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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Study reveals that brands with more mature identity programs were significantly more likely to be successful in achieving their key objectives Tapad, a part of Experian, a global leader in cross-device digital identity resolution and a part of Experian, has commissioned Forrester Consulting, part of a leading research and advisory firm, to conduct a new study that evaluates the current state of customer data-driven marketing and explores how marketers can use identity solutions to deliver privacy safe and engaging experiences, in an evolving data landscape. The study highlights the changing ground rules for digital marketing and the threat that poses to marketers’ ability to deliver against long standing KPIs and campaign goals. Nearly two-thirds (62%) of respondents said that the forces of data deprecation will have a significant (40%) or critical (21%) impact on their marketing strategies over the next two years. Among those surveyed, identity resolution strategies have surfaced as an opportunity to create more powerful customer experiences, with 66% aiming to have it help improve customer trust and implement more ethical data collection and use practices, while nearly 60% believe it will point the way to more effective personalization and data management practices. Although organizations are eager to implement identity resolution strategies, a complex web of solutions and partners makes execution a challenge. For example, respondents report using at least eight identity solutions on average, across nearly six vendor partners, and they expect that fragmentation to persist in the ‘cookieless’ future. Additionally, brands’ identity resolution technologies typically represent a patchwork of homegrown and commercial solutions. Eighty-one percent of respondents use both in-house and commercial identity resolution tools today, and 47% use a near-equal blend of the two. Despite the challenges, many brands have the foundation for a strong identity resolution strategy in place, and they are thriving as a result. Specifically, more mature brands were 79% more successful at improving privacy safeguards to reduce regulatory and compliance risk, 247% more successful at improving marketing ROI, and over four times more effective at improving customer trust compared to their low-maturity peers. Additional insights include: Marketers Are Increasingly Playing a Key Strategic Role Within the Organization, But There is a Mandate to Demonstrate Value. Nearly three-quarters of respondents in our study agree the marketing function is more strategically important to their organization than it used to be, while almost two-thirds agree there’s more pressure than ever to prove the ROI or business performance of their activities. Consumers Expect Brands to Deliver Engaging Experiences Across Highly Fragmented Journeys: Tapad, a part of Experian found that 72% of respondents agree that customers demand more relevant, personalized experiences at the time and place of their choosing. At the same time, 67% of respondents recognize that customer purchase journeys take place over more touchpoints and channels than ever, and 59% of respondents agree that those journeys are less predictable and linear than they once were. Marketing Runs on Data, But the Rules Governing Customer Data Usage are Ever-Evolving: According to the study, 70% of decision-makers agree that consumer data is the lifeblood of their marketing strategies – fueling the personalized, omnichannel experiences customers demand. At the same time, 69% of respondents recognize that customers are increasingly aware of how their data is being used. At least two-thirds agree that data deprecation, including tighter restrictions on data use (66%), as well as operating system and browser changes impacting third-party cookies (68%) means that legacy marketing strategies are unlikely to remain viable in the long-term.“ Our latest survey findings give us a better understanding of how our customers and other companies around the world are trying to master the relationship between people, their data and their devices,” said Mark Connon, General Manager at Tapad, a part of Experian. “This research shows why it’s fundamental for the industry to continuously work to develop solutions that are agnostic. Tapad, a part of Experian has worked tirelessly to deliver on this with our Tapad Graph, and by introducing solutions like Switchboard to help the evolving ecosystem and in turn helping customers reap the benefits of better identity in both short and long-term.” The study is founded on an online survey of over 300 decision-makers at global brands and agencies, which was fielded from March to April, 2021. Data deprecation and identity are fast-developing, moving targets, so this study delivers targeted insights and recommendations for how to prepare for coming shifts in customer data strategies – whether they manifest tomorrow or a year from now. Get in touch
With the recent announcement of delaying third-party cookie deprecation to 2024, the industry has more time to rethink how to identify and communicate with consumers.
As today’s digital landscape gets more and more complicated there are more ways for brands to connect with users and drive purchases and more ways for ad tech to target and measure those touch points. As in-person shopping picks up steam due to the re-normalization of society post-COVID 19; the connection between digital ads and in-person purchases needs to be made once again. With the rise of Connected TV throughout the pandemic there are even more digital opportunities to target a user. But how do you make sure that those brand engagements are captured and correctly attributed to offline purchases and conversions? The answer lies in a holistic identity resolution strategy. Cross-device identity resolution with The Tapad Graph connects the identifiers and devices of individuals within a household to each other; enabling targeting, frequency capping, extension, segmentation and measurement or attribution between devices; including Connected TV and hashed (privacy-protected) email addresses along with Cookies, Mobile Ad Ids and IP Address. Brands can join their first-party data to The Tapad Graph to execute strategies that connect online and offline data for pre, mid and post-campaign efficiencies. Let’s imagine a scenario in which an outdoor retail brand is targeting users watching specific content on a Connected TV device. Powered by identity resolution, they start with a general ad on CTV and continue targeting down individual paths with each user. When one of them converts in store and makes a purchase; the outdoor retailer can connect that action through location and in-store traffic data with the cross-device identity resolution used to execute the digital campaign. Now the actions of the user online and offline are resolved for more accurate measurement and attribution after the campaign ends. But it doesn’t stop there– the brand’s CRM data can be reactivated for the next digital campaign and leveraged to capitalize on the most effective media mix for the user who made the purchase previously. These combined insights can be invaluable in shaping up future campaign strategies with geo-contextual ads, recommended additional products and personalization to help drive more conversions and purchases in-store or online. As in-person shopping picks back up and marketers are tasked once again with balancing online and in-store KPIs, the right identity resolution strategy can unlock necessary efficiencies for retailers, ad tech vendors and agencies tasked with supporting these initiatives. Get in touch