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?
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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.
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