PubMatic Connect

A product extension of PubMatic, one of the leading independent SSPs, offering first-party data activation capabilities to publishers and data providers at scale.

PubMatic Connect is a first-party data activation product launched by PubMatic in 2022, designed to help publishers and data providers monetize their audience data in a privacy-compliant manner. The solution allows sellers to package first-party data into addressable audience segments and make them available to buyers through deal IDs across programmatic channels, including display, video, and connected TV. It operates within PubMatic's broader sell-side platform infrastructure, leveraging the company's existing supply-side relationships and technology. The product addresses the industry's accelerating shift away from third-party cookies by enabling publishers to activate their own consented first-party data as a premium, targetable asset. Publishers and data providers can create audience deals that buyers can access through standard programmatic pipes, reducing friction in data-driven buying. This positions PubMatic Connect as a direct response to the deprecation of third-party identifiers and growing demand for durable, consent-based audience targeting. Within the AdTech ecosystem, PubMatic Connect competes with similar data activation and curation offerings from other SSPs and independent data marketplaces. Its significance lies in PubMatic's scale as a publicly traded SSP with broad publisher relationships, giving Connect a meaningful distribution advantage. The product reinforces PubMatic's strategy to move up the value chain beyond pure infrastructure and capture more value from the data layer of programmatic advertising.