At A Glance
As commerce media reshapes digital advertising, the line between first- and third-party onboarding is blurring. Whether you’re activating data for your own campaigns or helping partners reach new audiences, how that data is used matters more than ever. This article explores what happens when first-party data becomes third-party, how the new environment changes activation, and how Experian helps brands navigate it all with privacy-led identity, efficient modeling, and seamless ecosystem connections.In this article…
In the past, first-party onboarding focused on activating a brand’s own customer data, while third-party onboarding allowed advertisers to tap into external audiences. But the rise of commerce media networks (CMNs) — which now influence over 14% of all digital ad spend — has blurred those once-clear lines.
CMNs, retail media ecosystems, and brand partnerships are reshaping how data is shared, accessed, and activated. Today, the question isn’t just who owns the data but why it’s being used. Whether to strengthen customer relationships or create new revenue opportunities, intent now shapes how data must be governed, shared, and measured.
For brands with strong first-party data, this shift creates opportunities to deliver more personalized, privacy-safe campaigns to their own audiences and to extend that data’s value by enabling partners to reach new segments.
In this connected ecosystem, data onboarding enables brands to activate, scale, and monetize their data responsibly, turning first-party insights into privacy-led growth opportunities. Trusted onboarding partners like Experian can help marketers activate first-party audiences with accuracy while scaling and connecting those audiences across the ecosystem for compliant, revenue-generating collaboration.
What is data onboarding?
Data onboarding moves offline consumer data — like CRM records, loyalty details, or transaction histories — into digital environments for activation and measurement. It connects real-world insight with digital engagement across display, social, search, connected TV (CTV), and commerce media. Data onboarding is now a strategic pillar for marketers managing signal loss, disconnected data, and rising privacy expectations.
The approach you take and who owns the data determine what kind of onboarding it is:
- First-party onboarding: A brand activates its own customer data across digital platforms.
- Third-party onboarding: A brand enables others to use its data, often monetizing it — common in CMNs or commerce media ecosystems.
Experian helps marketers succeed in both models. With AI-driven identity resolution, persistent identifiers, and privacy-first infrastructure, we make onboarding accurate, compliant, and scalable, regardless of who owns the data.
Why do marketers need data onboarding?
Even the most data-rich brands often have a limited view and reach when it comes to their audiences. They’re confined to the data they collect directly and to the owned channels they use to engage those people. Customer files may reveal who’s already in the ecosystem, but not always where those people spend time, how they behave across channels, or why they make certain decisions.
Onboarding bridges that gap. It transforms offline data into digital activation power, allowing marketers to connect insight with action. Experian makes this possible at scale with trusted identity resolution, data ranked #1 in accuracy by Truthset, audience modeling expertise, and seamless data integration across platforms, helping marketers activate confidently and compliantly.
With Experian’s onboarding solutions, marketers can achieve:
- Unified customer identity across devices, channels, and touchpoints.
- Cross-channel personalization with consistent, relevant messaging wherever customers engage.
- Scaled, privacy-compliant reach beyond owned channels without sacrificing control or consent.
- Better insights and audience creation by blending first-party and Experian Marketing Data for a deeper understanding.
- Cross-channel activation with deep integrations into the advertising ecosystem.
Core steps in the onboarding process
While onboarding can vary across use cases, the core process remains consistent. Experian’s AI-enhanced identity infrastructure streamlines every stage of data migration and activation, making each step safer and faster:
- Data ingestion: Transfer the data into the onboarding environment using privacy-safe encryption and consented parameters to protect sensitive information responsibly from the start.
- Transformation: Cleanse, standardize, and format records to align with digital identifiers. This eliminates inconsistencies and makes every record easier to recognize and activate later.
- Identity resolution: Link offline identifiers (names, emails, addresses) to hashed digital equivalents like mobile advertising IDs (MAIDs), CTV IDs, and universal IDs via Experian’s Offline and Digital Graphs. Identity resolution connects customers to their digital presence without exposing personal information.
- Identity matching: Match hashed emails, MAIDs, and device-graph identifiers to activation partners for each audience across demand-side platforms (DSPs), social, and CTV platforms. This expands your audience reach while maintaining accuracy and privacy.
- Activation: Deliver privacy-safe audiences to DSPs, social, search, or CMN shelves from third-party data providers (not the CMN’s own data) — or directly to an advertiser’s seat for immediate activation. You’ll turn insights into action and be able to reach the right people with relevant, compliant messaging.
