data and customer insights to create new advertising opportunities and connect with shoppers throughout their buying journey.
In this article, we’ll discuss the significant advances in retail media trends and technology — and their implications for the future of advertising.
Benefits of retail media for advertisers
Every online impression counts in the digital era, making retail media especially advantageous for advertisers. It yields new opportunities for advertisers to thrive, which we’ll discuss below.
Get access to first-party data
First-party data is a valuable asset for advertisers. Retail media networks offer advertisers direct access to customer insights from the retailer’s data vault, which helps them create highly personalized ad campaigns and connect with current and potential customers.
Custom marketing options for each brand
Retail media provides brands with various marketing options, from product listings to onsite display advertising. These options allow advertisers to customize their approach, deliver tailored messages to their target audience, and meet consumers where they are.
Reach new customers
Retail media networks empower advertisers to connect with new and existing customers using retailers’ extensive digital presence. These networks extend beyond a retailer’s own website and allow brands to tap into a broader audience base; major RMNs often have a significant offsite presence and provide advertisers with opportunities to reach consumers across various digital touchpoints and platforms beyond the retailer’s controlled environment. This reach enhances brand visibility, engages diverse audiences, and contributes to the growth of customer acquisition.
Closer proximity to purchase decisions
Another benefit of retail media is its ability to position brands closer to the point of purchase in the customer journey. Targeted, data-driven advertising strategically placed across various touchpoints enables retailers to influence consumers when they are already lower in the purchase funnel. This proximity increases the likelihood of faster purchase decisions, especially when complemented by strategies such as timely offers and retargeting, expediting the decision-making and conversion processes.
Consumers prefer personalized advertising
Research has shown that approximately 50% of consumers will spend more money with companies that personalize their e-commerce retail experience. Ads relevant to a consumer’s interests and aligned with their behaviors make shoppers more likely to engage with a brand and find it easier and more convenient. As retailers honor consumer preferences for personalized advertising, they’ll find it easier to align with consumer preferences and provide an improved shopping experience.
Retail media network use case: Experian’s impactful marketing attribution with a discount store giant
Experian’s past collaboration with a discount store giant involved implementing a comprehensive marketing attribution strategy. The primary goal was to effectively demonstrate brand campaign performance and optimize ad spend within the retail media network. We built a full-stack attribution solution that connected their offline and online data, and our approach was as follows:
- We started by collecting exposure data from all touchpoints, such as the website, app, and offsite display and social, to turn anonymous exposures into identified individuals and households.
- Additionally, we gathered debit and credit card transaction data from in-store and online points of sale to better understand purchase behavior. We also unveiled new demographic insights for the retailer.
- To streamline the decision-making process, we provided an easy-to-read reporting tool that showcased vital performance metrics.
Takeaways from the collaboration emphasized the importance of:
- Understanding the audience seeing the ads and those making purchases.
- Analyzing incremental lift and identifying insights or trends.
- Sharing these valuable insights across the organization and with advertisers to inform future campaigns and brand positioning.
Utilizing recent trends in the retail media landscape
This case study serves as a prime example of how recent retail media trends are shaping a data-centric, integrated, and insights-driven future for advertising in retail. Our marketing attribution strategy aligns with the industry’s shift toward data-driven decision-making in RMNs.
Today, retailers are adopting full-stack attribution solutions like ours, enabling them to connect offline and online data to understand customer interactions better. This reflects the trend of looking for a holistic view of customer journeys and highlights the importance of integrating diverse data sources to understand consumers comprehensively.
Moreover, our strategy to transform anonymous exposures into identified individuals, integrate transaction data, unveil new demographic insights, and provide an easy-to-read reporting tool mirrors the trends of enhanced personalization, merging online and offline data, and simplifying analytics within RMNs.
Using new retail media
Our introduction of a user-friendly reporting tool highlights the potential of new retail media to change how advertisers analyze data and gain actionable insights. It emphasizes the value of advanced tools in optimizing ad campaigns, measuring performance metrics, and informing future strategies. New technology will continue to drive effective marketing attribution and shape the future of retail advertising.
