In Flight Optimization Is the Edge

In Flight Beats Post Flight: Why Smarter Optimization Wins

There’s a dangerous lag in our industry, a lag between when media is bought and when performance is actually acted on. Marketers still talk about post campaign insights like they’re trophies. But in a world where attention is short, algorithms move fast, and outcomes shift by the hour, waiting for wrap-ups means you’ve already lost.

Let’s talk about in flight optimization. Not the buzzword. Not another dashboard. The real thing where optimization happens during campaign delivery, across DSPs and SSPs, where adjustments still matter.

What In Flight Optimization Actually Means

Optimization isn’t about toggling off a bad deal ID or reacting to underdelivery two weeks in. It’s about building an iterative feedback loop that evolves your media strategy based on campaign signals as they emerge.

At Mavern, in flight optimization means working with:

• DSP campaign performance data across key objectives

• SSP delivery metrics and bidstream insights

• Contextual and semantic signals at the domain or app level

• Trade Desk’s device graph and CPA optimization models

• Supply path performance indicators used to inform shifts mid campaign

When executed effectively, optimization becomes a system and one that reshapes the media plan over time, based on what’s working.

The Problem: Disjointed Signals, Disconnected Systems

Let’s be honest, most campaign setups are fragmented:

• One DSP leans on CTR

• Another optimizes to CPA using modeled goals

• SSPs report inconsistently across metrics

• Optimization windows are often fixed or delayed

Trying to piece together a strategy across these systems is like steering five ships with one wheel. Everyone’s optimized for their own success...not yours.

What marketers need isn’t another visualization layer. It’s an intelligent framework that helps interpret campaign signals and inform strategic pivots when they can still make a difference.

SignalTap’s Take: Smarter Optimization While Campaigns Run

SignalTap is built to bring that intelligence into your PMP and curation strategy. It’s not a black box , it’s a curated layer that reads performance and makes adjustments possible while delivery is still active.

Semantic Signal Indexing

We map every impression to its context (URL, app, domain, and content type), allowing us to evolve inventory decisions based on what’s showing stronger performance.

Supply Path Observations

If certain SSPs consistently underdeliver or inflate costs, we deprioritize those paths in future curation. These shifts don’t wait until campaign wrap, they happen as trends take shape.

Performance Feedback via DSP Optimization Models

 SignalTap works in alignment with The Trade Desk’s CPA signals and cross-device graph to identify where curated inventory is actually driving outcomes. That means smarter bidding, stronger reach, and less waste.

This isn’t reactive optimization but a structured iteration. And it happens while campaigns are still running, not once they’ve wrapped.

Why You Can’t Wait to Optimize

Here’s the truth. Most campaign performance is locked in early. If you’re waiting until week three to look at data, you’re not optimizing but instead you’re confirming what went wrong.

Today’s media buyers need to think more like analysts and less like planners. You monitor, you evaluate, and you adjust. Based on real campaign signals, not just pacing milestones.

To do that well, you need:

• Visibility into supply and context variables

• Interpretable performance data inside DSP environments

• PMP structures that allow for inventory evolution mid campaign

The New KPI: Interpretability

It’s not about who has the most data anymore, it’s about who can make sense of it before the opportunity window closes.

If your team can’t break down what’s driving outcomes across context, supply, and performance signals, you’ll default to surface metrics like CTR or CPC. And that’s where performance gets stuck.

SignalTap focuses on the patterns that matter:

• Which supply paths consistently support scale or conversion

• Which content environments perform across devices

• Which curated signals align with Trade Desk CPA models

If your system can’t interpret those mid campaign, it’s not optimization - it’s observation.

Rethink the Feedback Loop

Optimization today is not about last-minute tweaks. It’s about installing the right pipes so performance signals can shape your media while it’s still in play.

If you’re still relying on wrap-ups and post-campaign downloads, you’re too late. The brands that scale are the ones who adapt during the campaign, while there’s still time to impact outcomes.

SignalTap was built to support exactly that. Not a passive reporting tool, not a guesswork layer...a contextual engine that helps evolve your strategy while it still matters.

If you're ready to optimize smarter, earlier, and more meaningfully, let’s talk.