MediaMath by Infillion: The Definitive Guide to the Programmatic DSP (2025)

Programmatic advertising is shifting toward first-party data activation, verifiable measurement, and direct control over bidding and targeting logic. Marketing teams need platforms that provide data access, transparency into supply paths, and the ability to enforce custom optimization strategies at scale. 

MediaMath is designed for that operating model, enabling technically-driven teams to tune programmatic performance based on real business signals rather than opaque platform defaults.

This guide breaks down how MediaMath handles data ingestion, first-party identity, bidding logic, and log-level analytics. You'll get a practical view of how to use the platform to build accountable, measurable programmatic workflows grounded in data accuracy and full transparency.

Key Takeaways:

• Best For: Enterprise advertisers and data-driven programmatic teams that require direct control over bidding logic, first-party data activation, and log-level performance measurement across complex multi-channel campaigns. Ideal for organizations with mature analytics stacks, in-house media operations, and a mandate for transparent supply paths and custom optimization models.
• Core Technology: The MediaMath platform's power stems from its Brain algorithm for predictive bidding, the SOURCE ecosystem for supply chain transparency, and its omnichannel campaign management capabilities.
• Current Status: Now operating as "MediaMath by Infillion," the DSP continues to serve brands and agencies, with a renewed focus on cookieless solutions, supply path optimization, and integration within Infillion's broader product suite.
• Data Unification is Crucial: To maximize the value of MediaMath or any DSP, advertisers must integrate its performance data with other marketing channels to achieve a holistic view of campaign ROI and customer journey.

What Is MediaMath? 

MediaMath is a demand-side platform built for advanced programmatic advertising and data-driven bidding. It enables teams to activate first-party audiences, execute real-time bidding strategies, and control how media spend is optimized across channels like display, video, mobile, and CTV. 

The platform provides granular access to log-level data, identity stitching, and customizable bidding algorithms, making it suitable for organizations that run programmatic as a technical function rather than a managed service. 

With direct integrations to major exchanges, support for private marketplaces, and robust data ingestion capabilities, MediaMath gives enterprise advertisers the transparency, control, and scale required to tie media investment to real business outcomes.

Understanding MediaMath's Core Technology as a Demand-Side Platform (DSP)

To understand MediaMath's value, one must look under the hood at the core components that have powered it for over a decade.  

The Brain Algorithm: Predictive Bidding Power

The Brain is MediaMath's proprietary AI and machine learning engine, the central intelligence that drives bidding decisions. Its goal is to purchase the best-performing impressions at the most efficient price to maximize campaign ROI. 

The Brain's functionalities are often described in two parts:

• The Left Brain: Focused on analysis. It examines historical data for trillions of impressions to predict the likelihood of a specific impression leading to a desired outcome (like a click, conversion, or video completion).
• The Right Brain: Focused on prediction. It calculates the optimal bid price for an impression, balancing the probability of winning the auction against the cost, ensuring advertisers don't overpay.

This powerful algorithm allows advertisers to move beyond simple manual bidding and leverage predictive analytics to achieve their goals more effectively.

The SOURCE Ecosystem: Supply Chain Transparency

Launched in 2019, SOURCE was MediaMath’s ambitious initiative to create a more transparent, accountable, and addressable programmatic supply chain. The goal was to eliminate the waste and fraud often found in the complex "ad tech tax" chain between advertiser and publisher. 

Key features of SOURCE include:

• Direct Publisher Relationships: Forging partnerships directly with premium publishers to ensure inventory quality.
• 100% Accountability: Providing full transparency into every transaction and impression.
• Addressable Audience: Leveraging multiple identity solutions to connect with consumers across devices in a privacy-compliant manner.

By cleaning up the supply path, SOURCE aimed to deliver better results for advertisers and higher revenue for publishers, creating a healthier ecosystem for all participants.

TerminalOne (T1): The Original Operating System

TerminalOne, or T1, was the original name for the MediaMath platform's interface. It was designed as an operating system for marketing, providing a flexible and powerful console for media buyers to manage every aspect of their campaigns. 

While the branding has evolved, the core principles of T1 – flexibility, control, and data accessibility – remain integral to the MediaMath DSP experience. It provides the tools for campaign setup, budget allocation, targeting, and reporting.

Key Capabilities of the MediaMath Platform in 2025

Under Infillion's ownership, the MediaMath DSP continues to offer a robust suite of features designed for sophisticated omnichannel advertising. The platform empowers marketers to manage complex campaigns across the digital landscape, from initial setup to final analysis.