Behind this flow is Experian’s identity graph, which links 250 million U.S. individuals, 900 million hashed emails, and 4.2 billion digital identifiers refreshed weekly. It’s the foundation that keeps onboarding accurate as the signal landscape shifts.
First-party vs. third-party onboarding
Every digital marketing data point has a story, but whose story it tells depends on who’s using it. That distinction defines the difference between first-party and third-party onboarding. Both are essential to modern marketing, but they carry different expectations for control, consent, and accountability.
First-party onboarding: Activate your own data safely and strategically
First-party onboarding starts with the data a brand earns directly from its own customers through trusted relationships. This data belongs to the brand, as customers have given consent, and the brand has the responsibility (and opportunity) to use it well.
That data might include:
- CRM records
- Loyalty-program data
- Purchase or transaction histories
- Website or app interactions
- Email subscribers or reward members
How first-party onboarding works in practice
The onboarding process connects this offline data to digital identity so marketers can reach their existing customers across channels.
For example, a credit card company might take its CRM file of cardholders, hash the email addresses, and upload that file to a DSP via Experian’s Audience Engine. Experian’s identity graph resolves those emails to privacy-safe digital identifiers like MAIDs, CTV IDs, or universal IDs. The result is a ready-to-activate audience that can be reached on CTV, social, and display without exposing raw personally identifiable information (PII).
Why control matters in first-party onboarding
The advantage of first-party onboarding is control; the brand decides what to share and how to use it. It’s a powerful way to:
- Personalize messages for known customers
- Re-engage lapsed buyers or loyalty members
- Suppress existing customers from prospecting campaigns
- Measure performance with closed-loop attribution
Doing first-party onboarding responsibly
That control comes with responsibility. Even consented customer data that has been consented to can pose risks if handled carelessly or shared with unverified partners. Experian’s First-Party Onboarding sits on a privacy-first identity foundation, governed by decades of compliance leadership under laws like the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) and Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).
We connect data and identity responsibly, so marketers can activate with confidence while protecting consumers.
Why first-party onboarding matters
First-party onboarding is the cornerstone of responsible marketing. It allows brands to deepen relationships they already have, using data that customers have freely shared. And with Experian’s secure First-Party Onboarding, that data stays encrypted, compliant, and under the brand’s control from start to finish.
Third-party onboarding: Share and monetize data responsibly
Third-party onboarding begins when a brand allows someone else to use its data. It’s how data providers, publishers, and especially CMNs monetize their audiences — turning first-party customer insights into addressable, privacy-safe segments that advertisers can buy and activate across digital channels.
How third-party onboarding works in practice
Think of it as data collaboration at scale. Let’s say a retailer collects first-party shopper data like product purchases, loyalty card usage, and store visits. Then, they partner with Experian to make that audience available to outside advertisers, such as a consumer packaged goods (CPG) brand.
Through Experian Third-Party Onboarding, those audiences are resolved, privacy-protected, and distributed to integrated destinations such as The Trade Desk, Magnite, or NBCUniversal for activation.
- To the retailer, it’s their first-party data.
- To the CPG, it’s third-party data they can use for targeted campaigns.
- To Experian, it’s an opportunity to ensure the entire exchange is accurate and compliant.
Why scale matters in third-party onboarding
The benefit of third-party onboarding is scale. It enables data owners to monetize their insights, while giving advertisers access to richer audiences they couldn’t build on their own. It’s the engine behind CMNs, commerce media, and the growing data-sharing economy.
With a partner like Experian, that scale becomes even more powerful. Our advanced modeling and identity solutions help brands expand their audiences responsibly using lookalike and predictive modeling to identify high-value segments, increase reach, and maximize performance across every activation channel.
The responsibilities of data sharing in third-party onboarding
As data ecosystems grow, so does the opportunity to collaborate responsibly. Once data leaves its original owner’s ecosystem:
- Consent obligations become more complex.
- Control over downstream usage can blur.
- Regulatory oversight increases, especially around transparency and consumer rights.
With the right governance in place, these responsibilities can help strengthen partnerships, protect consumers, and create a foundation for sustainable growth.
Experian’s ethical enablement role in third-party onboarding
Experian’s enablement role is both technical and ethical. Our deep expertise enables us to partner with brands and support their monetization efforts, helping them derive new value from their data while maintaining the highest standards of privacy and compliance. Meanwhile, our infrastructure ensures third-party data onboarding happens securely and transparently:
- Identity resolution expands reach without overexposing identifiers.
- Data verification and governance ensure partners meet strict privacy standards.
- Revenue-share structures maintain fairness without hidden costs.
