DMP (data management platform)

DMPs were central to programmatic advertising in the 2010s. They gathered data about browsers and devices, from a company's own sites, campaign logs and purchased third-party data, then built audience segments and pushed them into DSPs, ad servers and publisher platforms for targeting and analytics.

Publishers used DMPs to package their audiences for advertisers; advertisers used them to combine their own data with bought segments and to analyse campaign reach. The data was typically keyed to cookies and mobile ad IDs, with short retention periods.

The DMP model has faded as its foundations eroded: browsers blocking third-party cookies, App Tracking Transparency on iOS, privacy laws restricting third-party data, and the shift to known-customer data. Several major DMPs have been shut down or folded into other products, while CDPs, clean rooms and DSP-native audience tools took over many of their roles.

Think of it like this

A DMP is like a marketer's scrapbook of anonymous shoppers, organised by interests, mostly assembled from footprints left in other people's shops.

An example

In 2016, a European car brand used its DMP to combine site visitors with a purchased "auto intenders" segment, creating a 3 million-cookie audience that it targeted through two DSPs.