In this article…
Political advertising has advanced significantly in recent decades. Historically, campaigns had limited options for where they could advertise, and those channels had limited inventory. Political campaigns primarily relied on radio, print, and linear TV to reach voters, using mass marketing strategies to appeal broadly to unspecified audiences. These mediums had limited targeting capabilities and provided few data insights. However, this has all changed thanks to the rise of technology and changing media consumption habits.
With the advent of the internet and the emergence of various digital channels, political campaigns now have more inventory and options for getting their message out there, including connected TV (CTV) — a subset of advanced TV that has become a predominant channel for digital ad spend. CTV is the fastest-growing medium for political ads, with the upcoming 2024 election expected to see $1.5 billion in CTV marketing ad spend (nearly half of all political digital advertising dollars!). CTV’s share of political ad spending is set to jump from 2.7% in 2020 to 12.8% this year. The Harris campaign is leading the charge, allocating $200 million for digital ads, much of which will go to streaming platforms.
CTV advertising promises to be an effective method for political campaigns trying to reach voters with personalized content in 2024. Let’s look at CTV political ads a little closer and overview the implications for your political campaign.
The growth of CTV in political advertising
CTV has become central to political ad strategies in helping campaigns gain exposure through targeted, personalized ad experiences to specific audience segments based on demographics, behaviors, and interests. With CTV advertising, political campaigns have become more adaptable to changing viewer preferences and can ensure their messages resonate with diverse audiences across digital platforms. This strategy represents a critical opportunity for political campaigns to tap into the growing viewership of streaming and adjust their marketing plans to meet voters where they spend their time.
Although traditional broadcast TV remains at the forefront of political advertising, recent increases in CTV political ad spending in 2024 reflect shifting media consumption preferences toward streaming services. Today, the average American adult spends almost 2 hours per day on CTV devices. It’s worth noting that CTV has the most significant audience share with Millennials, which makes CTV an especially worthy investment for targeting the younger generations whose voting habits aren’t as established yet.
2024 political ad spending
Compared to the previous U.S. presidential election year in 2020, campaigns and interest groups are expected to increase their political ad spending promoting causes and candidates by almost a third in 2024, totaling approximately $12.32 billion, according to Reuters. This is said to encompass all advertising for federal, state, and local politics, including lobbying and election activities.
While traditional media still dominates political ad spending, digital platforms are growing, with 45% of digital ad spending projected to be allocated to CTV for its refined targeting capabilities and increased inventory in this election cycle. For reference, only 19% of digital political ad spend went to CTV in 2020.
While the presidential election tends to garner the most attention among voters, it’s essential to note that political ad spending goes well beyond the big race; over 500 seats are up for election in 2024. Down-ballot races and issues in state and local elections will significantly impact where ad dollars are allocated.
Experian’s relevant ballot initiative audiences
If you’re looking to reach voters based on their attitudes and behaviors around crucial ballot measures, Experian offers over 240 politically relevant audiences that can help. Our consumer behavior and interest audiences can fine-tune your targeting for local and national ballot initiatives if, for example, you were targeting military families who favor initiatives supporting veterans or households with children interested in supporting school funding. This precise targeting ensures your political ads reach the most receptive audiences and maximizes the impact of your ad spend.
Third-party cookie deprecation and CTV
The phase-out of third-party cookies has created a challenge for political campaigns relying on digital advertising strategies. In the past, political advertisers have used cookies to track a user’s web activity to understand their browsing behaviors across sites and create detailed profiles for targeting purposes. However, due to recent changes in online privacy regulations, third-party cookies are going away.
Political advertisers have recognized the need for innovation and are exploring new avenues for effectively reaching target audiences without third-party cookies. CTV has arisen as a promising solution, as it doesn’t rely on these cookies to paint a picture of audiences and offers an alternative for precise, privacy-compliant targeting and ad spend optimization. CTV publishers tend to know quite a bit about audiences, including their viewing habits, location, preferred CTV devices, and more — and utilizing this information can give your campaign deeper, more accurate data without invading user privacy.
Benefits of CTV over traditional TV advertising for political campaigns
CTV political ads are a great way to familiarize a candidate’s core audiences with their message and engage them with the campaign. Here are some specific ways a political campaign can benefit from CTV in its advertising strategies.
