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Marketing without segmentation is a lot like shouting into a crowded room and hoping the right person hears you. Without a clear way to communicate in a noisy marketing environment, your message gets lost in the mix.
With segmentation, you can identify your target audience, speak to their needs, and deliver the right message at the right moment. Companies that use segmentation are 130% more likely to understand customer motivations, resulting in more effective campaigns and deeper audience relationships.
In this article, we’ll break down four of the most effective customer segmentation methods, when to use each, and how Experian’s audience solutions can help.
What is segmentation in marketing?
Segmentation is the process of splitting a large audience into smaller groups that share similar traits, like demographics, location, behavior, or firmographic characteristics. As a marketer, these segments enable you to choose channels, messaging, and offers that resonate with each group.
Whether you’re targeting new homeowners in Texas, loyalty shoppers in retail, or small business decision-makers in finance, segmentation helps you stand out to them and get results.
Why should marketers segment their audiences?
Effective audience segmentation fuels accuracy, performance, and personalization at scale. Here’s why you should invest your time and marketing budget in honing your audience segments.
Maximize your marketing ROI
Nobody wants to waste money talking to the wrong crowd. Using various methods of segmentation, you can focus on those who want to hear from you — and the payoff can be huge. For marketing channels like email, segmentation can drive up to 760% more revenue than non-segmented campaigns. The more targeted your message, the better the return.
Create a unified omnichannel strategy
Segmentation helps ensure that every channel, from email and social media to display, SMS, and direct mail, operates from the same playbook.
Once you define your target audience segments, you also need a trusted identity partner to sync them across platforms and environments. This ensures you can deliver consistent, personalized experiences at every touchpoint and your audience receives the same message in the proper context, regardless of where they engage.
Strengthen customer loyalty
Roughly 75% of consumers are loyal to brands that “get” them. When you strive to understand your customers, they’re more likely to stay. Segmentation enables you to personalize communications based on your target segment’s values, behaviors, or preferences, encouraging repeat business.
Expand into new markets
With segmentation, you can analyze existing customers to identify common traits and use that data to pinpoint similar groups in new regions or markets. For example, if your top customers are middle-class parents in suburban areas, you can target lookalike segments in other cities with tailored messaging.
This makes it easier to expand with confidence, knowing you’re reaching people who are more likely to convert.
Lower customer acquisition costs
Rather than forcing you to cast a wide net, segmentation enables you to focus your budget on high-potential audiences across channels, reduce acquisition costs, and minimize wasted spend on low-intent audiences.
Four segmentation methods and examples
Let’s look at four different methods of market segmentation. We’ll define each, share when to use them, and give real-world examples to help you apply them.
1. Demographic segmentation
Demographic segmentation breaks your audience into groups based on gender, income, age, education, marital status, occupation, and household size. It’s one of the most foundational segmentation methods because it’s easy to implement and often tied directly to buying behavior.
Demographic data makes it easier to get the tone, offer, and channel right from the start. And when you combine demographic segmentation with other segmentation methods, such as behavior or location, the impact multiplies.
When to use it
Use demographic segmentation when your product or service is clearly more relevant to people in a specific life stage, income bracket, or household type.
Among all methods of market segmentation, demographic data is often the easiest starting point. It’s especially effective for industries such as financial services, healthcare, education, retail, and others, where consumer needs change based on demographics.
Examples
As a real-world example, a health supplement company used Experian data to segment its ambassador program audience into four demographic groups based on lifestyle and household makeup. These included younger singles, value-seeking families, high-income spenders, and older empty nesters.
Applying these insights at registration allowed the brand to deliver personalized, channel-specific communications that boosted acquisition and retention. The approach led to stronger engagement and more meaningful customer connections.
2. Geographic segmentation
This method of market segmentation categorizes people by location, including country, region, state, city, zip code, or even climate. It’s a simple yet effective way to tailor your marketing, as location often influences everything from lifestyle and language to shopping habits and product needs. It’s most often used among brands with physical locations or region-specific campaigns.
Whether you’re promoting snow boots in Colorado or sunscreen in California, geographic segmentation helps you stay relevant to the local context.
