This article is about my experience of working as Senior Product Analyst with media.net, how the journey has been, what have I learned in terms of skills as well as exposure to Ad-Tech industry.

1. Joining & Training 

I joined Media.net on June 19, 2023, along with seven other new hires from across India. Our journey began with an intensive two-week training program that covered the basics of the Ad-Tech industry and what Media.net does. This program culminated in a presentation project to demonstrate our understanding.

One of the perks for me was that the entire training was conducted remotely, allowing me to work from home—a setup I enjoy as a homebody. However, I understand that remote work might not be everyone's preference.

Since I was new to the Ad-Tech industry, there was a steep learning curve. Media.net's diverse business segments made the training quite overwhelming at times. Nonetheless, it was a well-rounded introduction that prepared us to join our respective teams after the training.

2. Team Allotment  

After completing the training, I joined the Horizontal Data Analytics Team, where we focused on keyword and bidder-related analyses. Our team also managed an Anti-Spam Dashboard product, now known as Catalyst, which is utilized by various teams for a range of purposes. You can think of this Catalyst product as Tableau alike product but extensively made for dedicated ad-tech use cases like spam detection.

3. My Works

Not diving deep, but from these headers you can have an idea about what kind of work or problem statements I worked on in last 1 year. 

• Supply Partner Evaluation - Analysed performance metrics of different bidders to identify the most effective ones.

• Bidder A vs Bidder B  - Investigated why Bidder A`s profit rate was 13% lower than Bidder B's.

• Keyword Emotion Analysis - Evaluated the impact of keyword sentiment on revenue using multiple Algorithms.

• Bad Environment Analysis - Identified underperforming environments by keyword category, device, and hour group.

• Environment Transition Analysis - Tracked how environments transitioned between performance buckets over time.

• EBDA vs ADX Analysis - Compared EBDA and ADX performance to identify contributing domains and seller-tags.

• RPM Transition of URL with Time Analysis - Studied how URL performance (RPM) changed over time.

• Domain Buckets Analysis - Quantified changes in domain performance after exposure adjustments.

• Non-Performing Keyword Pockets Analysis - Identified and categorized non-performing keywords across different environments.

• High RPC Keywords Analysis - Assessed the longevity and retention of high RPC keywords over time.

• Keyword & URL Correlation Analysis - Analysed the exposure distribution of keywords within URLs using a heatmap feature.

• Keyword Elimination & Optimization - Developed a structure to identify and eliminate underperforming keywords.

• Domain Blocking Analysis - Created a blocking strategy for domains based on revenue and profit buckets.

• Data Validation - Alerts Restructuring - Automated and simplified data validation to predict alert causes more effectively.

• NDCG Keyword Exploration - Analysed how performance metrics varied with the NDCG score of an Ad tag.

• Validating Scope of Adjacent Topic Keywords - Prepared a POC to validate the potential of adding adjacent topic keywords.

• Diversity & Relevance Score Analysis - Identified optimal diversity and relevance scores for best system performance.

• Unique Traffic Test Analysis - Tested for competition within bidders to optimize CPM for the same RPM.

3. Off-Site & Work Culture

If I had to pick the best thing about Media.net, it would undoubtedly be the work culture. It offers incredible freedom to pitch and develop your own ideas, and you get to collaborate with some of the brightest minds in the country and even from around the globe. The work-life balance is excellent, and the leave policies are very employee-friendly.

The culture at Media.net, however, does heavily depend on your team manager. Fortunately, I had an exceptional manager as a fresher. He helped me adjust to the new environment at my own pace, provided the flexibility to work comfortably, and gave me challenging problems that I enjoyed solving. From the very first months, I was working on my own analysis projects and presenting them to the Associate Director and Director, which gave me a strong sense of ownership and made my job even more enjoyable.

In February 2024, we had an internal team offsite trip to Goa. It was a fantastic experience that helped us bond as a team, especially since we had been working remotely for the past nine months. After this trip, we felt more like friends than just colleagues.

I think I covered most of the things, wish me luck for pending appraisal in July 2024. Lol!