Talking Teamwork, Trust, and Transparency in the AI Age With Bidease’s Ross Barasch

In today’s app marketing landscape, demand-side platforms (DSPs) are indispensable partners for reaching and converting the right users at scale. However, maximizing the value of a DSP partnership requires more than just plugging in a budget and letting it run. It calls for transparency, collaboration, and a willingness to embrace new strategies and technologies. Ross Barasch, Vice President of Partnerships and Innovation at Bidease, recently shared his perspective on how marketers can better work with DSPs to drive growth.

‍

Watch the full interview below, or read on for a selection of key takeaways.

‍Key Takeaways

1. Break down silos and integrate your teams to harness AI’s full potential. Align your creative, media, and analytics teams so you can rapidly iterate with AI and optimize campaigns in real time.
2. Stop treating programmatic like a vending machine. Take an active role in your programmatic supply chain by working closely with your DSP, selecting quality inventory, and aligning creative with context.
3. Leverage contextual targeting to deliver the right message at the right moment. Use privacy-friendly signals like location, weather, or time of day to make your ads more relevant and engaging to users.
4. Demand transparency from partners as a non-negotiable to build trust. Insist on clear fraud controls and log-level data from DSPs so you can verify results, combat ad fraud, and invest with confidence.

Integrated Teams Make AI a Game Changer

One of the biggest opportunities for marketers today is using artificial intelligence to enhance campaigns, but it requires internal teamwork. Barasch believes that AI is transforming creative production and optimization, but creative designers, media buyers, and analysts need to operate in lockstep to deliver maximum value with it. As we found in The 2025 State of Mobile App Growth Survey, 74% of marketers are updating their creative at least bi-weekly. That can’t happen efficiently unless teams tear down silos and leverage AI to speed up testing cycles.

“AI is a game changer for everything from creative to optimization... We’re seeing the best results from folks who have creative, media buying, analytics — everybody — tightly integrated and aligned. I saw in the report that about three-quarters of marketers are updating creatives at least bi-weekly now…The production cycle from getting from zero to one and then iterating on it has never been as fast as it is now. Marketers can basically use AI to quickly create creative, use platforms like Bidease that have AI and ML under the hood to deliver the creative, then iterate and optimize.”

‍

‍

‍

‍

Examples of increased creative volume and AI testing having positive results are abundant in 2025. Cloud integration service Boomi used generative AI tools to generate over 75 new ad visuals, a 3× increase in creative production compared to their traditional campaigns. Combine that with a strategy like Joom’s, which used AI and machine learning to optimize its media buying to great effect, and you have a recipe for rapid growth.

Ready to dive deeper into the latest on app advertising? Download The 2025 State of Mobile App Growth Survey to explore the data behind these trends and more insights for app marketers.

‍

Treat Programmatic as a Strategy, Not a Vending Machine

Many advertisers still approach programmatic advertising with a “set it and forget it” mindset, as if outcomes will magically materialize by simply feeding money into a machine. Barasch argues that this mentality is outdated. Programmatic is a complex ecosystem that requires a strategic, hands-on approach. Treating your DSP as a collaborative partner and aligning on supply and creative strategy will drive far better outcomes than treating it as an ATM for installs or impressions.

“A lot of folks still treat [programmatic] like a vending machine where you put your money in and expect something to come out. That’s not how outcomes are determined… You have to understand how your DSP is optimizing against that supply. What fraud controls do you have in place? Where are your impressions landing… I think marketers need to collaborate more closely with DSPs so that supply, strategy, and marketing are tightly coordinated. And along those lines, creative has to do the same thing... You can’t just repurpose creative from one channel and bring it to another and expect it to work.”

