In this article…
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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With U.S. brands expected to invest over $28 billion in connected TV (CTV) in 2024, balancing linear TV and CTV is now a top priority. Advertisers need to integrate these platforms as the TV landscape evolves to reach audiences with various viewing habits. A successful strategy requires both linear and CTV approaches to effectively reach audiences at scale. We interviewed experts from Comcast Advertising, Disney, Fox, Samsung Ads, Snowflake, and others to gain insights on the evolving landscape of linear and CTV. In our video, they discuss audience fragmentation, data-driven targeting, measurement challenges, and more. Watch now to hear their perspectives. Five considerations for connecting with linear TV and CTV audiences 1. Adapt to audience fragmentation With consumers' rapid shift toward streaming, it's easy to overlook the enduring significance of linear TV, which still commands a large portion of viewership. According to Jamie Power of the Walt Disney Company, roughly half of the current ad supply remains linear, highlighting the need for brands to adapt their strategies to target traditional TV viewers and cord-cutters. As streaming continues to rise, ensuring your strategy integrates both CTV and linear TV is crucial for reaching the full spectrum of audiences. "I don't think that we thought the world would shift so quickly to streaming, but it's not always just all about streaming; there's still such a massive audience in linear."Jamie Power, Disney 2. Combine linear TV’s reach with CTV’s precision Blending the reach of linear TV with the granular targeting capabilities of CTV allows advertisers to engage both broad and niche audiences. Data is critical in understanding audience behavior across these platforms, enabling brands to create highly relevant campaigns tailored to specific audience segments. This strategic use of data enhances engagement and ensures that the right viewers see advertising campaigns. "The future of TV is really around managing the fragmentation of audiences and making sure that you can reach those audiences addressably wherever they're watching TV."Carmela Fournier, Comcast Advertising 3. Manage frequency across platforms Cross-platform campaigns require managing ad frequency to avoid oversaturation while ensuring adequate exposure. With a variety of offline and digital IDs resolved to consumers, our Digital and Offline Graphs can help maintain consistent messaging across linear TV and CTV. This approach allows advertisers to strike the right balance, preventing ad fatigue and delivering the right audience reach for campaign impact. "You've got to make sure that you're not reaching the same homes too many times, that you're reaching everybody the right amount of times."Justin Rosen, Ampersand 4. Focus on consistent measurement Linear TV and CTV offer different data granularities, necessitating tailored approaches for accurate cross-platform campaign measurement. Bridging these data gaps requires advanced tools that streamline reporting for both mediums. As the industry moves toward consistent measurement standards, advertisers must adopt solutions that provide a comprehensive view of campaign performance, enabling them to optimize their cross-platform efforts. "Where I think there are pitfalls are with the measurement piece, it's highly fragmented, there's more work to be done, we're not necessarily unified in terms of a consistent approach to measurement."April Weeks, Basis 5. Align with shifts in audience behavior The success of cross-platform campaigns hinges on staying agile and responsive to shifting audience preferences. As CTV adoption grows, advertisers must proactively adjust their strategies to align with how viewers engage across linear and streaming platforms. Ideas include: Regularly updating creative Adjusting the media mix Utilizing real-time data insights to ensure campaigns remain relevant "At Fox we were a traditional linear company, and essentially what we're trying to do is merge the reach and the scale of TV as well as the reach and the scale of all the cord-cutters and cord-nevers that Tubi possesses." Darren Sherriff – FoxDarren Sherriff, Fox As streaming TV rapidly changes, brands must stay ahead of trends and shifts in consumer behavior to tap into CTV's growing potential. By focusing on these opportunities, advertisers can blend linear TV and CTV, ensuring their campaigns reach audiences wherever they watch. Connect with Experian's TV experts As a trusted leader in data and identity services, Experian offers the expertise to help you succeed in television marketing. With our strong partnerships with key players in the TV industry, we provide access to unique marketing opportunities. Learn how Experian’s data and identity solutions can deliver outstanding results in advanced TV advertising. Partner with us today to enhance your marketing strategies using our Consumer View and Consumer Sync solutions. Connect with our TV experts Contact us Latest posts
In this article…Understanding the AI revolution in commerceFour benefits of the AI revolution coming to commerceFuture trends and predictionsChart the future of commerce with Experian Technology is pushing the boundaries of commerce like never before. Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the primary driving technologies at the forefront of the commerce evolution, using advanced algorithms to revolutionize marketing and personalize customer experiences. As of 2024, AI adoption in e-commerce is skyrocketing, with 84% of brands already using it or gearing up to do so. This article explores the AI revolution coming to commerce, focusing on what makes AI a driving force for e-commerce in particular, and the ways it's reshaping how businesses engage with consumers. Understanding the AI revolution in commerce AI is quickly reshaping commerce as we know it by democratizing access to sophisticated tools once reserved for large corporations, breaking down functional silos within organizations, and integrating data from multiple sources to achieve deeper customer understanding. It’s paving the way for a future where every brand interaction is uniquely crafted for the individual, powered