Not All Audiences Are Built the Same: How Flow’s Tiering Works
Audience targeting in retail media has come a long way. Today you can already buy in-market shoppers, lookalike segments, behavioural cohorts, geographic blends, and most combinations of those — and they all work. What’s been harder to do, historically, is choose the calibre of audience you’re getting as easily as you choose its size or shape.
That’s what audience tiering on Flow’s audience marketplace is built to add. Our data partners use Flow’s clean room to segment their first-party shopper data into distinct levels of identity confirmation and signal richness — and we surface the result as three calibres of audience side-by-side on the marketplace.
Each tier is built on a different mix of signals, each has its own best use, and each is marked with a small I, II, or III tier indicator on every audience card so you can see at a glance what you’re looking at.
Here’s how they work:
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Tier I: High-intent, full reach
Tier I is built on verified, first-party shopper data with 1:1 PII matching and full omnichannel reach. These are audiences our partners can match to known individuals based on real behaviour — what they’ve recently browsed, considered, or bought. The audiences are deliberately smaller than the other tiers because they’re more specific. The signal is sharp. And because matching is direct, you can run them everywhere Flow connects.
- Reach for Tier I when the brief calls for precision over breadth — high-consideration purchases, retention or win-back, lower-funnel activation where the value of the right shopper justifies the focus.
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Tier II: verified plus enriched
Tier II blends verified PII with web-traffic signals to give you moderate reach across an expanded channel selection. You’re working with at least partially confirmed identity — not anonymous footprints — but the targeting opens up enough to support a wider campaign than Tier I alone could carry.
- Use Tier II when you need both relevance and range. Most everyday plans sit in this space: category awareness with edge, mid-funnel campaigns that need to extend, brief work that wants to land mostly in front of the right kind of shopper without limiting reach.
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Tier III: Broad reach at scale
Tier III runs on web-traffic and behavioural signals drawn from our partners’ digital footprints. Channel availability is standard. Audiences are big, built from what people are browsing, considering, and engaging with across our retailers’ platforms — observable behaviour at scale.
- Use Tier III when reach is the brief. Brand awareness, category building, a launch campaign that needs to land widely across in-market shoppers. The job here is to be seen broadly, and Tier III is built for that.
TIER I
Top-tier audiences with high-intent 1:1 PII matching and full omni-channel reach.
TIER II
Blend of verified PII and web-traffic signals providing moderate reach on expanded channel selection.
TIER III
Entry-level scale for broad reach using web-traffic and behavioral signals. Standard channel availability.
Total targeting flexibility
Because every audience segment on the marketplace shows its tier upfront, you can browse the marketplace, filter to one tier when you want focus, or build a single plan that mixes all three. Reach with Tier III. A retargeting layer in Tier I. A mid-funnel hold in Tier II.
Which is what advertisers want most… flexibility. The ability to build an audience and channel plan that fits the campaign they’re working on, rather than making the campaign fit the targeting options available.
That’s what tiering is built for.
What this means for our data partners
This same tiering system that gives advertisers calibre choices also gives our data partners a clear incentive to keep raising the bar. Richer segmentation and stronger first-party signals earn a higher tier.
Higher tiers earn better placement and better revenue. Which means the audiences you see at Tier I aren’t just sharper than the rest; they’re the ones our partners have actively invested in refining. Quality gets rewarded on both sides of the marketplace, and that’s what keeps it working.
Audience tiering is live in Flow’s marketplace today. Browse it, filter it, mix it. Match the audience to the brief.
Frequently asked questions
What are Flow’s audience tiers?
Flow’s audience tiers are three levels of audience calibre available within the Flow Audience Marketplace. Each tier is built from a different mix of first-party data, identity confirmation, and behavioural signals, giving advertisers flexibility between precision, reach, and scale.
What is the difference between Tier I, Tier II, and Tier III audiences?
Tier I audiences are built from verified first-party shopper data with direct identity matching and full omnichannel reach.
Tier II combines verified data with additional web-behaviour signals for a balance between relevance and scale.
Tier III focuses on broader behavioural and web-traffic signals designed for large-scale reach and awareness campaigns.
Can I combine multiple audience tiers in one campaign?
Yes. Advertisers can combine tiers within a single media strategy.
For example, Tier III can drive broad reach, Tier II can maintain mid-funnel relevance, and Tier I can support high-intent retargeting or conversion activity.
Can Flow help me build a full audience strategy?
Yes. Beyond audience access, Flow can help you build audience plans aligned to your campaign objectives, target personas, channels, and funnel stages. This helps you move beyond basic targeting toward more strategic commerce media planning.
Get in touch to get started.
How do data partners benefit from higher audience tiers?
Higher audience tiers reward data partners for stronger segmentation and richer first-party signals. Tier I audiences typically receive greater advertiser demand and stronger monetisation opportunities because of their precision and signal quality.
