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Contextual targeting is having a comeback, and it’s smarter, sharper, and more strategic than ever before. By 2030, annual contextual advertising spend is anticipated to reach $562 billion! As marketers move away from cookie-based targeting and adjust to a privacy-first digital world, contextual advertising is becoming one of the most effective ways to reach engaged audiences.
Unlike the basic contextual keyword targeting of the past, today’s contextual strategies are built on data, machine learning, and deep audience insights. Experian, with Audigent, plays a key role in powering this evolution, enabling marketers to execute contextual campaigns with the precision, performance, and compliance needed for today’s environment.
Let’s talk about how advertisers are reaching audiences in a changing advertising era with smarter contextual targeting.
What is contextual targeting?
Contextual targeting, by definition, is a cost-effective, privacy-safe way to engage audiences based on what they’re reading or watching in the moment without relying on personal identifiers. It places ads on webpages that contain content relevant to your product or service.
Contextual targeting vs. behavioral targeting
The concepts of contextual and behavioral targeting are commonly confused. Both aim to deliver relevant ads, but their methods differ significantly.
Let’s break it down.
Behavioral: Based on online behaviors
Behavioral targeting builds user profiles based on factors like browsing history, clicks, and purchases, tracking users across platforms using cookies and device IDs. For example, if someone researches new SUVs on multiple sites, they might see car-related ads long after they’ve stopped actively looking.
While 68% of consumers say they’re concerned about how their data is used in advertising, marketers have the opportunity to build trust through better targeting with Experian. We help brands meet rising consumer expectations with responsible, privacy-forward behavioral data and targeting options that enable you to reach audiences effectively while aligning with your privacy and control needs.
Contextual: Based on content and environment
Behavioral targeting will continue to play a valuable role in personalized marketing strategies, but contextual targeting is a compelling alternative or complement for strong performance in a privacy-safe, scalable, cost-conscious way.
Contextual targeting focuses on the ad environment. It analyzes the page’s content, such as keywords, tone, and structure, and serves ads that align with that context without personal identifiers or user tracking.
With Experian Marketing Data, you can enhance contextual targeting further by layering in data about who’s likely to be on the page. That combination of content signals and audience intent creates smarter, more privacy-compliant campaigns that perform better.
Innovations in contextual targeting
In its early form, contextual targeting depended on simple keyword matches. While functional, it lacked nuance and often resulted in broad or irrelevant placements.
Today, the approach is far more intelligent. Thanks to AI, machine learning, and natural language processing (NLP), platforms can now assess the full context of a webpage, analyzing tone, sentiment, structure, and content depth to determine the best ad match.
Contextually-Indexed Audiences
Experian’s Contextually-Indexed Audiences take contextual targeting one step further by analyzing traffic from websites and mobile applications to identify the types of frequent visitors to those pages with the power of rich consumer insights. Instead of simply showing up on relevant pages, brands can reach pre-qualified audiences mapped to those environments, combining intent, content, and data-driven strategy in a single solution.
This is where contextual targeting is headed and why it’s no longer just an alternative to behavioral but a strategic advantage in its own right.
A privacy-first future
Even as third-party cookies remain in use, their long-term reliability is uncertain, and the industry continues moving toward solutions that don’t depend on personal identifiers. Laws like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) have led advertisers to rethink how they engage audiences, shifting focus from individual tracking to content and context.
With modern tools, advertisers can use contextual targeting programmatic strategies to reach audiences in privacy-compliant ways that still deliver high performance. Programmatic platforms like demand-side platforms (DSPs) now offer pre-built contextual segments by industry, interest, seasonality, and more.
In a few clicks, marketers can launch campaigns that align with content environments where consumers are already engaged without behavioral tracking. For brands looking to future-proof their media strategies, contextual is one of the few options that checks every box.
Why more marketers are using contextual targeting
Contextual targeting can help you grow your audience, drive web traffic, boost visibility, and increase conversions as data privacy regulations grow stricter worldwide.
Here’s a deeper dive into the benefits of this targeting strategy.