Omnichannel Targeting Options

A key strength of MediaMath is its ability to reach consumers across a wide array of channels and formats, all managed from a single platform. This includes:

• Display & Native: Standard banner ads and contextually integrated native formats across the web.
• Video: In-stream, out-stream, and in-banner video ads on desktop and mobile.
• Connected TV (CTV) & OTT: Reaching audiences on smart TVs and streaming devices, a major growth area in programmatic.
• Digital Audio: Targeting listeners on music streaming services and podcasts.
• Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH): Programmatically buying ad space on digital billboards and screens in public places.
• Mobile: In-app and mobile web advertising with specific targeting capabilities like location and device type.

Advanced Audience Segmentation and Identity Management

In a world moving beyond third-party cookies, identity management is critical. MediaMath offers a flexible identity core that allows marketers to transact on various ID systems. This includes:

• First-Party Data Integration: Advertisers can upload their own customer data, for example from CRM, for targeting and creating lookalike models.
• Contextual Targeting: Targeting users based on the content of the page they are viewing, which is a privacy-safe alternative to behavioral targeting.
• Third-Party Data Marketplace: Access to a rich marketplace of data segments from providers like Oracle, Lotame, and more.
• Flexible Identity Core: Support for major cookieless identity solutions like LiveRamp's Authenticated Traffic Solution (ATS) and Unified ID 2.0.

Campaign Management and Optimization Tools

The platform provides granular control over every aspect of a campaign. Users can leverage features like Dynamic Budget Allocation to shift spend to the best-performing tactics automatically. In-line and bulk editing tools streamline workflows for agencies managing dozens of campaigns. 

Proper marketing attribution analysis within the platform, or by exporting the data, is key to understanding which of these optimization efforts are truly driving results.

Reporting, Analytics, and Measurement

MediaMath provides detailed reporting across hundreds of metrics. While its native dashboards support tactical optimization, strategic performance analysis requires merging log-level campaign data with downstream conversions, CRM events, offline touchpoints, and product engagement signals.

MediaMath is one part of the truth, enterprise teams need a unified dataset to measure real contribution to pipeline and revenue.

Improvado solves the data integration challenge by consolidating MediaMath logs with cross-channel marketing and sales data into a warehouse-ready format. This enables advanced attribution, incrementality testing, and true full-funnel performance analytics without manual ETL work or fragmented data exports.

With Improvado, teams can:

• Ingest MediaMath log-level data alongside CRM, analytics, revenue systems, and over 500 other data sources
• Normalize spend, impression, and conversion metrics across platforms
• Map user and account identifiers for cross-channel journey reconstruction
• Push harmonized datasets into BigQuery, Snowflake, or other warehouses
• Build attribution models and custom ROAS/LTV calculations
• Automate dashboarding in Looker, Tableau, and Power BI

Result: One consistent view of programmatic performance tied to business outcomes, not isolated ad metrics.

Brand Safety and Fraud Prevention

Protecting brand reputation is paramount. MediaMath integrates with leading verification partners like Integral Ad Science (IAS), DoubleVerify, and HUMAN to provide pre-bid filtering and post-bid monitoring. This ensures ads are not served next to inappropriate content and that impressions are viewed by real humans, not bots.

MediaMath vs. The Competition: A Head-to-Head Comparison

MediaMath competes directly with other major players in the programmatic space – The Trade Desk and Google DV360. 

Understanding its relative strengths and weaknesses is crucial for any advertiser making a platform decision.

Navigating the MediaMath Platform: A Practical Guide

While MediaMath is a powerful tool, maximizing its potential requires a strategic approach. Here are some best practices for advertisers using the platform.

Setting Up Your First Campaign

A typical campaign setup involves several key steps:

1. Define Objectives: Clearly establish what you want to achieve. Is it brand awareness (measured by reach and frequency), consideration (clicks, video views), or conversion (sales, sign-ups)?
2. Establish KPIs: Set specific, measurable Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) like CPA (Cost Per Acquisition), ROAS (Return On Ad Spend), or VCR (Video Completion Rate).
3. Build Your Audience: Define your target audience using first-party data, contextual signals, or third-party segments.
4. Set Budgets and Bidding Strategy: Allocate your budget across different tactics and decide on a bidding strategy. You can start with a fixed CPM or let the Brain algorithm optimize towards a specific goal.
5. Upload Creatives: Add all the ad creatives (banners, videos) you plan to use in the campaign.

