What's the state of private ad exchanges, today? "It's a disaster," Jeff Green, CEO of The Trade Desk, told OMMA RTB attendees on Thursday. Why? More or less, because of all the friction created by overprotective publishers. There's "more friction than liquidity," Green said. But, if publishers were going to be so protective of their ad inventory, why build an exchange in the first place? Blame supply side platforms, said Green. In recent years, he said, SSPs convinced many publishers that there was no downside (at least from their side) in launching their own exchanges. That said, what Green sees …

Speaking at the OMMA RTB conference Thursday, panelists were asked to describe the future of Facebook Exchange. Christine Bensen, national lead, Digital Media at iCrossing, wants Facebook to help marketers solve the issued around mobile ad units, such as "accidental butt clicks" on smartphones or something someone is really trying to buy." Chris Eberle, VP of global accounts at AppNexus, hopes FBX will convergence multiple screens to include mobile in programmatic, RTB, buying. Jeff Hinz, managing partner and U.S. digital director at GroupM, Mediacom, hopes more consumers continue to download Facebook's mobile app more than Google Maps. It's a niche …

Say you're an online publisher thinking about investing in your own, private ad exchange. How big do you need to be to potentially profit from such an investment? Measured in monthly pageviews, no smaller than 2 million, give or take, says Christine Bensen, National Lead for Digital Media at iCrossing. And, even at that scale, publishers may want to think twice about building out an exchange, according to Bensen. If publishers aren't desperate for the money, she told OMMA RTB attendees on Thursday, they should weigh potential profits with the degree to which they're probably going to "annoy" their audience …

What impact is FBX having on Google? Referencing the search giant's latest revenue numbers, Chris Eberle, VP of Global Accounts at AppNexus, joked: "I don't think they're struggling." After laughter from the audience at OMMA RTB died down, Eberle added that Facebook was, in fact, putting pressure on Google to focus more on the RTB space.

Speaking of the connection between social and RTB, our next panel at OMMA RTB is "Facebook's FBX: The Year Zero View." Asked about the impact that Facebook's entrance into the space is having, panelists couldn't be more, er, gushy. It's translated to a "huge pool of inventory," said Christine Bensen, National Lead for Digital Media at iCrossing. FBX has meant reach and repeat business from advertisers to a degree not before seen, said Chris Eberle, VP of Global Accounts at AppNexus. Indeed, "We've seen quite impressive results from FBX," agreed Jeff Hinz, Managing Partner and U.S. Digital Director at GroupM, …

For 2013, how does social fit into the growing business of programmatic ad buying and selling? Ari Bluman, Chief Digital Investment Officer at GroupM, is optimistic, primarily due to the well-received debut of Facebook Exchange in 2012. Beyond social, challenges facing the programmatic business in 2013 including getting the right RTB mix, and figuring out "how we can show that the system is supported by high-quality publishers," Bluman told attendees of OMMA RTB on Thursday. Launched in the fall of 2012, Facebook's ad-bidding network was reportedly shaking up the ad business before the year was out. Launch partners told Wired …

There's been a lot of talk about the prospect of new privacy laws, but John Montgomery, Chief Operating Officer of GroupM Interaction, predicts that lawmakers might be even more focused on passing new security laws.

When it comes to the subject of predictive analytics, Mandel says it's actually more scientific than, well, science. In the case of his OMMA DDM panel discussion, Mandel compared predictive analytics to the science of meteorology -- you know, weather forecasting. "Weather forecasters are right half the time -- three quarters of the time," Mandel quipped, adding, "Did you ever hear of a weather person getting fired?" By contrast, Mandel implied, a predictive analyst would get fired if they missed one of their predictions because of the real-world trade-offs, and dollars and cents, involved. I'm not sure if Mandel was …

That's right, SapientNitro Strategy Lead Gabe Weiss says the question -- "Do you sleep with your pet" -- is the magic question for pet product marketers. And no, he wasn't alluding to some kind of deviant behavior, but to the fact that people who love their pets so much that they share a bed with them, also spend "five times more on their pets than if they don't sleep with them." While I'm sure that same magic question applies to some human relationships (though the spending multiple may actually be higher), Weiss says it's a question marketers are trying to …

Do creatives get data? You bet, says Gabe Weiss, Strategy Lead at SapientNitro's New York office. Not only that, but creatives are just as (more?) obsessed with a campaign's performance data as any data specialist, according to Weiss. After a campaign goes live, Weiss says his creatives are the first people at his desk asking about performance, and considering ways to improve it.