Connect with ready-to-engage audiences
One of contextual targeting’s greatest advantages is the ability to meet consumers exactly where and when they’re most receptive. It places your ads on pages where they naturally add value to the user experience. When someone is actively reading or watching content about a specific topic, they’re already in the right mindset, which makes your ad feel more like a helpful recommendation than an interruption.
For example, if someone is reading a blog post comparing hiking backpacks, they’re far more likely to engage with an ad for outdoor apparel or trail shoes than one for an unrelated product like kitchenware.
Drive sales and revenue while lowering costs
Another draw of contextual targeting is its affordability for brands with limited budgets. It doesn’t require third-party data, identity graphs, or tracking infrastructure, so it’s easier on your media budget.
By aligning ads with page context, brands can also see real business results, such as:
- Lower cost per thousand impressions (CPM): Since contextual ads are served based on the content of the page rather than user profiles, they often have a lower price tag — especially in verticals where access to behavioral segments may be more competitive.
- Reduced cost-per-acquisition (CPA): More relevant impressions mean fewer wasted clicks and better ROI.
- Lower cost-per-click (CPC): On networks like Google Display, CPCs for contextually targeted ads can be as low as $0.45, especially in e-commerce and consumer goods sectors.
- Higher conversion rates: Ads placed in relevant environments outperform generic placements, which increases the likelihood of action and conversion.
- Higher lifetime customer value (LTV): Users who arrive at your site from contextually aligned ads are more likely to convert and become repeat customers, driving long-term revenue.
Quick and easy setup, built to perform
Contextual campaigns can also be launched quickly,often within a day, and produce immediate results.
One powerful option is Experian’s Contextually-Indexed Audiences, which combines real-time analysis from over two million websites with access to more than 1,400 trusted audience segments. Available through top demand-side platforms’ contextual marketplaces and Audigent private marketplaces (PMPs), this solution offers a scalable way to reach high-intent consumers without cookies or IDs.
Getting started is simple. With a few inputs like relevant topics, keywords, or content categories, you can activate ads in environments where your audience is already engaged. And the best part? The ease and speed to launch doesn’t mean you’re sacrificing results. Because your ads show up alongside content your audience is already interested in, they feel timely and relevant, which leads to more clicks, stronger engagement, and better overall performance.
Personalized experience based on known interest
Consumers crave personalization. In fact, Deloitte conducted a 2024 study that found 80% of consumers want personalized brand experiences and spend 50% more with the ones that do. Contextual targeting meets that expectation by delivering relevance in the moment without tracking users’ online behavior.
Experian’s Contextually-Indexed Audiences use contextual cues across the web to find common sets of audiences and identify where high-intent audience segments tend to show up. This helps advertisers deliver relevant, privacy-safe messaging to consumers who are more likely to engage, thereby building trust, capturing attention, and increasing performance while respecting user privacy.
Brand safety
Contextual targeting even helps brands avoid reputational pitfalls. With the help of AI and NLP, today’s contextual tools can assess what a page says and how it says it. That means you’re not just protecting user privacy but also your brand by ensuring your ads appear in relevant, trustworthy environments that reflect your values.
Contextual targeting examples
Contextual targeting works across nearly every industry, helping brands connect with audiences based on the content they’re consuming in the moment.
Here are a few examples of this in action across verticals.
Contextual targeting for automotive buyers
Most car buyers don’t just walk onto the lot. They arrive informed, having begun their journey online, researching makes, models, financing options, trade-in values, and credit requirements. It’s during this discovery phase that contextual targeting shines.
Advertisers in the automotive space can serve ads alongside car reviews, dealership comparisons, or articles about electric vehicle tax credits, connecting with shoppers actively gathering information and signaling strong purchase intent. When your ad appears in the middle of that research journey, it feels like the next logical step.
Contextual targeting also helps local dealerships and national brands stay top of mind during key decision-making moments without relying on third-party cookies.
