This week on Off the Grid on the Record, I sit down with Andrew Barrow, founder of Revenue Arc, a white-label programmatic ad agency running campaigns for household names—and flipping the traditional agency model on its head with a 50% gross revenue share back to partners and lifetime referral commissions.

Andrew pulls back the curtain on how programmatic really works (CTV, display, audio, premium publishers), why most brands overspend on fees, and how Revenue Arc’s model lets agencies earn from media instead of getting drained by it. We also cover the playbook behind consistent 5–8× ROAS (and a standout case that raised $145M on ~$2M ad spend), plus the AI systems that now spin up media plans in minutes.

What we cover:

• Programmatic in plain English: how every impression is auctioned in 1/100th of a second
• The 50% gross rev-share + lifetime referrals (why partners often make more than the trader)
• Budgets that work: why $500/day is a realistic floor for performance, and when to scale
• Predictive modeling: targeting people before they’re in-market (and outpacing competitors)
• The three biggest campaign killers: weak landing pages, bad targeting, and “not bought-in” leadership
• Beating “engagement farms,” avoiding toxic optimization data, and tightening guardrails
• AI as force-multiplier: media plans, decks, and daily optimizations generated in minutes

If you’ve ever wondered how the ads you see on Hulu, top news sites, Spotify, and mobile apps actually get there—and how to run them profitably—this episode is your blueprint.

🔗 Connect with Andrew & Revenue Arc:

• Website (Marketing): revenuearkmarketing.com
• Website (Corporate): revenueark.com

👉 More episodes: youtube.com/@yarekmatacz