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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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A successful back-to-school campaign strategy starts with identifying the key audience segments to target. Over half of all searches related to back-to-school happen within a select group of consumers – knowing which ones can go a long way in forming an effective marketing strategy. Focus on this smaller, targeted set to maximize your efforts. With over $72 billion projected in total U.S. back-to-school retail sales this year, you can capture more spend than ever before during this big shopping season by tailoring your strategy to a smaller set of targeted shoppers. Experian data can help you make the most of your back-to-school campaigns by uncovering the top five back-to-school audiences. What separates Experian's syndicated audiences Experian’s 2,400+ syndicated audiences are available directly on over 30 leading television, social, programmatic advertising platforms, and directly within Audigent for activation within private marketplaces (PMPs). Reach consumers based on who they are, where they live, and their household makeup. Experian ranked #1 in accuracy by Truthset for key demographic attributes such as Presence of Children. Access to unique audiences through Experian’s Partner Audiences available on Experian’s data marketplace, within Audigent for activation in PMPs and directly on platforms like DirectTV, Dish, Magnite, OpenAP, and The Trade Desk. Five audience segments for 2023 Our data provides key insights into who these shoppers are and how to reach them, allowing you to create personalized content tailored to their needs. What are the top five audiences you should add to your 2023 back-to-school campaign? High-Net-Worth Households Bilingual Multi-Generational Households Suburban Savvy Shoppers Young Suburban Families Tech-Savvy Families What do these audiences look like? Who are they? Where do they shop? Let's review each audience in a little more detail. High-Net-Worth Households This group consists of households with above-average income and education levels. They often lease luxury cars, purchase products in every channel, travel extensively, and are philanthropic supporters of the arts. Key features Wealthy Highly educated Lease luxury cars Purchase products in every channel Travelers Philanthropic supporters of the arts Bilingual Multi-Generational Households Large households in multilingual neighborhoods, filled with married parents and their kids. They are financially cautious, bilingual, and participate in team sports. Key features Bilingual Large households Married with kids Financially cautious Team sports Suburban Savvy Shoppers Middle-aged couples and families who earn above-average incomes, maintain active lifestyles, and spend their money on quality home products and furnishings. Key features Affluent Athletic activities Home products & furnishings Sporting goods High-priced children’s clothing Young Suburban Families This segment includes households in the middle child-rearing stages of life, typically with a dual income household and multiple children of school age. They typically have spacious single-family residences in suburban neighborhoods that are slightly above average in housing values. On weekends, these suburban young families often engage in activities like skateboarding, biking, and video games with their children. Key features Comfortable lifestyle Children’s games Wholesale members Family-centric activities Tech-Savvy Families Highly educated, affluent couples in their peak earning years, with a preference for both traditional and digital media, who live in upscale housing and are savvy investors and environmental philanthropists. Key features Highly educated Affluent Upscale housing Savvy investors Environmental philanthropists Tech apprentices Watch our 2024 video for tips from industry leaders for back-to-school In our new Q&A video with Experian experts, we explore changing consumer behaviors surrounding back-to-school shopping in 2024. In the video, we discuss: Anticipated shifts in consumer behaviors and shopping habits Tactics we predict marketers will employ to navigate signal loss Which channels will be the most successful And more! Watch now Need a custom audience? Reach out to our audience team and we can help you build and activate an Experian audience on the platform of your choice. Additionally, work with Experian’s network of data providers to build audiences and send to an Audigent PMP for activation. Contact us Latest posts
The AdTech industry is undergoing rapid changes as it adjusts to the impacts of data deprecation and ever-changing privacy regulations. At the same time, there are fears of a potential economic downturn. How should you handle marketing in a recession? What should your marketing mix look like? In this blog post, we'll cover how to navigate this uncertainty and three essential ingredients for your marketing mix. First, we'll look at the complexity and uncertainty facing marketers. Turbulence with Twitter After Elon Musk's Twitter takeover in October 2022, half of Twitter's top 100 advertisers left the platform and started to seek out alternatives. The retail media boom In the next four years, Forrester Research projects that U.S. retail media ad sales will double to reach 85 billion by 2026.1 Most of this growth is catalyzed by CPG and consumer electronic brands that have a scarcity of zero- and first-party data; they need more media closer to the point of