Contextual targeting for first-time parents
New parents are one of the most information-hungry audiences online. From sleep training and stroller reviews to feeding schedules and baby-proofing tips, they consume a massive amount of content across various topics.
That content provides a rich canvas for contextual targeting. Brands selling baby gear, wellness products, insurance plans, or parenting services can place ads on relevant articles and forums, connecting with parents when they’re researching their options and making purchase decisions.
Contextual targeting for political campaigns
Contextual targeting helps political advertisers connect with voters in relevant, mission-aligned environments. In a time when misinformation and divisiveness can influence public perception, maintaining this control is more critical than ever.
With contextual targeting, campaigns can place their ads alongside trustworthy, high-quality content that addresses issues relevant to their supporters, whether it’s local policy, national news, or editorial commentary aligned with their platform. Advertisers can also avoid content that may contradict their message or brand values.
The future of contextual targeting
While Google no longer plans to fully deprecate third-party cookies, the industry has already moved forward. Most marketers have invested in cookieless solutions, and that momentum isn’t slowing down.
As contextual targeting becomes even more essential to future-proofing media strategies, its effectiveness depends on the quality and responsibility of the data behind it. That’s where Experian leads the way.
Experian Marketing Data as the foundation
At the core of Experian’s contextual targeting capabilities is Experian Marketing Data: a rich, privacy-compliant data set built from verified offline sources. This foundational data powers everything we do and fuels the full suite of Experian’s audience and targeting solutions.
Marketing Attributes and Audiences
One of the key products built from this data is Marketing Attributes, which transforms raw information into detailed, privacy-safe variables like lifestyle preferences, financial behaviors, and media habits. These attributes form the building blocks of Experian Audience solutions, allowing you to create highly specific segments tailored to your goals.
When applied to contextual targeting, these segments help you align your messaging with the types of content your ideal audiences are consuming in real time. We’ll help you activate contextually relevant campaigns using real audience insight to place the right message in the proper environment at the ideal moment.
Contextually-Indexed Audiences
Powered by Experian Marketing Data, Contextually-Indexed Audiences brings a new level of precision to contextual targeting. By analyzing traffic from over two million websites and apps, we offer access to 1,400 audience segments (like luxury shoppers or frequent travelers) that are most likely to visit specific content.
This lets you place your message in environments where your target customers already are, combining contextual relevance with data-driven intent. It’s a smarter, privacy-safe way to reach the right people without relying on cookies or user tracking.
You can activate these audiences instantly through the top demand-side platform’s contextual marketplace or partner with Audigent to create a custom PMP. A PMP offers more control and flexibility and allows you to enhance campaign performance with additional performance optimization capabilities and activation across any media-buying platforms.
Experian collaboration with Audigent and Peer39
Experian and Audigent partner to deliver SmartPMPs, or private marketplace deals that give advertisers access to premium inventory and privacy-first data activation in one streamlined solution.
What makes this partnership unique is Audigent’s supply-side integration. Instead of only running audience segments through the DSP, SmartPMPs pair Experian’s high-performing audiences with curated inventory from thousands of publishers, all accessible through a single deal ID.
This supply-side approach unlocks:
- Better reach across CTV, display, video, and more
- Stronger performance through real-time supply optimizations
- Personalized campaigns that don’t rely on cookies or user-level identifiers
We’ve also partnered with Peer39 and Audigent to expand contextual targeting capabilities further. These partnerships make it possible to match Experian syndicated audience segments, including geo-indexed and behavioral data, to contextual signals in real time.
Advertisers can now run fully cookieless campaigns with exceptional scale and performance by indexing Experian Marketing Data through our identity graph and activating through platforms like Audigent’s Hadron ID or Peer39’s integrations.
In one beta test with Audigent, a major national advertiser used this solution to run a 15-day campaign that exceeded CTR benchmarks by 25% with no cookies or IDs.
Talk to an Experian team member today
The future of digital advertising is about trust as much as performance.
Turn to Experian for help reaching your audience in the right environments using ethically sourced, privacy-first data. We help brands run scalable, contextually aligned campaigns built for today’s privacy landscape and tomorrow’s performance goals.
