At A Glance
2026 marketing trends reveal that people will spend more intentionally, prioritize value and simplicity, and expect personalization that’s transparent and privacy-first. Omnichannel journeys and micro-moments will shape how they shop, with generational differences influencing trust and digital expectations. Experian helps marketers respond with privacy-first identity, high-quality audience intelligence, and omnichannel activation that drive relevant and measurable performance.In this article…
The 2026 consumer is reconsidering how they want to engage with businesses. Research from Nielsen anticipates that in 2026, people will spend more intentionally, think more critically, and expect more from the brands they invite into their lives. They want clear value, marketing experiences that make decisions easier, and personalization that respects their privacy and improves the moment they’re in.
This change has big implications for marketers. Winning in 2026 will require understanding the motivations, concerns, and trust drivers behind consumer behavior. This means embracing a privacy-first identity foundation, deep audience intelligence, high-quality and ethically sourced data, omnichannel activation, and measurement that closes the loop across channels.
Below, we break down consumer shifts shaping 2026 and how you can translate them into practical strategies for 2026.
How will consumer behavior change in 2026, and how should marketers respond?
Consumers are going into 2026 feeling deeply cautious. According to 2026 consumer outlook data, 32.8% of global shoppers say they’re financially worse off than last year, and 73% of those consumers cite rising cost-of-living pressures as the reason.
Ultimately, people are spending, but they’re directing most of their dollars toward core categories like food, health, and household care. That mix of caution and restraint is shaping what they want from brands: clear value, relevant personalization, and simple, low-effort experiences that make choices feel easier and worthwhile.
Want more details on how consumer caution shaped the peak buying season in 2025? Explore our 2025 Holiday spending trends and insights report for insights that can set the foundation for your 2026 strategy.
Here are the consumer trends we expect to shape decision-making most in 2026 and how Experian can help you adapt.
Economic stability will outweigh values
Consumers are prioritizing the realities of their household budgets going into 2026. Global consumer research shows that environmental concerns fell from the #4 global worry to #9 in 2025, while financial pressures and geopolitical issues moved to the top of the list.
People still care about brand values, but economic stability is becoming a stronger driver behind how they decide what to buy, where to shop, and which brands they trust. Consumers want brands to be responsible, fair, and transparent, but they also expect brand values to align with their financial reality.
| Insight | Data point |
| Consumers who feel financially worse off than last year | 32.8% |
| Of those, consumers citing cost-of-living pressures | 73% |
| Environmental concerns falling in priority (2024 to 2025) | #4 to #9 in top global worries |
Source: Consumer Outlook: Guide to 2026
For your marketing, this means shifting from broad value messaging to audience-specific offers tailored to each group’s financial situation, understanding:
- Who feels financially stretched
- Who still has spending flexibility
- Who is shifting habits subtly (frequency, basket size, channel choice)
How marketers should respond to this trend
Experian helps brands read financial signals with accuracy. Using generational segments, income bands, lifestyle indicators, and geo-indexed audiences, you can distinguish between:
- Value-seeking shoppers who prioritize stretch, savings, and reliability
- Higher-income households motivated by sustainability, wellness, or premium experiences
- Multigenerational families with diverse influencers and decision drivers
- Urban vs. suburban households with different price sensitivities and convenience factors
Paired with Experian’s privacy-first identity graph, your brand can activate audiences aligned with consumer insights across commerce media networks (CMNs), connected TV (CTV), social platforms, and programmatic channels using curated private marketplaces (PMPs). This ensures your messaging reflects the financial realities of consumers in 2026. Experian’s predictive insight capabilities also help forecast shifts in financial mindset, enabling you to anticipate change instead of reacting to it.
As financial caution shapes everyday choices, the next question becomes how to remove friction and deliver value in ways that feel simple, relevant, and worth the spend.
Consumers will prioritize value, simplicity, and relevance
With everyday expenses still weighing on households, people will likely simplify their shopping habits in 2026. They want brands to make decisions easier, save them time, and offer clear value without extra effort.
Instead of wading through endless choices or chasing promotions, shoppers are responding to experiences that feel straightforward and trustworthy, with:
- Transparent pricing
- Clear benefits
- Recommendations aligned to budget and needs
- Frictionless decision paths
For your brand, it’ll be essential to deliver carefully crafted and targeted messages at the right moment, rather than overwhelming consumers with excessive messaging. Experian helps you pinpoint what value looks like for different audiences and tailor relevant experiences.
