Issue #64: First Impressions

The fastest way for digital marketing pros to look smart in the weekly stand-up

March 20, 2026 • Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes

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☕ Morning, bidding brains

Introducing First Impressions - our new weekly spotlight on adtech start-up stories.

📖 First Impressions

For the first edition of First Impressions, we spoke with Andreas Nielsen, Co-founder and CEO of Confect.io, about the missed creative opportunity in catalog advertising, what sets his business apart, and what brands should be watching next as AI and platform changes reshape the landscape.

What problem did you become obsessed with and why?

So many ecommerce brands run catalog ads (formerly known as Dynamic Product Ads or DPA) using the default product image as the creative. It’s a shame 🙁 These ads are off-brand and completely unoptimized, even though catalog ads typically account for around 60% of accounts ad spend and drive a huge share of revenue for ecommerce brands.

How does your company solve this problem?

At Confect, we give brands full control over how their catalog ads look. Instead of using default white-background product images, advertisers can add branded overlays, backgrounds, price tags, and other design elements. Just like they would in their regular ads. The difference is that it all happens dynamically across their entire product catalog.

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What do you do differently from other businesses trying to solve this problem?

There are two main ways Confect stands out.

First, Confect makes it easy to run catalog ads in vertical formats, think Stories, Reels, and TikTok-style placements. This takes catalog ads to the next level by making them fully optimized for each placement.

Second, we have seen and worked with almost every imaginable catalog ad use case across hundreds of brands and many years. Through case studies, examples, research reports, and webinars, we share more specialized knowledge about catalog ads than anyone else.

What do you get right early on to build the best vendor-client partnerships?

From the start, we focus on setting each partner up for success with both Confect and catalog ads. We share best practices and a clear path to quick wins as well as long-term catalog ad strategies. All is based on what we’ve seen work across many brands.

We believe this is especially important because brands spend so much of their ad budget on catalog ads, yet design remains a highly underutilized lever for improving performance.

What are you paying closest attention to in adtech over the next 12 months?

We are  paying close attention to how brands adapt their strategies after Meta’s Andromeda update, and how that changes tactics with Catalog ads.

At the same time, we are  watching how larger brands start working with AI, especially in the creative process

Got feedback, suggestions or interested in partnerships? Hit reply and let us know.

See you next time,

Access Adtech