When to use it
Geographic segmentation is ideal when your offer or message changes depending on climate, culture, availability, or local regulations. It’s also helpful for planning market expansion or testing the performance of different methods of market segmentation across regions.
Examples
One home furnishings retailer partnered with Experian to understand how customer needs varied across store locations. Using a mix of client data and Experian demographics, we segmented stores based on their surrounding customer base, like urban, white-collar shoppers in metro centers versus lower-income households in more remote cities.
These insights enabled the retailer to tailor inventory, marketing strategies, and ad copy for each store type, resulting in more relevant customer experiences.
3. Behavioral segmentation
Behavioral segmentation centers on how people live their lives — their interests, habits, and decision-making patterns. It includes factors like past purchases, engagement frequency, brand loyalty, product usage, browsing patterns, and responsiveness to offers or promotions.
Among all of the segmentation methods, this one provides insight into intent, helping you go beyond who your audience is to understand what they do. You can use behavioral insights to re-engage former customers with relevant offers, reward loyal buyers with personalized perks, or guide high-intent shoppers toward conversion with timely nudges.
When to use it
Behavioral segmentation is best when you want to personalize based on intent, habits, or engagement stage. It’s particularly useful for retention, reactivation, or cross-selling strategies.
Examples
In practice, a national big-box retailer partnered with Experian to better understand customer behavior during grocery store visits. The goal was to identify distinct “trip missions” that could drive category trial and increase basket size. We analyzed everything from basket contents to customer composition and segmented visits into 11 unique missions.
For example, the “All Aisles Online” segment represented large households (often homeowners with families) stocking up on household staples through online orders. In contrast, the “Marketable Mission” segment captured smaller, likely renter households making quick trips for non-essentials.
These behavioral insights empowered the retailer to adjust promotions based on the intent behind each visit, strengthen customer relationships, and drive growth.
4. Firmographic segmentation (B2B)
Firmographic segmentation is like demographic segmentation for businesses. It groups B2B audiences based on attributes such as annual revenue, location, company size, industry, and organizational structure. You can also segment by job title or decision-maker role to better target key stakeholders.
This method is great for aligning your messaging, sales strategy, or product offerings with the unique needs of various business types. A startup in the tech sector will likely respond to a very different pitch than an enterprise manufacturer, and firmographic data helps you speak to both with precision.
When to use it
Use firmographic segmentation when marketing to other businesses, especially when your product or service has different benefits depending on business size or sector.
Examples
Recently, a B2B client partnered with Experian to gain a deeper understanding of the revenue potential of their existing business customers. Using firmographic data, we segmented the client’s customers into distinct groups based on the characteristics most strongly tied to spending behavior.
For each segment, we calculated potential spend, defined as the 80th percentile of annual spend within that segment. This allowed the client to identify high-value accounts with untapped growth potential.
For example, one customer, ABC Construction, had spent $4,750. But based on their segment’s profile, their annual potential was $9,000. That insight revealed a $4,250 opportunity to deepen the relationship through more targeted marketing and sales efforts.
Best practices for market segmentation
Regardless of the segmentation method you use, the following best practices will help you maximize the benefits of your efforts.
Start with clean, reliable data
Segments are only as good as the data behind them. If your data is outdated, inaccurate, or incomplete, your segments will result in ineffective targeting and a wasted budget. Utilize accurate, compliant, up-to-date sources like Experian Marketing Data, ranked #1 in accuracy by Truthset, to ensure your targeting is on point.
Test and refine segments continuously
Business goals, market conditions, and behaviors are constantly changing. What worked last month or even last week might not work today. By adjusting your segments over time, you make sure your marketing stays relevant, focused, and effective. Use A/B testing, performance metrics, and audience analytics to iterate on your segments and improve results over time.
Align segments with personalized messaging and offers
Each segment has distinct needs, preferences, and motivations, which means generic messaging won’t resonate effectively. Once you’ve built your segments, personalize your creative, copy, and offers to appeal to each group and increase the likelihood of engagement and conversions.