How marketers should respond to this trend
To meet consumers’ demand for value and simplicity, you’ll need to understand what “easy” and “worth it” mean to each audience before you activate a campaign. Experian enables this by identifying the moments, motivations, and household realities that shape how people simplify decisions.
Using Experian’s lifestyle indicators, category affinities, geo-indexed spend patterns, and financial mindset segments, you can quickly pinpoint:
- Which audiences want streamlined choices (e.g., fewer SKUs, clearer value cues)
- Which shoppers expect premium quality without complexity
- Which households prioritize speed and convenience over price
- Which consumers prefer digital-first journeys vs. in-store simplicity
Then, through Experian’s privacy-first identity graph, you can reliably reach these audiences across CMNs, CTV, social, and digital environments with:
- Product recommendations that reduce decision fatigue
- Promotions tuned to value drivers
- Creative that matches each audience’s expectations for ease
- Consistent messaging that aligns across all channels
Experian’s AI-powered simplicity helps reduce manual effort in this process, enabling your team to uncover opportunities, streamline workflows, and focus more time on strategy and outcomes. And as Experian continues to explore agentic workflows, you’ll be able to move from manual audience setup to intelligent audience discovery — enabling strategies you may not have considered before.
Once you’ve simplified the experience, consumers will expect the next layer of relevance: helpful, respectful personalization grounded in the data they choose to share.
People want personalization on their terms
According to Qualtrics’ 2026 Consumer Experience Trends Report, consumers still want personalization going into 2026, but they expect it to happen on their terms:
| Insight | Data point |
| Prefer personalized experiences | 64% |
| Say benefits outweigh privacy trade-offs | 39% |
| Feel uncomfortable with many data-driven personalization tactics | 32% |
Source: 2026 Consumer Experience Trends Report
First-party data is now the foundation of meaningful, privacy-first engagement. Consumers are far more willing to share information when the value exchange is obvious and when they feel in control of how that data is used. They expect brands to:
- Use only necessary data
- Explain how personalization improves the experience
- Offer easy preference controls
- Demonstrate transparent, privacy-first data practices
As your brand lives up to these expectations, trust grows, and consumers become more willing to share the first-party data you need for impactful, privacy-centric personalization in 2026.
Experian helps you meet these needs with Audience Engine, a self-service activation tool that enables you to quickly and accurately view and activate your first-party data and partner segments across 200+ platforms without high operational overhead. And when you need deeper insight, it also connects 3,500+ syndicated audiences and 20+ trusted third-party providers, so you can enrich your first-party data with privacy-safe insights.
This includes Experian’s most recent 2025 Syndicated Audiences release, which adds 400+ updated segments — including 62 Auto Loyalists — giving you a more granular, privacy-safe view of shifting values, lifestyle preferences, and intent signals for 2026. These segments break out characteristics by generation, income, gender, and urbanicity, so your brand can analyze where demand is rising and how behaviors differ across audience groups.
For example:
- An automaker can target Auto Loyalists: Acura with model-specific offers
- A luxury brand can activate Auto Loyalists: Alfa Romeo and adjust messaging by income band, age, urbanicity, or lifestyle
Used together, first-party data and enriched syndicated audiences allow you to personalize responsibly, target more effectively, and respond to 2026 consumer expectations while respecting their privacy wishes.
How marketers should respond to this trend
The future of personalization in 2026 is first-party and zero-party data, supported by a trustworthy identity framework.
Experian enables this through:
- Identity resolution connected to 95% of U.S. households
- Privacy-first activation across digital, CTV, and CMNs
- Data modernization that maintains accuracy and compliance
- Responsible automation that delivers high-performance, human-centered personalization consumers want in 2026
- Mosaic® USA, our household-level consumer classification system that provides a privacy-safe view of lifestyles and preferences so you can apply personalization intelligently across channels
- Audience Engine, which lets you activate and enrich your first-party data for richer, permission-based insights
- Marketing Attributes, which gives you access to thousands of demographic, behavioral, lifestyle, financial, and interest characteristics
As soon as your brand earns permission to personalize, the next expectation is to apply that personalization across channels.
Omnichannel behavior and real-time micro-moments will define how people shop
Consumers don’t differentiate between channels anymore. They want a seamless, cohesive shopping journey. Consumer buying trends indicate that people are shopping more frequently but purchasing fewer items per trip. This suggests more small, mission-driven decisions, often triggered by digital or mobile discovery.
