AdTech revenue runs through a DSP, a billing system, a CRM, and a spreadsheet that one person maintains. Revenue operations is how you make those systems agree, forecast a long enterprise cycle you can actually defend, and stop the leaks between the gaps.
The Problem
Platform spend and CRM revenue have never reconciled, and you stopped trying
In AdTech the real revenue lives in the platform – spend that flows through your DSP or SSP – while the CRM tracks deals that may or may not match what actually ran. The two systems were never wired together, so finance reconciles by hand and everyone quietly distrusts both. When a board member asks why bookings and recognized revenue diverge, the answer is a three-day spreadsheet exercise. That gap is not just an annoyance, it is revenue you cannot see clearly enough to manage, and it is the first thing diligence tears apart in a raise or sale.
Long enterprise cycles make your forecast a guess dressed as a number
AdTech enterprise deals – a holding company, a major publisher, a brand direct integration – take two to four quarters and pass through technical evaluation, legal, and procurement. Without rigorous stage definitions and exit criteria, reps mark deals 'commit' on optimism and the forecast swings wildly each quarter. Leadership cannot plan hiring or spend against a number that moves 30 percent on a single slipped integration. A forecast nobody believes is worse than no forecast, because it manufactures false confidence right up until the miss.
Three-sided revenue means three ways to count the same dollar
When you sell to brands, agencies, and publishers, the same media dollar can be booked, attributed, and recognized differently depending on who is on the contract and how the supply path is structured. Revenue share, managed-service markup, and platform fees all behave differently, and without a unified model the same transaction shows up inconsistently across reports. Sales, finance, and the board end up arguing about definitions instead of decisions. This ambiguity hides margin erosion and makes unit economics nearly impossible to state with a straight face.
Your tech stack grew by accident and now nobody owns the data
Most growth-stage AdTech companies bolted on a CRM, a billing tool, a CS platform, and a BI dashboard one at a time, with no system of record and no clean handoffs. Fields mean different things in different tools, ownership of accuracy is diffuse, and every report requires a human to stitch sources together. The cost shows up as slow, untrustworthy reporting, reps who do not update the CRM because it does not help them, and a leadership team flying on instinct. When the data is this fragmented, every strategic decision carries hidden risk.
How We Help
We start with a revenue-architecture audit, because you cannot fix operations you cannot see. In the first 30 days we map how a dollar moves from pipeline to platform spend to recognized revenue across all three buyer types, trace where the CRM, billing, and platform data diverge, and document where reconciliation happens by hand. We pull the last several quarters of forecast against actuals to see how wrong the number has been and why.
Strategy turns the audit into a revenue operating model. We define a single system of record, write stage definitions and exit criteria built for AdTech's long technical sales cycle, and design a unified revenue model that handles revenue share, managed service, and platform fees without double-counting. We build the forecast methodology – weighted pipeline plus rep commit plus historical conversion by stage – so the number has a defensible basis rather than a vibe.
Execution wires the systems together and installs the process. We reconcile platform spend to CRM and billing, clean and standardize the fields that matter, and build the pipeline-to-recognized-revenue reporting that finance and sales can both stand behind. We rebuild the forecast cadence, set the rules for how deals move stages, and put the dashboards in front of leadership so the weekly number stops being a spreadsheet exercise. We work with your sales, finance, and marketing teams so everyone is operating off one set of definitions instead of three.
Measurement is the point of the whole exercise. We track forecast accuracy quarter over quarter, the time it takes to close the books, pipeline coverage by stage, and the reconciliation gap between platform and CRM. We watch deal velocity and stage conversion so leadership can see where the funnel actually stalls in a multi-quarter cycle. The system is built so your team can answer 'what will we close this quarter' with a number they will defend in a board meeting.
What makes this different is that we run it as operators who have carried a number, not as a Salesforce implementation shop that hands you an org and an invoice. We sit across sales, finance, and marketing fractionally and own the revenue operating model until it is producing a forecast you trust. We have run growth at scale, so we build RevOps that supports real decisions and survives diligence, not a config that looks clean and reports nothing useful.
What we deliver
- Revenue-architecture audit mapping pipeline to platform spend to recognized revenue across all three buyer types
- Single system of record with AdTech-specific stage definitions and exit criteria
- Unified revenue model handling revenue share, managed service, and platform fees without double-counting
- Reconciled reporting that ties platform spend to CRM and billing, with the manual gap closed
- Forecast methodology and dashboard tracking accuracy, pipeline coverage, and stage conversion
In AdTech, your revenue lives in the platform and your forecast lives in the CRM, and the two have never met. RevOps is not a Salesforce project – it is the work of making the systems agree well enough that you can bet money on the number.
