Deep Platform Training Still Matters in an AI-Driven Advertising World

At Publicis, we spend a lot of time thinking about technology, AI, automation, and how quickly the advertising ecosystem is changing. But one constant has been that technology only creates value when people know how to use it well.

It’s for that reason that we continue to invest in deep, hands-on training with strategic platform partners. Our teams don’t need another presentation or another certification badge; we do these because our advertisers need practitioners who understand the technology well enough to get more out of it.

Two Days, 100 Practioners, 28 Accounts

Our recent two-day training with Yahoo DSP was a great example. Nearly 100 members of our Publicis Global Delivery (PGD) LATAM team participated, representing 28 client accounts, and every single participant successfully completed Yahoo DSP certification.

The certification is a nice outcome, but the bigger value is everything that happened before it.

Built Around Real Work

The program was built around how our teams actually work. Participants went deep on platform fundamentals, audiences, targeting, campaign setup, AI and agentic capabilities, measurement, pixels, reporting, optimization, and bulk operations. They then had to apply it through a live campaign challenge built around real-world constraints rather than simply sit through a series of demos.

That distinction matters! There is a big difference between knowing that a capability exists and knowing when to use it, how to configure it, what tradeoffs to consider, and how to explain the decision back to an advertiser. The latter is where training starts translating into better media outcomes.

For our advertisers, that means teams who can move faster, execute more accurately, get deeper into reporting and optimization, and spend less time learning the basics while a campaign is already live. Those were some of the immediate operational benefits we saw coming out of our joint sessions. It is also why the quality of the platform partnership matters so much.

What Good Partners Do

The best technology partners do not simply hand over access to a platform and disappear until the next QBR; they invest in the people using it. They are willing to get into the room, answer the difficult questions, adapt the curriculum to the way teams actually operate, and keep building from there.

Yahoo DSP did that particularly well here. The training was designed specifically around PGD’s operational needs, combining hands-on platform demos, interactive exercises, live campaign work, and certification rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach.

Why Matters More Now

That matters even more as DSPs become more sophisticated. We are no longer talking about platforms that are simply used to place bids against inventory. The teams operating them are working across identity, audience strategy, optimization, measurement, AI-driven workflows, and increasingly agentic capabilities. If the technology gets smarter but the people using it are not continuously learning alongside it, we leave value on the table.

Learning Has to Keep Evolving

This can’t be a one-and-done exercise. One of the things I appreciated most about the session was that it did not end with the exam. Our teams and Yahoo DSP are already looking at future advanced learning paths and more specialized training tracks. 

That is what a real partnership should look like. Technology evolves. Client needs evolve. The questions our teams are being asked evolve. So the learning has to evolve with them.

For Publicis, these sessions are ultimately about getting more value out of the platforms we ask our teams to use every day. Better-trained teams make better decisions, move faster, and are better equipped to turn platform capabilities into real client outcomes.

That is the value of a deep partnership like this one with Yahoo DSP: it goes beyond the technology, and is an ongoing investment in making sure our teams know how to use it well.