• by Tyler Loechner  @mp_tyler, June 17, 2015

Since launching in 2007, AdRoll has been focused solely on retargeting. 

Now -- eight years later -- that changes, as the large ad tech firm on Wednesday announced it has expanded its offering to include consumer prospecting as well.

The prospecting tech is intended to help marketers acquire new customers, and the lifeblood of the new prospecting tool is first-party data.

It’s not just any old first-party data that fuels the tool, however -- it’s a pool of first-party customer data shared on an opt-in basis to create “a massive set of potential customers called the AdRoll IntentMap.” AdRoll claims that over 1,000 advertisers have opted to share their data with the IntentMap.

Adam Berke, AdRoll president and CMO, said in a prepared statement that the IntentMap allows marketers to use their data “as a currency to gain access to high value audiences.” Real-Time Daily is told that AdRoll sees predictive targeting as the “next frontier” of programmatic.

AdRoll says the prospecting tech targets “new users that have similar behavioral patterns to the business’ existing customers.” The company claims that advertisers using the prospecting tool saw a 10% increase in engagement from the new users compared to organic traffic -- i.e., the “prospected” consumers were 10% more engaged with the message conveyed.

It is a significant upgrade to AdRoll’s platform, as it turns the ad tech company into a more well-rounded player. The ad tech company can now boast that its platform touches the entire “funnel” -- from prospecting clients at the top of the funnel to retargeting them at the bottom.