At A Glance
Pharma marketers face growing challenges as privacy requirements evolve, media consumption fragments, and traditional identity signals become less reliable. They still need to reach highly specific patient and healthcare professional audiences with relevant messaging across channels. Experian Audiences and Partner Audiences help marketers activate privacy-safe healthcare, condition-based, healthcare professional, and health-aligned audiences at scale, supporting consistent audience reach, audience fidelity, and cross-channel engagement across the media ecosystem.In this article…
What’s changing in pharma audience targeting?
Pharmaceutical (pharma) audience targeting is changing as marketers need to reach highly specific patient and healthcare professional (HCP) audiences while operating in a complex environment shaped by privacy requirements, data limitations, and changing media behaviors.
Regulations like HIPAA, along with stricter standards around data use and tracking, have changed how identity can support targeting and engagement. Traditional identifiers such as cookies and pixels are becoming less reliable or permissible, limiting how marketers connect audiences across channels.
At the same time, both patients and HCPs are taking a more independent, informed approach to healthcare research. They explore conditions, treatments, and providers across a growing mix of digital channels, raising expectations for relevant experiences while increasing competition for attention. In fact, 55% of adults use social media for health information, and 32% use AI tools for health-related questions.
Media habits are shifting just as quickly. Patients and HCPs increasingly engage with content across streaming, social, and other digital environments rather than relying on traditional linear TV alone. With digital expected to account for more than 70% of total media time in 2026, marketers have more opportunities to connect with health audiences across channels. At the same time, consistent signals for targeting are becoming harder to maintain.
Why audience quality and scale matter more than ever
Despite these challenges, pharma marketers still need to reinforce messaging across channels and maintain relevance throughout the patient or provider journey without creating fatigue or overexposure.
For many pharma organizations, this is compounded by limited first party data, who instead rely on external data providers to reach their target audiences. This makes scale, fidelity, and consistency across platforms and channels increasingly important. Marketers need audiences broad enough to reach meaningful populations and accurate enough to support relevant, personalized engagement.
How compliant healthcare audiences support pharma goals
Compliant healthcare audiences can support pharma goals by navigating these shifts in media, data, and privacy requirements. Pharma marketers need an audience strategy built on compliant signals that can support activation across the media ecosystem.
Experian Audiences and Partner Audiences offer a range of audience types across healthcare professionals, consumer health, and behavior and lifestyle indicators, designed for compliant activation at scale.
Experian’s connected identity framework allows signals such as National Provider Identifiers (NPIs), hashed emails (HEMs), and tokenized consumer IDs to be translated into identifiers that can be used across media environments while maintaining audience reach and fidelity. As a result, pharma marketers gain more flexibility to reach relevant audiences, tailor activation strategies, and coordinate messaging across channels and platforms without exposing sensitive identity data or limiting scale.
Core audience groups for pharma marketers

HCP Partner Audiences are built using deterministic identifiers, including NPIs along with other IDs associated with HCPs like hashed emails. This creates audiences grounded in real provider data, rather than relying only on digital activity signals.
These audiences allow pharmaceutical marketers to reach providers based on:
- Specialty and expertise
- Care team role
- Prescribing behavior
- Conditions diagnosed or treated based on medical claims activity
Because HCP audiences are finite and remain a primary source through which patients learn about new medications, they are heavily targeted across the industry. Reaching the right providers with messaging aligned to specialty and prescribing behavior helps reduce wasted impressions and support more meaningful engagement.
Examples of HCP Partner Audiences you can activate
AnalyticsIQ
- Case Manager or Care Coordinator
- Endocrinology Tech Adopters
- Geriatric Medicine
- Language > Hispanic Bilingual
Diaceutics
- Diabetes – Type 2 – Endocrinologists
- Homozygous Familial Hypercholesterolaemia – Cardiologists
- Non Small Cell Lung Cancer – ROS1 – Oncologists
- PAH – Cardiologists
IQVIA
- Anti-Migraine
- Gastroenterology & Hepatology
- Osteoporosis
- Pharmacist
How to use these audiences
Activate audiences like Full Care Team > Osteoporosis to reach providers involved in long-term bone health management with messaging focused on screening, adherence, or fracture prevention. Diabetes – Type 2 – Endocrinologists audiences can help engage specialists involved in diabetes treatment decisions with therapy-specific messaging tailored to disease management and patient outcomes.