- Cross-channel integrations enable you to onboard your data once and activate it everywhere (programmatic, CTV, or social) through Experian’s 30+ direct and 200+ indirect destination partnerships.
Why third-party onboarding matters
Third-party onboarding is the foundation of modern data collaboration. When done through Experian, it becomes a trusted extension of your brand’s identity governed by the same privacy, consent, and accuracy standards that strengthen your first-party ecosystem. We help brands uncover new opportunities for growth, partnership, and responsible innovation.
When first-party onboarding turns into third-party onboarding
When data ownership shifts, privacy expectations change, and the rules of onboarding start to look a little different. This stage can feel complex, but with the right approach, the crossover becomes clear. It’s a natural evolution that helps brands connect data more effectively and collaborate confidently.
Here’s what that can look like in practice. A retailer uses its own first-party data to engage loyal shoppers through its website, app, or email program. The data is secure, consented, and fully under the retailer’s control. Then comes collaboration. The retailer decides to partner with a brand, like a CPG company, to reach those same shoppers across connected TV or the open web.
In that moment, the retailer’s first-party data becomes the CPG’s third-party data. Ownership doesn’t really change, but accountability does, along with new privacy and compliance considerations.
This “crossover moment,” when first-party onboarding turns into third-party activation, is a small shift with big potential that can lead to new reach, deepen collaboration, and strengthen customer connections across the marketing ecosystem when managed responsibly.
Why clarity matters in the crossover between first- and third-party onboarding
When data starts flowing beyond owned channels, questions naturally come up. Marketers want to know things like:
- Who “owns” the audience once it’s shared with a partner or DSP?
- Whose privacy notice applies — the retailer’s, the brand’s, or both?
- How do we keep match accuracy without overexposing PII?
- Who’s responsible for opt-outs and suppression compliance downstream?
These are the right questions to be asking, and they’re signs of a mature, data-driven strategy. Asking them is what helps brands strengthen governance, build trust, and get more value from collaboration. With the right framework in place, what could feel complicated becomes clear, opening the door to more confident growth across CMNs and other shared-data environments.
How Experian brings clarity and control to the first- and third-party onboarding crossover
As a neutral, privacy-first partner, we provide the infrastructure that keeps data secure, compliant, and meaningful wherever it flows. Our onboarding solutions help both sides of the partnership — retailers and advertisers — maintain trust through:
- Clear ownership and consent management: Experian enforces data-handling rules that preserve each party’s control. Every record is matched and activated in accordance with strict consent parameters and Global Data Principles that exceed industry standards.
- Accurate, privacy-safe identity resolution: Our Offline and Digital Graphs connect people to their devices, households, and behaviors using hashed identifiers, ensuring match precision while protecting individuals.
- AI-powered contextual intelligence: Experian’s AI models analyze real-world behavior and contextual signals to enhance match quality and extend reach without reliance on cookies. For CMNs, that means better off-site activation, targeting the right shoppers in the right environments while maintaining compliance.
- Trusted integrations and transparent reporting: With direct integrations into 30+ programmatic and TV destinations, Experian delivers consistent match rates and unified measurement through solutions like Activity Feed and Experian Outcomes.
This is how Experian transforms complex data challenges into seamless, scalable collaborations that give marketers the confidence to expand responsibly into commerce media and commerce ecosystems.
The new standard of responsible AI and commerce media
Commerce media represents the future of audience activation, but only if the transition is managed responsibly. As the lines blur between data ownership and activation rights, Experian’s AI-driven, privacy-first identity framework acts as the connective tissue between retailers, brands, and platforms.
We help CMNs:
- Enrich shopper data with Experian Marketing Attributes for deeper insights.
- Extend addressability off-site using privacy-safe identity resolution.
- Optimize activation through real-time, contextually aware audience expansion.
- Measure results transparently through privacy-compliant feedback loops.
In short, we ensure that when your first-party onboarding becomes third-party activation, trust and performance stay intact.
Why choose Experian’s onboarding solutions?
Many view onboarding as a data transfer, but we treat it as a trust process where accuracy, privacy, and performance align. Here’s why marketers choose us:
1. Unmatched data and identity foundation
When brands struggle with incomplete or siloed customer data, Experian’s unified foundation connects fragmented records into a single, accurate identity.
Our Offline and Digital Graphs link households, individuals, and devices with persistent accuracy. Updated weekly and built on decades of historical data, our graphs maintain 97% household coverage across the U.S., even through signal loss.
2. Privacy-first and compliance-led
Given tightening regulations and growing consumer expectations, privacy compliance is essential. With decades as a regulated data steward, we apply the same rigorous controls from our financial operations to marketing data.
