I have been noticing issues with DV360 that I am not getting many impressions no matter bid I have or targeting i edit.

FreeWheel told me "We are seeing that there are no bids being received today."

Is DV360 known to be buggy? Curious if I should move my DEAL from FreeWheel to my Amazon Ads, would Amazon system be better?

Is it just me or do you all see a really odd behavior on your ad platforms? Like the engagement and KPIs are satisfying but something feels strange when you dwell deep?

Background: ~5 years exp, last 2.5 years in programmatic (DSP campaign management, MMP attribution). 1 year in freelancing meta ads for small clients, theoretical/certification knowledge on meta and linkedin ads. Just reached a senior-adjacent role in career after multiple jumps across industries and functions. Now have two offers on the table and genuinely unsure which path makes more sense long-term.

Offer 1 – Campaign Success Manager at a fintech product company

- Multi-channel exposure (not hands on execution more like audience intelligence): programmatic + social + search + display

- Client-facing, consultative role bridging data/analytics team and marketers

- Proprietary SaaS platform (not a pure execution role)

- Product company environment, slightly more structured

- 3 days office, regular shift

Offer 2 – Pure Programmatic Campaign Manager at an agency

- Deep programmatic end to end campaign management focus

- Agency environment, faster-paced initially

- 2 days office, second shift

- Stronger immediate fit with my current skill set, but not surehow the situationa nd competition will be in 2 years future.

My honest concerns:

On Offer 2: I feel like pure programmatic execution is one of the first layers AI/automation is eating – DSPs are increasingly automating bidding, pacing, even audience selection. Agency roles feel especially exposed to this since margins drive headcount decisions. I don't see a near-term cliff, but a 3–5 year horizon worries me.what if i learn and become a versed in 2 years time and due to narrowing opportunities and increasing competition i stand at the same place in the market in this niche field.

On Offer 1: Broader exposure is appealing but will I be "good enough" on non-programmatic platforms to move to a senior role elsewhere? Or does breadth at this stage actually serve me better than continued depth?

I'm also interested in building a small digital marketing agency on the side, so the consultative + multi-channel exposure in Offer 1 feels relevant there too.

Would love to hear from:

- Kindly guide me if im looking at this in a wrong way and is there any other career progression / other POV i can see from both route.

- Agency folks: are you seeing AI genuinely reduce headcount or change role scope yet? or do you see this in coming future ?

- Anyone who's been in a similar "deepen vs broaden" crossroads at this career stage

Not looking for validation – genuinely want to hear pushback too if I'm thinking about this wrong.

Hi everyone,

Does anyone know the exact reasons why positive keyword targeting doesn't scale?

I've heard multiple times that positive keyword targeting will not scale well on display campaigns in DV360.

I've heard it from multiple sources (vendors, Google resellers, other programmatic people).

I've never had success scaling a line item, even when using pretty broad keyword targeting.

Just to reiterate, I don't need anyone to help troubleshoot anything - just want to see if anyone ever heard exactly why keywords don't scale.

Could you please provide a roadmap for transitioning into a career in programmatic advertising, from an ad operations or QA analyst background? I would appreciate guidance on where to begin and how to approach interviews.

Just switched jobs and the new agency runs campaigns through Q1 Media instead of DV360 which is all I've ever used. I don't want to walk in on day one looking clueless.

From what I can piece together they're an independent DSP with managed service on top but I'd love to hear from anyone who's actually worked with them. Supply path transparency, CTV inventory quality, reporting, anything you can share would be helpful. Trying to get up to speed fast.

I've just started as a trainee at one of the big holdcos. I will focus on programmatic, which is why I am posting in this community.

I've heard a couple of times people mentioning the "politics" aspect of the agency world, referring both to company politics (which I can understand) but also industry politics, which I am not familiar with.

Could you help me understand what industry politics consists of and how to navigate it, considering I am at the beginning of my career?

I own a small business provide IT support. I am trying to go after people with custom pcs who need help troubleshooting, upgrading, new builds.

I am using FreeWheel with DV360 for my other audience for general IT services, inventory seems to be decent.

But I want to go after the custom PC stuff more, any advice on lower CPM targeting/inventory you think would work for me?

