The Shift from Audience Curation to Product Catalogue Curation

For years, Adtech and Martech have focused on audience curation – refining customer segmentation and targeting. Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) became essential tools for segmenting email subscribers and tailoring marketing messages. Some companies leveraged alternative data, such as Mosaic profiles, to predict which media types their ideal audience would engage with most.

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As technology advanced, ad platforms introduced sophisticated lookalike audience matching. Then, suddenly, these platforms became black boxes. Algorithms took over audience creation, promising to outperform any manual segmentation. Marketers were advised to let the system run autonomously, removing much of their direct control over audience targeting.

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Today, audience curation has largely been relegated to CRM activities, such as email and SMS segmentation. While some campaign-level targeting options remain  – such as distinguishing between existing and new customers on Google and Meta – advertisers have far fewer levers to pull than before.

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What’s Left to Optimise? Enter Product Curation

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With limited audience targeting options, operators must now shift their focus to product catalogue curation. The next frontier in performance marketing isn’t just about who sees your ads but which products are being promoted. This applies not only to ad platform feeds but also to marketplace feeds – and both require different approaches.

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Catalogue Curation for Ad Platforms

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Ad platforms continuously test products against their audiences, optimising based on a feedback loop:

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• If a product is shown to various audiences and receives little engagement, the algorithm deprioritises it.
• If it gets strong engagement but low conversions, it’s eventually phased out.
• If it performs well in both engagement and conversions, it gets more visibility – until its return on ad spend (ROAS) starts to decline.

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However, these platforms optimise for revenue, not profit. They treat all revenue equally, even though some products are far more profitable than others.

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Why Curate Your Product Catalogue?

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Because it makes you more money.

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By excluding low-margin or unprofitable products, you prevent ad platforms from wasting budget on training their models with the wrong products. Instead, if you feed the platforms only your most profitable products, your ROAS might not look as strong – but your profit on ad spend (POAS) will be significantly better.

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Catalogue Curation for Marketplaces & Omni-channel

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Profitability across marketplaces varies significantly due to hidden fees, advertising costs, and platform commissions. Unlike direct-to-consumer (DTC) sales, it’s not always easy to compare marketplace profitability at a SKU level.

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How Can You Curate Marketplace Listings?

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Conjura aggregates all related costs – allowing brands to calculate the true profitability of products across different sales channels. This insight enables merchants to curate marketplace feeds strategically, ensuring that the most profitable products are prioritized for each channel.

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By understanding which products drive the best contribution margins on each platform, brands can optimise their listings—maximising profitability across marketplaces, DTC, and other sales channels.

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The Bottom Line

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Audience curation may no longer be the primary lever for digital marketers, but product catalogue curation is the next big opportunity. Whether for ad platforms or marketplaces, focusing on product-level profitability ensures that marketing spend is directed toward what truly drives business success.