Integrate segmentation across all platforms
If someone sees one message in an email and a completely different one in an ad or on your website, it creates confusion and weakens trust. From CRMs and email platforms to ad tech and analytics tools, make sure your segmentation method is applied consistently across every channel to improve performance and build a cohesive brand experience.
Segment your audiences with Experian
Effective audience segmentation is at the heart of every successful marketing strategy, but in this fragmented, privacy-conscious landscape, grouping your audience into meaningful, actionable subgroups is more challenging than ever. That’s where we come in.
With coverage of the entire U.S. population, Experian helps marketers define and categorize broad audiences into precise segments using rich data on demographics, behaviors, financial profiles, and lifestyle traits. These insights make it easier to personalize messaging, optimize media spend, and drive better outcomes.
From ready-to-use syndicated audiences to custom segments and even Contextually-Indexed Audiences that align targeting with content, Experian offers flexible segmentation solutions that perform across digital, TV, programmatic, and social channels.
In our most recent release, we introduced over 750 new and updated audience segments across key categories, including a brand-new category for Experian, giving marketers more accurate, behavior-based targeting options than ever before.
- 135+ new CPG audiences, a brand-new category for Experian, built from opt-in loyalty card and receipt scan data
- 240+ new automotive audiences covering ownership and in-market shoppers
- 100+ new high-spending behavior audiences focused on specific merchant categories
- 24 new wealth and income segments with refined household net worth tiers
- 13 new lifestyle-based housing audiences for family- and household-focused targeting
- 250+ refreshed financial segments with improved naming conventions for better discoverability and clarity
Together, these segments give marketers more accuracy to reach high-intent consumers based on real-world behaviors, spending patterns, and financial capacity.
Audience solutions powered by consumer insights
Experian Marketing Data, one of the most comprehensive and accurate consumer databases in the U.S., is the core of our segmentation capabilities. Backed by over 5,000 demographic and behavioral attributes, it helps you understand not just who your customers are but how they live, shop, spend, and engage, too.
Each audience segment is built with privacy and precision in mind, using a blend of demographic data, financial behaviors, lifestyle signals, and media habits. With these consumer insights, we’ll help you uncover meaningful patterns that lead to smarter strategy.
Experian’s pre-built audiences
Our syndicated audiences are pre-built, ready-to-activate segments based on shared characteristics from age and income to purchase behavior and lifestyle indicators. When speed and scale are a priority, these segments offer a fast, effective way to reach your target audience.
Experian’s 2,400+ syndicated audiences are available directly on over 30 leading television, social, and programmatic advertising platforms, as well as within Audigent for activation within private marketplaces (PMPs).
Here’s what’s new from our August 2025 release:
- CPG shoppers by category (e.g., Frozen Food Shoppers, Multi-Vitamin Shoppers)
- Luxury EV owners and auto brand shoppers (e.g., Rivian, Polestar, Cadillac)
- High spenders in specific categories (e.g., men’s grooming and women’s accessories)
- Ultra high-net-worth households (e.g., Net Worth $50M+) and likely home sellers
- Young Family Homeowners and Growing Family Apartment Renters
Custom audiences for specialized targeting
Need a custom audience? Reach out to our audience team, and we can help you build and activate an Experian audience on your preferred platform. Additionally, work with Experian’s network of data providers to build audiences and send to an Audigent PMP for activation.
Contextually-Indexed Audiences
Experian’s Contextually-Indexed Audiences offer a privacy-safe way to reach relevant consumers in the moments that matter without relying on identity signals or third-party cookies. These segments combine Experian’s consumer insights with page-level content signals, enabling you to align targeting with intent and mindset, even in cookieless or ID-constrained environments.
Want to take your segmentation strategy to the next level? Let’s talk. We’ll help you define your audience in ways that drive real results.
