Index Exchange has rolled out a data vendor ecosystem that connects its Marketplaces customers directly with a growing roster of data partners, enabling more precise audience targeting and streamlined deal creation.
“We just launched a data vendor ecosystem,” said Michael Richardson, vice president of product management at Index Exchange, in this interview with Beet.TV contributor David Kaplan during Advertising Week. “We are bringing a lot of data partners onto our system so our Marketplaces customers can work with them directly and create new packages and opportunities for their advertising customers.”
Richardson said the goal is to make data activation frictionless: “We’re making it very easy for all of our Marketplaces customers to go in and choose the right segments they want to work with. These can be large demographic segments or something very precise and activated just for that particular use case.”
He added that these segments can be “real-time decisioning segments made on the fly or something that’s put into our ecosystem for broad usage,” all of which can be packaged into a deal ID for advertisers.
Index Exchange takes no margin on data, emphasizing transparency
A key differentiator of Index Exchange’s new approach is its no-margin policy on data fees – a move that Richardson said ensures every dollar flows directly to the data vendor and the publisher.
“We’re making a really strong choice here to not take any margin on data,” Richardson said. “All of these partners can come in, set their own margins, and we only take a cut on the sell side for the publishers. We don’t add any additional fees, and we think that’s going to be a very strong approach for the ecosystem in general.”
Designed to complement, not compete with, the buy side
Asked whether the new system risks becoming another walled garden, Richardson said Index Exchange’s goal is collaboration, not control.
“With sell-side decisioning, the idea is that the sell side packages inventory in ways that are really useful for buyers,” he said. “That’s something that complements the buy side, not something that replaces it.”
He said many advertisers still layer on their own bu6382556682112y-side data or tools: “We often see cases where a curation or marketplace customer puts together a package, and then the buyer might layer in something else on the buy side as well. It’s about working together to achieve their goals.”
Helping advertisers, not chasing DSP budgets
Richardson dismissed the idea that Index’s curation and data activation initiatives were meant to siphon budgets away from DSPs.
“We aren’t really competing for data budgets because we’re not charging there,” he said. “It’s about complementing advertiser needs.”
By working through Marketplaces, advertisers gain “a lot of scale, a lot of operational ability, and a lot of new, unique use cases,” Richardson said. “People are innovating on data, on unique capabilities, on unique technology, and we’re helping advertisers there fundamentally.”
In closing, he pointed to Index Exchange’s partnership-first philosophy: “We don’t need to think about heavy ad tech power games. We’re here solving problems together.”