Kroger Precision Marketing’s newly announced platform
Kroger Precision Marketing (KPM) represents another excellent retail media use case. The retail media arm of the popular supermarket chain is looking to the future with the launch of its advertising platform. KPM is committed to innovation, and this move underscores its desire to be at the forefront of the retail media landscape. Let’s take a closer look at some of the essential features of this new platform.
In-house
KPM recently announced the launch of an in-house advertising platform — a significant shift from their previous practices, where they relied on external tools and systems for their retail media services. By bringing the ad technology in-house, KPM has greater control, flexibility, and the ability to align its platform precisely with its retail media goals. This decision enhances Kroger’s self-sufficiency and enables quicker adaptation to evolving market demands.
KPM’s new in-house platform was officially rolled out on October 13, 2023, and is redefining how advertisers interact with Kroger’s expansive base of consumers.
Easier for media buyers
KPM’s in-house platform is also focused on providing better tools for media buyers. The platform is designed to offer advanced automation and optimization capabilities that will make campaigns more efficient and data-driven. By using this platform, media buyers can easily reach the right audience, customize their messages, and fine-tune their campaigns — all in one place.
Integrated platform
KPM’s new platform will integrate with existing ad campaigns and eventually encompass all their retail media options. This interoperability makes migrating ongoing campaigns easy and minimizes disruptions to advertising efforts. In the long run, the platform will serve as the foundation for all KPM’s retail media services. Advertisers will have a one-stop solution for on-site and off-site media channels to ensure consistency and efficiency in retail media strategies.
KPM’s emerging retail media solutions demonstrate a commitment to advertisers and their changing needs in a shifting digital era.
Home Depot retail media
Home Depot, a well-known player in the home improvement retail industry, has made great strides in retail media. With an impressive annual customer transaction count of 1.7 billion and 3.6 billion visits to homedepot.com, their Retail Media+ platform provides advertisers with unparalleled visibility, reaching 198 million individual customers across 2,322 stores, according to their site. The benefits of Retail Media+ also include 24/7 self-service access to advertising portals, real-time reporting for campaign optimization, and dedicated support.
What Home Depot’s Retail Media+ does right
Home Depot’s Retail Media+ has set itself apart through strategic initiatives that prioritize enhancements to the shopper experience. Here’s a closer look at what makes Home Depot’s approach to RMN noteworthy:
- Seamless integration: Retail Media+ seamlessly integrates into the customer’s journey without disrupting their experience. The platform allows the delivery of targeted ads across various Home Depot-owned spaces, including the website, app, in-store, email, and offsite channels like social and video.
- Supplier-centric ad inventory: Home Depot allocates the majority of its RMN ad inventory to suppliers. This ensures the ads presented to customers align closely with the products available at Home Depot for a natural connection between onsite and in-store experiences.
- Customer-centric approach: Melanie Babcock, Vice President of Retail Media+ and Monetization at The Home Depot, emphasizes maintaining a customer-centric perspective. The goal is not merely to monetize the website but to enhance the customer journey by incorporating suppliers into the process. This approach contributes to a more personalized and relevant shopping experience.
- Exploration of offsite opportunities: Home Depot is actively exploring opportunities to expand its RM+ platform beyond onsite channels. Initiatives include piloting in-store video screens and venturing into connected TV (CTV). By considering the entire customer journey, Home Depot aims to provide value to suppliers while gaining deeper insights into customer behavior.
- Strategic use of data science: With the help of data scientists, Home Depot ensures personalized precision in its advertising efforts. This aligns with the shopper’s preferences and needs and makes the ads more relevant and engaging.
- Ongoing adaptation and expansion: Home Depot’s proactive stance is evident in its continuous efforts to adapt and expand its RMN initiatives. The exploration of offsite channels, partnerships with platforms like Roku and Disney Advertising, and the piloting of in-store video screens showcase a commitment to staying at the forefront of evolving digital retail trends.
Home Depot’s success with their RMN stems from its commitment to creating a symbiotic relationship between customers, suppliers, and the retail brand. Home Depot has set a benchmark for RMNs by aligning advertising efforts with the customer’s journey and embracing technological advancements.
