At A Glance
Updated in 2025 after Experian’s acquisition of Audigent and Google’s decision to retain third-party cookies, this article explains that signal fragmentation remains. Experian is evolving its Digital Graph and integrating Audigent’s capabilities, while working with partners like The Trade Desk and ID5 to deliver privacy-safe reach, measurement, and performance across traditional identifiers and emerging alternatives.Experian offers a suite of next-generation tools built on the Experian Digital Graph to help marketers adapt to ongoing signal fragmentation and privacy regulation. These solutions enable brands to maintain behavioral targeting and campaign performance even as traditional signals decrease.
Through Experian’s integration with Audigent, we now offer early access to Curated Deals, contextually-indexed audiences, and Geo-Indexed Audiences that help advertisers test privacy-first audience activation in a period of accelerating signal fragmentation.
Experian and Audigent offer a data management platform (DMP) that enables publishers to collect, manage, and understand their first-party data, while also accessing third-party data, to better monetize their data assets.
At the same time, Experian continues to advance its signal-agnostic Digital Graph, which already covers industry-standard universal IDs, like Unified ID 2.0 (UID2) and ID5, as well as both IPv4 and IPv6, which are becoming more and more prevalent.
Together, these updates give marketers a reliable, privacy-forward foundation for audience reach, cross-device targeting, and measurement as signal fragmentation continues to reshape digital advertising.
How is Experian’s Digital Graph evolving in a multi-signal world?
Signal fragmentation is reshaping how marketers reach and measure audiences, so we continue to strengthen the Experian Digital Graph to keep performance steady across channels. Recent updates focus on improving connectivity, accuracy, and durability:
- More signals to keep reach strong: We added IPv6 and phone-based UID2s to our Digital Graph, building on the hashed email (HEM)-based UID2s we already support.
- Better AI models for cleaner identity data: We improved our AI clustering and device classification models to sharpen ID resolution.
- More stable customer profiles: We enhanced stability in our Digital Graph by tying it more closely to our Offline Graph, ensuring more complete customer profiles that last over time.
Together, these updates give marketers a more resilient identity foundation and help maintain performance in a market defined by rising signal fragmentation.
How is Experian advancing contextual targeting and geo-based targeting with our partners?
AWith more signals in market and traditional identifiers becoming less reliable advertisers are returning to tactics that don’t rely on cookies. Contextual targeting and geo-based targeting have both delivered results for years, and are becoming even more important as marketers look for consistent ways to reach audiences without relying on ID-level data.
Experian is modernizing these approaches by pairing Experian Marketing Data with contextual and geographic signals to create privacy-first activation paths that hold up as identifiers fade.
With our acquisition of Audigent, we’re expanding the ways marketers can activate privacy-forward audiences at scale. Together, these capabilities strengthen how brands reach people with relevant experiences, even as traditional IDs fade:
- Contextually- Indexed Audiences: We index Experian’s syndicated audiences against contextual signals inside private marketplace (PMP) deals using Experian’s Digital Graph and Audigent’s Hadron ID. In a 15-day test with a national advertiser, this ID-less approach exceeded click-through rate goals by 25% while matching the scale and delivery of ID-based campaigns.
- Geo-Indexed Audiences: We also offer Geo-Indexed Audiences that use location-based signals to reach consumers in the right places and moments, providing another durable option when IDs are unavailable or restricted.
- Evolving toward more intent-rich signals: Looking ahead, we are developing ways to incorporate additional intent indicators, such as content consumption patterns and repeated contextual behaviors, to give marketers stronger cues about where their audiences are in their decision process, all without relying on user-level identifiers.
Together, these tactics make contextual and geo-based targeting more measurable, scalable, and privacy-safe, helping marketers keep performance steady as signal fragmentation accelerates.
Which alternative IDs does Experian’s Digital Graph support?
Experian’s signal-agnostic Digital Graph is designed to interoperate across identity frameworks and connect digital identifiers into a single, privacy-compliant system. It now supports alternative IDs such as:
- UID2s
- ID5 IDs
- HEMs
- Connected TV (CTV) IDs
Our Digital Graph is rebuilt weekly to maintain high accuracy and addressability across campaigns. These capabilities ensure marketers can continue cross-device activation and measurement as legacy signals decline.
“Experian is a valued partner in Nexxen’s unified identity graph powering the Nexxen data platforms, which bring us the ability to seamlessly onboard client data, activate campaigns, and measure performance while maximizing biddable opportunities for our advertisers. They help ensure our clients can continue reaching audiences at scale and successfully execute campaigns.”
NexxenChance Johnson, Chief Commercial Officer
What’s next for Experian’s identity and connectivity roadmap?
