The battle over audience targeting in a cookieless future is heating up. PrimeAudience, a global custom audience provider, has struck a partnership with Index Exchange, one of the world’s largest independent SSPs, to bring more efficient, privacy-conscious media buying to the supply side.
The collaboration launches a PrimeAudience marketplace inside Index Exchange, giving advertisers the ability to tap into AI-powered audiences earlier in the ad supply chain—before the bid request ever hits a DSP.
In practice, this means smarter filtering, cleaner supply paths, and performance optimization much closer to the impression itself. For advertisers, it promises incremental reach against high-value audiences without the usual opacity that plagues programmatic buys.
Why It’s a Big Deal
Traditionally, audience targeting happens further downstream, often at the DSP level, where performance can be harder to control and waste creeps in. By shifting decisioning upstream—inside Index’s marketplace—PrimeAudience claims it can cut inefficiencies before they hit the auction, improving both precision and transparency.
The timing is strategic. With cookies and device identifiers on the way out, brands are scrambling for new ways to reach audiences without leaning on invasive data. According to PrimeAudience, 84% of UK marketers expect to adopt AI-driven predictive modeling to fill the gap. By building these predictive audiences directly into the SSP layer, the company hopes to future-proof targeting against the identity crunch.
Voices From Both Sides
“As a company redefining how advertisers connect with audiences through generative AI, launching a marketplace on Index Exchange is an exciting opportunity,” said Mateusz Rumiński, VP of Product at PrimeAudience. “This helps ease the transition for advertisers and publishers as identifiers vanish, while ensuring they can still access premium inventory with AI-powered precision.”
Index Exchange sees it as a natural fit. “We are proud to support partners such as PrimeAudience in delivering high-performing, privacy-conscious campaigns,” said Jared Lansky, SVP of Platform Partnerships at Index Exchange. “Marketplaces let us expand the addressability and value of premium supply while giving buyers more control and confidence.”
The Bigger Shift in Adtech
The PrimeAudience–Index deal reflects a broader industry pivot: privacy-first doesn’t have to mean performance-last. By leaning on AI to model behaviors rather than track individuals, platforms are looking to offer the best of both worlds—relevant, efficient ads without the creep factor.
Competitors are experimenting with similar approaches. Google is pushing its Privacy Sandbox, The Trade Desk is betting on UID 2.0, and publishers are building first-party data alliances. PrimeAudience’s approach—AI modeling plugged directly into an SSP—adds another option, one that could appeal to advertisers tired of over-reliance on DSPs and black-box targeting.
If adoption scales, the move could help reshape supply-path optimization from a buzzword into a tangible performance lever. And in an industry staring down a cookieless horizon, that might be the competitive edge buyers are looking for.
