• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, November 7, 2012

Companies plan to increase their use of custom data to target ads in 2013, according to research conducted by eXelate, which provides data on purchase intent and behavior.

68% of agencies surveyed, 84% of networks, exchanges and demand side platforms, and 62% of marketers said they would increase budgets in 2013.  They plan to increase budgets by 26%, 44%, and 27%, respectively. 

When asked why budgets will increase, 68% of agencies said data is efficient and help allocate ad spend smarter. Some 78% of networks, exchanges and demand side platforms pointed to data as strategic to help discern useful insights. And, 70% of marketers said data is tactical to help identify similar people to their best customers.

Mark Zagorski, eXelate CEO, said company engineers have been working to pull in and improve custom data modeling. A thought that has crossed his mind, but is not yet on the product road map points to custom modeling with ads triggered by a voice command or search. They'll still be driven by a text application, Zagorski said, but the inflection in the voice and the manner in which words are pronounced will contribute to the meaning of intent.

That meaning will help to create custom data. And the study reveals custom first-party or modeled data has become the most desirable for branding and direct response campaigns. Thirty seven percent of agencies rate it high for branding; 48% of networks, exchanges and demand side platforms point to custom, and 36% of marketers. Forty three percent of agencies rate it high for direct response; 58% of networks, exchanges and demand side platforms point to custom, and 46% of marketers.

It turns out the study found 52% of agencies; 44% of networks, exchanges and demand side platforms; and 43% of marketers use third-party data.

When it comes to the type of data used to best target digital advertising, some 81% of agencies trust offline data from Nielsen, MasterCard and others. About 76% of networks, exchanges and demand side platforms participating in the study said custom data, and 71% of marketers said custom data.