AdTech AdTalk

In this episode of AdTech AdTalk, Adam and Gareth break down the big news of the week: Pinterest acquiring TV Scientific. Is it about CTV tags, or is it really about IP address stuffing to juice attribution?The duo goes deep on the AI wars, debating whether Google’s "stack" strategy will crush open standards, the "vertical integration" lesson from the browser wars, and the suspicious claim that Gemini 3 has no ads (yet). They also tackle the "passive voice" of the Irish exit, the surprising economics of OnlyFans chatbots, and why SaaS investors are panicking about AI.Plus, a look back at the "Vast Arbitrage" era, why LiveRail ruined ad tech acquisitions for a decade, and why nobody can name a single piece of "new knowledge" generated by an LLM.0:00 Intro2:12 The "Irish Exit" & Holiday Party Anxiety04:08 AI Standards vs. The Google Stack06:40 The Browser Wars & Vertical Integration 11:34 The "Architects of AI" & Godzilla Battles 15:28 The ROI of AI: Application Layer vs. Infrastructure 19:02 AI Won't Make Investors Rich (But Might Make You Rich) 23:11 The Service Industry Boom & The End of SaaS Playbooks 28:43 Pinterest Acquires TV Scientific: Attribution Gaming? 39:08 The "LiveRail Chill" on Ad Tech M&A 44:37 Post-Mortem: Google's "No Ads in Gemini" Claim 50:05 Post-Mortem: Vast Arbitrage & Waterfalls Explained 54:58 Post-Mortem: Can AI Create New Knowledge? 59:43 Q&A: Affiliate Links in Custom GPTs 1:01:23 OnlyFans Chatbots & The Future of Influencer AI 1:02:46 Outro & Hanukkah Wishes

It’s a special Thanksgiving episode of AdTech AdTalk! Adam and Gareth are holding down the fort solo, ready to dive into the latest ad tech news, from Google's ongoing antitrust saga to the impending IPG/Omnicom mega-merger.

The duo explores the competitive landscape of header bidding management, why it’s such a tough business, and the unique position of Index Exchange’s new containerization project. They also field listener questions about the new "Agentic RTB" standards, how brands like Bayer can leverage them, and the uncomfortable truth about using IP addresses for measurement in CTV.

Plus, the hosts debate the effectiveness of price floors, roast a viral LinkedIn post about TV's "passive screen" experience, and analyze a clip of Sergey Brin cutting through Google's infamous bureaucracy.

0:00 Intro & Pontiac Intelligence Shoutout

02:37 The Header Bidding Knife Fight

07:19 Index, Attentive & Resellers

11:34 Index Exchange’s Containerization

14:06 Why It's Called "Agentic RTB"

19:02 Will Big Tech Adopt the Standards?

24:13 Brands & Agentic Workflows

30:37 The Truth About IPs & CTV Measurement

37:22 Why Telcos Failed at Ad Tech

41:26 Why Price Floors Work (Sort Of)

50:12 Post-Mortem: TV’s "Passive Screen"

57:34 Google’s Gemini 3 & Sergey Brin

1:09:27 IPG & Omnicom Merger

1:11:56 Google Antitrust Closing Arguments

1:18:44 Don't Sleep on Google

1:19:15 Outro

In this "old school" episode of AdTech AdTalk, Adam and Gareth fly solo (mostly) to vent about the industry and answer chat questions without the pressure of being nice to a guest. The duo dives deep into the technical weeds of PMP duplication, explaining the bizarre reality where sending the same deal ID five times actually results in more spend due to DSP throttling and QPS caps.They also tackle the controversy surrounding The Trade Desk’s Kokai update, debating whether the loss of trader control is worth the aggressive pacing algorithms. The conversation shifts to the philosophy of measurement, the generational shift in caring about inventory quality, and why coupons are the original performance marketing.Plus, a surprise visit from "Senator AdTech" (who looks and sounds suspiciously like a famous Vermont politician) to rail against the "rigged auction" of the bid request system. Finally, the hosts roast Grok’s sycophantic description of Elon Musk’s physique and play a round of Hot Sh*t or Horsesh*t featuring Quantcast’s new "self-driving" AI claims.00:00 Intro & Pontiac Shoutout 02:32 Live in Denmark 03:20 The PMP Duplication Hack 10:29 How DSP Sampling Works 19:30 Why Traders Hate Kokai 26:12 The Shift to Quality 30:30 Senator AdTech Skit 35:00 Measurement & Coupons 42:45 Post-Mortem: Fake Metrics 46:40 Grok’s Love for Elon 52:04 Naming the Grok Segment 53:30 Hot Sht or Horsesht: Quantcast 59:00 Outro

