AdTech Therapy™

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

Nobody's coming to promote you. Scott and Jana on advocating for yourself, getting out of the weeds, and whether you're built to manage or master one thing - plus three patients stuck on the career ladder

Scott and Jana on running into walls in ad tech — why your best ideas stall, the superstar trap that breaks ops teams, and how to get budget without looking like an emergency.

Scott and Jana on holistic revenue management and why RPV is your one true metric - pluse new wrappers, how long a test should bake, and a ceo blaming programmatic for a redesign gone wrong.

The debut session. Scott and Jana on getting comfortable being uncomfortable - agentic buying, where publishers should lean into AI, and whether you just automated yourself out of a job.

We're just getting warmed up here. Get ready for you first session. Visit us at https://www.adtechtherapy.com/patient-portal to submit your questions into the Patient Portal.