Service
Programmatic media
Great banners still need disciplined buying. We run display across GDN, DV360 and The Trade Desk with viewability floors, frequency caps and fraud screening, so spend lands on impressions that count.
Head of Programmatic
Programmatic buying is powerful and easy to waste. Left on default, it floods cheap open-exchange inventory, runs uncapped frequency, and counts impressions nobody saw. We treat the buy as a quality problem first: the right inventory, seen by real people, at a sensible frequency, measured on outcomes.
How we buy
- Platforms. Google Display Network for reach, DV360 and The Trade Desk for control over private marketplaces, deals and audience data.
- Inventory quality. We move budget from the open exchange into private marketplace and contextual deals on publishers that fit the brand.
- Frequency. Capped at 3 per user per day and 10–15 per user per week, so you reach people enough to be remembered, not enough to be resented.
- Verification. Pre-bid fraud and brand-safety screening plus a viewability floor, keeping invalid traffic near 0.7%.
What display media costs
| Layer | Typical range |
|---|---|
| GDN / open-exchange CPM | $2–$5 |
| Private marketplace CPM | $6–$15 |
| DSP take rate (The Trade Desk) | around 20% |
| Verification (fraud/viewability) | $0.10–$0.30 CPM |
| Agency management | 10–20% of media |
Platform fees and minimums have no official rate cards; ranges are directional and confirmed at proposal.
Channels and inventory
We use the Google Display Network for reach, and Display & Video 360 and The Trade Desk for control over private marketplaces, deals and audience data. Amazon DSP, Criteo and AdRoll come in where they fit a specific goal. The first move on most accounts is the same: shift budget out of the open exchange, where most invalid traffic and made-for-advertising junk lives, into private marketplace and contextual deals on publishers that suit the brand.
Audience strategy after third-party cookies
Targeting no longer leans on third-party cookies alone, and that is fine. We build audiences from your first-party data, layer private marketplace and contextual signals, and split spend between retargeting, which converts at roughly 0.7% click-through, and prospecting that feeds it. This holds up whichever way the platforms move next, as we cover in our guide to display after third-party cookies.
Reporting you can act on
Every account gets a weekly report in plain language: cost per acquisition, view-through conversions, viewability, invalid traffic and working-media share, with the changes we made and the changes we plan. No 40-tab dashboard nobody opens, and no metric that cannot be tied back to a decision.
Measured on conversions, not impressions
Because display click-through is tiny, last-click reporting buries display's real contribution. We report on cost per acquisition and view-through conversions, and feed every result back into the creative. See how the two combine in our B2B SaaS CPA case study.
Frequently asked questions
Programmatic advertising is the automated buying and selling of ad inventory through real-time auctions. A demand-side platform such as DV360 or The Trade Desk bids on each impression in milliseconds, using audience and context signals. It is how most display is transacted today, and it lets you control viewability, frequency and brand safety at the impression level.
Less than you would hope. The ANA's programmatic supply-chain study found about 43.9% of the spend reaches the consumer as working media; the rest goes to platform fees, data and intermediaries. We cut the waste by buying private marketplace and contextual deals, screening fraud pre-bid, and reporting working media honestly.
Google Display Network and open-exchange CPMs run roughly $2–$5 per thousand impressions; private marketplace inventory runs $6–$15. Demand-side platforms add a take rate, The Trade Desk's is around 20% of media, and agency management is typically 10–20%. We are transparent about every layer.
Invalid traffic runs near 10.9% on unprotected campaigns but drops to about 0.7% when verification is applied, roughly about 15x lower. We screen pre-bid for fraud and brand safety, set a viewability floor, and cap frequency at 3 per user per day so budget is not burned on impressions nobody sees.
Want a second opinion on your media?
We will review your placements, viewability and frequency for free, and show you where the working-media share is slipping.