A few weeks ago, Experian and OpenX hosted a supply-side think tank at our New York City office. Over 70 industry leaders met to talk about targeting in a cookieless future and how we can reach consumers in intentional ways.
Publishers and supply-side partners shared what challenges they face, what solutions they’re considering, and what the future holds once the third-party cookie begins to deprecate in 2024. In this blog post, we’ll cover the top challenges, cookieless solutions, and actionable strategies we discussed at the event that can help publishers, their partners, and agencies make informed decisions about how to navigate tomorrow’s digital ecosystem.
Four main challenges
Four main challenges were discussed at the event:
First-party data monetization
Publishers possess a wealth of first-party data, but collecting and centralizing this information can be difficult for actionable insights. Streamlining data centralization and organizing first-party data is crucial for effective decision-making. Even with a wealth of first-party data, it’s important to be aware of any blind spots in your data and enrich those gaps with data partners rooted in offline connections.
“We appreciate the opportunity to participate in the supply-side think tank led by OpenX and Experian, two industry leaders in navigating a cookieless future. We’re excited to collaborate with them on testing privacy sandbox APIs, identity resolution products, and audience development tools to enhance creator monetization and support an open internet amidst rapid technological and regulatory shifts.”
Patrick McCann, SVP, Research, Raptive
Lack of authenticated data and persistent IDs
The deprecation of third-party cookies means there will be a shortage of authenticated user data and persistent identifiers. Without this information, targeting and personalization become more challenging. Participants discussed the need to find alternative ways to gather and use personal data responsibly. It’s time to start evaluating data partners who have accurate, multi-source compiled, privacy-compliant data with the dedication to reach and recency.
Fragmentation and scale with alternative IDs currently in the market
The multitude of alternative identifiers in the market poses a challenge for publishers. Each of these identifiers comes with its own set of rules and integration processes, leading to fragmentation and complexity. Publishers must find ways to navigate this landscape. Look to ID agnostic partners who provide a way to access multiple IDs at scale.
“The industry needs a more streamlined standard to integrate alternative IDs, given the ongoing challenges of third-party cookie deprecation, measurement, and clean rooms. This burden falls heavily on product and engineering teams, who must prioritize and address these issues one at a time.”
Ryan Boh, Head of Identity, Lockr
Time
Cookie deprecation is almost here. It is crucial to organize your legal, engineering, and product resources, and align internal go-to-market strategies. Establish partnerships that work with your team to follow these timelines and help build phased or cohesive strategies to prepare for a path to monetization. It is imperative to establish a sense of urgency and not wait for others to take the lead. Start testing now to determine if your infrastructure is ready and capable. Many partners who attended the think tank offered insights on how they’ve been tackling challenges to help their industry peers.
Solutions and action plans for a cookieless future
Participants discussed ways they are starting to prepare for a cookieless future and other approaches on their roadmaps:
Work with data partners heavily rooted in offline data across the ecosystem
Enriching your first-party data with partners who rely on offline IDs can help bridge gaps in your audience knowledge. This approach allows you to build a more complete audience profile while third-party cookies are still operational.
Experian is rooted in deterministic offline data and has decades of experience managing it safely. We have insights on over 250 million U.S. consumers and 126 million U.S. households. With our digital technology assets, we bring in 4 billion devices and 1 trillion device signals to definitively connect offline records to online identifiers. With Experian identity widespread adoption throughout the industry, we’re able to provide a common language for us all to collaborate. Experian identity organizes people into households, links their digital devices and IDs to them, enriches their identity with behavioral attributes, and then makes this data actionable in any environment, all while maintaining consumer privacy and data regulations.
“Experian’s supply-side think tank provided a platform for publishers and AdTech companies to discuss the challenges posed by cookie deprecation, privacy regulation updates, and identity restrictions. It highlighted the need for AdTech companies to assist publishers in addressing anonymous users without requiring a value exchange — fostering a mutually beneficial and privacy-compliant open web solution.”
Anthony Caccioppoli, Head of AdTech & Solutions, Insider
Develop your own persistent ID
Creating and maintaining a proprietary persistent ID can be a valuable cookieless solution. It provides control and independence in the new environment post cookie, giving publishers the ability to maintain a consistent user profile.
