In this episode of the Adster Podcast, Girish Vishwanath sits down with Sony Joseph, founder of Artifact and former monetization lead, for a grounded and eye-opening conversation on the state of ad monetization for gaming publishers today. Sony shares his journey from building large-scale monetization engines at gaming giants to launching Artifact, an adtech startup focused on helping publishers unlock hidden revenue, reclaim margins, and regain control in a privacy-first ecosystem. They dive deep into why publishers are losing leverage to mediation platforms, how black-box systems hurt transparency and experimentation, and what real control looks like in a post-IDFA, post-cookie world. If you’re a monetization leader, product owner, or publisher trying to navigate a landscape shaped by privacy regulation, consolidation, and rising complexity—this episode is a must-listen.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

• How privacy regulations like GDPR and IDFA disrupted both CPMs and UA performance
• Why mediation platforms have too much power over auction dynamics
• What publishers lose when they can’t see or influence how bids are routed
• The importance of access to bidstream and real-time auction signals
• How Adster and Artifact are working together to create a transparent, performance-first stack
• Practical advice for publishers looking to reclaim control of their ad monetization

About the guest:

Sony Joseph is the Founder of Artifact, a company building privacy-powered ad monetization infrastructure for the next generation of game publishers and platforms. He previously led monetization strategy at Activision Blizzard King, and now focuses on helping publishers unlock revenue through first-party data, federated learning, and Agentic AI.

🎧 Listen, Subscribe & Stay Ahead in AdTech!

Listen to this episode on:
Apple
Spotify
Amazon Music