Platforms

Long-time ad tech exec Jeffrey Hirsch takes the reins of QuantumPath, a media-buying platform that uses AI to help with planning and campaign creation.

Meta is rolling out Reels trending ads, value rules beyond just conversions, upgrades to Threads and pixel-free landing page optimization.

GAM’s dinner with ad agencies sparked speculation that Google is preparing to spin off its bundled SSP and ad server as a remedy to its ad tech monopoly. But Google says it’s just part of the trend of SSPs going direct to buyers.

On Monday, PubMatic became the second sell-side platform to file a follow-on antitrust lawsuit against Google.

Late Friday evening, Google filed its proposed remedies to its ad tech monopoly to District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema, and unsurprisingly, they’re rather mild – and very different from what the Department of Justice is looking for.

Remedies in the federal search antitrust case against Google landed with a thud earlier this week. Most publishers and ad industry pundits were sorely disappointed.

CAPI integrations have moved from a nice-to-have to a necessity for anyone operating within walled garden environments. Now they’re laying the groundwork for an outcomes-driven ad ecosystem.

Is TTD forcing agencies to adopt the new Kokai interface despite claims they can still use the interface of their choice? Here’s what we were able to find out.

Last week, the DOJ and Google filed their respective witness lists and the exhibit lists for the remedy phase of the ad tech antitrust trial. Lots of familiar faces!

Last month, Spotify began making podcast inventory available programmatically, which is something buyers have been asking for, says Spotify’s Chloe Wix.

When The Trade Desk sneezes, ad tech catches a cold.

Why sue Google now, when so many years have passed? Because “the pattern of anticompetitive behavior continues,” OpenX CEO John Gentry tells AdExchanger.

The SSP is betting on the DOJ’s antitrust remedies, plus closer relationships with agencies, DSPs and mid-sized advertisers, to help it eat some of Google’s lunch.

While Reddit’s ad business is ascendent, it’s still working on a strategy for getting the most out of its generative AI deals.

NBCU’s streaming losses were down to $100 million in Q2 from $348 million year-over-year, representing significant progress as the platform nears break-even.

Meta is making a massive investment in AI because “we have a conviction that superintelligence is going to improve every aspect of what we do,” Mark Zuckerberg told investors.

FC Barcelona is giving the beautiful game an AI-powered upgrade.

The Trade Desk currently has no concrete plans to deprecate its legacy Solimar user interface in order to push adoption of its new UI, Kokai.

When WhatsApp began serving ads in mid-June, there were two main reactions. One, didn’t the founders always insist there would never be ads on WhatsApp? And two, what the heck took Meta so long?

A recent Google DV360 Help Center update had some advertisers panicking that invalid impressions served through Google’s ad platform would soon double. But now Google says that’s not really the case.

Meta introduced a set of new features Wednesday that gives advertisers more granular metrics for how they value traffic and ad campaign conversions .

Although furniture brand James & James was hitting its own aggressive revenue targets while primarily spending on search and social ads – the facts told a different story.

Happy first IPO-aversary, Reddit. (And happy 20th birthday.) The market got you a present. Reddit’s stock soared nearly 18% in after-hours trading on Thursday thanks to a revenue beat in the first quarter.

Meta teased new ad optimization offerings as it touted solid Q1 results. It also hyped its AI agents and its launch of a standalone AI app, while hinting at monetization opportunities.

A long-awaited development: Advertisers will soon be able to see around three of the most important transparency blockers in PMax.

Call Yahoo one of the converted. Yahoo DSP launched a new Conversions API (CAPI) product, following in the footsteps of Meta and other platforms such as Snap, TikTok and Pinterest with their own CAPI tools.

Alphabet had another stellar earnings report. But neither its leadership nor investors ever mentioned the two landmark ongoing antitrust suits. Chrome’s reversal on third-party cookies also never came up.

Monday was a busy day for antitrust attorneys in Washington, DC: It marked Day One of the the remedies phase of the Google search trial and the start of the second week of FTC v. Meta.

More competition between SSPs and ad servers should be a boon for publishers in the long term. But publishers will feel some growing pains if there is a sudden disruption in Google’s ad payouts or if their ad server fees increase.

The Google antitrust ruling will have wide-reaching implications for the tech industry at large, not just the ad businesses therein. But in the meantime, it’s only natural to see programmatic veterans letting off a bit of steam.