As shoppers move fluidly between mobile, in-store, CTV, and social platforms, they rely on time-saving cues, simple comparisons, and contextual recommendations instead of complex decision-making processes. CMNs now influence choices across the digital shelf, in-store screens, and publisher networks, blurring the lines between media and commerce. Speed also matters; anything longer than next-day delivery reduces the likelihood of a purchase.
These behaviors create more micro-moments: quick, intent-driven decisions shaped by life stage, financial mindset, household composition, real-time signals, and micro-behaviors like quick trips, small-basket missions, and mobile search checks. Meeting consumers in these moments requires contextual relevance, not broad targeting.
How marketers should respond to this trend
Experian helps you act on omnichannel and micro-moment behavior by unifying identity and audiences across:
- CMNs
- CTV
- Social platforms
- Programmatic partners
- Retail media publishers
- In-store digital environments
Meanwhile, our audience assets give you the contextual accuracy these moments demand with:
- Geo-indexed spenders to understand financial posture and neighborhood patterns
- Generational household segments to reflect digital comfort and shopping rhythms
- Lifestyle and interest indicators aligned to real-life needs
- In-market and behavioral signals to reach consumers at the moment intent appears
With privacy-first identity resolution anchoring it all, your brand can deliver consistent sequencing, informed personalization, and accurate measurement across channels. This is essential when omnichannel is the expectation and micro-moments decide who wins the sale.
As these real-time behaviors shift, generational differences will further shape how consumers navigate channels, interpret value, and decide which brands earn their loyalty.
What’s new with Experian Marketing Data?
Explore hundreds of new and updated segments now available — auto, income, lifestyle, spend, TV, and more.
How are generational shifts shaping 2026 consumer behavior?
Generational dynamics are also likely to play a significant role in how people discover, evaluate, and buy in 2026. While every age group is prioritizing value, simplicity, and trust, they express these priorities differently.
Experian’s Syndicated Audiences updated for November 2025 include 61 new demographic segments — broken out by generation, income band, gender, and urbanicity — to help you reach each group with accuracy. These segments are informed by decades of responsible automation and predictive modeling, giving you a clearer view of how each group behaves, even as signals shift.
For example, a retail brand can use the Gen X Dual-Income Households segment to reach value-driven, digitally engaged shoppers, while another brand might activate Millennial Urban Professionals to tailor offers based on lifestyle, income, or urbanicity.
Here’s how key generations will shape buying and the Experian segments that can help you act on these customer insights.
Gen Z expects transparency, authenticity, and digital ease
- Values: Transparency, authenticity, responsible data use
- Digital behavior: Always-on, mobile-first, social and creator-influenced
- Decision drivers: Trust, clarity, seamless digital experiences
- Relevant Experian segments: Gen Z Urban Households, Gen Z Renters
Millennials seek value alignment, financial flexibility, and reliability
- Values: Fair pricing, quality, reliability
- Digital behavior: Efficiency-focused omnichannel shoppers
- Decision drivers: Time savings, cost relief, trust
- Relevant Experian segments: Millennial Urban Professionals, Millennial Parents
Gen X is increasingly digital, highly value-conscious, and loyal
- Values: Reliability, clarity, long-term value
- Digital behavior: Digitally engaged but friction-averse
- Decision drivers: Practicality, stability, predictable service
- Relevant Experian segments: Gen X Dual-Income Households
As these generational differences shape how people discover, evaluate, and buy, one theme unites every age group: trust now determines whether a brand earns attention, data, and loyalty. With today’s consumers scrutinizing how their information is used, that trust might just be what helps you succeed in 2026.
Why is trust the new currency in data-driven marketing?
In 2026, trust will differentiate the brands that flourish. Consumers want:
- Clear data practices
- Transparent value exchanges
- Confidence that brands are honoring their preferences
And as signals decline, first-party data strategies supported by privacy-first identity resolution and responsible automation have become the reliable, transparent foundation for trust-driven marketing.
Experian’s long-standing focus on data accuracy, modernization, and compliance — from quarterly releases and updates to our twice-yearly attribute retirement process — ensures you activate with the most current, ethical, and regulation-aligned data available. These practices strengthen consumer trust and drive more accurate targeting, better match rates, and measurable performance across channels.
This focus on accuracy, governance, and transparency also underpins Experian’s approach to ethical AI, ensuring innovations serve people first while giving you confidence in every decision.
How can marketers apply 2026 consumer insights today?