Use your data to expand contextual targeting opportunities
Contextual targeting involves placing ads based on the content of the web page rather than user data. In the absence of cookies, this strategy can prove effective in reaching relevant audiences.
“The masking or deprecation of IP addresses will eventually impact the availability of addressable IDs in non-authenticated web environments. In addition to ensuring maximum resiliency of our Graph and increasing support for authentication-based IDs, we are also investing in research and development around the use of other signals, such as contextual data, to maintain behavioral targeting inside non-authenticated environments. We will be sharing our findings and future plans in this space in the coming months.”
Budi Tanzi, VP, Product, Experian
Facilitate a knowledge exchange
Reach out to your network to find out what others are testing and what’s working. Start collaborating with agencies and brands across the buy-side to meet their needs.
“The collaborative spirit displayed by our partners constantly inspires me. Listening to the obstacles our industry faces allows this community to build strong relationships, create action plans, and deliver true value.”
Carly Allcorn, Account Executive, Publisher & Supply-Side Partnerships, Experian
Invest in an identity graph
Invest in an identity graph provider to sync first-party cookies and addressable IDs. This ensures that your data remains accessible and actionable in a cookieless world.
“Many participants at our think tank with Experian expressed the need to find an identity solution while also exploring other ways they can start to address cookie deprecation while maintaining business as usual.”
Callie Askenas, Director of Publisher Development, OpenX
How Experian and OpenX can help
Graph from Experian captures all available digital identifiers in real-time and resolves them back to individuals and households. We’re signal agnostic, continuously expand the IDs we support, and futureproof identity resolution through a combination of deterministic, probabilistic, and cookieless identifiers.
Experian is a key player in OpenX’s OpenAudience solution and helps to power many of their data segments as well as their identity graph. While OpenX collaborates with a variety of providers and operates a fully interoperable platform, Experian remains valuable to the core technology within OpenX’s supply-side platform (SSP).
Experian can help you prepare for the cookieless future
It’s clear that the cookieless future poses some unique challenges for publishers, but there are solutions. Publishers and their supply-side partners can come up with strategies to target consumers in intentional ways by continually testing multiple identifiers and cookieless solutions, developing their own persistent ID, creating velvet rope content, and returning to contextual targeting. Collectively, these actionable strategies can help ensure that publishers have a more successful transition into a cookieless future.
Experian has been preparing for signal loss for quite some time and we continue to make substantial investments to ensure our resiliency and the resiliency of our customers. We continue to diversify our signal creating profiles with more persistent identifiers which allows us to pair authentication-based universal identifiers such as UID2 into our Graph seamlessly.
Experian is ready and we are here to navigate the future of privacy together.
To find out more about how Experian can help you prepare for the cookieless future, get in touch with a member of our team today.
Get ready for the cookieless future with Experian
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In our Ask the Expert Series, we interview leaders from our partner organizations who are helping lead their brands to new heights in AdTech. Today’s interview is with Eric Shiffman, VP of Product Marketing at Yieldmo. Here are five key takeaways from Eric’s insights: Tailored campaigns with Experian data: Yieldmo integrates Experian’s trusted identity and audience data to deliver creative campaigns tailored to specific audiences, ensuring more meaningful engagement. Omnichannel activation made easy: Experian’s data marketplace helps Yieldmo expand its reach across display, mobile, and CTV, creating seamless cross-channel advertising strategies. Advanced targeting and insights: The combination of Yieldmo’s attention signals and Experian’s identity solutions allows advertisers to pinpoint audiences with precision and confidence. Driving results in key verticals: Retail, CPG, and automotive campaigns use Experian data on Yieldmo’s platform to achieve improved personalization, targeting accuracy, and measurable outcomes. Scalable and privacy-conscious advertising: Yieldmo’s partnership with Experian ensures scalable solutions that balance advanced targeting with privacy-focused practices, benefiting advertisers across all industries. About Yieldmo Yieldmo often describes itself as ‘the creative and media results company,’ using a predictive, provocative, and proven approach. Could you give us a brief overview of how this vision shaped the company and how you differentiate yourselves in ad tech? Yieldmo was built on the belief that every ad experience should be as engaging and human centered as the content around it. By merging creative excellence