Key takeaways
- Commerce media networks (CMNs) hit a growth ceiling when on-site inventory caps out and first-party data only reaches known shoppers.
- Building identity infrastructure in-house can take a year or more before a network has a new audience product to sell.
- Three tests reveal real neutrality in a data partner: revenue source, representation on both sides of a deal, and identifier portability.
- Experian’s neutral infrastructure layer connects identity, activation, and measurement for commerce media networks without competing for advertiser spend.
Most conversations I have with commerce media network leaders open the same way. The advertiser demand is there, the first-party data is there, and a shortlist of three vendors all describe what they do in language that sounds interchangeable. Choosing between them is harder than it should be.
A constraint sits under that shortlist. On-site inventory runs out, first-party data reaches known shoppers and stops there, and advertisers keep asking for proof of incremental outcomes. Growing past all three takes capabilities the network doesn’t own, which makes the partner decision one of the more consequential calls these teams will make this year.
Most networks get sold a construction project
The pitches converge on roughly the same ideas. A network licenses an identity graph, adopts a platform, or takes delivery of components its own engineers assemble into something advertisers want to buy, sometime over the next several quarters. A few of the largest networks have the engineering team and patience for that.
Most do not. Commerce media operations already stretch across e-commerce, merchandising, analytics, legal, and privacy, with audience definitions that drift between teams and workflows that break at the handoffs. The networks taking on these build projects have the least resources and bandwidth to absorb them. I’ve watched networks buy an identity capability and go a full year before they had a single new audience product to sell.
What a network needs on day one is their customer data enriched, identities unified, the activation paths connected, and the measurement loop closed.
Your identity layer shouldn’t become someone else’s ecosystem
The second challenge is control. A media network’s customer data is its one unique asset, and the identity infrastructure decides how far that asset travels. A commerce media network should own its customer intelligence and use identity infrastructure that expands where that intelligence can go.
Identity should make that intelligence more useful and not make you dependent on someone else’s ecosystem. That means retaining control of customer data and choosing infrastructure that can connect it across partners, platforms, activation environments, and measurement providers.
For commerce media networks, independence is commercial infrastructure. Your identity layer should expand your options, not limit them.
Three tests separate structural neutrality from the claim
Independence costs nothing to assert. These three are harder to fake:
Experian clears all three because of how our business is built. We sell no media, own no supply, and represent no buyer, so the incentive to steer a media network’s spend never exists in the first place.
What Experian’s infrastructure layer delivers for commerce media networks
Many clients own their onboarding, data platforms, and clean room relationships, and our work improves the data entering those workflows. Match rates rise, addressable audiences expand, and the existing investment gets more productive.
Choose the infrastructure layer with no stake in your outcome
Run the three tests on every partner currently holding your identity, activation, or measurement. The answers will tell you how much of your business you’ve already made visible to someone who can act on it.
Experian serves as the neutral infrastructure layer for commerce media networks, connecting first-party data, identity, activation, and measurement while competing for none of your advertiser revenue. Bring us your current stack, your match rates, and the advertiser demand you turn away today, and we’ll map which layers close the gap and what that growth is worth.
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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.