by AI systems that anticipate preferences proactively. AI is a broad term that encompasses: Data mining: The gathering of current and historical data on which to base predictions Natural language processing (NLP): The interpretation of human language by computers Machine learning: The use of algorithms to learn from past experiences or examples to enhance data understanding The capabilities of AI have significantly matured into powerful tools that can improve operational efficiency and boost sales, even for smaller businesses. They have also fundamentally changed how businesses interact with customers and handle operations. As AI continues to develop, it has the potential to provide even more seamless, personalized, and ethically informed commerce experiences and establish new benchmarks for engagement and efficiency in the marketplace. Four benefits of the AI revolution coming to commerce Major commerce players like Amazon have benefited from AI and related technologies for a while. Through machine learning, they’ve optimized logistics, curated their product selection, and improved the user experience. As this technology quickly expands, businesses have unlimited opportunities to see the same efficiency, growth, and customer satisfaction as Amazon. Here are four primary benefits of AI adoption in commerce. 1. Data-driven decision making AI gives businesses powerful tools to analyze large amounts of data more quickly and accurately than a person. Through advanced algorithms and machine learning, AI can sift through historical sales data, customer behavior patterns, and market trends to uncover insights and suggest actions that might not be immediately obvious to human analysts. By transforming raw data into actionable insights, AI empowers businesses to make more informed decisions, reduce risks, and capitalize on opportunities. As a real-world example, Foxconn, the largest electronics contract manufacturer worldwide, worked with Amazon Machine Learning Solutions Lab to implement AI-enhanced business analytics for more accurate forecasting. This move improved forecasting accuracy by 8%, saved $533,000 annually, reduced labor waste, and improved customer satisfaction through data-driven decisions. 2. A better customer experience AI is set to make customer interactions smoother, faster, and more personalized by recommending products based on preferences and behaviors, making it easier for customers to find what they need. When consumers visit an online store, AI also provides instantaneous help via a chatbot that knows their order history and preferences. These AI-powered assistants offer real-time help like a knowledgeable store clerk. They give the appearance of higher-touch support and can answer basic questions at any hour, provide personalized product recommendations, and even troubleshoot issues. Chatbots free up human customer service agents for more complicated matters, and these agents can then use AI to obtain relevant information and suggestions for the customer during an interaction. 3. Personalized marketing Data-driven personalization of the customer journey has been shown to generate up to eight times the ROI, as data shows 71% of consumers now expect personalized brand interactions. Until AI came around, personalization at scale was complex to achieve. Now, gathering and processing data about a customer’s shopping experience is easier than ever based on lookalike customers and past behavior. Many businesses have adopted AI to glean deeper insights into purchase history, web browsing, and social media interactions to drive better segmentation and targeting. With AI, advertisers can analyze behavioral and demographic data to suggest products someone is likely to love. Consumers can now browse many of their favorite online stores and see product recommendations that perfectly match their tastes and needs. AI can also offer special discounts based on purchasing habits, and send personalized emails with products and content that interest customers to make their shopping experience more engaging and relevant. This personalization helps businesses forge stronger customer relationships. Personalization across digital storefronts Retail media involves placing advertisements within a retailer's website, app, or other digital platform to help brands target consumers based on their behavior and preferences within that environment. Retail media networks (RMNs) expand this capability across multiple retail platforms to create seamless advertising opportunities throughout the customer journey. Integrating AI into RMNs can improve personalization across digital storefronts with personalized, relevant ads and custom offers in real time that improve the customer experience. 4. Operational efficiency AI can also be beneficial on the back end, enabling more efficient resource allocation, pricing optimization, efficiency, and productivity. Customers can be frustrated when they visit a store for a specific product only to find it out of stock or unavailable in a particular size. With AI, these situations can be prevented through algorithms that forecast demand for certain items. Retailers like Amazon and Walmart both use AI to predict demand, with Walmart even tracking inventory in real time so managers can restock items as soon as they run out. AI can automate and streamline operational tasks to help businesses run smoother, faster, and more cost-effective operations. It can: Offload tedious data entry, scheduling, and order processing tasks for greater fulfillment accuracy. Analyze historical data and market trends, predicting demand to help businesses optimize inventory, reduce waste, track online and in-store sales, and prevent shortages. Forecast demand levels, transit times, and shipment delays to make better predictions about logistics and supply chains. Improve data quality using machine learning algorithms that find and correct product information errors, duplicates, and inconsistencies. Adjust prices based on competitor pricing, seasonal fluctuations, and market conditions to maximize profits. Pinpoint bottlenecks, identify issues before they escalate, and provide improvements for suggestions. Future trends and predictions If you want to stay ahead in e-commerce, it’s just as important to know what’s coming as