As digital signals change and CTV viewership grows, we continue to expand the identifiers supported within the Experian Digital Graph. Recent additions such as IPv6 and phone-based UID2s, alongside existing IPv4 and email-based IDs, help marketers and platforms understand the full customer journey across screens and households within a privacy-first framework.
We are committed to maintaining and increasing connectivity in the digital world, ensuring that clients can reach their audiences even as familiar signals decline. A core part of that commitment is strengthening the overlap between our Offline and Digital Graphs. This work improves cross-channel consistency and gives marketers more reliable links between individuals, households, and devices.
As we keep investing in identity resilience, clients can expect ongoing innovation that supports addressability and performance despite evolving privacy constraints.
How can marketers maintain addressability at scale today?
Experian’s connected toolkit of signal-agnostic advertising solutions empowers brands to continue reaching audiences with confidence:
- Identity resolution through Experian’s Digital Graph
- Curation via Audigent
- Cross-device measurement built for privacy compliance
- Universal ID interoperability across platforms
As the industry adjusts to signal fragmentation, Experian provides the scale, trust, and connectivity required to sustain effective targeting.
A resilient path forward for addressable advertising
As the AdTech industry continues to evolve, Experian’s Digital Graph continues to power interoperability, scale, and privacy-safe measurement.
With data ranked #1 in accuracy by Truthset, collaborations across the AdTech ecosystem, and ongoing support for universal IDs, Experian gives marketers a reliable path to addressable, measurable, and privacy-first advertising.
Connect with our team
About the author
Budi Tanzi, VP of Product and Solution Engineering, Experian Marketing Services
Budi Tanzi is the Vice President of Product at Experian Marketing Services, overseeing all Identity Products. Prior to joining Experian, Budi worked at various stakeholders of the ad-tech ecosystem, such as Tapad, Sizmek and StrikeAd. During his career, he held leadership roles in both Product Management and Solution Engineering. Budi has been living in New York for almost 11 years and enjoys being outdoors as well as sailing around NYC whenever possible.
FAQs
Experian’s Digital Graph enables consistent audience targeting and measurement across browsers and devices using privacy-compliant identifiers. It connects verified digital data, giving advertisers continuity as traditional IDs become less reliable.
Experian’s Digital Graph supports consistent audience targeting and measurement across browsers and devices using privacy-compliant identifiers. By connecting verified digital data, the Digital Graph gives marketers continuity as signals such as cookies, device IDs, and IP-based identifiers become less reliable. Recent updates, including IPv6, phone-based UID2s, and improved AI clustering, help you maintain reach and accuracy even as digital signals shift.
Experian works with a variety of partners to source digital IDs. We work with The Trade Desk and ID5 to incorporate their universal IDs into our Digital Graph. Additionally, Audigent, now a part of Experian, offers Curated Deals, which are a non-cookie dependent way to provide reach and relevance.
Yes. Experian’s identity and data solutions align with IAB Data Privacy Standards and regulations such as the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), ensuring transparent and compliant data use.
Our current focus is to increase the overlap between our Offline and Digital Graphs, enabling more cross-channel addressability for our clients. We also continue expanding supported identifiers and improving our AI models to maintain performance as signal fragmentation grows.
You can reach out directly to explore privacy-first activation options, including contextual, geo-indexed, curated deals, and ID-based strategies supported by the Experian Digital Graph.
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In this article…How data collaboration is evolving from 2023 to 2024How to create efficient data collaboration strategies We live in a data-driven world, and businesses need effective data collaboration strategies to remain successful. Before you determine your 2023 and 2024 data collaboration options, it’s essential to understand what data collaboration is. In short, it involves sharing and combining data from multiple sources to better understand a customer base and make informed marketing decisions. Read on to learn more about our three-step plan to create new data collaboration strategies, how it’s evolving, and what we do to ensure our solutions help maintain your company’s data privacy. How data collaboration is evolving from 2023 to 2024 Data collaboration strategies continually evolve thanks to changing industry dynamics and new technologies. As we move from 2023 to 2024, we’ll likely see collaboration extending outside businesses, meaning data can be shared with external partnerships in the form of a data ecosystem. A data ecosystem is a platform that combines numerous information points, including packages, algorithms, and cloud-computing services, to allow businesses to store, analyze, and use the data they’ve collected. To ensure you’re ready for 2024 data collaboration, you’ll need to take a forward-thinking approach toward new data strategies. How to create efficient data collaboration strategies Here are our three steps for efficient collaboration to make the most of 2023 data collaboration and prepare for 2024. Identify your collaboration goal What are you hoping to gain from data collaboration? Do you understand the audience you’re trying to target and what you want regarding outcomes? To measure your success, you should set short- and long-term goals surrounding data collaboration in 2023 and 2024. Maximize the value of your data One of the most important reasons to gather data is to discover in-depth insights into your audience and the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. You’ll be able to identify hidden patterns and pinpoint trends you may not have noticed