PayPal Ads partners with PubMatic to deliver commerce-driven advertising

PayPal Ads has entered into a strategic partnership with PubMatic through the Activate platform to transform how brands connect with consumers who demonstrate actual purchase intent. The collaboration was announced on September 10, 2025, marking a significant development in commerce-driven advertising solutions.

The partnership combines PayPal Ads's extensive transaction graph with PubMatic's premium programmatic platform. PayPal processes over 400 transactions per second across tens of millions of merchants, providing unique visibility into consumer purchasing behaviors across diverse markets and categories. The integration enables advertisers to access verified audience segments built from actual transaction insights rather than behavioral assumptions.

PayPal Ads's audiences derive their value from deterministic patterns based on real purchasing data. Segments such as "Retail Subscription Shoppers" or "Sports Lovers" are constructed using analyzed trends across actual transaction insights. This approach creates accuracy in category preferences, purchase frequency and spending behaviors that traditional behavioral targeting cannot match.

Mark Grether, Senior Vice President and General Manager at PayPal Ads, explained the technological foundation behind this initiative. "At PayPal Ads, we're committed to pushing the boundaries of innovation in digital advertising by leveraging insights from the trillions of transactions that take place on our platform," Grether said. "Working with PubMatic allows us to deliver impactful advertising solutions through our transaction graph, helping advertisers connect with high-intent audiences based on verified purchasing patterns."

The technical architecture underlying this partnership showcases several sophisticated components. PubMatic's integrated platform provides the technological backbone through Connect curation platform and Activate direct bidding solution. Advertisers gain access to premium publisher networks reaching audiences across 2,000+ premium publishers with brand-safe, high-quality placements.

The system combines PayPal's transaction graph with first-party advertiser insights for enhanced targeting precision. Complete omnichannel activation executes campaigns across Connected TV, mobile, desktop, and emerging formats through a single platform. AI-powered optimization leverages advanced bidding algorithms and real-time optimization to maximize campaign performance.

Early testing has demonstrated measurable results exceeding industry benchmarks. A national beauty retailer achieved an 8.2% brand awareness lift across all audiences when using verified audience segments instead of segments based on assumed interests. The campaign generated a 21.6% brand consideration lift and 17.3% brand recommendation lift among the 18-24 demographic.

These results significantly surpass industry standards, achieving a brand awareness increase 27 times higher than DISQO's 2025 benchmark average of 0.30 points across more than 1,650 campaigns. This performance validates the superior effectiveness of commerce media's verified audience approach compared to traditional behavioral targeting methods.

The partnership becomes immediately available in the United States market. Early adopters gain access to pre-built audience segments across all major verticals, with segments constructed from cross-merchant data spanning tens of millions of merchants rather than single-merchant sources. Custom audience creation capabilities allow advertisers to define and tailor audiences using PayPal's rich data signals to precisely align with campaign objectives.

Flexible activation options enable brands to choose buying methods that best fit their strategy, whether through white-glove support or automated programmatic channels. Advanced measurement capabilities provide marketers with actionable insights from analytics ranging from brand lift studies to closed-loop incrementality analysis that directly ties ad exposure to actual purchase behavior.

PubMatic's technology stack facilitates this partnership through several key components. The Connect platform enables sophisticated audience curation and packaging capabilities. Activate provides direct programmatic buying solutions that bypass traditional intermediaries in the supply chain. The integration with PayPal's transaction graph creates unified insights and activation opportunities across premium inventory.

The collaboration addresses growing demand for performance-driven advertising solutions. By leveraging PayPal Ads's transaction graph across PubMatic's entire publisher network, advertisers can reach verified purchasers wherever they consume content, not just during shopping moments or on commerce platforms. This approach extends beyond traditional commerce platform limitations to deliver verified intent across the open web.

The partnership's technical innovation extends to measurement and optimization capabilities. Advertisers can access comprehensive analytics that track campaign performance from impression delivery through to actual purchase behavior. This closed-loop measurement approach provides direct correlation between advertising exposure and business outcomes, enabling more accurate return on investment calculations.

Tim Rogers, Global Vice President of Commerce Media at PubMatic, announced the partnership through professional networking channels. "I am excited to announce our new partnership with PayPal Ads, powered by PubMatic's Activate and PayPal's verified consumer insights built on real purchase history," Rogers stated. The announcement highlighted how PubMatic has built commerce-centric capabilities into its technology, including sophisticated decisioning logic, premium publisher selection and incrementality analysis.

