Programmatic Media Today—Current Obstacles and Opportunities
With Programmatic Media and Ad Tech Expert, Christoph Bakke
Christoph Bakke draws from his lengthy experience in programmatic trading and consulting to give a current state look at programmatic media and advertising.
How did you originally get into programmatic media and ad tech, and what about it kept you interested long‑term?
I started my career at a small education publisher working in ad operations. At the time they had a very valuable audience (graduating high school seniors) and they were monetizing them via affiliate links only. I introduced them to display ads that would eventually go on to monetize their traffic and content on every page. That job was fun because I was able to teach myself DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) and Google Ad Exchange (AdX) and learn the nuts and bolts of programmatic as a practitioner. From the viewpoint of a publisher I saw that there was a whole internet full of diverse audiences that could be monetized, and I started looking to get into adtech to further my technical abilities.
This is around the time when programmatic saw explosive growth. It was so easy to find work and I found the work to be extremely fulfilling to both my analytic and creative side.
I loved managing campaigns, executing strategies, and soaking up all the ins and outs of digital media.
I’m aging myself here, but this was all before the rise of video, social, connected TV, and walled gardens. The open web was full of potential and endless demand. I wanted my career to shape how brands show up in this new digital environment, and programmatic provided the keys to the castle.
After several years honing my skills in adtech, I decided to work agency side. I joined the largest, most influential agencies and watched my career take off. Working for the world’s largest holding companies was both exhilarating and exhausting. I was happy with the caliber of work, but dissatisfied with the dysfunction of large agencies. Eventually burnout and toxic environments got the best of me and I pivoted to independent shops.
So far I am loving the challenge of working with smaller advertisers who value every penny that is invested in digital. It makes me feel like all of the experience and hard work under my belt has paid off, and I can really help these advertisers get the most out of their ad budgets.
How do you help clients understand the “big picture” of programmatic and what it can and can’t achieve for them?
First and foremost, I teach that programmatic is not a channel. It’s a buying method for nearly all digital media.
Second, programmatic is most powerful when paired with strong creative, relevant audiences, quality placements, and good timing.
On its own, it’s just infrastructure.
Media can accelerate outcomes, but it can’t fix structural marketing problems. If the pipeline is broken, the smartest thing you can do is stop pretending targeting will solve it.
What do you do when the fundamental problem isn’t a client’s programmatic setup, but a broken pipeline or misaligned marketing campaigns?
That’s more common than people think.
Often the issue isn’t media at all. It’s bad positioning, unclear measurement priorities, weak creative, or a funnel that assumes customers behave rationally when they don’t. In those cases, optimizing programmatic just makes inefficiency look more precise.
When that happens, I move the conversation upstream. Media can accelerate outcomes, but it can’t fix structural marketing problems. If the pipeline is broken, the smartest thing you can do is stop pretending targeting will solve it.
With the rise of CTV, audio, and connected‑TV inventory, how is programmatic changing outside of just display and search?
Programmatic is moving closer to direct insertion order (IO) again but with better control. CTV, streaming audio, and digital out of home (DOOH) are shared-moment environments. They behave more like television than banners. The opportunity isn’t hyper-targeting individuals. It’s aligning media with context, timing, and cultural relevance. The biggest shift happening right now is that planners are rediscovering that where an ad appears often matters more than who sees it.
What’s your take on the “cookie‑less” future: is it an overhyped crisis, an opportunity, or both?
It’s mostly a narrative problem.
Advertising worked for decades without persistent identity across the open web. What cookies provided was convenience, not necessity. The real transition underway isn’t toward better identity; it’s toward less dependence on identity altogether.
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In your view, what’s the most under‑discussed risk or downside of programmatic buying that buyers tend to ignore?
They over-value first-party data. Unless a company has tens of millions of customers, most first-party datasets are too small to meaningfully shape open web targeting. What usually follows is a shift into probabilistic lookalikes built on opaque models and shaky consent signals. First-party data is extremely valuable for measurement, sequencing, and suppression. But it’s often misunderstood as a scalable acquisition engine when it isn’t.
AI will increasingly handle campaign structure, pacing, bid strategy, and even inventory selection. What won’t be automated is deciding where attention is forming next or how media should support business strategy
How do you see the role of AI and machine‑learning evolving in programmatic over the next three to five years?
Execution is getting cheaper, which means that judgment and strategy is getting more valuable.
I think there’s still a huge gap in understanding where AI can provide value versus experienced media buyers. AI will increasingly handle campaign structure, pacing, bid strategy, and even inventory selection. What won’t be automated is deciding where attention is forming next or how media should support business strategy
If someone is starting a career in programmatic advertising, what’s a commonplace piece of advice that they’re better off ignoring?
In the age of AI, I think it’s safe to say that you don’t need to learn every platform. Execution is being commoditized via LLMs, agents, etc. Platforms change constantly. What doesn’t change is how attention works. The people who advance fastest in programmatic are the ones who understand media consumption behavior across environments.
If you can explain why a placement matters you’ll always be valuable.
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About Christoph Bakke
Christoph Bakke has spent his career working in programmatic media, helping brands understand what it actually does, what it doesn’t do, and where it creates real advantage. Today he runs the programmatic trading desk at Allied Global Marketing. In his spare time he’s active on social media, advising marketing leaders on how to make smarter media decisions in an AI-driven world. His focus is simple: better outcomes come from better thinking about audience, inventory, and creative.