Programmatic advertising services

Why programmatic programs often underperform

Programmatic gets added to media plans because it looks efficient on a CPM basis, but low CPMs are not a success metric. What matters is whether those impressions are reaching the right audiences and driving measurable business outcomes. Without proper brand safety controls, programmatic budgets regularly fund low-quality inventory that inflates reported reach.

Attribution for programmatic is structurally unreliable. View-through conversions claim credit for users who would have converted anyway, and without incrementality testing it's impossible to know what programmatic is actually contributing versus claiming.

Programmatic and paid social are managed in silos, creating audience overlap, frequency issues, and inconsistent messaging, while remarketing lists get built and forgotten, accumulating ad fatigue until performance falls off.

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Our approach to programmatic

Every program runs on a single integrated system where measurement informs creative, creative informs media, and media decisions are validated by data. The result is a cycle of learning that compounds over time, not a set of disconnected tactics that reset every quarter.

Brand safety

Brand safety and media quality managed as a foundation, not an afterthought. Exclusion lists, domain controls, viewability standards, and supply path curation are actively maintained so programmatic budget never funds inventory that damages brand perception or inflates reach numbers.

Remarketing

Remarketing built as a system with audiences segmented by funnel stage, recency, and product interaction. Creative rotated on a documented cadence so ad fatigue is caught before performance drops, with cross-channel frequency managed across programmatic, paid social, and search to keep messaging consistent.

Incrementality testing

Incrementality testing used to challenge view-through attribution so programmatic contribution is measured against real business outcomes, with CTV planned as an upper-funnel complement to digital with objectives tied to downstream search and conversion behavior.

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How we've helped brands like yours

From proving which channels really drive sales to creative that beats in-house ads, here's what we delivered.

112%

investment increase into more incremental platform

Testing strategic geo-holdouts to find true channel performance

+395%

Quality Petition Growth

Supporting successful petition campaigns during key global moments.

43x

Paid Revenue Growth

Simple solutions to complex challenges.

+71%

CTR vs Notion BAU Ads

The all-in-one workspace for every team.

40x

Volume of Leads

Student loan refinancing, on your terms.

-65%

Cost per Subscription

Together, we can end the water crisis.

+140%

YOY Trial Volume

Do more than automate your email - Activate your entire customer experience.

+191%

YoY Revenue From Paid

Driving ecommerce scale through robust data integrations, iterative testing, channel exploration and creative optimization

+102%

Paid High-Value Signups

Where there's Asana there's a way.

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“Thrive worked hand-in-hand with our in-house team to craft a bold strategic vision for our digital marketing program, and then ensured that every detail and dollar was accounted for in our campaigns. Asana's acquisition program is more effective thanks to our partnership and co-creation with Thrive.”

Read the Asana case study

“Thrive has been a key partner for helping Smith transform from a traditional wholesale business to a digitally minded consumer-first brand. Helping us acquire new customers for all our channels. They move fast and are extremely proactive”

Read the Smith Optics case study

“The team at Thrive Digital is great to work with. They are diligent, strategic and deeply focused on the details. Thrive is a rare breed among digital marketing agencies.”

Read the Earnest case study

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What is programmatic advertising and how does it work?

Programmatic advertising uses automated technology to buy and serve digital ad inventory across display, video, audio, native, and connected TV in real time. Advertisers set targeting parameters and bids and the system finds the right audiences across thousands of publisher sites and apps. Thrive manages this through DSPs including The Trade Desk and DV360.

Explore media buying

What is the difference between programmatic display and paid social?

Paid social runs on closed platforms like Meta, LinkedIn, and TikTok using first-party data from those networks. Programmatic runs across the open web and app ecosystem, reaching audiences beyond social platforms. The two complement each other and Thrive manages frequency and messaging across both to avoid overlap.

Explore paid social

How does Thrive approach brand safety in programmatic campaigns?

With active management. Exclusion lists are built from day one and updated continuously. Supply path curation through private marketplace deals prioritizes quality inventory. Viewability standards are enforced and domain-level reporting is reviewed regularly so any issues are caught and addressed quickly.

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How do you measure the impact of programmatic advertising?

Through incrementality testing, geo-holdout experiments that measure the difference in total business outcomes between markets that received programmatic campaigns and those that didn't. This challenges view-through attribution, which consistently overclaims programmatic's contribution.

Explore incrementality testing

What is connected TV advertising (CTV) and how does it fit into a media plan?

CTV reaches streaming audiences on televisions through programmatic buying, more targetable than linear TV and more measurable than traditional broadcast. Thrive plans CTV as an upper-funnel complement to digital channels with success metrics tied to downstream search and conversion behavior.

Explore linear TV

When should a brand invest in programmatic?

When core channels have been established and there's audience and budget to extend reach beyond those platforms. The decision to scale programmatic investment should be validated with incrementality testing before budget commits.

Explore media planning

Media Buying & Strategy

Measurement & Analytics

Creative

Programmatic advertising that reaches the right audiences and proves it

Why programmatic programs often underperform

Our approach to programmatic

Brand safety

Remarketing

Incrementality testing

How we've helped brands like yours

investment increase into more incremental platform

Quality Petition Growth

Paid Revenue Growth

CTR vs Notion BAU Ads

Volume of Leads

Cost per Subscription

YOY Trial Volume

YoY Revenue From Paid

Paid High-Value Signups

Paid High Value Signups

Engagement Rate

YoY Paid Revenue

Paid Revenue Growth

Cost Per Donation

Lead Volume

Thrive empowers companies big and small to build sustainable growth programs.

“Thrive has been a key partner for helping Smith transform from a traditional wholesale business to a digitally minded consumer-first brand. Helping us acquire new customers for all our channels. They move fast and are extremely proactive”

Related Services

Paid Social

Brand Media

Media Planning

What is programmatic advertising and how does it work?

What is the difference between programmatic display and paid social?

How does Thrive approach brand safety in programmatic campaigns?

How do you measure the impact of programmatic advertising?

What is connected TV advertising (CTV) and how does it fit into a media plan?

When should a brand invest in programmatic?

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