Reaching consumer health, or direct-to-consumer (DTC), audiences presents a different challenge. Unlike HCPs, consumer audiences are broader, more fragmented, and subject to stricter privacy constraints. At the same time, consumers are exposed to a high volume of health advertising, making it harder for brands to maintain relevance and connect with consumers.
The right DTC audiences help pharma marketers navigate these challenges by enabling them to reach consumers using deidentified, tokenized data designed to preserve both audience quality and consumer privacy. By maintaining audience fidelity as these audiences move across platforms and activation environments, pharma marketers can support more consistent, scalable targeting and relevance across channels while protecting sensitive identity information.
These audiences can be defined across a range of dimensions, including conditions, procedures, and medications. This allows marketers to engage audiences at different stages of the health journey, from initial awareness to ongoing condition management.
Examples of DTC Partner Audiences you can activate
HealthRankings
- Ophthalmology (Eyes) > Dry AMD
- Nervous System > Fibromyalgia
Health Union
- Cardiac Care
- Vaccine Interest
Mars
- Type 2 Diabetes for 10 or More Years Propensity
- Caregiver Who Discuss Treatments With Doctors
PurpleLab
- Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA)
- Ipratropium Bromide and Albuterol
How to use these audiences
Activate audiences like Cardiac Care to reach consumers actively engaging with heart health content using messaging focused on disease awareness, treatment education, or ongoing care management. Caregiver Who Discuss Treatments With Doctors audiences can help connect with caregivers involved in healthcare decisions using messaging centered around treatment support, care coordination, or medication discussions.

Lifestyle and health context audiences help brands align with the broader factors that influence health decisions, which extend beyond conditions and treatments. Factors such as financial situation, household structure, location, life stage, and attitudes toward health all shape how consumers engage with care and treatment decisions.
Experian health-adjacent audiences, or those that cover broader behavioral and lifestyle health indicators, help pharma marketers reach people through these additional signals. They make it possible to connect with consumers based on the context that influences how they approach and manage their health.
In addition to expanding reach, these audiences support more flexible activation. Because they are not tied to condition-level data, they can be used alongside signals like streaming behavior, content preferences, and ad receptivity. This makes it easier to align audience targeting with where consumer media behavior is shifting.
Example Experian Audiences you can activate for health indicators
- Ages 65+
- Health and Wellness Supplement Buyers
- Household Income $750K–$999K
- Multigenerational Household
- Presence of Children: Ages 0–3
- Weight Reformers
CTV and media behavior audiences
- Cooking TV Viewers
- CNN News Viewers
- Paid Ad-Supported Streaming Subscriber
- Solo TV Watching Households
- Streaming TV
- TV Ad Acceptor Households
Example Partner Audiences you can activate for health indicators
AnalyticsIQ
- CBD for Pain Management
- Has Access to At Least One Caretaker
- Has the Highest Health Literacy Score
- Healthcare Cost Barriers
- Uses Health Monitors or Biosensors
How to use these audiences
Activate audiences like Weight Reformers to reach consumers researching weight management solutions with educational or treatment-focused messaging. Multigenerational Household audiences can help connect with caregivers managing care across generations, while Streaming TV audiences support engagement in premium connected TV environments aligned to changing media behavior.
When are health audiences most receptive to outreach?
Health audiences are most receptive to outreach during key seasonal and life-stage moments, which can be mapped directly to audience strategy.
Open enrollment
Open enrollment periods concentrate on evaluation of coverage, providers, and prescription access. In 2024, more than 21 million Americans enrolled in Marketplace coverage, the highest on record.
During this window, consumers are actively comparing plans, providers, and treatment affordability, making it one of the most intent-driven healthcare moments of the year.
Experian Audiences you can activate during open enrollment
- Active Health Insurance Shoppers
- Child Age 0–36 Months
- Recently Married Couple Households
Partner Audiences you can activate during open enrollment
MARS
- Health Insurance Marketplace or Exchange like Obamacare or Affordable Care Act
New Year health reset
New year’s health resets drive a surge in preventive care and wellness behaviors.31% of Americans say they will make a New Year’s resolution or set a goal for 2026, with health consistently ranking as the top priority.