purchase, especially as CFOs are scrutinizing budgets. Consumption continues to fragment It's becoming harder than ever to reach the right person, at the right time, predict their intent, and get a 360-degree view of your customer.2 Data deprecation is top of mind According to Forrester Research, updating their data strategy to address data deprecation is the number one priority for marketers. Addressing data deprecation is also a priority for consumers, who increasingly feel that audience targeting is more intrusive than beneficial.3 Data deprecation affects identity solutions Third-party data and mobile ad IDs (MAIDs) are the connective tissue for identity solutions. As we see those signals go away, there are fewer linkages to resolve identity and it's leading to a rise in fragmented, duplicated, and shallow identity. Recession fears In addition to everything happening in AdTech, there are also fears of a possible recession. According to Forrester, 40% of Gen Z and 41% of Millennials believe fears of an upcoming recession are greatly exaggerated. On the other hand, only 24% of Gen X and 12% of Baby Boomers agree.4 Navigate uncertainty and marketing in a recession With the current macroeconomic conditions, data deprecation, and fragmented consumption in mind, what should your strategy look like for marketing in a recession? Forrester recommends three strategies: People-led planning Test creative Optimize for marginal costs People-led planning Planning doesn't have to be fragmented. Map offline and online media exposures to consumer decision journeys. Strategies like lifetime value (LTV) driven audience segmentation to correlate awareness at top of the funnel layered with demand generation exposures harvested later in the funnel. To do this, it's crucial to work with providers that give you visibility into the audience buyer's journey to awareness, intent, consideration, and purchase, all the way through to loyalty.5 Test creative Make your creative work harder for you. Apply the same rigor with your creative that you applied to segmentation. Utilize multivariate testing to identify creative that is winning or losing. When you understand how each variable performs, you can scale the variables with creative optimization to have a material impact on performance. Optimize for marginal costs Optimize for marginal costs of acquisition, not just the average. Adjust for incrementality – what is the cost to acquire one more customer, rather than the average cost of acquisition. Find the right marketing mix in a recession With these changes in mind, how can you find the right marketing mix in a recession? We can show you the way. You can create the right marketing mix with three key ingredients: Audiences Identity Activation Let’s explore each ingredient to start you down the path toward marketing campaign success. Audiences: Know your customer The first ingredient to add to your marketing mix in a recession is your audience. Knowing your customer is key to targeting the right audiences successfully. Data-driven targeting can help you find your best audiences based on demographics, modeled lifestyles, and behaviors to improve marketing campaign performance. Not sure where to start when it comes to developing your target audience strategy? We can help. We track digital usage of our data used by advertisers and identified the top four digital audiences that advertisers purchased over the last four years. Four digital audiences to consider Marketing strategies are only as strong as the data foundation they’re built on. The top four digital audiences that advertisers are purchasing from Experian include: Demographics Behavioral Modeled Lifestyles Custom Audiences Demographics Examples include age, gender, relationship status, living situation, life experience, and employment. Behavioral This audience allows marketers to identify households that are more likely to engage in certain activities or belong to certain groups. Modeled Lifestyles Experian’s Mosaic® USA segmentation. This is a household-based consumer lifestyle segmentation system that classifies all U.S. households and neighborhoods into 71 unique types and 19 overarching groups, providing a 360-degree view of consumers’ choices, preferences, and habits. Custom Audiences This is an audience blended from multiple sources or derived from first-party look-alike modeling. Changes in digital audience strategies Over the last four years, Modeled Lifestyles and Custom Audience purchases represented the smallest share of digital activation, while Behavioral and Demographic segments were more popular with advertisers. When the U.S. rolled out the COVID-19 vaccine, consumers became more active. People were shopping in stores, returning to the gym, and taking trips that they had postponed during the height of the pandemic. Marketers turned to higher compositions of Demographic and Modeled Lifestyles to reach these audiences between April and December of 2021. Sustained growth in Demographic audience activation could suggest a move back to tried and true audience strategies as signals continue to decline and amid evolving regulation. With economic uncertainty, marketers return to what they know. Traditional targeting methods like Demographics and Modeled Lifestyles are the baseline of many marketing strategies and we predict that we will continue to see marketers activating against these data sets. Download our 2023 digital audience trends and predictions report to discover our full insights on how digital activation has changed and where we’re headed. Identity: