AdTech Therapy™

Scott and Jana on whether the open web is dying. Jeff Green’s op-ed, why advertisers keep choosing walled gardens, the conversion API that could close the gap, Apple’s ID crackdown as an opening for publishers, and Jana’s publisher co-op idea. Plus the hard eight: the shortest sprint from Black Friday to Christmas.

Scott and Jana on Prebid’s proposed auction flip, with the ad server bidding into Prebid Server instead of the other way around. How the super auction really picks a winner today, why reservation tech is the missing piece and who could build it, whether Google has any excuse to stay out of Prebid Server, and what a non-technical publisher should do about it (nothing alone, your partners will carry it). Plus Google’s AI licensing checks: take the money, then make everyone else pay too.

Scott and Jana on agentic direct. Not a better programmatic pipe: campaigns negotiated by agents and booked straight into the publisher's ad server. Scott makes the case that it hands pricing power back to publishers, Jana asks the questions, and together they get into who could build the marketplaces, what has to come true for any of it to work, and how to be agentic direct ready before the money shows up.

A special replay. For AdExchanger Talks' 500th episode, the guests were our own Scott and Jana, so this week we're sharing that session with our listeners, with a new intro. Judge Brinkema's decision not to break up GAM, Google's impression-counting change, and GAM's new data co-op versus publisher-led collectives. Thanks to AdExchanger for putting us on the couch for a change.

Scott and Jana on configuration management. What these platforms actually control on your page, how yield testing went from a full team to one tool, the downside of buying a Ferrari you don't have the staff to drive, whether you're big enough to need one, and how to tell a feature that helps you run the business from one that's just cool. Plus the rule for every vendor demo: you can't push a PDF.

Scott and Jana on RPM versus LTV. Why RPM was never a health metric and was never supposed to be, why most publishers had no lifetime value to measure when Google was the only customer that counted, how to start building LTV across sites, newsletters, apps, and social, and why paying for traffic isn't a dirty word.

Scott and Jana on sales houses. NBC News just handed its programmatic display to Taboola, and the in-house/outsource cycle is turning again. What the deal really signals, what a publisher gives up and what they don't, the rise of hybrid stacks, and what to do whether you're moving onto a sales house or off one.

Scott and Jana on Google's bidding change. Campaigns that used to beat their target CPAs now drift up toward them, and buyers are getting a taste of what publishers have lived with for years. Easy buttons, black boxes, the MRC's new auction standards, and the case for keeping humans in the loop.

Scott and Jana on PMPs and what "private" actually means (hint: just not open). Marketplace deals versus one-to-one publisher deals, why almost every bid request now carries a deal ID, what a big CPG buyer says custom deals actually get them, and why the PMP sales team may be due for a comeback.

Our second guest takes the couch. Emry Downinghall of Unwind Media joins Scott and Jana on resellers versus direct paths. How to measure what a partner actually adds, why "unique demand" is usually repackaged demand, what a cheap reach label from Jounce really means, and the rule that settles it: demand reroutes, it doesn't multiply.

Scott and Jana on sell-side decisioning. Magnite and PubMatic both told Wall Street they want to own the decision layer, and they're building it on publisher data. Why that's worse than disintermediation, what's still defensible, and why nothing counts until someone sells a Super Bowl ad agentically.

Scott and Jana on data strategy. What "we have good data" actually means, why your taxonomy makes or breaks the whole thing, when a DMP is worth the money (if you have to ask, you probably don't), and the real difference between a DMP and a CDP. Plus: zero-party data is still not a thing.

A bonus session on Buyer Direct. Agents book reservations, network tags pile up, and the waterfall is back after fourteen years. Plus why quality supply gets locked up first, and why that could hand publishers their power back.

Scott and Jana on Google's Buyer Direct. What it actually is and why it isn't programmatic guaranteed, whether extra agency demand is worth the disintermediation, and the real question: not whether Google kills the SSP, but whether it kills RTB. Beware the Kool-Aid.

Our first guest takes the couch. Publisher advocate Lila Hunt joins Scott and Jana on why we can't have nice things. Being relentlessly correct, the double standard that expects publishers to be perfect on half the data, and what the MRC's auction standards mean for publishers.

Scott and Jana on why things move slowly in ad tech — telling the difference between butter and molasses, developers who hate ads and fight you at every turn, a biz dev deal signed behind the whole org's back, and why your contract is really stuck in legal (hint: it's usually not legal).

Scott and Jana on making conferences actually count. How to pitch the trip to your boss, why skipping the content kills your credibility, what to do when they suspect a boondoggle, and the rule that never fails: stay up as late as you can and always make it to breakfast.

Scott and Jana on the agentic future. How to skate to where the puck is going, which pitches are products versus decks, and what agentic does to publisher margins. Plus our first listener question, from Kiri Masters.

Scott and Jana on chasing the wrong ghost. Direct sellers afraid programmatic will cannibalize their business, a CRO pushing audience extension when the real question is your right to win, and whether to pivot off LiveRamp after the Publicis deal.

Scott and Jana on hiring junior vs. senior, the true cost of rev shares and lift deals, DIY vs. managed services, and the meeting culture eating your team alive