ad:personam AI Media Planner

Hey Indie Hackers! 👋

I’m Ciro Scognamiglio, founder of ad:personam, and I wanted to share the story of how we developed our latest tool, the AI Media Planner—a free app designed to simplify media planning for programmatic advertising.

This project started as an internal feature for our Self-Serve DSP, but we soon realized it had the potential to stand alone and deliver immense value to a broader audience. Here's how we came up with the idea and brought it to life.

The Problem: Targeting Overload

When we launched the ad:personam Self-Serve DSP, we noticed a recurring issue among our users:
The process of creating a programmatic advertising campaign was overwhelming, especially when it came to browsing and selecting targeting options.

Programmatic advertising is powerful, but the sheer number of possibilities—audience targeting, contextual segments, geolocation filters, and more—made it hard for users to know where to start. For small and medium-sized businesses, which often lack dedicated ad teams, this complexity was a major roadblock.

The Inspiration: Integrating AI Into the Campaign Workflow

We started asking ourselves: What if we could make targeting decisions simpler by integrating AI directly into the campaign creation process?

The goal was to help users make sense of the data available in our ad:personam Data Marketplace and provide them with coherent strategies that they could easily implement in the DSP. By leveraging AI, we wanted to remove the guesswork and help users focus on results instead of the minutiae of setup.

The Solution: Building an AI-Powered Media Planner

To address this challenge, we built an API on top of the OpenAI Assistant API, enriched with our proprietary dataset of targeting options from the Data Marketplace.

Here’s how it works:

1. AI-Powered Strategy Recommendations: Users input their campaign goals, and the AI analyzes the available targeting data to create a tailored strategy.

2. Data-Driven Insights: The recommendations are not generic; they’re based on the rich, detailed datasets in our marketplace, ensuring relevance and precision.

3. Seamless Integration: Initially, we integrated this feature directly into our Self-Serve DSP, allowing users to apply strategies immediately.

A Standalone Tool: The Birth of the AI Media Planner

As we refined the tool, we realized its potential went beyond just enhancing our DSP. Many businesses and marketers were struggling with the planning stage of campaigns, even before they got to execution.

This insight led us to create a standalone, free version of the tool—the AI Media Planner—to help businesses at the very first step of their advertising journey. It allows users to craft data-driven strategies for CTV, display, video, and mobile campaigns with the guidance of AI.

Key Features of the AI Media Planner

• AI-Driven Strategy Creation: Users receive tailored media plans based on their goals and targeting needs.

• Omnichannel Support: Plan campaigns across multiple channels, ensuring consistent messaging and reach.

• Data Marketplace Integration: Access insights and targeting options drawn directly from ad:personam’s proprietary dataset.

• Free and Accessible: As a standalone app, it’s completely free, making it an excellent entry point for businesses new to programmatic advertising.

Early Lessons and Feedback

The transition from an internal feature to a standalone app has been rewarding. Early users have shared some key insights:

• "This tool makes media planning so much less intimidating!"

• "It’s like having a marketing strategist on hand, without the cost."

• "I love how the AI recommends targeting options I wouldn’t have thought of myself."

Why I Believe in the AI Media Planner

Programmatic advertising can be transformative, but it’s historically been too complex and resource-heavy for smaller businesses. The AI Media Planner represents our commitment to democratizing access to programmatic advertising.

By simplifying the planning stage and empowering users with data-backed strategies, we’re helping businesses of all sizes unlock the power of advertising technology that was once reserved for large corporations.

Looking Ahead

We’re excited to keep evolving the tool and learning from our users. If you’ve struggled with media planning or programmatic advertising, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Try the AI Media Planner for free: ai.adpersonam.io
Explore our Self-Serve DSP for campaign execution: adpersonam.io

Have you worked on anything similar? Or faced challenges simplifying a complex product? Let me know—I’d love to learn from your experiences too!