it is to understand where things are today. Here are some of the trends expected to shape the rest of 2024 and beyond. Conversational commerce Conversational commerce allows real-time, two-way communication through AI-based text and voice assistants, social messaging apps, and chatbots. Generative AI advancements may soon enable more seamless, personalized interactions between customers and online retailers. This technology can improve customer engagement and satisfaction while providing helpful insights into preferences and behaviors for better personalization and targeting. Delivery optimization AI-driven delivery optimization uses AI to predict ideal routes for each individual delivery, boosting efficiency, reducing costs, promoting sustainability, and improving customer satisfaction throughout the delivery process. Visual search AI-driven visual search is quickly improving in accuracy, speed, and contextual understanding. Future developments may integrate seamlessly with augmented reality (AR) so shoppers can search for products by pointing their devices at physical objects. Social media and e-commerce platforms may soon incorporate visual search more prominently, allowing users to find products directly from images. AI content creation AI is already automating and optimizing aspects of content production: Algorithms can generate product descriptions, blog posts, and social media captions personalized to specific customer segments. AI tools also enable the creation of high-quality visuals and videos. NLP advancements ensure content is compelling and grammatically correct. AI-driven content strategies analyze consumer behavior and refine messaging to meet changing preferences and trends. This automation speeds up content creation while freeing resources for strategic planning and customer interaction. IoT integration Integrating AI with Internet of Things (IoT) devices could help make the ecosystem more interconnected in the future. AI algorithms can use data from IoT devices like smart appliances, wearables, and sensors to gather real-time insights into consumer behavior, preferences, and product usage patterns. This data enables personalized marketing strategies, predictive maintenance for products, and optimized inventory management. AI-driven IoT data analytics can also streamline supply chain operations to reduce costs and inefficiencies. Fraud detection and security There will likely be an increased focus on the ethical use of AI and data privacy regulations to strengthen consumer trust and transparency. AI-powered systems will get better at detecting and preventing fraud in e-commerce transactions, which will heighten security measures for both businesses and consumers. Chart the future of commerce with Experian AI has changed how marketers approach e-commerce in 2024. With AI-driven analytics and predictive capabilities, marketers can extract deeper insights from extensive data sets to gain a clearer understanding of consumer behavior. This enables refined segmentation, precise targeting, and real-time customization of messages and content to fit individual preferences. Beyond insights, AI automates routine tasks like ad placement, content creation, and customer service responses, freeing marketers to concentrate on strategic planning and creativity. Through machine learning, marketers can predict trends, optimize budgets, and fine-tune strategies faster and more accurately than ever. The time to embrace AI is now. At Experian, we’re here to help you make more data-driven decisions, deliver more relevant content, and reach the right audience at the right time. Using AI in your commerce marketing strategy with our Consumer View and Consumer Sync solutions can help you stay competitive with effective, engaging campaigns. Contact us to learn how we can empower your commerce advertising strategy today. Contact us Latest posts
In our Ask the Expert Series, we interview leaders from our partner organizations who are helping lead their brands to new heights in AdTech. Today’s interview is with Rachel Herbstman, VP of Data Innovation, and Anastasia Dukes-Asuen, Senior Director of Advanced TV Data & Insights at Ampersand. Could you introduce us to Ampersand and discuss your approach to TV advertising? Ampersand, a joint venture between Comcast, Charter, and Cox, is a media sales organization that offers a unified footprint, unlocking unparalleled scale and unique data/insights for local and national advertisers. Ampersand gives advertisers true audience first planning, scale in execution, and advanced measurement of their TV investments, representing 117 million multiscreen households and over 75% of addressable households in the U.S. (64 million households). We help clients reach their unique target audience and deliver their stories – anytime, anywhere, and on whatever device. How does adding streaming to a linear campaign, or vice versa, enhance overall campaign performance for marketers? Herbstman: Marketers have recognized that multiscreen media strategies are the strongest as viewership continues to fragment. Unique audiences exist in traditional TV and streaming, and failure to include either media channel will reduce the total reach opportunity. These channels have proven to validate unduplicated audiences. In our local business, adding streaming to a historically traditional linear-only media strategy increased campaign reach by 33%. Conversely, adding linear TV to a historically streaming-only media strategy increased reach by 209%. These metrics are validated by matching media exposures to an authenticated households subscriber ID and represent mass opportunities to reach new audiences with a multiscreen media strategy. When considering reallocating media investments, how does Ampersand help clients determine the most effective channels for specific campaigns? Herbstman: For a brand that historically invested in traditional TV, either national or local broadcast, we can provide insights to analyze the performance of any media campaign. The insights can include high-level metrics like reach and frequency and more granular metrics like unique reach per network. By seeing both the high-level results and more detailed granularity, we can provide optimization recommendations for funding other activation