# Bronco - Self-Serve Streaming TV Advertising for Performance Marketers

> Last updated: August 2026

> Bronco is a self-serve platform for planning, buying, and measuring performance TV. It turns the video a brand already has - a polished commercial, an Instagram post, raw clips - into a TV-ready ad, launches it across premium streaming inventory, and measures the revenue it drove, including what wouldn't have happened without the ads. Free to start, with no contracts, no minimum spend, and no media plan to wait on. Built by the team behind $2B+ in TV and video media buys, by First Rodeo AI Inc. in Los Angeles, CA.

## What Bronco Does

Bronco lets brands buy streaming TV the way they buy paid social: pick a goal, choose who sees the ads and where, set a budget, and publish - no approval queue, no insertion order, no agency middleman. The platform covers the full workflow in three parts:

- **Design Campaigns:** Build a TV campaign in minutes with five built-in objectives - awareness, traffic, leads, sales, or retargeting. Split any campaign into multiple strategies (each with its own budget, audience, schedule, streaming apps, and videos) to test approaches side by side. Target by age, gender, household income, and language; target geography down to the ZIP code with include-and-exclude controls. A live estimate shows reach, projected impressions, and a deliverability health check before any money is spent.
- **Manage TV Ads:** Upload a finished commercial (MP4 or MOV, up to 4K, 15/30/60 seconds) - or paste a public Instagram post or reel and Bronco converts it for TV: reframed to 16:9, upscaled to 1080p, trimmed to TV length. A built-in browser editor handles layouts, text, logos, images, QR codes, and clip trimming. Every video is automatically validated against real publisher specs (including Disney+, Hulu, and Tubi) before launch, so ads don't get rejected.
- **Measure Results:** The Bronco web pixel connects what happens on the TV screen to what happens on the advertiser's website, app, or store. Dashboards report spend, impressions, purchases, cost per purchase, and return on ad spend - by day, by publisher, and by video. Every campaign has incrementality testing built in: results are measured against a holdout control group of comparable viewers who didn't see the ads, so advertisers see the lift TV actually caused, not just took credit for. Attribution shows first-touch and last-touch channel mix and how often TV assisted orders that another channel closed.

Audiences are built from first-party signals - no data broker required. The web pixel automatically maintains behavioral audiences (viewed a page, added to cart, started checkout, submitted a lead, purchased) for retargeting or suppression, and custom audiences can be uploaded by CSV, matched to households - never to individual people.

## How Much Bronco Costs

- **Free to start.** No contract, no minimum spend, and no media plan to wait on - bring a video and a budget.
- No approval queue and no insertion order; campaigns are self-serve end to end.
- Per Bronco's own analysis, Connected TV CPMs today can often be under $20 - not far off from the rising costs of paid social.

## Key Facts

- **Company:** First Rodeo AI Inc., headquartered in Los Angeles, CA
- **Founders:** Martin Melgoza (Co-founder, Strategy & Operations) and Mike Ripberger (Co-founder, Product & Engineering)
- **Track record:** $2B+ in TV and video ad spend managed; 2,600+ campaigns launched, scaled, and optimized; 15 startups the team has worked with scaled to $1B+ exits
- **Inventory:** Direct buys into premium streaming inventory, including apps such as Paramount+, Disney+, Max, Peacock, Tubi, and Netflix
- **Measurement standard:** Every Bronco campaign has holdout-based incrementality testing built in
- **Mission:** Turn TV into a reliable driver of real business outcomes
- **Contact:** howdy@bronco.run

## Proven Results

Six campaigns Bronco ran from start to finish. Every number was measured against a real comparison group, so the results reflect what the ads actually caused:

