Programmatic Advertising 101 with MediaJel CEO Jake Litke

Key Insights

• Programmatic advertising is the automated, real-time auction system for buying and placing digital ads across thousands of websites, apps, and digital surfaces simultaneously - in cannabis, it is the primary compliant alternative to Google Display and Meta, where cannabis advertising restrictions prevent direct campaign activity.
• Attribution modeling transforms programmatic from a reach play into a measurable sales driver: MediaJel built an attribution model that directly correlates advertising activity to in-store dispensary purchases, removing the opacity around whether ad spend is actually generating revenue and giving cannabis operators a concrete measure of campaign ROI.
• Cannabis programmatic ads reach consumers where they spend the most time - primarily mobile apps including games, news, weather, and content apps - which means cannabis brands can place contextually relevant ads across tens of thousands of inventory sources far beyond what search or social advertising alone can access.
• Retargeting in cannabis programmatic builds the buyer journey by following interested consumers across apps and sites over time: once someone has shown intent, cannabis brands can serve follow-up ads across different contexts to move that consumer from initial awareness through to purchase, creating a multi-touchpoint path rather than a single ad exposure.
• Brand equity is becoming the defining competitive advantage in maturing cannabis markets: as flower prices commoditize and product differentiation narrows - a dynamic already playing out in California - cannabis operators that invest in building consumer brand recognition through advertising will win over those competing on product and price alone.

Webinar Highlights

00:00 – What Programmatic Advertising Actually Means for Cannabis Brands

Guillermo Bravo introduces MediaJel CEO Jake Litkey and frames the episode around a foundational question: what is programmatic advertising and why does it matter specifically for cannabis brands? Jake explains that programmatic advertising is the category most people know as display advertising - banner ads, native ads, video - but also includes digital out of home, connected TV, and any digital surface where impressions can be bought and sold in real time through automated auctions. The programmatic ecosystem gives cannabis advertisers access to tens of thousands of compliant inventory sources where major platforms like Google and Meta cannot be used for cannabis campaigns.

08:00 – The Benefits of Programmatic vs. Traditional Digital Advertising

The conversation moves into why programmatic is a meaningfully different capability than buying individual placements directly from publishers. Jake explains the core advantage: programmatic operates at scale across huge numbers of inventory sources simultaneously, while also enabling precise audience targeting using first-party and third-party data. For cannabis, this means reaching consumers based on behavior, demographics, and intent rather than just context - a level of precision that manual direct-buy advertising cannot replicate.

14:00 – How MediaJel's Attribution Model Connects Ads to In-Store Sales

Jake describes MediaJel's attribution model in detail, explaining that the company built this capability specifically to address a persistent challenge in cannabis advertising: proving that ad spend actually drives dispensary sales. The attribution model links advertising activity to actual purchase data, allowing cannabis brands and dispensaries to measure the direct return on their programmatic investment rather than relying on proxy metrics like impressions or clicks. This is especially valuable for dispensary advertisers who are accountable for sales results rather than brand metrics.

20:00 – Brand Equity vs. Sales Attribution: Why Cannabis Brands Need Both

The discussion surfaces a strategic tension in cannabis marketing: most advertisers measure success on sales, but brand equity - consumer recognition, trust, and preference - is what determines long-term competitive position. Jake points to California as the example: as flower prices have dropped and product quality has become more uniform, the cannabis brands winning in that market are the ones that built consumer relationships through consistent brand presence, not just the ones with the best product. He argues that the industry underinvests in brand lift measurement and that this creates a gap for forward-thinking operators.

26:00 – Where Cannabis Consumers Actually See Programmatic Ads

Jake walks through the real-world consumer experience of a cannabis programmatic campaign using Absolute Extracts in San Francisco as an example. He explains that the majority of impressions happen on mobile - inside apps including games, news apps, weather apps, and general content apps - with some desktop inventory and additional placements in digital out of home (including screens in Ubers and other environments). The point is that programmatic advertising follows consumers across the apps and sites where they already spend their attention, rather than relying on them to visit a specific platform.

32:00 – Retargeting and the Full Buyer Journey

The conversation closes on retargeting as the mechanism that makes programmatic work as a full-funnel strategy. Jake explains that retargeting allows cannabis brands to follow consumers who have shown intent - visiting a site, engaging with content - across subsequent sessions in different apps and contexts, serving progressively more relevant ads to move them through the consideration-to-purchase journey. He acknowledges that this kind of "following around" is something consumers are used to and that in cannabis it plays a critical role in moving people from awareness to their first dispensary visit.

Frequently Asked Questions

[ {What is programmatic advertising for cannabis brands?}

Programmatic advertising is the automated system for buying and placing digital ads across thousands of websites, apps, digital out of home screens, and connected TV surfaces in real time through auction-based bidding. For cannabis brands, it is the primary compliant advertising channel because it operates through specialized inventory sources and demand-side platforms that have established cannabis-compliant publisher relationships - unlike Google Display Network and Meta, which restrict or prohibit cannabis advertising. Cannabis brands and dispensaries use programmatic to reach targeted audiences at scale with precision that manual ad buying cannot match.

{How does cannabis programmatic advertising targeting work?}

Cannabis programmatic advertising targeting uses a combination of behavioral data, demographic signals, geographic targeting, and contextual signals to reach consumers who are most likely to be interested in cannabis products. Campaigns can target based on past purchase behavior, content consumption patterns, geographic location relative to dispensary locations, and interest-based segments built from third-party data. This allows cannabis advertisers to move beyond blunt broad targeting toward reaching the specific consumers most likely to visit a dispensary or purchase a product.

{How does MediaJel measure whether programmatic ads actually drive dispensary sales?}

MediaJel built an attribution model specifically for cannabis that links advertising activity to in-store purchase data. The model correlates the timing and targeting of programmatic ad exposures with actual sales recorded at the dispensary, allowing brands and operators to measure the direct return on their advertising investment rather than relying on proxy metrics like impressions or clicks. This removes much of the guesswork from cannabis advertising investment and gives operators data-driven grounds for adjusting budget allocation across campaigns.

{What is retargeting and how does it work in cannabis programmatic?}

Retargeting in cannabis programmatic advertising identifies consumers who have already shown intent - visiting a dispensary website, engaging with cannabis content, or showing behavioral signals of purchase consideration - and serves follow-up ads to those consumers across subsequent sessions in apps and sites they visit later. This multi-touchpoint approach moves consumers through the buyer journey from initial awareness to purchase decision by keeping the cannabis brand visible and relevant across the digital environments where those consumers spend time. Retargeting is particularly effective for dispensaries because the consideration-to-purchase path often involves multiple sessions over days or weeks.

{Why does brand equity matter in cannabis advertising?}

Brand equity matters in cannabis advertising because product differentiation alone is not a sustainable competitive advantage. As cannabis markets mature and product quality becomes more uniform - a dynamic already observable in California where flower prices have dropped significantly - the brands that win long-term are those that built genuine consumer recognition, trust, and preference through consistent advertising and brand presence. Cannabis brands that rely only on price competition or product superiority without investing in brand equity will find themselves in an increasingly difficult position as competition intensifies in their market. ]