Broadened access to data
Traditional broadcast and cable TV are a means of one-way communication. This means viewers consume broadcasted content without direct interaction or a feedback loop for tracking engagement and behavior data.
CTV solves the limitations of traditional TV by offering access to more data than linear TV using technology and internet connectivity to gather real-time insights. CTV data on audience interactions, preferences, demographics, behaviors, location, income, and more enable precise targeting and tailored messaging for more impactful campaigns. Furthermore, digital infrastructure enables CTV devices to track clicks, ad impressions, and conversions, which marketers can use to understand interests, viewing habits, and audience demographics more effectively. To sum it up, CTV broadens the scope of data available for political campaigns to refine their targeting.
Targeted, personalized ad experiences
With traditional TV advertising, marketers have historically had to rely on mass marketing strategies, broadcasting ads to a general audience and hoping to reach the right demographic segments. This imprecise approach limits a marketer’s control over who sees their ads and wastes time and money.
In contrast, CTV platforms can collect abundant data on viewer behavior, preferences, and demographics, helping advertisers precisely target audiences and reach groups most likely to benefit from the ads. With CTV, advertisers can segment audiences based on gender, age, interests, location, and past viewing behavior. This level of granularity enables them to customize their messages to resonate with specific people and increase the relevance and effectiveness of their political ad campaigns. By delivering ads to the right groups of people at the right time, CTV helps advertisers maximize campaign impact and drive better results.
It’s worth noting that streaming viewership is beginning to change. Although younger generations have engaged the most with CTV, there is research to show that older generations are starting to help fuel its continued growth. Gen X and Baby Boomers have begun to embrace streaming and seek out ad-supported services to ad-free alternatives. These gradual shifts in behavior highlight the importance of understanding streaming generations to reach target audiences effectively.
Real-time ad campaign optimization
While traditional TV relies on fixed ad placements, CTV offers programmatic buying, which refers to buying and selling ad placements on CTV through automated technology. Programmatic CTV advertising is highly data-driven, which gives advertisers flexibility in their messaging strategies, helps them refine their targeting, and deliver relevant ads to the right people at the right time. With real-time analytics, campaigns can monitor ad performance, adapt to changing circumstances, and make data-driven decisions to maximize advertising impact and budget efficiency leading up to the election.
Challenges and considerations for advertisers
Despite how widely beneficial CTV advertising can be for political campaigns, marketers also need to be aware of its limitations.
Navigating ad fraud
Ad fraud is a major problem for unsuspecting advertisers. CTV ad fraud involves fake CTV devices or bots mimicking viewership and cheating marketers into paying for unviewed or non-existent ad placements. According to DoubleVerify’s Global Insights, CTV bot fraud increased nearly 70% in 2022 compared to the previous year, with CTV fraud instances tripling since 2020. In 2023, digital ad fraud cost the marketing industry $84 billion. These ad fraud schemes are rising due to the high CPM of CTV ads, leading to a bigger payout for fraudsters who steal ad dollars.
One of the primary challenges is the need for better technological safeguards to detect and mitigate illegitimate traffic, such as bot activity. Political advertisers often rely on third-party ad fraud and verification technologies to avoid falling victim, but these solutions cannot guarantee complete protection. This usually leaves advertisers unaware of fraudulent activities until they’ve already incurred financial losses.
As political campaigns increasingly embrace CTV political ads, they become bigger targets for fraud and must make protection and measurement central to validating their campaign efficacy in conjunction with robust fraud detection measures. These efforts can help protect the integrity of political ad campaigns, mitigate fraud, and ensure messaging reaches genuine voters.
Ensuring ad effectiveness
Measurement and attribution of CTV political ads can be challenging. CTV offers better insights into audience preferences and behavior than linear TV, but despite the existing measurement tools, CTV is fragmented, involves many platforms, and lacks standardized metrics and attribution models tailored to political campaign goals. These problems make it hard to compare campaign performance, track CTV users across their viewing experience, and ensure ads appear in the right environments.
To fully understand your ad effectiveness, you should ensure accurate tracking mechanisms of audience behaviors with individual ads to assess the impact of CTV campaigns on voter engagement and turnout. This will help you better understand how to achieve campaign objectives, where to focus your efforts, and how to appeal to viewers in future campaigns.
