AdRoll reaches 200 brands activating Experian audiences across channels

AdRoll announced on October 21, 2025, that 200 brands across various industries have activated Experian's syndicated audiences since April 2025. The milestone signals growing demand from marketers for more accurate, scalable ways to reach customers across channels. Brands spanning retail, finance, healthcare, and hospitality have deployed Experian audiences in over 250 multi-channel campaigns, running campaigns across web and connected TV.

The collaboration provides AdRoll customers with access to over 3,200 ready-to-use audiences within the platform's streamlined workflow. Marketers can plan, launch, and measure cross-screen campaigns with greater speed and accuracy, while maintaining consistent audience strategies across desktop web, mobile web, and CTV without losing scale or control.

"This is about redefining what's possible for marketers," said Lizzie Chapman, vice president of technology partnerships at AdRoll. "We collaborated with Experian because of the breadth of their syndicated taxonomy, which enables us to support the diverse industries our customers represent. The rapid adoption in just the first four months highlights the power of this combination — delivering the accuracy and simplicity marketers need to cut through the noise and drive meaningful growth."

Beyond syndicated audiences, Experian's digital identity graph enhances the AdRoll platform by connecting households and individuals through various privacy-friendly identifiers. Mobile Advertising IDs and Connected TV IDs help AdRoll accurately estimate addressable reach during planning and effectively activate high-quality audience signals at launch without adding unnecessary complexity.

"With Experian's audiences integrated directly into AdRoll, we can move from insights to activation in record time," said Sergio Stephano, managing director at Adaptia. "It's transforming how we plan and optimize campaigns — giving our clients like PDS Debt a real, data-backed advantage in competitive markets."

The advantage shows measurable results for AdRoll customers. "AdRoll's adoption of Experian's syndicated audiences has given us a great advantage," said Jeff Allan, president & CEO of PDS Debt. "We're able to launch and scale our paid media campaigns with improved targeting, yielding strong results for us to continue to assist a broader clientele."

Technical specifications and audience categories

The integration offers marketers seven distinct categories of audience attributes, each priced differently based on data complexity and specificity. Demographic segments, encompassing over 150 attributes including age, gender, education, language, marital and parental status, homeownership and rental status, household composition, household income, occupation, and ethnicity, range from $0.80 to $1.50 CPM per segment.

Lifestyle and interests segments provide access to over 190 attributes covering hobbies, values, activities, entertainment, and information engagement patterns. Examples include video gamers, television viewers, healthy lifestyle adherents, dog owners, and hotel reward program members. These segments carry data fees between $0.80 and $1.25 CPM.

Behavioral audiences represent the largest category with over 700 segments targeting consumers based on online and offline behaviors. Purchase history, website visits, searches, online actions, and shipping personalities all factor into these segments. Luxury car owners, charity contributors, shopaholics, fashionistas, and fitness device wearers fall within this category, priced from $0.75 to $1.50 CPM.

Business-to-business targeting encompasses over 40 segments enabling companies to reach specific business characteristics. Company size, company revenue, executive title, and industry define these segments, all priced at $2.00 CPM given the higher value of B2B audiences.

Financial insights segments number over 200 and include income, credit card balances and scores, housing assets, investments, spending by category, and other financial factors. Credit score ranges, annual discretionary spending categories, card balance histories, and annual donation amounts represent available targeting parameters. Data fees range from $0.85 to $1.50 CPM.

Life events segments target specific consumer milestones including home purchases, marriages, births, and retirement. First-time homeowners, recently married individuals, recently engaged couples, and new job seekers comprise this category of over 10 segments priced between $0.80 and $1.25 CPM.

Location-based segments track places consumers frequent and geographical locations through over 50 attributes. MLB stadium visitors, ski resort visitors, Halloween shoppers, college students, and theme park visitors represent this category, priced from $1.00 to $1.25 CPM.

Purchase predictors leverage over 800 segments identifying consumers most likely to make purchases based on transaction history and browsing behavior. Email promotion purchasers, Amazon.com shoppers, consumers in-market for SUVs, and holiday season last-minute shoppers fall within this category, carrying data fees from $0.80 to $1.50 CPM.

The audience building interface supports flexible logical operations. Marketers can use AND logic for precise targeting by combining multiple specific audience segments, though this approach typically reduces overall audience size while increasing targeting precision. OR logic enables broader reach by including multiple segment options, expanding potential audience size. Advanced segmentation combines AND/OR logic to create sophisticated audience definitions tailored to specific campaign objectives.

