This article appears as a guest post on StartUpBeat.com.

It’s been almost half a decade since the Internet overtook television as the preferred medium for advertising, and with the advent of ever-more sophisticated mobile delivery mechanisms, 2015 promises to be yet another big year for online marketing. Perhaps the only thing getting in the way of this otherwise inexorable momentum, however, is the persistent lack of transparency undermining the industry.

First, the good. Most businesses have already established some sort of online advertising presence–even if that only extends to do-it-yourself social media outreach–and those businesses that haven’t increasingly understand the need to take their advertising arms digital. Spending continues to rise, both in raw terms and in relation to the overall marketing and advertising sector. And given the deepening popularity of e- and mobile commerce, there is no reason to expect demand won’t, also.

Search retargeting is the first cousin of website retargeting and they often get along wonderfully when working and coupled together as a two-punch online advertising strategy. Different than website retargeting, which focuses on displaying advertisements only to people that have previously visited a specific website, search retargeting focuses on displaying ads to people that have previously searched for specific keywords or keyword phrases.

Simply put, search retargeting is a highly effective way to target people who have proven to be interested in certain topics, services and/or products based on their search history.

I have been an entrepreneur and a business owner one way or another in the online advertising industry since 2003. That's a healthy amount of time thinking about competitive advantages, payroll, regular banner ads Vs. dynamic display ads, campaign optimization strategies, brand safety, growth opportunities and so on.

I’d like to share a few insights that I have picked up along the way. Some thoughts are online advertising focused and others are just thoughts.

Welcome to 2014!

First, lets discuss the subject of this email. I think media buyers are the clear winners of binge drinking over New Year's. The online advertising industry gets a bit nutty leading up to the Christmas / Holiday Season. Come post tax day in April, accountants will be leading all professions in regards to drinking quantity and hangover intensity levels. Except for maybe Manhattan bankers, they seem to be equally hammered year-round.

A lot of people that work in the advertising industry believe that stress and advertising go hand-in-hand. Well, forget about stress, no really leave stress at the door whenever possible. It's the mind and body killer. Ever read "Dune"? Yes? Well then you know what I'm taking about. No? Well read the following closely then, this may just make your life feel so much less stressful. Oh, and everyone already knows that alcoholism will kill Don Draper, unless lung cancer kills him first.

Exact Drive's Tim Nichols sits down with Myles Younger to discuss how programmatic media buying makes people more important than ever.

Myles Younger is head of marketing and business development at Canned Banners, a platform for dynamic display ad creative.

Tim Nichols: You've been focused on ad creative for a long time now. What's got you thinking about media buying?

Myles Younger: In building out Canned Banners' dynamic display ad business, obviously we're going to be judged almost exclusively on the performance outcomes of the campaigns that we run. And top performance comes from a symbiosis between ad creative and media buying (among other ingredients). So in order to develop a successful platform, I can't focus solely on ad creative any more; Canned Banners is basically joined at the hip with whichever media buyer or DSP is running our creative. It's been an awesome learning experience.