before. With this information, you can make more strategic marketing decisions to stay competitive in your industry. Resolve digital identities Collaborating on data with trusted partners can help you gain a more complete view of your customers by building comprehensive digital profiles. Resolving digital identities can provide greater insight into online and offline behavior of individual consumers, allowing you to better connect with your target audience and boost brand loyalty. Find an alternative to third-party cookies Digital privacy regulations are getting more strict, which is why it’s so important to find more secure alternatives to third-party cookies. By collaborating on data, you can gather essential insights without relying on cookies. This means you’ll still get the information you want while complying with privacy regulations. Choose the right collaboration partner Before you choose a data collaboration partner, it’s essential to ensure their privacy standards align with yours. How do they collect data and use it ethically and responsibly? At Experian, we are dedicated to protecting consumers and delivering responsible and transparent data practices. We focus on five Global Data Principles — security, accuracy, fairness, transparency, and inclusion — to ensure we treat data carefully and respectfully while boosting economic growth and resilience in the marketing environment. When you partner with us for data collaboration, you can trust that your data is protected in a system built for 2023 data collaboration needs — both known and unknown — while still evolving for 2024 and beyond. Choose a secure environment for collaboration Data collaboration security is vital to safeguard your business and consumers’ information. You can make sure your new data collaboration options are protected in several ways. We’ve outlined three options below. Collaboration in clean rooms Clean rooms are secure, private environments where data is shared and analyzed without exposing the underlying raw data. This ensures that sensitive information remains protected and insights are discovered securely. Experian has vetted clean room partners if this is an option you prefer while still getting industry-leading identity resolution. Collaboration directly Collaborating directly with your partner can be a good option if you have robust security measures. Encryption, access controls, and regular audits are essential to maintain data security in direct collaborations. Collaboration with Experian We excel at meeting our clients where they are and accommodating their technical capabilities and how they manage their data. We offer a secure and compliant environment for data collaboration. Our data collaboration solutions are designed to protect your data while enabling deeper insights. At Experian, we understand the importance of data privacy, and our platform reflects our commitment to safeguarding your information. Enable deeper insights and activation with Experian’s data collaboration solution Data collaboration is crucial in today’s business world, and Experian’s solutions are designed to help you bring together your 2023 and 2024 data collaboration strategies securely and efficiently. With Experian, you can unlock deeper insights, resolve digital identities, and confidently navigate the evolving data privacy landscape. If you’re looking for the right partner to enhance data collaboration to drive growth and innovation in your business, you’ll find a secure environment and the right partner with Experian. Contact us today to get started. Contact us Latest posts
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Centralized data access is emerging as a key strategy for advertisers. In our next Ask the Expert segment, we explore this topic further and discuss the importance of data ownership and the concept of audience as an asset. We're joined by industry leaders, Andy Fisher, Head of Merkury Advanced TV at Merkle, and Chris Feo, Experian’s SVP of Sales & Partnerships who spotlight Merkle's commitment to centralized data access and how advertisers can use our combined solutions to navigate industry shifts while ensuring consumer privacy. Watch our Q&A to learn more about these topics and gain insights on how to stay ahead of industry changes. The concept of audience as an asset In order to gain actionable marketing insights about your audience, you need to identify consumers who are actively engaged with your brand and compare them against non-engaged consumers, or consumers engaged with rival brands. Audience ownership Audience ownership is a fundamental marketing concept where marketers build, define, create, and own their audience. This approach allows you to use your audiences as an asset and deliver a customized journey to the most promising prospects across multiple channels. With this strategy, you enhance marketing effectiveness and ensure ownership over your audience, no matter the platform or channel used. Merkle enables marketers to own and deploy said asset (audience) so that marketers can have direct control over their audience. With audience strategy, you can tie all elements together – amplify your marketing reach, while maintaining control of your audience. Merkle connects customer experiences with business results. Data ownership Data ownership refers to the control organizations have over data they generate, including marketing, sales, product, and customer data. This data is often scattered across multiple platforms, making it difficult to evaluate their effectiveness. Alternatively, owning this data, which is typically housed in a data warehouse, allows the creation of historical overviews, forecasting of customer trends, and cross-channel comparisons. With advertisers and publishers both claiming ownership over their respective data and wanting to control its access, there has been a growing interest in data clean rooms. Data clean rooms The growing interest in data clean rooms is largely due to marketers increasing preference to maintain ownership over their audience data. They provide a secure environment for controlled collaboration between advertisers and publishers while preserving the privacy of valuable data. Data clean rooms allow all parties to define their usage terms – who can access