Experian Audiences you can activate during New Year’s
- Informed Consumer
- New Year’s/Resolutions: New Year’s Diet, Health and Fitness: High Spenders
- Starting New Job Soon Audiences
- Weight Reformers
Flu and RSV season
Flu and RSV season drive predictable spikes in vaccination interest and healthcare engagement. In recent seasons, flu vaccination coverage among adults has ranged around 41%, with demand increasing sharply during peak outbreak periods.
Partner Audiences you can activate during Flu and RSV season
HealthRankings
- Allergy
HealthUnion
- Vaccine Interest
IQVIA
- Influenza/Flu
MARS
- Vaccine Hesitant and Concerned About Side Effects
What sets Experian Audiences apart?
Our syndicated audiences give you an advantage across channels, offering both scale and accuracy:
- Experian’s 3,500+ syndicated audiences are available at over 200 leading activation platforms, including programmatic, social, TV destinations, and can be curated alongside premium inventory through Curated Deals.
- Reach consumers based on who they are, where they live, and their household makeup. Experian ranked #1 in accuracy by Truthset for key demographic attributes.
Explore more of our Partner Audiences that complement Experian Audiences across key health use cases, with flexible activation through Experian’s data marketplace or leading activation platforms.
Need a custom audience? Reach out to our audience team and we can help you build and activate an Experian audience on the platform of your choice.
Want to activate an Experian Audience on Meta, Pinterest, Snap, TikTok or on a platform not listed above? Contact us today.
For a full list, download our syndicated audiences guide.
Reach the right audiences for your industry
Build a stronger pharma audience strategy
As privacy requirements evolve and media fragmentation increase, pharma marketers need a connected approach that helps maintain audience fidelity across channels while supporting responsible activation. With the right foundation and partners in place, marketers can reach relevant patient and provider audiences, preserve audience accuracy through activation, and deliver more relevant experiences that support long-term growth.
Connect with our audience experts
FAQs
Experian Audiences are pre-built, privacy-compliant consumer segments that help marketers target based on verified demographic, financial, and behavioral data.
They’re designed for flexibility across channels and can be activated on 200+ platforms, including major social, CTV, and programmatic partners.
Experian ranks #1 in demographic accuracy according to Truthset, and marketers can choose from 3,500+ syndicated audiences that capture signals such as income, spending behavior, household structure, financial attitudes, and ability to pay. These same audiences are also available through partnerships on platforms like DirecTV, Dish, Magnite, OpenAP, and The Trade Desk.
For a deeper look at our audience catalog, explore our syndicated audience guide.
You can activate Experian Audiences across 200+ digital and connected TV (CTV) platforms, including Meta, Pinterest, The Trade Desk, and Audigent PMPs.
Yes, you can combine your own first-party data with Experian’s 3,500+ syndicated audiences and additional segments from multiple partner data providers, as a custom audience within a Curated Deal or self-service via Audience Engine.
Appendix
HCP Partner Audiences
- AnalyticsIQ > Healthcare Professionals (HCP) > HCP Type > Case Manager or Care Coordinator
- AnalyticsIQ > Healthcare Professionals (HCP) > Specialty > Endocrinology Tech Adopters
- AnalyticsIQ > Healthcare Professionals (HCP) > Prescriber > Geriatric Medicine
- AnalyticsIQ > Healthcare Professionals (HCP) > HCP Type > Other Nursing Services > Language > Hispanic Bilingual
- Diaceutics > General Medicine > Diabetes – Type 2 – Endocrinologists
- Diaceutics > Rare Disease > Homozygous Familial Hypercholesterolaemia – Cardiologists
- Diaceutics > Oncology > Non Small Cell Lung Cancer – ROS1 – Oncologists
- Diaceutics > General Medicine > PAH – Cardiologists
- IQVIA > Healthcare Professionals (HCP) > OTC > Anti-Migraine
- IQVIA > Healthcare Professionals (HCP) > Physician Specialty Group > Gastroenterology & Hepatology
- IQVIA > Healthcare Professionals (HCP) > Full Care Team > Osteoporosis
- IQVIA > Healthcare Professionals (HCP) > Pharmacist
DTC audiences
- HealthRankings > Digital > Patient > Nervous System > Fibromyalgia
- HealthRankings > Digital > Patient > Ophthalmology (Eyes) > Dry AMD
- Health Union > DTC > Vaccine Interest
- Health Union > DTC > Cardiac Care
- Mars > Health and Wellness > Conditions and Treatments > Type 2 Diabetes for 10 or More Years Propensity
- Mars > Health and Wellness > Caregivers > Caregiver Who Discuss Treatments With Doctors
- PurpleLab > Conditions > Autoimmune Conditions > Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA)
- PurpleLab > Medications > Asthma and COPD Medications > Ipratropium Bromide and Albuterol