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Advertisers continue to increase their spending across addressable TV, connected TV (CTV), and digital. According to IAB’s “2021 Video Ad Spend and 2022 Outlook” report, digital video ad spending is expected to increase by 26% to $49.2 billion in 2022. Understanding who consumers are and how to best reach them in their preferred channel is becoming more complex. Damian Amitin and Colleen Dawe discuss how a seamless identity strategy can address the complexity of the emerging TV space. The evolution of identity resolution Around ten years ago, the idea of digital “identity resolution” or “Device Graphs” was born. This idea connected cookies and MAIDs to understand when many IDs were the same person or household. In more recent years, our industry began to connect that initial understanding to the CTV ecosystem. But, a large part of the TV ecosystem existed in silos, like first and third-party audience data, and the growing advanced TV market. The goal of identity resolution has always been to understand the consumer better. To achieve more accurate targeting and measurement in the CTV ecosystem, we must incorporate the following: What we know about the household and consumer from an ID perspective Who the consumer is as it relates to audience data, as well as the wealth of first-party data in the advanced TV space We know the cookie is a flawed way to collect data. While Google delayed the deprecation of third-party cookies, there are other challenges that we face right now. Such as the glaring gap in Safari traffic and the Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) turning to “opt-in.” Understanding consumer behavior across devices and platforms continues to challenge marketers and publishers. These challenges are creating the need to find more stable identifiers. Though the cookie remains valuable, it has an uncertain future. This has led advertisers to place bigger bets on the combination of addressable and CTV. The overlap in addressable and CTV data leads to fragmentation Personally identifiable information (PII) makes up the majority of addressable TV households’ data. Part of the attraction to CTV is that their IDs remain universal, persistent, and stable. Analysts project that CTV ad spending will hit $23B in 2023. Consumers now have an average of 4.7 streaming subscriptions per household. It’s no surprise then, that Disney+, HBO, and Netflix released or announced ad-supported tiers. Addressable TV and CTV are often thought of as distinct markets across the industry. But, in the context of identity, we should look at them through the same lens. Millions of households still consume TV and video content via a set-top box or through apps on CTVs. This is in addition to what they consume on their laptops, tablets, and phones. Of the top 11 cable and satellite providers, 65 million U.S. households still have a box in their homes. On the other hand, approximately 96 million U.S. households have at least one or more Smart TVs and streaming services. With about 126 million total U.S. TV households, that’s a lot of overlap. There are still significant numbers of both addressable and CTV homes. How can we address fragmented TV consumption? Through a holistic and comprehensive approach to identity. An approach that captures addressable TV, CTV, and digital identifiers. An approach that captures all audience attributes inside of a single identity graph. This is the ideal approach for publishers, AdTech vendors, and brands. Discover how to unlock holistic identity How can we achieve a holistic identity? Through a three-pillared approach: First-party data onboarding Digital identifiers Consumer data First-party data onboarding Bringing offline data from a brand’s consumers is very valuable due to the quality of the data. Because the data is being collected right from the source, you know it’s accurate. It provides the foundation you can build your identity strategy from. Digital identifiers Once you create a foundation with first-party data, you need to connect it. Either with an internal or licensed digital ID graph. Then you can understand the connections between all devices within the household. Consumer data After you know which devices tie to a single consumer, you’ll want to act on that knowledge. The next step is to partner with a data provider that can help you understand your consumers. Establishing this partnership will help improve targeting, measurement, and the customer experience. To achieve a well-rounded customer view tomorrow, we need to start today The three-pillared approach bridges the gap between the offline and online worlds. This provides a well-rounded view of customers and audiences. However, the ability to tie these aspects of identity together still presents several challenges. To achieve the three-pillared approach today, you need to use many vendors and fragmented data sources. Often with conflicting data. As we look forward, the tools to do this are becoming more advanced and unified. The players in our ecosystem should adopt a seamless identity strategy. One that provides a privacy-safe yet full-picture solution. That means capturing and unifying all devices within a household. While also understanding the consumer behaviors and profiles behind those devices. Keep up with your customers and their data Once we create an informed identity strategy, we can begin to understand the makeup of each household and the individuals within. In this new world, personalizing the experience for an audience is key. Where do they prefer to spend their time? What type of content are they most engaged in? Only then can we as an industry provide an optimal experience for each consumer. All while driving greater ROI for advertisers and publishers. Are you ready to know more about your customers than ever before? Let’s get to work together to achieve your marketing goals. Contact us to learn how we can connect the complex dots of identity resolution. About our experts Damian Amitin, VP of Enterprise Partnerships, Experian Marketing Services Damian Amitin is the VP of Enterprise Partnerships and joined Experian during the Tapad acquisition in November 2020. Damian is a senior sales and partnerships executive, specializing in the identity resolution and marketing data ecosystem. Damian helps brands, publishers, and technology vendors enable enhanced ID resolution through The Experian/Tapad platform to attain a 360 view of the customer across targeting analytics, attribution, and personalization. Colleen Dawe, Senior Account Executive, Experian Marketing Services Colleen Dawe is a Senior Account Executive on the Advanced TV Team within Experian Marketing Services. With 15 years of experience working within the television ecosystem, Colleen works with clients to bring the value and expertise of Experian to support their objectives in the areas of data, identity, activation, and measurement. Get in touch