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 Paul Zovighian, VP of Marketplaces at Index Exchange. Sell-side activation vs. buy-side packaging What’s fundamentally changed with sell-side decisioning, and how does it now diverge from traditional buy-side packaging? Sell-side decisioning is programmatic’s next major evolution – one that redefines how intelligence enters the transaction. Advances in infrastructure and computing power now allow supply-side platforms(SSPs) to act in the crucial pre-bid moment, enriching impressions with context, quality, and data before they reach the buy side. This isn’t just about efficiency; it’s about unlocking new value. Smarter requests mean buyers see only the most relevant opportunities, while publishers gain recognition for the true worth of their audiences and environments. We’re still at the beginning of this shift. Many players still package inventory without engaging in real pre-bid intelligence. As the market matures, the companies that evolve toward sell-side decisioning will be the ones to set the pace for programmatic’s future. Economic shifts with scaled curation As curation scales, what economic levers shift for both publishers and buyers, and how do those shifts influence deal structure and media planning? As curation scales, one of the most powerful levers is data. It’s the industry’s most valuable asset, and on Index it keeps its full worth. We don’t take a platform cut or add hidden fees, so data partners benefit from the clearest, most efficient economics in the market. Data vendors gain confidence that their economics aren’t eroded by a platform tax. For publishers, this means stronger yield and more ad spend flowing directly into working media. When data retains its full value, it enhances how impressions are packaged, priced, and differentiated—driving more competition for quality inventory and more opportunities for revenue. For buyers, it means compressed supply paths and total transparency – they know exactly what they’re paying for. With no intermediaries and full transparency into economics, buyers gain a clearer view of where their budgets go and the confidence that their investments reach real audiences in trusted environments. They benefit from cleaner supply chains, better performance, and more meaningful alignment between spend and outcome. The result is a healthier marketplace where both sides benefit from efficiency, fairness, and scale. Moving decisions upstream for value What decisions historically made in DSPs should now move upstream to publishers or SSPs to unlock more value, and which should remain buy-side? Decisioning is no longer confined to demand-side platforms(DSPs). We can enrich impressions by applying intelligence — via data, algorithms, creative technology, and more, before they even reach the buy side — adding context, filtering out low-quality supply, and expanding audience discovery. This isn’t about shifting roles; DSPs remain critical for campaign strategy, optimization, and budget allocation. The sell side simply ensures every bid request is smarter from the start, creating more value for all parties. In doing so, we also alleviate pressure on DSPs — enabling more comprehensive data discovery by searching for signals at the top of the funnel, prior to optimization. That means DSPs can focus on what they do best, supported by a cleaner, more transparent supply path. Index Marketplaces use cases explained Index Marketplaces is designed to enable the strength of our partners, and Experian brings one of the broadest sets of demographic and audience insights in the industry. That scale enables a wide variety of applications, from more precise audience activation to deeper measurement and analytics. What’s different on the sell side is how those insights are applied. By activating Experian’s syndicated audiences directly at the point of decision, their value is realized in real time and across the full scale of the open internet. Buyers gain a clearer path to relevant audiences, and publishers benefit from stronger alignment between data and media. It’s an approach that ensures partners like Experian can maximize the impact of their assets while helping the market move toward more intelligent, performance-driven activation. Identity signals with stronger privacy For identity partners like Experian, what’s the right way to bring audience, context, and propensity signals into sell-side activation? The beauty of sell-side decisioning is that it reduces the hops in how identity signals are applied. Without it, IDs have to travel through multiple platforms, creating extra handoffs and additional risks of data loss or leakage. With sell-side decisioning, those signals are obfuscated under a deal ID and applied directly at the point of decision. That means audience, context, and propensity data are activated securely, without ever leaving the sell-side environment. For partners like Experian, it’s the cleanest path to value: fewer hops, stronger privacy protection, and clearer economics for everyone in the chain. Contact us FAQs What is sell-side decisioning, and why is it important? Sell-side decisioning allows publishers to add intelligence, like audience data and context, before ad impressions are sent to buyers. This makes the process more efficient and ensures advertisers see only the most relevant opportunities. How does sell-side decisioning differ from traditional buy-side packaging? Traditional buy-side packaging happens after impressions are sent to demand-side platforms (DSPs). Sell-side decisioning moves some of that intelligence upstream, enriching impressions earlier and