Adam Heimlich and Gareth Glaser are back for another AdTech AdTalk, this time sitting down with a true ad tech veteran, Keith Gooberman, the CEO of Pontiac DSP and Programmatic Mechanics.Keith takes the hosts through his 18-year career, starting from the publisher side at Conde Nast ($20 CPMs) to the ad network days at Glam Media, and eventually to the agency trading desks. He discusses the "aha" moment of seeing 80-90% margins, which led him to found his own transparent company.The discussion covers the state of the DSP market and what it's like competing with giants like Google and The Trade Desk. Keith explains Pontiac's niche (built without cookies, "thinner" pricing, CTV-first bidder) and the panel debates whether clients actually care about performance.In the second half, the hosts break down the new IAB "Agentic" framework for containerized RTB, a $16 billion fraudulent ad spend problem at Facebook, and analyze the wild stock market ride of Pubmatic in "Hot Shit or Horseshit."00:00 - AdTech AdTalk Intro01:11 - Welcome & Guest Introduction02:04 - Welcoming Keith Gooberman, Pontiac DSP02:31 - Keith's Start: Conde Nast (2007)03:59 - Career Path: Glam Media Ad Network05:28 - Learning Arbitrage at Trading Desks06:17 - Why He Chose Varik08:44 - Founding Programmatic Mechanics09:12 - Do Buyers Actually Care About Performance?10:49 - Investment vs. Spending: The Agency View12:15 - The Irrational CMO Request: "Get me on Netflix"14:52 - Building the Pontiac DSP & Bidder16:17 - Competing in the DSP Market17:31 - Pontiac's "No Cookie" Differentiation18:55 - The DSP Car Analogy21:15 - Price, Transparency & The Chalice Partnership24:45 - From "Fewer, Bigger, Better" to Modular Stacks27:18 - Startup Idea: Creative Quality Management31:45 - The History of Soft Floors & First Price35:59 - IAB Agentic Standards36:29 - The Gap: The "Edge" vs. Insertion Orders42:38 - NEWS: Adam Explains Agentic RTB45:26 - Why Is It Called "Agentic"?47:50 - Why Would Index (SSP) Want This?54:02 - Pontiac's View on the New Edge57:25 - Pontiac's AI/MCP Plans59:51 - Post-Mortem: "Open Web is Dying"01:02:57 - "Ad Tech Morale is Low"01:06:15 - Post: MRC Auction Standards & Google Antitrust01:11:56 - NEWS: $16B in Fraudulent Ads on Facebook01:17:24 - New Feature: "StinkedIn"01:24:19 - New Feature: "Hot Shit or Horseshit"01:24:44 - Pubmatic's Wild Stock Ride01:25:43 - Gareth's Take: Pubmatic is Hot Shit01:27:36 - Keith's Take: Pubmatic Found a New Story01:32:39 - Sign Off & Outro