Cross-channel activation and measurement

Once created, third-party audiences can be targeted across web and CTV channels through dedicated campaign types. CTV campaigns launched through AdRoll target audiences on TV streaming devices, while web campaigns reach them across desktop, mobile, and app environments with static web, native, HTML5, and video ad formats.

The platform displays estimated audience size when marketers create third-party audiences. For web campaigns, the system shows the number of people eligible to see advertisements. For CTV campaigns, household counts appear as the relevant metric, with AdRoll recommending a minimum of 10,000 households for effective campaign reach.

These estimates do not include additional campaign targeting criteria and may change over time based on available data. The estimated audience size derives from AdRoll's Cross Device Graph and Experian's identity graph syndicated audience data, enabling audience estimates even without pixel installation to track website traffic and conversions.

AdRoll's AI-powered connected advertising platform unifies display, native, video, mobile, social, and CTV in a single workspace. The platform streamlines campaign setup, applies predictive AI to optimize performance, and delivers transparent measurement, enabling marketers to maximize impact, prove ROI, and drive sustainable business growth.

"For fast-moving teams, clarity is the competitive edge, knowing who to reach, where to reach them, and how to measure success," said Ali Mack, vice president of AdTech at Experian Marketing Services. "Together with AdRoll, we're putting that clarity at marketers' fingertips: consistent audiences across screens, rapid setup, and transparent measurement at scale."

Industry context and market trends

The announcement arrives as connected TV advertising spending approaches $33.35 billion in 2025, with 72% of marketers planning increased programmatic investment. CTV budget allocation has doubled from 14% in 2023 to 28% in 2025, reflecting the channel's growing importance in media strategies.

However, confidence in CTV effectiveness remains mixed across the industry. Research from Gracenote revealed that 32% of media professionals find their CTV advertising "not very effective," despite 27% of respondents allocating 40% or more of total budgets to the channel. The disconnect stems partly from strategic misalignment, with 30% prioritizing brand awareness as their primary objective while relying heavily on demographic and behavioral targeting better suited for performance marketing.

Measurement challenges compound effectiveness concerns. When asked about top CTV advertising obstacles, 27% cited lack of insight into whether advertisements reached intended audiences. Another 20% pointed to insufficient ROI visibility, while 17% mentioned lack of insight into where advertisements appear. Brand safety concerns troubled 14% of respondents, with advertisements appearing in unsuitable contexts remaining a persistent issue.

The AdRoll-Experian integration addresses several of these measurement pain points. By providing transparent audience estimation during planning and consistent targeting across web and CTV environments, the partnership offers marketers clarity on reach and audience composition before campaign launch. The syndicated audience taxonomy spans multiple industries, enabling precise targeting while maintaining scale across channels.

Third-party data adoption has historically faced challenges due to cost concerns and difficulty determining which data sources deliver effective results. Advertisers deploying third-party data typically invest nearly 20% of their media costs on it, creating financial pressure to demonstrate clear performance improvements. The AdRoll-Experian approach embeds data fees directly into campaign costs, eliminating separate line items and simplifying budget allocation.

The partnership reflects broader market consolidation as advertising technology platforms integrate data capabilities rather than maintaining separation between data providers and media activation. Experian acquired Audigent in December 2024, expanding its marketing infrastructure with data activation and identity platform technologies. The acquisition integrated Audigent's first-party publisher data and inventory network, adding sell-side distribution functionality to complement Experian's existing demand-side capabilities.

Audigent's platform processes over 100,000 campaigns monthly, utilizing artificial intelligence and machine learning through SmartPMP, ContextualPMP, and CognitivePMP products. These tools operate without relying on third-party cookies, instead utilizing Hadron ID technology for identity management. The technology allows precise audience targeting while maintaining privacy standards through first-party data structures.

Privacy considerations and compliance requirements

The third-party audience creation interface requires users to specify whether audiences will be used to advertise housing, employment, or financial products. This mandatory disclosure aligns with U.S. law and regulations governing advertising in these sensitive categories, reflecting industry-wide efforts to maintain compliance with fair housing, equal employment, and fair lending statutes.

The Experian identity graph connects households and individuals through privacy-friendly identifiers rather than relying solely on third-party cookies. Mobile Advertising IDs and Connected TV IDs enable cross-device targeting while respecting user privacy preferences. The approach addresses industry transitions away from third-party cookie reliance, providing targeting capabilities that function in cookie-restricted or cookieless environments.

AdRoll's pixel installation remains highly recommended for tracking website traffic and conversions, though it's not required for creating third-party audiences or launching campaigns. The platform can estimate audience reach using Experian's identity graph even without proprietary tracking data, lowering barriers to campaign deployment while maintaining targeting precision.