Lifestyle and health context audiences
- Experian > Geo-Indexed > Demographics > Ages 65+
- Experian > Purchase Transactions > Nutraceuticals, Bioceuticals and Supplements > Health and Wellness Supplement Buyers
- Experian > Geo-Indexed > Demographics > Household Income $750K–$999K
- Experian > Demographics > Household Composition > Multigenerational Household
- Experian > Geo-Indexed > Demographics > Presence of Children: Ages 0–3
- Experian > Psychographic/Attitudes > Health and Well Being > Weight Reformers
CTV and media behavior audiences
- Experian > Lifestyle and Interests (Affinity) > TV Segments (US) Genre > Cooking TV Viewers
- Experian > Lifestyle and Interests (Affinity) > TV Segments (US) Network > CNN News Viewers
- Experian > Television (TV) > Ad Avoiders/Ad Acceptors > Paid Ad-Supported Streaming Subscriber
- Experian > Television (TV) > Household/Family Viewing > Solo TV Watching Households
- Experian > TrueTouch > Communication Preferences > Engagement Channel Preference > Streaming TV
- Experian > Television (TV) > Ad Avoiders/Ad Acceptors > TV Ad Acceptor Households
Partner Audiences you can activate for health indicators
- AnalyticsIQ > Health & Wellness > CBD > Reason for Use > CBD for Pain Management
- AnalyticsIQ >Health & Wellness > Barriers to Healthcare > Has Access to At Least One Caretaker
- AnalyticsIQ >Health & Wellness > Barriers to Healthcare > Has the Highest Health Literacy Score
- AnalyticsIQ >Health & Wellness > Barriers to Healthcare > Healthcare Cost Barriers
- AnalyticsIQ >Health & Wellness > Medical Utilization > Uses Health Monitors or Biosensors
Open enrollment
Experian Audiences
- Experian > Purchase Predictors > Shoppers All Channels > Active Health Insurance Shoppers
- Experian > Life Events > New Parents > Child Age 0–36 Months
- Experian > Publisher Derived > Life Events > Recently Married Couple Households
Partner Audiences
- MARS > Consumer Financial > Health Insurance > Health Insurance Marketplace or Exchange like Obamacare or Affordable Care Act
New Year health reset
- Experian > Psychographic/Attitudes > Shopping Behavior > Informed Consumer
- Experian > Retail Shoppers: Purchase Based > Seasonal > New Year’s/Resolutions: New Year’s Diet, Health and Fitness: High Spenders
- Experian > Publisher Derived > Life Events > Starting New Job Soon Audiences
- Experian > Psychographic/Attitudes > Health and Well Being > Weight Reformers
Flu and RSV season
- HealthRankings > Digital > Patient > Immune System > Allergy
- IQVIA > Healthcare Professionals (HCP) > Full Care Team > Influenza/Flu
- MARS > Health and Wellness > Vaccinations > Vaccine Hesitant and Concerned About Side Effects
- HealthUnion > DTC > Vaccine Interest
Latest posts
Tapad, part of Experian, and AdsWizz partner to enable digital identity resolution across audio ad campaigns
Featured stories from Experian MarketingWith Tapad, part of Experian, technology, AdsWizz AudioMatic is the first Audio buying platform to offer cross-device identity resolution across the U.S. and EMEA NEW YORK and LONDON, July 17, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Tapad, part of Experian and a global leader in digital identity resolution, today announced a new joint capability with AdsWizz , the leading technology provider for digital audio advertising solutions. The partnership combines Tapad’s digital cross-device technology with AdsWizz’s AudioMatic buying platform, enabling the ability to connect audio ad experiences across screens. AudioMatic, AdsWizz’s audio-centric buying platform, supports programmatic audio buying and entirely new audio ad experiences for listeners. The integration of The Tapad Graph onto its platform enables new opportunities for marketers to reach, engage and measure each interaction with their desired consumers on digital radio and podcasts channels, and across devices. This partnership makes AdsWizz the first audio buying platform to offer this enhanced cross-device identity capability in the US and EMEA markets. “Marketers need privacy-safe digital identity resolution to reach their consumers,” says Tom Rolph, VP of EMEA at Tapad. “With audio becoming an increasingly powerful medium for engagement, it’s important that our technology extends to this channel, which is why we are excited to announce our integration with AdsWizz’s AudioMatic platform.” Digital audio is experiencing high growth, with 84% of advertisers and agencies saying it will play a bigger role in their media plans in the future. Today, 60% of digital audio is consumed via a mobile device.