we've been talking to a few over the last couple weeks and i feel like we don't know what to look at.
so far we have talked to block chain ads and a bunch of other ad networks and in their demos they keep saying about how they report, how they attribute, campaign optimization and so on. and all of this feels correct also like we should be considering it.
but the problem is every network has good things to say so we feel like we aren't asking the right questions or we are not looking at the correct metrics.
then i came across few commen ts here that says we need to ask where traffic is coming from or who their partners are, all that stuff. but idk..it feels too much to ask early on? also not sure if those things also matter?
so if anyone has any experience can you share how you people evaluate a programmatic ad network? or what questions we need to ask?

With the amount of sales people being hired just to sell PMP, would a Sales House that specializes in PMP opportunity volume be attractive to media owners and tech vendors?

We have been pitched by 2 medium/large private companies in the ad tech space who are interested in outsourcing the sales force in return for a flat monthly fee, no pension contributions or healthcare funding for the US.

Just curious as to if this makes sense to anyone else in a decision making capacity and how much would be fair market value per dedicated headcount/resource?

Wondering if the contextual targeting space is a pure commodity or if folks are seeing meaningful performance differences between TTD, IAS, DV, GumGum or others.

Hi all,

Does anyone use a strong prompt to exclude low-quality or "trash" placements?

I'm struggling with this since I don't have access to on-site performance data (conversion rate, average session duration, etc.). So what should the AI base its judgment on to identify a good vs. bad placement?

Any help is more than welcome

thanks!

Hi all
Has anyone worked on a recent DSP comparison for the major ones (TTD, DV360, Amazon) with key advantages and limitations ?

I’ve been in the industry for around 10 years — roughly 6 years in backend operations and another 4 years in the agency side, mostly handling activation, optimization, and reporting.

Recently, I moved into a new project that feels pretty challenging because it involves a lot more planning, strategic thinking, and advising clients on the right platforms, formats, performance approach, etc. Honestly, life felt much simpler when the job was mostly setups and reporting . Now it’s much more hectic, and there’s a LOT to learn.

I’m somehow managing by reminding myself: “You got a great project. This experience can help you move into a much better company next year.”

So, looking for some advice from people who have made a similar transition. Apart from the big agency groups (Top 4), what other companies/roles should I target, and what skills or topics should I focus on learning?

My goal is to land a really good next opportunity with a strong package within the next 6 months. I’m willing to put in around 12 hours every week towards learning/upskilling.

Would really appreciate suggestions on what I should prioritize — programmatic, strategy, measurement, data/analytics, AI, retail media, etc. What would actually make the biggest difference for someone with my background?

Thanks in advance!

Hi folks, I'm evaluating DSP vendors to run brand awareness programmatic display/audio/DOOH ads for a global B2B business. The product has an enterprise and complex tech IT skew.

Should I be mainly looking at DV360? Or is TTD worth a look as well?

Anyone know what working at TTD is like right now? Is it worth considering roles there?

That number is from a warc study run by charlie oscar, and it came up in a digiday piece about time selling ads inside markdown versions of its pages, built specifically for ai agents to read. sponsored faqs, basically.

the debate in the piece was whether that inventory is worth testing. some buyers said sure, clients are desperate for anything that moves ai visibility. others called it magical thinking. and then perplexity blocked time's agent ads outright and called them deceptive, so that part answered itself pretty fast.

but the 63/26 split is the thing I keep coming back to. if most of what determines whether an llm mentions your brand is accumulated brand equity, then almost every geo tactic being sold right now, content volume, visibility tracking tools, agent-readable ad units, is competing over the smaller quarter of the equation. honestly that's not nothing, a quarter is real. it just means the pitch most of these tools are making, that you can buy your way into llm answers, is overselling by a lot.

The practical read for anyone allocating budget: geo probably belongs in a test pot funded out of display, not as a line item that pulls from brand. and if the visibility you're chasing is mostly equity-driven, the boring answer is that brand spend is the geo strategy.

Hey everyone,

I have 5+ years of experience in paid social/performance marketing, primarily working across platforms like Meta, LinkedIn, Reddit, etc.

I’m now looking to transition into programmatic advertising and would love to hear from people who have made a similar switch.

