Originally appeared on Total Retail
Retail media networks (RMNs) continue to demonstrate how they can be a powerful monetization driver for retailers, creating a win-win-win for everyone involved. Retailers can monetize their valuable first-party data as well as their online and in-store inventory, while customers benefit from timely, relevant content that enhances their shopping experience. At the same time, advertisers can reach highly targeted audiences at critical moments near the point of purchase
Achieving this type of success requires overcoming challenges around fragmented and incomplete first-party data, which can limit a retailer’s ability to organize and use their data effectively. Additionally, many RMNs lack the analytical capacity to generate customer insights, build addressable audiences, and accurately measure success. To realize the full potential of their platforms, RMNs need partners that provide complementary data, strong identity solutions, and the expertise to transform insights into actionable strategies. This allows RMNs to drive winning outcomes for themselves, marketers, and their customers.
Here are the five steps an RMN should consider when selecting the right partner.
1. Build an identity foundation
First, the right partner needs to be able to organize and clean customer data. Given the millions of customer records and data points that a retailer has, RMNs need to make sure their data is highly usable. Whether it is a known customer record or an unknown customer with incomplete data, partners should fill in missing information and connect fragmented customer records to a single profile. For example, RMNs need to know that a purchase made in-store is by the same customer who bought online. The best partners will then organize those profiles into households since targeting (and purchasing) is often done at the household level. Without a strong identity foundation future steps of segmentation, insights, audience creation, and activation will not be successful.
Experian identity
Experian’s identity solutions provide RMNs with a comprehensive and accurate view of their customers across both offline and digital environments. We clean an RMN’s first-party data and organize their customer records into households since targeting is often done at the household level and purchases are made at the household level.
Using Experian’s Offline and Digital Graphs we work with the RMN to fill in the missing information they have on their customers (e.g. name, address, phone number or digital IDs like hashed emails, mobile ad IDs, CTV IDs, Universal IDs like UID2 or ID5 IDs). This ensures that the retailers’ entire customer base can be reached – and measured – across devices and channels.
2. Segment your customers
An RMN’s ability to segment its customer base and derive insights depends on the availability and usability of their data assets – not to mention some serious analytical chops. Some RMNs will split their customers into different product segments based on what’s relevant to an advertiser. For example, a home improvement retailer may segment customers by who is buying DIY supplies versus improvement services. Other RMNs may develop custom segments from their customer data and third-party data sources, so that advertisers can personalize their marketing based on life stage, age, income level, geography, and other factors. Either approach is effective but requires working with a partner who has high quality data and deep analytical expertise to develop those segments.
Segment with Experian
Experian Marketing Data helps an RMN learn about their customer beyond their first-party data. With access to 5,000 marketing attributes, RMNs can fill in the holes in their understanding of a customer. We provide them with demographic, geographic, finance, home purchase, interests and behaviors, lifestyle, auto data and more. RMNs can use this enriched data set to create addressable audience segments.
3. Generate actionable insights about these segments
Once the RMN determines how they will segment their customers, they can utilize demographic, attitudinal, interest, and behavioral data from a trusted partner to develop a customer profile that compares its customers against a relevant sample of consumers. Here, the RMN will gain insight that will help them answer questions about its customers. Examples include:
- What age and income groups are more likely to purchase my product?
- What is the current life stage of my customers – do they have children, are they married, are they empty-nesters?
- Is price or quality more important to customers in their decision-making process?
- What sort of activities do my customers enjoy?
- How frequently do my customers shop for similar merchandise?
- What media channels do my customers use to get their information?
Expanded insights with Experian
With Experian’s advanced customer profiling, RMNs can go beyond basic customer segmentation. We build detailed customer profiles by utilizing accurate, attribute-rich consumer data, so RMNs can gain a more comprehensive understanding of their customer’s preferences, life stages, and purchasing behaviors. Having this insight enables the RMN to:
- Design a targeted email campaign promoting home essentials to recently married new homeowners.
- Develop a social media post announcing the opening of a new hardware store to users within a specific location interested in do-it-yourself products.
- Create brochures and flyers at a local community event tailored towards parents with small children that promote equipment for youth sports leagues.