* The Tapad Graph is the largest digital identity resolution graph with differentiated global scale. The partnership enables audio advertisers to leverage The Tapad Graph for enhanced attribution, analytics, and targeting. Alexis van der Wyer, CEO at AdsWizz, added, “Digital audio is increasingly becoming ubiquitous in our media consumption and in our daily digital interactions, and because of that, audio advertising offers tremendous opportunity to personally interact with consumers in every moment of their daily lives. By integrating with Tapad, we enable our advertising partners to increase the effectiveness and the relevance of their marketing messages across audio channels.” To learn more about Tapad and our digital identity resolution products, visit our identity solutions page. *Digital Audio Exchange, “The Rise of Digital Audio Advertising,” https://thisisdax.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/DAX-Whitepaper.pdf About Tapad Tapad, Inc. is a global leader in digital identity resolution. The Tapad Graph, and its related solutions, provide a transparent, privacy-safe approach connecting brands to consumers through their devices globally. Our one-of-a-kind Graph Select offering enables marketers the flexibility and freedom of choice to correlate devices to varied objectives, driving campaign effectiveness and business results. Tapad is recognized across the industry for its product innovation, workplace culture and talent, and has earned numerous awards including One World Identity’s 2019 Top 100 Influencers in Identity Award. Headquartered in New York, Tapad also has offices in Chicago, London, Oslo, Singapore and Tokyo. About AdsWizz: AdsWizz has created the end-to-end technology platform that is powering the digital audio advertising ecosystem. AdsWizz powers well-known music platforms, podcasts and broadcasting groups worldwide with a comprehensive digital audio software suite of solutions that connect audio publishers to the advertising community. From dynamic ad insertion to advanced programmatic platforms to innovative new audio formats, AdsWizz efficiently connects buyers and sellers in digital audio. AdsWizz is headquartered in San Mateo, California, with an IT Development hub in Bucharest, Romania, and presence in 39 markets around the world. About AudioMatic: AdsWizz Demand Side, audio-centric DSP and audio buying platform, AudioMatic, enables programmatic audio buying and entirely new audio ad experiences that are proven to be more engaging and more effective, and have delivered measurable results for agencies and their brands all over the world. All the biggest ad agencies have used our programmatic trading platform, including Omnicom, GroupM, Havas, Publicis, Mobext, and more. Contact us today
Tapad, a part of Experian, experiences record growth following increased investment in identity resolution
Featured stories from Experian MarketingSixty-Nine Percent Organic Sales Growth Spurred by Expanded Business and Continued Investment in The Tapad Graph™ NEW YORK, May 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Tapad, a part of Experian, a global leader in digital identity resolution, today announced a record start to the year, following its highest earning year in the company’s history. Since January, Tapad has experienced a 69 percent organic increase in global revenue; with strategic investments in talent, continued high retention rates, and an expanded range of clients across global markets. Globally, Tapad increased its client base across multiple categories and verticals, catering to agencies, brands, telecoms, and data providers. The Tapad Graph™’s varied use cases and differentiated global scale have been instrumental to the company’s overall success to-date. With an ongoing investment in product, and expected feature releases slated for 2019, the company anticipates these accomplishments to continue. “Since the inception of our business, Tapad has heavily focused on enabling marketers to boost the performance of their campaigns with the help of our advanced digital identity resolution technologies,” said Sigvart Voss Eriksen, CEO at Tapad. “While we continue to grow, creating privacy-safe solutions that solve marketers evolving needs remains integral to our evolution. As pioneers in cross-device, we’re constantly innovating and pushing ourselves to be at the forefront of industry change. Our leadership in the space is recognized across the industry, as is evident by our current success.” In addition to partner expansions, Tapad also invested in new talent. In February, Tapad announced Ajit Thupil as the company’s first Senior Vice President of Identity, deepening the company’s commitment to creating ground-breaking digital identity resolution products for brands, agencies and platforms. Tapad’s investment in talent has been recognized by One World Identity’s 2019 Top 100 Influencers in Identity Award and by ClickZ’s 2019 Marketing Technology Awards. To learn more about Tapad and our digital identity resolution products, visit Experian.com Open job opportunities across the globe can be found on Tapad’s career page here: https://www.experian.com/careers/ About Tapad Tapad, Inc. is a global leader in digital identity resolution. The Tapad Graph™, and related solutions, provide a privacy-safe approach to connecting device identifiers to brand and marketer data, thereby allowing marketers around the world to maximize campaign effectiveness. Tapad is recognized across the industry for its innovation, growth and workplace culture, and has earned numerous awards, including the TMCnet Tech Culture Award. Based in New York, Tapad also has offices in Chicago, London, Oslo, Singapore and Tokyo, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Telenor Group. Contact us today