Best Practices for Audience Targeting

Effective targeting is the key to programmatic success. To get the most out of MediaMath:

• Layer Your Tactics: Don't rely on a single targeting method. Combine contextual targeting with audience segments and retargeting for a more robust strategy.
• Utilize Lookalike Modeling: Upload your best customer lists and use MediaMath to find new users who exhibit similar behaviors and characteristics.
• Implement Frequency Capping: Avoid ad fatigue by limiting the number of times a single user sees your ad within a given period.

Optimizing Bids and Budgets for Maximum ROI

Effective optimization requires aligning bid logic with your true business goals (not just CPC/CPM efficiency), monitoring supply paths, and continuously validating whether your bids are winning in the right auctions, not simply winning more auctions.

Start by defining clear performance signals (for example, qualified site events, pipeline contribution, LTV indicators) and configure bidding to reward those behaviors instead of vanity metrics. 

Use MediaMath’s impression-level transparency to analyze clearing prices, frequency distribution, and auction dynamics across exchanges. Shift spend toward high-quality supply paths, enforce frequency caps to control waste, and leverage budget weighting to prioritize segments and placements aligned with incremental outcomes. 

Finally, refresh bid multipliers and pacing rules regularly based on real conversion data, not aggregate performance snapshots.

The Future of MediaMath Under Infillion

The acquisition by Infillion marks a new era for MediaMath. The focus is on integrating its powerful DSP into a broader ecosystem of advertising technology, creating new opportunities for growth and innovation.

Integration with Infillion's Technology Stack

Infillion brings its own set of capabilities, including creative technology, measurement solutions, and exclusive media from its owned-and-operated properties. The integration of MediaMath's DSP means clients can potentially access a more end-to-end solution, from creative development and ad serving to media buying and performance analytics, all under one roof.

Focus on Cookieless Solutions and Privacy

The entire ad tech industry is grappling with the end of third-party cookies. A major priority for MediaMath by Infillion is to continue developing and supporting a wide range of privacy-first identity and targeting solutions. This includes strengthening its support for universal IDs, enhancing contextual targeting capabilities, and leveraging other privacy-safe signals to ensure advertisers can still reach relevant audiences effectively.

The Challenge of Siloed Data: Why MediaMath Metrics Aren't Enough

As powerful as the MediaMath platform is, its reporting capabilities exist within a silo. It can tell you everything about your programmatic campaigns, but it can't tell you how those campaigns influence, or are influenced by, your efforts on search, social, email, or other channels. This creates significant challenges for modern marketers.

The Problem with Platform-Specific Reporting

Relying solely on the MediaMath dashboard for performance analysis leads to a fragmented view. Marketers are forced to manually download reports from MediaMath, Google Ads, LinkedIn, and dozens of other platforms, then attempt to stitch them together in spreadsheets – a process that is time-consuming, error-prone, and unsustainable at scale. This is where reporting automation becomes a critical component of an efficient marketing operations strategy.

Lack of a Holistic View of the Customer Journey

Customers don't live in a single channel. They might see a display ad via MediaMath, search for the brand on Google, see a retargeting ad on Facebook, and finally convert through an email link. 

Without a unified view of the data, it's impossible to understand this complex journey and properly attribute credit to each touchpoint. You can't see which combination of channels is most effective at driving conversions.

Unlocking True Performance with Unified Marketing Analytics

The solution to data silos is to create a single, unified source of truth for all marketing data. This involves extracting data from every platform, including MediaMath, and loading it into a central repository, such as a data warehouse like BigQuery, Snowflake, or Redshift.

Improvado is a marketing data platform designed to solve this exact problem. It provides an automated, no-code solution to connect to all your marketing sources and centralize your data.

• Automated Data Aggregation: Improvado has over 500 pre-built connectors to platforms like MediaMath, The Trade Desk, Google Ads, Facebook, Salesforce, and more. It automatically pulls all your data into one place.
• Data Transformation: Raw data is cleaned, mapped, and harmonized into an analysis-ready format, ensuring metrics are consistent across all platforms.
• Flexible Data Destination: Send your unified data directly to the tools you already use, whether it's a BI tool like Tableau or Looker, Google Sheets, or a data warehouse.

By using Improvado, marketers can build comprehensive KPI dashboards that visualize performance across all channels, not just programmatic. 

This enables a deeper level of analysis, allowing you to see how your MediaMath spend is impacting overall business goals and truly measure your return on investment.