Expand reach
Find audiences similar to an initial target, including beyond owned inventory by combining first- and third-party data.
Case Study · Audience Intelligence
Smarter segments, bigger reach: AI Audience Expansion for an Advertising Leader
How a leading advertising brand replaced trial-and-error targeting with smart segments that scale campaign reach while holding performance.
The challenge
Our client’s challenge
A leading advertising brand needed to grow campaign reach without diluting the results that made its campaigns worth buying.
Finding new, relevant audiences relied on guesswork and trial-and-error. Segments were built by hand, which slowed operations, introduced human error, and put both delivery and budget at risk.
Key objectives
Hold performance
Grow delivery capacity without giving up campaign results.
Explain the why
Show which characteristics drive the best-performing audiences.
The solution
The AI Collaborator solution
AI Collaborator worked alongside the client’s team to build smart segments, step by step:
- 1
One view of the data
A distributed pipeline feeds a feature store that brings together first- and third-party data across the full inventory.
- 2
Find the lookalikes
A machine learning model scores every audience in the inventory on its similarity to a well-defined target.
- 3
Grow on a dial
A recommendation engine expands segments by similarity, and campaign teams set the expansion percentage to balance reach and performance.
- 4
Keep it current
An MLOps pipeline retrains models continuously as behaviors and inventory change.
- 5
Show the reasoning
Interpretable models let stakeholders see how each segment is built and how it ties to business goals.
The results
Our client’s results
Smart segments found lookalike audiences that share the target’s defining characteristics, so campaigns reached more people while keeping performance strong:
Higher performance
A significant lift over the previous manual approach.
More capacity to sell
Campaigns scale further, opening new opportunities in the sales process.
Reliable delivery
Consistent performance across placements.
Time back for the team
Automation removes repetitive segment work, so the team can focus on higher-value activities.
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See how MARCO® can help you find your next best audience
Bring a campaign or audience you want to grow. We’ll show you how to expand reach without giving up performance.