Optimizing ad distribution with a custom-built platform for a leading marketing company

America First Advertising is a leading marketing company that distributes its clients' advertisements across a network of screens located in various regions of the United States. The company, which started in 2020, aimed to give businesses a way to reach more customers through digital signage in multiple locations without stretching their budgets. Today, they operate over 365 screens and are constantly expanding.

Initially, the team managed client interactions using Airtable, along with some custom integrations. This worked well at first, but as the company grew, it became clear that this setup wasn’t sustainable. The manual effort involved in processing payments and tracking data became too time-consuming, showing the need for a more efficient system.

The America First Advertising platform is designed to:

- Give admins a comprehensive view of their customers and subscriptions.
- Allow customers to order new ads and manage existing campaigns.
- Process payments for subscriptions and orders through Stripe.
- Enables effortless partner integration for a smooth cross-network experience.
- Support the development of new features and the platform's expansion.

As America First Advertising grew, the company faced some big challenges. They needed to bring together different services—Airtable for CRM, Square for payments, and Optisigns for ads and screens—into one system. Moving all the user data from these separate platforms into a single, easy-to-use platform was a complex task. On top of that, they had to work with a limited Optisigns API to get real-time data from physical devices and screens. The company also wanted to make the platform more engaging for users by improving its features.

To tackle these challenges, we began by pinpointing the business goals and aligning them with high-level requirements, which we then refined into detailed specifications. We proceeded to create design layouts and set definitive priorities for development tasks, ensuring the system architecture was robust enough to support scalability and efficiency.

We built the application from the ground up, integrated the Optisigns API to facilitate real-time data flow, and managed the migration of existing users and their data seamlessly. This comprehensive approach ensured a smooth transition and enhanced functionality for all users.