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Digital marketers face an ongoing challenge in the form of “walled gardens,” closed online ecosystems where it is difficult to access user data. As we get ready for 2024, it’s more important than ever for marketers to evaluate the current challenges and opportunities surrounding walled gardens and to take stock of the impact of walled gardens in marketing as an industry.
What is a walled garden?
A walled garden is a closed online ecosystem controlled entirely by one tech company. Advertising on these ecosystems is fairly locked down, as major tech companies with walled gardens tend to tightly control access to the user data, content, and advertising that appears within the ecosystems.
Some examples of walled garden ecosystems include Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple. These walled gardens have particular advantages, like access to massive user bases and precise targeting within the individual ecosystems. It can also be difficult to reach said audiences outside of the ecosystems, reducing the amount of control you have over your advertising strategies.
Learn more about walled gardens.
Learn the differences between walled gardens and hedged gardens.
Integrated marketing is more important than ever
Today, it’s become more crucial to connect with consumers over multiple touchpoints, which can be done from tech like connected TV (CTV) to websites, mobile devices, and even shopping in a physical store. However, as integrated marketing gains utility, many platforms with walled garden ecosystems have increased, making a truly integrated and personalized marketing strategy more difficult in many situations. As a result, many marketers have realized the value of a more streamlined marketing approach, emphasizing the importance of fully integrated advertising strategies.
Though there are surely marketing advantages to gain from walled garden ecosystems, especially in audience size, the challenges they pose will require you to innovate and find more creative ways to engage with your audience from platform to platform.
Perspectives on walled gardens from Cannes Lions 2023
Offering a poignant view of industry trends and ideas, the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity of 2023 had much to say about the significance of walled gardens in the marketing world. Let’s look at two key takeaways from this year’s festival.
Retail media
In recent years, many retail companies have started selling ad space within their own walled garden shopping platforms, dubbed “retail media.” Platforms like Amazon and Walmart have developed their own particular advertising ecosystems where they sell ads to marketers within the shopping environment itself.
Navigating the sell-side of retail media’s walled gardens
While retail media offers marketers unique opportunities, it’s not without its challenges. For one, ad space in these environments is limited, so the competition can be difficult on the sell-side, leading to higher ad costs. Additionally, this shift in dynamic also forces marketers to change how they prioritize their marketing channels, looking closer at the results of their efforts rather than focusing on particular channels within the platforms themselves.
Opportunities in the buy-side of retail media’s walled gardens
Brands on the buy-side see various benefits from advertising within retail media channels and walled gardens. By browsing in an online shopping environment, the users in these ecosystems are likely high-intent shoppers, people who are further down the sales funnel and who are ready to make a purchase soon. Shoppers can also be precisely targeted within these environments, as marketers are given the ability to access very specific audience segments based on details like shopping behavior, preferences, and even purchase history.
Omnichannel marketing
To more effectively engage audiences even among an abundance of walled garden ecosystems, speakers at the 2023 Cannes Lions Festival discussed the importance of omnichannel marketing. By emphasizing strategies that reach the consumer through multiple touchpoints, marketers can deliver a unified brand experience across channels. This allows marketers to focus more on results than specific advertising channels, including walled garden platforms.
Walled gardens aren’t going away in the near future
Though various challenges are associated with walled gardens in advertising, they aren’t going anywhere. So, what’s the current state of these environments throughout the industry?
Efforts are being made to break down walled gardens in tech
In a handful of countries, regulatory actions have been put forward to address how dominant many major tech companies are in their respective markets. One major example of this is Meta and Google’s entanglements in Canada. Currently, neither company can display news on their websites in the Canadian market. This decision was reached to give Canadian news agencies more control over their advertising revenue since, previously, the tech giants received more views and, therefore, gained the ad revenue. Though relatively small, this does indicate a certain shift in dynamic.
Why companies are resisting
Despite their challenges, walled gardens in 2023 persisted, mainly because they are particularly adept at generating revenue for the tech companies that control them. In 2022, 78 percent of global digital advertising revenue came from these closed ecosystems, and projections expect that figure to rise to 83 percent by 2027. From the viewpoint of a company that operates in a walled garden, the idea of releasing their control over their environment represents losing out on a stream of vast revenue, making letting go of a walled garden ecosystem an unattractive prospect.
The future of walled gardens
As time progresses, what can digital marketers like you expect from walled garden ecosystems in the near future?
