RampUp 2025 brought together some of the smartest minds in AdTech to talk about the future of our industry. I had the opportunity to ask attendees key questions about AI, data collaboration, and the challenges they wish they could solve instantly. Here’s what they had to say.
AI is everywhere in ads—How is it changing things?
AI’s influence on advertising is undeniable, and industry leaders at RampUp 2025 emphasized how it is transforming the way data is used across marketing workflows. The increasing presence of Generative AI like ChatGPT is making it easier to stitch together data from various sources and act on insights, helping marketers execute campaigns with more efficiency.
AI is no longer just about automation; it is now deeply embedded in audience building, personalization, and measurement, enabling marketers to optimize every step of the customer journey.
What’s the one AdTech headache you’d fix forever?
AdTech leaders agreed that some industry challenges have lingered for too long. Many expressed frustrations with the ongoing conversation about unifying cross-screen targeting and measurement. While the technology exists, aligning business priorities remains a roadblock. Others highlighted issues like the complexity of billing and reporting, which still needs to be faster and more reliable. There was also a strong push to educate brand marketers on the continued impact of offline media, such as billboards, and how data-driven strategies can enhance the effectiveness of out-of-home advertising.
Beyond these operational challenges, another recurring theme was the increasing importance of identity as the backbone of effective advertising. While brands are focused on collecting first-party data, the true challenge lies in activating that data at scale. Without a strong identity resolution strategy, first-party data alone is not enough to create meaningful audience connections across multiple platforms and devices.
What’s one AdTech tool or strategy you can’t live without?
When it comes to must-have tools and strategies, data collaboration and clean rooms emerged as essential. These solutions help companies, agencies, and publishers work together seamlessly while maintaining security and efficiency.
Another key strategy discussed was traffic shaping, which allows advertisers to push activation closer to publishers, reducing data leakage and improving overall performance. Both of these approaches are critical for advertisers aiming to scale.
However, as brands continue to seek more flexibility and efficiency, the conversation at RampUp expanded beyond individual tools toward a broader industry transformation. Interoperability has become a top priority, with brands, platforms, and data providers focused on ensuring seamless connectivity across clean rooms, customer data platforms (CDPs), and activation partners. The days of being locked into a single walled garden are over—the future is about data portability.
“RampUp made it clear that the industry is shifting toward curated, interoperable, and always-on identity solutions—and Experian is perfectly positioned to lead this next phase of growth.”
Suzanna Stevens, Sr. Enterprise Partnerships Manager
This shift is also driving changes in how brands manage identity. Rather than relying on one-off data onboarding, companies are increasingly adopting subscription-based identity solutions that provide an always-on, continuously refreshed identity graph. This model ensures that brands have up-to-date customer profiles while reducing inefficiencies associated with batch processing.
What privacy regulations should marketers be watching?
Privacy remains one of the most pressing concerns in AdTech, and industry experts highlighted the need for a better approach to regulation. Consent management was identified as a major priority since it is fluid and directly impacts how marketers engage with consumers. There was also a strong sentiment that the current state-by-state approach to privacy regulation in the U.S. is unsustainable. Instead, the industry would benefit from a national framework that simplifies compliance and ensures more consistent data governance across all states.
Final thoughts from RampUp 2025
RampUp 2025 showcased the rapid shifts happening in AdTech, from AI-driven efficiencies to the growing importance of data collaboration and privacy-first strategies. As the industry works to solve long-standing challenges, such as unification and regulatory fragmentation, innovation continues to drive new opportunities.
Experian remains committed to helping advertisers and marketers navigate these changes by enabling smarter, more connected, and privacy-conscious advertising solutions. We’re excited to see how these themes evolve throughout the year and look forward to collaborating with our partners to shape the future of digital advertising.
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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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