Programmatic Curation Explained

Sponsored by Experian Marketing Services

Programmatic media buying isn’t getting any easier. Buyers face rising fragmentation of signals and identifiers, shrinking margins, and growing pressure to perform in a privacy-first world. Add in fragmented tech, shifting privacy regulations, and inconsistent identity signals, and reaching the right audience at scale has never been more complex (or costly).

Meanwhile, advertisers demand more transparency, publishers want control, and consumers expect relevance without feeling watched. Open exchanges, legacy data management platforms (DMPs), and spray-and-pray strategies just aren’t cutting it.

That’s why curation has become a trending topic in the ad tech space. In programmatic advertising, curation refers to the strategic integration of enriched data and quality inventory into a single package, often executed as a private marketplace (PMP) deal. This approach reshapes how campaigns are built, activated, and optimized by enabling performance-ready buys that reduce waste, increase relevance, and give marketers greater control over outcomes.

It’s no wonder then that curation investments are accelerating, PMPs are gaining traction, and buyers are shifting budgets accordingly. Over 66% of the $150 billion+ open exchange programmatic market now flows through curated PMPs, with industry giants like Google publicly backing curation as a core strategy.

The Ad Tech Explained team developed this explainer, in partnership with Experian Marketing Services, to explore programmatic curation and why it is becoming essential for privacy-conscious, performance-driven marketers.

What does programmatic curation mean in ad tech?

Programmatic curation is the process of filtering, structuring, and packaging enriched data with high-quality programmatic inventory, enhanced by real-time optimization to create more targeted, efficient, and transparent media buys. Instead of buying at scale and hoping for the best, curation prioritizes accuracy and value over volume, resulting in more targeted, efficient, and transparent media buys.

As privacy regulations reshape targeting, curation is becoming a key differentiator in an increasingly crowded ad tech space. It connects robust data with quality supply, helping marketers stay effective while giving publishers new ways to monetize with control.

But not all curation is created equal. For best results, programmatic curation requires three core elements:

1. Unique data: Unique, privacy-compliant, and valuable.

2. Strong supply connections: Access to quality inventory from publishers at scale

3. Optimization tools: To measure, refine, and improve performance during a campaign and improve performance throughout the campaign lifecycle.

Why does curation still matter with cookies sticking around?

While third-party cookies and mobile IDs like IDFA haven’t gone away, the industry has already pivoted in anticipation of their decline.

Even without Google flipping the switch, signal fragmentation is here thanks to Apple’s ATT, tighter compliance rules, and new tracking restrictions. Marketers are dealing with less data, more fragmentation, and fewer reliable IDs. So if you want to run an effective, scalable media campaign today, you need tools that go beyond third-party cookies.

That’s why programmatic curation is gaining ground as a better, more sustainable way to buy media. Investments in programmatic curation are growing, and not just for identity resolution. Marketers are leaning in because it:

• Combines verified audience data with premium inventory

• Supports ID-free or context-aware targeting

• Enables scalable, identity-agnostic strategies

• Improves data quality through enrichment

• Creates more controlled, pre-approved media paths via PMPs

Experts anticipate that, at some point, publishers will have to lean into this method. Andrew Casale, CEO of Index Exchange, said, “Curation will be bigger than header bidding and as big as programmatic or RTB — that’s our bet.”

What are the benefits of curation — and who wins?

Curation is one of the few innovations in ad tech delivering meaningful wins across the ecosystem. It helps brands, agencies, and media buyers drive stronger performance, gives publishers more control, and creates a more respectful experience for consumers. Here’s how each group benefits and why it matters.

Brands and agencies: Curation helps brands and agencies run more efficient campaigns by connecting high-quality data with premium supply. It delivers:

• More efficient supply paths with less waste and better performance

• Lower costs than DMP segments and open exchange buys

• Cleaner, pre-vetted inventory that aligns with audience and brand goals

• Future-proofed buying via cookieless and log-level data integrations

• Stronger targeting and measurement driven by enriched data and actual usage signals instead of modeled assumptions

• Better outcomes through real-time supply and data optimization

Publishers: For publishers, curation makes inventory more addressable without giving up control. It enables:

• Better packaging that aligns with buyer needs and campaign goals

• Higher CPMs by curating inventory above open exchange floors

• More control over how audiences are accessed and how inventory is monetized

• Access to higher-value demand through curated, data-backed deals

• Better protection of proprietary audience in a privacy-conscious environment

Consumers: At the end of the chain, curation improves the ad experience for those who matter most: your audience. It supports:

• Higher-quality content alignment for more natural, less disruptive ad experiences tailored to their interests

• Less invasive tracking, as targeting becomes more data-smart and privacy-aware, with reduced reliance on legacy identifiers and personally identifiable information (PII).

What’s Experian’s role in powering curation?

With the acquisition of Audigent, Experian is now more than just a premier data provider. It’s also a full-service curation partner. Together, the companies deliver end-to-end programmatic curation across data, inventory, and optimization, helping brands and publishers achieve more scalable media strategies.

Experian and Audigent make it easier to activate high-performing, privacy-compliant campaigns at scale with:

• End-to-end curation across data, inventory, and real-time optimization

• Pre-packaged and custom PMP deals with built-in performance signals

• Scalable, privacy-first media solutions aligned to brand objectives, verticals, and KPIs

Curated marketplace deals are already delivering measurable gains. In OpenX, Audigent-curated campaigns increased bid competition by 20% and drove a 118% spike in impressions won over a two-month period.

What does successful curation look like in action? What’s really possible?

Here’s a example for you: A leading homeopathic brand, Boiron, partnered with Audigent to scale customer acquisition for its flu-relief product without increasing media investment. The brand wanted to reach new, privacy-compliant audiences while improving CPA across display and video. Using Audigent’s curated SmartPMPs and CognitivePMPs, the campaign delivered measurable performance improvements:

• 80% lower CPA on display than historical benchmarks

• 40% lower CPA on video

• 30% reduction in data costs

• Significant media efficiency gains through real-time supply and data optimization

• Fully future-proof targeting with zero reliance on cookies or MAIDs

Boiron’s success story is just one example of how curated deals backed by Experian identity and Audigent’s optimization technology can deliver efficiency and impact in a privacy-conscious environment.

About Experian and Audigent

Together with Audigent, Experian’s curated solutions go beyond basic packaging. Every deal is designed for performance, privacy, and relevance, so marketers can activate their media with greater confidence:

• Deal ID-ready audiences for fast, turnkey activation

• Performance-specific curation, including viewability, CTR, and outcome-based targeting

• Custom audience + inventory packages tailored to campaign goals

• Vertical-specific curation for industries like auto, retail, CPG, and financial services

• Real-time optimization signals embedded into every curated deal

With Experian and Audigent, marketers are not just getting better data but also a partner that helps activate it with accuracy, privacy, and performance at scale.