Understand the customer journey Identity resolution is the next ingredient that you should add to your marketing mix in a recession. It should be a foundational element of every marketer's strategy. What is identity resolution? In the simplest terms, identity resolution is the process of matching different devices, IDs, and touchpoints back to a single person. Identity resolution expands marketers' addressability and reach of their target audience and helps inform and measure accurate customer journeys. Identity resolution challenges Identity resolution faces two main challenges: Making the data actionable. Humans are complex. We have behaviors that change based on our current social groups and life events, we use dozens of internet-connected devices in a single day, and we exhibit distinct behaviors that happen online and in the physical world. This means marketers have mounds of data being collected from different channels based on that dynamic behavior of people, making it feel impossible to organize the data in a way that makes it feel actionable, know how it ties back to real humans, and ensure they're doing it in a responsible and compliant way. Signal loss. Marketers continue to lose important signals that they've previously been able to rely on to inform their next move. Signals are being lost as our industry places more privacy regulations and restrictions on what can be tracked and as consumers themselves change behaviors to protect their privacy. As consumer behaviors continue to change and signals disappear, identity resolution gets exponentially harder. Expand addressability and reach with identity resolution Data deprecation adversely affects identity solutions, but identity resolution should be a key ingredient in your marketing mix. Identity resolution ensures that consumers experience more relevant products, offers, and messaging – allowing you to reap the ROI benefits of hitting consumers at the perfect point in their journey. Finding an identity resolution partner When selecting an identity resolution partner, you should understand the data and processes that are implemented behind the scenes. It's important to know: What makes up their consumer database? How fresh is their data? What identifiers can they match? How do they protect consumer privacy? At Experian, we're rooted in deterministic offline data which creates a stable foundation. We then layer in digital and behavioral touchpoints. We have decades of experience managing consumer data safely. We have insights on 250 million individuals, three billion devices, and one trillion device signals. Our databases evolve as quickly as the human behavior powering them does. Our approach to identity resolution is open and agnostic. This means we can collect and ingest nearly all available offline and online identifiers. We can do this in all types of environments, including connected TV (CTV), mobile, and cookieless. We have two types of identity resolution: Offline Digital This ensures we control how known and anonymous data points are connected for consumer privacy purposes. Identity resolution in action Our depth of data gives our clients access to see the whole human and gain the context around singular data points. Let's walk through an example of our identity resolution capabilities. Challenge Our TV media platform client needed to measure the effectiveness of an ad campaign they were running on behalf of a leading consumer electronics brand. The TV platform wanted to be able to accurately report on which consumers made a purchase after seeing the brand’s TV commercial on their platforms. Solution Using our digital identity resolution services, our client could capture online purchases made on the brand’s website and link them back to a consumer profile. In addition to online transactions, our client used our offline resolution services to resolve email addresses of consumers that purchased offline, using warranty registration details. With online and offline purchase data now resolved back to an individual ID, we also performed identity resolution on viewers in their TV subscriber files that had also been exposed to the TV commercial. This allowed us to identify subscribers that had both seen the ad and purchased a product. We provided our client with a packaged report that they could white-label and pass along to the brand. Results By providing this attribution reporting to the brand, the TV platform could validate the ROI spent on their platform. The brand was extremely satisfied with the results, and they transitioned the one-off TV commercial into an ongoing campaign and purchased quarterly measurement. This led to solid recurring revenue for the TV platform. Activation: Experiment and measure the impact The third and final ingredient to finding the right marketing mix in a recession is activation. Experimentation is the best way to determine which channels work best for your business and provide the most ROI. Demand-side platforms (DSP), video platforms, and sell-side targeting are three important activation channels that you should consider experimenting with. Demand-side platforms We continue to see increased demand for environments where alternative identifiers are being transacted (like DSPs and video). Social channels are decreasing; this can be attributed to changes in privacy, security, and concerns around brand safety. Amazon’s DSP is catching up with Google and Meta to become a top ad platform. Video platforms Digital video and other video channels like over-the-top (OTT) and CTV will continue to grow. Digital