Category: Digital Yield 101

dCPM, or dynamic CPM, is one of the most widely used—and least consistently defined—terms in digital advertising. At a basic level, CPM (cost per mille) refers to the cost of buying 1,000 impressions. The “dynamic” in dCPM refers to the fact that, in modern programmatic environments, the price of an impression is not fixed. Instead, […]

In a previous video, I made a strong claim: sales compensation should align with profit. And in most cases, that’s still true. But over time—working across different companies, products, and market conditions—I’ve refined that view. The more complete principle is this:Sales incentives should align with the company’s true objectives—and with what the salesperson can actually […]

If you update your rate card too often, you risk confusing your sales team and your advertisers.If you don’t update it enough, you slowly drift out of sync with the market—and leave money on the table. So what’s the right balance? In this video, I break down how to think about the cadence of pricing […]

Custom rate cards are one of the most common—and most underestimated—challenges in digital advertising pricing. They often start as a practical solution: a large client asks for special pricing, Sales pushes for flexibility, and an exception is made to close the deal. In isolation, that decision makes sense. But over time, these exceptions accumulate—and what […]

If you spend any time talking to pricing professionals, you’ll hear a familiar frustration: “We’re doing good work… but no one listens.” The analysis is solid.The data is directionally right.The recommendations make sense. And yet: The default explanation is usually some version of: But in my experience, that’s almost never the real issue. This Isn’t […]

One of the strangest meetings you can be called into as a revenue or yield leader goes like this. Every team reports: “Price realization improved.” Premium prices are up.Standard prices are up. And yet… Total revenue is down. How is that possible? If prices increased across the business, shouldn’t revenue increase as well? Surprisingly, this […]

At the 2026 RampUp conference AI was clearly the dominant topic across almost every session and conversation. But what struck me most wasn’t the technology itself — it was how early the industry still is in figuring out how AI will actually be implemented. After two days at the conference, here are three takeaways that […]

What the Ad Experience Reveals About a Publisher’s Health Broken ads are rarely the real problem. They’re symptoms. Symptoms of weak decision-making, poor incentives, or ad operations teams that are constantly firefighting instead of optimizing. When you look closely, the ad experience on a website or app often reveals far more about how a publisher […]

Three Ways Publishers Go Programmatic — And Why the Choice Matters More Than the Tech Most publishers don’t struggle with programmatic advertising because of bad technology. They struggle because they never made a clear decision about what programmatic is for. When teams talk about “going programmatic,” the conversation usually jumps straight to tactics: SSP selection, […]

The Predictable Growth Stages of Retail Media Networks Retail and commerce media networks rarely fail because demand disappears.More often, they stall because they’re built for one stage of growth, and the business evolves faster than the organization does. Over the years, I’ve seen this same pattern repeat—first with traditional publishers, and now very clearly with […]