redditadvthrow1

mng?

I spend $5m a year on programmatic ads, so I think I can answer the author's questions.

> What made you think advertising on a few hundred thousand sites many any sense it the first place?

I'm intending to reach millions of people with my ads. Those millions of people visit a few hundred thousand sites. Why would I only buy ads on a few sites. Big brands buy tv ads and billboards on thousands of shows, whats the difference? Buying on many sites also allows me to reach a very niche audience that otherwise you could never reach (or it would be 10x as expensive).

> How much is being wasted on fraud protection that doesn't do the job?

This is a good question and I don't have an answer. I spend money on fraud/bot protection and can't always verify if it works. But as long as my ads are producing results and have a good ROI or the client is happy, I don't even need to know what the answer is.

> Why does every single publisher or ad tech company boast of working with three or four anti-fraud vendors at once?

Digital marketing as an industry moves super super fast. At least one of those four anti-fraud vendors will pivot in the next year, and another will focus on something niche like viewability. Having multiple vendors is necessary, and there isn't really a downside. The switching costs for me between two vendors is literally unticking one check box, and ticking another.

I'm not familair with the author, but it honestly doesn't seem like he understands advertising. Are you complaining about the use of third party data (but no mention of privacy?), that advertisers are lazy (personal attacks..okay. The whole industry is lazy?), that advertisers buy ads on and support small websites, or are you just feeding on the ever-popular disdain for advertising?

There are no doubt problems in the industry, but if you want to write about it you'll need to make a claim and support it with data. If you think 3rd party data doesn't work, or allowing ads on lots of sites doesn't work then claim that and prove it.

My opinion is probably skewed, I only do rtb and no direct buys, so my categorical targeting is somewhat different than what OP is doing. BT generally does better for me because data quality tends to be better (you can get really specific, like a user with HHI 100k+, owns a Ford, AND is in market for a new minivan.)

I'd usually rather get 100k of those really expensive impressions, than 1m of less targeted (cat) impressions.

Advertisers are trending towards behavioral, it is a lot more powerful and the available inventory is much much bigger. Rather than limited to only sites about bacon, the author get buy ads on any site and (in theory) get the same performance while spending less.

I'm op, forgot the password I used.

I have no publisher side experience, and I only do rtb - no direct buys. Traditionally BT generally does better for me. Data quality tends to be better (you can get really specific, like a user with HHI 100k+, owns a Ford, AND is in market for a new minivan).