What makes an ad impression valuable to an advertiser? The inventory where an ad appears, the audience it reaches, or its potential to contribute to a business outcome?
The answer often involves all three. Yet curation is frequently discussed in terms of site lists, audience segments, and deal IDs. These play an important role, but they don’t tell the full story of the intelligence and decisioning required to evaluate supply and media opportunities.
Advertisers want to reach relevant audiences across quality inventory, make efficient use of their media investments, and achieve measurable business outcomes. Meeting those goals requires connecting the right identity, consumer intelligence, technology, and optimization closer to the source of each impression. Making decisions too late in the transaction can mean missing more effective, direct, or cost-efficient paths to an advertiser’s target audience.
The four pillars of effective curation
Curation works best when four capabilities come together to connect advertiser objectives with relevant media opportunities.
1. Identity makes data useful across environments
Advertisers know their customers, publishers know their audiences, supply-side platforms (SSPs) understand their inventory and traffic, and demand-side platforms (DSPs) bring knowledge of campaign goals. Data partners add behavioral insights. Each may use different identifiers, making it harder to recognize the same person or household consistently across the ecosystem.
Identity provides a shared foundation for connecting these signals. A trusted, widely adopted identity graph can link permitted identifiers to a consistent view of people and households across participating ecosystem partners. This allows advertiser, publisher, and audience data to work together under appropriate privacy controls to inform media decisions.
When that identity foundation is available through real-time integrations, audience signals can be interpreted more effectively as media opportunities arise. Decisioning can apply a consistent understanding of the audience across participating supply environments, keeping audience context connected as opportunities move through the ecosystem.
2. Consumer intelligence adds context to each opportunity
Effective consumer intelligence starts with trusted data and understanding who consumers are, what they do, and what they care about, collected and used with appropriate consent, privacy protections, and permissions.
To achieve that, it’s critical to identify which data providers, audience segments, and types of data are best suited to a specific campaign and deal. Different sources offer different insights, and selecting the right combination helps advertisers identify relevant audiences and make more informed media decisions.
The right signals depend on the campaign. Retail campaigns may draw on purchase history and other behaviors that help predict future spending. Automotive campaigns may rely more on in-market signals, given longer buying cycles, to inform audience, messaging, and channel strategies. First party audiences play a crucial role in many use cases, and the ability to apply these audiences through an independent decisioning system maximizes match rates while minimizing data sharing across platforms.
Rather than relying on a predefined mix of audience segments, an advanced decisioning system can use campaign goals, brand context, and other available signals to shape the audience for each opportunity.
It can help identify which data providers, segments, and data types are most relevant, and then adjust the audience mix as performance and outcomes provide new information. This supports more tailored media decisions throughout a campaign.
3. Technology integrations connect intelligence to supply
Real-time connections with SSPs let decisioning systems consider signals such as context, device information, and format alongside advertiser audience and campaign criteria as opportunities arise. But each SSP integration can expose different signals and data structures, making it difficult to apply a strategy consistently across supply. A neutral intelligence layer connected through the right technology framework can normalize those inputs across participating SSPs and return qualifying deal and audience signals through the SSP, helping DSPs prioritize relevant opportunities in their existing workflows.
4. Optimization turns insights into better decisions
Optimization becomes more informed as demand-side performance data, signals from real-time supply integrations, and online and offline conversion data come together. Connected through a consistent audience view, these signals can help categorize inventory and identify supply paths associated with stronger performance.
Real-time decisioning and optimization help apply those insights quickly during a campaign, while accumulated learnings can inform future campaign setup and delivery. Decisioning systems can evaluate impressions quickly. The quality, relevance, and connectivity of the information behind them determine how useful those decisions are.
Bringing intelligence closer to the impression
Advances in real-time technology are creating new opportunities to apply this intelligence earlier in the media transaction.
Traditionally, much of the intelligence informing programmatic buying has been applied through DSPs. Curation was developed and widely adopted in part because it improved decisioning and performance by layering supply side signals into the ad buying workflow. Containerization is how SSPs are extending that shift, allowing decisioning capabilities to operate within or alongside their infrastructure, closer to the source of supply.
While containers are powerful tools, containerization alone doesn’t create interoperability across supply. Each container operates within its SSP environment, therefore utilizing native features and signals available there.
Real-time integrations are needed to pass signals from participating SSP environments into a neutral decisioning layer. That layer can connect varying signals and identifiers across supply sources, helping apply decisioning more consistently across different sources and types of supply. Imagine an automotive campaign focused on test-drive bookings. Identity and audience signals help recognize likely buyers. SSP signals such as context and format describe the available placements. Campaign and conversion feedback can show which audience, context and placement combinations are performing better. Real-time integrations help apply those learnings across participating SSPs during the campaign, so the DSP can prioritize stronger opportunities while retaining control of bidding.
Advertisers, publishers, data providers, DSPs, and SSPs each contribute different signals that can inform media selection. Connecting those signals through trusted identity and interoperable technology can make decisioning more relevant to individual campaign objectives.
AI can take this a step further by analyzing connected signals and executing media decisions faster and more dynamically. As more relevant data becomes available in real time, AI-driven models could tailor how opportunities are evaluated based on an advertiser’s campaign objectives, audience priorities, and the specific requirements of a DSP. With access to appropriate performance feedback, these systems could refine their decisions over time, making curation increasingly responsive to individual campaigns.
What’s next for curation?
