AdExchanger Guest Columnist
Articles By AdExchanger
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OPINION: The Sell SiderMedia In 2026: From Managed Decline To Ruthless Independence
The era of “managed decline” is over; the era of existential clarity has begun. Publishers are no longer guessing what the post-platform world looks like. We are living in it.
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OPINION: The Sell SiderThe Open Internet Can Still Win If Buyers and Sellers Unite Around Radical Transparency
Unauthorized ID stuffing, rampant reselling and misaligned signals inflict incredible damage on the programmatic ecosystem. If publishers want to compete with the walled gardens, we must raise our standards.
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OPINION: Data-Driven ThinkingWhen The Last Click Disappears: How AI Shopping Breaks Attribution And Rejuvenates Brand-Building
AI shopping agents are breaking the traditional attribution loop. Marketers must ensure that AI is aware of their brand and track how that awareness influences ecommerce outcomes.
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OPINION: Data-Driven ThinkingHow To Tell If An AI Vendor Will Still Matter In Two Years
Almost everything in AI feels big. But are you looking at the next Gangnam Style or the birth of a new industry? Here’s how to assess whether an AI vendor is likely to matter in two years.
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OPINION: Data-Driven ThinkingAI Is Bringing MFA To Social Media. Here’s How Advertisers Can Avoid It
For years, MFA was a mostly web-based problem. Now, generative AI has supercharged the made-for-advertising model, and it’s infecting social media feeds and vertical video platforms.
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OPINION: Data-Driven ThinkingBroadsign’s Big Move Isn’t The Endgame. It’s The Opening Gambit
Broadsign may actually be building a platform that will make an attractive acquisition target down the road. And one of the major cross-platform Big Tech players feels like the most likely buyer.
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OPINION: Data-Driven ThinkingCTV Is Less Transparent Than YouTube. That Should Alarm Everyone
CTV spending is flattening, performance is plateauing and buyers are hesitant to push budgets further. The reason is not complicated. When buyers cannot see what they are buying, they cannot commit their spend with conviction.
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OPINION: Data-Driven ThinkingSelf-Driving Advertising Is A Myth: Why Automation Can’t Replace Creative Judgment
Generative AI is the new ad land obsession: a shiny promise of a fully autonomous world of self-driving advertising. But behind the hype lies the costly delusion that automation can replace judgment and more content somehow means better marketing. We’ve entered the age of machine-made abundance, where content can be generated faster than it can […]
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OPINION: Data-Driven ThinkingWhy Weakening CIPA Would Hand Big Tech A Free Pass On Data Abuse
With privacy under unprecedented attack by data brokers and social media, it is the wrong time to weaken CIPA’s private right of action protections, as has been proposed in California Senate Bill 690.
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OPINION: Data-Driven ThinkingThe Truth About AI In Marketing Measurement: What Works, What Doesn’t And What It Costs You
When it comes to complex techniques like media mix modeling, the field is awash with false promises about the benefits that AI can offer.
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OPINION: On TV & VideoThe Illusion Of Complexity: How CTV’s Power Brokers Keep Publishers In The Dark
Confusion in CTV isn’t a natural byproduct of a maturing market; it’s an outcome of how distributors protect their pricing power.
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OPINION: Data-Driven ThinkingAI Slop Is The New MFA, And We All Need To Fight It
The real challenge is drawing a clear line between the AI-generated content that adds value and the kind that erodes trust and leads to significantly lower ad effectiveness.
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OPINION: Data-Driven ThinkingWhy Meta’s Exit From MRC Audits Should Be A Wake-Up Call For Marketers
Social CPMs have risen. The ability to find incremental audiences on social platforms has declined. Add the growing brand-safety concerns, and the equation looks even worse.
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OPINION: Data-Driven ThinkingWhy Your First AdCP Project Is Probably Going To Fail
It won’t fail because the protocol is bad; it will fail because you’ve been sold a simplistic dream – a “universal API” for ad tech – and that’s what you’re budgeting for.
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OPINION: The Sell SiderWhy The Future Of Publisher Monetization Depends On Transparency, Not Volume
Our industry has done a terrible job rewarding publishers for monetization choices that align their supply to quality and outcomes vs. short-term yield bumps. But is it overly optimistic to think The Trade Desk’s recent moves prove that’s changing?