with advanced technology and AI, we enable advertisers to deliver custom ad formats that spark emotion and inspire action. Our proprietary attention signals and predictive format selection allow brands to optimize for outcomes before impressions are served. This approach, combined with privacy-safe inventory curation, ensures that our solutions stand out in their ability to deliver both creativity and results. Creative and inventory performance You’re known for delivering premium experiences across top-tier publishers. What strategies or innovations does Yieldmo employ to boost creative performance, increase engagement, and optimize inventory for your partners? At Yieldmo, we emphasize the fusion of creative and media. We utilize predictive AI and a vast dataset to generate, customize, and match creatives with the right audiences and page contexts, enabling proven performance and learnings. On the supply side, we elevate publisher inventory by aligning high-quality ads with relevant content in innovative, non-intrusive creative formats. This dual focus ensures that every impression is primed for engagement, delivering tangible value to advertisers and optimal monetization for publishers. Partnership with Experian As a partner of Experian, how do our identity and audience data complement Yieldmo’s platform, and why do you see this collaboration particularly beneficial for the broader advertising industry? Experian’s robust identity and audience data strengthen Yieldmo’s ability to serve precisely tailored creative experiences. By integrating Experian’s insights with our proprietary attention signals and AI-driven predictive systems, we can optimize audience targeting and engagement strategies. This partnership represents the advancement of outcome-driven advertising while giving brands the confidence of reaching the right consumers in meaningful ways. Interest in Experian's data marketplace Experian recently introduced a new data marketplace aimed at simplifying data partner audience activation across display, mobile, and CTV. Which elements of this offering are most exciting from your perspective, and how do you anticipate it shaping Yieldmo’s solutions? The unified approach of Experian’s data marketplace to streamline audience activation aligns seamlessly with Yieldmo’s vision of delivering data-driven creative optimization. The ability to activate comprehensive data sets across multiple channels expands our omnichannel solutions, bringing precision and scalability to advertisers. Lately, we have focused resources on delivering thoughtful, cross-channel creative experiences, so aligning audiences to those is a logical extension. Verticals using third-party data From your experience, which verticals or industries are most likely to activate third-party data campaigns on Yieldmo’s platform, and have you observed any emerging trends in how advertisers use data from Experian or other providers? The retail, CPG, and automotive industries have been leading adopters of third-party data, using it to fine-tune targeting and personalize their messaging. Recently, we’ve noticed a shift toward bringing more post campaign measurement insights to the supply side–brand lift, foot traffic, conversion–for better optimization, whereas historically this valuable dataset was trapped in buy-side platforms. Data utilization and success stories Could you share how Yieldmo’s data-driven approach has evolved and any standout success stories that highlight your platform’s impact and value to partners? Yieldmo has always prioritized data to inform creative decisioning, from predictive ad placements to real-time optimization. In this award-winning Humane Society case study, we utilized media curation and predictive creative to drive a >170% CTR increase, 5x the campaign benchmark, leading to more page visits and donations. Thanks for the interview. Any recommendations for our readers if they want to learn more? To learn more about our solutions and partnership opportunities, visit the Yieldmo website or contact your Experian account representative to schedule your free match test. Contact us About our expert Eric Shiffman, Vice President of Product Marketing, Yieldmo Eric Shiffman is a product marketing leader with extensive experience in advertising technology. At Yieldmo, he drives strategies that blend AI, creative optimization, and privacy-conscious solutions to deliver measurable creative and media results. Eric translates complex technologies into actionable messaging, positioning, and insights, and evangelizing products and solutions. His expertise spans creative optimization, data-driven advertising, CTV, and audience solutions. Latest posts
