I’ve started a project to talk with the companies driving AI change in digital media and ad tech, especially the ones building for publishers and other ad tech providers. This time I spoke with Nicolas “Nico” Schueller, CEO and co-founder of Adomik. Nico and I first met more than a decade ago, when I was […]
Author: korukeamedia
Bonus Impressions vs. Price Discounts: Which Protects Publisher Yield?
A client recently asked me a surprisingly complicated question: If an advertiser wants a concession, should you give them a price discount, or give them bonus impressions (often called added value)? At first glance, these look like exactly the same thing. If your normal price is a $10 CPM, a 20% discount makes the price […]
Beyond the Lumascape: What Kana is Actually Building for Publishers and AdTech
Lately, I’ve embarked on a project to sit down with the companies driving real change across the AI landscape in digital advertising—specifically those building solutions for publishers and ad tech providers. I’ll be completely transparent: half the reason I’m doing this is for my own benefit, so I have a sharper take on who is […]
Don’t Target a Specific Sell-Through Rate
As The Yield Doctor, I often get asked, “What should our sell-through rate be? Should we target 70%, 80%, 90%?” My answer is: you probably shouldn’t have a target sell-through rate at all. You should absolutely monitor it. You should understand why it’s changing. And you may use it in your financial planning. But turning it […]
Amazon Ads: The Real Issue Is Trust
There’s something strange about the FTC’s allegations against Amazon Ads that I don’t think has received enough attention. Amazon told advertisers it was running a second-price auction. The FTC alleges that Amazon gradually changed the mechanics so that, much of the time, advertisers were effectively paying their own bid—the outcome you would expect from a […]
The Reality of Going Solo: What We Learned Trading Notes on LeadershipIn
I get the message in my inbox almost weekly: “I’m thinking about stepping out of corporate and trying consulting. How did you do it?” It is an enticing thought. For many people choosing the problems you solve, and avoiding the corporate bureaucracy is genuinely exciting. Recently, I sat down with Greg McDonald and Geoff Wolinetz […]
Fast Effective Rate Card Updates
If you manager reaches out and says “We need to pull together next quarter’s rate card quickly.”, the biggest mistake yield and pricing managers make in this moment is jumping straight into the spreadsheet to tweak numbers based on the latest lost deal or a competitor’s recent press release. When you’re under the gun, you […]
The problem with AI pricing systems – 3 Traps to avoid
If you ask an AI agent to build a pricing system, it will happily do so. The problem? It might build exactly what you asked for—and destroy massive amounts of value in the process. I’m seeing this happen across publishers, retail media networks, and ad tech platforms alike. To be clear, there are plenty of […]
If Ad Tech Fees Destroy Value, Why Do Sophisticated Advertisers Keep Paying Them?
Last week, I wrote about why calculating ad tech vendor costs requires real nuance rather than quick assumptions. Using my “Pirate Gold” analogy, the goal was simple: you have to look closely to trace where every coin actually goes before assuming it’s automatically being stolen. One sharp response called my argument “partial nonsense because the […]
AdTech Pirate Gold: Finding value in Supply Path Optimization
Stop getting outraged about the “AdTech tax” before you’ve actually looked at what is going on under the hood. Every industry event seems to feature at least one presentation flashing a slide that shows less than 30% of an ad dollar making it to raw display inventory, immediately calling the rest a scam. But comparing […]