Talk to our team about your segmentation methods today
Latest posts
How should CMOs think about data as part of their audience strategy? The best digital marketers possess excellent storytelling capabilities—and they fuel the plot with data. When you think about it, your audience strategy is the whole story, and the type of data you use helps create each chapter. Just as any good book incorporates numerous literary devices, you must use more than one type of data to develop a dynamic, relevant, and timely narrative that captures your target users’ attention. In 2026, marketers should prioritize and invest in data and targeting strategies beyond just first-party to drive growth, improve efficiency, and strengthen customer relationships. Our 2026 Digital trends and predictions report is available now and reveals five trends that will define 2026. From curation becoming the standard in programmatic to AI moving from hype to implementation, each trend reflects a shift toward more connected, data-driven marketing. The interplay between them will define how marketers will lead in 2026. Download Why is first-party data not sufficient on its own? First-party data provides a strong foundation for targeting and measurement. It reflects information consumers have shared directly through brand interactions. That makes it reliable and central to audience strategy. That foundation alone does not tell the full story. First-party data defines known customers, but limits reach and frequency. Growth depends on expanding beyond existing relationships. Think of first-party data as a way to create an outline, not the whole story, about your target audiences—the main characters in your marketing. To flesh out the entire narrative about them, you must source, connect, and activate additional data. The ability to unify different data sources with accuracy, scale, and privacy at the forefront sits at the core of Experian’s business. We unify household, individual, device, demographic, behavioral, and first-party signals, along with contextual and geographic data points, to build a reliable view of consumers, even when specific signals are missing. This clarity helps you personalize, target, activate, and measure with confidence. By layering third-party data, contextual data, and geolocation data onto your first-party data foundation, your advertising strategies become stronger than if you used any of these sources as standalone solutions. How do different types of third-party data add depth to audience profiles? Third-party data expands understanding beyond known customers. If first-party data is the outline, third-party data helps with “character development”—a.k.a., adding detail to your audience profiles. Good third-party marketing data complements first-party insights with demographic, behavioral, and transactional context, providing the missing puzzle pieces to complete the full customer profile. Filling in gaps in customer understanding helps you identify, reach, and engage current and new customers more effectively. Third-party data allows brands to build loyalty with consumers by speaking to their interests and intent behind purchases. Third-party data opens up new targeting tactics for advertisers, such as: Behavioral How people engage with brands or how they use social media Demographic Age, gender, education, income, and religion Health A combination of demographics, behaviors, and health needs Interest Delivering ads based on interests, hobbies, or online activities Location Where people live, work, or spend large amounts of time Psychographics Shared characteristics like attitudes, lifestyles, and interests Purchases Using previous purchase behavior to identify the right audiences In addition to targeting, third-party data also remains critical to AI models, which must train on both structured and unstructured data. At Experian, 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. How are contextual and geographic approaches reshaping audience targeting? Contextual and geographic approaches to targeting focus on environment and behavior rather than identifiers. Regulatory scrutiny, stricter and more fragmented compliance standards, and rising consumer expectations are transforming how marketers approach third-party data targeting. Evolving privacy laws and inconsistent identifiers across environments require new approaches that balance performance and privacy. Contextual and geographic targeting help marketers reach relevant audiences while maintaining privacy. What is data-informed contextual targeting? Contextual targeting connects audience attributes to the content environments people choose. It helps determine the setting of your story—where your characters spend their time. Solutions like Experian’s Contextually-Indexed Audiences harness advanced machine learning technology to combine contextual signals (a tried–and-true targeting tactic) with third-party targeting to ensure marketers reach their target audiences on the content they tend to consume, regardless of environment or location. What’s excellent about data-informed contextual targeting is that it moves beyond traditional keyword-based strategies to reach consumers on websites that over-index for visitors with the demographics, behaviors, or interests they are looking to target. What is data-informed geotargeting? Geotargeting uses shared location patterns to support relevance at scale. Geotargeting is another possibility for further developing the scene of your story. People with similar behaviors and interests tend to live in similar areas, which is