Digital advertising is in the midst of a fundamental reset. Signal loss and tightening privacy regulations are reshaping how media companies handle their audience data and work with advertisers.

In response, a growing number of publishers are investing in centralized data infrastructure designed to make their first-party audiences actionable, secure, and scalable across channels. These investments allow publishers to transform oftentimes fragmented data signals into high-value segments, enable smarter monetization strategies, and maintain full control.

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Owning data is not enough

Unity, one of the world’s largest gaming platforms, offers a strong example of how publishers can level up their approach to identity & audience activation through their recently launched Audience Hub powered by Optable. With over 3 billion gamers interacting across different environments, Unity had a robust volume of gamer data, but needed a way to unlock its full potential for buyers.

Gaming companies are rich in player engagement and behavioral signals, but turning that into addressable, monetizable audiences in a privacy-safe way isn’t straightforward. Common challenges include:

• Siloed data across platforms
  Player data is collected across console, PC, and mobile, but rarely unified into a single view.
• ‍Fragmented identity
  Users interact across games, apps, and devices, making it difficult to resolve identity and connect sessions.
• ‍Enrichment complexity
  ‍Adding demographic or behavioral attributes often requires manual, custom integrations with third-party data providers.
• ‍Collaboration & activation limitations
  Without interoperable infrastructure thats supports data collaboration it's hard to meet advertiser needs & activate consistent, high-performing segments across mobile, in-game, and CTV channels.

The solution is not just better tech—it is a strategic shift toward publisher-owned infrastructure.

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Building Unity’s Audience Hub with Optable

Unity partnered with Optable to build a privacy-first audience hub, bringing structure and flexibility to their large data ecosystem. Here’s what that looked like in practice:

• Unified their first-party data into one audience mesh in Optable, enabling a consolidated view & seamless activation.
• Enriched audiences by integrating data from Experian through Optable, adding more depth.
• Then, segmenting audiences into high-intent groups aligned to advertiser needs.
• Collaborating with brand advertisers via Optable’s clean rooms to enable more use cases in a privacy-safe way.
• Purpose-built integrations to activate audiences across mobile, web, and CTV for improved reach and performance.

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This approach gives Unity the agility to serve advertisers with relevant, high-performing audiences while maintaining control over their data and avoiding third-party audience providers. 

Initial testing with advertising partners revealed a 102.6% increase in CTR and a 103.6% uplift in engagement, demonstrating the Audience Hub's ability to reach relevant audiences and match them with media inventory.

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What it takes to build a monetization-ready audience strategy

Unity’s approach is replicable and increasingly necessary. Publishers can begin building their own audience monetization strategy by following these steps:

1. Unify siloed data: Bring together authenticated user data, contextual signals, and behavioral insights into a single place.

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2. Enrich your identity graph: Combine your first-party data with trusted third-party signals to enhance scale and precision.

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3. Build custom audiences: Design audience segments that reflect your most valuable users and align with advertiser needs.

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4. Activate across revenue-driving channels: Push segments directly into DSPs, ad servers, or clean rooms for collaborative activation.

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5. Scale brand collaborations: Match, prospect, and activate across partners, no matter where your data lives.

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As the advertising ecosystem continues to change there is an opportunity for innovative, forward-thinking companies to harness the power of their first-party data and grow their business. By investing in cutting-edge technology companies can enable smarter advertising products, build strong partnerships with their advertisers and enhance their audience experience.

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Whether you’re in gaming, news, or entertainment, the path forward is the same: unify, enrich, segment, activate, and repeat. Talk to our experts today to understand which tools and audience strategy are right for you. 

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