Curation will continue evolving into a real-time decisioning engine for the advertising ecosystem, connecting identity, consumer intelligence, technology, and optimization closer to where media opportunities become available. Neutrality and interoperability will be central to making that intelligence work across platforms and creating value for everyone involved.
Site lists and deal IDs remain useful components of programmatic activation. Relying on site lists and contextual signals alone, though, means overlooking much of what curation can offer. The broader value comes from connecting identity, consumer intelligence, technology, and optimization through real-time supply integrations to inform media decisions. As these capabilities become more connected, curation can play a greater role in how the industry evaluates and acts on media opportunities, helping advertisers and their partners make faster, more customized decisions across the open web.
That’s where the value of modern curation comes into focus, and where its future in media lies.
About the author
Budi Tanzi
SVP, Product, Experian
Budi Tanzi is the Senior Vice President of Product at Experian Marketing Services, overseeing all identity products. Prior to joining Experian, Budi worked at various stakeholders of the ad-tech ecosystem, such as Tapad, Sizmek, and StrikeAd. During his career, he held leadership roles in both Product Management and Solution Engineering. Budi has been living in New York for almost 11 years and enjoys being outdoors as well as sailing around NYC whenever possible.
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Commerce media networks have had a strong start. Growth has been fast, demand has been strong, and brands have made it clear they want closer access to commerce-driven audiences. But as more networks mature and enter the space, many are starting to feel the same pressure point: scale. Most commerce media networks were built as managed service businesses. That model works well early on. High-touch, white-glove partnerships make sense when you’re working with a handful of strategic brands. But there’s a ceiling. There are only so many teams, only so much inventory, and only so many advertisers that model can realistically support. It’s one thing for a large retailer to build custom programs for a P&G. It’s another to do that at scale for hundreds or thousands of brands. At some point, growth slows, not because demand disappears, but because the model can’t stretch any further. The scale problem no one likes to talk about That’s where many commerce media leaders find themselves today. Pausing to assess what comes next. For a long time, growth has been measured almost entirely through media dollars. That mindset is understandable. Media is familiar, it’s easy to quantify. It shows up clearly in negotiations and revenue reports. But viewing commerce media networks purely as media sales engines creates long-term risk. It can strain brand relationships, limit innovation, and distract from what commerce media networks actually do better than almost anyone else: understand consumers deeply. Signals are the real asset Commerce platforms sit close to decision-making. They see what people search for, what they consider, what they buy, and when those behaviors change. Those signals are incredibly powerful. And yet, most networks only activate them inside their own walled environments. That’s a missed opportunity. Curation represents the next area of growth for commerce media networks, and it doesn’t require replacing or diminishing existing media revenue. In fact, it complements it. No single commerce media network has all the data needed to give advertisers the scale and reach they’re looking for. And no advertiser wants to recreate the same audience in dozens of disconnected platforms. That friction creates inefficiency and slows decision-making. Why collaboration supports sustainable growth The opportunity is to look beyond first-party data alone and start thinking about collaboration. Second-party data. Data partnerships. Signal sharing done responsibly and transparently. Imagine an advertiser defining an audience once and being able to understand and reach that audience across multiple commerce environments. Not through a series of disconnected buys, but through a more consistent approach built on shared understanding leading to increased reach and more impactful campaigns. That’s easier for advertisers to manage, and it creates an additional revenue stream for commerce media networks that complements media sales rather than competing with them. Curation strengthens media, it doesn’t replace it Media will always play an important role. There is clear value in custom experiences tied directly to a commerce environment. Think buyouts, sponsored experiences, custom creative integrations. Those are situations where brands want to work closely with the network itself. But the signals commerce media networks hold don’t need to be limited to those moments. Those signals can be monetized independently through data products, co-ops, and partnerships that extend their value into other channels. That’s how curation adds value without undercutting existing revenue. A practical path forward for commerce media leaders For commerce media leaders thinking about their next phase of growth, the focus should be on sustainability. Building a massive media operation takes time and investment. Data-driven revenue streams can be introduced more quickly, require fewer internal resources, and provide steadier margins. It’s a practical approach. Use signal-based revenue to fund growth. Let that revenue support investment in tooling, talent, and media innovation over time. Bootstrapping, in the truest sense. Why transparency matters early There’s also a broader responsibility here. In many advertising channels, transparency followed growth, often after pressure from the market. Commerce media networks have an opportunity to do this differently. To lead with transparency from the start. To be clear with brands and consumers about how data is used, how signals are created, and how value flows through the ecosystem. Because the reality is this: commerce media networks are holding some of the most valuable intent signals in the market today. But those signals don’t retain their value in isolation. If they aren’t enhanced, combined, and made accessible in the right ways, someone else will step in to do it. And when that happens, control shifts away from the source. The bottom line The next chapter of commerce media isn’t just about selling more media alone. It’s about recognizing the value of the signals already in hand, working together to make them more useful, and building additional revenue streams that support long-term growth. That’s how commerce media networks grow without eating their own lunch. About the author Kevin Dunn Chief Revenue Officer, Experian Kevin Dunn joins Experian Marketing Services with more than 20 years of leadership experience across marketing and advertising technology, most recently serving as Senior Vice President of Brands and Agencies at LiveRamp. In that role, he led growth across retail, CPG, travel, hospitality, financial services, and healthcare, overseeing new business, account expansion, and channel partnerships. Kevin is known for building cohesive, accountable teams and leading with optimism, clarity, and a strong sense of shared purpose. His leadership philosophy centers on empowering people, driving positive outcomes for clients and fostering a culture where teams can grow, take smart risks, and succeed together. Latest posts
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