The partnership reflects broader market trends in digital advertising where accountability and performance measurement have become paramount concerns. Traditional behavioral targeting methods rely on digital signals and inferred interests, while this collaboration provides access to audiences defined by actual purchasing behaviors verified through payment transactions.

Privacy considerations remain central to the implementation. The partnership operates within established privacy frameworks, ensuring consumer data protection while enabling effective targeting capabilities. The approach leverages aggregated transaction insights without compromising individual consumer privacy or requiring direct personal information sharing.

The collaboration positions both companies within the expanding commerce media ecosystem. PayPal Ads extends its advertising capabilities beyond its own platform properties to reach consumers across premium inventory through programmatic channels. PubMatic enhances its value proposition by offering access to unique transaction-based audience data that differentiates its platform from competitors.

Market conditions support this type of partnership as advertisers increasingly prioritize efficiency and measurable outcomes. The integration of verified purchase data with premium programmatic inventory addresses key challenges in digital advertising, including targeting accuracy, campaign effectiveness, and return on investment measurement.

The partnership leverages PayPal's extensive merchant network and consumer relationships built over years of payment processing. This foundation provides insights into consumer behavior across diverse categories and price points, creating comprehensive audience understanding that extends beyond single-platform or single-category data sources.

Technical implementation involves sophisticated data processing and audience segmentation capabilities. PayPal's transaction data undergoes analysis to identify purchasing patterns, category preferences, and behavioral trends. This processed information then integrates with PubMatic's programmatic platform to enable real-time bidding and campaign optimization based on verified consumer insights.

The collaboration represents advancement in addressable advertising solutions that balance performance with privacy compliance. Rather than relying on tracking individual consumers across websites, the approach utilizes aggregate transaction patterns to build audience segments that maintain privacy while delivering targeting effectiveness.

Future expansion possibilities include additional audience segments, enhanced measurement capabilities, and integration with emerging advertising formats. The partnership establishes foundation for continued innovation in commerce-driven advertising as both companies develop new solutions based on transaction insights and programmatic automation.

Timeline

• May 8, 2023: PubMatic launches Activate platform, bringing programmatic automation to direct deals for CTV and video with dentsu, FuboTV, GroupM, Havas, LG, Mars, and Omnicom Media Group Germany as initial partners
• May 29, 2024: PayPal announces plans to build new advertising platform with Mark Grether appointed as SVP and General Manager of PayPal Ads
• November 6, 2023: PubMatic partners with Experian to offer household-level commerce data for ad targeting in US and UK markets
• December 7, 2024: Western Union expands partnership with PubMatic to enhance commerce media capabilities and multicultural audience reach
• April 29, 2025: PayPal launches Offsite Ads with transaction data targeting capabilities across the open web
• May 11, 2025: PubMatic reports Q1 2025 results with 50%+ CTV growth and launches GenAI-powered end-to-end platform
• June 16, 2025: PayPal debuts Storefront Ads enabling direct purchases within publisher content across major websites
• September 8, 2025: PubMatic files antitrust lawsuit against Google seeking damages over digital advertising monopoly practices
• September 10, 2025: PayPal Ads and PubMatic announce strategic partnership through Activate platform for commerce-driven advertising
• Three weeks ago: PubMatic reports Q2 2025 results with sustained growth in CTV and emerging revenue streams including PayPal integration

Summary

Who: PayPal Ads, led by Senior Vice President and General Manager Mark Grether, has partnered with PubMatic, with Global Vice President of Commerce Media Tim Rogers announcing the collaboration. The partnership involves major advertising agencies and brands as early adopters.

What: A strategic partnership integrating PayPal Ads's transaction graph data with PubMatic's Activate platform to deliver commerce-driven advertising solutions. The collaboration enables advertisers to target audiences based on verified purchase behaviors across premium programmatic inventory through sophisticated audience segmentation and measurement capabilities.

When: The partnership was announced on September 10, 2025, with immediate availability in the United States market. Early testing results were demonstrated through a national beauty retailer campaign that achieved significant performance improvements over industry benchmarks.

Where: The partnership launches initially in the United States market, leveraging PubMatic's network of 2,000+ premium publishers and PayPal's transaction data from tens of millions of merchants. The collaboration extends across multiple advertising formats including Connected TV, mobile, desktop, and emerging digital environments.

Why: The partnership addresses growing advertiser demand for performance-driven targeting based on actual purchase intent rather than behavioral assumptions. With traditional targeting methods becoming less effective and advertisers requiring greater accountability, the collaboration provides verified audience insights that deliver measurable business outcomes while maintaining privacy compliance.