Every data partner is verified for transparency and compliance with consent requirements, and all consumer data is governed by Experian’s Global Data Principles, which exceed industry standards. We help brands meet their privacy and consent obligations confidently while maintaining the data integrity that drives results.
3. Real-time, contextual activation
Experian’s industry-leading Offline and Digital Graphs are widely adopted across the advertising ecosystem, powering identity resolution and audience activation for the world’s top marketers. Our integrations span 30+ direct and 200+ indirect activation platforms, including leading DSPs, CTV networks, and commerce environments.
With real-time, AI-driven contextual intelligence, Experian enables privacy-safe targeting even in signal-limited environments through solutions like Contextually-Indexed Audiences that deliver reach without reliance on cookies or personal identifiers.
4. Platform flexibility
Modern marketing requires interoperability. Experian’s onboarding framework is technically integrated across multiple platforms, offering brands and data providers the freedom to activate where they choose.
Whether through self-service onboarding in Audience Engine for first-party data or managed onboarding for third-party monetization, Experian scales with your organization, providing transparent pricing, seamless delivery, and dedicated support teams to ensure every connection performs.
5. Human-centered innovation
Marketing should strengthen relationships and build trust. Our AI-driven identity systems are designed to protect privacy, respect individuals, and create real human value — helping brands connect with people meaningfully. They aren’t built to collect more data but to make better use of the data you already have by connecting insights responsibly and ethically.
Every innovation at Experian is guided by the principle of balancing personalization with compliance.
Top use cases for Experian’s onboarding solutions
Our onboarding solutions are transforming how brands operate across industries every day. Whether you’re deepening loyalty, expanding reach, or proving performance, Experian helps connect data responsibly to drive measurable results.
Here’s where we make the biggest impact:
- Automotive: Connect purchase intent data with digital identifiers for more efficient targeting.
- Commerce media: Use both first- and third-party onboarding — first-party for on-site activation and owned marketing, third-party for off-site activation and monetization —all while maintaining compliance and accurate attribution.
- CPG: Activate shopper data through retailer partnerships to drive off-site reach and stronger brand collaboration.
- Data providers: Monetize audience segments across Experian’s programmatic and TV integrations.
- Financial services: Deliver compliant, personalized cross-channel offers with unified identity.
- Healthcare: Use National Provider Identifier (NPI) onboarding to reach healthcare professionals compliantly.
- Retail: Power loyalty personalization, partner monetization, and CMN audience activation.
Across each use case, Experian’s privacy-first identity foundation turns data onboarding into a trusted driver of growth and stronger customer relationships.
Navigate the new data economy with Experian
Data onboarding has come a long way, mirroring the changes in marketing itself. We’ve moved from relying on third-party cookies to empowering first-party data, and now to building collaborative ecosystems like CMNs.
At Experian, we’re right in the middle of that evolution. With decades of data expertise, privacy leadership, and AI-driven activation, we help marketers connect more responsibly, measure what matters, and grow with confidence.
Want to see what that looks like for your brand? Let’s build safer connections together.
Start connecting responsibly
Data onboarding FAQs
Experian First-Party Onboarding helps brands take the customer data they already own, like CRM lists or loyalty files, and use it safely across digital channels for targeting, personalization, and measurement. Experian Third-Party Onboarding helps retailers, publishers, and data providers share or monetize their audiences responsibly with partners through secure, privacy-first activation.
Both are powered by Experian’s trusted identity foundation that keeps every connection accurate, compliant, and privacy-safe.
The difference between first- and third-party onboarding is who’s using the data. First-party means a brand is activating its own customer information, while third-party means that data is being shared or used by another advertiser or partner.
First-party onboarding becomes third-party onboarding most often in CMNs or commerce media. When a retailer monetizes its first-party shopper data for use by CPGs or advertisers, the use case shifts to third-party onboarding.
First-party onboarding helps brands reach and understand their existing customers, while third-party onboarding helps expand reach, enable partnerships, and monetize data responsibly.