opportunities. Our database of past campaigns consistently demonstrates that gaining new eyeballs with a national TV campaign usually plateaus after a few weeks. In other words, if most of your intended audience is reached after about three or four weeks of national television, reaching any new viewers can be exponentially more expensive. We’ve built an Addressable Simulator tool for national advertisers that shows the potential impact of shifting a portion of the national media weight, specifically from the latter part of a flight, into addressable TV. Using our licensed Experian data set, we can measure any standard age/gender target or any advanced target to understand the complementary impact that addressable audience has on national media. This tool has dynamic inputs of CPMs and incidence rates, flight lengths, and budgets to simulate different scenarios and give marketers some intelligence on what holistic reach against that Experian segment they could expect with one given budget using brand-safe, traditional, and streaming inventory with an addressable activation. Additionally, we've developed an interactive eCPM calculator that helps national advertisers assess the cost efficiency of adding addressable TV to their traditional campaigns. By dynamically inputting CPMs, marketers can evaluate tradeoffs between media types for upcoming campaigns. Are there audience demographics that benefit from these combined media strategies, and what indicators or data points guide your recommendations to add cable to a local broadcast campaign versus other reallocations? Herbstman: By including cable or streaming in a local effort, a client can use a data-driven approach to find more intended viewers in other premium content. Utilizing the vast library of Experian audience segments paired with our robust sample of 64 million data-enabled homes enables Ampersand to provide insights into the most valuable networks and dayparts that the intended viewer will likely watch on either platform. With identity and viewing insights at scale, we can understand how consumers watch TV, even for inventory we have yet to sell. Our goal is to help marketers understand what’s happening as a result of their investments at a holistic level. We can analyze a campaign running across hundreds of designated market areas to quickly and simply understand the holistic delivery of their broadcast and cable weight by pulling back set-top-box exposures on broadcast and Ampersand-purchased cable on our measurable footprint. Then, we can determine the share of measurable reach that each portion’s media weight contributes to. We recommend optimizing towards a more balanced approach, where the reach levels for broadcast and cable mirror each other, creating a more effective market media mix. Once we confirm cable's potential in a market, we analyze network and daypart metrics to adjust key areas to optimize the campaign. We invite marketers to use these insights to measure their local or national TV campaign performance and garner unique perspectives to re-balance investments to drive reach and optimal frequencies. Are there common missteps to avoid? Dukes-Asuen: Ampersand's decades of experience with media and data insights have allowed us to create an extensive database complete with targeting and measurement benchmarks. We use this database to curate best practices for brands and help set them up for success, keeping their goals and objectives for reach and frequency in mind. Some clients spread their investment levels too thin, whether through short flight windows, low weekly frequencies, or targeting overly niche audiences that don't fully support KPI goals. One way to avoid these missteps is to set up a test-and-learn plan to validate a hypothesis and refine media strategies, ensuring campaigns are structured to garner meaningful insights. Ampersand can help ensure the test itself is constructed and supported to yield statistically relevant results, and the learnings can then be applied to the next campaign. How does Experian’s data enhance your campaigns at Ampersand? Dukes-Asuen: Within our Experian license, we can map the Experian Consumer View databases against our multichannel video programming distributors subscriber base in a privacy-compliant way to plan and activate them seamlessly. Experian has a rich set of audience targets and segmentation that we utilize to identify households that can be used for audience-based media execution with Ampersand. By defining the right audience—whether consumers are likely to purchase a product, exhibit certain behaviors, or demonstrate specific values—we enhance campaign performance and improve media spending efficiency for our advertisers. Additionally, how do you believe AI and other new technologies will impact your media buying approaches in the future, and how might these innovations improve campaign effectiveness and provide value to your clients? Herbstman: We have a strong use case on the measurement and analytics end. Using AI, we can aggregate a massive amount of historical data—viewership and exposure data. AI helps us understand overarching market trends and media performance to analyze campaign results and inform future campaign optimizations. The value of AI is in its role as an additional technology layer, enriching our insights portfolio and providing faster intelligence that enhances campaign effectiveness and delivers greater value to our clients. Can you share an example of how precise audience targeting and segmentation, powered by Experian, have led to significantly better media spend reallocations and campaign performance for marketers? One great example is how a national cruise brand dramatically improved its media spend and campaign performance by utilizing precise audience targeting and segmentation through Experian. By combining Ampersand’s addressable TV with Experian’s data-driven insights, they achieved a 14% incremental reach, a 3.1x higher frequency, and a 24% lower effective CPM. This strategic approach allowed them to reallocate their media spending more effectively, ensuring every impression reached their custom target audience. Thanks for the interview. For those interested in learning more about Ampersand, reach out for a personalized consultation. Contact us Latest posts