Adtech is like a junkie who insists they’re fine because they’re “only” addicted to Red Bull. The industry is hooked on dashboards and vanity metrics — pretty, colorful, and ultimately hollow.

I really enjoyed the discussion with Kurt Donnell of Freestar. The man knows how to make things work, and more importantly, he knows when the entire industry is busy lying to itself. His “less is more” rebellion started with trimming bloated stacks and redundant partners, but the logic doesn’t stop there. It spreads to the most sacred cow of all: measurement.

Kurt has a way of poking holes in the gospel. He’ll remind you that pageviews and click-throughs aren’t strategy, they’re stage props. Listening to him, I found myself thinking: he may as well have said CTRs are astrology with a dashboard — pretty constellations, zero predictive power. Because that’s exactly how they function: they look important, but they don’t tell you anything real about the future.

Publishers love vanity metrics because they make everyone look good in board decks. Pageviews are up, shares are up, CTR is holding steady — champagne all around. But it’s an illusion, and deep down, most operators know it.

Here’s what these empty calories really do:

Vanity metrics are ego candy. They’re sweet, addictive, and make you feel successful — until payroll comes due.

Donnell’s rebellion is about stripping away the noise until you’re left with three north stars worth following.

These are not “nice-to-haves.” They’re the only metrics that actually tie to business outcomes.

Here’s what happens when you measure reality instead of smoke and mirrors:

The difference? Vanity metrics tell you how loud the applause was. Real metrics tell you whether the show sold tickets.

Of course, the addiction won’t vanish overnight. Dashboards are sexy. Executives love lines that point up and to the right. And agencies? They’ve made an entire business out of selling “impressions delivered” like they were lottery tickets.

But the reckoning is here. Advertisers are demanding proof, not PowerPoints. Buyers have tools to separate signal from noise. And publishers who keep peacocking with fake numbers are only delaying the inevitable.

Kurt’s rebellion isn’t about being contrarian for fun — it’s about survival. The publishers that smash their mirrors and track reality are the ones who’ll be left standing when the music stops.

Because if you’re still worshipping CTR in 2025?
You’re basically the guy who shows up to Burning Man with a Blackberry and wonders why no one will give you WiFi.

The identity layer was supposed to save us after cookies died. Instead, it became the world’s worst garage sale: 70+ vendors peddling half-baked solutions, each promising to be the bridge to the future.

Reality check: half these IDs aren’t bridges, they’re papier-mâché piñatas waiting to collapse.

Everyone’s been pretending the zoo of IDs is innovation, but in truth, it’s redundancy, sprawl, and wasted spend stuffed into dashboards that look great until the CFO actually reads the P&L.

The last decade gave us an explosion of point-solution vendors across identity, attribution, and targeting. It sounded like choice; it looked like progress. In practice? It was tech hoarding — junk drawers full of half-integrated tools no one really uses.

It’s unsustainable. And with platform deprecation, privacy regulations, and the cookie funeral already underway, most IDs are skating on thin ice with a blowtorch overhead.

Let’s be clear: most identity “solutions” out there were built on fragile signals — cookies, device IDs, probabilistic guesswork. Those signals are gone, and so is their business model.

Only a handful of vendors with authenticated, commerce-derived, or platform-integrated signals will survive. Think RampID, UID2, Google PAIR. Everyone else? Roadkill.

Optimism for universal IDs created a bloated ecosystem where vendors looked interchangeable because… they were. When signal-starved buyers started demanding proof, most IDs couldn’t deliver.

The result: a noise layer of vendors that exist to check boxes, not drive outcomes.

Here’s where Kurt and Freestar actually show receipts instead of hand-waving.

Translation: Freestar acts as the bouncer at the identity club. If you don’t drive CPM lift, you don’t get in.

Freestar empowers publishers to stop being dazzled by vanity IDs and start measuring reality. With side-by-side tests, they can see whether an ID is driving session RPM, CPM lift, or just generating invoices.

By leaning into authenticated traffic and first-party data, Freestar aligns with what actually holds value in a privacy-first world. As Kurt keeps reminding publishers: authenticated commerce signals are the last durable currency.

Here’s the punchline:

Freestar’s job is to measure, curate, and cut ruthlessly until only durable signals remain.

The identity gold rush is over. Most vendors are toast. The survivors will be those tied to authenticated data, scaled graphs, and platform integration. Everyone else? They’ll disappear into polite acqui-hires, strategic “sunsets,” or just vapor.

The irony? After years of logo inflation, the market will shrink back to what it always needed: a handful of real bridges and a lot less noise.

So if you’re still betting on random IDs in 2025?
You’re not building bridges. You’re buying papier-mâché piñatas and waiting for the stick.

Think you know where the adtech map is headed? Think again. Free readers get the headlines. Paid readers get the playbook — the mergers, the exits, the bodies left on the roadside, and the companies secretly building their own pipes straight to advertisers.

👉 If you’re not inside, here’s what you missed:

And that’s just the surface. Inside ADOTAT+, we map who’s merging, who’s losing, and who’s secretly winning — down to the names, the moves, and the economics. By 2027, the middle of the stack will be a hollow shell.

💡 If you’re not a paid reader, you’re looking at the industry through a keyhole while everyone else is inside the room.

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