With tools like Marketing Attributes, Contextually-Indexed Audiences, and Audigent PMPs, we make it possible to connect meaningfully without crossing privacy boundaries. Let’s talk about how we can help you lead the way.
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Originally appeared on MediaPost As the digital ecosystem becomes more complex, managing multiple identifiers for consumers has emerged as a significant challenge. From cookies and IP addresses to mobile IDs and universal IDs, marketers and platforms face increasing difficulty in maintaining a unified view of their consumers. Without a coherent identity strategy, campaigns can suffer from poor targeting, limited personalization, and flawed attribution. Experian understands these challenges and offers solutions to help our partners navigate the complexities of a multi-ID landscape. By utilizing both digital and offline data, we provide the tools to unify fragmented identifiers and maintain a persistent view of consumers. As a result, marketers and platforms get rich insights, accurate cross-device targeting, improved addressability, and measurable advertising. The shifting identity landscape For years, the industry has relied on cookies to identify consumers across devices and platforms. However, with ongoing signal loss, including the uncertainty around cookies, and the evolution of privacy regulations, the digital identity landscape has grown more complicated. As consumers hop from one device to another, they are now represented by multiple signals, each tied to a different aspect of their digital behavior. While this shift brings complexity, it also opens the door for innovation. Marketers and ad platforms now have the opportunity to rethink their identity strategies and adopt more flexible approaches that are not reliant on a single identifier. This is where Experian comes in. Connecting the dots: A holistic view of the customer journey Our identity solutions are designed to help manage today’s multi-ID ecosystem by connecting digital and offline identifiers to a single customer profile. This creates a unified view of the consumer, and when combined with our understanding of customer behavior (e.g. demo, interests, shopping patterns) marketers and platforms get both insights about their customers and the addressability to reach them across channels. Four examples of what you can do with a strong identity foundation If an advertiser wants to make its first-party data more addressable, it can utilize our Digital Graph with universal IDs, hashed emails (HEMs), and connected TV (CTV) IDs to extend its reach. A publisher who wants to gain further insights into their audiences and create private marketplaces (PMPs) can achieve this goal with the use of our Digital Graph with hashed emails, universal IDs, mobile ad IDs (MAIDs), CTV IDs, and IPs. The publisher can use this in concert with Marketing Attributes to understand age, gender, household income, buying behavior, and more. The publisher can connect marketing attributes to the Digital Graph via our Living Unit ID (LUID) to understand more about consumers that fall into their segments. A demand-side platform (DSP) who wants to extend first-party and third-party audience reach across all digital devices on their platform will use the Digital Graph with all digital IDs to allow users of their platform to select cross-device extension against first-party and third-party audiences. A retail media network (RMN) can use our Offline and Digital Graphs to connect in-store and online purchases to a household profile—even when purchases are made by different people. The RMN can then reach that household across digital media platforms and accurately attribute the in-store purchase back to digital ad exposure. Identity as a strategic asset: Today and in the future In our paradoxical world where consumers are represented by multiple identifiers, yet marketers and platforms face signal loss, identity is more than a technical issue—it’s a strategic asset. The ability to unify identity data into a single profile provides marketers with the customer intelligence needed to drive growth and stay competitive. Here’s how we do it: Deep, persistent customer understanding: With roots in offline, deterministic data like names, addresses, and emails, we provide an accurate and persistent view of identity to our customers. This allows you to maintain a consistent and comprehensive understanding of your customers and their marketing attributes over time. Highly accurate and refreshed digital identities: Our signal-agnostic graph is not reliant on any one signal as it includes HEMs, cookies, MAIDs, IPs, Universal IDs, and CTV IDs. Our Digital Graph is updated weekly, ensuring the data is always fresh and addressable. This persistent linkage of individuals and households to their identifiers and devices means your campaigns are always targeting the right people. Connected offline and digital graphs for holistic insights: We connect offline and digital identities by following privacy-first best practices, such as preventing re-identification, to allow insights from the offline world to be used in the online world. This integrated approach, enriched with marketing data, gives you better insights, more addressable advertising, and the ability to engage customers across multiple devices while accurately measuring campaign impact. Transform challenges into opportunities The rise of the multi-ID landscape presents both challenges and opportunities for the advertising industry. We stand as the trusted partner to navigate this complexity, utilizing insights from the offline world to inform decisions in the online world, enabling personalized marketing and accurate attribution, and helping you achieve your current and future goals. Get started today Latest posts