Amazon retail media
Amazon Advertising, the retail media division of Amazon, has become another dominant force in the industry. Let’s take a quick look at what they’ve done well and what they could improve.
Scale of Amazon’s retail media
In 2022, eMarketer estimated that Amazon commanded a 76.9% share of retail digital media spend, blowing its competitors out of the water. Walmart, the second-largest player, trailed far behind with a 6.1% share. This underscores Amazon’s unparalleled influence and market presence in the digital advertising landscape and solidifies its position as the go-to platform for advertisers looking to reach a massive audience.
What works for Amazon
Amazon has an unmatched advantage when it comes to personalizing ads and delivering relevant content to consumers. With over 200 million Prime members in the U.S. alone, Amazon has access to vast amounts of valuable data that spans shopping habits, preferences, and more. This data is invaluable for advertisers looking to target their audiences with precision, and it gives Amazon a significant edge in the market.
What needs to change
Although Amazon continues to thrive, there’s always room for improvement. For instance, to attract brand dollars, traditional retailers are starting to concentrate on channels where Amazon has less historical dominance, such as in-store experiences and email marketing. Understanding this potential, Amazon has been experimenting with email tools to enhance merchant-audience connections and widen its reach. As ad sales’ profitability becomes more significant, incorporating these offerings into Amazon’s retail media strategy could further strengthen its market position.
Walmart retail media
Walmart has been working hard to become a more dominant retail media force. Walmart Connect, the retailer’s retail media network, has done an excellent job bridging the gap between online and in-store activities. It provides a unique closed-loop system that connects online and in-store activity on an unprecedented scale. This mechanism offers advertisers a comprehensive view of Walmart customers’ behavior, giving them valuable insights and measurable business results. With this closed-loop approach, advertisers can access a holistic view of customer activity and achieve successful marketing campaigns.
How Walmart ties together online and in-store activities
Walmart’s massive brick-and-mortar presence and its comprehensive online platform provide a complete view of customer behavior and preferences. This synergy between the digital and physical is a compelling selling point for advertisers that gives them a holistic view of consumer interactions. Walmart’s connected shopping experience integrates both online and in-store activities, allowing advertisers to engage with customers from the research stage to the online or in-store purchase stage of the buying journey.
New features and technology Walmart’s retail media platform is trying
As part of their innovative initiatives, Walmart Connect introduced the “Holiday Hub,” recognizing Walmart as America’s go-to holiday shopping destination. Advertisers can use this hub to gain key customer insights and implement product best practices to ensure a meaningful omnichannel connection during the holiday season.
In terms of new features and technology, Walmart Connect provides various advertising options to help brands stand out from the crowd:
- The Search feature ensures visibility when customers actively search for products, with ads appearing prominently in search results and on browse pages.
- Display ads, strategically placed on Walmart.com, the Walmart app, and across the web, aim to make a premium impression on customers based on their omnichannel Walmart history.
- For in-store influence, Walmart Connect offers opportunities to inspire shoppers through digital TV and point-of-purchase screens across 4,700+ Walmart stores.
- Walmart’s closed-loop measurement uniquely enables advertisers to correlate online ads with purchases, providing unparalleled scale and accuracy in measuring campaign impact.
Whether for a small business or a global brand, Walmart Connect offers solutions to help marketers discover new and effective ways to connect with their target audience.
The future of RMNs
The future of retail media networks (RMNs) is bright and holds exciting possibilities. These five key dynamics will likely drive retail media evolution:
Smaller retailers getting into the RMN game
With each passing day, more small brands are becoming active with RMNs. This trend is highly beneficial, bringing diversity, competition, expanded reach, and collaborative potential to the landscape. The future of RMNs is expected to be shaped by a mix of established and emerging brands. This will create an inclusive environment for advertisers and consumers alike.
Potential for cross-platform campaigns
Cross-platform campaigns in RMNs allow advertisers to create a cohesive, impactful, and data-driven advertising approach across different retail media networks. This shift in campaign strategy aligns with the dynamic nature of consumer interactions in the digital landscape, as it provides a comprehensive solution for brands that seek to enhance their presence and influence across diverse channels.