A cookieless future
A huge element to consider is the transition to a cookieless future. Many major browsers have begun phasing out the use of third-party cookies. In the wake of this decision, many are looking for reasonable alternatives that allow for behavior tracking and more personalized advertising experiences. Solutions like Experian’s identity resolution can provide a strong alternative option, allowing marketing strategies to adapt to the current landscape.
An influx of mini gardens
You should also anticipate the proliferation of various smaller, specialized walled garden ecosystems in the future. These so-called “mini gardens” specialize in more niche audiences and industries, and they can present their own challenges and opportunities.
Alternative IDs
As you search for new identification methods outside cookies, various alternatives have presented themselves, requiring further exploration and experimentation. Among these are privacy-compliant solutions like Unified ID 2.0, which allow you to serve more personalized ads without compromising the consumer’s privacy.
Navigating the evolving landscape of walled gardens in 2024
As we begin 2024, you will continue facing opportunities and challenges regarding walled gardens. The 2023 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity re-emphasized how important it is for marketers to stress omnichannel marketing within walled garden environments and become well acquainted with identity resolution solutions as we move into a cookie-less future. All of this requires you to become comfortable with walled gardens being here to stay and innovate to navigate an evolving and developing landscape.
We’re here to help you navigate the evolving landscape of walled gardens in 2024. Contact us today.
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Why an identity framework matters more than any single identifier The challenge facing marketers today isn’t a single identifier on a deprecation timeline. It’s the increasing fragmentation of signals and identifiers across browsers, devices, apps, and platforms. This shift introduces complexity into how audiences are reached and measured, as signals behave differently in every environment, and it becomes more complex to piece together a complete view of the consumer. Each environment contributes to its own set of visibility gaps, making identity less predictable and more uneven. The result is a patchwork of inconsistent identity signals rather than a single, predictable decline. While you can’t control how platforms evolve, you can control how you respond to fragmentation. The future won’t be defined by the loss of any single identifier, but by your ability to unify, interpret, and activate the many signals that remain. Marketers who adopt a flexible, identity framework will be best positioned to create consistency in an otherwise fragmented landscape. At Experian, we believe flexibility starts with intelligence. For decades, we’ve used AI and machine learning to help marketers understand people’s behavior more clearly, respect their privacy, and deliver messages that drive business outcomes. Our technology brings identity, insight, and intelligence together, so even as the number of signals grows and becomes more varied across environments, marketers can reach the right people with relevance, respect, and simplicity. This intelligence acts as the connective tissue across fragmented ecosystems, ensuring marketers can recognize and reach audiences consistently wherever they appear. What forces are driving fragmentation in identity and signals? Changes to traditional IDs: Since Apple introduced ATT, access to IDFA has become inconsistent across apps and devices. Google’s evolving Android privacy roadmap adds another layer of variability, fragmenting mobile addressability. Safari and Firefox have long restricted third-party cookies, while Chrome continues to support them for now. This creates different signal availability across browsers, contributing to an uneven and increasingly fragmented identity landscape on the open web. Shifts in signals: IPv4 to IPv6 migration introduces mismatched identity structures that complicate continuity across environments. Platform-driven fragmentation: Closed ecosystems and uneven adoption of evolving RTB standards (like OpenRTB 2.6 updates designed to support new identifiers and consent signals) create differences in which identifiers and consent signals are shared in the bidstream. At the same time, the rise of alternative or “universal” IDs—often developed by individual platforms, publishers, or technology companies—means that multiple ID types can appear within the same auction, each with its own structure, rules, and level of support. These differences reduce interoperability across platforms and contribute to a more fragmented activation landscape. Each change creates an identity silo. Together, they form an ecosystem defined by fragmentation rather than absence. Without an identity framework, these environments operate as disconnected identity islands. A multi-ID world requires a unified identity framework Alternative IDs play an important role, but they also expand the number of signals marketers must reconcile. Without a consistent identity layer, more IDs often mean more complexity—not more clarity. Common alternative IDs in use today: UID2: The Trade Desk’s UID 2.0, an iteration of their original Unified ID 1.0, which was still reliant on third-party cookies, creates persistent IDs with user-provided email addresses and phone numbers. ID5: This independent identity provider builds an identity infrastructure that powers addressable advertising across channels. It can create an ID based on both deterministic and probabilistic data. Hadron ID: Hadron ID is a unique, interoperable identity system (including first-party, audience-based, contextual, deterministic, and probabilistic) developed by Audigent, now part of Experian, to drive revenue for publishers by making their audience data and inventory actionable for media buyers. Industry reports suggest roughly one-third to two-fifths of open-auction traffic carries alternative IDs, sometimes multiple per request. Among Experian clients, adoption of alternative IDs rose 50% year over year, with a 30% increase in IDs resolved to individuals via our Digital Graph. Identity isn’t disappearing; it’s multiplying. A modern identity framework resolves these identifiers into a single, privacy-safe consumer view.