It may also be helpful to understand some of the metrics advertisers currently employ for CTV measurement, including completion rate and return on ad spend (ROAS). Because CTV ads often can’t be skipped, this advertising strategy has a high completion rate, sometimes nearing 90%. ROAS is more focused on what you get in return for your ads, allowing you to track profits per dollar spent on ads. Political marketers can also use metrics like campaign impressions, total reach, view-through rate, and cost per completed view to understand how their ads are performing.
Ethical considerations related to transparency and misinformation
Political advertisers are responsible for upholding transparency and accuracy in their messaging to build trust with voters. Given how polarized the current political climate is, misinformation could make or break a political campaign. Whether intentional or unintentional, spreading misinformation through CTV can undermine the democratic process and erode public confidence in political institutions. Political marketers must do their best to prioritize ethical conduct, adhere to regulatory guidelines, and ensure their ads convey truthful information to voters.
Looking ahead: CTV in the 2024 elections
The current election cycle promises record-breaking political ad spending in 2024 and will underscore CTV’s role in shaping the future of political communication and engagement. With shifting viewer preferences and the ongoing evolution of digital media consumption habits, political campaigns need to look at CTV as a critical platform for voter engagement so they can allocate resources and shift their strategy to harness its full potential.
Using the targeted capabilities and expansive reach CTV advertising offers, political entities can optimize ad creative for the streaming environment, implement data-driven targeting strategies, and effectively connect with voters across diverse demographics and geographic regions.
Reach your ideal voters with Experian’s political audiences
Effective audience targeting is essential for political campaigns wanting to sway voters and shape public opinion in the next election. Don’t miss the opportunity to reach your ideal voters and make a lasting impact in the 2024 elections! With Experian’s political audiences, you can target voters based on their political affiliations, personas, and attitudes toward relevant ballot initiatives in your advanced TV advertising.
Experian offers a comprehensive range of political and geo-indexed audiences designed to help political campaigns and organizations connect with desired segments in a meaningful and impactful way. Our geo-indexed audiences can help you discover, segment, and craft messaging without the use of sensitive personal information, so you can confidently reach your target audience without sacrificing data privacy.
Our syndicated audiences also span multiple verticals and categories. With over 240 politically relevant audience segments available for activation, you can confidently execute your political campaign marketing strategy with precision and impact. When you connect with our audience team, we can also help you build and activate an Experian audience on the platform of your choice.
Partner with us to reach your ideal voters and make a lasting impact in the 2024 elections.
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2023 has been an unprecedented year for AdTech. With new challenges arising every day — from ongoing signal loss to changing consumer privacy regulations– staying on top of trends is more important than ever before. To help you stay informed on successful tactics from across our ecosystem we’ve compiled a list of our top five 2023 AdTech blog posts. Keep reading to learn about the top themes from CES and Cannes this year, why contextual targeting is so popular, and more – so you can remain competitive in today's rapidly changing environment. #5 CES 2023: Clean rooms, activation, and more Experian attended CES in January to kick off the AdTech year, connecting with partners, clients, and industry leaders to understand their challenges and goals. Discussions were focused on clean rooms and digital activation to address data deprecation and consumer privacy. Clean rooms have the potential to standardize data and address interoperability issues. Digital activation was predicted to increase significantly in 2023, with more focus on demand-side, video, and supply-side platforms. Did digital activation increase in 2023? Download our 2024 Digital audience trends and predictions report to find out. Read our full 2023 CES recap here. Meet with the Experian team at CES 2024 CES is around the corner, and we are looking forward to the opportunity to connect with you in our suite at the Aria Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, January 9-12. There is no better place to connect and discuss the latest industry trends and innovations. Let’s start the conversation! Book a meeting with our team #4 Experian identity resolution now available in AWS Clean Rooms Earlier this year, Experian announced that our identity resolution solution is now available in AWS Clean Rooms. Through this new partnership, customers can pair Experian's identity capabilities with AWS Clean Rooms to safely collaborate and access deeper insights without exposing sensitive data. Check out the full announcement to hear from Kalyani Koppisetti, Principal Partner Solution Architect at AWS, Matt Miller, Business Development Principal at AWS, and Tyler