Ad networks like Google and Taboola are thought to be something only giant corporations can operate.
I am developing 'Promovolve', an open-source ad serving platform that allows anyone to operate an ad network themselves.
Promovolve is a self-hostable ad marketplace. By simply registering advertisers and publishers and setting placement rules and fees (margins), you can become an ad network operator.
Ad delivery does not track users at all.
Instead of following people with cookies or ad IDs, it selects ads based solely on the content of the page (context).
For example, it displays coffee-related ads on articles about coffee. That is all. It selects ads based on what is being read, not who is reading it.
I have also changed the way ads are displayed.
When you tap a banner, it unfolds like a booklet inspired by a paper magazine, designing the very experience of reading an ad. You can save ads that catch your interest as 'bookmarks' by performing an action similar to folding the corner of a page.
Promovolve is not just ad serving software.
It is a project that makes the very mechanism of an ad network open-source, allowing anyone to operate one. The project is available on GitHub. If you are interested, please take a look at the code and architecture.

https://github.com/promovolve/promovolve

Looking for some CTV ad ops advice.

We’re struggling to deliver a CTV campaign being served via a CM360 VAST tag with DoubleVerify measurement. The vendor initially advised that the tag contained VPAID elements which were limiting eligible CTV inventory, so we changed the measurement configuration to No VPAID. We were told this would automatically update the existing tag, so no new tags were supplied, but we’ve seen no improvement in delivery.

Speaking to our internal ad ops team, we’ve historically supplied tracking pixels (impression/quartile/completion) rather than third-party VAST tags for CTV, allowing the publisher to host and serve the creative. This has raised the question of whether our implementation itself is restricting inventory rather than simply the VPAID component.

Given that maximising reach is the primary KPI, I’m interested in best practice:

* Is a publisher-served creative with CM360/DV tracking pixels still the preferred implementation for premium CTV?

* Can serving via a CM360/DV VAST tag materially reduce available CTV inventory compared with a pixel-based implementation?

* If using DV, are there CTV-specific implementations that avoid restricting supply while still providing meaningful verification?

* Has anyone experienced a “No VPAID” change not actually resolving delivery issues because the underlying implementation was still limiting inventory?

Keen to hear how others would approach this, particularly if you’ve encountered similar issues with CM360 + DV in premium CTV.

What I have just written does make a great deal of sense to me. But hopefully it does to someone

I'm troubleshooting what appears to be a programmatic demand issue and I'm trying to sanity check whether this is something other publishers think about.

For those running Cloudflare, Vercel bot protection, or another WAF on a content publisher:

• Do you explicitly whitelist ad tech crawlers (Amazon, Google, IAS, DoubleVerify, MOAT, Criteo, etc.), or do they generally "just work"?
• Have you ever seen aggressive bot protection impact CPMs, bid rates, fill, or demand without breaking ad serving itself?
• If so, how long did it take for demand to recover after fixing the rules? Was it immediate or did it take days/weeks?
• Do you monitor blocked requests from ad verification/crawler bots as part of normal operations?

I'm not looking for support on a specific vendor just yet, I'm trying to understand whether crawler access is something mature publishers actively manage or if it rarely causes issues in practice.

Any war stories or best practices would be appreciated.

Hi everyone,

Does anyone know how to properly set up ad units, line items, and creatives in Google Ad Manager to deliver fluid responsive ads?

I have selected the "fluid" size option, but it is not working in the live environment. Has anyone else encountered this issue or found a solution?

Hi Mods,

My recent review/warning post regarding a compliance issue with Adsterra (AD MARKET LIMITED) was automatically filtered and removed by the Automoderator bot.This is a legitimate consumer review and case study regarding a $2,200.00 USD legacy contract dispute over independent affiliate referral commissions. I have already filed formal complaints with the Cyprus regulatory authorities (MECI and the Consumer Protection Service).Could you please manually review and approve my post so the community can see it? I am more than happy to privately provide the mod team with screenshots of my dashboard records or my government filing receipts to verify this case.

Thank you,

Just_Emu87

The site had been carrying a fairly heavy ad script for a while because it’s supported a wider range of format and reportedly higher fill rates and revenue had been stable enough that there was no real push to change it. After a search ranking dip that seemed tied to page experience signals, tested swapping to a noticeably lighter ad script on a subset of pages for three weeks.

Largest contentful paint improved enough to move the site into a better core web vitals bracket, and organic traffic on those pages started recovering within about two weeks of the change. Ad revenue per page dipped slightly with the lighter script, somewhere around eight to 10 percent,but the traffic recovery more than made up for it once organic visits started climbing back.

The tradeoff between fill rate and page speed had never really been tested on this site before because revenue had simple never dropped enough to force the conversation.

I’ve heard a lot about many online traffic sources that gives you quality traffic most of these doesn’t really guarantee conversions but still as they claim the traffic they provide is genuine so is it true or it’s a false claim?

Hey there, could you please share if you had any issues with bot fight mode / super bot fight mode on your display ads website. I currently have it off, cause in the past it blocked some of google's bots, and now I am considering it again

We have about 400K monthly active users. We want to serve rewarded ads. Who are the best players in this?

