Originally published in Adweek
Key takeaways
- 56% of U.S. media buyers plan to increase commerce media spend this year, but 55% cite missing cross-network measurement standards.
- New-to-brand definitions, lookback windows, and attribution rules differ by network, so results across networks can’t be compared directly.
- Off-site commerce media is growing twice as fast as on-site, carrying purchase signal away from the retail environment that created it.
- A shared identity layer lets brands recognize the same consumer across every network, and Experian’s independence from demand-side platforms (DSPs) and supply paths keeps that layer neutral.
Commerce media keeps expanding, and brands are running campaigns across more networks than ever. Most still can’t say which network performed better.
More media networks haven’t produced a more complete view
Investment keeps climbing, and 56% of U.S. media buyers plan to increase commerce media network spending this year, often by reallocating from social, display, and search budgets. Nearly half of advertisers, 47.5%, now fund those campaigns from two or three separate budgets.
Every network in that mix brings its own identity system, audience definitions, and measurement approach. Brands add the fourth or fifth network expecting a fuller picture of performance. Instead, they get more numbers that no one designed to sit next to each other.
I don’t think commerce media has a data problem. Every network has audience data and purchase data. Consistency across them is what nobody has built yet.
The inconsistency lives in the definitions
Take new-to-brand, the metric meant to separate new customers from repeat buyers. It means different things at different networks. Lookback windows differ. Some definitions apply at the brand level, others at the product line. Some count in-store purchases, others count only digital. View-through credit varies across display, video, and connected TV (CTV). Attribution windows vary by partner and by format.
Audience portability compounds it. Retailer audiences often can’t move across platforms, so teams rebuild the same strategy in several systems and hope the definitions roughly align.
Over half of advertisers, 55%, name the lack of cross-network measurement standards as a top challenge. A campaign can look stronger on one network than another for no reason other than a different reporting rule. You can’t move budget on numbers that don’t compare or show incremental lift, and yet most teams are trying to.
Off-site growth makes this harder to ignore
On-site inventory is approaching its ceiling. Sponsored results now appear on 99% of product search pages at Amazon and Walmart, and ad density has reached as high as 50% on key retail search pages. Off-site spending is growing at twice the rate of on-site.
Off-site carries commerce signal away from the environment that created it. Every handoff is a point where the audience definition, the match rate, and the measurement logic have to hold. These are solvable problems, and they show up in the same form at every handoff, which makes them worth solving once instead of campaign by campaign. Fragmentation that stayed manageable inside a retailer’s own properties becomes something to design for the moment the signal travels.
Interoperability starts with a shared identity layer
Brands and networks need a common way to recognize the same consumer wherever a campaign runs. That layer has to draw on retailer, brand, and campaign signals together, and it needs consistent definitions from one network to the next. Get that right and performance sits on common ground, even with every network’s particular reporting rules.
That layer matters more as AI takes over more of the optimization. Models inherit whatever inconsistency sits in the data beneath them, so audience definitions that shift from one network to the next degrade every decision that follows. Better models won’t fix a fragmented identity layer, but they will scale its errors faster. Networks can get ahead of this by settling the identity layer first, standardizing audience definitions so they hold on-site and off-site and give the models downstream something dependable to learn from.
Signal expansion belongs in the same conversation. First-party data reflects the customers who logged in, joined the loyalty program, or completed a transaction. Irregular buyers, emerging segments, and high-value prospects who are actively in-market show up faintly or not at all in that view, even though signal about them exists elsewhere in the ecosystem. A shared identity layer that connects to a marketplace of data providers closes part of that gap, and it does so without asking any network to hand over raw records.
This is also what opens commerce media to brands that will never own a media network. Most companies sitting on valuable first-party data don’t have the traffic or the assortment to build what Amazon and Walmart built, and they don’t need to. Combining signal with trusted partners produces audiences larger and more valuable than any one of those brands holds alone. That’s how a brand participates in commerce media without becoming a media company.
Networks need infrastructure, and neutrality decides whose
A mid-sized commerce media network runs into the same ceiling from the other direction. Owned inventory has a limit, and so does owned data. Growing past both means off-site reach, enriched audiences, and measurement that holds up next to the largest players, and building all of that in-house isn’t realistic for most networks. What they need is infrastructure that supports expansion without giving up control of the customer relationship.
That makes the choice of whose infrastructure a consequential one. Brands and networks should look hard at the commercial position of any partner they put at the center of identity and measurement. A partner with interests in a specific demand-side platform (DSP), supply path, or set of agency relationships gains visibility into every deal that moves through it, and that visibility shapes incentives over time. Networks are right to weigh it carefully.
Experian competes in none of those layers. Our position strengthens when the ecosystem stays open and brands keep the freedom to work across partners, platforms, and evolving technologies. Independence is what makes shared infrastructure possible.
Consistency is the constraint on the next round of growth
Commerce media maturity trails its ambition. 42% of teams believe they have operationalized commerce media, while only 13% qualify as advanced against leadership, technology, measurement, and operations.
Closing that gap depends on identity discipline more than network count. A brand that recognizes the same consumer across every network it buys can compare results, move budget with confidence, and hold every partner to one standard. Without that, each new network adds spend and subtracts clarity.
Consistency is what turns commerce media from a set of separate programs into something a brand can actually manage.
About the author
Kevin Dunn
Chief Revenue Officer, Experian
Kevin Dunn joins Experian Marketing Services with more than 20 years of leadership experience across marketing and advertising technology, most recently serving as Senior Vice President of Brands and Agencies at LiveRamp. In that role, he led growth across retail, CPG, travel, hospitality, financial services, and healthcare, overseeing new business, account expansion, and channel partnerships.