The concept of the "hedged garden" is gaining traction in the AdTech space as a promising new approach. It offers a more controlled and protected environment for advertisers, reshaping how digital advertising operates. But what exactly is a hedged garden, and could it be the solution we've been looking for? Let's dive into the details and explore its implications. Walled gardens vs. the open web Walled gardens continue to disrupt the advertising industry to stay relevant. Google, Meta (Facebook), and Amazon, the largest walled gardens, offer consumer privacy and rich first-party data to advertisers. But, time spent within these platforms, Google and Meta specifically, continues to decrease. Open web: Pros and cons On the other hand, the open web allows for more transparency, scale, and constant diversification. Yet, this has not led to increased spending. As a result, the open web continues to lag behind walled gardens. With a heavy reliance on third-party data and growing concerns over signal loss, the open web faces significant challenges. Under these circumstances, advertisers turn to easy activation channels like walled gardens, even as they become less effective to marketers. Consumers are increasingly focused on privacy, pushing the industry toward alternatives to third-party cookies. As Google rethinks its cookie deprecation plans, channels like connected TV (CTV) and mobile apps, which don't rely on cookies, are gaining traction. “A significant portion of web traffic does not support cookies today — and that number will grow as Google rolls out [its] new solution. This means that the industry shouldn't slow down investments in cookieless solutions, including alternative IDs, first-party data and data-driven contextual targeting.”kimberly gilberti, general manager, experian This shift emphasizes first-party data and user choice as a potential solution that balances privacy with effective advertising sources. Enter the hedged garden So, what is a hedged garden? The “hedged garden” is a new industry concept where a network of publishers works together to activate first-party data sets in a privacy-compliant way across many partners at scale. These publishers run their businesses with large amounts of first-party consumer data. But they are not big enough on their own. What does a hedged garden look like? Hedges are more permeable and not as tall as walls. This idea is key to the success of the hedged garden. Data protection and privacy regulations As hedged gardens grow, staying compliant with privacy laws like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) is vital. These rules focus on protecting user data by requiring clear consent and transparency. Hedged gardens help publishers share first-party data in a safe, privacy-compliant way. By working together, they ensure data is used responsibly, aligning with strict privacy regulations. This not only keeps marketers compliant but also builds trust with consumers at a time when data protection is more important than ever. Opportunities for marketers in hedged gardens Hedged gardens offer unique opportunities for marketers to enhance their strategies. Unlike walled gardens, hedged gardens offer the ability to work with a wider array of data sources and provide more diverse insights into audience behavior. This flexibility lets marketers develop more tailored, cross-platform campaigns that reach users in different ways. Additionally, hedge gardens encourage collaboration with multiple partners, allowing for new partnerships and innovative strategies. With data from several sources, marketers can create more precise and privacy-compliant targeting methods to deliver better results. With the right approach, hedged gardens give marketers the freedom to break away from restrictive ecosystems and drive creative and impactful growth. How Experian navigates through hedged gardens As our ecosystem moves toward a hedged garden solution, how do we get involved? We are already a key ingredient for this type of solution within the TV landscape. Below, we walk through how we partner with one of our current TV media clients. Organize our client’s data and provide a Living Unit ID (LUID) First, we work with our client to clean and enhance their data, matching individual personal identifiable information (PII), such as an email address, to a household through a LUID. Our Digital Graph, which includes hashed emails (HEMs), cookies, mobile