Marketecture Episode 158: Rajeev Goel Is Making Agentic Advertising a Reality

Date: January 30, 2026
Host: Ari Paparo (A)
Co-host: Eric Franchi (B)
Guest: Rajeev Goel, CEO of PubMatic (C)

Episode Overview

This episode centers on the cutting-edge deployment of "Agentic AI" in the digital advertising ecosystem, featuring Rajeev Goel, CEO of PubMatic. The conversation explores how AI agents are not only automating but also transforming the media planning and campaign transaction process—what this means for buyers, sellers, intermediaries, and the future of open web advertising. The episode also covers industry news, moves by Meta and OpenAI, and touches on the realities facing advertisers and tech companies during the current market landscape.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Rise of “Agentic” Advertising

[08:03 - 12:35]

• Rajeev's View: Agentic AI is not just press-release hype; it’s the future of advertising workflows.

  • The manual components of media planning—discovery, RFPs, negotiations, optimizations—can be significantly automated by AI agents.
  • Quote [08:27]:

    "I can say unequivocally, we view it as really being the future...there's a lot more to the entire process of buying and selling media that we haven't yet fully automated. And there's a ton of upside as a result" — Rajeev Goel

• Industry Impact: Collapsing inefficiencies and manual barriers can expand the addressable market for digital ads, enhance targeting, and potentially let open web compete more closely with walled gardens.

• Holistic Process: Upstream (planning/discovery) and downstream (measurement, optimization) can be looped in by agentic AI, not just atomic programmatic trading.

2. Agentic AI in Action: The Butler/Till & Club Tales Campaign

[13:33 - 17:20]

• Case Study: Butler/Till used Claude as an interface, connecting to PubMatic’s Agentic OS, to plan and execute a campaign for Club Tales using AI agents.

• How It Worked:

  • Trader interfaces with Claude, which connects to PubMatic’s MCP server.
  • PubMatic’s agent suggests placements, audience segments, and pricing, pulling from its own publishers and data partners.
  • Butler/Till trader selects and refines recommendations, purchases using PubMatic’s Activate platform via natural language.
  • Campaign setup time dropped by 87%, troubleshooting by 70%.
  • Still early: Results in terms of campaign outcomes to be determined.

  “[The trader] could buy directly within the PMATIC SSP using Activate and again they typed into Claude, great, buy this and let’s set it up. … 87% shorter time to launch campaigns, 70% faster troubleshooting.” — Rajeev Goel [16:14]

3. Shift in Value Chain: The DSP & SSP Future

[19:02 - 21:48]

• Disintermediation: AI agents could erode DSPs' lock-in by allowing planners to interact directly with the sell side using natural language or autonomous agents.

• Compression of Layers:

  • The traditional DSP↔SSP model may consolidate, letting advertisers and publishers become more tightly connected.
  • Outcome: Lower costs, increased effectiveness, and a more level playing field versus walled gardens.

  “AI will upend and collapse the industry’s value chain…” — Rajeev Goel [20:16]

• Sell Side Opportunity: PubMatic sees itself positioned as the “leading AI-powered ad tech company,” as intermediaries adapt or lose their role.

4. Publisher Empowerment & Discovery in an Agentic World

[21:48 - 27:28]

• Publisher Access: Both large and small publishers can launch “selling agents”—but the real value, especially for smaller publishers, lies in leveraging scaled platforms like PubMatic or using agent marketplaces for broader demand.
• Discovery: Marketplaces could emerge for agents to discover each other, increasing liquidity and efficiency.

  "If you're one level below those [big publishers] … now you might be able to get 1, 2, 3% of a big advertiser's buy that you weren't able to get to before because you don't have a sales team in Chicago and Detroit and New York." — Rajeev Goel [23:05]

5. The State & Resilience of the Open Web

[27:28 - 31:19]

• Challenges: Declines in publisher traffic due to AI search (10-50% traffic drops).
  • Premium publishers (ESPN, NBC, etc.) are more resilient: only ~15% of their traffic is search-dependent.
  • Logged-in environments (CTV, mobile app, commerce) are more robust to AI-driven search landscape changes and enable better targeting and measurement.
• Optimism: AI-driven efficiency, logged-in ecosystems, and superior content quality will ultimately redirect spend to the open web as ROI improves.