Adam Heimlich and Gareth Glaser kick off the "Post Mortem" segment with the "deadly serious" LinkedIn breakup of Jeff Green and Brian O'Kelly, complete with a surprisingly high-quality, AI-generated musical tribute. The episode's main guest is Joe Zawadzki of Aperiam Ventures, who shares his "typosphere" investment strategy, how he uses AI as a "product collaborator," and the nuances of AdTech coopetition.The group dives deep into the plumbing of AdTech, breaking down the buy-side and sell-side reasons for the messy proliferation of PMPs and Deal IDs. Finally, the crew tackles "Hot Sh*t or Horsesh*t," giving a unanimous "hot" rating to OpenAI, and analyzes the latest earnings reports from The Trade Desk (TTD), Meta, Google, and Amazon.0:00 Intro 0:48 Welcome & Banter 1:51 Postmortem: The LinkedIn Breakup 5:16 Guest: Joe Zawatski 6:20 Joe Zawatski on AI & Investing 10:47 Coopetition & Founder Mindset 19:22 The PMP & Deal ID Problem 36:01 Hot Sh*t or Horsesh*t: OpenAI 46:05 Earnings: The Trade Desk 51:56 Earnings: Meta, Google & Amazon 56:25 Gareth's Startup Idea 57:35 Wrap Up

In this "Meet the Moment" Halloween episode, hosts Adam Heimlich and Gareth Glaser welcome Stephanie Layser of AWS to unpack the industry-shaking announcement of AWS RTB Fabric.Stephanie explains how "customer obsession" led AWS to build a superstructure for ad tech containerization, designed to slash the massive "egress" costs that have historically plagued real-time bidding. They dive deep into how Fabric’s "modules" will lower the barrier to entry, break down integration queues, and create a more efficient, competitive ecosystem beyond the handful of dominant legacy platforms.The discussion also covers the failure of the 2013 App Nexus marketplace, the future of Prebid Server on Fabric, and how this new infrastructure differs from past attempts like BidSwitch. The show concludes with the debut of a new segment, "Postmortem," analyzing the week's spiciest ad tech social media posts.0:52 Halloween Intro & Sponsor: Pontiac1:47 Why We're Talking About "Fabric"2:32 The "Egress" Cost Problem4:44 The Rise of Containerization6:48 Welcome Stephanie Layser (AWS)7:51 The Origin Story of RTB Fabric11:14 What Are "Modules"?13:50 Failed Precedent: App Nexus Marketplace17:40 The Power of Filtering (for RMNs)22:48 How Fabric Architecture Works27:30 Q&A: Examples of Modules33:51 Hardball: How is this not BidSwitch?37:12 The Future of Prebid on Fabric41:54 Amazon Ads (DSP) as Launch Partner42:55 AWS Clean Rooms vs. AMC50:12 IAB Containerization Standard?51:38 New Segment: "Postmortem"51:58 Post 1: "Is RTB Dying?"57:29 Post 2: Spicy Take on Gartner1:00:40 Post 3: Who Created Bid Duplication?