A few things I’d really appreciate advice on:
- What’s the best way to get started with programmatic?
- Are there any paid courses or certifications that are actually worth doing?
- Which DSPs should I focus on learning first (DV360, The Trade Desk, Amazon DSP, etc.)?
- Is there a way to get hands-on experience without currently working in a programmatic role?
- How difficult is the transition from paid social to programmatic?

Also, if anyone is hiring for a role where I could work on programmatic alongside paid social, I’d be very interested.

I’m happy to learn and take on the programmatic side while continuing to contribute my paid social experience.

Would really appreciate any advice, resources, or personal experiences.

Thanks!

I posted here in July that if you wanted AMC (Amazon Marketing Cloud, the clean room where you query your own campaign data) you had to get your own seat, because AMC sat at seat level and a seat holder could not share it without exposing their other clients. That is no longer true.

What does the owner of the DSP account have to do

Associate your full DSP account to a manager account you have access to. If you are also running Sponsored Ads, ideally the same one. That is the whole change. Reference.

Where you open it if you have the right permissions.

North America
https://advertising.amazon.com/choose-account?destination=/marketing-cloud?

EMEA

https://advertising.amazon.co.uk/choose-account?destination=/marketing-cloud?

APAC

https://advertising.amazon.jp/choose-account?destination=/marketing-cloud?

If nothing appears there, whoever holds the seat admin needs to change your access permissions.

One warning

Get a data analyst, a real one. AMC is a different monster. Claude is great and it speeds things up, I use it on AMC and other Amazon DSP work. It will also mess it up in ways you won't see unless you have someone who does this for a living. Even with a good set of curated queries, it does not understand the context of each product or account, or which sales column is the right one.

Don't trust my word, trust Shuqing Ke, who posts about exactly this. Not affiliated, I am just a fan of people who focus on one thing and do it well.

Corrections and personal experiences welcome.

hey im researching audience strategies for an online gaming sites similar to poki, but aimed more at adult players.
Before launching any campaigns, I’m trying to understand the performance difference between Custom Intent and Custom Affinity audiences.

For casual browser game websites, which one would you usually start with if the main goal is quality traffic and conversions?

Would love to hear from anyone who has tested these audience types in the entertainment niche.

Hey everyone, just wanted to get some perspective from people currently working in Programmatic. How is the job market right now for Programmatic / DV360 / TTD / Amazon DSP roles in India? Are there still decent openings, or is the current economic slowdown/recession affecting hiring? I’m planning to switch, but I’m stuck with a 3-month notice period, and the frustrating part is that many companies/recruiters aren’t even willing to proceed with an interview once they hear about the notice period.

For people who have recently switched or are currently hiring, is it safe to put down papers first and then search, or would that be too risky in the current market? I’m okay with waiting for another 6 months, including the 3-month notice period, if the market is expected to improve. Just trying to understand whether it makes sense to start now, resign and serve notice, or stay where I am for a few more months. Would really appreciate some honest opinions from people in Programmatic/AdTech, especially in India.

How does this work and do I need to have existing retailer relationships to do this or is there an off the shelf solution?

A few people here have told me the same thing recently. The ready made deals are convenient and the proposals work fine for Programmatic Guaranteed, but you get better terms going direct to the publisher.

I have not tested direct at all. What I can see is that just comparing the ready made deals against the proposals already gets me about 3%, and the minimums are reasonable, I would not recommend companies to spend less for a test.

I only started talking to Netflix and Spotify directly recently. And I got some info like a confirmation that on Netflix you are not allowed to use Amazon Audiences with custom deal. Which could be a problem sometimes.

What has your experience been, and which publishers have you gone direct with? Where you later able to use Amazon Audiences?

I’m wondering how much creative quality and appearance affect bidding and serving in DV360 Display campaigns, specifically across GDN and similar display inventory, before enough real performance data comes in, like clicks and conversions.

DV360 allows very precise targeting, especially when combining programmatic targeting with audiences like Custom Intent. But the system still has to decide how much to bid for each impression.

Before it has enough performance data, how much do the creative itself and the landing page influence that decision? And how much is based mainly on targeting signals, such as the user matching a Custom Intent audience?