Latest posts
Identity-led local advertising that works Local advertisers run on tight budgets, short timelines, and constant pressure to prove what works. Every dollar must count. In this Ask the Expert session, Aaron Brown, Chief Scientist at Madhive, joins Ali Mack, VP of AdTech Sales at Experian, to discuss how the Maverick AI platform helps local advertisers make confident decisions, act on clear recommendations, and see outcomes they can stand behind. Why local campaigns demand accuracy, and how to deliver it Local teams juggle multiple channels, changing budgets, and heavy performance expectations. To stay competitive, local teams need quick answers to three critical questions: Which households are most valuable to reach? Which channels work best in their market? Are campaigns on on track, day by day? Delivering that level of accuracy means working from a single, trusted view of households, channels, and performance, powered by clean, connected, and continuously updated data. “When you think about local, these aren’t enormous budgets. These businesses depend on success from day one and are still finding their footing. There’s a wealth of nuanced information we need to hear from advertisers to ensure their campaigns succeed, and a wealth of insights we need to deliver back. It’s a real-time matching problem at scale to make sure everything runs profitably for our customers.”Aaron Brown, Chief Scientist Why Experian data is the foundation of local planning Data is the foundation of effective local advertising, but not all data is created equal. For local advertisers, the real advantage comes from high-quality, actionable data that pinpoints likely customers and reduces wasted spend. Experian Marketing Data provides the identity and insights spine that helps local advertisers: Identify the right households in each market Build consistent, people-based audiences across partners Activate with confidence and measure outcomes on the same foundation Madhive’s data marketplace builds on this identity layer, curating trusted data sets that advertisers can integrate directly into planning and activation. “We’re focused on creating perfect matches between businesses and consumers. The right data is critical, which is why we started the data marketplace. It’s a curated, opinionated take on the best data to drive outcomes for the companies that depend on us.”Aaron Brown, Chief Scientist Madhive's Maverick AI at the core of local advertising Madhive’s Maverick AI is the AI-powered operating system for local media. Built as a foundational layer behind Madhive’s entire workflow, Maverick AI connects the dots across planning, targeting, reporting, and storytelling. Its purpose is simple yet transformative: turn fragmented data and advertiser inputs into actionable insights at scale. What makes Maverick AI different? AI-driven intelligence It doesn’t just automate tasks; it analyzes signals, connects context across markets, and refines strategies as campaigns progress. Data connectivity Maverick AI integrates diverse data sources, including Experian’s trusted identity data, so local advertisers can target households with accuracy and measure outcomes confidently. Interactive transparency Beyond dashboards, Maverick AI works alongside sellers and advertisers, surfacing insights, flagging missing inputs, and turning transparency into clear next steps. Adaptability From structured KPIs to unstructured signals like lists of recent in-store buyers or priority ZIP codes, Maverick AI uses every clue to inform smarter, faster decisions. "Maverick AI exists to connect local advertisers with data like Experian’s. Its ability to collaborate and tell stories back to advertisers is one of its greatest strengths.”Aaron Brown, Chief Scientist How Maverick AI and Experian Marketing Data turn transparency into results Maverick AI turns performance transparency into aligned plans and faster optimizations for local advertisers and agencies. Paired with Experian’s identity data, advertisers get an accurate, household-level view of real people in real locations. That lets them build consistent local audiences, reach those audiences across connected television (CTV), social, and the open web, and confidently tie ad exposure back to outcomes that matter in each market. “Maverick AI is the foundational layer behind all our operations – targeting, reporting, and storytelling. It connects data across organizations and advertisers, including trusted data sources like Experian. AI works tirelessly to pick up context, connect the dots, and deliver great results end-to-end for our customers.”Aaron Brown, Chief Scientist Your next local campaign starts with Madhive and Experian Local advertising performance starts with a trusted identity foundation. With Experian data and Madhive’s Maverick AI platform, local advertisers can define the right households once, activate their campaigns across CTV and digital channels, and measure outcomes with confidence. Many brands are increasing investment in AI-powered planning to cut waste and grow on-target reach. Let’s work together to make your next campaign a success. Let's solve your local advertising challenges today About our experts Aaron Brown Chief Scientist, Madhive Aaron Brown is Chief Scientist at Madhive, where he leads Mad Labs, the company’s advanced innovation division. With a background spanning mathematics, computer science, and law, Aaron specializes in applying complex technical and theoretical breakthroughs to real-world business challenges. Before joining Madhive, he worked at the machine learning startup Intelligent Life. A graduate of Boston University with degrees in Mathematics and Computer Science, he also holds a J.D. from the University of Southern Queensland and lives in New York City. Ali Mack VP of AdTech Sales, Experian Ali Mack leads Experian’s AdTech business, overseeing global revenue across the company’s expansive tech and media