Middleton, Sr. Partner Marketing Manager at Experian. #3 Four key themes from Cannes Lions 2023 At Cannes Lions 2023, discussions revolved around four main themes: Signal loss: Experts discussed the importance of adapting paid media strategies to align with consumer behaviors. Collaboration: Discussions highlighted the need for industry players to collaborate and focus on solutions that benefit all stakeholders in the ecosystem. Personalization: This was a key topic and emphasized the growing significance of tailored content, data-driven insights, and first-party data solutions for advertisers adapting to cookie deprecation and the evolving consumer privacy landscape. Balancing AI and creativity: Attendees explored how to balance AI capabilities and nurture creativity while maintaining a human touch. Cannes 2024 will be here before we know it and Experian will be there. To get ready, check out this post by Tyler Middleton, Sr. Partner Marketing Manager, to hear from a first-time Cannes attendee, #2 Three key insights from our 2023 Holiday spending report Experian's annual Holiday spending trends and insights report analyzed recent trends, consumer spending habits, and anticipated what was to come in the 2023 holiday shopping season. This blog post covered three key insights from our report: Consumers are starting their holiday shopping earlier, particularly with online sales. Online sales have been increasing year-over-year, surpassing in-store sales. Spending during the 2022 holiday season was lower than in previous years but is expected to be on par with what was seen in 2023. For advice from our experts and access to all of our predictions for this year’s holiday shopping season, download our 2023 Holiday spending trends and insights report today. #1 How contextual ad targeting addresses signal loss Our most viewed blog post of 2023 was How contextual ad targeting addresses signal loss. Marketers are seeking new solutions due to signal loss caused by the phasing out of third-party cookies. Contextual ad targeting offers a way to combine contextual signals with machine learning for more accurate targeting. Experian's Jason Andersen and Yieldmo's Alex Johnston discuss the challenges of signal loss, addressability, the importance of good creative, and tips for digital ad success in this blog post. By understanding contextual advertising, marketers can create powerful and effective campaigns to reach target audiences. Subscribe to our newsletter Sign up for our email newsletter to receive our latest blog posts, product and partnership announcements, thought leadership, and more straight to your inbox. Subscribe Latest posts
In this article… Why AI and CTV are a great match The rising popularity of CTV How is AI already being used in CTV? Demand-side platforms Artificial intelligence (AI) and connected TV (CTV) have a perfect synergy that’s revolutionizing how advertisers connect with their audiences. CTV serves as a medium for streaming content, while AI acts as a sophisticated technology that improves the performance of CTV advertising campaigns. The integration of these two technologies has paved the way for advertisers to reach their target audience more effectively, making CTV advertising a powerful and efficient tool. In this blog post, we’ll dive into how these technologies work together — and why you should jump on board with AI for CTV advertising if you haven’t already. Why AI and CTV are a great match CTV and AI are transforming how advertisers connect with their audiences and improving the performance of their advertising campaigns in the CTV space. They work together to make advertising smarter and more enjoyable for everyone involved. AI uses sophisticated computer programs to analyze and understand data, while CTV refers to the streaming services that consumers use at home. But what makes them a great match in advertising? AI uses data to determine which TV ads are most exciting and relevant to certain people, and it can even adjust ads in real time to ensure viewers are always getting the most personalized experience. AI can provide suggestions to viewers based on previously watched content to help them find what they’d enjoy watching next. To sum it up, AI allows for: Precise targeting: AI uses data to determine which TV ads are most exciting and relevant to certain people. Personalization: AI can adjust ads in real time to ensure viewers are always getting the most personalized experience. Effective ad insertion: AI can provide suggestions to viewers based on previously watched content to help them find what they’d enjoy watching next. CTV facilitates these AI-driven strategies for enhanced user engagement and satisfaction. The rising popularity of CTV CTV has become increasingly popular as people change the way they watch TV. Instead of the traditional approach, more viewers are now choosing CTV platforms for their entertainment. One of the main reasons for this shift is that CTV offers greater flexibility and lets viewers watch content at their convenience. The ability to skip ads on many CTV platforms also improves the experience. CTV offers a great opportunity to interact with your target audience in a more engaging way. CTV allows for highly targeted advertising capabilities so you can reach specific demographics and households with tailored messages. Additionally, CTV provides valuable data insights that enable you to measure campaign effectiveness accurately. If you haven’t embraced this advertising channel yet, you may