reducing inefficiencies. What does "curation" mean in this context, and how does it benefit publishers and advertisers? Curation refers to the process of organizing and enriching ad inventory with data and context. For publishers, it leads to better yield and more ad spend going directly to their media. For advertisers, it means clearer, more transparent supply paths. How does sell-side decisioning improve privacy? By applying audience and identity signals directly on the sell side, data stays within a secure environment. This reduces the number of platforms handling sensitive information, lowering the risk of data loss or leakage. What role does Experian play in sell-side decisioning? Experian provides demographic and audience insights that are activated directly at the point of decision. This helps advertisers reach the right audiences more effectively while ensuring publishers can maximize the value of their inventory. Why is moving decisioning upstream beneficial for DSPs? When publishers and SSPs handle some decisioning earlier, DSPs can focus on campaign strategy and optimization. This creates a cleaner, more efficient process for everyone involved. What is a deal ID, and how does it enhance privacy? A deal ID is a unique identifier used in programmatic advertising to bundle audience and context signals securely. It ensures data is applied without being exposed or shared across multiple platforms. About our expert Paul Zovighian, VP of Marketplaces, Index Exchange Paul Zovighian carries over a decade of industry expertise, stemming from his analytics and optimization roots to his current post as VP, Marketplaces, where he is focused on the commercial activation of Index’s newest product, Index Marketplaces. Previously, in his role as VP of corporate development, Paul led Index’s first-ever business acquisition. In his spare time, he enjoys long walks on the beach and befriending cats in NYC’s thriving bodega community. About Index Exchange Index Exchange is a global advertising supply-side platform enabling media owners to maximize the value of their content on any screen. They’re a proud industry pioneer with over 20 years of experience connecting leading experience makers with the world’s largest brands to ensure a quality experience for consumers. Latest posts
As artificial intelligence (AI), connected TV (CTV), and data collaboration continue to advance, advertisers are discovering new ways to meet audiences where they are; on their terms and in their spaces. These innovations are creating opportunities to deliver more personalized, impactful campaigns that were unimaginable just a few years ago. At Cannes Lions 2025, we sat down with industry leaders from Butler Till, Comcast Advertising, Index Exchange, IQVIA Digital, Optable, PMG, Samsung Ads, and Sports Innovation Lab. From reimagining the living room experience to using AI in practice for better outcomes, here’s what we learned about the trends driving advertising forward. 1. CTV turns living rooms into active spaces CTV has turned the living room into a hub of interaction, discovery, and commerce. Younger audiences are using their TVs like mobile devices; streaming, learning, and even controlling their homes. This shift is creating new opportunities for advertisers to deliver relevant, personalized experiences where audiences are already engaged. With premium content and interactive tools, the living room is no longer just a passive space, it’s where attention meets action, and where brands can connect with audiences in meaningful ways. How Experian helps With Experian, advertisers can connect first-party data with CTV IDs, ensuring accurate and measurable targeting while maintaining a privacy-first approach. That means brands reach viewers with messages that feel personal, without losing trust. “We surveyed 1,000 smart TV owners and found that younger audiences are using their TVs like mobile devices. Two-thirds use them for social media, 40% for self-improvement like Coursera or TED Talks, and 25% for interactivity; controlling appliances or home temperatures. Interactivity with connected TVs is skyrocketing.”Justin Evans 2. Creators build stronger connections with audiences Creators are no longer limited to social media; they are now a driving force in CTV. Creator led programming is capturing attention and driving post view actions, offering advertisers a unique way to connect with passionate, engaged audiences. By thinking of creators as “micro networks” with built in communities, advertisers can meet fans where they already gather and deliver authentic, impactful messages that resonate. How Experian helps Experian helps advertisers tap into the creator economy by identifying topical audiences that align with influencer niches—like food, travel, gaming and entertainment—and activating them across the open web. Through Audigent’s integration with DV360, brands can pair Experian's expansive audience targeting capabilities with Audigent's Curated Deals to reach engaged viewers in creator-led environments. This approach ensures ads appear where audiences are most receptive, enhancing relevance and performance. “The creator economy is moving into TV. It’s incredible to see social influencers, once dominant on platforms, now creating high quality content for streaming, networks, and more.”Gina Whelehan 3. Data collaboration that drives better results Advertisers rely on data to reach the right audiences, but privacy concerns are reshaping how it’s collected, shared, and used. Data collaboration enables brands to combine multiple data sets (like first-party data and syndicated audiences) to improve planning, activation, and