Q3 turnedthe trend
Spend through October is level with 2025, down 1.1%, while PMP spend grew 60% and now carries a third of the book. October was the biggest month since January 2025.
Where the year stands
Spend by type, Jan to Oct
| Spend type | Jan to Oct 2025 | Jan to Oct 2026 | % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open | $3.00M | $2.50M | -16.6% |
| PMP | $755.6K | $1.21M | +60.4% |
| Overall | $3.75M | $3.71M | -1.1% |
How are we doing together?
Seven advertisers ran PMPs with us in 2026: Citi, Signet (Jared and Kay), LinkedIn, Vanguard, Southwest, Meta and Marriott.
Who we are engaged with
PMP activity by month, 2026Advertiser count
Advertisers over $1K, Jan to Oct 2026Active deals and formats
PMP spend, 2026Six advertisers live on PMPs. LinkedIn's deal is all banner.
Spend trajectory
Spark delivered $8.51M on 5.0 billion impressions from January 2025 to October 2026.Q4 2026 covers October only. Its YoY compares October 2026 with October 2025.
Month on month, 2026
What moved, Jan to Oct YoY
Open exchange against PMP
67% of 2026 spend is open exchange and 33% is PMP, up from 20% in 2025.
Still the largest advertiser in the book, down 36% YoY
$1.13M in Jan to Oct 2025 against $724K in 2026. It peaked at $140K to $151K a month in Jul to Sep 2025. In 2026 it averages $72K a month, and September and October each came in at about $60K.
Open exchange only to date| Period | Optimum spend |
|---|---|
| 2025 (full year) | $1.28M |
| Jan to Oct 2025 | $1.13M |
| Jan to Oct 2026 | $724K |
Monthly run rate
What are you activating with us?
Video is 37% of 2026 spend, up from 22% in 2025. It reached 47% in Q3 and 51% in October. On deals the video growth comes from Vanguard and Signet. On open exchange it is Meta, which buys 76% video.
Performance of active brands
Jan to Oct 2026The optimizations on these deals are powered by our contextual intelligence.
Where can we grow next?
Biggest untapped clients
Net new activationLinkedIn still runs $596K (84% of its spend) on open exchange next to an active deal.
Untapped products
Hover, tap or select a tileWhy PMPs?
Six Spark advertisers ran a deal with us in 2026, and deals are now a third of the book. Citi and Signet are always on, and Vanguard and Southwest stepped up in Q3 and held into October.
Citi is the consistent one: live every month since January 2025, $668K this year, up 66%, with its best month yet in October. Signet went from a $7K test to $263K in a year.
PAD incentive on PMP spend
PAD (post auction discounts) applies only to PMP spendA share of each quarter's PMP spend is returned to the brand as a post auction discount. The more a brand runs through PMPs in a quarter, the higher the rate on the spend above each tier. Open exchange spend earns nothing.
Spark earned $38.9K in PAD in Jan to Oct 2026, up from $8.5K in 2025.
PAD Plan
Incentive by quarterly PMP spend| Tier | Quarterly PMP spend | PAD incentive |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 | $0 to $50K | 2% |
| Tier 2 | $50K to $250K | 5% |
| Tier 3 | $250K+ | 10% |
Each rate applies to the spend that falls within that tier, so a $265K quarter earns 2% on the first $50K, 5% on the next $200K and 10% on the last $15K.
Peer set
Optimum against its telecom and broadband peer set
Optimum is 93% banner and 94% web.