Overview of this campaign

In 2025, digital advertising reached a tipping point. Advertisers faced unprecedented opportunity alongside rising complexity driven by privacy shifts and opaque tech fees. In 2020, DPG Media anticipated this, building a fundamentally different solution: Ad Manager, a proprietary self-serve digital ad management platform designed as the responsible, local alternative to Big Tech.

The primary objective was to secure the future of local journalism by structurally growing digital advertising revenue, offering advertisers and agencies an effective alternative to global buying platforms. Ad Manager services all digital (publishing) platforms in the DPG Media network, combining innovative ad formats with quality content on newsmedia, Connected TV, Video, and Audio. In 2025, Ad Manager+ was introduced as a powerful AI-suite, to create impactful, efficient campaigns leveraging proprietary AI models.

Other objectives:

• Grow adoption through local trust: Lower the barrier to premium, brand-safe media with a streamlined, transparent platform as the responsible alternative to Big Tech "black box" systems that pose significant brand-safety risks.

• Differentiate through a clean supply chain: Radically optimize the chain, removing hidden fees and lowering environmental impact, supporting advertisers’ ESG ambitions. Guaranteeing 100% working media.

• Build future-proof addressability: Eliminate third-party identifier reliance by using DPG Media’s first-party identity framework, ensuring durable targeting, exclusive audience extension with Retail Partners, and future-proof measurement in a privacy-first world.

• Challenge global platforms on effectiveness: Combine exclusive Seamless ads, formats seamlessly integrated into our trusted publisher environments, with AI-driven workflows, to deliver excellent performance and control, proving local innovation can compete with Big Tech.

• Prove impact through transparent measurement: Focus on scalable, business-driven metrics next to standard metrics. Through Brandfacts, advertisers gain insight into how premium publishing environments drive brand lift. This is complemented by upcoming Attention Insights (H1 2026) and first-party-driven Conversion Measurement (summer 2026).

Research consistently highlighted advertiser frustration with complexity and opacity of global platforms. Ad Manager was designed as a direct response, not just to win market share, but to ensure an independent media landscape by offering a high-performance, ethical alternative.

 

Results for this campaign

Revenue & Growth

Ad Manager drove 97% YoY growth. Brands on Ad Manager grew total digital revenue by 16% NL and 22% BE. Video accounted for 37% of programmatic revenue (3.3× vs 2024), while Display represented 48%.

Advertiser Value & Performance

The Ad Manager+ AI Suite delivered a 30% performance uplift across key proxies (CPC, vCPM, CPCV), while keeping eCPM stable at +2%. This enhanced advertiser value without compromising DPG Media’s yield. Key success stories include:

• Naïf Care: Achieved a 27.3% brand lift (2× their benchmark) by using built-in Carrefour Retail Data, CTV inventory and brand lift measurement.

• Leukstetickets.nl: Reduced CPA by 50% through Seamless Ads and Smart Optimization.

• TUI: Realized 14% cost savings by shifting from Google DV360 to Ad Manager.

• EuroParcs: Generated +46% engaged visits using Datalab bespoke audiences, Ad Manager and Seamless ads.

This illustrates how Ad Manager delivers measurable value across branding, performance, and efficiency, while strengthening the economics of trusted local media.

Shift Towards Premium ad formats & Data-Driven Buying

• Seamless Ads: DPG Media’s proprietary formats now account for 67% of Ad Manager revenue, proving preference for integrated, high-quality ads over standardized formats.

• First-Party Data: 67% of video and 95% of display revenue within Ad Manager are powered by privacy-safe, first-party solutions. Adoption grew at twice the network average, moving away from third-party identifiers, underscoring strong buyer trust in qualitative and easy-to-access audience targeting

Market Impact & Sustainability

Revenue is diversified across large agencies (55%), other agencies (25%), and direct advertisers (20%). Agencies increasingly standardize Ad Manager as the preferred route to premium local inventory.

Ad Manager provides access to a monthly unique reach of 80%+ of the Dutch and Belgian internet population in a brand-safe, transparent environment: a scale few local publishers can offer independently.

By investing in proprietary technology over Big Tech, DPG Media created a sustainable, scalable revenue engine. This engine helps advertisers “go local,” reduce dependency on Big Tech, and prove that local media can outperform global platforms in quality and effectiveness.

 

Contact

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