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Curation Is Just Sell-Side Targeting. Here's Why That Matters.

The ad tech industry loves inventing new words for old concepts. "Curation" is the latest buzzword making the rounds. Even Google is jumping in.

Here's what it actually means: sell-side targeting. That's it.

But the implications are huge. And if you're a publisher or advertiser trying to make sense of this, you need to understand what's really happening beneath the jargon.

What Curation Actually Is


Strip away the marketing speak and curation is straightforward. It's how SSPs (supply-side platforms) bundle ad inventory with audience data, contextual signals, and supply chain verification—then sell those bundles to advertisers through deal IDs.

Think of it as a middle ground between open auction chaos and direct publisher deals. You get curated packages of impressions, but they're still sold in the open market. No preferential access. No special treatment.

The three pillars: audience data, contextual data, and supply chain integrity (no resellers, no made-for-arbitrage junk). Companies like Audigent and Infolinks specialize in putting these packages together.

Why This Is Different From DSP Targeting


Marketers have always used DSPs to target audiences. So why does curation matter?

Here's the thing: DSPs only see a fragment of the bidstream. Analyzing every impression is cost-prohibitive. They sample. They approximate.

SSPs hear everything. They see the full bidstream in real-time. That's a massive data advantage.

Chris Kane from Jounce Media put it well: "In their worst form, curators add another supply chain fee for simply loading a site list into an SSP. But in their best form, curators make run-time evaluations of audience, content and supply chain signals in novel ways that DSPs do not currently support."

The difference between those two outcomes? Execution.

The Power Shift Nobody's Talking About


Here's what makes curation interesting: it's moving targeting logic from the buy-side to the sell-side.

For years, DSPs owned targeting. That was their value proposition. But curation chips away at that dominance. If SSPs can target better—because they have more data—why do you need the DSP to do it?

Short term, curation actually helps DSPs by capturing demand they'd otherwise miss. Long term? DSPs risk becoming workflow tools instead of strategic partners.

Two factors accelerate this shift:

  1. The sell-side keeps aggregating more signals
  2. Third-party cookies are dying—and DSPs built their business on them

Why the Hype Now?


Follow the money. Magnite's curation revenue grew over 100% this year. Coca-Cola's head of programmatic called curation a "key focus" for their advertising. When brands that big start paying attention, the industry follows.

The cookie deprecation timeline keeps getting pushed, but everyone knows it's coming. Smart players are positioning now.

What This Means For Publishers


If you're a publisher, curation can be a revenue opportunity—but only if you're paying attention to who's curating your inventory and how.

Questions to ask your SSP partners:

  • Who's creating curated deals against my inventory?
  • What data are they layering on?
  • What's my revenue share?
  • Are they adding legitimate value or just extracting fees?

The good curators co-locate in data centers with SSPs and enrich bids in milliseconds. The bad ones just load a site list and take a cut.

Know the difference.

What This Means For Advertisers


Curation gives you access to premium inventory packages without negotiating direct deals with every publisher. That's the upside.

The downside: another layer in the supply chain means another fee. Make sure you're getting value—better targeting, verified supply, real performance improvement—not just a tax on your spend.

Work with curators who can show you the data. If they can't explain how their packages outperform open auction, walk away.

The Bottom Line


Curation is sell-side targeting dressed up in new clothes. It represents a real shift in where targeting happens and who controls it.

For publishers: it's an opportunity if you're strategic, a risk if you're passive.

For advertisers: it's a tool that can deliver value, but only if you hold your partners accountable.

The ad tech stack keeps getting more complex. The winners will be the ones who cut through the jargon and focus on outcomes.

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Related: If you're building ad tech infrastructure and want to simplify your stack, let's talk.