Those are the impressions that I get

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Those are the impressions that I get (September 21, 2026)

BY ROB BEELER

Thanks to everyone who appreciated last week’s opening, “Best Line to Add to Your Resume: I’m a Jerk,” especially those who pointed out how well qualified I am for the job. 🫠

Inspired by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones’ 1997 hit, this week’s subject line likely nods to the pop-up ad craze of that era. Yeah, I served some of those in my time. Wasn’t happy about it, but we needed the revenue. Seems things really haven’t changed. 

I’m just back from Barcelona, where I had the privilege of emceeing the Seedtag Summit. It was informative, fun, and great to meet so many people in the process. One thing that stuck with me was a neuroscientist they had speak who talked about “The opportunity,” which is where the magic starts: aligning context, audience, and advertiser message, all coming together. 

Here’s the thing: we need to create opportunities because there are fewer opportunities as traffic declines. The impressions that I get aren’t enough. How do we create opportunities?

This is the call to action to anyone interested in the future of online media. Ad Tech can do amazing things once an opportunity has been created. Sure, but where we need help is upstream. 

Have you ever been close to tragedy? Never had to knock on wood? Well, you know some companies that have. Your opportunity is to help create the opportunities we all live off.

Here’s what you need to know this week… 

  • And with that, Base.Camp La Jolla is officially sold out! If you’re registered for La Jolla, we can’t wait to see you in a few weeks. Keep an eye on your email for updates, as we prepare for California. If you missed out, don’t worry. We’re already making big plans for 2027, so stay tuned. We’ll be sharing what’s on the horizon soon.

  • ICYMI: The agenda for Base.Camp Madrid is live, and spots are running out to join us in Spain this November! We’ve got a lot to get into over three days: where AI is taking publishing, what’s changing across programmatic and direct, how publishers are piecing together new sources of revenue, and the practical reality of making all of it work. And when we’ve used enough of our brains for one day, Tuesday afternoon is officially spoken for. We’ve revealed this year’s activities, and yes, we have plans for you. If you want to attend Base.Camp Madrid, now is the time to let us know.

  • This Thursday, September 24 at 3 pm ET, we’re hosting another Camp.Fire: What’s in your morning report, and who actually reads it? Every rev ops team has a morning reporting or dashboard ritual. Between automated BI alerts, GAM dashboards, and client-side telemetry, daily reports can get bloated, making them hard to read or taking too long, or worse yet ignored by the people receiving them. We’ll come together to compare notes and talk about translating technical telemetry for non-technical executives. This is a publisher- and In View-only event.

Want to get caught up on everything we’ve published? Start here.

Here’s the latest…  

  • Winning the war on dark traffic with Ad-Shield (webinar replay)
    Our latest webinar, hosted by Rob Beeler, Ad-Shield’s Dustin Cha, and Yahoo’s Eric Espinoza, examined “dark traffic,” and how publishers can recover ad revenue from these missing visitors. Dark traffic describes visitors who consume content, but leave little usable data or revenue behind. Ad-Shield’s latest report estimates that they represent an average 18% of web traffic. What’s more, they found that 57% didn’t even choose to block ads, so remaining unseen isn’t necessarily a deliberate user choice. This conversation is for our exclusive publisher-only community. Please ask in the community for the password to watch this video.

  • 9 years of ads.txt and still no confidence it’s correct (Camp.Fire replay)
    When ads.txt arrived in 2017, publishers were handed a file format and told to get on with it. Sellers.json followed in 2019, SChain shortly after. Nine years on, very few publishers can say with any confidence that their setup is correct. James Strang of JS.Consulting opened our latest Camp.Fire by acknowledging this, and he has implemented sellers.json for five separate companies from day one. Part of the problem is that the same SSP will give you different answers about how its own lines should be handled, depending on who you happen to ask. This conversation is for our exclusive publisher-only community. Please ask in the community for the password to watch this video.

A full list of our 2026 events we’re involved in, all in one nice little package:

Join the Community!

Thousands of professionals, of all ages, worldwide turn to Beeler.Tech as their meeting place for all things publisher revenue operations. Join the Beeler.Tech Community here! Your teams and colleagues are welcome, too. 

Join the Women’s Space

Our Women’s Space continues to grow, and we’re developing a Code of Conduct for all Beeler.Tech events: something every attendee will agree to, and something we hope the wider industry adopts. The goal is simple: raise the bar on respect and professionalism for everyone. We have a Slack channel and a WhatsApp group. The WhatsApp chat is more active, but you’re welcome in either (or both) if you want to be part of the conversation.

Please reach out to Melissa if you would like to join one or both.

Looking for your next opportunity? Know someone else that is?

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Team.Beeler Out

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