How Digital Marketing Firms Can Boost Client Results with Differentiated Data

Highlights: 

• Digital marketing firms can significantly boost client results by using differentiated data that identifies financially durable and in-market audiences, even amidst economic uncertainties.

• Targeting consumers based on financial durability, discretionary spending, and credit usage, alongside in-market and propensity data, helps maximize ROI and uncover new growth opportunities.

• Leveraging unique economic insights from sources like Equifax's proprietary data allows firms to optimize campaigns, improve response and conversion rates, and build stronger client relationships.

Digital marketing in 2025 is a complex landscape for platforms and digital agencies. A staggering 94% of advertisers express apprehension about the prevailing economic uncertainties, and alarmingly, nearly half anticipate budget reductions of up to 20%. Despite these challenges, digital advertising maintains its pivotal role, capturing a substantial 67% of marketing budgets and continuing to demonstrate a trajectory of growth.¹

With client apprehension mounting, budgets under increasing pressure, and a relentless demand for tangible outcomes, digital marketing is a particularly challenging environment. Data powering campaigns can be vital, helping clients grow their business in any economy. And you are poised to offer specialized data that can make the difference.

Here are some of the ways successful digital marketing firms help boost client results:

Offer Relevant and Actionable Audience Data

Consider hyper-personalized advertising, omnichannel marketing, and other trends. The right data connects client strategies with the right audiences. And by the “right audiences,” we mean those who are: 

• likely interested in your clients’ products and services; and 

• financially durable with resilience regardless of financial stress due to job losses, pay cuts, or economic downturns; and

• likely to be actively in-market, or have the propensity for those products.

These consumers have strong potential to deliver immediate and long-term revenue gains. They are the sweet spot you want to connect to your clients. Let’s dig a little deeper to better understand these audiences and the data you need to find them. 

View Consumers Through the Lens of Financial Durability

Marketers often expect that basic demographics or standard measures of income will help them identify and target good audiences - but that may not be realistic. You may need to go beyond estimated income and gain visibility into measures of affluence, discretionary spending, and credit usage. 

But then, there is the bigger picture of financial durability. A consumer’s financial resilience during stressful economic conditions is an important consideration in today’s economic environment.

Financial durability is a game-changing insight that can unlock more efficient paths to revenue. Laser focusing on financially durable consumers within groups of similar demographics or credit scores can help improve efficiency and ROI. You'll help your clients sharpen campaign focus, optimize resources, and reduce spend. With nuanced views of financial resilience, they can create tailored campaigns that meet more discerning audiences where they are in life and motivate them to act. 

Maximize Budget with In-market or High-propensity Audiences

Your clients can significantly boost campaign performance by targeting consumers based on in-market or propensity characteristics, ensuring they connect with highly motivated audiences at precisely the right time.  

With your help, they can design, predict, and trigger “next best” offers throughout the customer journey to drive incremental revenue. When faced with budget scrutiny or resource constraints, guide them to engage with consumers who are more likely to respond, thereby maximizing campaign ROI.

Combining financial durability insights with demographic data and propensity indicators can also reveal eye-opening views of potential growth markets. This approach allows your clients to identify and tap into new segments of high-yield audiences that were previously hidden, unlocking untapped opportunities for expansion.

Take Advantage of Unique Economic Insights

Equifax uses a specialized mix of proprietary data to develop financial durability and other unique insights with inputs spanning:  

• Income from financial inflows, plus total estimated income from business and retirement funds 

• Affluence derived from our exclusive foundation of $27 trillion in anonymous U.S. consumer investable assets

• Spending power based on funds available to spend, save or invest after paying for fixed expenses

• Credit capacity compiled from aggregated credit needs and behaviors 

Our in-market or propensity data is crafted with a variety of inputs—from curated consumer-level partner data in specific markets to proprietary financial metrics which can include aggregated credit information.

So how does this approach translate into real-life results? When you can help your clients focus their campaigns—and their marketing dollars—on curated audiences who have the interest and financial capacity to spend or save, you can drive future success. Campaign efficiency improves, as do response rates and conversion rates. You empower your clients to build relationships with consumers who can become great customers.

Unlock Data-driven Results

By using Equifax financial insights, you can help your clients in creative ways, elevating marketing programs with outcomes that oftentimes far exceed expectations. 

• A regional bank was able to shrink its target audience by 90%. It also grew its invested asset opportunity by a stunning 900 percent and increased its deposit opportunity by 500%.²

• An automotive dealer group experienced a 36% lower average cost per inquiry, received an average of 57% more inquiries.²

• A travel company narrowed its target audience by 25%, lowering its costs associated with timeshare tours.²

• An alternative finance firm achieved a 15% lift in response rates.² 

Having the right data can be the secret ingredient for higher-performing campaigns that differentiate your business and consistently deliver better results for your clients. 

Want to further explore the concept of financial durability and how our data can bring campaign success within sight? Check out our eBook: 3 Ways Digital Agencies Can Power Smarter Marketing Strategies with Data. 

Sources: 

1. Emarketer - US ad growth slows in 2025 as economic uncertainty looms

2. Equifax analytics