At A Glance
Experian and Index Exchange give media buyers a more connected and simplified way to put audience intelligence to work. Through Index Marketplaces, buyers can access ready-to-activate Experian Audiences or Curated Deals through existing buying workflows while gaining greater visibility into audience, inventory, and campaign performance.Key takeaways
- Index Marketplaces brings audience data closer to media supply by applying audience data on the sell side before the buyer’s DSP receives the bid opportunity.
- Media buyers can activate Experian data through ready-to-activate Experian Audiences or Experian Curated Deals.
- Buyers can combine Experian Audiences with contextual or attention signals based on their campaign goals.
- Experian Curated Deals package audience data and curated inventory into a single deal ID, simplifying setup and fee reconciliation.
- Impression-level reporting can help buyers examine audience selection, inventory, and campaign performance in greater detail and apply those learnings to future campaigns.
Media buyers often select an audience in one system, buy media in another, and reconcile the two after a campaign. Experian and Index Exchange have worked to close that gap. During a Cannes Lions conversation with Paul Zovighian, Vice President of Marketplaces at Index Exchange, we discussed how Index Marketplaces brings audience data closer to media supply and gives buyers more visibility into each activation.
Why fragmented activation creates extra work
US programmatic ad spending will top $200 billion in 2026, and automated buys now often transact through direct deals rather than the open exchange. Programmatic buying gives media buyers broad choice, but each new data source can add setup, maintenance, and reporting work. Buyers often select audience data in one system and buy media in another, making it hard to connect audience intent, inventory, and campaign performance. That creates extra work around a basic question: did the campaign reach the intended audience in the intended media environments, and how did it perform?
What buyers need
For buyers, a useful marketplace starts with three principles: flexibility, customization, and control. Buyers need the freedom to select and combine the options that match each campaign’s goal. Data providers need clear control over how their offerings appear. A fourth principle, interoperability, connects the first three by helping those offerings work across platforms and channels.
Index Marketplaces adheres to these principles by applying audience data on the sell side before the buyer’s demand-side platform (DSP) receives the bid opportunity. Buyers can then use the audience and supply signals through their existing buying workflow.
“Flexibility, customization, control. If you’ve got those three things together, you’re on a good path.”
Index ExchangePaul Zovighian, Vice President of Marketplaces
Designing Index Marketplaces with data providers
Experian has a hand in Index Marketplaces from the start. Index Exchange works with Experian on both ends of the platform: how providers configure and offer their data, and how partners discover, evaluate, and activate it.
Segment discovery and expanded segment attributes came out of that work. Together, they give buyers more information about each segment, so it’s easier to find the data that fits a campaign’s goal. Once a provider’s offering is in Index Marketplaces, media buyers and Marketplace partners can reach it through the programmatic workflows they already use.
“We designed the platform from day one with our partners like Experian. The platform can only succeed if we’re able to help other companies push the envelope on their solutions.”
Index ExchangePaul Zovighian, VP of Marketplaces
Two ways to activate Experian Audiences through Index Marketplaces
Media buyers can activate Experian data through Index Marketplaces in two ways, based on the level of customization they need.
How buyers can combine signals around a campaign goal
Media buyers can start with a campaign goal, then select the audience, contextual, or attention signals that support it. A buyer could pair an Experian Audience with a contextual or attention signal through Index Marketplaces, creating a more customized approach to identifying the impressions that matter for a campaign.
Index Marketplaces gives buyers a consistent activation workflow across supported channels, including web display and video, mobile app, native, and connected TV.
“It’s the sum of the ingredients that are going to really matter. It’s not one solution in a vacuum.”
Index ExchangePaul Zovighian, Vice President of Marketplaces
The reporting value: Impression-level visibility
Paul’s standard is blunt: it’s 2026, and aggregate reporting should be the floor, not the ceiling. Impression-level (or log-level) data records what happened on each impression, rather than summarizing at the campaign or channel level. Impression-level visibility can help media buyers examine audience selection, inventory, and campaign performance in greater detail.
The activation record can connect Experian audience data with Index supply, reducing reconciliation work across separate systems.
Marketers still decide whether a campaign met its goal. Impression-level reporting adds a feedback loop: assess, refine, adapt, and carry what you learned into the next campaign. Each activation becomes a stronger foundation for the next, for human teams and AI-driven optimization alike.
“Log-level detail should be an expectation. You don’t need to use it, but if you want it, you should be able to get it. It’s getting a receipt for every transaction.”
