Episode 195: Scott Messer Answers the Question, Is There Crying in Ad Tech?

What the episode covered

Scott Messer said open-web publishers are seeing severe traffic pressure and need to police AI bots while preparing for changes in Google, Apple, and AI-agent commerce. The register was mixed, with candid operating examples alongside conference promotion and visible consulting, investing, and media stakes. Watch whether Google participates in Prebid Server, Safari blocking scales, and retailers keep blocking agents.

Our summary, written from the transcript. Not the speakers' words.

The episode, in order

1. 01Ad Tech Therapy setup

   The opening frames Messer's authority as operational and hands-on, not as a formal clinical therapist.

2. 02Open-web traffic decline

   Traffic loss is the main pressure behind the later discussion of loyalty, AI bots, licensing, and publisher strategy.

3. 03AI bots and publisher leverage

   The discussion treats bot control as a bargaining tactic, but also acknowledges that any one publisher is only a small part of the training ecosystem.

4. 04Google antitrust and Prebid

   If implemented, the order of auction control could change for publishers, but the recording leaves the key implementation path unsettled.

5. 05Safari blocking and Apple

   The issue matters because small adoption today could become larger revenue pressure if iOS uptake grows.

6. 06AI inventory and agentic commerce

   The caution is that AI ad markets may depend on unstable inventory sources and retailer cooperation that is not yet established.

Sponsors named in this episode

No sponsor named doesn't mean no ads. Each row was taken from the ad break as it was read on air. The verbatim passage behind every row is checked against the transcript character for character. Short excerpts appear below.

Roles and stated affiliations

Stated affiliation. Eric Franchi: Host and investor. He referred to investors, portfolio companies, the Imperium Summit, and said his firm looked at AI ad startups but did not invest.

Wakewire's read of interests

• Ari Paparo: Host of the podcast. He said he is speaking at DMS and attending the Imperium Summit.
• Scott Messer: Guest, founder of Messer Media, and co-founder of Ad Tech Therapy, which he described as a consulting practice.

Recording limits

• The transcript appears to have at least two missing transitions, including after “And now that there's a New York Times suing” and after Jana Maron's question to Scott Messer.

Claims that need more support

• Scott Messer said most open-web publishers are off at least 20 percent and probably 60 to 70 percent without naming the dataset or denominator.

Claims made on air that the episode itself did not back up.

Questions the conversation didn't reach

• The episode did not establish whether Google's required AdX integration would run through Prebid Server, Prebid JS, or both.

Topics the episode did not address. This does not mean anyone avoided them.

Are you from this show? You can ask for a correction, reply, or ask us to stop coverage on the rights page.

What was said

• Ad Tech Therapy setup

  Scott Messer described Ad Tech Therapy as consulting that fixes broken tech, people, teams, and process, and said one AdOps person cried during a session.

• Open-web traffic decline

  Messer said publisher questions have shifted from programmatic stack fixes to saving the whole business, with many publishers down materially on traffic.

• AI bots and publisher leverage

  Messer said publishers should police bots, consider allow lists, block important content from models, sue, and use public discourse to push LLMs toward licensing.

• Google antitrust and Prebid

  The hosts and Messer discussed AdX potentially bidding into Prebid, Prebid Server becoming a unified auction, and whether Google engineers will cooperate.

• Safari blocking and Apple

  The group discussed reporting that Safari's new blocking list reduced eCPMs by about 10 percent among updated users, while Ari Paparo argued Apple is not about to launch a DSP.

• AI inventory and agentic commerce

  Eric Franchi used Character.ai's Chapter 11 as a warning about inventory concentration, while the group said agentic commerce is still early and may matter more in the middle funnel than at checkout.

Our paraphrase, not the speakers' words.

The passages we relied on

Short excerpts, credited to the show, at most 40 words each and 150 per episode. We do not publish transcripts. We link to the episode so you can hear it from the show itself.

What to watch for

• AdX support appears through Prebid Server rather than only through a client-side Prebid JS adapter. (During the Google remedy implementation period discussed by the speakers.)
• Safari adoption rises and publishers report an eCPM effect materially beyond the roughly 1 percent total revenue effect discussed at 8 percent adoption. (As the iOS update rolls out further.)
• Character.ai inventory is shut down, sold, or materially reduced after the Chapter 11 process. (After the court-supervised sale process.)
• Major retailers keep blocking AI shopping agents rather than publishing agent-access terms or APIs. (As agentic commerce products seek retailer access.)