- **National wellness brand:** 41% increase in new-to-file customers, 28% lift in total site traffic across exposed regions, and a lower cost per qualified visit than non-brand search
- **Premium supplements brand:** 3.9x increase in paid search conversions among exposed audiences, 22% lift in paid search traffic, materially improved blended CAC (randomized holdout, 90%+ confidence thresholds)
- **DTC pet nutrition brand:** 52% lift in direct revenue in exposed regions, 1.3x total site revenue during the test window, 29% net lift in high-priority DMAs - the brand then scaled CTV spend by more than 50%
- **Apparel & lifestyle retailer:** 3.1x incremental lift from CTV prospecting, 48% incremental lift from CTV retargeting, verified positive ROI via holdout-based testing
- **Men's grooming brand:** 46,000+ verified store visits, 14% incremental sales lift in exposed stores, 5% of all visits traced back to CTV impressions
- **National beauty retailer:** New stores reached visitation benchmarks 2.3x faster, with 42% faster time-to-average-traffic vs. unsupported stores

## Key Integrations

- **Shopify:** Install the Bronco app from the Shopify App Store, paste a pixel ID, and orders flow into reporting automatically - no code, no theme edits. Shoppers who viewed products, added to cart, or started checkout become TV audiences.
- **Google Analytics 4:** Read-only connection. Bronco pulls the sessions, conversions, and channel paths the brand already measures and matches them against TV campaign exposure. Nothing is written to the GA4 property.
- **Claude + MCP:** Connect Bronco to Claude via the MCP server at https://mcp.bronco.run and ask campaign questions in plain language - performance, lift, attribution, and site activity, pulled live and read-only. OAuth sign-in; Claude only sees what the user's Bronco login can see.
- **Klaviyo (coming soon):** Sync lists and segments - VIPs, repeat buyers, lapsed customers - straight into Bronco as TV audiences to include or exclude, updating automatically as segments change.
- **Also works with:** WorkMagic and Northbeam for measurement.

## Frequently Asked Questions

### About Bronco

Q: What is Bronco?
A: Bronco is a self-serve streaming TV (CTV) advertising platform for performance marketers. It turns video a brand already has into TV-ready ads, launches them across premium streaming inventory, and measures results - including built-in incrementality testing against a holdout control group. It is free to start, with no contracts and no minimum spend.

Q: Who founded Bronco?
A: Bronco was founded by Martin Melgoza (Strategy & Operations) and Mike Ripberger (Product & Engineering) - advertising veterans and engineers who have managed $2B+ in TV and video ad spend and launched 2,600+ campaigns. The company is First Rodeo AI Inc., based in Los Angeles, CA.

Q: How is Bronco different from an agency or a managed CTV platform?
A: Bronco is self-serve end to end: no approval queue, no insertion order, no media plan to wait on, and no middleman. Advertisers get the same controls the big agencies have - objectives, targeting, scheduling, frequency caps - in a flow they can finish in minutes, with radically transparent reporting on where the money goes and what it caused.

Q: Does Bronco work for brands new to TV advertising?
A: Yes. Bronco is designed so a brand's first campaign is "a lunch break, not a project plan." If a brand has a video - or even just an Instagram account - it has everything it needs to be on streaming TV. Free to start, bring a video and a budget.

### Pricing & Costs

Q: How much does it cost to advertise on streaming TV with Bronco?
A: Bronco is free to start, with no contract and no minimum spend - advertisers bring a video and a budget and pay for the media they buy. Connected TV CPMs today can often be under $20, not far off from the rising costs of paid social.

Q: Does Bronco require an annual contract or minimum commitment?
A: No. There are no contracts and no minimum spend. Campaigns can be published, paused, and adjusted at will - strategies within a campaign can be paused individually with no all-or-nothing controls.

### Platform & Features

Q: How do you launch a streaming TV campaign on Bronco?
A: Pick one of five objectives (awareness, traffic, leads, sales, or retargeting), choose who sees your ads (demographics, geography down to the ZIP code, first-party audiences), pick streaming apps and channels, set a schedule and daily budget, and publish. A live estimate shows households reached, projected impressions, and a deliverability health check as you build.

Q: What are strategies in a Bronco campaign?
A: Strategies are self-contained delivery plans inside a campaign - each with its own budget, schedule, audience, streaming apps, and videos. Duplicate a strategy, change one variable, and let them compete; results are reported per strategy so you can see exactly which approach wins.