As trust becomes the deciding factor in whether consumers engage, share data, or stay loyal, marketers need clear ways to operationalize that trust. Fortunately, the insights shaping 2026 translate directly into practical actions your team can take right now.
Here’s where you can start:
- Audit your first-party data strategy and CRM hygiene
- Invest in scalable, privacy-first identity resolution
- Tailor messaging to financial attitudes, not just demographics
- Use Experian’s audience segments to match consumer values, generational traits, and urbanicity
- Build journey-based activation across mobile, CTV, social, and CMNs
- Implement measurement and closed-loop analytics so every activation feeds intelligence back into planning
- Evaluate where predictive insight and responsible automation can reduce manual work and improve outcomes
With Experian, you can reach the right people with the right message at the right moment with accuracy they can trust. Teams gain the predictive insight and responsible automation needed to act on these shifts at scale.
Looking for more insights into the year ahead?
If you’re planning for 2026, consumer behavior is just the starting point. Experian’s 2026 Digital trends and predictions report takes you deeper into the forces reshaping marketing —from AI moving from hype to implementation and the evolution of commerce media beyond retail.
What role does Experian play in helping brands activate data-driven marketing?
As you put these 2026 consumer insights into practice, the challenge becomes turning strategy into scaled, privacy-safe execution. Experian’s data, identity, and activation infrastructure can make the difference:
- Identity as the foundation: Connect first-party data to 95% of U.S. households for a unified, privacy-first view.
- Privacy-first activation: Engage audiences safely across every channel with compliant targeting.
- Actionable data depth: Combine demographic, behavioral, contextual, and household-level attributes to enrich insights.
- Omnichannel reach: Activate at scale across CTV, CMNs, social, programmatic, and in-store environments.
- Closed-loop measurement: Tie exposure to outcomes across channels, enabling more effective optimization and continuous improvement.
These capabilities provide your brand with the clarity, confidence, and control necessary for future success — powered by Experian’s human-centered approach to AI, which combines privacy-first clarity, predictive insight, AI-powered simplicity, real-time intelligence, and transparent innovation to deliver trust, accuracy, and measurable performance in 2026.
Build your 2026 strategy with data you can trust
Those who win in 2026 will be the ones who turn shifting consumer behavior into actionable intelligence rooted in trusted identity, accurate data, and measurement that proves what works. With economic caution shaping decisions, rising privacy expectations, and omnichannel journeys becoming the norm, brands that invest now in a strong data and identity foundation will be the ones that stay visible, relevant, and resilient.
Experian gives you that foundation by unifying identity, high-quality data, activation, and closed-loop measurement through a human-centered approach to AI. With privacy-first clarity, predictive insight, AI-powered simplicity, real-time intelligence, and transparent innovation, Experian helps you understand your audiences deeply, reach them responsibly, and adapt in real time as the market evolves.
2026 is coming fast. Now’s the moment to build a high-performance strategy.
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FAQs
The biggest consumer trends for 2026 revolve around intentional spending, value-conscious choices, low-effort experiences, and personalization that feels transparent and trustworthy. Consumers are cautiously optimistic but still managing tight budgets, prioritizing essentials, and gravitating toward brands that simplify decisions with clear value and relevant experiences that meet them across channels. Personalization remains a differentiator when it’s rooted in responsible data use and clear benefits.
You can use 2026 consumer insights to identify your highest-opportunity audiences, match your messaging and offers to their financial reality and values, and build journey-based activation across channels instead of working in silos. Experian’s identity graph and audiences help you connect online and offline behavior into a single, actionable view.
Experian’s identity graph helps marketers in 2026 by providing a privacy-first, unified view of consumers across channels, connecting first-party data to 95% of U.S. households. This allows you to recognize individuals and households accurately, enrich their data with reliable attributes, and activate personalized experiences across digital, CTV, and CMNs with confidence.
The result is better targeting, higher match rates, and more consistent, relevant engagement at every touchpoint. All of this is further strengthened by Experian’s human-centered approach to AI, which enhances clarity, accuracy, and real-time relevance.
Privacy-first marketing uses consumer data responsibly and transparently to improve the customer experience. In 2026, consumers still want personalization but are more selective about how their data is used.
With privacy-first marketing, you build trust by explaining why data is collected, giving people control, and personalizing only with consented, high-quality data. Experian supports this through our Responsible Data Practices, which prioritize fairness, accuracy, transparency, security, and inclusion.