4. Create high quality lookalike audiences
The RMN now knows what distinguishes their customers from other consumers and can create audiences that enable advertisers to run personalized marketing campaigns at scale. RMNs can do this in several different ways:
- Work with a data provider who can create custom audiences for the RMN (e.g., Ages 40-49 and Leisure Travelers and past purchase of travel item)
These custom audiences are created by joining multiple first- and third-party data attributes found to be significant in the customer profile or using machine learning techniques to develop a custom audience unique to the advertiser.
Custom audiences with Experian
With an enriched understanding of their customers, RMNs can create addressable custom audience segments, including lookalike audiences, for advertisers.
5. Expand addressability of audiences and activate on multiple destinations
Once audiences are created, RMNs will want to increase a marketer’s reach across on-site and off-site channels. With the right identity graph partner, an RMN can add digital identifiers to customer records that enable activation across media channels, including programmatic display, connected television (CTV), or social. RMNs should work with identity providers that are not reliant on third-party cookies. They should select partners that offer more stable digital IDs in their graph like mobile ad IDs (MAIDs), hashed emails (HEMs), CTV IDs, and universal IDs like Unified I.D. 2.0 (UID2).
Experian powers data-driven advertising through connectivity
Using Experian’s Digital Graph, RMNs expand the addressability of their audiences by assigning digital identifiers to customer records. Marketers will be able to reach an RMNs customers onsite as well as offsite since Experian provides several addressable IDs.
Audiences can be activated across an RMNs owned and operated platform as well as extended programmatically to TV and the open web through Experian’s integrations across the ecosystem.
Maximize your RMN’s revenue potential with Experian
Organizing customer data, segmenting customers, generating insights, creating addressable audiences, and activating campaigns are all critical steps for an RMN to realize that revenue potential. RMNs should select a partner that provides the data, identity, and analytical resources to create the winning formula for marketers, customers, and retailers.
Experian’s data and identity solutions are designed to help RMNs maximize their revenue potential.
Reach out to our team to discover how we can support your path to RMN success.
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Audio platforms that overcome consumer identity challenges are winning new advertisers and driving higher ROAS. In this article, you’ll hear from leading audio platforms that are solving these challenges—and seeing results. Digital audio is evolving fast. What was once a niche channel of host-read sponsorships and direct buys is now a must-have in the modern media mix. Streaming platforms, podcasts, and digital radio are drawing more ad dollars thanks to audio’s ability to capture attention and connect with listeners. But with growth comes new pressure. Advertisers expect accuracy, scale, and to see results. At the same time, listeners want more relevant content and more personalized ad experiences. That’s where identity becomes essential. With Experian’s identity and audience solutions, audio platforms can: Bolster addressable audience targeting and personalization capabilities. Gain a comprehensive view of listeners’ digital identity to reach audiences across channels. Better understand consumer preferences, enabling advertisers to reach audiences with greater accuracy. Enhance the listening experience with more relevant content. Let’s break down the key challenges in audio—and how Experian can help solve them. Challenge 1: Anonymous listening limits addressability Most listening happens in environments where people aren’t logged in—via apps, smart speakers, and mobile devices. Without logged-in data, platforms struggle to know who’s listening and advertisers are unable to reach those anonymous listeners who don’t have an addressable ID. To overcome the identity gap in unauthenticated listening environments, leading audio platforms are turning to partners that connect fragmented signals—like device type, location, and behavioral patterns—to broader household and individual profiles. By using hashed emails and other alternative identifiers, platforms can begin to make anonymous sessions more addressable. This increase in addressability ensures the platform’s entire userbase can be reached, which leads to an increase in revenue. Experian’s solution Experian\’s identity spine, comprised of our Digital and Offline Graphs, helps you recognize listeners even when they’re outside your ecosystem. Platforms like Audacy are already leading the way. By integrating Experian’s Digital Graph, they’re gaining a more complete view of listeners’ digital identifiers—enhancing the experience across their app and website. With a better audience understanding, Audacy can deliver personalized content while helping advertisers reach specific groups with greater