Year after year, CES signals where marketing is headed next. In 2026, the message was clear. Progress comes from connecting data, intelligence, and outcomes with discipline, not spectacle. Across AI, programmatic media, and measurement, the same priorities surfaced again and again. Under the bright lights of Las Vegas, three themes cut through, and each one pointed to a future where data, intelligence, and outcomes move in lockstep. Here are the three themes that defined CES 2026. 1. Agentic AI proved that it’s only as good as its data inputs AI was once again the star of the show. At CES 2026, marketers focused less on demos and more on proof that AI improves decisions, reduces friction, and drives outcomes. Every credible use case traced back to accurate, privacy-first data. What changed at CES was how that intelligence is being applied. Agentic AI systems designed to act autonomously are moving beyond insights and into execution. From media buying to optimization, these agents are increasingly expected to make decisions at speed and scale. That shift raises the stakes for data quality. When AI is operating campaigns, not just informing them, accuracy and privacy are non-negotiable. Without accurate, privacy compliant data, AI agents struggle to reflect real behavior or support responsible personalization. A reliable, privacy-first data foundation is what turns AI from an interesting experiment into an operational advantage. That advantage gets even stronger when it’s anchored in an identity graph that understands people and households across channels. When identity and intelligence move together, AI becomes more accurate, accountable, and effective at driving outcomes. In an AI first world, the strongest signal isn't scale. It's data quality. 2. Curation goes mainstream Curation is no longer experimental. At CES, it showed up as an mandated capability for buyers and sellers navigating fragmented signals and complex supply paths. Marketers want intentional media buys they can explain, defend, and repeat. AI is accelerating this shift. As AI systems take on more responsibility for planning, packaging, and optimization, curation provides the guardrails. It defines what “good” looks like (premium supply, trusted data, and clear performance goals), and allows AI to operate within those constraints driving the optimal outcomes for marketers. Rather than maximizing inventory access, curation prioritizes control, transparency, and performance. Buyers want premium supply aligned to specific goals. Sellers want clearer paths to demand. They can play the odds or own the outcome. When data leads, they own it. When curation is powered by high-fidelity audiences and a connected identity framework, it becomes even stronger. That’s what allows curated deals to deliver clarity, confidence, and repeatable performance. This shift reflects a broader move away from probability-based buying toward outcome ownership, where AI-driven systems are measured not on activity, but on results. 3. Activation and measurement finally shared the same stage Activation and measurement are now coming together around shared data and identity. CES 2026 marked a turning point where closing the loop felt achievable, not aspirational. Both the buy- and sell-sides face pressure to show that media investment drives outcomes. Agentic AI was a quiet driver of this optimism. As AI agents increasingly manage activation decisions in real time, marketers need measurement systems that can keep up. That requires a shared data and identity foundation. One that allows AI-driven actions to be evaluated against outcomes consistently, across channels and partners. "The companies leading in alternative data aren't just optimizing for growth, they're setting a new standard for inclusion, precision and responsible lending." – Ashley Knight, SVP of Product Management, Experian Achieving that requires a consistent identity spine that connects planning, activation, and outcomes across channels. And that spine is strongest when it’s built on accurate, privacy-first data and audiences that understand people and households. That connection allows marketers to move beyond proxy metrics and evaluate performance based on tangible results. When campaigns and measurement rely on the same data foundation, AI driven platforms can optimize toward outcomes such as new customers, account growth, or in-store activity, not just delivery metrics. That’s the connective layer that turns disconnected touchpoints into a measurable, outcomes-based system. The takeaway CES made one thing clear: agentic AI is moving marketing from intention to execution. But only for teams with the right foundation. AI is maturing, but only for teams with accurate, connected, privacy-first data that AI agents can act on responsibly. Curation is scaling, giving both humans and AI systems clearer paths to quality, control, and differentiation. Activation and measurement are aligning, allowing AI-driven decisions to be judged on outcomes, not assumptions. We’re building for that world today. One where agentic AI operates on a trusted data and identity foundation, curation defines the rules, and outcomes determine success. With the right foundation and the deep data inputs, you can move faster, reduce risk, and let intelligence (human and artificial) work together to deliver results that last long after the neon lights fade.