As Executive Editor, Sarah oversees AdExchanger’s news and feature coverage and event content. Sarah has written extensively about publishers, sell-side technology and Google. Understanding and explaining the business implications of technically complex topics is her forte. Over her years at AdExchanger, she’s documented the rise and maturity of programmatic tech, as data-driven advertising has spread far and wide in its marketing applications.
From Instacart to Uber, a wide variety of digital businesses are realizing that they can spin up advertising businesses. Their inspiration? Amazon’s “other” revenue category. Composed mostly of advertising revenue, it’s proven to a slew of digital companies that they can gain profitability by pursuing the sky-high margins in advertising. On this week’s Big Story, […]
The $3.1 billion deal on AdExchanger’s radar this week? TransUnion’s acquisition of Neustar. The deal brings together an identity resolution company with a credit reporting agency. But why is identity being tied together through these two companies? And should this raise privacy red flags? To answer those questions, we bring on former Neustar executive Steven […]
As connected TV takes off, Amazon is making a bold move: It’s making its own TVs. Amazon – which already sells the Fire TV Stick and operates a CTV app store and an AVOD and SVOD service – is branching out into TV manufacturing, according to a report by Insider. What’s in it for the […]
China’s new privacy law, the Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL), is no GDPR – but it’s close. PIPL requires an opt-in and aims to help Chinese citizens get better control over their personal data. But the law exists alongside other more surveillance-focused policies, such as China’s recent requirement that video game companies collect the real […]
The ad management space is consolidating. Freestar acquired Sortable Wednesday in a deal that expands Freestar’s inventory by 30% and increases its staff from 90 to 130 people. Freestar, which is profitable, self-funded the acquisition. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The acquisition is “completely additive” on multiple fronts, Freestar CEO Kurt Donnell said. […]
The field of public ad tech and digital media companies is growing large – both in number of companies and their market value. To help us untangle all of the M&A, IPOs and SPACs, Progress Partners Chief Operating Officer Domenic Venuto explains how investors approach the digital media and advertising sector. One important tell for […]
Wall Street can’t get enough of ad tech – creating a hot market for stocks and making quarterly earnings a who’s who of ad tech companies. Not so long ago, the ad tech bellwethers were The Trade Desk and Magnite, but earnings season now features a parade of companies young and old: PubMatic, DoubleVerify, Viant, […]
Getting online shoppers to click and add a product to their cart – and then have that product ship cost-effectively to a customer – is the latest challenge for CPG companies. During earnings calls over the past week, leaders of CPG companies had to answer to investors about their ecommerce strategies, which have accelerated thanks […]
Connected TV has arrived – a bit earlier than programmers may have expected. The pandemic-related boom in streaming, along with record TV upfronts, means there’s going to be a “wild Q4” ahead as programmatic buyers scramble for access to streaming inventory. One key issue is that CTV measurement capabilities aren’t developed enough yet, noted Kelly […]
Will Xandr find a home with InMobi? As InMobi prepares for an IPO, we talk about the Axios report that the company is in talks to acquire Xandr. AT&T has been shopping the company formerly known as AppNexus around for months – so when will a buyer materialize? Ad tech’s stratospheric public market valuations should […]
What your colleagues and competitors think of digital advertising’s cookieless future was revealed in AdExchanger’s latest research report on identity. On this week’s episode, we delve into the juiciest bits and key insights from the report, which is available in full to our paid members. For example: Even as the industry pins its hopes on […]
AdExchanger’s 2021 Identity Special Report takes the pulse of leading digital marketing executives on identity, privacy and the end of third-party cookies. Here’s a snippet: The digital marketing industry is experiencing a period of transformational change. Third-party cookies, already blocked by default on Safari and Firefox, are being phased out by Chrome, the world’s most […]
When Google delayed the end of third-party cookies, ad tech’s first reaction was “stunned silence,” said Matt Barash, SVP of global publishing and platform partnerships at Zeotap and a self-described “ad tech socialite.” For this week’s episode, we talk through the fallout of Google’s decision to delay the phaseout of the third-party cookie by nearly […]
The teacher just gave the class an extension on a hard, confusing assignment. Third-party cookies won’t go away in Google Chrome until the end of 2023, a delay of nearly two years. Google said the decision would allow its Privacy Sandbox proposals to move further along. Currently, only three of more than 30 are in […]