portfolio. With over a decade of experience in digital and TV advertising, Ali drives strategic growth by aligning sales, customer success, and solutions teams to deliver impactful outcomes for clients and partners. She has successfully guided teams through two major acquisitions, integrating sales organizations and product portfolios into unified go-to-market strategies. Under her leadership, Experian has consistently exceeded revenue targets while fostering collaborative, results-driven teams and mentoring emerging leaders. Working closely with finance, product, and marketing, Ali develops strategies that support a diverse ecosystem of publishers, brands, and technology partners, positioning Experian at the forefront of data-driven advertising and identity resolution. FAQs What makes local advertising so challenging? Local advertisers face tight budgets, short timelines, and high pressure for results. They must reach the right households, tailor messaging, and optimize campaigns across zip codes. Experian’s data solutions and Madhive’s Maverick AI platform help overcome challenges like location targeting and data activation without losing signal. How does Madhive’s Maverick AI platform help advertisers achieve better results? Madhive’s Maverick AI platform centralizes operations, targeting, and reporting while enabling granular local planning at scale. It integrates Experian’s data to target households accurately, optimize campaigns across markets, and deliver measurable results, even for advertisers with limited budgets. How do Experian and Madhive foster collaboration in local advertising? Madhive’s Maverick AI platform provides transparency and clear recommendations, aligning advertisers on goals. Experian’s data solutions further enhance this process by providing a unified view of audience behavior, ensuring campaigns remain cohesive and effective across all channels. Latest posts
Audigent, a part of Experian, Dun & Bradstreet, and Experian are collaborating to help business-to-business (B2B) marketers target more effectively. Now, B2B marketers can reach verified decision-makers, keep the same audience across channels, and activate on connected TV (CTV) and digital via the Experian data marketplace. Together, Dun & Bradstreet’s trusted business data, Audigent’s curation and Deal ID activation, and Experian’s identity resolution drive efficient, measurable results. Unify identity and engage B2B audiences With Audigent, Dun & Bradstreet, and Experian working together, you get one dependable way to recognize the same companies and roles everywhere you run. Dun & Bradstreet's D-U-N-S® Number, serves as a stable company identifier, so offline business details map to the right digital profiles, and you can reach verified decision-makers with confidence. Through Audigent and Experian, you can access 400+ Dun & Bradstreet B2B audience segments, matched to a Deal ID and activated via Audigent’s curation engine and Experian’s data marketplace. This provides real-time B2B targeting across connected television (CTV), display, native, audio, and online video (OLV). Utilize differentiated data Dun & Bradstreet audiences are built on verified offline signals (e.g., company, industry, size, role, seniority) linked to the proprietary D-U-N-S® Number for deterministic matching. High-quality firmographic attributes become actionable segments you can activate in leading programmatic platforms. The result: privacy-compliant, performance-driven campaigns with omnichannel B2B targeting. Unmatched scale Dun & Bradstreet’s Data Cloud spans over 600 million businesses across industries and regions, offering unparalleled depth for B2B targeting. Verified business identity The D-U-N-S® Number links verified offline business data to digital environments, enabling accurate and scalable activation. Privacy-first design Data undergoes rigorous validation and is compliant with major global regulations (General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)), enabling responsible activation. Trusted by the enterprise Over 85% of Fortune 500 companies rely on Dun & Bradstreet B2B data for its depth, accuracy, and broad coverage of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Three ways unified B2B identity improves media performance Target with accuracy: Use deterministic firmographics. Dun & Bradstreet’s D-U-N-S® Number anchors a consistent way to recognize the same company, linking offline signals to authenticated business entities. Reduce waste: Activate curated PMPs for efficient spend. Audigent’s curation engine packages those audiences into Deal IDs and routes through cleaner, more predictable supply paths, so more budget reaches the buyers that matter. Publishers see up to 75% net revenue increase after fees, while brands save 36–81% on data segments and achieve 10–30% higher video completion rates. Stay consistent: Maintain identity across all channels. Use the same audience criteria across CTV, display, native, audio, social, and OLV to improve match consistency without relying solely on third-party cookies. Improve addressability with Experian's Digital Graph Advertisers can use Dun & Bradstreet’s off-the-shelf segments to target specific audiences accurately across channels. By connecting Experian’s Digital Graph with Dun & Bradstreet’s company and contact data, marketers gain a clear advantage: one durable identity that improves match rates, keeps reach consistent across CTV and digital, and aligns targeting with measurement. What that means in practice: Higher match rates without third-party cookies. Expect consistent reach across CTV and digital with one audience anchored to the same identity. Cleaner measurement because activation and identity stay in sync. Suggested use cases Below are simple ways to put this to work, using Dun & Bradstreet business data and Audigent Deal IDs so the same audience runs and measures the same everywhere. Target key decision-makers