Targeted vs. personalized ads
Personalized ads are becoming a notable trend in RMNs and replacing targeted ads. This means RMNs now provide consumers with more relevant and tailored content based on their interests and preferences. The shift is driven by the increasing demand for personalization and the need to improve the consumer shopping experience. RMN advertisers must take advantage of these personalized ad opportunities to create stronger brand awareness.
Conversions vs. brand awareness
Advertisers often struggle when deciding whether to focus more on conversions or brand awareness. For a well-rounded strategy, RMN advertisers should craft campaigns that balance these two goals. Using the data and insights from RMNs, advertisers can personalize their messaging to drive sales and build and reinforce brand recognition. This approach can help RMN advertisers make brand awareness a central component of their advertising efforts.
Third-party data integration to enhance data and audiences
As RMNs evolve, data expansion is essential for targeted, personalized, and contextually relevant advertising experiences and will help drive the future success of retail media. Advertisers using third-party data, in particular, can unlock new dimensions in audience targeting to create more tailored and impactful campaigns. Third-party data allows for a broader understanding of customer behaviors and preferences and facilitates relevant content delivery.
Data insights for more connected, tailored advertising
Moving forward, it will also be important for advertisers to achieve a consistent view across online, app, and in-store activities. They need to understand where customers prefer to be reached and where they are most likely to engage so they can ensure a strategic alignment of messaging and optimize the effectiveness of their retail media strategies. The future of RMNs lies in using comprehensive data insights for more connected and personalized advertising.
What about AI? Where is it useful?
In the retail media context, AI (Artificial Intelligence) enhances advertisers’ capabilities by providing valuable insights and automation to drive more effective and personalized ad campaigns. AI helps analyze vast amounts of data, predict consumer behavior, and empower advertisers with the tools to optimize their strategies. Ultimately, it helps them deliver more tailored, relevant content to consumers that best aligns with their interests and preferences.
Humans still needed to drive change
While AI is a critical technology in retail media, it doesn’t replace the need for human expertise. People are still essential for driving change, making strategic decisions, and ensuring AI-driven solutions align with business objectives. Moving forward, advertisers will need to utilize both AI-driven capabilities and human expertise to see the greatest success.
A connected customer identity is the key to success
The future of advertising lies in the seamless integration of customer identity across various touchpoints. Experian’s cutting-edge solutions are leading the way in this transformation. We can help businesses navigate this dynamic environment with helpful tools that unlock a comprehensive view of audiences and facilitate effective campaigns across multiple channels.
Partner with Experian to achieve retail media success
Experian’s comprehensive data and identity solutions can help RMNs maximize their opportunity, with our new solution tailored to enhance RMNs’ strength in first-party shopper data. Experian’s solution helps RMNs unlock expanded customer insights, enriched audiences for activation, identity resolution for cross-channel audience targeting, and real-time measurement and attribution. This comprehensive solution is designed to help RMNs capture more advertising revenue. Our goal is to ensure you capture the most advertising dollars and make your RMN operate at its peak performance.
Our Consumer Sync solutions can connect customers across multiple touchpoints and channels, specifically bridging the gap between online and in-store to ensure a holistic view and strategy for audiences, campaigns, and performance. With access to over 2,500 frequently updated data points, we have the depth and breadth of data needed to supplement your audience strategy. We’ll help you unlock a broad view of your audiences to see well-rounded profiles, gain the reach required to access your audience across multiple channels, and turn opportunities into revenue. Additionally, our Consumer View solutions can help deepen your understanding of your customers, their behaviors, and campaign success.
Connect with a member of our team today to get started.
