Shows / The Yield Doctor with James Deaker
Episodes
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerWhat 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…
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerThe 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…
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerWhat 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…
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerBonus 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…
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerWhat 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…
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerWhy 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…
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerFTC 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…
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerLeadershipIn 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…
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerFast 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…
The Yield Doctor with James Deaker3 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…
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerAdTech 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…
The Yield Doctor with James Deaker3 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…
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerInventory Forecasting Made Easy: 5 Rules for Digital Publishers
Predicting digital ad inventory shouldn't feel like guessing the future. In this video, we break down the key concepts of inventory forecasting and give you…
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerDigital Advertising needs AI Guardrails
AI is rapidly reshaping digital advertising — but the biggest risk may not be what most people are talking about. In this presentation from Programmatic.AI in…
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerMonica Khan on the Creator Economy
The creator economy is booming — but most creators still struggle to build durable businesses. In this episode, Monica Khan (Founder & CEO of Creator…
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerBeyond the Price List: Most Media Rate Cards Leak Revenue
Description Most media companies think a rate card is just a price list. That’s wrong—and it’s one of the main reasons they quietly leak revenue. In this…
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerMaximum Yield: Kiri Masters on Growing Your Retail Media Bottom Line
Is your Retail Media Network actually generating new revenue, or just shifting trade spend around? In this episode, James Deaker (The Yield Doctor) sits down…
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerWhat Is dCPM in Digital Advertising? (Simple Explanation)
What is dCPM—and why does it confuse so many people in digital advertising? In this video, I break down what dCPM (dynamic CPM) actually means, how it evolved…
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerSales Incentives Should Align to Profit… Except When They Shouldn’t
Most sales compensation plans are designed to drive revenue. But what if they’re quietly destroying profit? In this video, I break down a common but overlooked…
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerRate Card Update - The Heartbeat of Your Pricing Strategy (And Why It Matters)
If your rate card only changes once a year, you don’t have a pricing strategy — you have a pricing ritual. In this video, I introduce the concept of the…
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerThe Hidden Cost of Custom Rate Cards
Most publishers think custom rate cards are a necessary part of doing business. A large client asks for special pricing… Sales pushes for flexibility… and…
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerPricing has no power
Most pricing teams aren’t failing because they’re bad at pricing. They’re failing because they’re set up to fail. In this video, I break down one of the most…
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerWhy Revenue Can Fall Even When Every Product Raises Prices
In digital media, one of the strangest meetings you can be called into as a revenue or yield leader is this: Every product team reports that price realization…
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerRampUp 2026: Three Signals About Where AI in Advertising Is Really Heading
I recently attended RampUp 2026, LiveRamp’s annual conference, where AI dominated almost every session and conversation. But what struck me most wasn’t the…
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerAI Won’t Fix Bad Data — Identity Resolution & Enrichment Drive Revenue (Brian Silver)
AI is everywhere in digital advertising right now. But as Brian Silver (EVP, Global Marketing Solutions at TransUnion) makes clear in this conversation — AI…
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerStronger Data Controls Let Companies Move Faster
Most executives assume stronger data controls, privacy processes, and governance frameworks slow a business down. In practice, the opposite is often true. In…
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerBad Ads are Good Signals
Bad ads are rarely the real problem. They’re symptoms. Symptoms of weak incentives, poor decision-making, or ad operations teams stuck firefighting instead of…
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerThree Ways Publishers Go Programmatic (And Why Most Get It Wrong)
Most publishers don’t struggle with programmatic because of bad technology — they struggle because they never decided what programmatic is for. In this video…
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerRetail Media Networks Grow in Predictable Stages — and Each One Has a Trap
Retail Media Networks (RMNs) don’t grow in a straight line. In this video, I break down the predictable stages of growth that every Retail Media Network goes…
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerRetail vs Commerce Media Networks: Growth, Data & AI with Danilo Tauro
Every publisher wants a bigger slice of ad revenue. In retail, that only happens if you can prove ads drive incremental sales, not just clicks. In this…
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerDynamic Pricing - An abused technique
Dynamic pricing is one of the most overrated tactics in programmatic yield management—not because it doesn’t work, but because most teams try it far too early…
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerAI in Ad Tech - Evolution vs. Revolution
AI isn’t sweeping through digital media in one big wave. It’s reshaping ad operations in three very different ways — evolutionary changes, true revolutions…
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerFrom Zero to One: How Lyft Built Its Advertising Business with Shane Dwyer
Rarely do you get to hear from someone who built an entire advertising business from the ground up — inside a company that wasn’t even known for ads. In this…
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerYield Book - 4 Lessons
What can yield analysts really take away from Ari Paparo’s new book Yield? This isn’t a book review — it’s about the gold inside the book that every pricing or…
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerAirlines Mastered Yield. Why Can’t Digital Ads?