How do you keep a 20-year-old ad tech company on the cutting edge? You rewrite every single line of code.In this episode, Adam Heimlich and Gareth Glaser are joined by special guest Andrew Casale, founder and CEO of Index Exchange, for a deep dive into the past, present, and future of programmatic infrastructure. Andrew shares the story of starting his company in high school and the massive "bet-the-company" decision to re-architect the entire Index platform in 2020. He explains how moving from a monolith to a microservices architecture cut compute costs in half and enabled the platform to handle massive "live" event spikes in microseconds.The crew then tackles the industry's hottest (and most controversial) buzzword: the "agentic future." Andrew and Gareth break down why they believe this new vision is a massive step backward—arguing it's just "bundle trading" that abandons the hard-won gains of real-time, impression-level decisioning.00:00 Intro01:01 Sponsor Shout-out: Pontiac Intelligence01:33 Welcoming Guest Andrew Casale, CEO of Index Exchange02:22 The Longevity of Index: Starting in High School03:33 Why Ad Tech? The "Economic Engine" of the Internet05:27 What Are the Core Innovations in Ad Tech History?07:18 Gareth: Ad Tech Fundamentals Haven't Changed (It's Still a Placeholder)09:49 Andrew: Why Index Rewrote Every Line of Code in 202012:18 The Bet: Moving from Monolith to Microservices (Golang)14:38 How Re-Architecting Enables "Live" Ad Spikes (World Series)17:17 Innovation: AI-Based Creative & Making TV Approachable for SMBs20:47 The Rise of Containerization (Amazon AWS Fabric)22:04 Attacking the "Cost of the Cloud" in Ad Tech25:19 Debate: The "Agentic Future" (Are Agents Just "Bundle Traders"?)29:33 Andrew's Case Against Agents: Standards Must Follow Proof31:52 Agents vs. Real-Time Decisioning (A Step Backwards?)33:02 Agents Are at an "Intern Level" & "Human in the Loop" Doesn't Scale35:58 The GAM Problem: Ad Servers Can't Handle Millions of Line Items39:44 Gareth: RTB Was Built to Replace This Manual Process42:18 The Buy-Side vs. Sell-Side Tension (Supply Path Optimization)43:09 Andrew on SPO: "Prove It" with A/B Tests45:48 Adding Value (Like Data) Without Adding Fees47:50 Goal: Get More Ad Spend into "Working Media"48:32 News: The AppLovin SEC Investigation & "Co-Reg" Installs54:04 Q&A: How Do You Reverse Bid Duplication?55:03 Gareth & Adam: Use Sell-Side Decisioning (Chalice)59:17 Q&A: Are Direct Buys Better for Publishers?59:53 Gareth: No, It's "Wistful" for Selling "Garbage for 20 Bucks"1:01:42 Wrap Up & Halloween Costumes

Hosted by two ad industry renegades, this is where the buy side and sell side drop the jargon and get real.Come with what you always wanted to know about the other side — stay to see what happens when innovators come together. Fridays. Noon ET.

In a can't-miss episode of AdTech AdTalk, hosts Adam Heimlich and Gareth Glaser are joined by a very special guest: Jeff Green, the founder and CEO of The Trade Desk (TTD).Jeff dives deep into the strategy behind The Trade Desk's recent moves, explaining why the ad tech ecosystem has been dominated by a strategy to "Duplicate, Obfuscate, and Sometimes Lie." He provides a masterclass on the history of ad tech, from Google's DFP monopoly and the advent of header bidding to the current state of the industry.This discussion is essential viewing for anyone in digital advertising, as Jeff unpacks the motivation behind OpenAds, The Trade Desk's vision for a fair and efficient open internet, and how it aims to create a healthier ecosystem for publishers, advertisers, and agencies alike.0:00 Intro & Welcoming Jeff Green2:11 Why Jeff Green Chose AdTech AdTalk3:30 What is OpenAds?4:15 The History of Google's Ad Monopoly (DFP)8:07 The "Duplicate, Obfuscate, and Sometimes Lie" Strategy10:14 Google's Tactics & The Pre-bid Spec Change12:11 The Goal of OpenAds: A Fair Auction for a Healthier Ecosystem14:24 Exchange vs. SSP: Flipping Houses vs. Representing Publishers20:22 Why The Trade Desk is Acting Alone24:08 Winning Over Skeptical Publishers27:18 Fifth Avenue vs. Canal Street: Rebalancing the Open Internet28:42 Conspiracy Theory: Is The Trade Desk the New Google?32:59 Can Competitors Bid into OpenAds?38:34 OpenPath: The "Stalking Horse" & "Canary in the Coal Mine" Explained40:07 How The Trade Desk Wins in a Fair Ecosystem42:10 The Future of Competition & Collaboration (TTD & Chalice)45:07 OpenAds for Publishers: What Does the End State Look Like?47:23 Audience Q&A Begins47:47 How Will TTD Compete on Price with Amazon DSP?50:25 Will DSPs Integrate with LLMs like OpenAI?52:30 Agency Transparency, Rebates, and the Future58:10 Jeff Green's Final Thoughts: The Future of the Open Internet is Efficiency1:00:57 The Path Forward: Better Information & More Competition#AdTech #TheTradeDesk #JeffGreen #DigitalAdvertising #Programmatic #OpenInternet #Marketing #Advertising #TTD