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We spend our days surrounded by screens: at work, at home, and everywhere in between. But audio is the one channel that moves with us, from morning routines to evening commutes, from workouts to household chores. More than two-thirds of U.S. consumers will listen to digital audio every month this year, making it one of the fastest-growing ways to connect with audiences. Experian and Audacy are working together to solve the challenges of fragmented listening, cross-platform targeting, and campaign measurement, helping brands reach people in the moments other channels can’t. Why audio sticks with us Audio fits into life’s in-between moments, from the commute to the workout to the chores, when other media can’t. Unlike video, it doesn’t demand full attention; it joins the flow of daily routines. This makes audio uniquely personal, creating connections that other formats can’t replicate. Audacy’s expertise in understanding listener behavior ensures that audio campaigns feel like a natural part of daily life. Experian\’s data helps advertisers identify the right audiences, while Audacy ensures the message is delivered at the right time. Together, we help brands create campaigns that resonate deeply with listeners. By meeting audiences in their moments of focus, audio becomes a powerful tool for building meaningful and lasting connections. \”Audio is a companion in people’s daily rituals. Whether it’s doing dishes, folding laundry, or going for a run, you have audio going in your ears, and you’re really engaged with it. From an advertising perspective, that’s incredibly powerful because listeners are paying attention to the content.”Kevin Greenwald, SVP of Advertising and Audience Products Making sense of scattered listening habits Today’s listeners consume audio across a variety of devices and platforms. Devices like smart speakers and smart home hubs now account for over 27% of digital audio time spent daily among U.S. adults, highlighting the growing role of connected devices in audio consumption. When listeners bounce between apps, stations, and devices, it’s easy for advertisers to lose track of them. Audacy’s advanced platform capabilities, combined with Experian’s identity solutions, simplify this process by providing a unified view of audience behavior, ensuring campaigns remain cohesive. Audio is highly adaptable, letting advertisers tweak a message on the fly by shifting tone, length, or format to stay relevant in the moment. This flexibility ensures that campaigns remain cohesive and impactful, no matter where or how listeners engage. “Audio has a degree of flexibility that other channels don’t. You’re not tied to a programming clock, and ad lengths can vary. It’s also easy to create a great audio ad quickly, which makes it a channel ripe for experimentation and innovation.”Kevin Greenwald, SVP of Advertising and Audience Products Following listeners wherever they go Today’s listeners don’t stay in one place: they bounce from live radio in the morning to streaming music during the day, then wind down with a favorite podcast at night. For advertisers, that creates a challenge: how do you keep up with an audience that’s always moving? Without a unified view of the listener journey, campaigns can lose impact. With the right insights, though, every handoff becomes an opportunity to stay relevant and connected. Audacy’s platform, combined with Experian’s identity solutions, bridges these gaps. Together, we help you follow your audience wherever they go, creating consistent experiences that drive results. This approach improves targeting and ensures that messages remain impactful. \”I hope that there’s a day coming where we can understand ad exposure in the car as well as more cars are connected and things like that. That would be really powerful.\”Kevin Greenwald, SVP of Advertising and Audience Products Your audience is listening, let\’s make sure they hear you Audio helps you connect with your audience in moments other channels miss. With Experian’s marketing data and Audacy’s expertise, you can simplify cross-platform targeting, improve campaign measurement, and create messages that truly resonate. Let’s work together to make your message heard. Let\’s talk audio strategy. Contact us today About our experts Kevin Greenwald, SVP of Advertising and Audience Products, Audacy Kevin Greenwald is the SVP of Advertising & Audience Products, where he partners closely with Audacy\’s sales team to deliver leading ad product and measurement capabilities for their clients. 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. Latest posts

