Amid 2025’s signal crisis, identity graphs are boosting efficiency

Marketers today are operating in the aftermath of a fundamental shift. The signals that once powered precise targeting are disappearing. Regulatory crackdowns, shifts in consumer behavior and changes among major ad platforms have all converged to create a fragmented, foggy view of the customer journey.

Even Google’s announcement that it will not introduce a separate consent prompt for third-party cookies in Chrome changes very little. The reliability of third-party cookies for cross-channel consumer understanding has always been limited. These days, given the deprecation of cookies in other browsers and the rise of so many inherently cookieless environments, the collective signal thrown off by third-party cookies has never been weaker.

The result is limited reach, wasted impressions and diminishing returns. Marketers are finding it harder to understand who they’re speaking to, let alone where and how often.

To regain clarity and control, many are turning to a powerful technique that has historically been used in people-based direct marketing ecosystems, but is relatively new for ad tech: the identity graph.

The identity graph has long been used to link identities to support omnichannel CRM environments. It has evolved to include non-cookie digital identifiers such as hashed emails, device IDs, IP addresses and other ID spaces to complement and resolve identities that used to primarily be based upon terrestrial information such as names and addresses, emails, phone numbers and brands’ own unique customer IDs.

This convergence has been escalating ever since third-party cookies came under threat. The result is a boon for marketers and advertisers alike, who can now engage their customers and prospects to drive personalized experiences in both the virtual and terrestrial worlds.

Why the signal crisis demands a smarter identity strategy

The core challenge with signal loss today isn’t just technical — it’s human. In 2025, the line between professional and personal lives is blurred beyond recognition. People browse for business software and new swimwear on the same device. Work email addresses and personal social media profiles coexist in the same browsing session. This behavior introduces both opportunity and complexity for marketers.

Unfortunately, most systems weren’t built for this hybrid reality. CRMs are siloed, first-party data is incomplete and audience matching across platforms lacks consistency. Without a central identity layer, personalization breaks down and frequency management becomes nearly impossible.

What’s needed is a smarter way to connect the dots — a method for building a unified, privacy-compliant view of the customer across channels and contexts.

Implementing a robust identity graph to connect and activate data

An identity graph is a framework for linking disparate identifiers — email addresses, hashed PII, mobile IDs, first-party cookies, account IDs — into a coherent profile. However, the real value of an identity graph lies in its ability to support downstream actions.

With an identity graph, marketers can recognize individuals across browsers, devices and B2B and B2C environments. Identity graphs also enrich customer records with additional business and personal attributes or behavioral signals, suppress known users from acquisition campaigns and manage frequency and sequencing across B2B and B2C channels.

A strong identity graph becomes the connective tissue between a brand’s first-party data and its activation across programmatic, social, CTV, DOOH, audio and more.

However, not all identity graphs offer the same capabilities, and not all are built with modern marketing needs in mind. It’s critical that graphs can verify and maintain stable identity connections across environments. For use cases like personalization or measurement, high-confidence, deterministic linkages are essential, although probabilistic models have their place too.

With GDPR, CCPA and a growing patchwork of global regulations, marketers must ensure any identity resolution solution they adopt adheres to strict compliance standards. That includes transparent sourcing, consent management and certifications like ISO 27001 or participation in frameworks like the APEC CBPR system.

Additionally, with work and life converged, brands need to understand what people do for a living and how that overlaps with their consumer behavior. Identity graphs that span across both business and consumer data can enable more nuanced segmentation and engagement strategies.

An identity graph is only as useful as its ability to plug into an existing stack. Seamless interoperability with major DSPs, CDPs, CRMs and analytics platforms is critical for making identity actionable.

Ultimately, trust matters. Marketers should have visibility into how identities are constructed, what signals are used and how they’re sourced. They should also be able to see how linkages are validated over time. Black-box models might deliver scale, but without transparency, they also introduce risk.

Smarter identity is delivering real results

Identity is emerging as the new performance lever for marketers. Budgets might be tight, but investing in a better understanding of audiences, grounded in data integrity and compliance, will pay dividends across the entire customer journey.

When evaluating identity graph solutions, marketers should look for partners with a proven track record in privacy stewardship, data quality and cross-channel integration.

For example, Dun & Bradstreet’s ID Graph Plus seamlessly connects B2B and B2C identities, enabling identity resolution and privacy-compliant, omnichannel targeting without reliance on cookies. Marketers and sales teams can activate high-value audiences, expand reach and improve engagement through data-driven, privacy-compliant targeting. By bridging professional and personal identities, the D&B ID Graph Plus empowers businesses to personalize engagement, optimize marketing performance and future-proof audience targeting.

In 2025, efficiency isn’t about reducing spend. It’s about reducing waste. And identity is where that journey begins.