‍

‍

‍

‍

Back in 2017, Procter & Gamble (P&G) famously discovered that a “hands-off” programmatic approach had led to its ads appearing on low-quality and unsafe sites. In response, P&G’s Chief Brand Officer Marc Pritchard publicly called out the digital ad industry for its lack of transparency, and he dramatically cut the number of websites P&G was advertising on, slashing its programmatic site list by nearly 70% in one quarter to focus on quality placements. This strategic pruning ultimately paid off. P&G reported no negative impact on sales after cutting $140 million in ad spend. Those who actively manage their programmatic supply chain achieve safer, more effective campaigns, so don’t be afraid to question your DSP about where your money is going.

‍

Use Contextual Targeting to Reach Users in the Right Moment

With user-level tracking becoming more restrictive in a privacy-centric world, contextual targeting has re-emerged as a powerful tool for marketers. Rather than relying on increasingly restrictive individual user profiles, a smarter approach is to layer data points such as geography and weather, which allows marketers to align their ads with the user’s current needs or mood, all while respecting privacy. Barasch says that in the past, it was impractical, but with today’s AI-driven creative tools, crafting tailored messages on the fly is easier than ever.

“In this privacy-centric world, contextual targeting is really important. For example, having an idea of a user’s location and layering on weather data is powerful. It’s cold right now in Michigan, and nobody wants to go outside. If I’m a food delivery guy, that’s a great time to target someone with soup. Using multiple datasets and layering what I know about users can lead to some creative messaging. Given the available tools to easily generate creative, you can launch campaigns quickly or have more targeted conversations with people based on these insights.”

‍

‍

‍

‍

Foodpanda has already implemented this style of weather-based targeting in its digital campaigns, noticing upticks in orders during certain weather patterns, especially rain. By integrating Yahoo Weather data, Foodpanda was able to change which ads it served in real time with the weather, resulting in a more personalized and timely appeal to viewers. Not only does this make advertising feel more relevant and helpful, but it also aligns with privacy norms by focusing on context rather than personal identity.

DSP Transparency and Trust Are Non-Negotiable

Successful marketer–DSP partnerships are built on trust, and trust hinges on transparency. In programmatic advertising, transparency means having clear insight into how your fraud detection partner defines and detects fraud, which sites your ads run on, and whether you can audit performance through raw data. As Barasch points out, if a DSP isn’t willing to share the details of what they’re seeing, like providing log-level data on impressions and attribution, marketers are left to wonder whether results are real or inflated.

“In the future, we’re going to use more AI, but at the end of the day, it all comes back to trust. And trust comes with transparency. Transparency in terms of: How is fraud defined? How is it detected? Once it’s identified and determined, are you going to give me log-level transparency in the data so I can look myself? The teams on the fraud side, the marketing side, and the DSP side that are most closely aligned are ultimately the ones that can quickly identify fraud and move past it. When that transparency isn’t provided…it always makes me second-guess. Is the partner finding fraud? Is it true fraud? It’s so hard to identify, but if you’re not willing to provide that level of transparency, how do I know I can trust you?”

‍

‍

‍

‍

A comprehensive 2023 study by the Association of National Advertisers used log-level data to map the programmatic supply chain, and the findings were eye-opening. The study revealed that, on average, only 36% of an advertiser’s programmatic spend results in ads that are valid, viewable, and non-fraudulent; the rest is lost to fees, non-viewable placements, or fraud. Without transparent data, it’s impossible to tell if your spend is meeting a similar fate. As marketers evaluate DSP partners, it’s paramount to look for those who willingly share data or third-party verification and who communicate their fraud detection methods clearly.

Learn More About App Growth

In 2025’s dynamic mobile app economy, marketers who actively partner with their DSPs will outperform those who set campaigns on autopilot. Success comes from a blend of human collaboration and technological savvy. Bringing your creative and media teams together to leverage AI can dramatically speed up your growth experiments. By following these principles, marketers can turn their DSP relationships into a true competitive advantage.

‍

If you’re eager to benchmark yourself against the latest trends and see where you can improve, download the 2025 State of Mobile App Growth Survey. The survey is packed with insights from app advertisers, from creative optimization habits to spend allocation and beyond. Use it as a roadmap alongside the lessons above. Get the report today.