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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 Paul Zovighian, VP of Marketplaces at Index Exchange. Sell-side activation vs. buy-side packaging What’s fundamentally changed with sell-side decisioning, and how does it now diverge from traditional buy-side packaging? Sell-side decisioning is programmatic’s next major evolution – one that redefines how intelligence enters the transaction. Advances in infrastructure and computing power now allow supply-side platforms(SSPs) to act in the crucial pre-bid moment, enriching impressions with context, quality, and data before they reach the buy side. This isn’t just about efficiency; it’s about unlocking new value. Smarter requests mean buyers see only the most relevant opportunities, while publishers gain recognition for the true worth of their audiences and environments. We’re still at the beginning of this shift. Many players still package inventory without engaging in real pre-bid intelligence. As the market matures, the companies that evolve toward sell-side decisioning will be the ones to set the pace for programmatic’s future. Economic shifts with scaled curation As curation scales, what economic levers shift for both publishers and buyers, and how do those shifts influence deal structure and media planning? As curation scales, one of the most powerful levers is data. It’s the industry’s most valuable asset, and on Index it keeps its full worth. We don’t take a platform cut or add hidden fees, so data partners benefit from the clearest, most efficient economics in the market. Data vendors gain confidence that their economics aren’t eroded by a platform tax. For publishers, this means stronger yield and more ad spend flowing directly into working media. When data retains its full value, it enhances how impressions are packaged, priced, and differentiated—driving more competition for quality inventory and more opportunities for revenue. For buyers, it means compressed supply paths and total transparency – they know exactly what they’re paying for. With no intermediaries and full transparency into economics, buyers gain a clearer view of where their budgets go and the confidence that their investments reach real audiences in trusted environments. They benefit from cleaner supply chains, better performance, and more meaningful alignment between spend and outcome. The result is a healthier marketplace where both sides benefit from efficiency, fairness, and scale. Moving decisions upstream for value What decisions historically made in DSPs should now move upstream to publishers or SSPs to unlock more value, and which should remain buy-side? Decisioning is no longer confined to demand-side platforms(DSPs). We can enrich impressions by applying intelligence — via data, algorithms, creative technology, and more, before they even reach the buy side — adding context, filtering out low-quality supply, and expanding audience discovery. This isn’t about shifting roles; DSPs remain critical for campaign strategy, optimization, and budget allocation. The sell side simply ensures every bid request is smarter from the start, creating more value for all parties. In doing so, we also alleviate pressure on DSPs — enabling more comprehensive data discovery by searching for signals at the top of the funnel, prior to optimization. That means DSPs can focus on what they do best, supported by a cleaner, more transparent supply path. Index Marketplaces use cases explained Index Marketplaces is designed to enable the strength of our partners, and Experian brings one of the broadest sets of demographic and audience insights in the industry. That scale enables a wide variety of applications, from more precise audience activation to deeper measurement and analytics. What’s different on the sell side is how those insights are applied. By activating Experian’s syndicated audiences directly at the point of decision, their value is realized in real time and across the full scale of the open internet. Buyers gain a clearer path to relevant audiences, and publishers benefit from stronger alignment between data and media. It’s an approach that ensures partners like Experian can maximize the impact of their assets while helping the market move toward more intelligent, performance-driven activation. Identity signals with stronger privacy For identity partners like Experian, what’s the right way to bring audience, context, and propensity signals into sell-side activation? The beauty of sell-side decisioning is that it reduces the hops in how identity signals are applied. Without it, IDs have to travel through multiple platforms, creating extra handoffs and additional risks of data loss or leakage. With sell-side decisioning, those signals are obfuscated under a deal ID and applied directly at the point of decision. That means audience, context, and propensity data are activated securely, without ever leaving the sell-side environment. For partners like Experian, it’s the cleanest path to value: fewer hops, stronger privacy protection, and clearer economics for everyone in the chain. Contact us About our expert Paul Zovighian VP of Marketplaces, Index Exchange Paul Zovighian carries over a decade of industry expertise, stemming from his analytics and optimization roots to his current post as VP, Marketplaces, where he is focused on the commercial activation of Index’s newest product, Index Marketplaces. Previously, in his role as VP of corporate development, Paul led Index’s first-ever business acquisition. In his spare time, he enjoys long walks on the beach and befriending cats in NYC’s thriving bodega community. About