ad IDs (MAIDs), IPs, universal IDs, and CTV IDs, is rebuilt weekly to create accurate, refreshed connections. This consistent linkage creates precise targeting and measurement over time. Our interconnected Offline and Digital Graphs organize identity into households and devices, enriched with marketing data for deeper insights and better addressability. With partnerships across major platforms, we improve match rates, helping you activate audiences seamlessly for optimal reach and measurement. Enrich data through Experian Marketing Data Next, our TV media client licenses our Marketing Attributes. This data is the most comprehensive resource for both traditional and digital marketing campaigns. With its multi-channel availability and addressable capabilities, our Marketing Attributes allow our clients to develop insights and build audiences based on a wide range of attributes within their segment set, ensuring they reach relevant audiences across all channels. Activate audiences across the ecosystem Finally, we help our client execute their audiences across the full digital and TV ecosystem. We enable the connection that allows these audiences to be activated by matching partner LUIDs (example: LUID123 = LUIDABC). By using client-specific LUIDs to match up data in a privacy-first manner, we can continue to build strong partnerships within the fast-growing ecosystem. Are hedged gardens the future of advertising? Have we found the perfect bridge between walled gardens and the open web? We’re hedging our bets. Our vote is yes, but only time will tell. The future of advertising is shifting, and hedged gardens appear to be a promising model that balances the scale of walled gardens with the flexibility of the open web. We’re using what we learned from the TV industry to support other hedged garden verticals (retail media networks, audio, and gaming). Now that we know what a hedged garden is, we should consider what the future holds for both walled and hedged gardens. What’s next for walled gardens Increased privacy regulations: Walled gardens will face stricter regulations on data use, pushing them to adapt for compliance and trust. Reduced market dominance: As advertisers want more control, reliance on walled gardens could decline, shifting focus to hedged gardens. Diversified ad spend: Brands may spread their budgets across multiple platforms instead of being locked into walled gardens. The future of hedged gardens Greater industry collaboration: Expect more publishers and platforms to join forces in hedged gardens for better data activation. Expansion into new channels: Hedged gardens will expand into emerging channels like gaming and connected devices. Improved data integration: Privacy-first data sharing in hedged gardens will lead to smoother, more secure ad targeting. Data collaboration in a post-cookie world As signal loss becomes a growing concern, the need for secure, privacy-first data collaboration will rise. Hedged gardens offer a pathway forward, allowing advertisers to activate first-party data across multiple partners while complying with data regulations. This is where Experian Collaboration shines. By enabling data sharing without exposing raw consumer data, clients and partners can collaborate at Experian in their own environment or in clean rooms. Each of these environments allows partners to exchange data and gain insights without compromising privacy. Maximize your advertising reach with Experian As the advertising landscape changes, one thing remains clear: successful campaigns will require flexible, privacy-first solutions. At Experian, we are at the forefront of this shift. With our data expertise and advanced collaboration solutions, we’re here to help you navigate through both walled and hedged gardens to maximize your advertising reach. Together, we can navigate across the walled and hedged garden ecosystems. Contact us to learn how. Contact us Latest posts
Originally appeared on Adweek The advertising industry is experiencing a significant shift resulting from Oracle's market exit. Over the years, Oracle’s advertising tools—built through key acquisitions like Crosswise, BlueKai, Datalogix, and Grapeshot—have become essential for many marketers, data providers, and platforms. With Oracle’s departure, stakeholders are left searching for reliable alternatives to maintain their data-driven strategies. While this transition may seem daunting, it presents a unique opportunity to reassess audience and identity solutions. With the growing importance of adaptability and interoperability, now is the perfect time for advertisers, agencies, publishers, and platforms to adopt future-focused strategies. Oracle’s legacy: A combination of acquisitions Oracle’s advertising business wasn’t a unified solution but a collection of acquired technologies. Crosswise provided a cross-device identity graph; BlueKai offered a robust data management platform (DMP); Datalogix specialized in offline purchase data; and Grapeshot was known for its contextual targeting. Together, these tools powered a comprehensive offering for advertisers, data providers, and