Originally appeared in Streaming Media Magazine Navigating today’s fragmented, privacy-conscious media landscape is a bit like stepping into a dense jungle. The buy-side—marketers, agencies, and demand-side platforms (DSPs)—must find their way through signal loss, measurement challenges, and evolving consumer expectations. But this isn’t just a challenge; it’s a strategic opportunity. Let’s dive into how buy-side players can use Experian’s advanced data and identity solutions to be their guide through the jungle and emerge as winners. Marketers: Maintaining personalization and measurement across channels Marketers are navigating an increasingly fragmented media jungle, where the deprecation of signals like cookies, mobile ad IDs (MAIDs), and IP addresses makes finding and understanding audiences feel like guesswork. To chart a clear path, marketers need a reliable compass—and identity resolution provides exactly that. A strong identity provider, grounded in offline data like names, addresses, phone numbers, and emails, acts as a guide through the chaos. By connecting offline signals with digital identifiers in a privacy-first manner, marketers can uncover the relationships between households and devices, then enrich those profiles with valuable marketing data. With a complete view of your customers, you gain deeper insights and can seamlessly reach the right audience across channels—even as signals evolve. It’s a marketer’s North Star—constant, dependable, and always pointing you in the right direction. How Experian can help Imagine a financial services brand aiming to connect with high-net-worth individuals across today’s fragmented media world. They’ve excelled on social and search but now want to dive into connected TV (CTV) and other emerging channels. Enter Experian’s Digital Graph. By seamlessly connecting digital identifiers like MAIDs, CTV IDs and hashed emails (HEMs), our graph becomes the bridge that unifies their audience across every channel. Suddenly, the same audience that saw their ad on social during lunch is now watching a personalized spot on CTV that evening, all thanks to Experian. The result? A cohesive campaign that delivers hyper-relevant messages, stronger engagement, and measurable success. With Experian, fragmentation becomes connection, and personalization stays powerful across the entire media landscape. Agencies: Strategic partners in a fragmented world Agencies are the architects of the identity jungle, building bridges that guide brands through fragmentation and deliver campaign success. Thriving in this terrain requires data solutions that create actionable insights, enable personalization, and drive measurable outcomes. To meet marketers’ demands, many agencies have invested heavily—acquiring data companies or forging strategic partnerships to strengthen their foundations in data and identity solutions. These investments help them connect fragmented audience data and unlock new opportunities for their clients. But even with in-house capabilities, agencies often need more—more attributes, more integrations, and greater connectivity. In the jungle of identity, success isn’t just about building better data assets; it’s about ensuring those assets can be utilized across platforms. How Experian can help Picture a large independent agency ready to step up its game—expanding beyond its middle-market niche to attract enterprise-level clients. But to play in the big leagues, they need more than a solid strategy; they need data and identity solutions that deliver a competitive edge. Enter Experian. With our rich identity graph and deep customer insights, the agency can unlock new opportunities for its clients. Imagine offering enterprises the ability to connect fragmented audience data, create hyper-targeted campaigns, and measure success across every channel. The payoff? The agency doesn’t just win over new enterprise clients; it strengthens relationships with existing customers by proving it can navigate today’s fragmented media landscape with precision and measurable impact. With Experian, the agency becomes an indispensable strategic partner in the data-driven advertising world. DSPs: Navigating signal loss with a multi-ID strategy For DSPs, navigating the identity jungle means forging a path through the winding trails of cookieless strategies. With third-party cookies fading and no single identity solution—like Unified ID 2.0 (UID2)—able to cover all media engagement, DSPs must adapt to a multi-ID world. The challenge is twofold: finding flexible solutions to manage a multitude of identifiers while staying compliant with a growing number of state-level privacy laws. It’s not just a technical problem; it’s a call for strategic vision. And the way to thrive in this ever-changing terrain is to invest in identity solutions that connect digital and offline identifiers to a single customer profile. How Experian can help Imagine a DSP navigating a complex web of identifiers—UID2, HEMs, proprietary IDs—while juggling compliance with evolving privacy laws. Experian steps in as the ultimate connector. Our identity solutions, powered by stable offline data, are signal-agnostic and integrated across the advertising ecosystem. This ensures that DSPs can confidently manage multiple identity frameworks, keeping campaigns targeted, measurable, and compliant. With Experian, DSPs gain more than a stopgap solution; they get a future-proof identity strategy. The result? Better targeting, smoother omnichannel execution, and the strategic edge needed to thrive in a fragmented, multi-ID world. Turning identity challenges into a strategic advantage The identity jungle is a thriving ecosystem for those with the right guide. Experian helps marketers, agencies, and DSPs chart the course by unifying multiple identifiers into a single, complete customer profile. With the right tools (and a good map), buy-side stakeholders can learn more about their customer, reach audiences across channels, and deliver personalized marketing. Read our companion article to learn how the sell-side is approaching data and identity challenges. Read now Get started today Latest posts