Reach de-identified patient and provider segments at scale across every channel. Pharmaceutical brands and media platforms, including connected TV (CTV), can activate HIPAA-compliant audiences built on real-world clinical and claims data through a new collaboration between PurpleLab and Experian. Targeting de-identified audiences is essential for engaging the right patients at pivotal moments in their health journey, maximizing ROI while safeguarding privacy and improving outcomes. Overall, prescription drugmakers spent $2.97 billion on national TV advertising in the first half of 2025, a 12.2% year-over-year increase, underscoring the growing demand for scalable, privacy-compliant healthcare advertising in premium media environments. Now, whether you\’re a pharma advertiser launching a new therapy or a platform curating health-focused inventory, PurpleLab’s integration refreshes the media planning ecosystem, offering marketers easier access to the audiences needed to drive impact. Activate with accuracy and scale PurpleLab’s de-identified healthcare segments, categorized by condition, treatment, specialty, and prescription behavior, are now accessible through Experian\’s data marketplace, streamlining media planning. This integration enables PurpleLab’s privacy-safe audiences to travel from discovery to omnichannel delivery. Experian then handles onboarding, activation, and audience expansion, in accordance with HIPAA and with industry standards. Utilizing Experian’s identity graph, spanning household and individual-level insights, as well as marketing attributes, these healthcare audiences can be: Onboarded securely, matching hashed emails or tokens to digital identifiers Activated across major channels, including CTV, mobile, display, and social Expanded with confidence, reaching more of the target population, patients, or healthcare professionals, without relying on third-party cookies This infrastructure unlocks greater scale and completeness for niche pharma audiences that have historically been hard to reach in digital and streaming environments. For brands navigating fragmented media and tightening privacy regulations, this collaboration provides the clarity and consistency they’ve been seeking. “We know healthcare marketers are under pressure to get it right: to respect privacy, be accurate, and scale. That’s why we’re excited to bring PurpleLab audiences into the Experian data marketplace and make them available through Audigent’s curated deals. It gives pharmaceutical brands and platforms a clear way to plan and measure campaigns, with the assurance that they’re reaching patients and providers when it matters in the right way.”Kim Gilberti, General Manager Curation through Audigent: Premium supply meets premium data For advertisers seeking turnkey media solutions, PurpleLab audiences are now also available through Audigent’s curated deals. Audigent’s curated deals simplify media buying by packaging PurpleLab’s clinically grounded audiences with premium, brand-safe inventory, thus creating a unified package. Instead of stitching together data and supply separately, media buyers can now access pre-built or custom-curated media deals where PurpleLab audiences are already integrated, ideal for health and wellness programming, premium CTV, or contextual content aligned to therapeutic areas. This approach gives marketers both efficiency and accuracy, streamlining execution while maintaining compliance and relevance. “Bringing together PurpleLab’s clinically precise audiences with Experian’s powerful identity and activation capabilities, and pairing it with Audigent’s premium inventory, gives advertisers more than a turnkey solution. It’s the power to launch campaigns that truly resonate, with data and media working in harmony from day one to deliver both efficiency and impact.\”Scott Ronay, VP, Advertising Sales Real-world use cases: Accuracy with purpose CTV awareness for cardiovascular therapies A cardiovascular brand is launching a CTV campaign to reach healthcare providers involved in treatment decisions. Using PurpleLab’s provider-level segments from the Experian data marketplace, a brand can activate audiences across brand-safe, streaming environments. This strategy enables meaningful engagement with prescribers while maintaining scale and compliance across CTV and complementary digital channels. Cross-device activation for high-impact health campaigns A biotech firm promoting a new therapy needs to reach patients who are likely to have a relevant condition, based on modeled audience segments. Using PurpleLab’s real-world patient segments, the advertiser activates across mobile, display, and CTV, with Experian’s identity graph ensuring household-level consistency across devices. Privacy and scale are preserved, while the brand ensures it’s not wasting impressions on ineligible or misaligned audiences. Closed-loop measurement, built for healthcare Beyond targeting, the PurpleLab–Experian integration empowers advertisers to measure real-world outcomes, not just digital proxies. By utilizing tokenization, Experian enables ad exposure data to be securely matched back to de-identified health events within PurpleLab’s platform. This means marketers can assess outcomes such as: Prescription lift among exposed vs. unexposed audiences Healthcare professional engagement and treatment initiation Patient adherence or follow-through behavior This type of closed-loop reporting is critical in pharma, where traditional metrics like clicks or impressions do not reflect business impact. Now, with token-based match-back, brands can see whether their campaigns are driving real results, securely and compliantly. Ready to reach the right patients and providers securely and at scale? Explore PurpleLab audiences in the Experian data marketplace and Audigent curated deals to activate clinically grounded, privacy-compliant segments across CTV, display, mobile, and more. Contact us Latest posts

