The Yield Doctor with James Deaker

deaker

Improving Yield Management in Digital Media

  1. 5d ago

    What Happens When AI Agents Run Ad Ops? Burt CEO, Shay Brog

    What happens to ad tech business models when AI agents, not humans, are running the queries? Shay Brog, CEO of Burt Intelligence, joins me to talk about building the operational intelligence layer for ad-supported media, where automation is paying off for publishers right now, why yield decisions still need an accountable human, and whether SSPs should move to a SaaS model. This conversation is part of my series on the companies driving AI change for publishers and ad tech. Chapters 0:00 Introduction 0:35 Shay's path: Jerusalem, Sydney, New York 1:25 The origin of Burt 2:39 Why Shay joined: publisher-facing, not smoke and mirrors 5:04 What Burt does: the operational intelligence layer 6:54 SaaS or managed service? 9:39 The semantic layer: 90% standard, 10% custom 12:46 Investing in AI and MCP 15:37 Human in the loop and accountability for yield decisions 20:30 Where automation pays off: reconciliation, client reporting, forecasting 25:05 Grow revenue or cut costs? 27:52 AI costs, token pricing, and should SSPs be SaaS? 32:13 Contrarian view: optimism 35:00 Where to find Shay and Burt Shay Brog on LinkedIn: [add URL] Burt Intelligence: https://www.burtintelligence.com/ I'm James Deaker, The Yield Doctor. Through Korukea Media, I help publishers and ad tech companies with pricing strategy and yield management. https://korukeamedia.com/ Subscribe to The Yield Doctor Report: https://korukeamedia.com/newsletter/

  2. Oct 20

    The 900 Optimizations Your Ad Ops Team Never Gets To | Frans Vermeulen, Swivel

    How do you get one ad ops person doing the work of 15 to 20? Frans Vermeulen, President of Swivel, explains how AI-driven automation is changing yield management, programmatic optimization and ad operations for large publishers and CTV broadcasters, without ripping out the ad stack. Frans has spent 25 years in digital advertising at DoubleClick, FreeWheel, Comcast, Tru Optik and TransUnion. In this conversation we cover: - Why Swivel is an orchestration layer on top of existing ad servers, not another ad server - How natural language creates the rules, while deterministic scripts make the changes - Why automating the 900 small optimizations a human team never gets to adds up to real incremental revenue - How to prove revenue uplift with holdback and control groups - The "Rosetta Stone" problem of fragmented ad platforms, APIs and data latency - Why the UI isn't dead, and agent-to-agent trading won't take over the world - Where the CTV marketplace is heading as supply grows and prices come under pressure Learn more about Swivel: https://www.swivel.ai Chapters: 0:00 Introduction: AI in the ad tech landscape 1:51 Swivel's origin story and the SpringServe team 6:21 Why ad ops problems never seem to get solved 7:58 What Swivel does: scaling ad operations 12:32 Where Swivel sits in the ad stack 16:17 Where Swivel innovates: AI plus deterministic rules 20:43 Replacing human actions vs. doing what humans can't 22:33 Proving revenue uplift with holdback groups 25:05 Fragmented systems, data latency and the "Rosetta Stone" 27:34 Giving power back to the sell side 29:27 Contrarian views: the UI isn't dead 33:22 The state of the CTV marketplace 36:28 Where to find Frans and Swivel I'm James Deaker, The Yield Doctor. Through Korukea Media, I help publishers and ad tech companies with pricing strategy and yield management. https://korukeamedia.com/ Subscribe to The Yield Doctor Report: https://korukeamedia.com/newsletter/

  3. Oct 14

    What Happens When an Ad Tech Company Goes All-In on AI? | CEO Nicolas Schueller

    What happens when an analytics company spends nine months teaching an LLM to understand ad revenue data? I talk with Nico Schueller, CEO and co-founder of Adomik, about how the company went from floor optimization on AppNexus to JP, its AI infrastructure for publishers. We cover: What’s inside Adomik’s market data set, and why accuracy matters more than completeness Why JP is infrastructure, not an agent or a chatbot How a semantic model makes LLM analysis of transactional data reliable Onboarding speed, and JP’s December release with versions for AdOps, sales and yield Whether publishers can trust their data again When to keep a human in the loop Nico’s contrarian view that enterprise AI belongs in enterprise software companies This conversation is part of my series on the companies driving AI change in digital media and ad tech. Chapters 0:00 Why I’m talking to AI-driven ad tech companies 1:29 Adomik’s origin story: AppNexus and floor optimization 3:52 Header bidding and the shift to revenue management 4:45 Building the market data set 5:35 AI and the launch of JP 6:37 What’s inside Adomik’s market data set 13:34 Directional or reliable? Completeness vs. accuracy 16:01 JP is infrastructure, not an agent 17:41 Why the semantic model matters 21:25 Revenue Analyst, Market Analyst and JP as an MCP server 22:48 How long does onboarding a new client take? 26:17 JP’s December release: JP for AdOps, Sales and Yield 28:05 Can publishers trust their data again? 31:47 Guardrails and the human in the loop 35:29 Nico’s contrarian view: enterprise AI is enterprise software 39:43 Where to learn more about Adomik Learn more about Adomik: https://www.adomik.com/ Connect with Nico on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nschueller Article on this conversation: https://korukeamedia.com/enterprise-ai-is-enterprise-software-what-adomik-learned-building-jp/ I’m James Deaker, The Yield Doctor. Through Korukea Media, I help publishers and ad tech companies with pricing strategy and yield management. https://korukeamedia.com/ Subscribe to The Yield Doctor Report: https://korukeamedia.com/newsletter/

  4. Oct 8

    Bonus Impressions vs. Price Discounts: Which Protects Publisher Yield?

    Title: Bonus Impressions vs. Price Discounts: Which Protects Publisher Yield? Description: When an advertiser asks for a concession on a $10 CPM, should you drop the rate to $8 or give them 25% more impressions? Mathematically, a $10,000 budget gets the same result. But from a yield management perspective, they behave very differently. In this video, I break down the mechanics of price discounting versus added value (bonus inventory). We look at why dropping your floor prices creates dangerous anchoring effects, how bonus inventory can protect your perceived value (while introducing its own operational headaches), and how programmatic demand completely changes the equation. ⏱️ Chapters: 0:00 - The $10,000 Dilemma: Discounts vs. Added Value 1:27 - What Buyers and Agencies Actually Prefer (And Why) 3:03 - The Danger of Price Discounts & Anchoring 4:14 - Why Bonus Inventory Protects Your Floor Price 6:14 - The Operational & Opportunity Costs of Added Value 7:44 - How Programmatic Demand Changes the Equation 9:11 - Beware of Double Dipping & Internal Economics 10:17 - Final Verdict: Which Concession Should You Choose? 🔗 Resources & Links: Read the full deep-dive article on my blog: https://korukeamedia.com/bonus-impressions-vs-price-discounts-which-protects-publisher-yield/

  5. Oct 1

    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

  6. 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.

  7. 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.

  8. 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.

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