AdExchanger Guest Columnist
Articles By AdExchanger
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OPINION: Data-Driven ThinkingThe Trade Desk’s Blue Ocean Moment: How The DSP Can Rewrite Ad Tech’s Rules
The competitive set has shifted and it’s stacked against independent DSPs. But, instead of chasing what competitors already own, TTD can own what they can’t: trust.
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OPINION: The Sell SiderWhy Human Voices Still Matter In The Age Of AI
Human-made content will remain the most important source of information for consumers online. And our appreciation for human expression will only grow as we experience derivative outputs created by AI models.
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OPINION: Data-Driven ThinkingThe Guardrails Are Down: It’s Time For Advertisers To Rethink Social Targeting
New social media content moderation policies will enable connections with audiences that reflect a broader range of perspectives, expand inventory, and provide opportunities for contextual alignment.
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OPINION: Data-Driven ThinkingBid Collision Is Dead, Long Live Smart Retargeting
Almost a decade ago, running multiple retargeters across the same user base was a recipe for inefficiency. But the landscape shifted, and the data makes that clear.
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OPINION: The Sell SiderStop The Scraping Wars: Instead Of Fighting AI Search, Publishers Need To Take A Seat At The Table
As the quality of answer engines improves, people will click through to publisher websites less often. The solution isn’t to wage war against AI. It’s time to build a sustainable future for all stakeholders.
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OPINION: Data-Driven ThinkingHow Vanity Metrics Stole Marketing’s Credibility – And How CMOs Can Get It Back
As marketing fails to speak the language of business outcomes due to an overemphasis on vanity metrics, it is increasingly losing its seat at the decision-making table.
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OPINION: Data-Driven ThinkingThe Mirage Of Reach: Why Festival Marketing Exposes Everything Broken In Media Measurement
Brands spend millions activating around Coachella. Then they spend the next three months trying to figure out if any of it actually worked. It’s a reflection of our industry’s broken approach to measuring media effectiveness.
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OPINION: The Sell SiderCommoditization 2.0: How Agentic AI Could Undermine The Open Web’s Best Publishers
AI agents and so-called “super signal aggregators” are being framed as the saviors of premium publishers and advertisers who prioritize high-quality media. But these technologies could perpetuate programmatic’s worst practices.
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OPINION: Data-Driven ThinkingThe Real Growth Strategy: Blending Brand And Performance For Long-Term Impact
Overreliance on performance channels in pursuit of short-term gains creates fragility in the growth model, especially when brand equity is underfunded and unable to drive demand.
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OPINION: The Sell SiderIn-Banner Video Is Back, And It’s Eroding The Value Of Web Video
The return of in-banner video has resulted in a deluge of cheap video supply flooding the open web, driving down CPM rates for dedicated video inventory and creating user experience and ad quality concerns.
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OPINION: On TV & VideoCTV Is Not A One-To-One Channel, So Stop Buying It Like One
CTV advertisers have carried over one-to-one programmatic logic from display and online video into a channel that behaves nothing like them. We need to stop chasing CTV impressions and start chasing impact.
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OPINION: Data-Driven ThinkingQuality Over Time: The Long And Short Of Digital Ad Measurement
Measuring media quality is just the first step. A bigger challenge looms: assessing media quality against a marketer’s short-term and long-term goals.
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OPINION: Data-Driven ThinkingThe Death Of The DSP? How Ad Tech’s Cash Flow Crisis Threatens The Entire Ecosystem
The demise in recent years of legacy DSPs is not a glitch in the matrix; it’s a business model failure, leaving SSPs and publishers to pick up the pieces.
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OPINION: Data-Driven ThinkingFresh Meat: Cannes Lion Festival In Retrospect From An Industry Novice
Sometimes it takes an outsider to point out the obvious: There was a lot of talk about AI in Cannes, but where is the real ad tech innovation?
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OPINION: Data-Driven ThinkingCannes Lions 2025: A New Era Of Tech-Enabled Creativity And Collaboration
After a reenergizing week at the Cannes Lions festival, here are six observations on how our industry is changing to meet its new challenges.