Kevin is known for building cohesive, accountable teams and leading with optimism, clarity, and a strong sense of shared purpose. His leadership philosophy centers on empowering people, driving positive outcomes for clients and fostering a culture where teams can grow, take smart risks, and succeed together.
Latest posts
Leading data insights and cross-device-powered services bridge mobile insights with connectivity to drive real-time consumer intelligence NEW YORK, May 17, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — Tapad, now a part of Experian, the leader in cross-device marketing technology, has partnered with Resonate, a leading provider of real-time consumer intelligence and activation SaaS solutions. Through this partnership, Resonate will leverage the Tapad Device Graph™ to capture a deeper understanding of its mobile app audiences and provide brands with a more direct connection to their intended consumers. The integration of Resonate and Tapad’s technologies equips mobile app brands with insights into their consumers’ values, beliefs, motivations and purchase drivers. As a result, mobile app brands will better understand how to tailor messaging, drive advertising engagement, increase lift in performance across mobile consumers and ultimately boost revenue and returns. Utilizing the advanced data that the Tapad Device Graph™ provides, Resonate will create an Identity Service that connects mobile IDs to Resonate IDs for reporting insights both in-platform and out. To date, Tapad and Resonate have already driven incremental device connections for nearly 60 percent of customer profiles with an amplification rate of more than 120 percent, resulting in more than 400 million net new IDs within Resonate’s user base. “After testing multiple partners over the course of 12 months, it was clear that Tapad was the partner for us, given their ability to provide cross-device connectivity for more than one billion unique IDs against our consumer base,” said Joel Pulliam, SVP and chief product officer at Resonate. “In addition, Resonate customers have an inherent trust in Tapad’s mix of probabilistic and deterministic mobile connectivity data to provide a unified understanding of their mobile audiences.” “Partnering with Resonate will not only provide its brands with a more in-depth and actionable understanding of its consumers, but it will also allow our clients to connect with mobile consumers on a deeper level,” said Pierre Martensson, SVP and GM of Tapad’s global data division. “Resonate is not just answering the question of ‘how’ consumers are making purchases, but also tackling the more difficult question of ‘why’ they make certain buying decisions to best inform mobile brands about their audiences.” Contact us today
Partnership leverages industry-leading Tapad Device Graph™ for more effective video marketing across all connected devices NEW YORK, April 11, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — Tapad, a part of Experian, the leading provider of privacy-safe, cross-device marketing technology solutions, has announced its partnership with Innovid, the world’s leading video marketing platform. This integration enables Innovid to bring cross-device personalization and a more unified viewer experience to its video marketing clients including Bank of America, L’Oréal, Microsoft and Procter & Gamble. Innovid’s proprietary technology is the only platform optimized for video, enabling marketers to thrive in an ever-changing digital television landscape. Since its launch last year, Innovid’s Marketing Cloud Suite has helped marketers increase message relevance and the opportunity to drive conversions, retention and acquisition through video personalization. By leveraging the Tapad Device GraphTM, Innovid’s marketers can now benefit from the ability to drive consistent, personalized user experiences across all devices, creating more impactful connections with consumers and increasing ROI. “Personalization is a must for every data-driven marketer and really needs to happen across all devices to ensure a unified customer journey,” says Ronnie Lavi, SVP of product at Innovid. “At Innovid, we recognize one size does not fit all when it comes to video. As an open platform, we are always looking to add best-of-breed capabilities through integrations and partnerships, and we’ve chosen Tapad because of its superior cross-device expertise.” “Innovid has long paved the way for effective personalization in the video marketing space,” says Pierre Martensson, GM of Tapad’s data division. “As video continues to gain popularity across digital formats, we’re excited to see how our technology empowers Innovid to bring that renowned personalization to more customers across all of their devices.” Contact us today
Tracey Scheppach’s new marketing and media practice leverages Tapad’s device-level data to help clients achieve “marketing nirvana” NEW YORK and CHICAGO, April 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — Today, Tapad, now part of Experian, is the leading provider of unified, cross-screen marketing technology solutions, and Matter More, a next generation marketing and media practice with deep experience in the advanced TV space, announced a strategic partnership to bring together world class digital data and audience development expertise to help marketers improve how they connect with consumers. As consumer behavior continues to expand across multiple devices, today’s marketers need robust, comprehensive data solutions to accurately engage the people who matter most to their brands. At the same time, the TV industry has reached an advertising tipping point, capitalizing on the power of device-level data. “Achieving unduplicated reach and frequency across all channels with true addressability, and the ability to measure outcomes, is marketing nirvana,” says Tracey Scheppach, CEO and co-founder of Matter More, a new agency built for the modern age. “The best opportunity to deliver ‘marketing nirvana,’ at scale, is by partnering with Tapad and using their world-class Device Graph to help our clients simply matter more to the people they care about most.” “By leveraging our access to rich TV data, we can now measure the actual performance of media across channels,” says Marshall Wong, SVP, TV for Tapad. Tapad’s proprietary Device Graph™ unifies consumer behavior data across all devices, uncovering the interests, passions and behaviors of the audiences who matter most. As with any data solution, privacy, transparency and trust are crucial to bringing marketers a solid offering that delivers results. “Tapad is excited to partner with Matter More to tap into their knowledge base and experience working with some of the largest brands on TV today,” says Kate O’Loughlin, SVP and GM of Tapad’s media division. “The time has come to truly unleash the power of device-level data at scale.” Contact us today