Platforms

Microsoft and LinkedIn both have advertising businesses. But Microsoft’s $26.2 billion acquisition of LinkedIn wasn’t about advertising. At least, that’s not the main reason. “It’s less about ad tech and more about mar tech,” said William Furlong, a former Bizo executive and current adviser and consultant. Forrester VP and principal analyst Melissa Parrish agreed. While […]

Agency buyers believe Snapchat’s partner program, which allows third parties to buy inventory, will help the messaging service migrate from a bespoke buy to a more central part of a media plan. “If you look at the scale and daily time spent, especially among millennials, you have to consider Snapchat a core reach vehicle,” said […]

Performance Horizon revealed Wednesday it has raised $15.4 million in Series C funding. The partner marketing platform helps large global corporations manage all their affiliate relationships in one place. The company plans to use the funds to double its workforce from 120 to 240 over the next year. Sixty percent of the new hires will […]

With TV upfront negotiations underway, digital tactics are wielding more influence as networks court buyers with cross-platform guarantees and enhanced data products. “You can still invest client dollars in proven media, but upfronts are now about online video partnerships you can make long-term investments in,” said Maureen Bosetti, the chief investment officer for Interpublic Group’s […]

As of Wednesday, there’s a new lord of the manor at AOL Platforms. Tim Mahlman, formerly president of publisher platforms at AOL, has been promoted to president of AOL Platforms, effectively filling the shoes left empty upon Bob Lord’s departure to IBM in April – but with one big difference. “It’s the first time AOL appointed […]

AppNexus and Taboola have connected with each other to enable buyers to purchase Taboola’s native placements programmatically. Eighty-five AppNexus buyers have already used this connection to buy on Taboola. The integration represents a step forward for programmatic native just as another huge native pool of supply disappeared: FBX, which will shut down in November. Taboola CEO Adam Singolda […]

Marketers can now target advertising on Pinterest using their CRM lists or mobile ad IDs, and expand those campaigns through lookalike targeting. The product update gives marketers a way to reach their existing customers, a la Facebook’s popular Custom Audiences product. “This is becoming a must-have in the marketplace because of the performance it drives,” […]

Impact Radius is bringing fraud detection in-house with the acquisition of Forensiq. The deal, announced Tuesday, helps create what Impact Radius CEO Per Pettersen calls “a system of record with built-in fraud detection.” Forensiq and Impact Radius are keeping the terms of the transaction secret other than to note it was a mixture of cash […]

Updated with details from the Microsoft/LinkedIn investor call. Microsoft’s surprise $26.2 billion deal to acquire LinkedIn, among the largest digital technology acquisitions ever if it goes through, has the potential to transform the competitive dynamics in the CRM software industry. It also holds the promise of rebirth for Microsoft’s moribund, outsourced digital advertising business, via […]

Merkle is introducing Publisher Addressable Marketplaces, which matches its advertisers’ CRM data with publishers’ subscriber data in order to target real people through partners like Pandora, Trusted Media Brands, Viant and LiveIntent. Publisher Addressable Marketplaces’ data onboarding and targeting capabilities are similar to Facebook’s hugely successful CRM matching program Custom Audiences, and its introduction comes […]

Snapchat added Moat and DoubleClick to its measurement arsenal Thursday. Moat will enable measurement based on viewability, audibility and human audiences. The Google DoubleClick ad server joins nine other measurement partners, including Sizmek and Innovid, to help ensure an ad has been served and to add reach and frequency data. With these third-party measurement tools […]

Kim Kardashian and pop star Taylor Swift are the only people with more social followers than Ellen DeGeneres. The popular talk show host’s brand transcends demographics and geographies, which has spurred a deeper shift into digital despite Ellen’s TV ratings strength. In May, Ellen Digital Ventures and Warner Bros. Television launched the Ellen Digital Network […]

On Tuesday, Pandora revealed it would be introducing two visual ad units at the end of the year: a mobile ad unit delivered within the same space that has the album art, and that adjusts based on the phone’s screen size; and muted video in a responsive display unit. Both are in beta with Express […]

After a late start, AppNexus is continuing to double down on video. The company launched a closed beta for video viewability measurement and reporting across its platform on Tuesday. The plan is to move into open beta by the end of Q2. The announcement comes a little less than three months after AppNexus took the […]

Facebook-owned Instagram debuted business profiles and account tools on Tuesday. While many personal accounts are used for business, Instagram formalized the system and added promotional capabilities like putting spend behind a post and basic targeting, measurement and reporting tools. While business accounts aren’t meant to be an enterprise-class solution, the vast majority of advertisers on Instagram […]

