Strange SERP Prioritizing

I plugged the Keyword "Media Buying" in Google, and according to the top 10 Search results, it's a way too competitive keyword. Investopedia was dominating the Zero position "Featured Snippets," and in the Second position, SmartyAds comes in. With only 3 Links DA 51 PA 29 And in the ninth place, thebalancemb comes in with DA80 PA39 and 105 Links.
How come Smartyads is ranking with such metrics, keep in mind that, the topical ration of both sites are equal. However, thebalancemb, has a better silo structure.
Any explanations?

Compare these two snippets




If both were presented at the same time and you did not know anything about each of the pages, which would you probably click for the given query?

When you reach top 10, your metrics become useless and there is a completely new fight to rank for the 1st position: CPC and other ratios. Some companies seem to not adapt to the new structured data mechanisms.

take a look at these 2
https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/smartyads.com?ver=classic 35% bounce rate, 3.7 pages per view, 4.46 min avg stay
https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/thebalancesmb.com?ver=classic 84% bounce rate, 1.25 pages per view, 1.51 min avg stay


smartyads by far is much more engaging site than the other one; hence higher serp position

Awesome explanation @SirLouen. You are correct, smartyads seems to be much smarter and understand the concept that is why Google is ranking them higher than their competitors.

That's only YOUR results....

When I search "media buying" then investopedia or thebalancemb do not appear at all on the first page....

But smartyads is also in position 2....

Keep in mind google now uses around 200 ranking factors.... Just looking at DA and number of links is useless...
The engagement metrics someone posted here before are a great example....

When google realizes that visitors dont use your site you can have the best backlink profile in the world and will still not rank...