Index ExchangePaul Zovighian, Vice President of Marketplaces
What this means for your next campaign
If you’re evaluating where and how to activate audience data, start with four questions:
Experian Audiences, or Curated Deals options, can give media buyers a more connected path from audience selection to activation through Index Marketplaces. Ready to see what your audiences can do on the sell-side?
Connect with us
About our expert
Paul Zovighian, VP of Marketplaces, Index Exchange
Paul brings more than a decade of industry experience spanning analytics, optimization, and corporate development. Now VP, Marketplaces, he leads the commercial activation of Index’s sell-side decisioning platform, Index Marketplaces.
FAQs
Media buyers can activate Experian data through Index Marketplaces using ready-to-activate Experian Audiences, or Experian Curated Deals. Buyers can access these options through their existing buying workflow based on the level of customization they need.
Experian Curated Deals combine Experian Audiences with curated inventory in a single deal ID that buyers can access through Index Marketplaces. This approach packages data and inventory in one activation, simplifying setup and fee reconciliation.
Yes. Media buyers can pair an Experian Audience with contextual or attention signals through Index Marketplaces. Buyers can start with a campaign goal and select the audience, contextual, or attention signals that support it.
Log-level data records what happened on each impression rather than summarizing results at the campaign or channel level. This reporting can help media buyers examine audience selection, inventory, and campaign performance in greater detail.
Experian Audiences, or Curated Deals options give media buyers a more connected path from audience selection to activation through Index Marketplaces. The activation record can connect Experian audience data with Index supply, reducing reconciliation work across separate systems.
Latest posts
Addressable TV has been through a transformation in the past year. Streaming content has become the most coveted space for creators and advertisers with the rise of new apps and platforms; but the influx of stay-at-home orders around the country have shifted television viewership as we know it, and streaming apps are popping up in droves to take advantage. So, how can you? With no shortage of opportunities to advertise on addressable TV and CTV, how does it fit into the media mix? And furthermore, how can you attribute this household-level device into your overall strategy? Tying it all together Layering addressable TV within digital ad campaigns couldn’t be easier today — but applying the right targeting and cadence between all of your digital efforts; and tying them together in attribution takes the right kind of data. Marketers can use CTV identifiers coupled with other device identifiers available in The Tapad Graph to not only target impressions but also map addressable TVs within the consumer journey; and unify strategies between household decision makers to better personalize messaging. 1 The Trade Desk Q2 2020 Earnings Call Transcript, August 2020; 2 iSpot Report, via Deadline, July 2020; 3 Flixed.io, January 2020 Contact us today
For the past several years ad-tech defined the value of identity at the individual level; made possible by the evolution of data, technology and machine-learning. But, earlier this year COVID-19 set in motion many shifts in consumer digital behavior. The more we’ve been working and learning from home, using devices that are shared amongst an entire household, the more apparent it is that marketers need to shift their strategies to align with these changes. Did you know the average household owns eleven or more connected devices? And the longer we’ve been at home, the more these devices are shared by multiple individuals. If you’re looking for a few simple ways to evolve from an individual focused strategy to a household strategy, here’s a good place to start: Audience segmentation Traditionally, audiences are built with a narrow focus on a single user, and what known attributes about that individual or their brand engagement can be leveraged for a targeting strategy. Now that screens are being shared between multiple users in a home, how can you be sure you’re identifying them correctly, and thus, segmenting them in the right buckets for targeting? The key lies in the ability to connect those points through identity resolution. Using ad exposure from household level devices, followed by a second engagement from an individual within that household can indicate a user is a better candidate for purchase or conversion than others. So before you build audiences for targeting, you can qualify them at the household level for segmentation with more confidence. Example: An auto advertiser uses audience segments from a third party provider such as ‘auto intenders’ to target individuals with new pricing offers. They would continue retargeting these users, unaware that some are connected in the same household, and thus are probably not all in the market to actually get a new car. By bucketing users that share a common household device within this third party segment, they can hone in on which individuals are actually in-market for a car and evolve their strategy to be more effective. Targeting Retargeting, frequency capping and sequential messaging have always been meant for an individual user — the more they’re exposed to your brand in a personalized way, the more likely they are to take the desired action. But, have you considered that multiple users could have a shared initial exposure to your brand? Today, you can target a household of potential consumers on a shared device like a CTV, and employ those retargeting strategies based on that common initial exposure. Starting at the household level, means you can compare movement through the funnel between different individuals in that household, and tailor your targeting accordingly. Perhaps you realize only one person in that household will convert and you tailor messaging to them more frequently, while confidently suppressing the other individuals. Example: a CPG brand uses OTT advertising, but doesn’t incorporate it within their sequential strategy, because they consider it just a ‘brand awareness’ opportunity. By using OTT more strategically as a