Index Exchange Index Exchange is a global advertising supply-side platform enabling media owners to maximize the value of their content on any screen. They’re a proud industry pioneer with over 20 years of experience connecting leading experience makers with the world’s largest brands to ensure a quality experience for consumers. FAQs What is sell-side decisioning, and why is it important? Sell-side decisioning allows publishers to add intelligence, like audience data and context, before ad impressions are sent to buyers. This makes the process more efficient and ensures advertisers see only the most relevant opportunities. How does sell-side decisioning differ from traditional buy-side packaging? Traditional buy-side packaging happens after impressions are sent to demand-side platforms (DSPs). Sell-side decisioning moves some of that intelligence upstream, enriching impressions earlier and reducing inefficiencies. What does "curation" mean in this context, and how does it benefit publishers and advertisers? Curation refers to the process of organizing and enriching ad inventory with data and context. For publishers, it leads to better yield and more ad spend going directly to their media. For advertisers, it means clearer, more transparent supply paths. How does sell-side decisioning improve privacy? By applying audience and identity signals directly on the sell side, data stays within a secure environment. This reduces the number of platforms handling sensitive information, lowering the risk of data loss or leakage. What role does Experian play in sell-side decisioning? Experian provides demographic and audience insights that are activated directly at the point of decision. This helps advertisers reach the right audiences more effectively while ensuring publishers can maximize the value of their inventory. Why is moving decisioning upstream beneficial for DSPs? When publishers and SSPs handle some decisioning earlier, DSPs can focus on campaign strategy and optimization. This creates a cleaner, more efficient process for everyone involved. What is a deal ID, and how does it enhance privacy? A deal ID is a unique identifier used in programmatic advertising to bundle audience and context signals securely. It ensures data is applied without being exposed or shared across multiple platforms. Latest posts
As artificial intelligence (AI), connected TV (CTV), and data collaboration continue to advance, advertisers are discovering new ways to meet audiences where they are; on their terms and in their spaces. These innovations are creating opportunities to deliver more personalized, impactful campaigns that were unimaginable just a few years ago. At Cannes Lions 2025, we sat down with industry leaders from Butler Till, Comcast Advertising, Index Exchange, IQVIA Digital, Optable, PMG, Samsung Ads, and Sports Innovation Lab. From reimagining the living room experience to using AI in practice for better outcomes, here’s what we learned about the trends driving advertising forward. 1. CTV turns living rooms into active spaces CTV has turned the living room into a hub of interaction, discovery, and commerce. Younger audiences are using their TVs like mobile devices; streaming, learning, and even controlling their homes. This shift is creating new opportunities for advertisers to deliver relevant, personalized experiences where audiences are already engaged. With premium content and interactive tools, the living room is no longer just a passive space, it’s where attention meets action, and where brands can connect with audiences in meaningful ways. How Experian helps With Experian, advertisers can connect first-party data with CTV IDs, ensuring accurate and measurable targeting while maintaining a privacy-first approach. That means brands reach viewers with messages that feel personal, without losing trust. “We surveyed 1,000 smart TV owners and found that younger audiences are using their TVs like mobile devices. Two-thirds use them for social media, 40% for self-improvement like Coursera or TED Talks, and 25% for interactivity; controlling appliances or home temperatures. Interactivity with connected TVs is skyrocketing.”Justin Evans 2. Creators build stronger connections with audiences Creators are no longer limited to social media; they are now a driving force in CTV. Creator led programming is capturing attention and driving post view actions, offering advertisers a unique way to connect with passionate, engaged audiences. By thinking of creators as “micro networks” with built in communities, advertisers can meet fans where they already gather and deliver authentic, impactful messages that resonate. How Experian helps Experian helps advertisers tap into the creator economy by identifying topical audiences that align with influencer niches—like food, travel, gaming and entertainment—and activating them across the open web. Through Audigent’s integration with DV360, brands can pair Experian's expansive audience targeting capabilities with Audigent's Curated Deals to reach engaged viewers in creator-led environments. This approach ensures ads appear where audiences are most receptive, enhancing relevance and performance. “The creator economy is moving into TV. It’s incredible to see social influencers, once dominant on platforms, now creating high quality content for streaming, networks, and more.”Gina Whelehan 3. Data collaboration that drives better results Advertisers rely on data to reach the right audiences, but privacy concerns are reshaping how it’s collected, shared, and used. Data collaboration enables brands to combine multiple data sets (like first-party data and syndicated audiences) to