be missing out on a growing and engaged audience. Here are three reasons you should add CTV to your advertising strategy. Global video ad impressions As a global platform, CTV has the unique ability to reach audiences worldwide. Unlike traditional TV, CTV transcends geographical boundaries and brings marketers a global audience, which makes it an ideal channel for global ad campaigns. No matter your target audience, they’re consuming content on CTV. In fact, a recent study showed that 51% of global video ad impressions came from CTV in 2022. This abundance of global video ad impressions generates vast amounts of data, which AI can process in real time to help you make data-driven decisions and optimize your campaigns for diverse international audiences. AI can analyze viewer data from various regions, identify audience preferences and behaviors across borders, and tailor ad content accordingly. These data analysis capabilities ensure your ads get in front of the right viewers. Viewers prefer ad-supported CTV In 2020, the viewing time of ad-supported CTV surged by 55% while subscription video on demand decreased by 30%, according to TVision Insights. Viewers have a well-established preference for ad-supported CTV due, in part, to cost-effective access to premium content. Viewers are more engaged and less resistant to ads, as AI tailors ad content to viewer preferences and behavior to enhance ad relevance. AI-powered insights can also aid in viewer retention and help you optimize your CTV campaigns. By accommodating viewers’ preference for ad-supported CTV and harnessing AI to improve the ad experience, you’re more likely to be successful in your marketing efforts. CTV outpaces mobile and desktop for digital video viewing eMarketer recently reported that U.S. adults spend 7.5+ hours each day on CTV — more than half of their digital video viewing time. Comparatively, they only spend 37.5% of their viewing time on mobile and 10% on desktops and laptops. These statistics demonstrate that CTV has become the preferred platform for digital video consumption, as viewers enjoy larger screens with superior quality for an immersive experience. It's important to note that AI is an essential CTV marketing tool, as it allows for precise targeting and content optimization. By utilizing AI on CTV, you can take advantage of this trend and deliver more engaging and effective campaigns to a growing and engaged audience. How is AI already being used in CTV? CTV has been integrated with AI across various facets and has revolutionized the television landscape. Here's a look at how AI is already shaping the CTV experience: Generative AI ads Generative AI ads are taking CTV personalization to a whole new level. These innovative ads are customized versions of the same CTV ad to suit individual viewers. Some AI tools can generate several versions of the same CTV ad — swapping the actor’s clothing and voiceover elements like store locations, local deals, promo codes, and more — and can create up to thousands of personalized iterations in just a few seconds. Such capabilities are a game-changing approach to connecting with your audience. Next, we dive into the advantages and impact of generative AI ads, and explore their transformative role in CTV advertising. Contextual ads vs personal data Generative AI ads use personal data, such as viewing history and demographics, to create highly personalized ad experiences. This sets them apart from contextual ads, which rely solely on the content being viewed. Using AI to harness this data, you can move beyond traditional contextual targeting and ensure your ads connect with viewers on a more individualized level. Generative AI ads can be used to A/B test Generative AI ads are not just about personalization; they also open the door to A/B testing. Being able to create several versions of one ad quickly allows you to experiment with various ad elements, such as messaging, visuals, and calls to action, to identify what works best for different segments of your audience and drives the best performance. This flexibility is especially valuable for refining ad campaigns and maximizing their impact. What’s next for AI-generated ads like this? The potential of AI-generated ads is exciting. As AI technologies constantly advance, we can expect even more personalized and automated CTV advertising. It’s a good idea to keep up with the latest AI-driven innovations to create more effective ad campaigns in the fast-evolving CTV space. The possibilities are endless, and you’ll likely find the most success when you embrace AI in CTV advertising. Optimize streaming quality AI helps viewers enjoy more seamless CTV experiences. By assessing network speed and user preferences, AI optimizes video quality in real time to reduce buffering interruptions. For instance, streaming platforms use AI to adjust video settings based on a user's connection speed. This guarantees an uninterrupted and enjoyable viewing experience. Review content for compliance AI also has a part to play in quality assurance and compliance management. It assesses content alignment with technical parameters and moderates compliance with local age restrictions and privacy regulations. This means AI can identify and filter out unsuitable content to provide a safer and more enjoyable viewing environment for audiences while safeguarding brands from association with undesirable material. Voice command AI-powered voice command technology is increasingly used to control CTV viewing. This