
Ongoing signal loss is driving marketers, agencies, and platforms to turn to supply-side advertising. By using first-party data from publishers and platforms, supply-side advertising has the potential to deliver high-quality audience and context for more effective ad targeting.
The supply-side refers to the publishers and platforms that sell advertising inventory. These companies have access to first-party data about their users, which can be used to target ads more effectively. By tapping into supply-side advertising, you can overcome the challenges of signal loss and target ads more effectively.
To shed light on this topic, we hosted a panel discussion at Cannes, featuring industry leaders from Audigent, Captify, Newsweek, Pubmatic, Truthset, and Experian.

In this blog post, we’ll explore how partnerships between supply-side channels and publishers are working to enhance advertising opportunities while balancing the need for transparency and control in programmatic ad buying.
Shift toward supply-side advertising
Traditionally, the demand-side dominated the programmatic media buying chain due to an abundance of supply. However, with the emergence of finite data and its interpretation, collaboration between supply-side technology companies and publishers is required to redefine these economics.
It’s no longer sufficient for the demand-side to blindly negotiate prices based on limited knowledge. Marketers can still define their target audience, but effective communication is key. This presents an opportunity for premium journalistic outlets to guide the industry’s understanding of how data from the supply-side impacts media buying economics in the future.
“Supply-side technology partnerships with publishers are now in a position to shape the economics of programmatic media buying as there is a finite amount of data. It’s crucial for supply-side technology companies to collaborate with publishers to shape these new economics. This presents an opportunity for premium journalistic outlets to provide guidance on how data from the supply-side can affect the future of media buying.”
matthew papa, svp, business & corporate development, captify
Democratizing data from the supply-side
Cookies haven’t brought significant benefits to premium publishers. They mainly serve to retarget users from sites like The Wall Street Journal to advertising sites. This approach primarily serves the purpose of generating revenue.
The elimination of third-party cookies presents an opportunity for premium publishers to shift this dynamic. By using their knowledge of first-party audiences, and using identifiers like Experian’s LUID, publishers can own and understand their audience data, which can then be modeled.
Here’s how publishers can win
Establishing a connection with consumers and emphasizing the value exchange is essential to building trust. Determining what incentives and benefits consumers find meaningful will be crucial in gaining their opt-in.
With consumers
The Apple tracking transparency initiative, specifically the deprecation of IDFA signals, had significant implications for mobile app developers. Overnight, opt-in rates plummeted, causing a drastic decline in iOS ad monetization. To combat this, developers focused on demonstrating the value exchange to consumers—better ad experiences and personalized content.
By articulating the benefits over a couple of years, opt-in rates increased from 10-15% to 30-40%. The key takeaway is the need to effectively communicate the value exchange to consumers.
With partners
Trust plays a crucial role in planning your first-party data strategy. Publishers, advertisers, and data partners highly value their proprietary data. However, there are concerns about how it’s used, mishandled, or leaked in the ecosystem. Building trust between partners is essential. It’s important to work with trustworthy partners who are agnostic, committed to innovative solutions, and globally oriented. These partners can help navigate the complexities of laws and regulations. Choosing the right partners is crucial in a world where first-party data is a key asset.
“Power is shifting toward brands that have strong relationships with customers and possess first-party data. As the ownership of customer data becomes more important, it is crucial to establish a first-party data strategy to better serve customers and adapt to changing market dynamics.”
chip russo, president, truthset
Balance probabilistic and deterministic data
Focus on building trust with consumers and collaborating with reliable companies to share data. However, it’s important to remember that achieving a 100% opt-in rate is unlikely.
The cookie, which has become omnipresent, requires us to shift our strategic thinking. We need to consider both deterministic and probabilistic approaches instead of viewing them as mutually exclusive. The landscape will be fragmented, with some consumers opting in and others not.
“Probabilistic and predictive audience data holds immense potential. With the power of AI, we can expect enhanced performance and efficacy in media campaigns. At Audigent, we firmly believe that this data will outperform deterministic data, making it an integral part of our strategy.”
drew stein, ceo, audigent
Premium content
Trust plays a crucial role in leading to premium content. By placing trust in the best media brands, data, and technology partners, we can expect to see improvements in media, journalism, and advertising. This shift may have a direct impact on the long tail of free natural resources, making it more challenging for them to thrive. However, this change is ultimately beneficial since it promotes higher-quality media experiences overall.
“The homepage surface is making a comeback in the publishing industry, proving its value in establishing a direct connection with readers. While we acknowledge the importance of technology partnerships for addressability and identity, our core competency as a publisher remains outstanding journalism that captures and engages great audiences.”
kevin gentzel, cco, newsweek
Watch our Cannes panel for more on supply-side advertising

We hosted a panel in Cannes that covered supply-side advertising. Check out the full recording below to hear what leaders from Audigent, Captify, Newsweek, Pubmatic, Truthset, and Experian had to say.
Check out more Cannes content:
- Our key takeaways from Cannes Lions 2023
- Insights from a first-time attendee
- Four new marketing strategies for 2023
- Exploring the opportunities in streaming TV advertising
- The future of identity in cookieless advertising
Follow us on LinkedIn or sign up for our email newsletter for more informative content on the latest industry insights and data-driven marketing.
Latest posts

