Beyond lead gen: how publishers are packaging intent-driven marketing solutions

A growing number of publishers are rethinking how they monetise their audiences. As first-party data becomes more valuable, the opportunity is no longer just generating leads, but understanding your audiences’ intent well enough to create higher-value commercial products.

On Wednesday 16 September, the PPA hosted a breakfast briefing in partnership with Full Fat Things. Speakers discussed real-world publisher case studies and actionable steps to fully align your audience insight, first-party data, and monetisation strategy.

Imagine this scenario: a professional in a niche market starts reading a cluster of content around a specific challenge, product area, or buying trend. To most publishers, that’s just audience activity. But with the right first-party data and intent signals, it can become something more valuable: a way to help partners reach the right buyers at the right moment.

For successful publishers, the opportunity is no longer just selling access to the audience, it’s turning audience behaviour into higher-value, data-driven monetisation.

Key takeaways

There are five stages to the maturity journey

Measure (even if the data is in multiple platforms); Knowing (first-party contact/account level data); Interpretation (separate your audience into cohorts based on their signals); Activate (personalisation, advertising, and account programmes); and finally, Monetise (repeatable packages). This is a circular process, each step informs the next and allows you to iterate and learn.

Create a scoring system

Quality, not quantity, is most important. Remember, not all audiences have the same value. To help you identify which levers you should pull, rank contacts based on intent signals – e.g. x behaviour over x time = x% likelihood that they will convert. Take action accordingly.

Add content tags to consumer profiles so you can see what they’re actually interested in – you’d be surprised how much this can differ from what audiences tell you they want to consume. Behavioural targeted emails can be really effective, with 150% more lead gen being reported.

The tech is the scaffolding, but it’s one piece of the puzzle

Start where you are now – don’t worry about a grand piece of software, just start collecting data. Whilst it’s important to review your tech stack, as things are constantly changing, there’s a danger of over-engineering things.

Equally as important are your customer success, marketing, and sales teams, as well as educating your clients. Platforms like Meta and Google have been working on cohorts for years, if you’re not collecting and splicing the first-party data yourself, you are just giving these customers away. You need everyone to be on the same page to understand the true strategic value exchange these audience insights can provide.

Don’t undermine your value

Your data isn’t the product; it’s an additional layer that makes your products much more valuable. Reducing friction for your clients is a huge asset – there are only so many times you can sell your data before the value is diminished. Instead, focus on the advanced insights and targeting it can provide your clients, whilst effectively monetising the gateway to the audiences you’ve nurtured.

Speakers