Digital ad buying is a jungle—and Dan Pino brought a machete.
In our newest episode of The Forecast, I sit down with DSPolitical’s Dan Pino to talk through the chaotic world of campaign media buying. This conversation is a follow-up to our previous episode with Myles Bugbee, in which we sounded the alarm about digital ad waste.
Dan picks up where Myles left off—and walks us deeper into the weeds.
"We like to think of ourselves as another tool in the toolbox, not your one-stop shop. Collect your vendors like infinity stones—just make sure you know what each one actually does."
We talk:
🧠 Why campaigns still fall for bad vendors
📺 The real value of CTV (and what most get wrong)
🔍 The limits of microtargeting (yes, it’s still a problem)
💸 Who should be managing your multimillion-dollar buy (hint: not your 23-year-old cousin)
🧪 What an RCT revealed about where your ads are actually running
🧰 The strategic value of vendors—and why in-house isn't always better
“If you've got a good guide, you can get through it…even then, you're probably going to come up across some pretty wild, pretty weird stuff. And you got to know how to handle it.”