accuracy. Challenge 2: IP-based targeting falls short Audio has traditionally relied on IP addresses, but that’s no longer enough. A single IP could represent an entire household—or a public setting like a coffee shop. It’s not precise. Forward-thinking platforms are moving beyond IP-based targeting by integrating identity resolution technologies that combine household-level data with device-level intelligence. These solutions help distinguish between shared devices and individual listeners, allowing advertisers to serve more relevant messages without over-reliance on a single signal like an IP address. This layered approach improves precision—especially in dynamic listening environments like vehicles or communal spaces. Experian’s solution Our identity spine links home IPs to households, then connects them to specific devices and individuals. This helps platforms move beyond basic IPs and target real people based on accurate signals—even in shared listening environments like smart speakers and cars. We also help platforms and advertisers integrate alternative IDs—like Unified I.D. 2.0 (UID2)—into their programmatic audio campaigns. That means more reach, without compromising consumer trust. Challenge 3: Audio buying is fragmented From podcasts to streaming to radio, audio lacks consistency in how inventory is packaged and bought. It’s hard for advertisers to run scaled campaigns across channels—and harder still to measure performance. Plus, advertisers don’t think in silos—they think in strategies. If audio can’t connect to their display, connected TV (CTV), and social buys, it loses ground. What they need is a way to define audiences once and activate everywhere. To reduce friction in audio ad buying, platforms are investing in infrastructure that unifies audience insights across formats. By building a centralized view of the listener—regardless of whether they\’re tuning in via podcast, stream, or radio—publishers can offer advertisers consistent targeting parameters, clearer reporting, and better campaign orchestration. Identity graphs and audiences are playing a growing role in streamlining this complexity and unlocking scale. Experian’s solution Experian helps simplify audio buying. Experian audiences are built on top of our identity graph and are expanded to a deep set of digital identifiers, ensuring accuracy, scale and maximum addressability across channels. Platforms can blend their first-party data with advertiser data and our audiences—then deploy those audiences onsite or activate programmatically across open web and CTV. DAX is doing just that. DAX\’s partnership with Experian combines Experian’s 2,400+ audiences for targeting and activation with DAX’s innovative audio advertising approach. We’re helping advertisers connect with passionate and engaged listeners nationwide. \”Through our partnership with Experian Marketing Services, advertisers can unlock deeper audience insights and execute more impactful digital audio campaigns. By combining our shared market presence, knowledge, and forward-thinking approach, we’re strengthening our digital audio network offering and delivering value to all our advertising partners.\” Brian Conlan, President of DAX United States In addition to integrating Experian’s Digital Graph, Audacy is also integrating Experian\’s syndicated audiences to unlock accurate insights like demographics, shopping behavior, and interests – providing listeners with a more personalized advertising experience and advertisers with a higher return on investment. “Historically, audio advertising lacked precise targeting capabilities, making it challenging for advertisers to reach specific audiences. By integrating our digital identity graph and syndicated audiences with Audacy’s platform, we’re transforming how advertisers connect with listeners. This collaboration enables more effective audience targeting and delivers personalized, impactful audio experiences across all channels.”Chris Feo, Chief Business Officer, Experian Privacy is non-negotiable Everything we do is privacy-forward by design. Backed by Experian’s Global Data Principles and decades as a regulated institution, we rigorously vet every data source to ensure compliance with all federal and state laws. Build an audio strategy that performs with Experian Your advertisers want more from their audio investments. With Experian, you can give it to them. We help you: Expand digital addressability to maximize reach for marketers and drive revenue growth for your platform. Create and activate addressable audiences across all channels. Enhance the listening experience with relevant content and personalized ads. Audio has always been a powerful way to connect. Now, it’s ready to perform. Let\’s connect Latest posts