Our Methodology
Our RevOps build for AdTech runs as a 90-day sprint, not an open-ended systems-integration project. Phase one is the revenue-architecture audit: we map the dollar from pipeline to platform to recognized revenue, find every place the data diverges or is reconciled by hand, and pull historical forecast against actuals to quantify how wrong the number has been. We come out of phase one knowing whether the problem is plumbing, process, or forecast methodology.
Phase two designs the operating model. We define the system of record, write AdTech-specific stage definitions and exit criteria, build the unified revenue model, and design a forecast methodology with a defensible basis. Every definition is documented so sales and finance stop arguing about what a 'commit' deal means.
Phase three wires the systems and installs the cadence. We reconcile platform to CRM and billing, standardize the fields, build the reporting and dashboards, and run the new forecast process live for a quarter so it is real before we leave. Unlike a CRM implementation shop that configures an org and hands you the keys, we stay embedded until the forecast is accurate and the team is running the model without us.
How We Work
Initial engagements run 3 to 6 months because a forecast only proves itself over a few quarters of accuracy. The first 30 days are the audit: revenue-architecture mapping, data divergence tracing, and forecast-versus-actuals analysis. Days 31 to 60 produce the operating model – system of record, stage definitions, unified revenue model, and forecast methodology. Days 61 to 90 wire the systems, build the reporting, and run the new forecast cadence live.
Our team includes a RevOps strategist who owns the operating model, a systems and data operator who handles the reconciliation and reporting build, and a GTM operator who installs the forecast cadence with the sales team. From your side we need finance leadership for the revenue model and reconciliation, sales leadership for stage definitions and forecast discipline, and access to your CRM, billing, and platform data. We handle the audit, the model design, the systems work, and the rollout.
The cadence is a weekly working session during the build and a monthly RevOps review once the system is live. Weekly sessions move the reconciliation and process work forward; monthly reviews tie the work to forecast accuracy, close speed, and pipeline coverage. Most AdTech companies see reconciled reporting within 45 to 60 days and a forecast they trust within one to two quarters of running the new cadence.
- A forecast leadership can defend in a board meeting and bet hiring against
- Reconciled platform-to-CRM revenue that survives diligence in a raise or sale
- Faster, more trustworthy reporting that frees finance from manual stitching
- Clear unit economics and stage conversion that show where the funnel actually stalls
If your adtech company needs revenue operations leadership, we should talk.
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Frequently asked questions
How much does a revenue operations engagement cost for an AdTech company?
Most AdTech RevOps engagements run between $20K and $50K per month depending on how fragmented your stack is and how much reconciliation and reporting needs to be built. That is well below a full-time VP of RevOps plus a systems-integration retainer, and it comes with operators who have carried a number and stay accountable to forecast accuracy.
How long before we see results from a revenue operations engagement?
Reconciled reporting typically lands within 45 to 60 days, which immediately gives finance a cleaner picture than the manual process. A forecast you actually trust takes one to two quarters because accuracy only proves itself over a few cycles of predict-then-compare.
How does the RevOps team integrate with our sales and finance staff?
We embed across sales, finance, and marketing rather than working as an outside implementation shop. We run weekly working sessions with finance and sales leadership during the build, then hand off an operating model and a forecast cadence your team runs day to day.
What makes Winston Francois different from a traditional RevOps or Salesforce agency?
Implementation agencies configure your CRM and hand you the keys, then leave you to figure out why the forecast is still wrong. We treat RevOps as a decision-making problem and stay embedded until the forecast is accurate and the systems agree.
How do you measure ROI from a revenue operations engagement?
We measure forecast accuracy quarter over quarter, time to close the books, pipeline coverage by stage, and the reconciliation gap between platform and CRM. The headline metric is a forecast leadership can defend, because that supports confident hiring and spend decisions and protects valuation in diligence.
What type of AdTech company is the right fit for this service?
Series A through growth-stage AdTech companies between $5M and $100M ARR whose platform spend and CRM have never reconciled, whose forecast swings every quarter, or who are heading into a raise or sale with messy revenue data. The strongest fit is a company with real revenue that is not yet legible across its systems.