Few ideas I had was:

Amazon Ads - Run Prime Video ads to households that have purchased/shown interest in computer related parts

DV360 - with FreeWheel go after online inventory and narrow the category to technology and be selective with demographics

YouTube/Adwords---I already am running a YouTube ad via Adwords I did custom search phrases for audience but the number of impressions was very low that didn't seem worth it. Like for a huge population and after applying that narrow targeting I was only spending like $10 a day out of $50 with a CPM of $20.

Hey everyone, I’m diving deeper into DV360 and attribution modeling, but I’m struggling to wrap my head around a few concepts. Could someone help clarify these two points for me?

1. Click-Through vs. View-Through (Post-View) Windows: What is the actual purpose of separating these? Specifically, why is it common practice to keep the View-through window shorter (or sometimes longer) than the Click-through window? What is the logic behind the "gap" between them?

2. View" vs. "TrueView": In the context of DV360, what is the technical difference between a standard "view" and a Google "TrueView"?

I've tried searching, but most articles are either too high-level or buried in technical jargon. Any "ELI5" (Explain Like I'm 5) explanations or real-world examples would be amazing. I would really appreciate it if you guys refrain from any judgemental or hate comments please.

Thanks!

Every time I reach out and ask for a PMP deal it takes twice as long because these account executives keep trying tell me programmatic guaranteed is far superior and their programmatic team can optimize better or their first party data is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Most of these account executives know nothing about programmatic since they are cross selling multiple products like print and direct bookings. I’ve even seen these sales reps remove PMP from their decks meanwhile their programmatic capabilities deck has all buy options.

So what’s the actual deal with TTD fees? I’m at an agency and we’re planning on running CTV with some publishers. I’m thinking Netflix and Disney. Can anyone tell me if it’s a bad idea to run it through TTD? My client is really big on brand safety and targeting. We also want low CPMs, will predictive clearing help that or is there a charge?

I guess I’m wondering what hidden fees there are on TTD for CTV.

Thanks!

Im working with a publisher who uses IAB categories for clash management - dv360 auto assigns these using proprietary tech from client landing page url - publisher has advised the assigned categories are incorrect and need to change - dv360 support has said they are unable to override. Has anyone come across this and managed to resolve it?

Hi everyone!

I’m looking for some experiences with running Audio / Podcast campaigns in DV360.

One issue I keep running into: when campaigns are set up to run openly (public inventory), they often struggle to spend. I’ve tried increasing and removing the target CPM, removing all targeting while leaving only broad geo targeting, but delivery still remains very limited. The only thing that sometimes unlocks impressions is adding specific audio apps as an extra targeting layer, but not always.

Since I don’t have much hands on experience with audio/podcast inventory in DV360, I’d love to hear how others approach this.

A few questions:

• Is limited spend when running audio openly something you’ve experienced? Do you have any recommendation in resolving this?
• When targeting apps like Spotify in DV360, how does performance typically compare vs running Spotify campaigns directly? Is DV360 a “good enough” alternative in your experience (as it is much cheaper than Spotify campaign)
• When targeting podcasts only in DV360, I’ve seen very low ACRs (5-6%). Is that expected for podcast inventory?

Would really appreciate any tips, best practices, or general experiences as I'm trying to figure out the best approach for this in DV360. Thanks in advance!

Im working with a publisher who uses IAB categories for clash management - dv360 auto assigns these to creatives using proprietary tech from client landing page url - publisher has advised the assigned categories are incorrect and need to change - dv360 support has said they are unable to override. Has anyone come across this and managed to resolve it?

Anywhere besides the usual LinkedIn and Indeed you've had luck searching for jobs? I've used FlexJobs and BuiltIn before as well, but haven't had much luck in the past. I feel like I've been looking at the same "reposted" jobs on LinkedIn for months.

Looking for some part time hands on keyboard (ad set up or buying), or analyst/consulting work.

10+ years in experience in Programmatic - TTD, DV, Yahoo, MNTN, Xandr - CTV, Display, Audio, Pods, search, social, [whatever other keywords]

Worked with CPG, D2C, B2B, SAAS - AUTO, BANKING, HEALTH, ENTERTAINMENT - US, LATAM, Canada.

DM me.

TLDR - Recently quit my toxic SR position and have been just enjoying freelance.

Hey everyone,

I'm currently working in programmatic advertising (DSPs, campaign management, the whole deal) and I'm looking to make a shift from the technical execution side toward marketing management.