measurement. While privacy remains a priority, the focus is on creating actionable insights that drive better results and build trust with consumers. By focusing on consented, privacy safe identity solutions, advertisers can achieve better outcomes while respecting consumer privacy; a win-win for brands and audiences alike. How Experian helps Experian’s privacy-first approach ensures that all data activation occurs with compliance and consent. By maintaining high match rates, offering flexible collaboration options (including clean rooms, first-party data onboarding, and syndicated audiences) and adhering to transparent methodologies, Experian facilitates seamless collaboration between brands, publishers, and platforms. This helps build trust and strengthen long-term connections with audiences. “The area we’re most excited about is identity resolution on the publisher side. Publishers can reinsert signal and create better results for advertisers. This wasn’t always well-articulated, but today we have case studies proving publishers can help improve outcomes.” Vlad Stesin 4. Optimizing supply paths for better outcomes Supply path optimization (SPO) helps advertisers improve campaign efficiency by increasing viewability and reducing waste. Supply-side decisioning builds on this by identifying the audiences advertisers want to reach, the content those audiences consume, and the publishers with the most relevant inventory. Together, these strategies create a more intelligent and efficient ecosystem, ensuring ads are delivered in the right context, to the right people, on the right platforms. How Experian helps Experian’s data solutions, including both Experian’s and Audigent’s contextual and identity capabilities, are available across sell-side (SSPs) and buy-side (DSPs) platforms, enabling smarter decision-making throughout the media supply chain. Audigent’s direct integrations with publishers provide an unfiltered view into available inventory, offering deeper insights that inform campaign optimization. These insights can be activated in real time and transacted within advertisers’ existing buying platforms. By powering real-time intelligence across the ecosystem, from advertisers to DSPs, SSPs, and publishers, Experian and Audigent help drive better outcomes, more efficient media spend, and greater value for all participants. “Sell-side decisioning activates the intelligence of the exchange, along with partners like Experian, to optimize auctions in real time. This helps pre-decision buys that flow to the DSPs, making the buying process smarter, more efficient, and ultimately driving better value for marketers and publishers.” Mike McNeeley 5. AI that streamlines agency workflows AI is a practical tool that agencies are using to streamline workflows and deliver better results. From planning and pacing to creative iteration, AI is helping teams move faster and smarter. In fact, 67% of global marketing and communications professionals now use AI for content creation frequently or all the time, underscoring its role in modern workflows. The key is to think of AI as a navigator, not a replacement. It handles repetitive tasks, freeing up teams to focus on strategy and creativity, while enabling faster tests, fewer dead ends, and better client clarity. How Experian helps Experian uses AI and machine learning to deliver highly personalized marketing solutions. In our Digital Graph, advanced clustering algorithms analyze household and individual device connections, improving targeting and measurement accuracy. We also use AI powered audience recommendations to create tailored audience solutions for clients. Our contextual data models, powered by Audigent’s contextual engine, further improve this process by analyzing bidstream traffic in real time, ensuring audiences are aligned with the most relevant inventory. “We’ve extended our platform with Marketplace, which lets us integrate third-party partners, new tech, and data seamlessly into activation. Clients are asking for this level of innovation, especially with the speed at which AI is evolving and transforming what’s possible in marketing.”Sam Bloom Connecting the dots: Data, creativity, and outcomes The common thread across these insights is how we connect with audiences, collaborate on data, and create meaningful outcomes. By reimagining the living room experience and utilizing AI and creator-led programming, brands are embracing innovation. How Experian helps Experian helps you build privacy-first identity foundations, collaborate seamlessly, optimize supply paths, streamline with AI, and connect through creators. Let's start a conversation FAQs What is CTV, and why does it matter now? CTV brings premium, interactive streaming to the largest screen at home, allowing brands to reach engaged viewers with measurable, personalized experiences. What is data collaboration, and how does it stay privacy-first? It’s the consented, secure use of first-party and partner data (often via clean rooms) to improve planning, activation, and measurement without exposing raw consumer data. What do “SPO” and sell-side decisioning actually do? SPO streamlines the path from advertiser to publisher, reducing waste and improving quality. Sell-side decisioning adds real-time intelligence to the exchange, delivering the proper context and audience more efficiently. How are creators changing TV advertising? Creator-led programming functions like “micro networks” with built-in communities, helping brands show up where fans are already engaged and ready to act. How are living rooms becoming “active spaces”? Viewers use TVs like mobile devices, discovering content, learning, shopping, and interacting; advertisers can meet their intent and drive post-view actions. Latest posts