technology is embedded in streaming devices and smart TVs and allows viewers to interact with their CTV content through voice-activated commands. This personalizes the viewing experience and improves convenience, as it eliminates the need for remote controls. CTV-integrated voice assistants like Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri, and Samsung Bixby offer a more human-like interaction with the television, allowing users to give commands and receive tailored responses. Content recommendations AI can offer content recommendations that provide viewers a more personalized and engaging experience. Major over-the-top (OTT) services like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime use AI-driven data analysis to deliver tailored content suggestions to their audiences. By analyzing user habits in detail, AI can recommend content based on factors such as actors, genres, reviews, and countries of origin. This personalized approach helps viewers discover content that matches their preferences and enhances their viewing experience. Advertising Programmatic ad buying, driven by AI, automatically matches ad placements to specific audience segments based on behavioral patterns. It improves ad delivery by moving away from gross rating points (GRP) to more intelligent and targeted placements. This benefits marketers by ensuring ads are seen by the right people at the right time. It’s also cost-effective for publishers, as it maximizes the sale of ad spots to suitable buyers. Automatic content recognition (ACR) technology, which AI powers, is integrated into smart TVs and streaming devices to improve ad relevance. It provides contextual targeting and extends the reach of ads across multiple devices. For example, platforms like Roku use ACR data to display ads to viewers who haven’t seen them on traditional TV. Similarly, Samba TV retargets mobile users based on IP address and aligns their viewing habits with their smart TVs. Demand-side platforms CTV advertising relies heavily on demand-side platforms (DSPs) to efficiently manage and optimize ad campaigns. These platforms use machine learning and AI in several important ways: Using machine learning and AI to address data fragmentation Data is abundant but fragmented when it comes to CTV advertising. DSPs are flooded with a massive amount of data, including information about households, viewer behavior, and viewing patterns. This data is far too much for manual analysis to handle effectively, which is where AI comes in. By integrating machine learning algorithms into DSPs, AI can harmonize this fragmented data and provide valuable insights and a holistic view of your audience. AI can process zettabytes of data in real time, which streamlines the decision-making process and empowers you to compete quickly for limited CTV impression opportunities. Predicting advertising outcomes with AI AI is quickly changing the way we predict and optimize advertising outcomes. TV buying and optimization platforms are now using AI to improve ad performance. With machine learning, these platforms can anticipate which ad creatives will produce the best results based on various non-creative factors. These include the context of the ad, the audience's profiles, the time of day it is displayed, and the frequency of the ad display. By relying on AI to make these predictions, you can make sure your campaigns are highly optimized for success and deliver more relevant, compelling ads to viewers. Optimizing generative ads AI is also driving optimization in generative ads. These personalized versions of the same CTV ad can be tailored to suit individual viewers. By utilizing AI-driven analytics, DSPs can process extensive amounts of data in real time and optimize generative ads to ensure they align with viewers' preferences and behaviors. This level of personalization is a game-changer in CTV advertising that boosts engagement and delivers content that truly resonates with the audience. Add AI to your CTV strategy today Integrating AI into your CTV strategy can help you stay competitive and ensure your ad campaigns are effective and engaging. At Experian, we’re ready to help you elevate your CTV advertising and implement AI as part of your strategy. Our solutions, such as Consumer View and Consumer Sync, provide valuable audience insights, enhance targeting capabilities, and optimize engagement on TV. Plus, our partnerships with leading media marketing solutions can help you achieve greater success through effective advanced television advertising. As you incorporate AI into your CTV strategy, you’ll be able to make more data-driven decisions, deliver more relevant content, and reach the right audience at the right time. Explore Experian's TV solutions and empower your CTV advertising with AI today. Start exploring Latest posts
