Kargo has released Karlo, a self-serve, AI-powered media buying platform designed to give smaller businesses access to enterprise-level advertising technology.

Advertising platform Kargo announced the general availability of Karlo on Thursday. The new tool is a self-serve, agentic media buying platform specifically designed for smaller teams and businesses in the retail and fashion apparel sectors. It aims to provide these businesses with the same creative and media technology that Kargo has developed over the past two decades, but in a simplified format.

Platform Capabilities and Integration

Karlo is powered by Kargo’s existing Creative Science and Media Intelligence platforms. By combining premium audience data with contextual signals, the system allows smaller teams to plan, create, and activate advertising campaigns across social media, connected TV (CTV), and the open web from a single interface. The platform is designed to automate processes that previously required enterprise-scale budgets and dedicated staff to manage multiple buyers for different channels. According to Kargo founder and CEO Harry Kargman, the platform distinguishes itself by incorporating existing creative assets into real-time decision-making, scoring, and adjustments. Unlike tools that focus solely on bidding and targeting, Karlo integrates creative performance into the campaign loop. The company stated that the platform is not a "watered-down" version of its enterprise offerings, but rather a more accessible version of the same technology.

Performance and Use Case

The platform has already been utilized in an Ad Council campaign, where it reportedly helped drive a 21 percent lift in ad recall and a 10 percent gain in aided awareness. By consolidating CTV, social, and open web buys into a single flow built around one audience target, the system evaluates performance data to allow for live campaign improvements. DJ Perera, chief media officer at the Ad Council, noted that the platform provided an innovative way to engage audiences with mental health messaging. Kargman emphasized that the tool addresses the fragmentation often faced by smaller businesses, whose customers are spread across many platforms despite the businesses having fewer resources to reach them.