improve planning, activation, and measurement. While privacy remains a priority, the focus is on creating actionable insights that drive better results and build trust with consumers. By focusing on consented, privacy safe identity solutions, advertisers can achieve better outcomes while respecting consumer privacy; a win-win for brands and audiences alike. How Experian helps Experian’s privacy-first approach ensures that all data activation occurs with compliance and consent. By maintaining high match rates, offering flexible collaboration options (including clean rooms, first-party data onboarding, and syndicated audiences) and adhering to transparent methodologies, Experian facilitates seamless collaboration between brands, publishers, and platforms. This helps build trust and strengthen long-term connections with audiences. “The area we’re most excited about is identity resolution on the publisher side. Publishers can reinsert signal and create better results for advertisers. This wasn’t always well-articulated, but today we have case studies proving publishers can help improve outcomes.” Vlad Stesin 4. Optimizing supply paths for better outcomes Supply path optimization (SPO) helps advertisers improve campaign efficiency by increasing viewability and reducing waste. Supply-side decisioning builds on this by identifying the audiences advertisers want to reach, the content those audiences consume, and the publishers with the most relevant inventory. Together, these strategies create a more intelligent and efficient ecosystem, ensuring ads are delivered in the right context, to the right people, on the right platforms. How Experian helps Experian’s data solutions, including both Experian’s and Audigent’s contextual and identity capabilities, are available across sell-side (SSPs) and buy-side (DSPs) platforms, enabling smarter decision-making throughout the media supply chain. Audigent’s direct integrations with publishers provide an unfiltered view into available inventory, offering deeper insights that inform campaign optimization. These insights can be activated in real time and transacted within advertisers’ existing buying platforms. By powering real-time intelligence across the ecosystem, from advertisers to DSPs, SSPs, and publishers, Experian and Audigent help drive better outcomes, more efficient media spend, and greater value for all participants. “Sell-side decisioning activates the intelligence of the exchange, along with partners like Experian, to optimize auctions in real time. This helps pre-decision buys that flow to the DSPs, making the buying process smarter, more efficient, and ultimately driving better value for marketers and publishers.” Mike McNeeley 5. AI that streamlines agency workflows AI is a practical tool that agencies are using to streamline workflows and deliver better results. From planning and pacing to creative iteration, AI is helping teams move faster and smarter. In fact, 67% of global marketing and communications professionals now use AI for content creation frequently or all the time, underscoring its role in modern workflows. The key is to think of AI as a navigator, not a replacement. It handles repetitive tasks, freeing up teams to focus on strategy and creativity, while enabling faster tests, fewer dead ends, and better client clarity. How Experian helps Experian uses AI and machine learning to deliver highly personalized marketing solutions. In our Digital Graph, advanced clustering algorithms analyze household and individual device connections, improving targeting and measurement accuracy. We also use AI powered audience recommendations to create tailored audience solutions for clients. Our contextual data models, powered by Audigent’s contextual engine, further improve this process by analyzing bidstream traffic in real time, ensuring audiences are aligned with the most relevant inventory. “We’ve extended our platform with Marketplace, which lets us integrate third-party partners, new tech, and data seamlessly into activation. Clients are asking for this level of innovation, especially with the speed at which AI is evolving and transforming what’s possible in marketing.”Sam Bloom Connecting the dots: Data, creativity, and outcomes The common thread across these insights is how we connect with audiences, collaborate on data, and create meaningful outcomes. By reimagining the living room experience and utilizing AI and creator-led programming, brands are embracing innovation. How Experian helps Experian helps you build privacy-first identity foundations, collaborate seamlessly, optimize supply paths, streamline with AI, and connect through creators. Let's start a conversation FAQs What is CTV, and why does it matter now? CTV brings premium, interactive streaming to the largest screen at home, allowing brands to reach engaged viewers with measurable, personalized experiences. What is data collaboration, and how does it stay privacy-first? It’s the consented, secure use of first-party and partner data (often via clean rooms) to improve planning, activation, and measurement without exposing raw consumer data. What do “SPO” and sell-side decisioning actually do? SPO streamlines the path from advertiser to publisher, reducing waste and improving quality. Sell-side decisioning adds real-time intelligence to the exchange, delivering the proper context and audience more efficiently. How are creators changing TV advertising? Creator-led programming functions like “micro networks” with built-in communities, helping brands show up where fans are already engaged and ready to act. How are living rooms becoming “active spaces”? Viewers use TVs like mobile devices, discovering content, learning, shopping, and interacting; advertisers can meet their intent and drive post-view actions. Latest posts