why so much effort goes into location planning for brick-and-mortar stores. Data-informed geotargeting combines geos with third-party data to make more informed media buys based on common behaviors within a geographic location. We launched our Geo-Indexed audiences, which use advanced indexing technology to identify and reach consumers based on their geographic attributes. These audiences help marketers discover, segment, and craft messaging for consumers without relying on sensitive personal information, enabling them to reach target audiences while maintaining data privacy confidently. What role does AI play in third-party data targeting? AI acts like an automated editor of your book, refining and finding new ways to put valuable third-party audiences and data to work without relying on segments linked to known or disparate identifiers. We’ve used AI and machine learning at Experian for decades to bring identity, insight, and generative intelligence together so brands and agencies can reach the right people, with relevance, respect, and simplicity. Why does a balanced, integrated approach that combines first-party, third-party, contextual, and geo-targeting data matter? The combined effects of integrating third-party, contextual, and geotargeting data (and the marketing tactics it underpins) with first-party data will drive your success. Think of how any good author crafts a story. Regardless of whether it’s fiction or non-fiction, they draw on both first-person experience and external research and sources to develop their plot. No single data source tells the full story. Integration allows marketers to understand audiences more completely and act with confidence. Pooling these inputs together moves you closer to your goal of understanding the whole story about your target customers. In fact, an almost even number of marketers plan to use contextual targeting (41%) and first-party data (40%) as their main targeting strategies, amid privacy laws and the loss of persistent advertisers. Primary data strategyPercent of marketers that plan to use this data strategyContextual targeting41%First-party data40% A brand with strong first-party insights can extend reach by layering in additional signals. For example, a nutrition brand that knows who purchases protein supplements can expand prospecting by combining: First-party signals Customers who purchase protein supplements Contextual signals Engagement with fitness blogs, healthy recipe content, or workout apps Geographic signals Consumers located in the Greater Philadelphia area By connecting these inputs, the brand can identify new health-conscious audiences with similar interests and behaviors. This approach supports privacy-safe targeting while improving engagement and performance. How can marketers build an integrated data strategy in 2026? An integrated data strategy reduces friction and supports scale. The right data partner offers a unified solution that helps unify data, activate audiences, and adapt as the ecosystem evolves. Here’s how: Organize data Create a clean, usable data foundation by eliminating fragmented silos. Experian’s solutions unify disparate data, enabling identity resolution and a single customer view. Create a complete profile Experian links a persistent offline core of personally identifiable information (PII) data with fresh digital signals, giving you a high-fidelity view of consumers to decorate with marketing data. This allows for improved customer understanding and personalized marketing that competitors struggle to replicate. Build addressable audience segments Create audiences using a mixture of signals, including first-party data, third-party behavioral, interest, and demographic data, as well as contextual signals. If you partner with Experian, you can use audiences built on our identity graph to guarantee accuracy, scale, and maximum addressability. Drive innovation Look for partners and platforms that prioritize innovation in finding new ways to reach target audiences across the ecosystem. You don’t want a vendor or a system that can’t keep pace and adapt with our rapidly evolving industry. Marketers who want to create and activate campaigns more efficiently and effectively in 2026 need an integrated approach that combines first-party, third-party, contextual, and geotargeting data. Streamlining data integration and activation positions brands and agencies for sustainable growth and stronger consumer relationships in a privacy-conscious marketplace. Build your next chapter on a connected data foundation As audience strategies evolve, connection and interoperability matter more than ever. Connect with our team to learn how Experian helps marketers unify data, identity, and activation across channels. About the author Scott Kozub VP, Product Management, Experian Scott Kozub is the Vice President of the Product Management team at Experian Marketing Services working across the entire product portfolio. He has over 20 years of product experience in the marketing and advertising space. He’s been with a few startups and spent many years at FICO and Oracle Data Cloud heavily focused on loyalty marketing and advertising technology. FAQs How should CMOs think about data as part of their 2026 audience strategy? In 2026, CMOs should prioritize and invest in data and targeting strategies that combine first-party, third-party, contextual, and geographic data to drive growth, improve efficiency, and strengthen customer relationships. Why is first-party data not sufficient on its own? First-party data is not sufficient on its own because