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OPINION: Data-Driven ThinkingRetail Media’s Growing Pains: How To Push For Transparency Before The Bubble Bursts
When it comes to the red-hot retail media sector, history doesn’t have to repeat itself. Here’s how to add accountability and transparency to a space where those attributes are sorely lacking.
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OPINION: The Sell SiderFrom Clicks To Connections: Three Essential Tips For The Post-Traffic Era
With no-click generative AI search gaining steam, here’s how publishers can thrive when search traffic disappears.
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OPINION: Data-Driven ThinkingPivot, Don’t Panic: How Smart CMOs Turn Market Volatility Into Growth
Economic uncertainty provides the perfect scenario for demonstrating marketing’s essential role in driving growth, resilience and adaptability. Here are actionable strategies CMOs can take to thrive amid market volatility.
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OPINION: The Sell SiderDear Ad Tech: Don't Let Publishers Be An Afterthought
The past two decades have left publishers struggling to effectively compete with “easy buttons” from tech giants and UGC behemoths. The ad tech industry must proactively support publishers with solutions tailored to their needs.
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OPINION: Data-Driven ThinkingAntitrust Enforcement Works, But It Needs To Happen More Proactively
Retroactive reinforcement won’t be enough to ensure a fairer and more innovative ad market going forward. The advertising industry needs proactive antitrust enforcement.
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OPINION: Data-Driven ThinkingNew US State Children’s Privacy Laws Continue To Reshape Digital Marketing
2025 promises a proliferation of US state laws regulating the processing of children’s data, with new rules either already in effect or coming into force later this year.
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OPINION: On TV & VideoLinear TV Is About To Go The Way Of Radio. That’s A Good Thing
In the next two years, linear TV will be deprioritized so much that holding companies will begin outsourcing their linear buying.
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OPINION: Data-Driven ThinkingIs The IAB’s Trusted Server A Real Solution For Publisher Revenue Control?
Can the IAB Tech Lab’s Trusted Server initiative really help restore publishers’ ownership of monetization and wrestle back control from Big Tech and walled gardens?
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OPINION: Data-Driven ThinkingProgrammatic Reboot: Rebuilding Digital Advertising From The Ground Up
Programmatic promised clarity: automation, efficiency and measurable outcomes. What we got instead is complexity dressed up as optimization: a stack of acronyms performing trust theater.
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OPINION: Data-Driven ThinkingMarketing To Machines: A New Performance Strategy In The Age Of AI Agents
As AI agents begin to mediate everything from search to purchase, marketers are being forced to confront the reality that they must treat machines as customers.
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OPINION: Data-Driven ThinkingFour Data Readiness Tips For Retail And Commerce Media
Ad spending across RMNs and CMNs is still hindered by incomplete data access and connectivity. Here’s how to bridge that gap.
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OPINION: On TV & VideoNBA’s Local Ratings Slump: A Symptom Of The Shift From Cable To Streaming
Even with the amazing storylines, this NBA season brought a steep decline in local TV viewership. While it’s tempting to frame this as waning fan interest, these drops are symptoms of a media ecosystem in transition.
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OPINION: Data-Driven ThinkingGoogle Is Keeping Cookies, So Advertisers Will Keep Buying Junk Data In Bulk
We’re seeing the worst possible outcomes with the CPM-based buying approach. And Google’s recent decision to hang on to cookies indefinitely risks perpetuating the worst parts of the digital ad business.
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OPINION: Data-Driven ThinkingAfter Xandr: Why The Open Internet’s Future Hinges On Integration, Not Fragmentation
The era of fragmented, adversarial ad tech is winding down. A new paradigm is emerging defined by AI-first, end-to-end platforms and collaboration among buyers and sellers.
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OPINION: Data-Driven ThinkingWhat Political Campaigns Can Teach Brands After Google’s Latest Cookie Reversal
Political advertisers, by necessity, have built precise, privacy-conscious targeting strategies that work without relying exclusively on third-party data like cookies.