Source, Sell, and Swap Audiences with Ease using Adobe Audience Manager Audience Marketplace

Marketers can combine technology, network, and processes

Marketing messages are just best guesses when they are based on limited data. Marketers want to learn more about their own audiences and connect with new audiences so they can create a stronger impact and a greater reach.

The data collected from a company’s CRM, website, and analytics gives its marketers great value. That data is completely focused on the company’s unique customer journey when engaging the brand in channels the brand controls. It can be fine-tuned in real-time as needs change and knowledge grows, and it’s free. This data, called first-party data, provides a pretty clear picture of who is engaging with a brand. However, even first-party data has limitations. It gives just one view into how audiences behave on a company’s site, how they use its apps, and whether and when they ultimately buy. First-party data is good, but more data is optimal.

Data sourcing is a necessity for marketers who want to learn more about their customers or find a new audience. These marketers need access to data they don’t already own to extend their marketing reach, so they purchase new data from a vendor. Adding that third-party data to their first-party data gives marketers a deeper picture of their customers’ activities. Yet even the combination of first- and third-party data still leaves gaps because while third-party data has a lot of value, it isn’t custom-tailored to any one company’s needs.

Seeking the best of what first- and third-party data offer, many marketers are tapping into second-party data, which is another company’s first-party data that is shared and accessible given similar markets and audiences; for instance, a hotel chain might gain insights from data collected by a car rental agency. The customers of these types of companies share a similar consumer journey, so their behavior on each company’s site or app is useful to the other company’s marketing efforts. Second-party data sources have the potential to increase scale and accuracy.

The challenges of exchanging data

The ability to connect and share data between two companies benefits both organizations. These deals exist in a limited fashion, but they are difficult to find, execute, and scale. Connecting with one like-minded company won’t provide enough data to make a big impact; connecting with an extensive network of partners delivers more accurate and therefore more valuable insights to its participants.

However, there are obstacles. Managing legal relationships between companies can be thorny. Issuing and tracking payments to multiple partners is a burden. And privacy controls need to be in place because broadcasting the type of data a company is seeking or selling can have significant impact on consumer trust in that company.

The challenge is to bring a wide network of trusted companies together and provide a process through which they can safely and seamlessly trade data in a way that’s scalable and repeatable. Enter Adobe Audience Manager, the industry-leading data management platform (DMP).

Audience Marketplace data exchange within Adobe Audience Manager bridges gaps in audience data

With Adobe Audience Manager (AAM), companies can easily organize information into audiences, and once audiences are understood, they can be targeted with marketing messages that will have meaning for them. The new Audience Marketplace data exchange within Audience Manager amplifies the value of our DMP by putting a wide array of third-party audiences at the marketer’s fingertips, and also creating opportunities for strategic second-party audience opportunities.

The foundation of the Audience Marketplace is a technology solution. Companies can log into a self-service interface that allows them to source, sell, and swap data in a privacy-friendly manner.

The Audience Marketplace value is in the network it enables. A large marketplace offers more benefits than a small one, but the quality and trustworthiness of the trading partners is as important as their number. For that reason, Adobe has vetted every participant included in Audience Marketplace to ensure they can bring value to the network and follow best practices for sharing data responsibly.

Audience Marketplace provides an infrastructure of processes that makes it easy to use. If a company wanted to make its own relationships, it would have to execute 50 deals, with 50 contracts, and 50 purchasing efforts. However, Audience Marketplace has legal agreements in place and keeps track of billing, so partners can sign one contract that applies to all partners and just pay Adobe directly instead of each partner.

Bringing brands together

Marketers have long recognized the potential of marketplaces to provide access to data and audiences they don’t own. Adobe has filled that need with proven technology, a powerful partner network, and an extensive set of processes that ease the sourcing, selling, and swapping of audience data. Check out what some of our data provider partners are saying about the Adobe Audience Manager Audience Marketplace:

Learn more about how you can find new audiences and target your messages better with Audience Marketplace, part of Adobe Audience Manager, and follow us on Twitter @AdobeDMP.


https://theblog.adobe.com/experience-cloud/advertising-cloud/