Marketecture Episode 156: “Does Quality Really Matter? Erez Levin Weighs In”

Released January 16, 2026 Host: Ari Paparo
Co-host: Eric Franchi
Guest: Erez Levin (“media futurist,” ex-Google)

Episode Overview

The central theme of this episode is the meaning and importance of “quality” in digital advertising, especially within open web and programmatic ad environments. Ari and Eric interview Erez Levin—who self-identifies as a “media futurist” and is a prominent voice on advertising effectiveness—to dig deep into how marketers understand and value quality, why poor quality persists, changes in online video definitions, and how emerging AI technologies and protocols might disrupt or improve buying practices.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Why “Quality” Matters in Advertising

• Erez’s Passion for Quality
  Erez describes himself as a lifelong marketer disillusioned by how wasteful and ineffective much ad spend remains, and is deeply concerned about the broader implications of this:

  “I think just from the business sense, as I look to what marketers do and how they spend their money, I think it's very ineffective, it's very wasteful, and it has been increasingly so over a long period of time... What's the implications of their dollars going towards lower quality, ineffective media instead of higher quality media? And that has a lot of sort of societal implications that I think are socially destructive.” – Erez Levin [06:31]

• Societal Fallout
  Misallocation of ad spend to low-quality sites supports the “enshitification of the web,” big tech monopolization, and the decline of independent journalism.
• Hosts’ Joking Self-Descriptions

  “If he's a media futurist, what are we?” – Ari Paparo [02:33]
  “I am a media past historian. I'm a dinosaur.” – Eric Franchi [02:45]

2. Defining Quality, and Why It’s So Elusive

• Quality is Multi-dimensional

  “Not all impressions are created equal... ultimately quality is really defined through the lens of effectiveness over most of the time, the short and the long term, not just sort of the short term.” – Erez Levin [08:17]

• Short-term vs. Long-term Outcomes
  Erez argues that too much focus is placed on short-term, easily measured outcomes (clicks, 7/30 day attribution), neglecting longer-term effects like brand awareness and “mental availability.”

• Quality as Outcomes

  “Quality absolutely is only defined via outcomes. So they're not detached from each other... usually advertising has an impact in the short and the long term…you have to think about the quality of the media and be able to measure the impact in both the short and the long term across all of these people that you're going to reach.” – Erez [09:17]

• Effectiveness for Who?
  Sometimes, “low-quality” sites can be effective at generating purchases for certain brands or objectives, but for major brands, long-term presence matters for being in the “initial consideration set.”

3. Video Advertising: The “In-Stream” vs. “Outstream” Battle

• Ambiguity of 'In-Stream' Definition
  Erez describes how legacy definitions allowed questionable inventory (“small little video ads, muted ads”) to pose as premium “in-stream” and command higher CPMs:

  “The problem was that the definition for in stream was vague enough... all the small little video players that play in the bottom corner as long as they could play, yeah, it's outstream but as long as you could play a Video in between in that stream... you could call it in stream. And that's what everyone did.” – Erez [12:38]

• IAB’s Intervention
  After Erez and others pushed, the IAB required “in-stream” video to have sound-on, which curbed but did not eliminate abuses.
• Market Reaction
  This definitional tightening led to struggles/mergers among key online video vendors—e.g., Kinetics, JW, Teads, Outbrain, and Tremor.
• The Value of Outstream Video
  Not all “outstream” is bad; it depends on the use case and fair pricing. Explicit user trade-offs (like interstitials for free Wi-Fi, or rewarded ads in games) can be viable:

  “Absolutely [outstream is viable], at the right price...there are certain use cases that make a lot of sense for a focus on outcomes where quality isn’t as important.” – Erez [15:38], [16:37]

4. Top Quality Issues in 2026 Digital Advertising

• Current Quality Problems

  “Most of the issues in the industry are all quality problems, like the SPO and curation and MFA and video declaration...those stem from a lack of focus on quality.” – Erez [18:37]

• Root Cause: Marketer Indifference Marketers focus on vanity and binary metrics, neglecting broader, more meaningful outcomes, leading to proliferation of lower-quality inventory.