Demand-side platforms (DSPs) are more than just technology providers, they’re strategic partners, helping marketers answer the key question: “How should I spend my media budget?” A leading DSP struggled to attribute consumer actions across digital channels such as connected TV (CTV) and display. Without connecting impressions to conversions, they risked losing client trust and ROI proof. With Experian’s Digital Graph, they resolved 84% of IDs and increased match rates, strengthening attribution and client confidence. The challenge A leading DSP had trouble showing which ads drove results across CTV, display, and digital. Without linking ad views to conversions, they couldn’t prove ROI. The missing piece was attribution. They needed to show which channels drove conversions, but without strong identity resolution, it was hard to connect CTV ads to website activity. See how Experian is shaping addressability in CTV What is Experian's Digital Graph? Built from trillions of real-time data points and updated weekly, Experian’s Digital Graph connects billions of identifiers across devices and households, such as cookies, mobile ad IDs (MAIDs), CTV IDs, IP addresses, universal IDs, and more. It gives DSPs a reliable foundation by linking these identifiers back to households and individuals, improving DSPs' ability to offer attribution by better connecting impressions to conversions. Learn more about our Digital Graph here What makes the Digital Graph unique is its scale and freshness. It ingests trillions of signals in real time and delivers updates weekly. That consistency matters: it gives DSPs confidence that they’re working with the most accurate view of digital identity. AI and machine learning (ML) are core to how we maintain that level of accuracy. Our models use sophisticated clustering algorithms to analyze device connections at both household and individual levels. By evaluating data points such as timestamps, IP addresses, user agents, cookie IDs, and device identifiers, these algorithms create precise device groupings that enhance targeting and measurement accuracy. The models are continuously refined, ensuring our clients can better understand consumer behaviors within households and activate more effective, personalized marketing. Think of it like connecting puzzle pieces scattered across devices and channels. On their own, each piece doesn’t say much. Together, they reveal the full picture of who saw an ad, engaged, and converted, and which ads performed best. Watch the video The solution By syncing its cookies with the Digital Graph, the DSP gained access to related identifiers, including: MAIDs CTV IDs IP addresses Experian cookies This expanded identity universe gave the DSP a unified view of individuals and households, making it possible to connect impressions to conversions across devices and channels. With each weekly refresh, attribution models stayed accurate and up to date, turning fragmented signals into proof of performance. Results Within weeks, the DSP saw measurable improvements: 84% of IDs synced 9% increase in match rates With a stronger foundation of digital identifiers, the DSP matched more MAIDs, CTV IDs, and IP addresses to conversions. This allowed them to show clients exactly which ads and channels drove ROI, transforming impression reports into actionable proof of performance and strengthening client trust. See how MiQ strengthened their Identity Spine with Experian's Digital Graph Why attribution matters now Attribution has never been more critical. With signals fading and marketing budgets under pressure, DSPs need reliable data to prove performance. Experian’s Digital Graph takes a multi-ID, always-on approach, refreshed weekly with trillions of signals. This delivers consistency and accuracy that single-point, stale-ID solutions can’t match. For this DSP, that meant transforming attribution from guesswork into clear proof, strengthening client trust, and proving ROI across channels. Download the full case study Connect with us today to see how our Digital Graph can help you maximize advertiser trust and ROI. Ready to strengthen your approach to attribution? FAQs What is Experian’s Digital Graph? Experian’s Digital Graph is a privacy-conscious identity resolution solution built from trillions of real-time data points, refreshed weekly, that links identifiers like cookies, MAIDs, CTV IDs, Unified I.D. 2.0 (UID2), ID5 IDs and IP addresses to households and individuals. How does Experian’s Digital Graph improve attribution? Experian’s Digital Graph improves attribution by connecting impressions to conversions across devices and channels, giving DSPs a clearer view of which ads and channels drove results. What makes Experian’s Digital Graph different from other solutions? While many platforms rely on single, static IDs, Experian’s Digital Graph uses a multi-ID, always-on approach with weekly refreshed, ensuring accuracy even as signals shift. What results can DSPs expect when using Experian’s Digital Graph? When you use Experian’s Digital Graph, you can expect higher match rates, more synced IDs, clearer attribution models, and stronger proof of ROI for your clients. Because Experian’s Digital Graph serves as the backbone of the industry, it also helps DSPs maximize the scale and reach they can deliver to advertisers. Is Experian’s Digital Graph privacy-compliant? Yes. Experian’s Digital Graph is designed with privacy in mind, ensuring compliance while still delivering accurate attribution insights. Latest posts