Home Ad Exchange News Snap Offers More Ad Credits; YouTube Bids Conservatively On Original Video Content
Ad Exchange News

Snap Offers More Ad Credits; YouTube Bids Conservatively On Original Video Content

By AdExchanger

SHARE:

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

Valley Pally

Snap is giving away more free ads, this time to startups associated with tech incubators like Y Combinator, Rough Draft Ventures and Dorm Room Fund, Recode reports. Startups or former startups from these programs will get hundreds of dollars in free inventory, early access to new ad products and access to Snap’s creative tools. Snap can improve the health of its auction by increasing the number of bids – even if it has to underwrite some of them. More. Related in AdExchanger: Snap’s CPMs have been falling since the company opened its programmatic auction because of low bid density.

Real Original

While Amazon and Netflix pour money into original content, YouTube is notably absent from the studio frenzy. To be fair, YouTube will spend hundreds of millions on programming this year, but that’s flat compared to last year and pales in comparison to Amazon’s expected $5 billion and Netflix’s expected $8 billion in investments. Some investors are worried parent company Alphabet risks falling behind in the fight for TV dollars and attention, Bloomberg reports. More. Despite its soft spending, YouTube TV, the company’s subscription bundle, is raising prices to $40 per month after inking a deal with Turner.

Monkey Business

A study published in peer-reviewed journal PLOS One explored whether monkeys develop affinities for certain brand logos when those logos are displayed repeatedly alongside images of high-status monkeys in their group (and genitals). In other words, beer commercials. The rhesus monkeys in the test – the males in particular – showed a marked preference for sexually associated images. “The power of sex and status in advertising emerges from the spontaneous engagement of shared, ancestral neural circuits that prioritize information useful for navigating the social environment,” the researchers write. More.

But Wait, There’s More!

You’re Hired!

Must Read

Jamie Seltzer, global chief data and technology officer, Havas Media Network, speaks to AdExchanger at CES 2026.
AI

CES 2026: What’s Real – And What’s BS – When It Comes To AI

Ad industry experts call out trends to watch in 2026 and separate the real AI use cases having an impact today from the AI hype they heard at CES.

Commerce

New Startup Pinch AI Tackles The Growing Problem Of Ecommerce Return Scams

Fraud is eating into retail profits. A new startup called Pinch AI just launched with $5 million in funding to fight back.

Comic: Shopper Marketing Data
Commerce

CPG Data Seller SPINS Moves Into Media With MikMak Acquisition

On Wednesday, retail and CPG data company SPINS added a new piece with its acquisition of MikMak, a click-to-buy ad tech and analytics startup that helps optimize their commerce media.

Privacy! Commerce! Connected TV! Read all about it. Subscribe to AdExchanger Newsletters
Marketers

How Valvoline Shifted Marketing Gears When It Became A Pure-Play Retail Brand

Believe it or not, car oil change service company Valvoline is in the midst of a fascinating retail marketing transformation.

AdExchanger's Big Story podcast with journalistic insights on advertising, marketing and ad tech
PODCAST: The Big Story

The Big Story: Live From CES 2026

Agents, streamers and robots, oh my! Live from the C-Space campus at the Aria Casino in Las Vegas, our team breaks down the most interesting ad tech trends we saw at CES this year.

Monopoly Man looks on at the DOJ vs. Google ad tech antitrust trial (comic).
antitrust

2025: The Year Google Lost In Court And Won Anyway

From afar, it looks like Google had a rough year in antitrust court. But zoom in a bit and it becomes clear that the past year went about as well as Google could have hoped for.

Popular

  1. Jamie Seltzer, global chief data and technology officer, Havas Media Network, speaks to AdExchanger at CES 2026.
    AI

    CES 2026: What’s Real – And What’s BS – When It Comes To AI

    Ad industry experts call out trends to watch in 2026 and separate the real AI use cases having an impact today from the AI hype they heard at CES.

  2. Commerce

    Getting Lost In The Protocols At NRF’s Big Show 2026

    Retail’s Big Show, the annual NRF event in New York City, was big on agentic commerce, unsurprisingly, as well as influencer and creator marketing, which was an eye-opener.

  3. CTV Roundup

    CTV Is Stuck In Its Growing Pains. Can AI Save the Day?

    Returning to the news desk after a year away from CTV beat reporting is like discovering a time capsule with the industry’s core dilemmas. One thing that has changed, however, is the CTV industry’s infatuation with agentic AI.

  4. Marketers

    Linkby Raises $15 Million For its Hybrid PR And Affiliate Marketing Network

    Linkby, which connects brands with publisher content that advertisers pay for based on reader engagement, announced its $15 million Series B on Tuesday.

  5. Comic: Revenue "Sharing" (starring Marck Zuckerberg and Sundar Pichai)
    Publishers

    Partnerize Wants To Reimagine Affiliate Attribution – And It Doesn’t Involve Clicks

    Traffic is down, but publisher content is still driving purchases. Partnerize’s new attribution model lets publishers see what’s working and strike fair compensation deals.