Performance implications for marketers

The integration changes operational dynamics for marketing teams managing multi-channel campaigns. Traditional audience creation workflows required advertisers to evaluate data providers individually, negotiate pricing, integrate each source separately, and track costs across multiple vendors. This complexity limited experimentation and concentrated data spending among a small number of proven providers.

By embedding over 3,200 audience segments directly within the AdRoll platform interface, the partnership eliminates external vendor management overhead. Campaign managers can browse audience categories, combine segments with flexible logic, preview estimated reach, and launch campaigns without leaving the platform environment. This streamlined workflow reduces setup time from days to hours for complex audience configurations.

The audience estimator provides valuable planning insights before media commitment. Marketers can test different segment combinations, evaluate potential reach implications, and refine targeting strategies based on actual availability data rather than assumptions. When combining multiple segments with AND logic proves too restrictive, the estimator immediately reflects reduced reach, enabling real-time strategy adjustments.

For agencies managing multiple client accounts, the standardized audience taxonomy creates consistency across campaigns. Team members can replicate successful audience configurations across different clients operating in similar industries, building institutional knowledge about which segment combinations deliver optimal performance in specific verticals.

Campaign reporting currently does not support performance breakdowns by individual audience attributes. Marketers seeking granular performance insights by segment must create separate ad groups for each third-party audience, enabling comparison of different audience configurations within the same campaign structure.

The data fee structure varies by segment category and specificity. Demographic and behavioral segments generally carry lower fees, ranging from $0.75 to $1.50 CPM, while business-focused segments command $2.00 CPM reflecting higher commercial value. Financial insights segments span the broadest range from $0.85 to $1.50 CPM depending on data depth and predictive power.

These fees integrate directly into campaign costs rather than appearing as separate line items on invoices. The inclusive pricing model simplifies budget allocation and performance analysis, as marketers can evaluate total campaign ROI without separately calculating data costs.

Market positioning and competitive dynamics

AdRoll's emphasis on AI-powered campaign optimization distinguishes its approach from competitors emphasizing manual control. The platform applies predictive AI to performance optimization while maintaining transparent measurement, balancing automation benefits with accountability requirements that marketers increasingly demand.

The partnership with Experian positions AdRoll to serve mid-sized businesses requiring enterprise-grade data capabilities without enterprise complexity. By providing access to premium data sources within a streamlined interface, AdRoll addresses a market segment often underserved by platforms designed for either small businesses with limited capabilities or large enterprises with extensive resources.

Platform consolidation trends continue reshaping advertising technology markets, with providers increasingly integrating capabilities across creative production, media activation, and measurement. AdRoll's integration of Experian audiences reflects this consolidation, reducing the number of separate vendors marketers must manage while maintaining access to specialized data capabilities.

The 200-brand milestone reached within six months of the April 2025 launch suggests strong market reception. Early adoption across diverse industries including retail, finance, healthcare, and hospitality demonstrates broad applicability rather than narrow vertical concentration. The 250 campaigns deployed indicate that many brands have launched multiple initiatives using Experian audiences, suggesting satisfaction with initial results.

Technical implementation and accessibility

Access to third-party audiences extends across all AdRoll plan tiers, including Ads Only, Advanced, Agency, MAP (Legacy), Starter (Legacy), and Growth (Legacy) packages. This universal availability democratizes access to premium data capabilities that historically required enterprise-level commitments or direct data provider relationships.

Marketers create third-party audiences through the AdRoll interface by navigating to Audiences, selecting the Website Audiences tab, and choosing New Audience. The audience type selection includes Third Party as an option alongside other targeting methods. The interface prompts for housing, employment, or financial product disclosure before presenting segment selection options.

The segment browser organizes audiences by parent categories including Demographics, Lifestyle & Interests, Behaviors, Business, Financial Insights, Life Events, Location Based, and Purchase Predictors. Within each category, marketers can browse specific attributes and combine them using flexible logical operators to create precise audience definitions.

Once defined, audiences receive descriptive names following conventions that enable easy identification across the platform and within reporting interfaces. Saved audiences become available for immediate activation in web and CTV campaigns, with estimated reach visible during campaign setup alongside other targeting parameters.

The platform provides audience estimation based on selected segments and logical combinations, but these estimates do not include additional campaign-level targeting criteria such as geographic restrictions, frequency caps, or daypart specifications. Final campaign reach may differ from audience estimates depending on these additional parameters and competitive auction dynamics.

