Peer39 Interview Series: Nicole Kilaita, Director, DSP Product & Adtech Strategy, Yahoo DSP

As a long time partner of Peer39, Yahoo DSP recently integrated Peer39's CTV Quality Score directly into their platform, in an effort to help advertisers navigate increasing scrutiny around supply path quality. The Peer39 CTV Quality Score is a consolidated metric built specifically for CTV measurement, ranging from 0-100 based on a weighted blend of key CTV signals, including completion rate, overnight impressions, verified valid channels, and more. Following our integration, we had the privilege to speak with Nicole Kilaita, Director, DSP Product & Adtech Strategy at Yahoo DSP, to learn more. 

How does Yahoo DSP help a buyer or brand more used to traditional TV feel confident moving into programmatic CTV?

Nicole Kilaita: Yahoo DSP makes it easy for traditional TV buyers and brands to access the same premium inventory available on linear channels as well as access to digital and streaming content, across 100% of non-walled garden inventory, including DIRECTV, Dish, Sling TV, Disney+ (ESPN and Hulu), and Netflix. Having programmatic access to both sets of inventory is particularly important as audience viewing habits are rapidly evolving, with streaming outpacing broadcast and cable in total television usage. This shift is predominantly visible among unique viewers, including cord cutters and cord-nevers – making CTV inventory a valuable source of inventory in order to reach audiences only found on streaming.

Additionally, with live sports as one of the last frontiers of CTV, rights and viewership is rapidly shifting from linear to digital. Programmatic live sports inventory has grown significantly, and Yahoo DSP’s advanced CTV supply integrations (including live certification with Disney and NBCUniversal), combined with Yahoo Blueprint performance pacing and optimization, make it easy to reach the right audiences at scale.

At its core, Yahoo DSP provides data-driven targeting, centralized campaign management, and reporting powered by unique, deterministic, privacy-centric data, helping traditional TV buyers make a confident transition to programmatic CTV.

How has CTV fraud—such as spoofing—impacted your business, and was that one of the reasons you chose to work with Peer39 to address that?

A big one right now is transparency where ads are running and how to evaluate the publisher media behind them. We’re deeply aligned to the IAB Tech Lab’s content object metadata and, when publishers or sellers pass it, we surface that data directly in Yahoo DSP’s Report Builder, tied to delivery and performance metrics.

We’ve also integrated third-party supply classifications from Jounce Media, a game‑changing dataset that gives advertisers clearer publisher‑level visibility into the full supply path, including whether inventory is classified as cheap reach or MFA, directly in the DSP, which is an industry first.

On top of that, we’ve deepened our integration with Peer39 to bring CTV inventory quality scores directly into Yahoo DSP, giving advertisers more transparency, choice, and control over where their ads appear, which is another industry first. Together, these integrations harmonize independent vendor data with Yahoo DSP data into a powerful, unified signal set for CTV transparency and quality inside the DSP.

How does Yahoo help advertisers make sure their ads are running on actual TV screens rather than hidden mobile apps or screensavers?

We use a layered approach to make sure ads run on real TV screens. Yahoo DSP combines our proprietary TalonPro fraud protection with opt-in third-party verification from DoubleVerify and IAS, pre-bid contextual controls, and in-platform supply intelligence from partners like Peer39 and Jounce Media. Together, these capabilities give advertisers greater visibility, control, and reporting across their campaigns.

Peer39 provides insights into supply quality through its CTV Quality Score, letting advertisers measure performance and reduce risk directly within the DSP. Complementing this, our Jounce Media integration gives transparency into publishers, sellers, and the full supply chain, so advertisers can track and confidently run on trusted CTV sellers and apps.

To make measurement and transparency even more reliable, Yahoo DSP strongly encourages CTV publishers to adopt the IAB Tech Lab Open Measurement (OM) SDK. This enables standardized viewability tracking, fraud detection, and third-party verification, giving advertisers consistent measurement and confidence that their campaigns are reaching real TV screens in premium, brand-safe environments. We anticipate this becoming a standard requirement in the near future.