When we launched our data marketplace earlier this year, we set out to transform how the industry discovers and activates privacy-safe audiences and maintains addressability across display, mobile, and connected TV (CTV). Yieldmo was one of the first adopters and their story speaks volumes about what’s possible when flexible tech meets premium data. Large retail brand boosts in-store traffic with Yieldmo and Experian Yieldmo, an advertising platform known for its inventive, AI-powered creative formats and privacy-first inventory, partnered with Experian to support a leading athletic retailer’s campaign focused on driving in-store traffic. The goal? Attract in-store shoppers likely to purchase from competitors, particularly during key sales windows. Using Experian’s Audience Engine platform, which includes our proprietary and third-party data marketplace, Yieldmo built a high-performing, self-serve targeting strategy that included both conquesting and in-store shopper segments. With the ability to easily combine Experian Audiences and Partner Audiences, like those from Alliant, Circana, Webbula, and Sports Innovation Lab, Yieldmo quickly built precise apparel and footwear audiences. Using Experian’s identity graphs in Audience Engine, Yieldmo increased cross-channel addressability to maximize campaign scale and impact. “Experian’s data marketplace in Audience Engine fills a critical gap, letting us quickly search by brand, build smarter conquest segments, and activate custom audiences fast. The platform is flexible and the support is hands-on and reliable.”Abby Littlejohn, Director of Sales Planning at Yieldmo With self-serve setup that cut down manual work, the ability to build highly tailored audiences, and expected lift in store visits, Experian helped the team achieve standout results. \”We selected Experian as our primary third-party data partner based on contract ease, audience quality, and speed. Through Experian, we can find high-performing audiences from multiple providers that meet our client’s targeting objectives. We include Experian audience segments in 80% of formal RFP proposals and are in active discussions on how to optimize for future campaigns—making Experian a go-to partner for third-party targeting.”Nelson Montouchet, AVP, Strategic Partnerships, Yieldmo More data, more reach: Experian’s data marketplace fuels smarter targeting across ad platforms Today, just months after launch, Experian’s data marketplace is gaining traction across the ecosystem. Over 10 platforms, including leading supply-side platforms (SSPs) and TV platforms such as Madhive, OpenAP, and Optimum, are now actively utilizing our data marketplace to enhance their activation capabilities. As privacy rules tighten and many identity signals start to fade, a lot of activation platforms are finding it tougher to reach their audiences. This is where our data marketplace shines, with one of the most comprehensive identity graphs out there, 126 million households, 250 million individuals, and over four billion active digital IDs, we make it easy to activate audiences while keeping addressability high across channels. We preserve accuracy when scaling to digital IDs via our identity graphs since Experian is rooted in offline data, which provides better connections and smarter targeting. “Our long-standing partnership with Experian and breadth of Experian\’s data marketplace, combined with the interoperable, direct matching methodology of our Open Identity solution, make it possible for OpenAP to enable advertisers and agencies to use best-in-class data partners to build audiences with the highest fidelity and consistently reach audiences at scale wherever they are consuming content across premium video.”Chris LoRusso, Chief Business Officer at OpenAP Experian’s data marketplace has grown to include over 20 premium data providers, such as: “We’re thrilled to bring PlaceIQ’s privacy-first, visit-based audiences to Experian’s marketplace, giving brands quick and easy access to high-intent shoppers. From recent big-box customers to yoga-studio regulars, advertisers can add real-world relevance to campaigns across every channel.”Brian Bradtke, Head of Partner Development, Precisely PlaceIQ These partnerships bring unique value to platforms looking to understand and engage audiences more effectively, whether through physical location intelligence, sports and fandom insights, or behavioral intent signals. What’s next As we head into one of the industry’s key events this summer at Cannes, the excitement around our data marketplace continues to build. We\’re focused on expanding our data ecosystem and helping platforms and marketers turn fragmented data strategies into a unified competitive advantage. If Yieldmo’s story is any indication, this is just the beginning. Let’s connect and explore how Experian’s data marketplace can help you drive more revenue, scale your audience reach, and stay ahead of privacy shifts. Connect with us Latest posts
