Turning Upper Funnel Strategy into Measurable Growth

If you've ever struggled to justify brand spend to a CMO or CEO — this episode is for you.Joe Shelerud is joined by Tony Miller, Director of Programmatic Strategy at Ad Advance (now powered by Podean), to break down one of their most powerful tools: Customer Avatar. Instead of relying on assumptions about who your customers are, Customer Avatar reverse-engineers your actual best buyers using Amazon's purchase data — and builds targeted, scalable audiences from there.Key takeaways:Why upper funnel advertising has historically felt like guesswork — and how to fix itHow Customer Avatar is built from real purchase behavior, not assumptionsThe Venn diagram approach to layering audiences for precision targetingHow to measure upper funnel success beyond ROAS (the metrics that actually tell the story)How Amazon Marketing Cloud unlocks path-to-conversion data to tie brand spend to revenueReal-world results: campaigns driving 68x ROAS, 81% new-to-brand customers, and page views as low as $0.11Plus: big news — The Ad Project is now powered by Podean, a global agency that expands the team's ability to support clients across creative, international markets, and more.Next episode: Co-founder of Podean, Mark Power, joins the pod.

In Episode 176, Maarja Hewitt and Tony Miller, Ad Advance's Director Programmatic Strategy, discuss Amazon DSP’s shift to the Open Internet with new partnerships from Roku, Disney, Netflix, and Spotify. Key takeaways include:One-Stop Shop: Amazon DSP expands to offer video and audio ads across the Open Internet.Unified Media: Solves fragmentation by offering better frequency control and measurement.New Opportunities: Roku, Disney, and Netflix partnerships unlock unique reach and global scaling.Audio Expansion: Platforms like Spotify and SiriusXM bring addressable, programmatic audio to DSP.2026 Outlook: A reset in media planning with unified reach and outcome-based strategies.Tony also shares his thoughts on how brands can adapt to this new DSP landscape.👉 Follow, subscribe, and connect with us on LinkedIn and at adadvance.com to catch future episodes.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2025 delivered big numbers, but not in the way many brands expected.In Black Friday & Cyber Monday 2025 Results: Shopper Trends & AI’s Impact, host Maarja Hewitt is joined by Ad Advance VP of Operations, Erik Swenson, to break down how the holiday shopping season really played out. They look at traffic, conversion, and sales trends, why the events felt softer even as total volume grew, and how an elongated deal season changed shopper behavior.They also dig into the growing role of AI in holiday shopping, from Amazon’s Rufus price tracking and deal guidance to third party AI shopping assistants that help consumers compare products and marketplaces in seconds.Key takeaways:Traffic was up, but conversions spread across more days instead of spiking on two eventsEarly deal cycles and “holiday all season” messaging softened the traditional Black Friday and Cyber Monday peaksAI made shoppers more price aware, more informed, and more comparison drivenBrands that ramped budgets early, refreshed creatives, and coordinated off Amazon channels saw stronger results2026 will reward earlier planning, stronger first party audiences, and clear value messagingA focused, practical breakdown for ecommerce and retail media teams planning their next Q4.👉 Follow, subscribe, and connect with us on LinkedIn and at adadvance.com to catch future episodes.

Recorded live at Amazon Ads unBoxed, Joe Shelerud talks with Meredith Goldman, Director of Media Enablement at Amazon Ads, about the newest innovations across DSP, AMC, AI-driven creative, and audience expansion.They explore how Creative Agent and Ads Agent are lowering barriers for advertisers, how advertisers can use AI without replacing human expertise, and how AMC is becoming the central hub for measurement and optimization across the full funnel.Key Takeaways:How Amazon is using AI to democratize advanced advertising toolsCreative Agent’s role in scaling personalized, high-performing creativeAds Agent’s natural-language recommendations for audience and campaign optimizationWhy Deal Builder will accelerate access to premium supplyHow AMC connects signals across sponsored ads and DSP for deeper measurementWhy human strategy + AI execution creates the strongest resultsWhat these updates mean for brands planning 2025–2026 retail media strategies👉 Follow, subscribe, and connect with us on LinkedIn and at adadvance.com to catch future episodes.