first-party data defines known customers but limits reach and frequency. Growth depends on expanding beyond existing relationships. The ability to unify different data sources with accuracy, scale, and privacy at the forefront sits at the core of Experian’s business. We unify household, individual, device, demographic, behavioral, and first-party signals, along with contextual and geographic data points, to build a reliable view of consumers, even when specific signals are missing. This clarity helps you personalize, target, activate, and measure with confidence. How do different types of third-party data add depth to audience profiles? Third-party data expands understanding beyond known customers. Third-party data opens up new targeting tactics for advertisers, such as: – Location: Where people live, work, or spend large amounts of time- Health: A combination of demographics, behaviors, and health needs- Purchases: Using previous purchase behavior to identify the right audiences – Behavioral: How people engage with brands or how they use social media – Interest: Delivering ads based on interests, hobbies, or online activities- Psychographics: Shared characteristics like attitudes, lifestyles, and interests- Demographic: Age, gender, education, income, and religion In addition to targeting, third-party data also remains critical to AI models, which must train on both structured and unstructured data. At Experian, 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. What is data-informed contextual targeting? Data-informed contextual targeting connects audience attributes to the content environments people choose. It helps determine the setting of your story—where your characters spend their time. Experian’s Contextually-Indexed Audiences harness advanced machine learning technology to combine contextual signals (a tried–and-true targeting tactic) with third-party targeting to ensure marketers reach their target audiences on the content they tend to consume, regardless of environment or location. What is data-informed geotargeting? Data-informed geotargeting uses shared location patterns to support relevance at scale. Experian launched our Geo-Indexed audiences, which use advanced indexing technology to identify and reach consumers based on their geographic attributes. These audiences help marketers discover, segment, and craft messaging for consumers without relying on sensitive personal information, enabling them to reach target audiences while maintaining data privacy confidently. What role does AI play in third-party data targeting? In third-party data targeting, AI refines and finds new ways to put valuable third-party audiences and data to work without relying on segments linked to known or disparate identifiers. We’ve used AI and machine learning at Experian for decades to bring identity, insight, and generative intelligence together so brands and agencies can reach the right people, with relevance, respect, and simplicity. Latest posts
For years, marketers have worked around a familiar disconnect. Campaigns go live first. Measurement follows later. Insights arrive after audiences are reached, and budgets are committed. That gap has slowed decisions, blurred performance signals, and limited marketers’ ability to respond when it counts. In 2026, that model changes. Activation and measurement no longer operate as separate steps. They function as a single system, where insight informs action as campaigns unfold. Consistency across identity, data, and decision-making sits at the center of this shift, connecting the full campaign lifecycle from planning through outcomes. How is marketing measurement shifting from post-campaign reporting to in-flight intelligence in 2026? Marketing measurement in 2026 is moving from retrospective reporting to real-time input that shapes campaigns while they run. Instead of explaining performance after delivery, measurement now guides creative, audience, and channel decisions as verified outcomes appear. Historically, measurement worked like a post-mortem. Dashboards showed what happened after campaigns ended, or weeks after impressions were delivered. Those insights supported long-term planning but rarely influenced performance in the moment. That dynamic has changed. Today, marketers embed measurement directly into activation. Campaigns adapt while they run. Creative evolves based on engagement quality. Audience strategies adjust as verified outcomes come into view. Channel investments respond to performance signals, not assumptions. Connected ecosystems make this possible. Experian helps marketers plan, activate, and measure within a single framework by linking audiences, identity, and outcomes. When planning and performance live in the same environment, insight becomes actionable in the moment. Why is identity the connective layer between activation and measurement? Identity provides the consistent thread that links planning, activation, and outcomes into a unified system. Without it, marketers rely on proxy signals and disconnected views of performance. For years, fragmented identity frameworks made it difficult to connect media exposure to real-world outcomes. Without a consistent way to recognize audiences across planning, activation, and measurement, marketers relied on proxy metrics and modeled assumptions. That's changing as identity becomes interoperable across the ecosystem. Experian’s Digital and Offline Graphs help marketers onboard and resolve their data into a clean, connected foundation that supports everything that follows. From building audiences enriched