Gaming companies sit at a unique crossroads: they’re part entertainment powerhouse, part tech platform, part media company. Whether you’re publishing blockbuster titles, running a mobile game network, or building immersive in-game ad experiences, you have access to vast amounts of player data—and massive potential for growth. What\’s standing in the way of growth and loyalty Video game publishers and platforms are increasingly turning to data to understand, engage, and retain their players. But that’s easier said than done. Here are the top challenges they face: Data lives in silos. Gaming companies often collect data across multiple platforms—console, PC, mobile—but can’t stitch together a full view of the player across devices and titles. Identity is hard to resolve. Players interact across games, apps, websites, and platforms. It’s tough to connect all those signals and create a consistent, personalized experience. Privacy is non-negotiable. Regulations are tightening. Any solution must not only be powerful—it must be privacy-safe. Ad performance is difficult to measure. It’s often unclear which campaigns are driving engagement, conversions, or purchases—especially across fragmented digital touchpoints. How Experian can help you win with data and identity Experian helps gaming companies stop leaving value on the table. We turn scattered player data into a single, unified view—giving you the foundation to better understand and engage your players. Our approach: Organize, enrich, activate 1. We clean and unify your data We help you build a solid identity foundation by resolving messy, duplicate, or outdated records across systems. That means your player data from mobile, console, PC, and web all connects—giving you a clear view of how your users engage across games and platforms. 💡 How it’s working: A global interactive gaming company is partnering with Experian to unify and enrich player profiles across systems—boosting the performance of both player engagement campaigns and in-game monetization strategies. 2. We deliver deep customer insights With Experian, you go beyond surface-level data. We help you understand player behaviors, financial attributes, interests, and lifestyle factors—fueling more personalized experiences, smarter segmentation, and better monetization strategies. 💡 How it’s working: A major game developer used Experian’s data enrichment tools to gain deeper insights into player behavior and financial attributes—enabling more personalized in-game offers, smarter audience segmentation, and stronger player retention. 3. We enrich profiles and help you activate across channels We enhance your player records with hundreds of attributes—so you can create custom segments that work. Then, we help you activate those audiences in real-time across digital, social, and programmatic platforms. 💡 How it’s working: A global gaming publisher used Experian to build custom audiences and activate across programmatic channels, driving higher in-game engagement and ad ROI. Turning audiences into ad revenue In addition to improving their own player marketing, gaming companies are unlocking a second growth engine: ad revenue from non-endemic brands. Much like retail media networks, game publishers and platforms are realizing the value of their audience data. From airlines and automakers to QSR and CPG brands, advertisers are taking notice of the high-value, high-intent audiences inside game environments. But to attract that ad spend, publishers need to offer more than impressions—they need precise audience targeting, cross-device identity, and reliable measurement. How Experian helps drive better ad performance To appear authentically to a gamer, you need to know who they are and what they care about. Experian helps marketers understand a person’s behaviors and preferences to enable relevant, personalized advertising. And since nobody wants to see the same ad ten times during a session, we help manage ad frequency across devices and placements to protect the player experience. Our approach: Extend reach, measure results 1. We expand your digital reach Experian makes it easier to find and connect with your players wherever they are—across devices, platforms, and publishers. We help you build scalable audiences you can reach programmatically and with precision. 💡 How it’s working: Unity, a leading gaming platform, is redefining the way marketers reach their audiences across major and emerging channels. They’ve tapped into Experian’s syndicated audiences to gain player insights and help advertisers connect with gaming audiences across mobile, web, and connected TV (CTV) based on behaviors and preferences. 2. We help you measure what matters Whether your goal is app installs, in-game purchases, ad engagement, or player retention, we help connect the dots. You’ll know which campaigns are driving action—and where to double down. 💡 How it’s working: A leading global game publisher is working with Experian to enrich player profiles, build and activate audience segments, and measure how campaigns drive in-game engagement and purchases—giving them a clearer view of ROI across digital channels. Why choose Experian Whether you’re trying to build stronger player relationships or turn your audience into a high-performing advertising engine, Experian gives you the data and identity foundation to make it happen. We help you: Organize and clean your player data Resolve identities across digital touchpoints Enrich your data with deep, actionable insights Build and activate target audiences Measure impact across the player journey Let\’s power up together We’re already supporting leading brands across the gaming ecosystem—from global game publishers and mobile app developers to in-game ad networks and gaming platforms. And we’re ready to help more companies harness the full power of their data. Get in the game with us 🎮 Latest posts