  “The root cause is the fact that marketers don't generally care about, about quality. And so lots of lower quality stuff is what gets packaged up and sold, especially sort of in this open auction world.” – Erez [19:33]

5. What’s in the Marketer’s Toolkit for Quality?

• Verification Tools
  Erez sees verification as just one piece of the puzzle, focusing mainly on content-level concerns.
• Upcoming Industry Initiatives
  He hints at new work with the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM):

  “We're working on an initiative that'll sort of like try to help the industry...understand different ways to look at quality...how does media quality play in with audience quality, with creative quality?” – Erez [20:26]

• Moving Beyond MTA
  Traditional Multi-Touch Attribution (MTA) is losing relevance; Experimentation and Marketing Mix Models (MMM) are now more effective for assessing quality’s impact on outcomes.

6. Will AI-Led (Agentic) Buying Help or Hurt Quality?

• Risks to Quality with Agentic Protocols
  As agentic buying and AI-driven media plans take off, Erez has concerns:

  “Unless quality is really baked in…and quality…you have to think about it for effectiveness in the short and the long term...I just think it's going to be so much easier to just sort of like ignore quality. Focus only on something that you can measure in those first 30 days. Like that's what the system is optimizing to…” – Erez [22:08]

• Optimism and Skepticism Ari is optimistic that advances in contextual classification/suitability will address many of these concerns if properly implemented.
• Incentive Challenges
  Even with AI, marketers must actively prompt their automation with quality requirements, which can quickly become complicated.

7. AI, Commerce, and Industry News Roundup

• Google’s AI Announcements at NRF
  New UCP protocol enables seamless checkout within agentic LLM experiences; “direct offers” give retailers/brands control over promotions surfaced by AI agents (major players, including Google and OpenAI, participating) [25:04–28:16].
• Brand Influence on AI Shopping
  Brands gain new conversational opportunities with consumers inside Google Gemini—AI agents can answer questions, offer discounts, and influence purchase funnel.
• Evolving Consumer Discovery
  There’s a future where website shopping gives way to entirely agentic/AI-driven commerce experiences.
• Supply Chain of Influence
  Emergence of new companies like Apple Cart (targeting "power brokers") signals a broader trend of hyper-targeted, high-value audience targeting [44:47–46:55].

8. Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Quality and Outcomes

  “Quality absolutely is only defined via outcomes...The issue that I have with outcomes specifically...is that they are almost inherently looking at a single point of time...you have to think about the quality...in both the short and the long term across all of these people that you're going to reach.” – Erez [09:17]

• Video Format Realism

  “I do think [outstream] are especially viable...Somebody has to pay for the content somehow and so sometimes it's going to be watching an ad, sometimes it's going to be paying a subscription or a micro payment...” – Erez [15:38]

• On the “MFA Moment” Fading

  “A year ago we were all, we couldn't stop talking about MFA, MFA, MFA, MFO. And it feels like MFA is not everyone's top concern right now.” – Eric [19:11]

• Societal Effect

  “If you think about the enshitification of the web and the consolidation of big tech monopoly power and the erosion of journalism and independent media, those are all sort of direct through lines from this.” – Erez [06:31]

• On Agentic Buying

  “I just think it's going to be so much easier to just sort of like ignore quality. Focus only on something that you can measure in those first 30 days. Like that's what the system is optimizing to…” – Erez [22:08]

• Philosophical End-Note

  “The total amount of purchasing from consumers doesn't change. So if, if, if advertising became more efficient, it would have to come at the expense. It would either be make companies more profitable because they could spend less on advertising and get the same amount of Coke being purchased or it would steal share from less, less performant activities.” – Eric [43:48]

Important Segment Timestamps

• Erez’s Motivation and Quality Philosophy: [06:00–07:30]
• Defining Quality and Outcomes: [08:17–10:07]
• Video Ad Format Problems, IAB Definition Changes: [12:20–15:38]
• What Quality Problems Dominate Today: [18:26–19:33]
• Toolkit for Marketers/Industry Initiatives: [20:11–21:49]
• Agentic/AI Buying and Quality: [21:49–23:33]
• Google AI Agentic Shopping Announcements: [24:41–28:51]
• Market Impact and Theoretical Expansion of Ad TAM: [39:25–43:48]
• Apple Cart & High-Influence Targeting: [44:47–46:55]

Tone and Style Notes

The episode is lively, candid, and often ironic, mixing in industry in-jokes and the hosts' trademark self-deprecating humor. The discussion, however, never loses focus on the weight and complexity of the “quality” challenge and features sharp, forward-looking critiques on how technology and incentives shape the advertising ecosystem.

This summary provides a comprehensive overview and detailed breakdown for listeners who want actionable takeaways and context for the evolving ad tech landscape. For those interested in the intersection of quality, effectiveness, innovation, and the structural forces at play, this episode is essential listening.