For households lacking AdRoll digital profiles in the cross-device graph, the platform may still return them in CTV audience estimates because Experian attributes link to households rather than individual cookies. This explains why household counts often exceed people counts for the same segment combination, as device-ids enable CTV targeting even without corresponding web profiles.

Future implications for digital advertising

The rapid adoption milestone validates market demand for integrated data solutions that reduce operational complexity. As advertising channels proliferate and creative requirements multiply, managing separate vendors for data, creative production, and media activation becomes increasingly untenable for mid-sized marketing teams.

The partnership suggests the industry may be moving toward more integrated operational models where boundaries between data provision, creative development, and media execution become less distinct. Rather than assembling best-of-breed point solutions, marketers increasingly prioritize platforms offering comprehensive capabilities within unified workflows.

Privacy considerations will continue shaping data partnerships as third-party cookie deprecation progresses. Solutions relying on privacy-friendly identifiers and first-party data structures position better for long-term viability than those dependent on traditional tracking mechanisms. Experian's identity graph approach using Mobile Advertising IDs and Connected TV IDs exemplifies this strategic direction.

The measurement challenges identified in industry research remain significant obstacles to CTV advertising effectiveness. While the AdRoll-Experian partnership addresses audience targeting precision, broader issues around viewability verification, brand safety monitoring, and conversion attribution require ongoing innovation across the advertising technology ecosystem.

As connected TV spending continues growing and capturing larger budget shares, platforms demonstrating clear performance accountability will capture disproportionate investment. The integration of syndicated audiences with transparent reach estimation and cross-channel measurement capabilities positions AdRoll to benefit from this trend, particularly among mid-market advertisers seeking enterprise capabilities without enterprise complexity.

Timeline

• April 2025: AdRoll launches integration of Experian's syndicated audiences
• October 21, 2025: AdRoll announces 200 brands have activated Experian audiences across 250+ campaigns
• October 21, 2025: Lemonlight and AdRoll announce strategic partnership to streamline CTV and digital advertising
• October 22, 2025: Taboola and Paramount launch Performance Multiplier for small business CTV advertising
• October 23, 2025: Teads launches deterministic CTV measurement tracking site visits and conversions
• October 1, 2025: Gracenote releases survey showing 32% of media executives find CTV advertising ineffective
• September 29, 2025: The Trade Desk announces Audience Unlimited data marketplace overhaul with AI scoring
• August 4, 2025: Microsoft launches Premium Streaming campaigns for Connected TV advertising
• July 30, 2025: Criteo and WPP Media launch commerce-driven CTV activation addressing measurement challenges
• December 4, 2024: Experian acquires Audigent to expand marketing data capabilities

Summary

Who: AdRoll, a connected advertising platform, and Experian Marketing Services, a data and identity solutions provider, announced a partnership milestone. The collaboration serves 200 brands across retail, finance, healthcare, and hospitality industries. Lizzie Chapman, vice president of technology partnerships at AdRoll, and Ali Mack, vice president of AdTech at Experian Marketing Services, represent the partnership. Sergio Stephano, managing director at Adaptia, and Jeff Allan, president & CEO of PDS Debt, represent client perspectives.

What: AdRoll announced that 200 brands have activated Experian's syndicated audiences across web and connected TV campaigns since the integration launched. The partnership provides access to over 3,200 ready-to-use audience segments spanning seven categories: demographics, lifestyle and interests, behaviors, business, financial insights, life events, location-based, and purchase predictors. Brands have deployed these audiences in over 250 multi-channel campaigns. The integration includes Experian's digital identity graph connecting households and individuals through Mobile Advertising IDs and Connected TV IDs. Data fees range from $0.75 to $2.00 CPM depending on segment category and specificity.

When: The partnership launched in April 2025, with the 200-brand milestone announced on October 21, 2025. The milestone represents six months of market adoption following the initial integration launch.

Where: The announcement originated from AdRoll's San Francisco headquarters. The integration operates within the AdRoll platform accessible to marketers globally, though third-party audience reach is limited to the United States. Campaign activation spans web channels including desktop web and mobile web, plus connected TV streaming environments.

Why: The partnership addresses growing demand from marketers for more accurate, scalable ways to reach customers across channels. The integration simplifies audience creation by embedding over 3,200 segments directly within the AdRoll platform, eliminating separate data provider relationships and streamlining workflow from planning through measurement. The collaboration responds to persistent challenges in connected TV advertising, including insufficient ROI visibility, lack of insight into audience reach, and measurement attribution gaps. By providing transparent audience estimation, consistent cross-channel targeting, and privacy-friendly identifiers, the partnership aims to deliver clarity that marketers require to prove campaign effectiveness and drive business growth.