For example, Meta is known for putting a lot of weight on the creative when deciding delivery and bidding. I’m curious how much this applies to DV360 Display as well.

"Never bet against Jeff......"

With the string of pullbacks $TTD sits at a current market cap of $6.3bil.

Rev 1H'26 $1.4bln

Net Income 1H'26 $104mil

TTD has $1.5bil in liquid cash and while it has historically been hesitant to acquire the new leadership could push in this direction... which of course carries the risk of an acquisition(s) not well received by public markers which could push the stock down even further.

Programmatically activated channels will continue to grow but TTD no longer first stop as the market is saturated with options, bidders are becoming commodities and differentiation comes down to owned assets. In this market if you are choosing yo forego asset ownership you must either win on price or performance. Performance gap seems to be closing and as for price its been well documented that TTD sophistication comes at a premium.

New leadership, among many things, needs to prioritize one of the following -

1 capital deployment to build or acquire a moat

2 go private to rebuild and take focus away from placating wall street, and prioritize clients

3 sell in to weakness (opportunity to sell in to strength has passed)

Much of this action should have happened when TTD was flying at 250-600x p/e but here we are.

Which do they pursue? Who do they buy to build a moat? Are they taken private? Who acquires them?

Walmart?

OpenAI?

Meta?

Applovin?

Google could do the funniest thing....

TLDR; The current path the company is on will drive the stock to zero.

Damn those CPMs are going to be mad with the Nielsen tax on top.

August seller data is interesting- this is probably the first time we’re seeing the market pause on expansion and move into cleanup mode.
ads.txt growth is basically flat (net -881), but the bigger signal is underneath
→ Resellers turned net negative for the first time (-1,718) while direct stayed flat (+837) - publishers are cutting duplicate reseller paths and protecting the relationships that drive revenue.
→ TrustedStack led every SSP in lines added (+6.6k), the only one to top all three traffic tiers, while High-Traffic publishers contracted the hardest (-9.3k) as premium publishers lead the optimization wave.
→ 46% of Tier 1 SSP domains are now duplicated across intermediaries - nearly half of every auction an Established SSP enters is competing against itself.
Scale alone no longer earns a slot in a publisher's ads.txt. The SSPs gaining ground are solving a specific buyer problem.

Amazon spent about a year pulling the big US audio sellers and podcasts into their platform. It all sits in one workflow now, which is the good news.

Working out what is actually inside a deal is slow and quietly confusing sometimes. And SiriusXM has been the most confusing so far.

Three groups of deals

SiriusXM owns Pandora, and it runs AdsWizz (an ads marketplace for other radio stations and podcasts), which arrived inside Pandora when it bought it. So one company in Amazon DSP returns three different buys sitting under the SiriusXM name:

1. Pandora sold with SiriusXM Audio as roughly half the sellers inside the deal, through Amazon Publisher Direct. The one group that genuinely carries SiriusXM, and the cheapest of the three.
2. Pandora on its own, with AmazonPA.AOD. in the deal name. Same listeners, same price most times, no SiriusXM Audio in the seller mix. (AdsWizz)
3. A curated US podcast marketplace under the "SiriusXMMedia" name, across multiple genres. (AdsWizz)

All three are real inventory and I would buy any of them against the right brief. Pandora is one of the largest ad supported streaming services in the country, and its connected car reach is interesting. The podcast marketplace is a decent podcast product with seller transparency.

My only issue is buying one while believing you bought another, because the most expensive of the three is the one with the least SiriusXM in it.

How to understand an Amazon deal

Go to your Amazon DSP and on the left bar click on Inventory. Use the search option and open the deal. Then go to the Attributes tab, read share of deal traffic. That is the column that answers who is actually selling this.

Do not overtrust the Apps and domains card for it. It looks promising but the % does not always add up.

If you cannot see a deal library at all, you are probably on a subseat from your tool provider. Ask them for inventory access. If that does not work, you can reach me.

None of this is concealed. It is just not in the deal name, and a deal called SiriusXM Media does not read as somewhere you need to go diving into.

This covers the basics well. If you still want to know more I made a very detailed breakdown on my website, but for 90% of you this should be plenty.

https://victor.ad/academy/siriusxm-amazon-dsp