ExchangeWire: 2018 IAB UK & PwC digital adspend study: The Market Grows
Featured stories from Experian MarketingThe UK digital advertising market is worth £13.44bn, an increase year-on-year of 15%, reveals the 2018 IAB UK & PwC Digital Adspend Study. Report highlights The majority of all growth is coming from smartphone advertising, which has increased by £1.65bn (35%) from 2017. Smartphone advertising now represents 51% of all UK digital ad spend, up from 45% in 2017. Video is now the largest display format (£2307m), overtaking standard display banners (£1486m). Outstream/social in-feed has increased its majority in total video spend, now occupying a share of 57%, up from 52% in 2017. Social revenue now represents 23% of all digital ad spend. Growth is predicted to slow during 2019, with 5% estimated growth (+9% digital, +11% display, +9% search) compared to 15% in 2018. 2018 marks the tipping point towards a mobile-first ecosystem “For the past few years, industry commentators have been hailing the year of mobile. Each January the predictions come and the waiting commences for evidence to mark a tipping point, a shift to a mobile-first digital ad ecosystem. Well, drumroll… it was 2018! The latest Adspend report from IAB UK and PwC reveals that spend on smartphones outstripped spend on desktop for the first time last year. Brands spent 51% of total spend (which stands at £13.44 billion) on smartphones in 2018, up from 45% in 2017 – a significant milestone in the evolution of digital advertising. “This evidence shows that advertisers are increasingly thinking mobile-first. Growth in investment has historically lagged behind the amount of time spent on the device and we expect to see growth continue at a rapid pace to keep up with audience behaviour – two thirds of time spent online is now on mobile, according to UKOM. Other areas of growth highlighted by the report include video, which accounts for 44% of the total display market, while mobile video now makes up 51% of smartphone display. This is no doubt down to bigger mobile screens, better 4G and more readily available WiFi making video ads an increasingly attractive option. “Across the board, advertisers are investing in digital for longer-term brand building as well as short-term activation, with the direct-to-consumer market helping to drive this trend. What’s more, digital continues to be an accessible and popular route to market for businesses of all sizes, from leading advertisers to SMEs.” Tim Elkington, Chief Digital Officer, IAB UK Content & context crucial for attracting audiences “As people spend more and more of their time on mobile, it’s comes as no surprise that advertisers will follow where audiences are with their marketing spend. “Video has been the driving force in this growth, indicating that engaging visual content is still key in helping brands to achieve great results and to capture consumer attention in a vast sea of digital noise. “Video still has a way to go if it is to reach the level of effectiveness of traditional formats like cinema, but it will be interesting to see how the format develops over the next year or so. Ultimately, brilliant content and properly considered context are crucial for advertisers hoping to attract relevant audiences and build strong brands long term.” Kathryn Jacob OBE, CEO, Pearl & Dean Mobile-first approach driving investment in user experience “As a mobile-first approach has become the norm for many businesses, we’ve seen significant innovation and investment in the user experience that has fuelled the rise in mobile commerce. “Yet, for some years, limitations in the technology and formats available have meant that mobile advertising couldn’t always keep pace with changing consumer behaviours – delivering weaker performance when compared to desktop. “Fortunately, mobile has made huge strides in recent years. Mobile advertising affords great targeting opportunities for brands and a more interactive and immersive experience for consumers. “There is no reason to doubt this trend will continue as advertisers design their media, creative, and targeting strategy with mobile at the heart – optimising performance, enhancing the customer experience, and delivering the best results.” James Cragg, UK Managing Director, Tug New technologies to improve investment efficiency “The UK digital ad market has continued to grow despite the various challenges that the market has faced, including the current