video will capture the most ad spend in 2023 (22.4% in 2023 vs 19.3% in 2022). Because of this, advertisers are placing bigger bets on the combination of addressable and CTV. Sell-side targeting Data sharing relationships will become strongest on the sell-side as we move toward consented first-party data. Ad dollars are shifting to channels that use the sell-side approach, like retail media and CTV. Sell-side targeting enables brands to access large amounts of inventory across publishers and retailers. By getting closer to the ad inventory, advertisers can future-proof their strategies by having more access to better data signals. Direct relationships like these will be necessary as privacy regulations increase and signal loss continues. We can help you find the right marketing mix in a recession Now is the time to be opportunistic. Gaining share of voice during a downturn is cost-effective. Proactive marketing builds pent-up demand. Delivering the right message in the right place at the right time means truly knowing your prospects and customers as individuals. At Experian, we bring you the highest-resolution picture of people, so you and your customers can connect with confidence. You can turn prospects into customers with the right audience. By understanding your customers better, you can find more like them. Together we can power better results. Get started Find the right marketing mix Check out our webinar, "Find the right marketing mix with rising consumer expectations." Guest speaker, Nikhil Lai, Senior Analyst from Forrester Research, joined Experian experts Erin Haselkorn and Eden Wilbur. Watch the recording to learn: New data on the complexity and uncertainty facing marketers Consumer trends for 2023 Recommendations on finding the right channel mix and the right consumers Watch now Get in touch Sources 2022 Retail Media Ad Sales Forecast, US. Forrester Research, Inc. 2022. Forrester Analytics Consumer Technographics® Technology, Media, and Telecom Topic Insights 1 Survey. Forrester Research, Inc. 2020. CMO Pulse Survey. Forrester Research, Inc. July 2021. Forrester's Consumer Energy And Retail Online Survey. Forrester Research, Inc. People-Led Planning Solves Customer Problems to Drive Growth. Forrester Research, Inc. August 2, 2021. Latest posts
In our last few blog posts, we’ve talked about customer segmentation and different ways to segment your target audience into smaller chunks like demographic and psychographic segmentation to connect with the right people. Customer segmentation enables marketers to focus their marketing efforts on their target customers, improving their marketing targeting strategy. But what if there was a subset of users that had an even bigger impact when targeted? Enter Super Users – the strategic players who can give your ROI numbers a major boost! It may take some trial-and-error testing to pinpoint these super segments accurately, but knowing how these key individuals interact is essential for any successful marketing targeting strategy. What is a Super User? As technology progresses and media consumption grows, a unique group is rising to the top. Activate Consulting's Technology & Media Outlook 2023 found that Super Users are powering the digital world, with a strong presence across all major media and technology verticals. This select crowd is made up of young, educated individuals who lead affluent lifestyles – spending more time and money than any other user group! Why should you add Super Users to your marketing targeting strategy? Super Users are a highly influential audience with the potential to drive major business growth. They stand out from other users in their commitment and dedication across four key areas: Time spent with media Spend Technology and media adoption Emerging eCommerce behaviors “Over the next years, the imperative for technology and media companies will be to identify, reach, and super-serve Super Users – the single group of power users whose time and spend far surpass those of other users.”Activate consulting's technology & media outlook 2023 You can use Super Users as a subset of your marketing targeting strategy. While you may need to reach beyond Super Users to achieve your goals, it’s worthwhile to consider: Targeting them separately Spending more on media Reaching them at a higher frequency Time spent with media Super Users make a powerful impact, despite comprising only 22% of the U.S. population. They are incredibly influential in terms of media consumption and engagement – spending more than double the amount of time interacting with content compared to other users. Inclined to multitask Super Users take multitasking to the next level. Not only do they spend more time with electronics, but they excel in the art of juggling multiple activities. While watching videos and playing video games on one device, Super Users might also be busy engaging with social media on another. This makes them an unstoppable force when it comes to getting the most out of their digital experiences! High share of dollar spend Super Users are big spenders when it comes to media, particularly in gaming and music. Compared with all other users, Super Users' average video spend is close to triple the amount ($76 vs $27). However, their biggest increases come from gaming and music; they're collectively spending 12x more on games and shelling out 21x as much for tunes! With 60% of eCommerce spend coming from Super Users, they are driving the industry forward with their enthusiasm and willingness to test out cutting-edge shopping trends like buying