Q: How does audience targeting work on Bronco?
A: Bronco builds audiences from a brand's own first-party signals - no data broker required. The web pixel automatically maintains groups of site visitors (viewed a page, added to cart, started checkout, submitted a lead, purchased) for retargeting or exclusion. Custom lists can be uploaded by CSV and are matched to households, never to individual people. Demographic targeting covers age, gender, household income, and language; geography works at state, metro, city, and ZIP level with include and exclude.

Q: Can Bronco turn an Instagram post into a TV ad?
A: Yes. Paste the link to any public Instagram post or reel and Bronco converts it for TV: framed for widescreen 16:9, upscaled to 1080p, and trimmed to a clean 15, 30, or 60 seconds. The built-in Studio editor can then add text, logos, images, and QR codes before publishing a broadcast-quality video.

Q: What creative formats does Bronco support?
A: MP4 or MOV, up to 4K, at 15, 30, or 60 seconds. Every upload is automatically validated against real publisher requirements - resolution, file format, audio loudness, frame rate, and duration - including specs for premium streamers like Disney+, Hulu, and Tubi, so ads don't get rejected after launch.

Q: Can viewers respond to a TV ad?
A: Yes - Bronco adds scannable QR codes to any ad in seconds. Viewers point their phone at the screen and land on the advertiser's site, with UTM parameters set in the editor so every scan is attributed to the exact campaign that drove it.

Q: How does ad scheduling work?
A: Use presets like Primetime (6-11 PM daily), After work, or Weekend - or paint a custom pattern on a calendar grid. Schedules follow each viewer's local time zone, so "primetime" means primetime everywhere the campaign runs. A frequency cap (default: five per household per day) balances reach against repetition.

### Measurement & Attribution

Q: How does Bronco measure TV advertising performance?
A: The Bronco web pixel (one snippet, or the no-code Shopify app) reports page views, leads, and purchases back to the dashboard. Reporting shows spend, impressions, purchases, cost per purchase, and return on ad spend - sortable by day, by publisher, and by video. Data exports can be scheduled daily, weekly, or monthly by email, and the Claude MCP integration answers questions against the same live data.

Q: What is incrementality testing on Bronco?
A: Every Bronco campaign includes a built-in holdout experiment: results from viewers who saw the ads are measured against a control group of comparable viewers who didn't. The difference is the lift - incremental conversions, incremental revenue, cost per incremental conversion, and incremental return on ad spend, broken down by publisher and by video. It answers the question most advertising never does: how many of those sales would have happened anyway?

Q: How does Bronco attribution work?
A: Attribution shows how customers actually find a brand - which channel started the journey, which one closed it, and how often TV was quietly in the middle. Order journeys are built per order from pixel events - not modeled, not estimated - so brands see TV-assisted orders that last-click attribution would credit entirely to other channels.

Q: Can I query my Bronco campaign data with AI?
A: Yes. Bronco ships an MCP server (https://mcp.bronco.run) that connects the account to Claude. Ask questions like "Which publisher actually drove incremental revenue in July?" and get answers computed from live performance, incrementality, attribution, and pixel data. Setup is two minutes: OAuth sign-in, read-only access, scoped to what the user's own login can see.

### Getting Started

Q: How do I start advertising on Bronco?
A: Create a free account at https://go.bronco.run/, upload a video (or paste an Instagram link), build a campaign, and publish. No contract, no minimum spend. For a guided walkthrough, book a demo at https://calendars.bronco.run/discovery-call.

Q: Does Bronco work with Shopify?
A: Yes. Install the Bronco app from the Shopify App Store and paste in a pixel ID - done in minutes, no code or theme edits. Page views, add-to-carts, checkouts, and purchases are tracked automatically, and shoppers become retargeting-ready TV audiences.