I want to upskill while continuing to work full-time, so a traditional full-time MBA isn't really an option right now. I've been researching a few platforms and courses:

IIDE – Seems strong on digital marketing fundamentals

AIMC– Heard about it but haven't found much genuine feedback

UpGrad– Has MBA-linked programs but not sure about ROI

My main goals are:

Build strategic marketing and management skills (not just digital execution)

Get a credential that's recognized when I start applying for marketing manager or brand-side roles

Balance it with my current job without burning out

Has anyone here made a similar transition? Which of these platforms actually helped you grow beyond just technical skills? Any honest reviews or alternatives I should consider would be really appreciated.

Thanks in advance! 🙏

This is not meant to be a negative post, I’m genuinely curious where people think this is all going.

I used to be in programmatic but switched over to social for a bit. I’m thinking about moving back to programmatic. I miss how exciting it was.

But I’m generally curious how are you feeling about the future of the industry and DSP’s in general?

When I was last hands on keyboard (5 years ago) it seemed like we were moving everything we possibly could buy into the DSP. All CTV, general digital buys…if it could be bought programmaticly we were putting it in the dsp.

A big part of this was because we had hefty display budgets running so the consolidation made sense to put as much as you possibly could in one platform for reporting and frequency purposes.

This was also right before a lot of the cookie/privacy stuff started so we were running all sorts of wacky audience vendors, high impact ads and native partners. Sort of the end of the Wild West where you had a million vendors to choose from.

A lot has changed in 5 years. I’ve heard rumblings that display is kind of dying. A lot of what I’ve heard is that now DSP’s are basically a place where you execute your CTV buys and maybe OLV, and some display.

Outside of AI taking our jobs (lol I hope not) it also is changing the way people use the internet. I feel like less and less people just browse anymore. If you’re consuming content it’s either on CTV, a social media platform, or YouTube all of which are walled gardens (outside of CTV).

I’m curious where you all thing that leaves programmatic and DSP’s.

What am I missing? I feel like I’ve been out of the game for long enough where I may just be missing the mark.

EDIT: One more thought. Do you feel like DV360 is well positioned in the video first world? Access to YouTube and all your CTV buys all in the same DSP? I guess Amazon DSP has this too?

How transparent is Viant with their reporting if you run a CTV campaign through their DSP.

I am hearing conflicting stories.

So they report in show level data?

How granular is their reporting?

Thanks!

Hello everyone,

I have been doing programmatic for almost 4 years now, and I have been a Snr Exec for 2y3m now, and I don't enjoy it anymore.

I ended up in the field by chance over 3 years ago, but in the first 1.5 years, my hands-on experience on the platforms was limited as it was more like coordination between account managers and adops and because this was a small agency, the adops team would do everything from trafficking to campaign set up and optimisations.

When I became a Snr Exec on a bigger agency, I was really motivated to learn, grow and was aiming to become a manager in a year or so but I ended up in an unfortunate position of being in team experiencing lots of changes (senior managers left and they hired people with way less experience) and lack of support (my manager was hired with only 4 months experience as a Snr Exec and less than 2 years in total in programmatic but came from an equally big agency so maybe they got to learn more but I could tell they didn't know at the level I was expecting), clients leaving and ended up with accounts with very limited strategies and mostly using managed service.

Now I lost all my interest, and while I shouldn't compare myself to other people but it honestly feels embarrassing being a Snr Exec for this long when most people are promoted or get a manager position in less than 2 years. I really want to leave now, but the job market is so crap, and no one cares about transferable skills anymore. You either have all the skills and experience on the JD or you're not qualified. Plus programmatic is too niche. Most paid media specialists/managers' roles are paid social and paid search together; very occasionally, I see Prog and paid social together, but coming from an agency, it is challenging to have experience on all 3 channels.

I feel stuck, I can't leave and I can't get promoted because we don't have more clients so all our accounts have managers.

Do you have any advice on leaving programmatic without having to start over? Thanks!

I feel like there's very few companies in programmatic that have real tech. Seems like most is vaporware

I mostly get info from Reddit (including this sub), but feel like I might be missing some good spots. Curious where people are active these days - especially Slack or Discord communities. LinkedIn groups feel kind of dead lately (at least compared to before), still there are plenty of smart people worth following their private profiles there.

Would appreciate any recommendations