Programmatic media buying isn’t getting any easier. Buyers face rising signal loss, shrinking margins, and growing pressure to perform in a privacy-first world. Add in fragmented tech, shifting privacy regulations, and inconsistent identity signals, and reaching the right audience at scale has never been more complex (or costly). Meanwhile, advertisers demand more transparency, publishers want control, and consumers expect relevance without feeling watched. Open exchanges, legacy data management platforms (DMPs), and spray-and-pray strategies just aren’t cutting it. That’s why curation has become a trending topic in the AdTech space. In programmatic advertising, curation refers to the strategic integration of enriched data and quality inventory into a single package — often executed as a private marketplace (PMP) deal. This approach reshapes how campaigns are built, activated, and optimized by enabling performance-ready buys that reduce waste, increase relevance, and give marketers greater control over outcomes. It’s no wonder then that curation investments are accelerating, PMPs are gaining traction, and buyers are shifting budgets accordingly. Over 66% of the $150 billion+ open exchange programmatic market now flows through curated PMPs, with industry giants like Google publicly backing curation as a core strategy. So what exactly is programmatic curation, and why is it becoming essential for privacy-conscious, performance-driven marketers? Let’s break it down. What does programmatic curation mean in AdTech? Programmatic curation is the process of filtering, structuring, and packaging enriched data with high-quality programmatic inventory — enhanced by real-time optimization to create more targeted, efficient, and transparent media buys. Instead of buying at scale and hoping for the best, curation prioritizes accuracy and value over volume, resulting in more targeted, efficient, and transparent media buys. As privacy regulations reshape targeting, curation is becoming a key differentiator in an increasingly crowded AdTech space. It connects robust data with quality supply, helping marketers stay effective while giving publishers new ways to monetize with control. But not all curation is created equal. Programmatic curation requires three core elements: 1. Unique data Unique, privacy-compliant, and valuable. 2. Strong supply connections Access to quality inventory from publishers at scale. 3. Optimization tools To measure, refine, and improve performance during a campaign and improve performance throughout the campaign lifecycle. Without all of these elements, a so-called “curator” may simply be repackaging inventory without delivering the full value of a curated approach. Why does curation still matter with cookies sticking around? While third-party cookies and mobile IDs like IDFA haven’t gone away, the industry has already pivoted in anticipation of their decline. Even without Google flipping the switch, signal loss is here thanks to Apple’s ATT, tighter compliance rules, and new tracking restrictions. Marketers are dealing with less data, more fragmentation, and fewer reliable IDs. So if you want to run an effective, scalable media campaign today, you need tools that go beyond third-party cookies. That’s why programmatic curation is gaining ground as a better, more sustainable way to buy media. Investments in programmatic curation are growing, and not just for identity resolution. Marketers are leaning in because it: Combines verified audience data with premium inventory Supports ID-free or context-aware targeting Enables scalable, identity-agnostic strategies Improves data quality through enrichment Creates more controlled, pre-approved media paths via PMPs Experts anticipate that, at some point, publishers will have to lean into this method. “Curation will be bigger than header bidding and as big as programmatic or RTB — that’s our bet.”Andrew Casale, CEO Whether cookies stay or go in the future, curation works for an ecosystem that demands smarter, cleaner, and adaptable media buying. What are the benefits of curation and who wins? Curation is one of the few innovations in AdTech delivering meaningful wins across the ecosystem. By bringing better data, cleaner supply, and more intentional targeting into programmatic advertising, it helps brands, agencies, and media buyers drive stronger performance, gives publishers more control, and creates a more respectful experience for consumers. And unlike traditional approaches, curation is built for what’s now and what’s next. Here’s how each group benefits and why it matters. Brands and agencies Curation helps brands and agencies run smarter, more efficient campaigns by connecting high-quality data with premium supply. It delivers: More efficient supply paths with less waste and better performance Lower costs than DMP segments and open