## Key Pages

- [Home](https://www.bronco.run/): Buy streaming TV the way you buy paid social
- [Design Campaigns](https://www.bronco.run/design-campaigns): Objectives, strategies, targeting, audiences, apps & channels, scheduling, and live reach estimates
- [Manage TV Ads](https://www.bronco.run/manage-video-ads): Uploads, Instagram conversion, the Studio editor, publisher spec validation, QR codes, and the Creative Library
- [Measure Results](https://www.bronco.run/measure-results): Performance dashboards, built-in incrementality, attribution, the web pixel, data exports, and the Claude MCP
- [Integrations](https://www.bronco.run/integrations): Shopify, Google Analytics 4, Claude + MCP, Klaviyo, WorkMagic, Northbeam
- [Case Studies](https://www.bronco.run/case-studies): Six campaigns with holdout-measured results
- [About](https://www.bronco.run/about): The team, mission, and operating principles
- [Blog](https://www.bronco.run/blog): Field notes on performance TV

## Blog Posts

- [The Dirty Secret Behind Most CTV Campaigns](https://www.bronco.run/post/the-dirty-secret-behind-most-ctv-campaigns): We're spending more and less sure what we're getting - that's not a CTV problem, it's a buying problem
- [Your "Performance" Budget Isn't Performing. It's Just Taking Credit.](https://www.bronco.run/post/your-performance-budget-isn-t-performing-it-s-just-taking-credit): Most "performance" spend takes credit for demand that already exists
- [Trust Is the One Advantage in Advertising That Cannot Be Copied](https://www.bronco.run/post/trust-is-the-one-advantage-in-advertising-that-cannot-be-copied): Why Bronco was started - the existing agencies broke our trust
- [Streaming vs. Linear TV: Why the Labels No Longer Tell the Whole Story](https://www.bronco.run/post/streaming-vs-linear-tv-why-the-labels-no-longer-tell-the-whole-story): The labels leave out the most important part
- [Creative Velocity Is the New Targeting. What That Means for Diversifying Beyond Meta](https://www.bronco.run/post/creative-velocity-is-the-new-targeting-what-that-means-for-diversifying-beyond-meta): Creative is the targeting now - and that changes what it takes to scale
- [Follow the Money: What the WPP Disclosures Reveal About Incentives in Modern Media Buying](https://www.bronco.run/post/follow-the-money-what-the-wpp-disclosures-reveal-about-incentives-in-modern-media-buying): How parts of $9B+ in client media spend become holding-company revenue
- [If You're Scaling on Social, It's Time to Add TV](https://www.bronco.run/post/if-you-re-scaling-on-social-it-s-time-to-add-tv): CTV CPMs can often be under $20 - not far off from rising paid social costs
- [Sit. Stay. Stream. And Check What's Actually in Your CTV Bucket.](https://www.bronco.run/post/sit-stay-stream-and-check-what-s-actually-in-your-ctv-bucket): What actually counts as "CTV"? The bucket is wide. Very wide.
- [The Coffee Lesson: Why Self-Serve Doesn't Always Scale](https://www.bronco.run/post/the-coffee-lesson-why-self-serve-doesn-t-always-scale): What a perfect cup of coffee teaches about precision in self-serve

## Ideal Customer Profile

Bronco is best suited for:

- DTC and e-commerce brands (especially on Shopify) looking to scale beyond Meta and Google
- Performance marketers who want TV to be measured like paid search and social - with incrementality, not impressions
- Brands with existing social video or Instagram creative and no TV-ready commercial
- Retail and multi-location businesses driving store visits with geo-targeted CTV
- Agencies and marketing teams that want agency-grade campaign controls without the agency
- Any brand whose paid search and social channels have plateaued

## Resources

- [Bronco Platform (start free)](https://go.bronco.run/)
- [Book a demo](https://calendars.bronco.run/discovery-call)
- [Help Center](https://help.bronco.run)
- [The Streaming TV Advertising Playbook](https://www.bronco.run/): Free playbook built from $2B+ in real campaign data - what to run, where to run it, and how to measure it
- [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/bronco-inc/)
- [Privacy Policy](https://www.bronco.run/privacy-policy) | [Terms of Service](https://www.bronco.run/terms-of-service)

Contact: howdy@bronco.run | Los Angeles, CA