Originally appeared in MarketingProfs
We all understand the importance of data quality. Metrics like third-party validations, match rates, and accuracy scores help us assess data quality on its own terms. Yet too often, organizations struggle to connect high-quality data with real-world business outcomes. How does data accuracy directly impact the ability to reach target audiences and campaign performance?
Scale and cost: The tradeoffs of accuracy
Marketers are frequently incentivized to prioritize broad reach, even at the expense of precision. This often leads to decisions driven by short-term gains—reaching more people at a lower cost. The temptation is deceptively straightforward, but deep down we know overly simplistic approaches are likely to fall short.
Cheaper data solutions, even if they seem to provide greater reach, mask a deeper issue. The data may not be accurate. In fact, the initial savings from cheaper data typically result in higher long-term costs due to inefficiencies and waste that are hard to track. Unless you’re carefully evaluating your campaign results, it can be difficult to see where the inefficiencies are creeping in.
The hidden cost of inaccurate data
Programmatic platforms make it easy for mistargeted impressions to slip through unnoticed. Common issues include:
Direct mail waste is tangible: towering stacks of returned mail serve as undeniable reminders of inefficiency, not to mention the financial costs of wasted postage. Digital campaigns, by contrast, often obscure their inefficiencies within complex programmatic platforms or impression reports. It’s like watching a gust of wind scatter piles of paper into the ether—it’s hard to track and quantify.
As a result of these data inaccuracies, brands mistakenly assume they’re optimizing their budgets when, in fact, they’re hemorrhaging money and reaching the wrong people with a message they don’t care about. It’s a marketer’s nightmare scenario.
The perceived savings from cheaper, less accurate data turn out to be an illusion.
The compounding effect of inaccurate data
Consider a situation where an inaccurate insight or signal prompts a brand to adjust its targeting toward an underperforming segment. Each new campaign uses this flawed data to guide its optimizations, amplifying the waste. What starts as a minor inefficiency quickly becomes a significant budget drain, funneling resources into segments that aren’t delivering.
If you bake a cake but use salt instead of sugar–each new ingredient only makes the final product more unpalatable. With ad targeting, the feedback loop created by optimization tools exacerbates this issue. Decisions are made based on misleading metrics, perpetuating flawed strategies and causing brands to over-invest in underperforming tactics. Without scrutiny, brands risk building entire strategies on fundamentally flawed insights.
The value of investing in the highest quality data
Acting on what the data tells you
Collecting accurate data is just the first step—the real challenge is having the ability to act on what it reveals. Many brands enter campaigns with preconceived notions about their target audience, only to find the data tells a different story. Ignoring these insights stifles growth. The value of data-driven marketing lies in trusting the insights and adapting strategies accordingly.
How to test if your current approach is working
We understand that changing data providers can feel daunting, but there are low-lift ways to explore whether your current approach is truly delivering. Test the waters by selecting an Experian Audience on a major platform or building a custom audience to see how your campaigns perform. Alternatively, collaborate with Experian’s insights team to gain a deeper understanding of your audience and determine if it aligns with your current strategy. It’s a small step that could lead to a big impact.
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Buyers can now put Experian’s audience and contextual intelligence to work in Google Ad Manager Curation in two ways: through off-the-shelf solutions available directly in Google Ad Manager, or through Custom Curation packages that Experian builds using Google Ad Manager’s inventory supply. Together, these options bring Experian’s consumer data foundation closer to the Google supply agencies already buy, with the flexibility to choose between a ready-to-use solution and an Experian package tailored to specific campaign goals. Why targeting at the source matters Many audience strategies still apply targeting on the buy side, which means signals pass through multiple systems before an impression is evaluated. Each step can shrink the pool of requests where the audience is still recognizable, so a carefully built strategy can reach the auction at a fraction of the scale it started with. Google Ad Manager Curation moves segment evaluation closer to the ad request. When a request matches the selected Experian segment, Ad Manager sends the bid request with the associated Deal ID to the buyer’s DSP. This more direct path can support stronger match and deal-transaction rates, more accurate forecasting, and better access to the audience defined in the strategy. As AI shapes more media decisions, the quality and provenance of the data feeding those systems matter more. Evaluating audience or contextual criteria closer to the source helps preserve the connection between the strategy and the impression being considered. Two ways to get started The right entry point depends on how much customization the campaign requires. Buyers can access Experian solutions off-the-shelf directly in Google Ad Manager or work with Experian to build a Custom Curation package using Google Ad Manager inventory supply. Start off-the-shelf For buyers who want direct, self-service access to Experian audience and contextual solutions. Experian solutions are available off-the-shelf in Google Ad Manager, giving buyers a straightforward way to select the data or contextual strategy that fits their campaign and create packages through Google Ad Manager’s Curation capabilities. Experian Audiences Experian Audiences draw on a deterministic offline identity foundation that represents more than 250 million U.S. consumers and 126 million U.S. households. Buyers can choose from Experian’s Audiences spanning demographics, lifestyle, financial signals, media habits, and household characteristics. That depth adds real-world consumer context beyond digital behavior alone. Contextual Experian contextual solutions give buyers a way to reach relevant environments without relying on identity. Buyers can select contextual audiences aligned to specific interests, categories, and content to inform where media appears. Experian also offers Predictive Indexed, which uses Experian audiences to predict the contextual categories and pages to target based on the likelihood that consumers visiting those environments fall within the selected audience. This gives buyers an audience-informed way to approach contextual activation without requiring identity at the point of activation. Build a Custom Curation package For buyers who need a strategy tailored to specific audience, contextual, and inventory requirements. Experian can build Custom Curation packages using Google Ad Manager’s inventory supply based on the targeting criteria that matter for a campaign. Where off-the-shelf solutions draw on Experian data, custom packages can also incorporate partner audiences and a brand’s own first-party audiences. Packages can combine Experian audiences, partner audiences, a brand’s own first-party audiences, contextual signals, and inventory or site criteria. Experian applies those criteria against Google Ad Manager inventory supply and brings the data, targeting, and inventory together into a single curated deal. This gives buyers a way to combine audience and supply decisions rather than managing each component separately. The approach can be tailored to the campaign. A buyer might start with a defined audience and add contextual or inventory criteria, bring a brand’s established first-party audience into the strategy, or build around specific supply and audience-quality requirements. Choose the path that fits the campaign Both paths do the same underlying thing: they move the audience or contextual decision closer to the ad request, before signal loss builds across the path. Whether a campaign calls for something ready to use or a package built to spec, the result is a more direct line from strategy to impression. Ready to get started? Explore Experian solutions available off-the-shelf in Google Ad Manager or contact your Experian representative to request a Custom Curation package. Latest posts
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