YouGov joins Decentriq network to help advertisers activate privacy-safe audiences built on real consumer behavior

The collaboration enables advertisers in Germany to securely match their first-party data with YouGov audience data and shopper insights within a hardware-secured environment, unlocking richer audience activation opportunities while preserving data sovereignty.

This solution is initially launching in Germany, and available in other markets by request.

Moving beyond demographics in a privacy-first world

As privacy regulations tighten, advertisers face growing pressure to use data more intelligently — keeping campaigns relevant and cost-efficient while building audiences that are both precise and privacy-compliant. Demographic targeting alone increasingly falls short of explaining purchasing behavior and identifying the audiences most likely to drive business outcomes.

By joining the Decentriq network, YouGov gives brands a way to enhance first-party audiences with real consumer intelligence, spanning attitudes, behaviors, media consumption, and real purchase data. A retailer's CRM segment may reveal what a customer bought; matched against YouGov Shopper panel within a Decentriq clean room, it can also reveal broader category purchasing habits, media preferences, brand affinities and purchase drivers. First-party data remains under the advertiser's control throughout the process, and audiences can be activated without either party exposing raw data.

From audience intelligence to activation

YouGov works with advertisers and agencies across sectors including media, entertainment, retail, FMCG, travel, telecommunications, financial services, and sports. Through YouGov’s partnership with Decentriq, these organizations can transform strategic audience definitions into activation-ready segments with greater precision and confidence.

Example use cases include:

• FMCG brands reach consumers based on purchasing behaviors and product preferences.
• Financial services providers reach consumers based on category engagement and switching intent.
• Streaming platforms activate audiences built from subscriber intelligence.
• Travel brands reach consumers based on travel habits, destinations, and booking behavior.

For advertisers, this creates a more reliable bridge between audience strategy and media activation, reducing reconciliation challenges often associated with fragmented datasets while improving confidence in audience quality. Paired with Decentriq's infrastructure, brands can validate and refine audiences against their own first-party data before activation in a secure and privacy-safe environment.

Expanding privacy-safe data collaboration for advertisers and agencies

This partnership brings YouGov's audience intelligence into the Decentriq network, unlocking:

• ‍Audience enrichment: Add attitudinal, behavioral, and psychographic intelligence to first-party customer data to build richer audience definitions.
• Shopper-based audience intelligence: Enhance audiences with YouGov insights drawn from shopper panels covering FMCG, Non-food, Entertainment, Travel & Mobility, and Health, revealing purchase behaviors, brand preferences, and category dynamics.
• Faster activation: Reduce the manual effort often required to reconcile multiple data sources, shortening the path from audience definition to deployment.‍
• Research-to-activation continuity: Move directly from audience planning and validation to addressable activation within a single privacy-safe workflow.

"Advertisers have plenty of data on what their customers do. What's harder to understand is what those customers do beyond a single brand or platform, how they make purchase decisions, and where the next growth opportunities exist,” said Antoine Giovangigli, Senior Sales Engineer at Decentriq. “YouGov Shopper's panel-based intelligence and shopper data closes that gap. By bringing that data into the Decentriq network, brands can enrich and validate audiences with research-grade accuracy inside the clean room and activate them securely without exposing sensitive data."

"Brands have never had more customer data, yet many still struggle to unlock its full activation potential,” said Sonia López Sánchez, Media Solutions Lead, Germany at YouGov. "Our panel data provides a robust understanding of consumers based on real opinions and purchasing behaviors. Together with Decentriq, we enable brands to transform that intelligence into activation-ready audiences in a secure environment, helping them move from audience strategy to campaign execution with greater confidence."

About YouGov 

YouGov is a global research data and analytics group. Our mission is to offer unparalleled insight into what the world really thinks and does. With operations in the Americas, Mainland Europe, UK and Asia Pacific, we have one of the world’s largest research networks. 

Above all, YouGov is powered by reality. That stems from a unique panel of millions of registered members across 64 markets, encapsulating some 18 million shopping trips and millions of interconnected data points. Our unique approach to recruiting and engaging with our panel, combined with our state-of-the-art technology platforms, enables us to deliver real-world, real-time insights that lead to better decision-making and a competitive advantage for our clients. 

As innovators and pioneers of online market research, we have a strong reputation as a trusted source of accurate data and insights. Testament to this, YouGov data is regularly referenced by the global press, and we are consistently one of the most quoted market research sources in the world. 

For further information, visit yougov.com