6. Standards War: ADCP and Prebid

[43:26 - 44:53]

• ADCP Protocol: Prebid is implementing ADCP as a reference, letting publishers activate AI-powered selling via prebid plugins.
• Implication: Open-source reference implementations will rapidly enable broader adoption and experimentation.

  “I think having reference implementations is going to help open up access to this capability for a lot of folks." — Rajeev Goel [44:33]

7. Industry News Roundup

Meta Earnings

[36:42 - 40:54]

• Meta: $201 billion annual revenue, $196B from ads, 22% YoY increase.
• AI investment surging ($115-$135B 2026 CapEx).
• Takeaway:

  "The fastest realization of AI investment to revenue is actually the advertising industry ... advertising is actually like the built-in machine that's best positioned to take advantage of all of the benefits of AI.” — Rajeev Goel [39:22]

Meta’s Renewed Focus on FAN / In-App

[41:02 - 43:26]

• Meta is reportedly regaining focus on its Facebook Audience Network (FAN) in in-app advertising, potentially challenging Applovin.

OpenAI's Early Ad Product Rollout

[46:56 - 49:43]

• OpenAI launching ads at a $60 CPM, limited targeting, causing industry skepticism.

• Rajeev: Mystified by announcing a CPM; expects performance to drive real value, not list price.

  "In reality, you want to be charging $1,000 ... because the performance is there." [48:19]

• Potential Budget Source: Most likely to compete with search budgets and possibly commerce.

Yahoo Scout and The Future of AI/Answer Ads

[52:29 - 55:00]

• Discussion on new ad formats in AI-powered chat/answer environments, e.g., Yahoo Scout, Amazon Rufus.
• Rajeev: The new medium will require experimentation on targeting, measurement, and format.

Layoffs: Pinterest & Amazon

[55:00 - 58:43]

• Pinterest (15% workforce reduction) and Amazon (16,000 layoffs) announce cuts, citing AI focus but also likely over-hiring.
• Rajeev: “Walled gardens that are not measured in the billions of users, it's been tough ... we're going to see more of these kind of mid sized walled gardens move to being more open.”

Data Links Seed Round

[58:47 - 60:13]

• Shout-out to Joe Lux’s Data Links raising $4.2M for a data “readiness” platform for marketers in the AI age.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On agentic automation:

  “A human brain can only track process so many cells in a spreadsheet. … Why can’t we let them manage 2, 3, 4, 500 campaigns? And so I think AI could really change this.” — Rajeev Goel [10:31]

• On DSP/SSP disruption:

  “You entirely do away with the UI that they're used to. And the next step … is like don’t even type in Claude, just use an agent.” — Rajeev Goel [20:02]

• On ADCP visibility at CES:

  “No publisher ever asked me if I use a Windows PC or a Mac. ... I think what matters is that those brands ... are starting to use ADCP. ... We’re early, and maybe they'll never know. And maybe that's perfectly fine.” — Rajeev Goel [32:13]

• On open web optimism:

  “Open web is becoming the logged in web. ... I think AI is going to collapse the value chain and create efficiency and effectiveness ... that will bring more dollars into the open internet.” — Rajeev Goel [29:16]

• On industry investment in AI:

  “The flywheel is basically already there in advertising. Whereas other industries have to figure it out ... you’re seeing the revenue and the return in advertising right now.” — Rajeev Goel [39:26]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Agentic advertising as the future: [08:27]
• Butler/Till + PubMatic case study breakdown: [13:33–17:20]
• Impact on the DSP/UI side: [19:02–21:48]
• Publisher adoption and discovery challenges: [21:48–27:28]
• State of the open web & logged-in environments: [27:28–31:19]
• Meta’s earnings & AI/CapEx focus: [36:42–40:54]
• OpenAI ad product critique: [46:56–49:43]
• New ad formats in answer engines (Yahoo Scout, Amazon Rufus): [52:29–55:00]
• Layoffs at Pinterest and Amazon, open vs. closed platforms: [55:00–58:43]
• Data Links funding, infra for AI readiness: [58:47–60:13]

Conclusion

Rajeev Goel's insights anchor this episode in the practicalities and big-picture implications of Agentic AI in ad tech, forecasting radical changes in the programmatic value chain, empowering both buyers and sellers, and posing ways the open web can regain ground lost to walled gardens. The episode weaves these strategic shifts alongside timely industry news, offering an engaging, inside look at both bleeding-edge innovation and the real-world context in which it’s unfolding.