u/Salty-Today-4830

Agency side running media for a handful of D2C and ecommerce accounts. Every time we scope a new platform the shortlist gets longer and less useful.

Mobile stopped being its own category a while ago. The big omnichannel platforms all cover in app, mobile web, display, video and CTV, and mostly they do what they say. The mobile first ones sit closer to app installs and post install events. On paper the difference is clear. In a pitch deck it isn't.
Our current process is to define the use case before looking at any vendor, so app UA and retargeting go down one path and CTV plus omni channel go down another. That beats hunting for a master list, since platforms merge or get shut down constantly and plenty of them are region-locked or enterprise-only.
Measurement breaks the comparison though. Two platforms can both claim CTV support, one gives placement-level reporting you can act on mid-flight and the other gives a monthly impression summary. That gap matters more than the inventory list and it never comes up until you're already spending.

So what filter are people using at shortlist stage?

I am new in this industry and I keep hearing the term vanity metrics in marketing podcasts and Linkedin posts and I think I understand the basic idea but I'm not sure what exactly it is or where I can use it.

At work we've mostly been reporting things like impressions, clicks, video views, engagement, and reach. Those numbers always look great in our weekly updates but when it comes to customers that campaigns generate, none of those metrics seem that useful

I am not sure if we've been focusing on vanity metrics without realizing it.

I want to be able to decide on the metrics that actually matter.

I'd love to find something with good attribution and reporting instead of just a bunch of nice charts.

In our company we've been putting more budget and effort into ctv lately but I need to find a platform with really strong targeting and not just broad audience segments.

I'm mainly looking for something that lets us get pretty specific with who we're reaching without requiring a huge enterprise budget.

Anyone that has used  a platform they've had good results with feel free to share it?

Before discovering your favorite hobby, what did you usually do in your spare time?

Has it changed how you spend your evenings or weekends? How?

We have been running some research into ctv platforms lately, and StackAdapt is one of the names that comes up almost every time. It seems powerful, but I'm curious what other options b2b marketers are using and how they compare in practice.

What we're looking for is a platform that makes it easy to launch campaigns.The ability to connect campaigns back to website activity, account engagement, or pipeline is becoming increasingly important for us.

I've looked at a few alternatives, and they all seem to position themselves differently. Some focus on ease of use, some emphasize audience targeting, while others lean heavily into measurement and attribution.

I need to get a real picture vision.

we've been looking at ctv as part of our marketing mix and I'm curious which platforms other b2b teams are actually using successfully There are plenty of articles ranking platforms, but most of them read like sponsored lists.

What I'm more interested in is hearing from marketers who have put real budget behind it and can speak to what worked and what didn't?

I've been researching ctv platforms lately for the team i am in and i see that almost every vendor is pushing some kind of ai powered optimization. They have better targeting, smarter bidding, automated audience discovery, predictive reporting you name it.

The challenge here is figuring out which of these features actually make a difference in daily campaign management. We're a relatively lean marketing team, so anything that reduces manual work while helping us reach the right business audiences is interesting.

What I'm trying to understand is whether anyone has seen meaningful results from these ai capabilities like did they help improve campaign efficiency, audience quality, or reporting Trying to separate genuinely useful tools from the marketing hype.

I am running ads for a DTC brand and Meta is still bringing in sales, but it feels like were hitting a ceiling.

Every time we try to scale, CPMs jump, frequency gets weird, and the same people keep seeing the same creatives over and over. The campaigns aren't dead, but they are not really growing either.

We have tested new hooks, new UGC, new landing pages, new offers, all the usual stuff. It helps a bit, but then we end up back in the same spot. Feels like were fighting for attention in the same crowded feed as every other brand.

Has anyone here added another paid channel once Meta started feeling capped? Ive been looking at CTV and streaming TV ads, but i am not sure if it makes sense for a smaller DTC brand or if its more of a big brand awareness thing.

I have been interested in crypto trading for a while, but one thing that's holding me back is the amount of capital it seems to take to generate meaningful returns.

from what i have seen, even if you're doing reasonably well, a small account can take a very long time to grow into something substantial.

For people who have already gone through the learning curve, how did you start crypto trading without taking on excessive risk or putting too much of your own money on the line?

I recently tried picking up a new hobby and honestly underestimated how much skill and patience it takes. At first it looked simple watching videos, reading guides, etc. but actually doing it is a completely different story.

Now I’m curious:

• What hobby humbled you the most when you started?
• Did you stick with it or drop it?
• What kept you going (or made you quit)?

Would love to hear real experiences from people here...