How agencies are redefining media buying
Opinion
New research from Experian highlights a data reset, the importance of curated marketplaces, and the use of AI for creative planning.
The way agencies plan and buy media is changing at pace. Signal loss, tightening privacy rules, and increasingly fragmented audiences are reshaping the mechanics of modern media buying.
As the latest Media Buying in Transition research from Experian shows, agencies are responding by reinventing the way they use data, technology, and intelligence to plan with confidence in a more complex ecosystem.
What’s emerging is a data reset. For years, advertisers have been told to prioritise first-party data. While still foundational, 81% of agencies now say relying on it alone limits their ability to scale and reach audiences effectively.
The industry is recognising that no single data source can do it all. Instead, we’re seeing a move toward a blended, privacy-safe model that balances advertiser-owned signals with trusted third-party data to unlock the breadth and precision that has become increasingly hard to achieve.
This rebalancing marks a shift in how agencies think about addressability, activation, and measurement. The goal is not to revert to the old ways of working, but to reimagine and future-proof how data can work together in smarter, more transparent ways.
The return of quality
Third-party data is experiencing something of a comeback, but under new rules. 85% of agencies are reviving these strategies to overlay against client data, restoring scale while ensuring privacy remains protected.
But the emphasis now is on quality and trust. 83% of agencies say data quality is the single most crucial factor when choosing a partner. In other words, reach and relevance only matter if the signals they rely on are accurate, current, and privacy-safe. This makes data integrity the anchor that keeps innovation grounded.
This renewed focus is also changing how agencies compete. Larger holding groups are investing heavily in data ownership and collaboration to create a competitive edge.
Independents, meanwhile, are demonstrating agility through partnerships and flexible tech stacks that enable them to orchestrate data creatively across multiple sources.
Whichever path they take, the common denominator is the pursuit of dependable, well-governed data that clients can trust.
The rise of curation
If data quality is the foundation, curation is the architecture being built on top of it. Nearly nine in 10 agencies (89%) believe curated marketplaces will become a key strategic driver of media buying by 2030.
For those already using them, seven in 10 are seeing tangible gains in ROI, optimisation, and personalisation.
Curation brings a sense of control back to media buying, blending privacy-safe audience signals with high-quality, transparent inventory.
Open exchanges have felt crowded and opaque; curated marketplaces flip that model, allowing agencies to build cleaner, data-enriched environments where the right publishers meet the right audiences, with purpose rather than chance.
While adoption varies by size, with large groups leading the way, the direction of travel is clear. Curation is redefining what “programmatic” means, moving it from a purely automated function to a more strategic exercise in precision and accountability.
AI as the new operating system
Artificial intelligence is also becoming deeply embedded in how media is planned, bought, and optimised. 93% of agencies already use AI for creative planning, and 85% expect it to drive most planning decisions by 2030.
AI is speeding up everything it touches, from how budgets are allocated to how bids are placed and audiences targeted.
The rush to automate also comes with new responsibilities. Strong guardrails are needed to ensure algorithms don’t pick up negative biases or make decisions that can’t be explained.
Agencies are starting to face that head-on, putting clear governance and oversight in place so that human judgment still has the final word, and transparency and accountability grow alongside automation, not disappear into it.
Building for the next decade
The research makes it clear that the transformation underway is not another fleeting trend. Signal loss and regulation have forced a reset. Still, the next chapter is already getting rewritten by those who treat data quality, AI, and curation as interconnected pillars of the same system.
Some agencies are mixing data sources in new ways, trialling curated marketplaces, and weaving AI carefully into how they work day-to-day. More importantly, they’re pausing to ask harder questions about where data comes from, how it’s governed, and what responsibility really looks like in practice.
For an industry long defined by short-term metrics, this represents a more mature mindset that recognises that sustainable success depends not just on smarter technology, but on the quality of the inputs that power it.
Agencies have stopped merely reacting to change and are now redesigning the playbook. The ones that thrive will be those that combine innovation with integrity and build strategies that are as transparent as they are intelligent.
Download the whole Media Buying in Transition: What Agencies Must Do Next report here to explore the complete findings and recommendations.
Danny Holmes is consulting partner, media & agency for Experian Marketing Services