through social media, live streaming purchases, and trying on products virtually. Super Users are setting the tone for this dynamic industry. Technology and media adoption Most Super Users are brand advocates. They’re trendsetting individuals who stay ahead of the curve on media and technology. They eagerly take advantage of new products, services, and data-sharing opportunities to receive tailored ads that fit their lifestyle. Crypto & NFTs Super Users blaze the trail for cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens (NFTs)! This group is five times more likely to explore, engage with, and embrace new digital-monetary technologies. Pioneers of the Metaverse As Metaverse usage continues to rise, Super Users are leading the way. Over 80% of these trailblazers have embraced these digital spaces within just the last year. We’re seeing accelerated interest from them as they seek out new opportunities for creativity, connections, and transactions within their favorite Metaverses. Many express interest in Metaverse experiences such as purchasing physical items to creating virtual havens. In fact, they’re 5x more interested in all things meta-related! How Experian can help you identify and target Super Users So how can you find your Super Users and include them in your marketing targeting strategy? Whether you want to build or acquire highly addressable audiences, we can help you precisely reach the right individuals and households in any channel you desire with Consumer View. Consumer View It all starts with data. Delivering the right message in the right place at the right time means truly knowing your prospects and customers as individuals – their lifestyles, behaviors, and shopping preferences. Consumer View data can provide a deeper understanding of your customers. Consumer View is the world’s largest consumer database that contains over 3,900 attributes for 250 million adult consumers in the U.S. with coverage of 126 million (98%) of U.S. households. Consumer View can help you find out: What do your customers look like? What do your customers do? How and when should you reach your customers? What motivates your customers? Modeled and syndicated audiences We have over 2,500 pre-built audiences that are privacy-safe and built using advanced data science and the most comprehensive consumer data available. These digital audiences are readily available via major publishers, data management platforms (DMPs), advanced TV operators, and demand-side platforms (DSPs). Our pre-built audiences can be used consistently across multiple distribution partners – making sure you can quickly find the right audience for the right campaign without having to build your own consumer personas. In addition to being available as digital audiences, our segmentation products are also available to use across all consumer touchpoints to enable consistent omnichannel campaign targeting. There are infinite data combinations and selections we can help you with for optimal audience targeting. Using our comprehensive inventory of data, we can find even the most unusual of audiences to help you connect with new prospects. From demographics to behavioral and psychographic information, we draw on a massive base of knowledge accumulated during five decades in business. Mosaic® USA Experian’s Mosaic® USA is a household-based consumer lifestyle segmentation system that classifies all U.S. households and neighborhoods into 71 unique types and 19 overarching groups, providing a 360-degree view of consumers’ choices, preferences, and habits. Using Mosaic lifestyle segmentation, you can anticipate the behavior, attitudes, and preferences of your best customers and reach them in the most effective traditional and digital channels with the right message in the right place at the right time. Tailored Segmentation uses a sophisticated data-driven clustering system that leverages the 71 Mosaic types that match to first-party data like yours. Tailored Segmentation allows you to regroup Mosaic types based on the attributes you weigh as more impactful to your business. Have you designed your own segments in-house? You can apply Tailored Segmentation to those segments for deeper insights through a tailored analysis. Are you still looking for a way to segment your market even though you understand your typical best customer? Tailored Segmentation can weigh these attributes and develop a custom clustering and analysis of your market. We can help you find your Super Users Super Users are an important segment of any market. Marketers need to be able to identify them quickly and act upon their insights. Our marketing solutions provide the necessary data and analytical capabilities to easily find and target your potential Super Users for an effective marketing targeting strategy. With Experian, you can deliver messages that are more in line with what matters to this influential group of customers. We understand how challenging it can be to find these customers and ensure they get the tailored, personalized messaging they deserve – so let us help you do just that! We can provide deep insights beyond the generic customer persona that allows marketers to look into the effectiveness of their marketing strategies from multiple angles. We want to help you gain an edge over your competitors by helping you identify, target, and engage Super Users for increased revenue growth. Ready to find your Super Users? Get in touch Enhance your marketing targeting strategy today! Sources Activate Technology & Media Outlook 2023. Activate Consulting. Latest posts