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Opaque Trading Desks; Hootsuite Acquires BrightKit

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roundup09052014Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here.

Marketer Mistrust

Marketers are still concerned about a lack of trading desk transparency – so worried, in fact, that investment in agency trading desks declined 15% YoY, according to a WFA report that surfaced Thursday. The hesitancy could explain why companies like Rocket Fuel are building programmatic products for marketers to license, wrote WSJ’s Jack Marshall. According to those surveyed, 9.5% of online media budgets are spent programmatically today.

Social Consolidation

Business-oriented social management platform Hootsuite snapped up BrightKit, a tool used by marketers such as Kentucky Derby and Dwell to customize their social marketing campaigns. Press release. The deal follows Mixpo’s acquisition of another social ads player, Facebook PMD ShopIgnite. AdExchanger story. Is social ad tech ripe for a shakeout?

YouTube Converts

YouTube is often perceived as an ocean of eyeballs – most suitable for upper-funnel goals. But among social media, it also happens to be a top driver of clicks and conversions, says a study via AOL Platforms, which analyzed data from 550 million clicks and 15 million conversions in 2014’s first quarter. “YouTube’s own search volume and preferential positioning on Google’s results help drive large amounts of traffic, of course. But when you get to YouTube, the content is rich, descriptive and usually helpful,” Convertro CEO Jeff Zwelling told VentureBeat. Facebook took a close second, followed by Google+ (really?). More.

Attributable IPG

Interpublic is expanding its mobile attribution capabilities through an investment in, and partnership with, Placed. “Mobile spend is the fastest-growing media category,” said IPG Media Lab managing partner Chad Stoller. “Placed allows our network to easily and confidently measure attribution and provides marketers with valuable, actionable data to help shape mobile spend.” Terms weren’t disclosed, but IPG CEO Michael Roth called the partnership an example of IPG “delivering the full promise of attribution and automation to our clients.” Read the press release.

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Must Read

Google Rolls Out Chatbot Agents For Marketers

Google on Wednesday announced the full availability of its new agentic AI tools, called Ads Advisor and Analytics Advisor.

Amazon Ads Is All In On Simplicity

“We just constantly hear how complex it is right now,” Kelly MacLean, Amazon Ads VP of engineering, science and product, tells AdExchanger. “So that’s really where we we’ve anchored a lot on hearing their feedback, [and] figuring out how we can drive even more simplicity.”

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How PubMatic Countered A Big DSP’s Spending Dip In Q3 (And Our Theory On Who It Was)

In July, PubMatic saw a temporary drop in ad spend from a “large” unnamed DSP partner, which contributed to Q3 revenue of $68 million, a 5% YOY decline.

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Paramount Skydance Merged Its Business – Now It’s Ready To Merge Its Tech Stack

Paramount Skydance, which officially turns 100 days old this week, released its first post-merger quarterly earnings report on Monday.

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EssilorLuxottica Leans Into AI To Avoid Ad Waste

AI is bringing accountability to ad tech’s murky middle, helping brands like EssilorLuxottica cut out bots, bad bids and wasted spend before a single impression runs.

The Arena Group's Stephanie Mazzamaro (left) chats with ad tech consultant Addy Atienza at AdMonsters' Sell Side Summit Austin.

For Publishers, AI Gives Monetizable Data Insight But Takes Away Traffic

Traffic-starved publishers are hopeful that their long-undervalued audience data will fuel advertising’s automated future – if only they can finally wrest control of the industry narrative away from ad tech middlemen.