exchange buys Cleaner, pre-vetted inventory that aligns with audience and brand goals Future-proofed buying via cookieless and log-level data integrations Stronger targeting and measurement driven by enriched data and actual usage signals instead of modeled assumptions Better outcomes through real-time supply and data optimization Publishers For publishers, curation makes inventory more addressable without giving up control. It enables: Smarter packaging that aligns with buyer needs and campaign goals Higher CPMs by curating inventory above open exchange floors More control over how audiences are accessed and how inventory is monetized Access to higher-value demand through curated, data-backed deals Better protection of proprietary audience in a privacy-conscious environment Consumers At the end of the chain, curation improves the ad experience for those who matter most: your audience. It supports: Higher-quality content alignment for more natural, less disruptive ad experiences tailored to their interests Less invasive tracking, as targeting becomes more data-smart and privacy-aware, with reduced reliance on legacy identifiers and personally identifiable information (PII). Curation is setting a new standard for how data, inventory, and experience come together across the ad ecosystem. When media is smarter, cleaner, and more intentional, everyone wins. What’s Experian’s role in powering curation? With the acquisition of Audigent, Experian is now more than just a premier data provider. We’re also a full-service curation partner. Together, we deliver end-to-end programmatic curation across data, inventory, and optimization, helping brands and publishers unlock smarter, more scalable media strategies. What Experian + Audigent enable Whether you need speed-to-market with pre-curated deals or white-glove custom deals, Experian and Audigent make it easier to activate high-performing, privacy-compliant campaigns at scale with: End-to-end curation across data, inventory, and real-time optimization Pre-packaged and custom PMP deals with built-in performance signals Scalable, privacy-first media solutions aligned to brand objectives, verticals, and KPIs These aren’t just theoretical; curated marketplace deals are already delivering measurable gains. In OpenX, Audigent-curated campaigns increased bid competition by 20% and drove a 118% spike in impressions won over a two-month period. Key benefits for partners By bringing together our data depth and Audigent’s curation technology, we offer our partners a full suite of value-added capabilities, including: High-quality, verified data ranked #1 in accuracy by Truthset and powered by Experian’s identity graph and deep programmatic data insights Data enrichment layers that boost addressability, accuracy, and contextual relevance Privacy-compliant infrastructure built for secure, cookieless data use at scale Platform integration across leading demand-side platforms (DSPs) and supply-side platforms (SSPs) for seamless activation and optimization How Boiron achieved smarter reach with Audigent’s curated PMP strategy A leading homeopathic brand partnered with Audigent to scale customer acquisition for its flu relief product without increasing media investment. They wanted to reach new, privacy-compliant audiences while improving CPA across display and video. Using Audigent’s curated SmartPMPs and CognitivePMPs, the campaign delivered measurable performance improvements: 80% lower CPA on display than historical benchmarks 40% lower CPA on video 30% reduction in data costs Significant media efficiency gains through real-time supply and data optimization Fully future-proof targeting with zero reliance on cookies or MAIDs See how Boiron’s success story is just one example of how curated deals backed by Experian identity and Audigent’s optimization technology can deliver efficiency and impact in a privacy-conscious environment. Our curation capabilities Together with Audigent, our curated solutions go beyond basic packaging. Every deal is designed for performance, privacy, and relevance, so you can activate smarter media with greater confidence: Deal ID-ready audiences for fast, turnkey activation Performance-specific curation, including viewability, CTR, and outcome-based targeting Custom audience + inventory packages tailored to campaign goals Vertical-specific curation for industries like auto, retail, CPG, and financial services Real-time optimization signals embedded into every curated deal Don’t wait: Curate today The future of programmatic advertising won’t be won by those waiting for perfect signals, clean cookies, or simplified tech stacks. It’ll be won by marketers and publishers who embrace smarter, cleaner ways to activate their data, inventory, and strategy now. With Experian and Audigent, you’re not just getting better data but also a partner that helps you activate it with accuracy, privacy, and performance at scale. Whether you’re trying to reduce media waste, gain supply path control, or future-proof your campaigns, curated deals can get you there faster. Let’s build a curation strategy that gives you control in a chaotic ecosystem. Latest posts