Making the case for purchase and intent data in programmatic

Sponsored by The Trade Desk – October 14, 2026 –

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Kristi Argilyan, evp and Chief Commercial Officer, The Trade Desk

Every CMO is handling the exact same capture. Financing is going through budget plans line by line and desires evidence. The information that’s expected to back up that invest is more fragmented than it’s ever been.

Programmatic has more information than ever, and online marketers still can’t address a basic concern: Did this drive sales? The response appears. Purchase and intent information should not be another targeting input layered on. It ought to be what whatever else is constructed around.

Why it’s various

Many audience information informs marketers who somebody is and what pail they suit. That’s helpful, however it’s a reasoning. Purchase and intent information informs what somebody is really doing today, and whether they’re about to purchase.

That’s why retail media has actually grown so quickly. As retail media networks, commitment programs and commerce platforms develop, more signals are connected straight to deals. It’s the one part of the stack that can stroll into a CFO’s workplace and indicate a genuine sale. Other information types primarily enhance for attention. This is the one that enhances for results, so it needs to be main to preparation, targeting and measurement, not a specialized add-on for specific marketers.

Partners have actually constructed silos, not systems

Purchase and intent information resides in a great deal of locations: merchants, card networks, commitment platforms and a growing list of measurement suppliers. Each has its own taxonomy, latency and method. Online marketers get conflicting signals and are left to reconcile them by hand.

Merchant A states the project drove double-digit lift. Measurement Partner B states it was flat. Neither is always incorrect, since they’re determining various things in various methods over various timelines. It uses down trust in whatever that’s done. If partners can’t settle on what a sale appears like, they have not made the right to state they can determine one.

Partners require to rally

Audience suppliers and measurement partners have actually invested years contending on dataset size. That race is over. Third-party information is diminishing under personal privacy pressure, and signal is getting more difficult to discover. The next thing to complete on is reliability.

There are 3 parts to developing trustworthiness:

  • Shared requirements for what counts as a conversion connected to advertisement direct exposure, rather of 5 exclusive meanings.
  • Genuine interoperability, so an audience partner’s signal can be examined versus a measurement partner’s result information rather of each side grading its own research.
  • Openness about method. Online marketers should not need to take a lift number on faith.

None of this requires brand-new innovation. The facilities to link direct exposure to acquire currently exists. What’s missing out on is the determination to settle on what evidence indicates.

The evidence remains in the sales

The partners who move initially will win trust, and they’ll win budget plan too. When every dollar is questioned, online marketers will combine invest behind the service providers who can reveal a tidy, agreed-upon line from impression to sale.

Programmatic does not have an information issue. It has a positioning issue. The partners who resolve it will be the ones who can reveal, in terms that online marketers and their CFOs both trust, that the work drove a sale.

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