Why is yield management so much harder in digital advertising than in airlines or hotels? In this video, I break down why pricing and yield management in…
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerBook Review: Yield by Ari Paparo
In this video, I review Ari Paparo’s new book Yield: How Google Bought, Built, and Bullied Its Way to Advertising Dominance. As “The Yield Doctor,” I’ll share…
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerBlind and Transparent Ad Networks
Some of the biggest names in digital media still run blind ad networks—and advertisers keep buying. But why? In this video, I break down the differences…
The Yield Doctor with James Deaker2025 Lower Price Floors YT
Ad tech vendors often warn publishers: “Don’t lower your price floors.” But what if that advice is holding you back from seeing your true demand curve? In this…
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerCherry Picking in Ad Tech: What It Is and How to Protect Your Inventory
When publishers move to programmatic, one of the biggest fears is losing control. Will buyers cherry pick your best inventory and leave you with the scraps?…
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerGoldilocks Metrics: Avoiding the Deal Desk Optimization Mistake
What makes a deal desk truly successful? Faster approvals? Higher margins? Fewer escalations? Be careful—optimizing for the wrong metric can backfire. In this…
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerThe Discounting Trap: How Pulling Demand Forward Breaks Your Business
The Perils of Predictable Discounting | Yield Story with The Yield Doctor In this Yield Story, James Deaker (The Yield Doctor) shares a cautionary tale about…
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerLauren Weinberg - CMO Scorecard
What Do CMOs Really Care About? | A Candid Conversation with Lauren Weinberg What does a CMO actually look for in a media partner? And what publisher metrics…
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerWhat Happened to Publisher Pricing Software?
Why don’t publishers have good pricing software anymore? Back in 2007, Yahoo, AOL, and Microsoft used a tool called Rapt to optimize rate cards in real time…
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerHow AI Is Actually Changing Ad Operations — with Nagarajan Chakravarthy
There’s a lot of hype around AI in ad tech — but where is it really having an impact today? In this episode, I speak with Nagarajan Chakravarthy, Chief Digital…
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerMeta Goes All-In on AI Ads: What It Means for Advertisers & Agencies
Meta Goes All-In on AI Ads: What It Means for Advertisers & Agencies Meta just announced plans to fully integrate AI into its advertising platform by the end…
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerHow AI Is Reshaping Digital Advertising – A Deep Dive with Alanna Laforet
In this episode of The Yield Doctor, James Deaker sits down with Alanna Laforet—CEO of Laforet Productions and former head of the IAB Tech Lab—to unpack where…
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerAlex Roucourt on Adverting Uplift
Alex Roucourt discusses the challenges to effective advertising measurement in a post-cookie environment and offers solutions to address these challenges
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerShiv Gupta Earnings May 2025
Shiv Gupta from the U of Digital breaks down the trends from the Q1 Earnings cycle in Digital Advertising and Ad Tech
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerYield Stories - Sell Out The Homepage!
A short story on the problems with setting a "sell-through" goal for a website and what should be done instead to maximize revenue through good Yield Management
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerHouse Ads Explained
Publishers struggle with when and how to run their own ads ("House Ads"). This video outlines the best approach to run House Ads for maximum efficiency
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerYield Stories Get Price Up
A short story about a lesson-learned in Yield Management - when increasing Price Realization was the wrong goal
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerYield Stories: The Wrong House Ads
Short story on Yield Management in Digital Advertising - An example of problems from running House ads in the wrong way
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerNate McCoy Building Ad Tech
Nate McCoy shares lessons learned from 30 years of software development in Ad Tech
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerRandall Rothenberg Interview
Discussion with Randall Rothenberg on the current fragmentation of the publisher value chain and historical parallels
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerYield Stories: Peter Naylor - The Chicken Story
Peter Naylor shares a short story about the importance of running effective advertising campaigns and chickens being sent to the slaughter
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerJoAnna Full Interview with James Deaker
JoAnna Foyle discusses opportunities for different revenue streams for small publishers and creators
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerMatt Gay Interview - Ad Operations driving Yield improvements
Matt Gay, expert in Ad Operations, discusses tactics to improve your ad revenue as a publisher and campaign effectiveness as an advertiser #yieldmanagement…
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerYield Stories - Rate Card Updates
Lessons learned about Yield Management related to a Rate Card update for a New York publisher
The Yield Doctor with James DeakerPeter Naylor Maximizing Video Advertising
Peter Naylor, former Sales Leader at Hulu, Netflix and Snap discusses different video advertising strategies. Different types of video advertising. How video…