Demand-side platforms (DSPs) are more than just technology providers, they’re strategic partners, helping marketers answer the key question: “How should I spend my media budget?” A leading DSP struggled to attribute consumer actions across digital channels such as connected TV (CTV) and display. Without connecting impressions to conversions, they risked losing client trust and ROI proof. With Experian’s Digital Graph, they resolved 84% of IDs and increased match rates, strengthening attribution and client confidence. The challenge A leading DSP had trouble showing which ads drove results across CTV, display, and digital. Without linking ad views to conversions, they couldn’t prove ROI. The missing piece was attribution. They needed to show which channels drove conversions, but without strong identity resolution, it was hard to connect CTV ads to website activity. See how Experian is shaping addressability in CTV What is Experian's Digital Graph? Built from trillions of real-time data points and updated weekly, Experian’s Digital Graph connects billions of identifiers across devices and households, such as cookies, mobile ad IDs (MAIDs), CTV IDs, IP addresses, universal IDs, and more. It gives DSPs a reliable foundation by linking these identifiers back to households and individuals, improving DSPs' ability to offer attribution by better connecting impressions to conversions. Learn more about our Digital Graph here What makes the Digital Graph unique is its scale and freshness. It ingests trillions of signals in real time and delivers updates weekly. That consistency matters: it gives DSPs confidence that they’re working with the most accurate view of digital identity. AI and machine learning (ML) are core to how we maintain that level of accuracy. Our models use sophisticated clustering algorithms to analyze device connections at both household and individual levels. By evaluating data points such as timestamps, IP addresses, user agents, cookie IDs, and device identifiers, these algorithms create precise device groupings that enhance targeting and measurement accuracy. The models are continuously refined, ensuring our clients can better understand consumer behaviors within households and activate more effective, personalized marketing. Think of it like connecting puzzle pieces scattered across devices and channels. On their own, each piece doesn’t say much. Together, they reveal the full picture of who saw an ad, engaged, and converted, and which ads performed best. Watch the video The solution By syncing its cookies with the Digital Graph, the DSP gained access to related identifiers, including: MAIDs CTV IDs IP addresses Experian cookies This expanded identity universe gave the DSP a unified view of individuals and households, making it possible to connect impressions to conversions across devices and channels. With each weekly refresh, attribution models stayed accurate and up to date, turning fragmented signals into proof of performance. Results Within weeks, the DSP saw measurable improvements: 84% of IDs synced 9% increase in match rates With a stronger foundation of digital identifiers, the DSP matched more MAIDs, CTV IDs, and IP addresses to conversions. This allowed them to show clients exactly which ads and channels drove ROI, transforming impression reports into actionable proof of performance and strengthening client trust. See how MiQ strengthened their Identity Spine with Experian's Digital Graph Why attribution matters now Attribution has never been more critical. With signals fading and marketing budgets under pressure, DSPs need reliable data to prove performance. Experian’s Digital Graph takes a multi-ID, always-on approach, refreshed weekly with trillions of signals. This delivers consistency and accuracy that single-point, stale-ID solutions can’t match. For this DSP, that meant transforming attribution from guesswork into clear proof, strengthening client trust, and proving ROI across channels. Download the full case study Connect with us today to see how our Digital Graph can help you maximize advertiser trust and ROI. Ready to strengthen your approach to attribution? FAQs What is Experian’s Digital Graph? Experian’s Digital Graph is a privacy-conscious identity resolution solution built from trillions of real-time data points, refreshed weekly, that links identifiers like cookies, MAIDs, CTV IDs, Unified I.D. 2.0 (UID2), ID5 IDs and IP addresses to households and individuals. How does Experian’s Digital Graph improve attribution? Experian’s Digital Graph improves attribution by connecting impressions to conversions across devices and channels, giving DSPs a clearer view of which ads and channels drove results. What makes Experian’s Digital Graph different from other solutions? While many platforms rely on single, static IDs, Experian’s Digital Graph uses a multi-ID, always-on approach with weekly refreshed, ensuring accuracy even as signals shift. What results can DSPs expect when using Experian’s Digital Graph? When you use Experian’s Digital Graph, you can expect higher match rates, more synced IDs, clearer attribution models, and stronger proof of ROI for your clients. Because Experian’s Digital Graph serves as the backbone of the industry, it also helps DSPs maximize the scale and reach they can deliver to advertisers. Is Experian’s Digital Graph privacy-compliant? Yes. Experian’s Digital Graph is designed with privacy in mind, ensuring compliance while still delivering accurate attribution insights. Latest posts