In Episode 173 of The Ad Project, Joe Shelerud continues the AI conversation with Ad Advance Software Engineer Roger Branham — expanding on how OpenAI’s Agentic Commerce Protocol could transform not just shopping, but advertising itself.They unpack:How ChatGPT and Gemini could evolve into major ad platformsWhat happens when generative AI gains deep insight into user behaviorThe tension between monetization and user trustThe future of pay-per-conversion models and hyper-personalized creativeHow these shifts could impact Amazon’s dominance in retail mediaAs AI transitions from tool to “agent,” Joe and Roger explore what the next era of digital advertising might look like — and how brands can prepare for it.👉 Follow, subscribe, and connect with us on LinkedIn and at adadvance.com to catch future episodes.

In this episode of The Ad Project, Joe Shelerud talks with Ad Advance Developer Roger Branham about how AI is disrupting eCommerce.They explore:ChatGPT’s new instant checkout and what it means for sellersHow the OpenAI x Stripe commerce protocol could reshape online transactionsWhy Walmart might adopt AI faster than AmazonHow data ownership, ads, and trust evolve in an AI-driven worldWhat smaller sellers should do to stay ahead of the next wave of online shoppingThis is a forward-looking, technical, and strategic discussion that every brand should hear as AI becomes part of the customer journey.👉 Follow, subscribe, and connect with us on LinkedIn and at adadvance.com to catch future episodes.

Live from Amazon Accelerate, Joe and Adobe’s David Devisser unpack the new Adobe Express integration with Amazon Ads. You will see how to discover policy-ready templates, connect your Creative Asset Library, run real-time checks, and export to the right specs in one flow. Key takeawaysYou can start from Amazon Ads templates inside Express, then customize quickly. Real-time policy checks and safe-zone guidance catch issues before export. Export automates spec fitting for video, including bitrate and frame rate, then saves back to your library. 👉 Follow, subscribe, and connect with us on LinkedIn and at adadvance.com to catch future episodes.

Episode 170 of The Ad Project was recorded at Amazon Live Studios in New York City, where Joe Shelerud sat down with Destaney Wishon (BTR Media) and Jennyfer Guone (Amazon Ads) to discuss the launch of Creative Studio, announced at Amazon Accelerate.What you’ll learn in this episode:How Creative Studio streamlines ad creation from concept to final video or image asset.Why AI + Amazon retail insights help brands produce more authentic, relevant creatives.Practical use cases for small businesses, mid-market brands, agencies, and enterprises.How advertisers can accelerate speed-to-market, scale creative production, and unlock personalization.👉 Follow, subscribe, and connect with us on LinkedIn and at adadvance.com to catch future episodes.

In this special episode, recorded live at Amazon Live’s NYC studios, Joe Shelerud sits down with Destaney Wishon of BTR Media to explore:The rapid evolution of the Amazon Ads ecosystemHow AMC unlocks new insights like path to purchase and ad type overlapWhy audience targeting + analytics are reshaping strategyPractical ways brands can prioritize AMC without feeling overwhelmedDestaney is the CEO of btr media - check her LinkedIn for updates, new features, and helpful videos!👉 Follow, subscribe, and connect with us on LinkedIn and at adadvance.com to catch future episodes.

In this episode of The Ad Project, Joe and Maarja discuss the latest Amazon Ads algorithm changes shaking up Sponsored ProductsKey takeaways:Auto campaigns now account for nearly 40% of impressions, with broad match also climbing.Exact match still drives the highest conversion rates (>20%), but its share is shrinking.CPCs are rising on broad (+20% YoY) while auto remains cheapest.Amazon is weighting “Loose Match” and “Substitutes” more heavily within auto targeting.Advertisers should balance discovery and efficiency: run auto/broad with strong negatives, harvest winners into exact/phrase, and monitor impression share shifts.Adapt your strategy now—the balance between efficiency engines (exact) and discovery engines (auto/broad) is the new reality of Amazon Ads.👉 Follow, subscribe, and connect with us on LinkedIn and at adadvance.com to catch future episodes.