Reach professionals in Finance, Sales, Healthcare, and IT/Technology by job role, company size, and industry, driving awareness and consideration across complex buying committees. Reach SMB owners Target companies with fewer than 50 employees to connect with small-business owners and operators. Activate across channels via Audigent Deal IDs for consistent delivery and measurement. Achieve more with Audigent, Dun & Bradstreet, and Experian Together, Audigent, Dun & Bradstreet, and Experian allow marketers to activate high-quality B2B audiences with confidence, delivering relevant and efficient campaigns. By pairing Dun & Bradstreet’s trusted business data and proprietary D-U-N-S® Number with Audigent’s curation engine, you get deterministic, privacy-compliant targeting at scale, now boosted by Experian’s identity for consistent cross-channel reach. Ready to activate your next B2B audience? Talk to an Experian expert today FAQs What makes Dun & Bradstreet's data unique for B2B targeting? Dun & Bradstreet's data is anchored by the D-U-N-S® Number, a persistent business identifier that links offline signals like company size, industry, and role to digital environments. This ensures accurate, scalable, and privacy-compliant targeting. How does Experian enhance cross-channel reach? Experian's Digital Graph connects devices and IDs at the household level, enabling consistent audience identity across channels, even in cookieless environments. This ensures higher match rates and reliable measurement. What is Audigent's role in this collaboration? Audigent's curation engine creates audience-aligned Deal IDs and PMPs, optimizing supply paths for efficient media buying. This reduces waste and improves campaign performance with cleaner, more predictable targeting. How does this solution support ABM strategies? Marketers can build role-based segments (e.g., IT Directors at mid-sized companies) and activate them across CTV and digital channels. Sequential messaging tailored to buying stages helps accelerate pipeline and drive engagement. Latest posts
Personalization without context misses the moment Marketers have spent years perfecting personalization — but personalization alone often misses the mark. We’ve all seen it. You shop for a weekend getaway, then get served travel ads weeks later when you’re already home. The data was right. The timing wasn’t. Personalization based only on identity and behavior knows who you are but not when or why you’re ready to act. At Experian, we believe AI should make marketing feel more human. That means understanding people in context, recognizing their environment, mindset, and the moment, to create relevance that feels timely, not intrusive. The context gap: Why identity and behavior aren’t enough Identity and behavioral data can reveal the kind of consumer someone is and the kind of products they may want to buy. But they don’t explain what’s happening right now. The missing layer is context: the dynamic, real-time signal that shows why this moment matters. Context bridges the gap between knowing something about a consumer and understanding their intent. In an era of fragmented signals and stricter privacy rules, context is one of the most reliable ways to stay relevant without over-reliance on personal identifiers. It helps marketers adapt to shifting needs while keeping privacy intact. How Experian interprets context in real-time By context, we mean all the subtle, in-the-moment signals, like time of day, location, or what someone’s watching, that shape what people care about in real-time. At Experian, our technology interprets these in real-time: Temporal signals Time-based patterns such as daypart (morning vs. evening), recency (how fresh a signal is), seasonality (holidays, life events), and micro-moments (split-second intent-driven actions). Environmental signals The media or content environment; what type of program, article, or channel someone is engaging with when they see your ad. Situational intent Signals like browsing behavior or purchase patterns that hint at a person’s stage in the buying journey, from early research to final decision. By layering these signals over verified identity and behavioral data, Experian’s AI-powered technology helps marketers predict not just who will act, but when they’re ready to act. Experian’s approach: Turning context into relevance Consumer behavior changes by the minute, and marketers need to adapt just as quickly. Our technology interprets live bidstream data, device activity, content, and timing to optimize in the moment, ensuring your campaigns deliver meaningful relevance, not just broader reach. Our process combines: Input Clean, accurate identity and audience data anchored in our privacy-first framework. Enrichment Our models fuse household, device, and publisher context to reveal moment-based intent. Activation We're investing in agentic workflows that help marketers plan and execute performance campaigns at scale, activated via our real-time technology that dynamically adjusts deals and surfaces contextually aligned opportunities. Governance Every signal and recommendation follows Experian’s principles of transparency, consent, and ethical oversight. We call this AI-powered simplicity tools that help marketers work more efficiently, with intelligence that feels intuitive and human-centered. How context changes the game for marketers AI without real-time context can only react based on what it already knows. AI-powered by in-the-moment contextual data points enables marketers to anticipate, not just react. A travel brand can shift creative from “dreaming” to “booking” mode when AI detects signals of active planning. A retailer can align promotions with trending content or regional weather shifts in real time. A CPG brand can trigger different product messages based on the context of recipes or household occasions. Adjustments based on contextual signals compound into meaningful