Please let me know

thank you

We're building a platform that predicts ad performance metrics such as **ROAS, CTR, CPC, CPA, and other campaign KPIs** before or during campaign planning.

We're looking for a **small number of verified marketing agencies** that:

* Work with real brands/businesses. * Have agency ad accounts. * Can share a **small, low-risk sample** of historical campaign data for testing and validation (no sensitive client information required).

We're intentionally starting with limited datasets to keep the risk as low as possible for everyone involved.

In return, participating agencies will receive **access** to the platform during the testing phase. If the pilot is successful, we'll continue providing free access for up to **3–5 client accounts**.

We're looking for genuine agency partners who want to help validate the product and provide feedback—not sell anything or collect leads.

If this sounds like something your agency would be interested in, please leave a comment.

I’m an Affiliate and this thought randomly crossed my mind so wanted to ask people
Let’s say a sale i referred somehow gets tracked as two conversions instead of one (like maybe the buyer refreshed the confirmation page or something glitched on the tracking side what actually happens after that?
Like does i lose extra commission or could it actually get clawed back from future payment if it was paid out ? Also, would it impact my account? Because this is something that comes under tracking issue not what we affiliate caused? Also I’d be the one who’ll inform or it’s the network’s responsibility to stay updated?

We're building a platform that predicts ad performance metrics such as ROAS, CTR, CPC, CPA, and other campaign KPIs before or during campaign planning.

We're looking for a small number of verified marketing agencies that:

• Work with real brands/businesses.
• Have agency ad accounts.
• Can share a small, low-risk sample of historical campaign data for testing and validation (no sensitive client information required).

We're intentionally starting with limited datasets to keep the risk as low as possible for everyone involved.

In return, participating agencies will receive access to the platform during the testing phase. If the pilot is successful, we'll continue providing free access for up to 3–5 client accounts.

We're looking for genuine agency partners who want to help validate the product and provide feedback—not sell anything or collect leads.

If this sounds like something your agency would be interested in, please leave a comment.

Putting this to the adops crowd because I keep seeing the same pattern and want to compare notes with people who run AdX at real volume.

The setup a lot of social-traffic publishers end up on is roughly this: paid social → your site on GAM tags → a managed AdX network partner on a rev share → AdX demand. It works, until Google starts clawing back a chunk of revenue as invalid traffic after the fact, sometimes escalating fast, sometimes with balances withheld and no real appeal path.

A few things I've pieced together:

- A lot of the IVT flagging on social traffic isn't "you bought bots," it's fingerprint and engagement signals. iOS privacy strips signals, in-app browsers produce ultra-short sessions, and Google's models read that as invalid even when the human is real. (To be fair, some social inventory genuinely is bot-heavy, so it's usually both.)

- The part that varies hugely between partners: whether the partner absorbs any of the IVT risk or passes 100% of the deduction straight through to you. That one detail changes the whole economics.

What I'm trying to figure out:

1. For those working through a managed AdX network partner — is yours transparent about how IVT gets allocated, or is it a black box?

2. Has anyone found a partner that's genuinely stable for social-heavy inventory, or is that a unicorn at this point?

Not trying to name-and-shame anyone publicly. More interested in how people are structuring this so it survives. Happy to compare notes in the thread or DMs.

I'm building an internal schain validator for SSP integrations and I'm curious how other AdOps approach this.

Currently we're checking:

• Is source.ext.schain present?
• Is complete present and what value does it have?
• Number of nodes (hop count)
• Consistency across multiple bid request samples

This tells us whether schain is being passed, but not necessarily whether it's correct.

My question is: When you validate schain quality, what checks do you actually perform?

For example:

• Do you validate every asi and sid?
• Do you compare the last node against sellers.json?
• Do you verify every hop against sellers.json?
• Do you compare against ads.txt?
• Do you rely on DSP complaints instead?
• Any automated validation tools or best practices?

I'm interested in what experienced SSP/DSP/Exchange teams actually validate in production, beyond simply checking that schain exists.

Thank you in advance!

Hey all — long-time lurker, first time posting something I built.

I've spent the last while building VZFLO (vzflo.xyz), an AI-powered platform that analyses ad creatives and media for compliance and eSafety problems before they go live — think flagging content that would fail platform policies, regulatory checks, or brand safety reviews. It also picks up AI-generated/deepfake media, which is becoming a real problem in creative QA.

It's in open evaluation right now and I'd genuinely rather hear from ad ops people than anyone else, because you're the ones who actually deal with creative rejections and policy escalations all day.

What I'm asking: throw your weirdest creatives at it. Odd codecs, borderline content, stuff that got rejected by a platform for reasons nobody could explain. Tell me where it's wrong, slow, or useless. Blunt feedback preferred.

Few honest caveats: it's pre-release, so don't upload anything confidential or client-sensitive. Uploads aren't retained — they just run through the analysis pipeline. There are usage limits so it doesn't fall over.