Kelly Liyakasa contributed. What a month for Facebook’s ad business. Late Thursday and early Friday, Facebook signaled plans to serve more ads to nonusers on its Facebook Audience Network (FAN). The company also moved to shutter two other ad tech components: its LiveRail exchange (parts of which had already been sunsetted) and its Facebook Exchange […]

“Data-Driven Thinking” is written by members of the media community and contains fresh ideas on the digital revolution in media. Today’s column is written by Tod Sacerdoti, vice president of display and video ad products at Yahoo. Ad fraud in video and display is nothing new – it’s an issue that has plagued the industry […]

Google is cracking open the gates on its AdWords demand. Its giant pool of search buyers will be able to dip into other exchanges when they need to find a user for retargeting campaigns. The move was buried in a blog post about mobile innovation Tuesday. The change makes Google far more open, benefiting buyers, […]

The long-rumored demise of Facebook’s desktop FBX will finally arrive. The social media giant will shut off its desktop retargeting tool Nov. 1. Partners buying through the FBX API will have to use a different one, said Matt Idema, Facebook’s VP of product monetization. Current partners include AppNexus, Criteo, AdRoll and MediaMath, among others. “FBX […]

Instagram announced Tuesday that it’s opening up its advertising Partner Program to a new category of member: media buyers. The program today is comprised of a set of about 50 vendors certified for Instagram’s ad tech, content marketing and community management services. Bringing media buying services into the fold is the natural next move for Instagram […]

In a nod to mobile’s growing importance for advertisers and its own bottom line, Google on Tuesday unveiled AdWords updates and local ad formats to help marketers execute mobile-focused ad campaigns. Advertisers can now connect more widely with Google Maps users and give consumers more information in their text ads. Google also gave manufacturers access to […]

A new Snapchat campaign from 20th Century Fox for “X-Men: Apocalypse” will drive awareness and ticket sales for the movie’s Friday premier. Snapchat has run plenty of branding-oriented campaigns, but this new effort is one of very few forays that include a direct-response component (in the form of a Fandango e-commerce call to action), a […]

It’s hard to scroll through Facebook without encountering some short-form video from NowThis (like Donald Trump “awkwardly sort of apologizing” to Fox News host Megyn Kelly) in your news feed, and the socially distributed media company wants it that way. Founded four years ago by BuzzFeed and HuffPo execs Ken Lerer and Eric Hippeau, NowThis […]

TV or digital? Birchbox is still making up its mind. The two aren’t mutually exclusive, of course, but the online beauty retailer has decided to press pause on its TV advertising efforts while it tests out the effectiveness of a targeted social-first brand campaign. “We turned off TV in February to make sure that we […]

The web gets surfed and apps get downloaded. That’s the way it generally works. But Android Instant Apps – the ability to stream apps without having to install them – changes the math on that equation. Google trotted out its new app regime at its I/O developers conference on Wednesday amongst other flashier fare – everything from […]

Facebook and Google may hoover up 85% of incremental digital ad dollars, but that doesn’t mean it’s time for the LUMAscape companies to pack it in. Facebook is “not where the smart money is being spent,” said Jim Payne, co-founder and former CEO of MoPub, speaking at the Acceleration show hosted by mParticle in New York […]

SAP entered the digital advertising market this week, creating a DSP and DMP from scratch it’s dubbing SAP Exchange Media (XM). Wolfgang Faisst, co-founder and head of SAP XM, acknowledged that despite an ecosystem of “thousands of ad tech companies,” SAP decided to step up because of demand for end-to-end integration. Because SAP XM connects […]

Exploding smartphone growth makes Brazil more than just a mobile market to watch – which is why German mobile performance marketing firm glispa is putting down local roots. On Tuesday, glispa announced the acquisition of Mobils, a 10-person mobile-focused digital agency based in Sao Paulo. Glispa declined to share how much it spent on the […]

In a significant expansion of its video ad offering, Facebook will bring video ad formats to its Instant Articles platform and to the external apps and sites in its Audience Network, the company announced Monday. It’s the first time the company will deliver video ads beyond its owned-and-operated properties – excluding its LiveRail video sell-side […]

Eliza Nevers, Christian Calderon and Michael Oiknine will participate in a panel discussion on mobile fraud at the May 24 CLEAN ADS I/O conference in New York. AdExchanger: What’s the single biggest thing marketers contending with mobile ad fraud should be focused on? MICHAEL OIKNINE, CEO of Apsalar: Fraud has become such a problem in large part […]