Above the Fold: October 27, 2025

by

Above the Fold: October 27, 2025

BY ROB BEELER

Please note that this information is confidential and intended for the internal use of our partners only. The Above the Fold Report is an amalgamation of the discussions taking place within the Beeler.Tech universe. Much of what is presented is based on conversations held behind closed doors within the last week. The topics will range from the existential threats to publishers down to questions about how to use a specific feature in an ad server. We believe that if you are a publisher or someone who works with publishers, all of these provide opportunities to help or learn. The format of the report changes as the conversations change.

Quote of the week

  • Justin Wohl – Aditude “”stop thinking compliance and start thinking value exchange.” – I love this line. LinkedIn post. Article.

Community Feed

Events

I think this is the fastest event recap I’ve ever seen published Optable Connect 2025 Recap: From Infrastructure to Intelligence — What We Learned – I thought the badges being handed out was done well (okay, it was my son doing it, so I’m biased) and Nicholas Triveri killed it for his part – working with Bennett and Kseniia to deliver the event. Optable put together some great topics and couldn’t have nailed the timing any better on the heels of the AdCP announcements.

Google Ad Manager Interactive Reports

The community is abuzz about the deprecation of reports in favor of interactive reports in Google Ad Manager (Link). Overview of questions and concerns:

  • Many questions stem from the fear that Interactive Reports lack features or metrics that are currently critical in legacy reports.
  • Uncertainty about timelines, eligibility for migration, and network-based feature rollout (reach reporting, custom dimensions).
    The lack of multi-editor support is a major blocker for many teams.
  • Concerns about compatibility and whether API deprecation is coming.
  • Filters, exports, and confusing options are adding friction.

👉Publisher community members are invited to join us for a call to discuss Interactive Reports with Google in early November. Contact Support@beeler.tech for more information.

Human-Hallucinations-Only Summary of This Week’s Topics

In other words, this is manually compiled because we believe you deserve more than “good enough.”

  • Some discussion around the potential pitfalls of testing multiple wrapper companies. The key is to maintain direct relationships with your partners. For those who work with multiple sites, keeping the wrappers separate is considered best practice.
  • Selling YouTube inventory directly has come up again. Someone pointed to Brave Bison as a possible solution. The actual requirements for selling on YouTube are not publicly shared. 
  • Infinite scroll: only a few people weighed in, but said they had abandoned the approach for a number of reasons. 
  • AppHarbr: considered a good product, but technical issues have arisen across various operating systems and platforms, such as Nimbus. 
  • In-app revenue shortfalls have been reported since late September. Someone pointed to App Open for iOS and suspects an issue with optimized floors. They found that turning off optimized floors and setting a hard floor helped them recover some of their revenue. Others think there is a clear step-down in Google demand since mid-September. Bytedance has had a huge drop since tariffs were announced. 
  • IDFA discussed. A few people reported seeing opt-out rates between 74 and 78%.
  • Overall softness this past week in display.
  • AWS outage impacted reporting from many partners.
  • Viewability issues related to Prebid v10.9.0. The fix is in 10.11.0.

Programmatic Projects Post Base Camp

Several discussions we are working on with publishers and soon with our partners:

  • What information do we want from demand partners broken out by each ads.txt line?
  • Is it time to update the ads.txt standard?
  • Revenue by Ads.txt line: Who provides this data already?
  • How often do you evaluate partners and cut someone out?
  • Why is using content recommendation engines considered cheap reach?
  • How do you know if a demand partner is bringing unique demand?
  • What questions do you ask of existing partners to see they are aligned with your roadmap?
  • What DSP/agency prebid adapters exist, and is working with them directly a good idea?
  • Who are existing traffic shaping partners that publishers can work with?

Anyone?

Has anyone used NetSuite CRM for their ad sales business?

Have you noticed any positives from enabling OB direct? One of our bidders said we’d see a 20-30% increase in their spend if we enabled OB Direct.

When setting up preferred and private deals, do you typically rely on Google as your primary platform, or do you replicate deals across multiple SSPs

Has anyone signed up for the new Meta content monetization program?

Question for user tracking in IOS. Do you map ATT opt-out to a US privacy choice?

What typical % of IDFA opt-out/in do folks have?

Is anyone using explicit consent in the US without seeing the impact to their revenue? If so, what are you using? Or are most just using the GAM consent tool?

Does anyone use Kevel who would be interested in using them as a tech partner in Apple News?