We’re entering the end-game for third-party cookies, but an unlikely group could intervene to keep them alive: regulators. Last Friday, Google agreed to let UK watchdog group Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) approve its decision to remove third-party cookies. The move is unusual, reports senior editor Allison Schiff, because it’s an example of regulators guiding […]
IP address is a tell for several things, namely a user’s location – and it can be used to triangulate identity via fingerprinting. But soon that will no longer be the case, at least not in Apple’s ecosystem. Apple raised the privacy bar at its Worldwide Developer Conference on Monday, and IP address was in […]
The architect of Methbot was found guilty in a New York court last week. The verdict came nearly five years after the ad fraud scheme was first publicized back in December 2016. We dive into the most intriguing details of the case – from the likely political motivations behind the prosecution to the sophistication of […]
Epic has accused Apple of running a monopoly, and this week the trial concluded. Why should we care over in advertising land? While there have been antitrust cases in Europe for some time, now they’re happening on big tech’s home turf. The District of Colombia filed a case against Amazon this week, and of course […]
The advertising industry is awash in proposals for third-party cookie alternatives. But Google says it’s sitting out most of them because it doesn’t think they have a future. “We just don’t see some of the solutions being proposed as durable for the long term,” Google Ads VP and GM Jerry Dischler told AdExchanger before the […]
The upfronts kicked off this week with news of a megamerger between WarnerMedia and Discovery Communications. But Xandr isn’t coming along for the ride. AT&T’s ad tech acquisition remains with the telco. We can only speculate why, but one reason might be that AT&T is planning a second spinoff in light of the currently frothy […]
Just before launching its Discovery+ streaming service in January, Discovery recruited a new sales leader to evangelize its advanced TV ads. Jim Keller joined Discovery in December as EVP of digital ad sales and advanced advertising after spending time at NBCUniversal, MTV and – most recently – Hulu. “Anything delivered over an IP address, whether […]
The sun hasn’t been shining on Wall Street this week as tech stocks dipped precipitously – The Trade Desk among them. Despite turning in decent earnings, TTD’s stock dove by more than 25%, making it one of the most affected of the ad tech bunch. It was a surprising development after more than a year […]
The idea behind Ads.txt was simple: publishers create a public list containing the names of all the partners they work with, and buyers check that list before they buy. But even the simplest of ideas can get complicated when they go from paper to reality. Some publishers just said “yes” to every request to add […]
The Trade Desk beat its own expectations for Q1, but Wall Street wasn’t pleased. The stock is currently tumbling, down more than 25% in the hours after the earnings call. The Trade Desk reported revenue of $219.8 million and adjusted EBITDA of $70.5 million, which is 32% of revenue. The company said its adjusted EBITDA […]
Digital ad tech companies are making their play to control advertising on CTV. But it’s not easy to become a star of the big screen. Ad tech companies that make it big in CTV must earn their spot in a few ways. First, they must understand the supply constraints of CTV and find their niche. […]
Amazon’s “other” segment, which houses its advertising business, grew 73% YoY to $6.9 billion in Q1. “The advertising team has done a great job turning clicks into productive sales, and the advertising that results is valuable to us as well,” said Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky. While Amazon’s ads business grew due to traffic increases, its […]
One year after the pandemic led to a sharp fall in Alphabet’s ad spending, the company’s Q1 2020 ad revenue has more than rebounded, sending the stock upwards in after-hours trading. Alphabet revenue grew 34% in Q1 to $55.3 billion. The amount Google paid out to its partners (or traffic acquisition costs) trailed revenue, growing […]
Despite widespread DSP consolidation, some buyers still find their needs aren’t being served. So IPONWEB developed Bidcore, a customizable DSP for buyers with unusual needs or use cases, and who don’t want to optimize around CPA, click-through rate or viewability. In the past, ad tech companies would have asked IPONWEB to build them a white […]
Zeta Global filed its S-1 paperwork Monday. Zeta has not yet determined the number of shares it will offer or the price. Zeta – whose offering combines marketing tech, ad tech and data services – reported $368.1 million in 2020 revenue, a 20.3% increase from the year before. Adjusted EBITDA was $39.6 million, up 62.7% […]
The third-party cookie is halfway out the door, so CafeMedia is already ushering in its replacement: email-based IDs. The ad management firm started working with LiveRamp ATS (Authenticated Traffic Solution) eight months ago. ATS scrambles an email address and puts the user’s identity in a secure envelope for SSPs to open and resolve. Buyers then […]