with behavioral, demographic, and lifestyle insights, to activating those audiences across channels like connected TV (CTV), social, and programmatic through direct integrations with more than 200 platforms. When identity stays consistent from the first impression through final outcome, marketers gain a clearer view of what drives performance and where to act next. Our 2026 Digital trends and predictions report is available now and reveals five trends that will define 2026. From curation becoming the standard in programmatic to AI moving from hype to implementation, each trend reflects a shift toward more connected, data-driven marketing. The interplay between them will define how marketers will lead in 2026. Download How does closed-loop measurement become standard in 2026? Closed-loop measurement is becoming the default as activation and measurement come together. Marketers now tie exposure directly to verified business outcomes instead of relying on inferred signals. In partnership with MMGY Global, we helped Windstar Cruises connect digital impressions directly to bookings. The result was more than 6,500 verified bookings and $20 million in revenue tied back to campaign exposure. That translated to a 13:1 return on ad spend. Download the full case study here This level of accountability changes how marketers optimize. Instead of relying on clicks or inferred intent, teams can measure outcomes that reflect business impact. Store visits. Purchases. Site activity. These signals now guide decisions while campaigns are live. Through curated private marketplace deals and supply-path optimization, Experian also helps reduce cost, and improve reach and performance. With Experian and Audigent operating as one, marketers gain access to scalable, privacy-conscious data solutions that support both addressability and accountability across the supply chain. What should marketers plan for as activation and measurement connect in 2026? Marketing teams should prepare for an operating model built around continuous feedback, unified systems, and verified outcomes. This shift changes how success is defined and managed. Marketers should plan for: Always-on feedback loops Real-time signals guide creative, audience, and channel decisions while campaigns are in flight. Unified planning, activation, and outcome validation Integrated identity and audience frameworks allow marketers to trace value across every impression, not just the last click. Outcome-based performance signals Measurement will focus less on surface-level performance and more on true business impact, including sales, bookings, and long-term value. Greater use of first-party data Connected first-party data supports consistent activation and outcome validation across channels. Whether you're activating your own data or reaching new audiences, Experian connects every stage of the campaign. From early planners to last-minute buyers, we help you show up in the moments that matter and prove what is working. The takeaway Marketing's next chapter centers on connection. As data systems unify, activation and measurement operate as one. Insight flows directly into action. Decisions are guided by intelligence, not delayed reporting. With Experian, marketers plan, reach, and measure in a connected cycle. Every impression is measurable. Every audience is accurate. Every decision is powered by data ranked #1 in accuracy by Truthset. To explore this trend and the others shaping marketing in 2026, download our 2026 Digital trends and predictions report. Download Ready to connect with our team? About the author Ali Mack VP, 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 How is marketing measurement shifting from post-campaign reporting to in-flight intelligence in 2026? Marketing measurement in 2026 is moving from retrospective reporting to real-time input that shapes campaigns while they run. Instead of explaining performance after delivery, measurement now guides creative, audience, and channel decisions as verified outcomes appear. Connected ecosystems make this possible. Experian helps marketers plan, activate, and measure within a single framework by linking audiences, identity, and outcomes. When planning and performance live in the same environment, insight becomes actionable in the moment. Why is identity the connective layer between activation and measurement? Identity provides the consistent thread that links planning, activation, and outcomes into a unified system. Without it, marketers rely on proxy signals and disconnected views of performance. Experian’s Digital and Offline Graphs help marketers onboard and resolve their data into a clean, connected foundation that supports everything that follows. From building audiences enriched with behavioral, demographic, and lifestyle insights, to activating those audiences across channels like connected TV (CTV), social, and programmatic through direct integrations with more than 200 platforms. How does closed-loop measurement become standard in 2026? Closed-loop measurement is becoming the default as activation and measurement come together. Marketers now tie exposure directly to verified business outcomes instead of relying on inferred signals. In partnership with MMGY Global, we helped Windstar Cruises connect digital impressions directly to bookings. The result was more than 6,500 verified bookings and $20 million in revenue tied back to campaign exposure. That translated to a 13:1 return on ad spend. What should marketers plan for as activation and measurement connect in 2026? Marketers should plan for: always-on feedback loops, unified planning, activation, and outcome validation, outcome-based performance signals, and greater use of first-party data. Whether you're activating your own data or reaching new audiences, Experian connects every stage of the campaign. From early planners to last-minute buyers, we help you show up in the moments that matter and prove what is working. Latest posts