it, how it is used, and when it is used. The rise in the use of data clean rooms strengthens data privacy and creates opportunities for deeper customer insights, which leads to enhanced customer targeting. Data clean rooms unlock new data sets, aiding brands, publishers, and data providers in adapting to rapidly changing privacy requirements. Why is centralized data access important? Centralized data access is crucial for the effective organization and optimization of your advertising campaigns. It involves consolidating your data in one place, allowing for the identification of inconsistencies. Merkle’s Merkury platform The concept of centralized data is a key component of Merkle’s Merkury platform, an enterprise identity platform that empowers brands to own and control first-party identity at an individual level. A common use case involves marketers combining their first-party data with Merkury's data assets and marketplace data assets to build prospecting audiences. These are later published to various endpoints for activation. The Merkury platform covers three classes of data: Proprietary data set – Permissioned data set covering the entire United States, compiled from about 40 different vendors Marketplace data – Includes contributions from various vendors like Experian First-party data from marketers – Allows marketers to bring in their own data Merkury's identity platform empowers brands to own and control first-party identity at an individual level, unifying known and unknown customer and prospect records, site and app visits, and consumer data to a single, person ID. This makes Merkury the only enterprise identity platform that combines the accuracy and sustainability of client first-party data, quality personally identifiable information (PII) data, third-party data, cookie-less media, and technology platform connections in the market. End-to-end management of data Data ownership and management enables you to enhance the quality of your data, facilitate the exchange of information, and ensure privacy compliance. The Merkury platform provides a comprehensive, end-to-end solution for managing first-party data, all rooted in identity. Unlike data management platforms (DMPs) that are primarily built on cookies, the Merkury platform is constructed on a person ID, allowing it to operate effectively in a cookie-free environment. A broader perspective with people-based views The Merkury platform is unique because it contains data from almost every individual in the United States, providing a broader perspective compared to customer data platforms (CDPs) which only contain consumer data. The platform provides a view of the world in a people-based manner, but also offers the flexibility to toggle between person and household views. This enables you to turn data into actionable insights and makes it possible to target specific individuals within a household or consider the household as a whole. How Experian and Merkle work together Experian and Merkle have established a strong partnership that magnifies the capabilities of Merkle's Merkury platform. With Experian’s robust integration capabilities and extensive connectivity opportunities, customers can use this technology for seamless direct integrations, resulting in more effective onboarding to various channels, like digital and TV. "Experian's role in Merkury's data marketplace is essential as they are considered the gold standard for data. It significantly contributes to our connectivity through direct integrations and partnerships. Experian's presence in various platforms and technologies ensures easy connections and high match rates. Our partnership is very important to us."andy fisher, head of merkury advanced tv Through this partnership, Merkle can deliver unique, personalized digital customer experiences across multiple platforms and devices, highlighting their commitment to data-driven performance marketing. Watch the full Q&A Visit our Ask the Expert content hub to watch Andy and Chris's full conversation about data ownership, innovative strategies to empower you to overcome identity challenges, and navigating industry shifts while protecting consumer privacy. Tune into the full recording to gain insights into the captivating topics of artificial intelligence (AI), understanding how retail networks can amplify the value of media, and the growing influence of connected TV (CTV). Dive into the Q&A to gain rich insights that could greatly influence your strategies. Contact us today About our experts Andy Fisher, Head of Merkury Advanced TV As the Head of Merkury Advanced TV, Andy's primary responsibility is driving person-based marketing and big data adoption in all areas of Television including Linear, Addressable, Connected, Programmatic, and X-channel planning and Measurement. Andy has held several positions at Merkle including Chief Analytics Officer and he ran the Merkle data business. Prior to joining Merkle, Andy was the EVP, Global Data & Analytics Director at Starcom MediaVest Group where he led the SMG global analytics practice. In this role, he built and managed a team of 150 analytics professionals across 17 countries servicing many of the world’s largest advertisers. Prior to that role, Andy was Vice President and National Lead, Analytics at Razorfish, where he led the digital analytics practice and managed a team of modeling, survey, media data, and business intelligence experts. He and his team were responsible for some of the first innovations in multi-touchpoint attribution and joining online/offline data for many of the Fortune 100. Andy has also held leadership positions at Personify and IRI. Andy holds a BA in mathematics from UC Berkeley and an MA in statistics from Stanford. Chris Feo, SVP, Sales & Partnerships, Experian As SVP of Sales & Partnerships, Chris has over a decade of experience across identity, data, and programmatic. Chris joined Experian during the Tapad acquisition in November 2020. He joined Tapad with less than 10 employees and has been part of the executive team through both the Telenor and Experian acquisitions. He’s an active advisor, board member, and investor within the AdTech ecosystem. Outside of work, he’s a die-hard golfer, frequent traveler, and husband to his wife, two dogs, and two goats! Latest posts