By Mateusz Rumiński, VP of Product, PrimeAudience
Audience curation is fast becoming a cornerstone of the modern ad tech marketplace.
Google’s recent decision to get involved in the curation marketplace is the latest confirmation of its growing importance to marketers. Late last year, the search giant announced it would introduce new curation capabilities to help advertisers and their agencies “optimise workflows, improve forecasting and manage direct deals with publishers more effectively.”
In digital advertising, ‘curation’ refers to the strategic selection and packaging of digital inventory to help create and deliver meaningful, often personalised ad experiences. The concept has become increasingly important in the modern era of digital media. This is because audiences are bombarded with vast amounts of content, and brands need higher efficiency, precision, and enhanced return on investment (ROI).
In an increasingly fragmented digital marketplace, it can be difficult for advertisers to buy the range of preferred ad inventory they need to reach their target audiences effectively. Simultaneously, rising consumer demand for privacy encourages marketers to explore less invasive strategies and targeting methods. Balancing these challenges requires a refined, data-driven approach that curated deals can provide.
Curated deals focus on selecting premium inventory and precise audience segments tailored to specific campaign objectives. This enables marketers to target audiences across multiple DSPs, streamline the buying process, and enhance campaign effectiveness by reaching the right audience.
Recent data from PrimeAudience reveals that 89% of marketers now use curated deals in their campaigns, with 8% planning to employ this approach soon. Indeed, this shift reflects a broader move towards precision marketing, where effectiveness and privacy-first strategies take centre stage.
The advantages of curation
Modern advertisers demand higher standards from programmatic buys, seeking to avoid low-quality inventory, such as Made-for-Advertising sites. Curated deals solve this by providing access to premium, vetted inventory, with brand safety and transparency built into the buy.
This approach enhances existing programmatic strategies and strikes a better balance between the power of automation and the assurance of premium inventory. AI-driven curation elevates this by analysing vast datasets to create tailored media packages – an efficiency that human planners alone cannot match.
For publishers, curation offers a powerful tool to manage their inventory yield, allowing them to maximise revenue without relying on extensive sales teams. Meanwhile, for buyers, it streamlines the process of identifying high-quality inventory and targeting the right audience, improving campaign performance.
However, to fully leverage curation’s potential, marketers must choose the right partners to help reach their goals. Transparency, robust analytics, and strong inventory connections are essential for success.
Google’s entry into curation
Although Google’s move into the curation space comes later than more established SSP’s, it carries immense potential due to its unparalleled scale and reach. However, while Google’s platform offers marketers new opportunities to enhance campaign performance through curated premium inventory, there are also potential risks to over-reliance on its ecosystem.
To mitigate these risks, marketers should align with curators whose strategies complement their campaign goals. Prioritising transparency, data-driven insights, and interoperability between curators and existing marketing platforms will be key to long-term success.
Looking ahead: The year of precision marketing
As we settle into 2025, audience curation will help drive impactful, targeted media strategies. Marketers and publishers should evaluate their current strategy and ensure alignment with partners who prioritise value and performance to succeed.
The rise of curation offers a tremendous opportunity to drive impactful and targeted campaigns, but the key will be strategic partnerships and thoughtful implementation. To unlock the full potential of this approach, the first step is partnering with curators who align with your brand goals – will you lead or follow?
*PrimeAudience is a client of Bluestripe Communications, owned by Bluestripe Group, publisher of NDA