The digital advertising landscape is undergoing a significant transformation with the gradual deprecation of third-party cookies. This shift necessitates the adoption of new strategies for audience targeting and data management. In our next Ask the Expert segment, we explore this evolution, discussing new strategies for audience targeting and data management in a world without cookies. We’re joined by industry leaders, Gabe Richman, Senior Director of Data Partnerships at The Trade Desk, and Chris Feo, Experian’s SVP of Sales & Partnership who spotlight The Trade Desk’s innovative approach to navigating a cookieless future. Tune in to our Q&A below to learn more about these topics and learn how the collaborative efforts of Experian and The Trade Desk offer a glimpse into the future of advertising. Cookieless IDs are the new face of identity in advertising Traditional tracking and targeting techniques are being replaced by more advanced and privacy-conscious methods. Unified I.D. 2.0 (UID2), led by The Trade Desk, exemplifies this shift, offering a new identifier based on encrypted email addresses or phone numbers. This approach not only caters to the evolving privacy regulations but also places greater control in the hands of consumers. UID2’s design fundamentally differs from cookies since it is rooted in transparency and consumer consent. UID2: A catalyst for industry-wide adoption UID2’s journey reflects a rising industry-wide recognition of its value across the industry. The adoption of UID2 by major publishers, demand-side platforms, and advertisers indicates a shift toward more sustainable and consumer-friendly approaches to identity in advertising. This is particularly evident in areas like connected TV (CTV), where UID2 is rapidly becoming a currency and standard. “The purpose of UID2 is not only to create a better ID for advertisers and publishers to achieve their objectives, but also to benefit the consumers. Unlike cookies, UID2 provides transparency and control to the consumers for the first time.”gabe richman, sr. director, data partnerships, the trade desk How Experian and The Trade Desk work together The partnership between The Trade Desk and Experian goes beyond adapting to the absence of cookies. Our joint efforts highlight a commitment to developing solutions that cater to advertiser’s needs while respecting consumer privacy, a balancing act becoming increasingly crucial in today’s digital ecosystem. The Trade Desk's emphasis on UID2 as a foundational element in the open web, campaign design, and activation is a testament to the potential of new identifiers in enhancing advertising efficacy. Similarly, our ability to utilize these identifiers to deliver detailed audience insights offers advertisers a powerful tool to remain effective in a post-cookie world. Experian’s role in the adoption of UID2 Experian's integration strategies have played a critical role in diversifying the applications of UID2. By partnering with The Trade Desk, we help broaden the reach and effectiveness of UID2 across various advertising channels. In terms of reach – by incorporating a prominent cookieless ID, we further amplify the reach of UID2. The increased adoption of this new ID allows the digital ecosystem the ability to interact using an alternative identifier, thereby broadening the potential audience. In terms of effectiveness – we help advertisers serve relevant ads to the right audiences, ensuring the relevance of the ads and control over their frequency. Targeting with Geo-Indexed audiences The Trade Desk works with Experian to ingest and host our syndicated audiences. This partnership gives The Trade Desk’s clients access to over 2,400 syndicated audiences that span across eight verticals. This includes access to our new Geo-Indexed audiences that allow brands to reach consumers and households based on geographic regions that over-index for a common set of attributes, ultimately offering brands a targeting solution that prioritizes both consumer privacy and accuracy. What a future beyond cookies looks like Looking ahead, the focus in advertising is not solely on replacing cookies but on a broader evolution of the industry. This includes continuing to apply machine learning technologies, like artificial intelligence (AI), to enhance ad personalization and effectiveness. The interplay between creative content, audience insights, and privacy-compliant targeting will become increasingly important as the industry evolves. As cookies become a thing of the past, the initiatives spearheaded by The Trade Desk and Experian will likely set the tone for the next era of digital advertising, and emerging solutions like UID2 are leading the way. Watch the full Q&A Visit our Ask the Expert content hub to watch Gabe and Chris' full conversation about cookieless advertising. In their conversation, Gabe and Chris share more about UID2, consumer transparency, and the importance of consumer data for targeted advertising. Watch now About our experts Gabe Richman, Sr. Director, Data Partnerships, The Trade Desk Gabe Richman is the Senior Director of Data Partnerships at The Trade Desk where he focuses on global identity strategy and platform partnerships as well as driving UID2 and EUID adoption across the broader ecosystem. Prior to joining The Trade Desk in 2021, Gabe held various roles in AdTech at HealthVerity, Wunderkind and LiveRamp. For the last decade Gabe has taken pride in helping advertisers and platforms alike demystify the complex identity landscape and embrace the change needed to preserve the open internet. Gabe is a graduate of the University of Maryland and resides in Los Angeles. Chris Feo, SVP, Sales & Partnerships, Experian As SVP of Sales & Partnerships, Chris has over a decade of experience across identity, data, and programmatic. Chris joined Experian during the Tapad acquisition in November 2020. He joined Tapad with less than 10 employees and has been part of the executive team through both the Telenor and Experian acquisitions. He’s an active advisor, board member, and investor within the AdTech ecosystem. Outside of work, he’s a die-hard golfer, frequent traveler, and husband to his wife, two dogs, and two goats! Latest posts