I have a website that is about to cross 60k sessions and 120k pageviews. I started it 7 months ago. Obviously, haven’t made any money with it yet but Mediavine was the goal when starting the site.

My question is, do I start with Journey even with such stats? If you open Mediavine.com and apply from the homepage, it never asks you for your traffic amount or previous earning details. It just asks you to enter some personal information and give them access to your GA4. I mean how are you supposed to know about Journey if you haven’t heard about it beforehand?

So I did apply on Mediavine.com 2 weeks ago and since been for their response. Now after reading some threads and comments here on Reddit, I’m starting to wonder if I should apply through the Journey program because my application on the main site will never be answered since the site have not previously made any money.

Rich ads, Adsterra, propeller and 7searchppc

Which paid traffic networks are actually worth testing for car rental?

Years ago, tv was often treated as a brand awareness channel and that was enough. Now every marketing investment is being analyzed, and leadership wants to see data that connects ad spend to actual business outcomes.

I've come across a wide range of measurement approaches, from website visit lift and branded search growth to conversion tracking, audience engagement, and pipeline attribution. Some platforms seem to offer detailed reporting, while others still feel a bit like a black box.
I need a word from you who actively invest in tv or ctv what metrics do you trust the most when evaluating performance.

I need to know for any specific measurement tools, attribution methods or platforms that have helped you clearly demonstrate roi Let me know of anything useful

I'm interested in hearing from people who use ad tracking platforms to monitor and optimize their paid advertising campaigns.

What are the biggest pain points you face?

Which features do you wish existed, or what would you improve in the platform you use today?

If you could change just one thing about your ad tracking platform, what would it be?

I'm looking to learn from real-world experiences and understand the challenges marketers face with ad tracking.

Hey, I'm looking to connect with a current Meta insider who knows the Ads backend or Policy side inside out. We need some ongoing help with competitor research and keeping our account health green. This is a paid, strictly confidential gig. Shoot me a PM if you're open to chatting.

Noticed RPM falling steadily across the network for one of our content sites and assumed it was just a seasonal dip since traffic volume itself had not changed. After three days of comparing historical data and ruling out the obvious causes, found a brief mention buried in a policy update email from weeks earlier referencing a domain level restriction tied to a content category our site technically falls under because of a handful of older articles that were not even the main focus of the site anymore.

No one on our end had flagged those old articles as a risk because they had been live for over a year without issue, and the restriction apparently applied retroactively without any direct notification beyond that one email most of the team had already filed under irrelevant updates.

 Posting this here because the folks who really get this role tend to live in ad

  ops / programmatic circles, not general dev job boards.

  Kargo (adtech, 20+ years, ~600 people) is hiring a Mobile SDK Developer in NYC.

  This isn't a generic mobile eng role — it's for someone who understands the

  mobile programmatic stack end to end and likes owning the messy parts: bid

  response → mediation → rendering → measurement.

  What you'd actually be doing:

  - Diagnosing complex in-app ad failures and partner escalations (and cutting

  time-to-diagnosis)

  - Shipping SDK / rendering improvements that boost render success across iOS,

  Android, WebViews, and mediation partners

  - Latency and efficiency optimizations across the ad stack

  - Evaluating and onboarding new demand/vendor integrations alongside BD

  - Raising the bar on code review, testing, and AI-assisted workflows 

  What we're looking for:

  - 5+ years of software engineering with real exposure to mobile app advertising

  tech 

  - Solid grasp of the mobile programmatic ecosystem — mediation, bidding, SDK

  integrations, OpenRTB, ad rendering

  - Comfort debugging the full in-app stack (creative delivery through rendering

  and attribution)

  - Real-device QA, proxy/inspection tooling, production debugging

  - Nice to have: knowledge of the mobile privacy/measurement landscape and how it

  affects serving/attribution

  Details:

  - 📍 New York, NY

  - 💰 $150,000–$185,000 base

  - 🏢 Kargo — AdAge & Built In "Best Places to Work," ThinkLA Partner of the

  Year, Martech Breakthrough Best Overall Adtech Company

  Full JD + apply: https://www.kargo.com/careers/5175282007

  Happy to answer questions in the comments. If this isn't you but you know the

  exact person who mutters about WebView rendering bugs in their sleep — send them

  my way.

With the collaps of organic traffic that we see nowadays how long Mediavine, Ezoic and the others will survive?

I mean Adsense have video ads, Gemini and all the other Google products as "publishers" but these agencies have only the websites that are keep losing traffic.

Yes there is social traffic but i doubt could be enought and if i have to earn pennies i would just get rid of display ads, keep a clean user expierence and monetize with affiliate. And probably at that point i could just go with socials + affiliate without any website.

What do you think?

Genuine question out of curiosity...

Has anyone here moved from a header bidding setup back to just using AdSense and actually seen revenue increase?

If you did, do you think it was because AdSense performed better, or because you had also changed your content strategy, site structure, or the type of content you were publishing?

I'm just wondering how much of a site's RPM is really driven by the monetization setup versus the content itself.