platforms. Yet, much of Oracle’s advertising success stemmed from the external data it used. For example, many of Oracle’s automotive audiences relied heavily on third-party data, largely powered by Experian data. This means that while Oracle may no longer be an option, many of the services marketers depended on through Oracle are still available from Experian, ensuring continuity. What this means for advertisers and agencies For advertisers and agencies, Oracle’s exit means losing access to its syndicated audiences. Fortunately, this doesn’t have to cause a major disruption. As one of Oracle’s primary data providers, we've mapped Oracle’s audiences to our own, ensuring marketers can easily maintain their targeting strategies without losing performance or efficiency. With access to over 2,400 syndicated audiences across key verticals such as demographics, automotive, retail purchases, or financial data, advertisers can continue their campaigns with confidence and precision. What sets us apart? Powered by data ranked #1 in accuracy by Truthset, our audiences are built on reliable, offline, deterministic data — like name, address, phone number, and email. This means advertisers can be confident that they are reaching the right audiences across all channels. With our audiences available across 30+ ad platforms, including programmatic, TV, and social media, advertisers and agencies have easy access to keep their campaigns running. For advertisers that ran audience targeting using Grapeshot's Contextual Platform, our new Contextually-Indexed Audiences are a replacement built for the evolving digital media landscape. By combining the precision of audience targeting with the flexibility of contextual targeting, marketers get a privacy-safe, yet scalable way to target audiences that is not reliant on cookies or other user identifiers. Marketers can activate these audiences through leading demand-side platforms (DSPs) or through Audigent private marketplaces (PMPs). A new opportunity for data providers Oracle’s marketplace has long been a crucial distribution channel for third-party data providers, particularly through BlueKai. With its closure, providers have an opportunity to explore new onboarding services and marketplaces that offer similar or even better reach and effectiveness. New alternative onboarding solutions are emerging, particularly in areas like TV and digital, ensuring that the loss of Oracle’s services does not leave a significant gap. These solutions are being built to overcome the challenges typically present with data onboarding — complicated integration processes, limited ID matching capabilities, and opaque pricing structures. One such solution is Experian’s new Third-Party Onboarding. What sets us apart? With our digital and offline identity capabilities embedded within this solution, data providers receive superior programmatic and connected TV (CTV) reach and addressability compared to the competition. The first data providers – Adentro, Kontext, L2, and Webbula – are already using this solution to increase the adoption of their audiences and maximize their revenue. Additionally, new marketplaces are emerging that aim to fill the void left by Oracle, offering distribution to key destinations and providing data providers with continued access to advertisers who require high-quality, third-party data. Platforms shift to new audience solutions Platforms that relied on Oracle for third-party data and audience onboarding are now facing challenges in maintaining their ability to target specific audiences. This could affect their inventory's attractiveness to buyers. However, we offer a seamless solution for platforms looking to replace Oracle’s capabilities. As one of Oracle’s primary data providers, we've already mapped Oracle’s audiences to our catalog of over 2,400 syndicated audiences. Platforms can continue providing precise audience targeting and ensure advertisers receive the performance that they demand. Additionally, Third-Party Onboarding builds upon the investment and infrastructure used to distribute our own audience segments, providing platforms with audiences from leading third-party data providers. Moving forward: Embracing connectivity We're dedicated to powering data-driven advertising through connectivity. With best-in-class syndicated audiences, new Contextually-Indexed Audiences, and an easy-to-use Third-Party Onboarding solution, we're enabling advertisers, agencies, data providers, and ad platforms to improve their marketing operations. Oracle’s departure marks the end of one era, but it also opens the door to a future where collaboration, interoperability, and connectivity define the landscape. By choosing partners like us, advertisers, agencies, and platforms can ensure they remain agile, innovative, and well-equipped to thrive in this new era of data-driven marketing. Reach out to your account representative or our audience team for information about our comprehensive audience mapping and finding the right audiences for your campaigns. Download our audience lookbook to discover more about Experian’s audiences. Contact us Latest posts