Claritas, known for advanced consumer segmentation, is bringing its premium audiences into Experian Data Marketplace. PRIZM® Premier, P$YCLE® Premier, ConneXions® Premier and CultureCode® audiences are now available, giving marketers access to more than 1,700 syndicated segments in a frictionless, privacy-compliant way. Marketers can move from planning to activation faster, with lifestyle, and financial audiences built for modern media. The value of these insights is clear: richer, behavior-driven audience intelligence that supports more relevant targeting across connected TV (CTV), digital, and linear. How Claritas audiences are built Claritas audiences are built from more than 10,000 predictive behavioral indicators, robust survey linkages, and household-level demographic data. These inputs create deterministic, privacy-safe signals that go beyond broad demographic proxies and help reveal consumer intent. That detail matters in CTV and programmatic environments. Marketers can activate pre-modeled segments tied to automotive ownership, financial behaviors, telecom preferences, and brand affinities. Three ways Claritas audience support omnichannel activation High-fidelity signals for more effective targeting Claritas uses deterministic, behavior-based indicators to add context around lifestyle, purchase patterns, financial posture and technology behaviors. Each segment includes Living Unit ID (LUID) counts, CPM transparency, and match-rate details. Broad reach across channels Many segments include 30M–50M+ active LUIDs, supporting broad reach without sacrificing audience clarity. Activate these audiences in omnichannel campaigns across the destinations that matter most, including CTV, programmatic display/video, paid social, and email, enabled through integrations with major demand side platforms (DSPs) and activation platforms. Privacy-first design Claritas data is built from consented, privacy-safe inputs and does not rely on cookies or exposed personally identifiable information (PII). This approach supports cookieless media, including CTV. Where Experian adds lift to audience activation Experian's data marketplace and our identity and governance tools help operationalize Claritas segments for activation: Enhanced addressability: Deterministic identity resolution maps Claritas signals to reachable, active audiences. It utilizes Experian identity graphs, which are rooted in verified data, spanning 126 million U.S. households, 250 million individuals, and over four billion active digital identifiers. Activation: Integrations with major DSPs and media platforms support fast deployment. Governance: Our controls support responsible data handling through the activation workflow, and ensure available audiences comply to all federal, state, and local consumer privacy regulations. Together, Claritas segmentation depth and our identity resolution support audience planning, activation, and measurement at scale. How marketers use Claritas audiences Automotive: Connect with owners and intentenders A luxury automotive brand can target “Cadillac owners” or “Likely Luxury Intenders” using Claritas behavioral automotive indicators. With more than 42 million available LUIDs for Cadillac owners, original equipment manufacturers (OEM) can support CTV campaigns, conquest strategies, and multicultural initiatives with more confidence. Financial services: Reach high-value households Using P$YCLE® Premier, a card issuer can target consumers who actively use travel reward cards or who fall into specific wealth tiers. These insights help tailor offers, personalize messaging, and reach consumers more likely to convert, supported by Claritas’ AI-driven optimization that can increase conversions by up to 30%. The advantage: Claritas depth plus Experian scale Claritas audiences in Experian’s data marketplace give marketers a direct path from insight to activation. Claritas brings behavioral intelligence and segmentation depth and we bring identity, scale, and governance. Together, you can plan, activate, and measure campaigns with stronger audience clarity from day one. Contact us to get started FAQs What are Claritas audiences in Experian’s data marketplace? Claritas audiences are syndicated consumer segments built from behavioral, lifestyle, financial, and demographic data. Through Experian’s data marketplace, marketers can activate more than 1,700 Claritas segments using privacy-compliant, deterministic signals. Where can marketers activate Claritas audiences? Marketers can activate Claritas audiences directly through Experian’s data marketplace across CTV, programmatic display, social, email, and linear. Integrations with major DSPs and Experian identity resolution support privacy-compliant activation at scale. How are Claritas audiences built? Claritas audiences are built from more than 10,000 predictive behavioral indicators, survey-based insights, and household-level demographics. How does Experian support Claritas audience activation? Experian supports activation through identity resolution, governance controls, and direct platform integrations. Claritas signals are mapped to reachable audiences using the Experian identity graph. Latest posts