Every day it seems, mobile device fragmentation increases. With consumers spending their time online across multiple devices – phones, tablets, over-the-top TV devices, gaming consoles, a nascent, yet growing internet-of-things, and a variety of other internet connected devices – the challenge of keeping up with consumers continues to be a daunting one. The industry has, of course, adopted many different identity solutions and cross-device technologies. Perhaps you’ve adopted some of them. Perhaps you feel like they are working. But perhaps you feel you could be doing a better job at connecting the dots. Marketers require solutions that can truly unify identities across channels and devices in order to understand consumer behavior, predict intent, and ultimately reach them with relevant communications. The easier it is to do that, the better. So, consider a couple scenarios and see how well are you doing. Within your core CRM data, are you able to connect your email subscribers to your in-store customers, all without relying on a loyalty program? Can you do this all the way down to an individual level? And are you leveraging this connected identity information to inform future online targeting? This kind of PII-based identity management is foundational to consumer engagement! Next scenario. Are you an app publisher? Or a media platform? Or any other type of organization that has a steady stream of device data? How much do you know about the consumer behind the device? Behavioral information is certainly a step in the right direction. But what about known consumer insights? How deep is the profile of information you’ve built for each device? Does it include both online and offline insights? Done in a compliant manner? There are a myriad of different techniques and approaches available to you to keep up with consumers. If you’re considering implementing a new strategy in the near future, or have questions about your current ones, contact Experian and we can help assess the opportunities available to you.

The Tapad Device Graph™ Complements Freckle’s IoT Capabilities to Extend Scale and Precision of Audience Data New York, NY — December 6, 2017 — Tapad, part of Experian, is the leader in cross-device marketing technology and Freckle IoT, the global leader in multi-touch, offline attribution, today announced they are partnering to provide brands with a holistic and insightful view of their customers, in predefined locations in all global markets. Starting today Freckle IoT will be leveraging the Tapad Device Graph™ to supplement the company’s data set to offer brands more granular attribution data. Consumer’s online behavior is becoming more and more complex, with the average consumer owning three or more devices and 35 percent of consumers converting on a different device from the one on which they started their research. These interactions become even more complicated when considering how online interactions and media impact offline sales. The collaboration between Tapad and Freckle, which combines Freckle IoT’s persistent location data with Tapad’s proprietary cross-device technology, is an important step in empowering brands with the information they need to better understand how digital media, consumed across multiple devices, is impacting offline attribution. Using its opt-in, first-party data, Freckle IoT helps brands measure the effectiveness of their advertising by independently matching media spend to in-store visits. Tapad’s technology extends Freckle’s data-set by allowing brands to access additional deterministic and probabilistic data, at scale and across all devices, to analyze consumer behavior ahead of in-store purchase. “Combining our technology with Tapad’s identity-driven solutions was a natural fit for our business,” said Neil Sweeney, founder and CEO at Freckle IoT. “With our unbiased, agnostic measurement and Tapad’s precise and privacy-safe data set, we knew this partnership would be a strong complement to providing more effective results for the needs of our brand partners.” “Freckle IoT is a valuable partner for Tapad as our cross-channel attribution capabilities continue to expand at global scale,” says Chris Feo, SVP, strategy and global partnership at Tapad. “Marketers today need a tool that can address the online and offline disconnect throughout the consumer journey. Freckle’s IoT innovations combined with the Tapad Device Graph help address this need by providing brands, across multiple verticals, accurate and precise identity-driven data powered by true consumer behavior — online and offline.” For more information about the Tapad Device Graph™, or to request a demonstration, contact us. For more information on Freckle IoT’s measurement offerings, please visit www.freckleiot.com.

London – 24 November, 2017 – Tapad, part of Experian, is the leader in cross-device marketing technology and continues to broaden its reach across EMEA. The business today reported a 20 percent growth in the scope of its regional device graph, a data set used by organisations to map consumers to their devices, enabling better, more personalised cross-device marketing. This news complements Tapad’s recent expansion of its UK team with the hire of experienced solutions engineer, Davide Rosamilia. As the demand for cross-device technology solutions continues to grow around the globe, coupled with the emergence of regulations such as Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Tapad is committed to offering suppliers the greatest level of insight without compromising consumer privacy. Since Tapad started licensing its proprietary Tapad Device GraphTM just over a year ago, demand for the company’s technology has experienced significant growth. New supply partnerships and proactive data sourcing have also meant an increase in devices across key markets, which contribute to the overall 20 percent growth of the EMEA device graph, including a 44 percent increase in the U.K., 47 percent in France, and 85 percent in Germany. “We’re continuing to invest heavily in growing our regional device graph, allowing us to better meet the needs of EMEA marketers as they strive to reach individuals with greater precision in some of the most tightly regulated marketplaces worldwide,” said Tom Rolph, VP EMEA, Tapad. “This year, we have also welcomed 10 new data suppliers whom we’ve helped to increase cross-device amplification, attribution and audience extension, helping to further set us apart in the marketplace and successfully expand our EMEA presence.” Available around the world, the Device Graph provides access to Tapad’s globally compliant and privacy-safe datasets across EMEA, APAC and the U.S., and offers deeper knowledge of consumer preferences, purchase intent, and conversion behaviors. “Tapad has shown a unique ability to adapt to the nuances of the local EMEA market and display impressive growth without sacrificing dedication to privacy,” said Alistair Hill, CEO and Co-founder at On Device Research. “When we started vetting technology vendors, we needed to be sure that we selected a partner that could offer compliant and privacy-safe datasets to operate within our stringent data standards. Tapad’s probabilistic solution offered us greater scale, greater device reach, and increased engagement without compromising on privacy.” For information more about the Tapad Device Graph™, or to request a demo, contact us today. Get started with us