>>JONA MICI, A 27-year-old media trader, sits in front of her screen at Varick Media Management, a real-time advertising company in New York, and explains how she uses superfast algorithms to buy 20m-30m advertising “impressions” a day. Today one of her clients, an American bank, has asked her to find new customers. At first she guides the algorithm to buy as many impressions as possible near bank branches. Then she narrows her targets, choosing criteria that produce a better hit rate. For example, she finds that tablet users sign up more often than iPhone users, and afternoon seems to be a better time than morning.

It sounds so hand-wavy. I'm guessing she (as well as the entire food chain from her keyboard onwards - the DSPs to the SSPs and the publisher websites) would be sleeping under a bridge if she was paid for actual conversions, rather than for just filling a purchase order of impressions with whatever she can get.

Sometimes I wish I could get clients with loose wallets like this...

...and what on earth does getting impressions "near bank branches" mean?