The Yield Doctor with James Deaker

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  • 5.0 (3)
  • Technology

Improving Yield Management in Digital Media

  1. 5d ago

    What is Kana? Building AdTech with CTO Vivek Vaidya

    What is Kana, and how is AI reshaping enterprise marketing? In this episode, Vivek Vaidya (Co-Founder & CTO of Kana; former CTO of Salesforce Marketing Cloud; co-founder of Krux and Habu) breaks down Kana's vision, tech stack, and how they are automating marketing admin to accelerate growth. Watch to learn how Kana intelligently structures enterprise context, where AI agents actually deliver ROI, and what the future of data-driven customer engagement looks like from one of enterprise tech's most experienced architects. 🔔 Subscribe for in-depth breakdowns and interviews with leading digital media and tech founders: https://www.youtube.com/@jamesdeaker ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ TIMESTAMPS / CHAPTERS 0:00 - Introduction & Welcome 01:30 - Who is Vivek Vaidya? (Rapt, Krux, Salesforce, Habu) 04:15 - What is Kana? Solving the Marketing Admin Problem 08:40 - How Kana's Architecture Integrates with Enterprise Systems 13:10 - The Role of AI Agents & Context Structuring 18:25 - Overcoming Legacy Enterprise Data Bottlenecks 23:50 - The Future of AI in Marketing and Customer Engagement 28:10 - Key Takeaways & Where to Learn More About Kana ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ABOUT VIVEK VAIDYA Vivek Vaidya is a serial entrepreneur, technologist, and Co-Founder/CTO of Kana. Over a 25+ year career, he has built and scaled industry-defining enterprise platforms, including Rapt (acquired by Microsoft), Krux (acquired by Salesforce), and Habu (acquired by LiveRamp). He previously served as CTO of Salesforce Marketing Cloud and is a founding General Partner at super{set}. RESOURCES & LINKS • Learn more about Kana: https://www.kana.com [or your preferred link] • Connect with Vivek Vaidya: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vivekvaidya/ • Connect with [Host Name / Company]: [YOUR_LINKEDIN_OR_WEBSITE] • Sign up for our newsletter: [YOUR_NEWSLETTER_LINK] #MarTech #AdTech #EnterpriseAI #Kana #MarketingAutomation #TechInterview

  2. Sep 17

    Why Target Sell-Through Rates Are a Massive Mistake

    Struggling with publisher direct sell-through rate (STR) targets? Whether you're managing direct sales inventory or retail/commerce media networks, treating STR like an airline load-factor quota destroys revenue. In this video, James Deaker (The Yield Doctor) breaks down why 100% sell-through creates operational stress, why anchoring to 75/85/90 targets fails, and how to use the 4-part diagnostic framework instead. Chapters: 0:00 - Introduction & The Sell-Through Trap 1:16 - Why STR Comes Up (And Why It Doesn't Work Like Airlines) 3:03 - The Goldilocks Metric & Examining the Extremes (0% vs. 100%) 5:32 - What Determines a Healthy STR Range? 7:13 - The Danger of Anchoring (Especially in Commerce Media) 8:54 - Changes Over Time: Why Trends Matter More Than Absolute Numbers 10:20 - The 4 Questions You Should Ask Instead of Targeting STR Key Concepts Covered: Inventory forecasting, direct vs. programmatic channel conflict, rate card protection, and publisher yield optimization.

  3. Sep 9

    FTC ruling on Amazon Ads - What was Amazon thinking?

    The FTC alleges that Amazon has been representing that it's ad marketplace runs a second priced auction, when in practice it is essentially running first priced. There are a number of aspects of the story that have been overlooked, including the fact that Amazon could have moved to a First Priced Auction like the rest of the Display advertising marketplace.

  4. Sep 2

    LeadershipIn podcast - James Deaker, Greg MacDonald, Geoff Wolinetz

    This week it was my pleasure to join Geoff Wolinetz and Greg MacDonald on the @LeadershipIn podcast where we had a three-way roundtable about our experiences as independent consultants. We discuss: * The pros and cons of being solo vs. growing a team * How to think about the models of advising vs. fractional vs. workforce augmentation * The headwinds and tail winds for an independent consultant from the rise of AI solutions During the conversation we independently called out the usefulness of the resources provided by David A. Fields This episode is for anyone thinking about making the leap into independent consulting.