socioeconomic climate and general changes in the industry. As spend increases, it’s important to look at how media buying can be made as efficient as possible, minimising waste and maximising the return on investment. “Marketers will start to look to new technologies, like AI, to offer an impartial and more efficient approach to media buying, allowing marketers to measure effectiveness of campaigns and allocate spend accordingly.” Carl Erik Kjaersgaard, Chief Executive, Blackwood Seven Industry going from strength to strength “This significant growth in ad spend is great to see and shows that our industry is going from strength to strength. It’s especially good to see that as advertisers invest more and more in digital advertising, they’re becoming more considered in where they’re spending their money – with a large portion of the growth coming from companies that are part of IAB’s Gold Standard. “At The Trade Desk, we’ve long been ambassadors for the importance of transparency. These findings show that it isn’t just the right thing to do, but makes good business sense as advertisers increasingly choose partners who are demonstrating a commitment to best practice.” Anna Forbes, UK General Manager, The Trade Desk Advertisers embracing mobile “As consumers spend more of their time online, it’s no surprise that digital ad spend has continued its rise, up 15% to £13.4bn. With digital, in every sense, becoming further embedded in our daily lives, it is inevitable that this number is set to rise further next year. “Given the vast majority of people using their smartphone as their primary digital device, evident from site traffic stats we see across the board, the IAB report shows that advertisers have started to fully embrace this shift by following with ad spend. Over the last few years, a combination of faster wireless connectivity along with more capable devices has made it the go-to device for consumers to get online. This is set to continue over the next few years with 5G and even faster, more capable smartphones arriving (i.e. foldables) that will further cement ‘mobile’ as the main digital device to reach consumers.” Wajid Ali, Head of Paid Search, ForwardPMX Budgets must go to professionally produced content “In the IAB’s latest ‘Digital Adspend Study’ it is positive to see that outstream continues to dominate video spend, showing close to a 10% year-on-year increase. “Unsurprisingly, the study highlights that mobile is the most important distribution device (76% of all video spend is on the smartphone), and it’s great to see the format we invented dominating that space. “However, it’s now more pertinent than ever that clients and agencies invest their outstream budgets into professionally produced content and not social infeeds. Budgets must go where content is being produced, rather than aggregators and distributors, where the content is read rather than where a click happened. “We must remember how important local, national, and vertical press are to the global digital ecosystem. By unifying the best publishers at scale, delivering mobile-optimised creativity and outcome-orientated distribution, we are fighting to ensure publishers are getting their fair share of revenue in comparison to the social platforms.” Justin Taylor, UK MD, Teads UK market in robust health “The latest IAB digital ad spend report shows encouraging signs that the UK digital advertising market is in robust health, with mobile advertising continuing its upward trend. “The rise of up-and-coming ad formats like Shopping Ads, Google’s Responsive Search Ads, and Facebook Messenger Ads show that advertisers are looking for ways to capture consumer attention in the evolving digital landscape. As a result, the lines across search, social, and e-commerce are more blurred than ever with the introduction of features like Checkout for Instagram and Shopping ads on Google Images. Furthermore, with the rapid growth of Amazon’s ads business, e-commerce has quickly emerged as a third pillar of digital advertising, making it vital for marketers to have a complete view of the customer journey across channels and devices, if they hope to more accurately understand campaign performance and attribution.” Wesley MacLaggan, SVP of Marketing, Marin Software Digital identity resolution essential in understanding customer journey “Last year’s figures show that UK ad spend is starting to mirror the behaviour of consumers who, according to UKOM data, spend two-thirds of their time online on a smartphone. The fact that mobile ad spend now surpasses that of ad spend on desktop highlights marketers’ understanding that digital identity resolution is essential, not a nice-to-have. “Appreciating the cross-device behaviours of consumers allows brands to gain a better understanding of the customer journey and build stronger relationships with their audiences long term.” Tom Rolph, VP EMEA, Tapad, a part of Experian. Contact us today