Expand your audience strategy with the data marketplace

Strong audience strategy starts with a clear understanding of who you want to reach. While first-party customer data can provide valuable insights, it isn’t always available. 

For Thomas Curtil, programmatic lead at Weborama in France, the data marketplace’s strength lies in its ability for a trader to combine datasets and use demographic and behavioral segments that create highly unique audiences that can scale across campaigns. Whether working with first-party customer data, proprietary data, or contextual signals, having multiple ways to identify and activate audiences helps create more flexibility when building a strategy. 

Curtil points to CRM data as the ideal starting point. When available, it allows traders to identify converters and existing customers while modeling audiences around those high-value profiles. In situations where advertisers may not share this data, or may not have it in a usable format, traders can turn to lookalike modeling and the data marketplace to uncover similar audiences. 

By using the search and filtering tools within the data marketplace, traders can more efficiently identify relevant segments that align with campaign goals and core marketing targets. Once audiences are activated, traders can also use tools like Quality Reach Index to evaluate how closely their targeting aligns with their intended audience profile. 

As Curtil notes, the key is to define the audience first. Once key attributes are identified that align with desired outcomes, you can determine the right data source to help you find it. 

Explore more use cases 

The data marketplace helps traders expand audience strategies when first-party data is limited or unavailable. Here’s how to apply it: 

• Start with the audience: Clearly define the population you want to reach before selecting data sources or segments. 

• Use CRM data when available: Identify converters and existing customers to build modeled audiences rooted in your strongest signals. 

• Expand with lookalikes: When first-party data isn’t accessible, use lookalike technologies to identify similar profiles. 

• Find relevant segments faster: Use the search and filtering features to surface high-quality audience segments aligned to your campaign objectives. 

Imagine a travel campaign, for instance, where an advertiser wants to reach high-intent vacation planners but doesn’t have first-party booking or loyalty data. Instead of pausing the strategy, a trader can use lookalike modeling and explore the data marketplace to identify relevant segments, which can help maintain audience precision while extending reach.

Want to learn more about how the data marketplace can support your audience strategy? Reach out to your representative at The Trade Desk.

This information is provided solely for background and is not a representation or guarantee of any future performance.