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OPINION: Data-Driven ThinkingAdCP And The Math Of Agentic AI: Building For Today's Economics, Not Tomorrow's Dreams
Understanding where AI agents make financial sense today is the difference between building a sustainable competitive advantage and burning through your margins in pursuit of buzzwords.
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OPINION: The Sell SiderA Market Built On Mistrust: Why Disputes Like The Transaction ID Debacle Keep Rocking Ad Tech
To get to the heart of the TID debate, you have to understand the definition of a healthy marketplace and how our tendency to limit transparency for the other side of the supply chain is holding us back.
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OPINION: Data-Driven ThinkingPersonalization Isn’t Everything: The Case For Marketing That Brings People Together
As the pendulum swings hard toward 1:1 personalization, a critical question emerges: Just because we can personalize every interaction, does it mean we should?
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OPINION: The Sell SiderWhat The Google Trial Is Missing: Data, Not Auctions, Will Decide The Fate Of The Open Web
The fate of the open web will be decided on who controls the data that drives monetization and the AI that determines distribution. Google controls both, and proposed remedies to its ad tech monopoly do not address this imbalance.
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OPINION: The Sell Sider
Stop Debating And Start Acting: A Unified Front Against AI Is Publishers’ Only Hope
Publishers must coalesce to gain a credible bargaining position and stop the bleeding caused by AI search. From there, we must put the processes in place to actually operate a licensing mechanism.
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OPINION: Data-Driven ThinkingSearch Without Clicks: Rethinking Brand SEO In An AI-Fragmented Journey
ChatGPT and others continued the fragmentation of the search journey, which today hops between platforms and intents. The funnel no longer exists. Here’s how to pivot your brand’s SEO/GEO strategy.
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OPINION: Data-Driven ThinkingAI Disclosure Requirements: Navigating State Laws And Platform Rules
The number and scope of U.S. laws that require advertisers to disclose the use of AI are limited. But there are some restrictions and guidelines that advertisers must follow to ensure their compliance.
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OPINION: Data-Driven ThinkingHow To Keep Agencies Honest On Principal Media Deals And Avoid Unaccountable Arbitrage
Principal-based buying isn’t inherently bad. When incentives are aligned, clients get more precision and speed than traditional agency models often allow. The issue isn’t the mechanism; it’s the incentives.
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OPINION: Data-Driven ThinkingThe High Cost Of Bad Measurement: Why Randomized Geo Experiments Are The Gold Standard
The real risk isn’t in running robust tests; it’s in wasting money or cutting high-performing channels based on misleading conclusions from bad measurement.
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OPINION: Data-Driven ThinkingBeyond The Hype: How Agentic AI Can Finally Unite Marketing’s Creative And Scientific Sides
Marketing has long struggled to prove itself as a growth engine. What if agentic AI isn’t the threat many fear but the breakthrough marketing always needed?
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OPINION: Data-Driven ThinkingTo Build Or Not To Build: 5 Agency Tips For Strategic Tech Investment
Agencies that dismiss in-house development are limiting their potential for differentiation. Here are five questions to ask yourself before committing to in-house tech.
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OPINION: Data-Driven ThinkingSSPs Are Facing Extinction – And Only Bold Differentiation Can Save Them
SSPs are staring at their own demise. And it’s because, for over a decade, SSPs have positioned themselves as agnostic platforms.
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OPINION: Data-Driven ThinkingNo More Sketchy Data: Why ‘Close Enough’ Won’t Work In Marketing’s AI Era
The old approach to media and measurement is no longer sustainable. AI is now embedded across every step of the media value chain, and AI is only as good as the data it’s fed.
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OPINION: On TV & VideoNew Channel, Same Old Tricks: How Legacy Web Tactics Are Undermining CTV Advertising
CTV, like digital display before it, is facing fraud and mislabeled information. The prevailing advice for advertisers is to go directly to the networks and streaming platforms. However, buying direct comes with a fraud risk itself.
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OPINION: On TV & VideoFrom Branding To Action: Best Practices For Using QR Codes In Performance CTV
Concrete findings on how effective QR codes are at driving ad interactions are now available, and some industry best practices are emerging.