If an advertiser wants to avoid specific types of content, like "Divisive News," how does the Yahoo DSP make that easy for them?

We work with third-party brand safety and suitability partners like Peer39 to give easy, pre-bid controls right inside Yahoo DSP. Advertisers can pick Peer39 segments like “Divisive News” during the normal campaign setup, with no custom deal-building or manual exclusions needed. This lets them automatically avoid content that doesn’t fit their brand while still reaching premium inventory at scale. For campaigns that need more customization, curated deals are also an option.

How does Yahoo help buyers reach a larger audience without losing control over the specific shows or channels where ads appear?

We encourage publishers to pass content-level metadata like title, series, and network to DSPs, but many don’t because of the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA). With limited transparency, we’ve relied on supply partners to apply advertiser Do Not Air (DNA) lists upstream. Looking ahead, our contextual partners are building DNA-style solutions that can be activated directly in the DSP, giving advertisers more control while reaching audiences at scale. Yahoo DSP is actively involved and will make these options available as they’re ready.

Can you explain how program-level data and categories help buyers more than just knowing what app their ad ran on?

Program-level data and categories go beyond just knowing the app your ad ran on by showing the actual context of each impression. You can see details like channel, series, genre, and rating, which helps you align with the right content, avoid risky environments, and make smarter decisions about where your CTV dollars go. While program-level data isn’t available everywhere, working with third-party partners that provide verified content categories and channel-level signals helps increase precision and maximize contextual relevance where it is available.

Peer39 CTV Quality Score: Buyer Use Cases

How would you explain the benefits of the Peer39 CTV Quality Score to a client who has never used it before?

Programmatic CTV can feel complex and fragmented, and every dollar needs to work harder. A clear, in-platform quality score helps by giving you a quick read on your campaigns from an inventory quality perspective.

Peer39’s CTV Quality Score simplifies that complexity into a single 0–100 metric that measures both quality and suitability. It blends signals like completion rates, content transparency, verified channels, sensitive or user-generated content, overnight impressions, and divisive news. Higher scores point to stronger, more impactful environments, so you can prioritize high-quality supply, avoid risky inventory, and optimize with confidence.

Within Yahoo DSP, you can easily turn on Peer39 CTV Quality Score reporting during campaign setup and activate score segments for pre-bid targeting. That way, you automatically focus on higher-quality inventory and measure your campaign’s overall score directly in our Report Builder.

If a buyer sees their campaign has a low CTV Quality Score, what are the first three things they should check or address to raise it?

• One: Tighten your Peer39 thresholds. Adjust your CTV Quality Score targeting to favor higher-score tiers and exclude lower-score ranges, automatically filtering out weaker inventory.
• Two: Check the E2E supply path. Look at which publishers, sellers, and exchanges are actually driving delivery, and consider moving spend away from low-quality or multi-hop paths toward more direct, premium-publisher controlled paths.
• Three: Review and relaunch your campaign. After refining your Peer39 thresholds and/or supply paths, run the campaign again, then check your performance KPIs and pull the Peer39 CTV Quality Score to confirm improvements and make any final tweaks.

The CTV Quality Score looks at things like Completion Rate and Overnight Impressions. Why are these specific signals important for measuring a healthy campaign?

Completion Rate is a strong signal of real engagement. If people watch your ads all the way through, it usually means the supply is high quality and the audience is paying attention. Overnight impressions can be misleading because the TV might just be on with no one actually watching. High overnight activity is a red flag for wasted spend. Looking at both together gives a clearer picture of true engagement versus low-value or background impressions, which is key to understanding your CTV supply.

How does having an independent score from Peer39 help buyers trust their CTV campaigns through Yahoo?

We believe trust starts with neutrality, which is why we pair our tools with independent partners like Peer39. Because they don’t sell the media, their CTV Quality Score provides objective, third-party validation of supply quality across publishers. That means when you optimize for higher scores in Yahoo DSP, you can be confident you’re reaching high-quality inventory that’s verified by a trusted partner.

Learn more about Peer39 and Yahoo DSP's partnership to improve CTV transparency here or activate Peer39 pre-bid categories directly in the Yahoo DSP platform.