We spoke with industry leaders from Ampersand, Basis Technologies, Captify, Cuebiq, CvE, Fetch, Madhive, MiQ, and Samsung to gather insights on how innovations in data and identity are creating stronger consumer connections. Here are five key insights to consider. 1. Build on trust with first-party data Stricter privacy regulations and growing customer expectations mean businesses must rethink how they gather and use data. A robust first-party data strategy centers on gathering high-quality data, such as behavioral and transactional data. By using behavioral, lifestyle, and purchasing data, brands can craft personalized strategies that align with their goals. This approach balances effective targeting with building trust and complying with privacy rules. Integrating identity solutions like Unified I.D. 2.0 (UID2) and ID5 into existing data strategies improves interoperability across platforms while keeping user privacy intact. These tools help create more effective campaigns. "We've been preparing and leaning into educating our clients around the value of first-party data. These are very important and primary considerations in any of our campaigns."April Weeks, Basis Technologies 2. Align metrics with business goals To demonstrate clear value, campaigns need to tie their outcomes to broader goals. Relying only on click-through rates or CPMs won’t cut it. Metrics that measure meaningful results, like driving sales or increasing customer retention, provide greater transparency than surface level data, like clicks or impressions. A continuous feedback loop between targeting and measurement ensures campaigns can be refined to better align with business objectives. This feedback helps marketers understand who they are targeting and how those audiences are driving key business results. Shifting focus to metrics that resonate with stakeholders ensures that marketing efforts are evaluated based on their true contribution to the company's objectives. "The television industry has access to more data than ever before, and at Samsung Ads, our ACR technology helps us provide valuable insights about what content and ads are being viewed. This abundance of data enables us to support clients in aligning their campaigns with business objectives effectively."Justin Evans, Samsung Ads 3. Personalize experiences to boost engagement Personalization drives stronger customer relationships by delivering tailored experiences to individual customer needs. Using data-driven insights to fine-tune offers and messaging makes interactions more relevant, strengthening brand loyalty. Combining behavioral, lifestyle, and transactional data provides a comprehensive understanding of the customer journey and ensures each touchpoint feels personal. Testing and iterating on personalization strategies also helps identify which data and approaches yield the best results. Scaling these efforts means customers receive the right messaging at the right time, and businesses see better outcomes. "Every business should be building a data strategy that thinks about the different versions of data that exist and how they bring that together. They don't necessarily need to own all of it but have a clear rationale and strategy about where you're using which data sets."Paul Frampton, CvE 4. Utilize advanced measurement tools for smarter decisions Improving the effectiveness of campaigns starts with using sophisticated measurement tools to gain actionable insights. Using analytics like brand lift studies, foot traffic analysis, app download tracking, incrementality, and share of search allows marketers to understand the full impact of their efforts. With these resources, teams can pinpoint what’s working, make real-time adjustments, and refine their approach. This adaptability ensures budgets are used as effectively as possible. Learn how Swiss Sense measured marketing outcomes using Mosaic® "We are playing a leading role in democratizing new tools for local advertisers. By mimicking the marketing funnel mentality, we've introduced solutions ranging from measuring brand lift to tracking foot traffic and app downloads."Luc Dumont, Madhive 5. Adapt quickly to stay competitive The only constant in advertising is change. Adapting quickly to new technologies and consumer behaviors keeps businesses competitive. A culture of agility fosters innovation, making it easier to respond to industry shifts and discover new opportunities. Companies that anticipate change and invest in modern data solutions position themselves for long-term growth. Whether it’s adjusting to privacy updates, exploring emerging tech, or staying flexible, businesses must continuously invest in adapting their platforms and strategies. "Falling behind is not really an option. There's always a change in advertising and in data where there's a new horizon. The people who stay close to that and innovate will always follow it."Amelia Waddington, Captify Shaping the future Building meaningful consumer connections requires advertisers to combine robust data strategies with flexibility and innovation. By focusing on these five considerations, marketers can adapt to today’s challenges while preparing for what’s ahead. Connect with our experts Latest posts