household level engagement, it can reveal which individuals within a household are more favorable towards a brand further down the funnel. So, you can spend impressions targeting those users, rather than wasting impressions on multiple individuals within the household. Measurement Measurement and attribution are imperative to understanding the path to purchase and making strategies more efficient over time. Often that efficiency involves adding or removing devices and channels from a targeting strategy based on their contribution to an action or conversion by an individual. This year we’re seeing addressable TV devices explode in use, which are shared at the household level. Even desktop computers are being used by more people in the home due to COVID-19. So, assuming a linear path of attribution by an individual is missing the full picture. Identity resolution can help you understand where messaging was more effective for some users in the household than others, and leverage that insight to continue more effective strategies in the future. Example: Without a household view, a direct-to-consumer brand would assume all interactions from one device would be coming from a single individual, and that could create a higher cost-per analysis. By incorporating the household level devices into attribution models, they can find efficiencies between touch points of multiple users, and learn how those split off into individual paths to conversion. Not only can this DTC create a more effective model, but they can use that model to create cost efficiencies in the future. Contact us today
With the long-term effects to the economy unknown, many consumers are feeling the financial impact, while others are looking for opportunities, resulting in a transformational shift in spending. Some brands are experiencing decreased or paused marketing budgets, and you may be trepidatious about making the right decisions in your efforts to grow share of wallet. Recent events have been an impetus for change and we’re seeing brands make modifications to traditional marketing strategies. Some are developing innovative technologies and utilizing new sources of data and analytics. As we look at how these changes impact marketing results, we see the gap grow between those brands who are equipped to pivot and implement new strategies quickly, versus those who are not. So what steps can your organization implement now to make the smartest choices for both your customers and your business to secure more share of wallet? Here are four ideas to accelerate the success of your next financial marketing campaign: 1. Meet your customers wherever they are: Digital-first strategies have never been more relevant than they are right now. While consumers have fully embraced online engagement, marketers are even more focused on reaching high-value segments in the channels they utilize. By using an informed, data-driven strategy that includes preferred marketing communication channels and decision-making styles, engagement increases across those channels your target audience frequents the most. For example, are they heavy social media users? Do they prefer streaming TV? Or do they tend to rely on financial advice vs. performing their own research? To drive take rates, your audience must be exposed to a tailored message, in the right channel, and possibly multiple times. 2. Use messaging that resonates: As consumers refocus priorities, their expectations of brands with whom they do business are ever-increasing. Reflecting an understanding of the current needs and interests of your customers and prospects is an undertone that can only help strengthen their view of your brand. Consumer behavior has changed and is unlikely to revert to what was, so you want to be relevant, but you also do not want to be seen as ‘tone deaf’. As a result, consider revising your segmentation strategy to leverage predictive insights, such as household economic indicators, financial behaviors, lifestyle propensities and interests to help shape your message into one that truly makes an impact. 3. Prove the worth of your campaign: New consumer journeys are being formulated and showing ROI is imperative as your marketing budget is scrutinized. Having the right industry-relevant metrics and reports to analyze and share with leadership are key. Demonstrate that your campaigns are contributing to bottom-line success—and justify future campaigns—by using data-driven measurement insights collected across multiple reads and countless touchpoints. Marketing budgets are being scrutinized now more than ever, so showing ROI is critical. Having the right metrics and reports to analyze and share with leadership are key. 4. Follow government regulations—leverage Fair Lending-friendly audiences: Whether you’re cross-selling or prospecting, now is the time to identify the right audiences with rich data insights to not only execute impactful campaigns but adhere to government regulations that protect consumers and your organization. Trusting that the data you are activating follows Fair Lending Laws, including the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (“ECOA”) and the Fair Housing Act (“FHA”) is crucial. The Federal ECOA prohibits creditors from discriminating against credit applicants on the basis of several prohibited factors. Developing people-based segments that are not derived using these factors positions you to follow these regulations. Check out our previous blog post about Fair Lending-friendly audiences here. As you transition to new operating models, access to current and accurate consumer data can provide confidence in campaign potential, help you avoid business risk, enable you to respond to market changes and make better decisions. Experian can help you implement these strategies and put your brand unique position for growth. From start to finish, we provide the marketing solutions you need to plan, build and execute successful, Fair Lending-friendly campaigns to cross-sell to existing customers and acquire new customers. *Experian Fair Lending-friendly audiences do not constitute legal advice or otherwise assure compliance with the FHA, ECOA, or any other applicable laws. It’s recommended to seek legal advice with respect to the use of data in connection with lending decisions or application and compliance with applicable laws. Contact us today