Build Your Own Marketplace

Think Build-a-Bear - but instead of stuffing a cuddly panda, you’re stitching together your dream marketplace. Zero fluff, no button noses - just all the ROI. 

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Not wanting to be a negative nelly, but there’s a real sense that programmatic is a bit of a toilet right now.

Buyers are throwing budget at the open exchange and hoping for the best. Some vendors are still in love with Open Marketplaces (OMPs), and the algorithmic bias means even the best-curated deals can get ghosted. 

The usual fix? Breaking out PMPs into 14 different line items, like it’s 2012. Time-consuming. Manual. Soul-destroying.

And on top of that, the cute and cuddly curation is getting a bad rep. It’s being boxed into a corner, seen as niche, fiddly, or too narrow to scale. Yet, the truth is, it’s not curation’s fault.

That’s what happens when you don’t use it properly.

Let’s fix that by playing a little well-known game of Two Truths and a Lie:

01 / Truth or lie: Curation ≠ Special Use Case

At @curate, we hear this all the time: ‘We’d use it more, but the brief didn’t say ‘curation.’

Let’s put a stop to this. Not all curation is equal. Curation isn’t a format. It’s not a line item with a feather boa and a point to prove. It’s a smarter way to trade.

If you’ve got:

• A viewability goal

• A target category

• An approved site list

• A preferred publisher pool

Then, you’re basically sitting on a curated deal already. We just package it properly, optimise it across SSPs, and plug it into your DSP of choice. Simple. Scalable. Smart.

Answer? Truth

02 / Truth or lie: Why OMPs Are Failing You

Right now, budgets are bleeding into the Google Open Exchange (and friends) chasing ultra-low CPMs. And yes, it feels cheap. Until you realise you’re spending 50p and getting nothing back.

With @curate, that same 50p might unlock 30p of added value, thanks to an optimised infrastructure, transparent economics, and a setup that’s actually built for results.

That’s not just efficiency. That’s god damn intelligent media buying.

Answer? Truth

03 / Truth or lie: Rhys, our founder, isn’t actually Welsh. 

Answer? Absolute lies, how dare anyone suggest otherwise?

Back to the subject at hand.

The fact is, holding co’s are already building their own SSP-led marketplaces. Why? Because owning the pipes = owning the profit.

They want control. They want transparency. And they’re sick of the bloated tech tax.

We think that playbook shouldn’t just be for the top 6 networks. So we’re opening it up to everyone.

The Opportunity? Build Your Own Marketplace

A single, flexible, scalable ‘meta-SSP’ solution.

With @curate, you can:

• Run deals across multiple SSPs

• Centralise targeting (without the spreadsheet chaos)

• Scale campaigns with confidence

• Get real financial value - empowerment, efficiencies, and visibility baked in

Don’t wait around for a brief to say ‘curation’.

Don’t keep feeding the OMP beast and wondering where your results went.

Build your own marketplace.

Control it. Brand it. Scale it. And finally - get more out than you put in.

Let’s make curation what it was always meant to be: Smarter media buying. Without the BS.