  5. Aug 28

    Fast Effective Ratecard Updates

    What do you do when leadership says, “We need next quarter’s rate card pulled together fast”? The natural instinct is often to react to the last lost deal or competitor price drop—but updating a rate card under pressure requires focusing on the signals that actually move the needle. In this video, we break down a structured, step-by-step approach to running a regular rate card update without starting from scratch or reinventing the wheel. In this video, you’ll learn: The 3 Core Questions: How to balance backward-looking performance, external market trends, and internal product changes. Key Data Inputs: What metrics matter most—from price realization and discounting to deal review exceptions and projected sell-through. Aligning with Finance & Sales: How to turn your data into a clear assumptions list before touching a single price. The 3 Outcomes: How to determine whether to leave your rate card as-is, make targeted pricing tweaks, or plan a full structural overhaul.

  6. Aug 13

    3 AI Pricing Traps that Publishers and Ad Tech companies need to avoid

    There are areas where you need to careful of using AI to help in Pricing and Yield in Digital Advertising. It will give you an answer, but without the right oversight that answer may hurt your business. ⏱️ Timestamps [00:00] - Appropriate Use Cases for AI in Pricing [01:55] - Trap #1: Algorithmic Competitor Price Setting & Collusion Risk [03:35] - Trap #2: Relying on AI for Real Pricing & Product Innovation [06:18] - Trap #3: Designing Pricing Before Defining Your Objective Function [08:41] - Key Takeaway: Executing Strategy vs. Defining Strategy 💡 Key Takeaways Where AI Belongs: Executing clear internal policies, enforcing deal approval thresholds, and accelerating analytics. Algorithmic Collusion: Why allowing AI agents to continuously monitor and react to competitor pricing creates unintended legal and operational gray areas. Innovation Bottlenecks: Why AI adapts existing models (CPMs, sponsorships) well, but human insight is needed for breakthrough models like Uber's "Cost Per Ride" (CPR). The Objective Function: Why asking AI to optimize pricing before management explicitly defines what success looks like yields great answers to the wrong questions. 📌 About The Yield Doctor Hosted by James Deaker (The Yield Doctor), this channel delivers practical yield frameworks, ad tech strategy, and AI governance insights for media and digital advertising executives. 🔔 Subscribe for practical yield strategy & AI risk controls 🌐 Connect & Discussion Are you seeing companies hand over pricing decisions to AI that they shouldn't? Let us know in the comments!

  7. Jul 16

    AdTech Pirate Gold: Finding value in Supply Path Optimization

    Every year, the digital advertising industry gets outraged over the "AdTech tax"—the famous gap between what an advertiser spends and what a publisher actually receives. But are intermediaries actually stealing your gold, or are they providing a service you forgot you needed? In this video, I use a classic riddle about three pirates, an inkeeper, and a sneaky bellhop to break down the complexities of Supply Path Optimization (SPO). What you’ll learn: The mathematical misdirection behind the "missing dollar" problem. How to classify the ad tech value chain (Valet vs. Thief). Why cutting out the "bellhop" might mean you have to carry your own bags (and manage your own fraud, identity, and measurement!). The 3-step discipline every advertiser and publisher needs to master before getting outraged. If you want to stop guessing where your digital media spend is going, the formula is simple: Trace the dollar, classify the dollar, and decide if it was well spent. [00:00] The "Missing Dollar" Problem in AdTech [00:38] The Riddle of the Three Pirates [01:54] The Mathematical Misdirection Revealed [02:22] Mapping the Riddle to Advertisers, Publishers, and DSPs/SSPs [04:00] The Lumiscape Reality: Valets, Housekeepers, and Bartenders [05:58] The Hard Question: Does the Service Justify the Fee? [08:20] The Complexity of AdTech Currencies (CPM vs. Rev Share) [09:40] My Advice for Programmatic Buyers and Sellers [10:40] The Real Cost of "Carrying Your Own Bags" (Going Direct) [11:34] Summary: Trace, Classify, and Decide

  8. Jun 27

    3 Pricing Traps to avoid

    Are you micro-tweaking your digital advertising rates every time market demand ripples? It’s time to stop. When sales demand softens, executive teams often panic and treat pricing as the only quick fix. But changing core rate structures out of panic usually creates operational chaos rather than real revenue. In this video, we break down three common digital media pricing traps you can eliminate immediately to simplify your ad operations, empower your sales team, and give your advertisers a predictable sense of value. What You’ll Learn: Why treating sell-through rates as a pricing trigger turns into a dog-chasing-its-tail scenario. The academic trap of over-modeling cross-elasticity in a fast-moving digital ad landscape. The hidden operational friction costs of rolling out minor rate card adjustments to direct sales teams. The crucial structural boundary between human-led rate cards and dynamic programmatic floors. "Good pricing is not about constantly changing prices. It is about knowing when a price change is justified, making it clearly, and giving the market a predictable sense of value." 💬 Join the Conversation: How does your team manage the balancing act between stable direct rate cards and automated programmatic floors? Drop a comment below—I’d love to hear your approach.

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Improving Yield Management in Digital Media

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