gains — higher engagement, better efficiency, and a consumer experience that feels natural rather than intrusive. Context makes AI more human Context introduces empathy into automation. It’s what keeps AI from overstepping, ensuring the message fits the moment. When marketers respect timing, environment, and intent, ads feel like service, not surveillance. Context transforms relevance into respect. At Experian, our vision is to make every signal serve people, not profiles. Because the more our technology (including our AI tools and capabilities) understands context, the more human marketing becomes. At Experian, responsible intelligence is built in Every contextual model we deploy adheres to our standards for transparent and responsible innovation. We validate inputs, monitor model drift, and ensure no context-based variable introduces bias or privacy risk. This is what responsible automation looks like in practice: intelligent, explainable, and ethical. From who to when: Context is the future of AI-driven marketing Identity tells us who someone is. Context tells us when it matters. The next wave of AI-driven marketing will unite privacy-first identity with contextual intelligence to deliver real-time relevance, responsibly. At Experian, we’re building that future now. Our AI-driven capabilities bring identity, insight, and generative intelligence together so brands, agencies, and platforms can reach the right people, at the right moment, with relevance and respect. Get started now About the author Matthew Griffiths SVP of Technology, Audigent, a part of Experian Matthew Griffiths is a seasoned technology entrepreneur and a driving force in advertising technology, data technology, and AI. As the Co-Founder and former CTO (now SVP of Technology) at Audigent, a part of Experian, he plays a pivotal role in shaping the company’s cutting-edge solutions for data activation, curation, and identity management. With years of executive experience across the U.S., Africa, and the U.K., Matthew has a proven track record of leadership in steering the adoption and use of cutting-edge technologies to drive business outcomes. His expertise spans from collaborating with top global corporations and governments to spearheading award-winning technology projects that deliver life-changing impacts in some of the world's most underserved communities. Matthew’s dynamic approach to solving complex business and technology challenges makes him a visionary leader in the AdTech space, consistently driving innovation and performance through technology. FAQs How does context make AI-driven marketing more effective? Context makes AI-driven marketing more effective because it helps marketers understand people in context, recognizing their environment, mindset, and the moment, to create relevance that feels timely, not intrusive. Context helps marketers understand not just who a person is, but when and why they’re ready to act. Experian’s AI-powered technology layers contextual signals over verified identity data to deliver relevance that feels intuitive, not invasive. This approach connects recognition with understanding, making every campaign more effective and more human. What is the context gap in AI-driven marketing? Identity and behavioral data can reveal the kind of consumer someone is and the kind of products they may want to buy. But they don’t explain what’s happening right now. That’s the context gap—the missing link between knowing something about a consumer and understanding their intent. Context closes this gap by analyzing environmental, temporal, and situational signals that reveal intent—without using invasive identifiers. Does Experian interpret contextual signals in real-time? Yes, at Experian, our technology interprets contextual signals, including temporal, environmental, and situational, in real-time. By layering these signals over Experian’s verified identity and behavioral data graph, marketers can predict when consumers are most receptive, turning data into real-time opportunity. What does responsible intelligence look like in practice? At Experian, every contextual model we deploy adheres to our standards for transparent and responsible innovation. We validate inputs, monitor model drift, and ensure no context-based variable introduces bias or privacy risk. What does Experian’s foundation in responsible automation look like? – Privacy-first clarity: We unify household, individual, device, demographic, behavioral, publisher first-party signals, and contextual data points to build a reliable view of consumers, even when certain signals are missing. This clarity helps marketers personalize, target, activate, and measure with confidence.- Predictive insight: Our models go beyond describing the past. They forecast behaviors, fill gaps with inferred attributes, create lookalikes, and recommend next-best audiences so clients can anticipate opportunity.- AI-powered simplicity: We’re investing in generative AI and exploring emerging agentic workflows to reimagine how marketers work. Our vision is to move beyond basic audience recommendations toward intelligent audience discovery and automated setup, helping teams uncover opportunities they may not have considered, while spending less time on manual work and more time on strategy and outcomes.- Real-time intelligence: Consumer journeys never stand still. Our AI-powered technology interprets live bidstream data, device activity, content, and timing to optimize in the moment, ensuring campaigns deliver meaningful relevance, not just broader reach.- Transparent and responsible innovation: We drive safe, modular experimentation, from generative applications to agentic workflows, always balancing bold ideas with ethical guardrails. We stay at the forefront of evolving legislation and regulation, ensuring our innovations protect consumers, brands, and the broader ecosystem while moving the industry forward responsibly. Latest posts