October 19, 2026Key takeaways
eMarketer forecasts that U.S. advertisers will spend more on connected TV ($17.73 billion) than primetime linear TV ($16.98 billion) in 2026.
AdRoll’s Household Reach & Site Visit report, built on Experian’s Digital Graph, links CTV exposure to later website visits at the household level.
Marketers can access Experian Audiences and Experian Audience Engine directly inside AdRoll’s campaign workflow without a separate data integration.
AdRoll recommends a clear AI framework: people set the what and why, while AI manages the how and how much of campaign execution.
Finding new customers is only part of the challenge. Marketers also need to reach the right people across CTV and digital channels, then understand what happens after the first impression.
Will Nixon, Head of Data Partnerships at AdRoll, joined us to discuss how Experian Audiences and cross-device identity help marketers fill the funnel, prove CTV’s impact on the customer journey, and keep people in charge of strategy as AI takes on optimization.
Reach, accuracy, and proof don’t always move together
Growth marketers must balance scale, relevance, and proof. Layer too many audience segments and reach shrinks; go too broad and relevance suffers. CTV adds a measurement challenge because viewers can’t click the ad, leaving last-click attribution unable to capture the full journey.
That matters as CTV attracts more investment. For the first time, eMarketer forecasts that U.S. advertisers will commit more of their upfront TV budgets to CTV ($17.73 billion) than to primetime linear TV ($16.98 billion) in 2026.
As more budget moves to CTV, the pressure to prove it’s working grows with it. Marketers need to reach the right people consistently, then connect ad exposure to what happens next. That’s where the AdRoll and Experian partnership comes in: Experian’s audience data brings new prospects into the funnel, AdRoll’s long track record in retargeting keeps the conversation moving toward purchase, and a durable identity layer connecting the journey across screens.
Building the funnel on Experian data, inside AdRoll
AdRoll gives marketers access to Experian audience data right inside the campaign workflow, so they can plan and activate campaigns without a separate data integration.
When the goal is prospecting, marketers can start with Experian Audiences: Thousands of ready-to-use audiences spanning demographics, financial profiles, intent, interests, and purchase behavior.
When marketers need a different approach, they can turn to Experian Audience Engine: First-party data, such as an email list, informs a modeled audience built with Experian Marketing Attributes. This helps when a syndicated segment isn’t narrow enough or combining segments reduces reach too much.
Behind both, Experian’s Digital Graph: Supplies the identity connection across digital environments. It links identifiers such as mobile advertising IDs (MAIDs) and CTV IDs to household and individual IDs, enabling AdRoll to activate at the household level and measure across screens.
Together, these capabilities help marketers move from understanding an audience to reaching it, then connect campaign activity across devices.
Connecting the big screen to what happens next
CTV gives marketers a powerful way to reach people, but the lack of a click can make it difficult to connect an ad exposure directly with later engagement.
AdRoll’s Household Reach & Site Visit helps marketers connect CTV exposure with later website engagement. Built on our identity graph, the report shows how many households a CTV campaign reached and how many of those households visited the marketer’s website after ad exposure.
That links two parts of the journey: CTV exposure and later website engagement from a digital device in the same household.
“This gives our sellers and our customers confidence to reinvest in CTV, because before this they were a little bit flying blind: we invested in CTV, we ran all these ads, but what was the impact of that? This helps tell that story.”
AdRoll
Will Nixon, Head of Data Partnerships
Where people stay in charge as AI takes on more campaign optimization
Even with AI handling more of the work, marketers still need to decide who leads and where the technology can help. AdRoll uses a simple framework: people own the what and why, and AI owns the how and how much.
People define the business outcomes and creative guardrails. AI can recommend how to allocate budgets across channels, measure performance, and learn from campaign data. The more of those decisions AI makes, the more data quality, governance, transparency, and marketer control matter.
“Humans own the what and the why: what are we trying to achieve for customers, and why does it matter to them? AI owns the how and how much: how are we going to reach the users, how much are we going to spend on each channel, and how are we going to measure it?”
AdRoll
Will Nixon, Head of Data Partnerships
This is also why the AdRoll and Experian relationship matters; Experian’s audience data and identity resolution give AdRoll a trusted, well-governed foundation, so marketers can rely on the data behind the how and how much while they stay focused on the what and why.
What this means for your next campaign
If you’re planning a full-funnel program, start with four questions:
1. Are you matching the audience tool to the ask?
Start with the audience approach that fits the objective. Pre-built audiences can support common use cases, and custom audience options can support more tailored needs.
2. Are you planning for the household, not the device?
CTV, web, and mobile app work best when identity connects them.
3. Can you measure the screen you can’t click?
Household-level reach and site-visit reporting gives marketers more evidence to assess CTV investment.
4. Have you decided the what and the why yourself?
Set the strategy, creative guidelines, and outcomes, then let AI handle the how.
Together, AdRoll and Experian help marketers connect audience understanding, activation, identity, and measurement across more of the customer journey.
