AppLovin

Gaming apps are filled with ads for more gaming apps. Why not other advertisers? We go inside AppLovin’s play to bring non-gaming advertisers into the fold.

Liftoff used its market debut to school investors on mobile ad tech – and make the case that travel, finance and shopping apps could be its next growth engine.

Two years ago, AppLovin launched an ecommerce beta program to bring in non-gaming advertisers. Now it’s launched a consumer ads segment with ambitions to take on the Big Tech platforms.

“We’re deemed a new bucket, so a testing category,” AppLovin CEO told investors regarding its nascent consumer and ecommerce ads business. “And to graduate up takes time. This stuff compounds over quarters and years.”

Everyone’s investing in AppsFlyer; NBCU launches Rock Studios, a creative studio for brand integrations; and Meta wants to hop on the TV bandwagon.

Marketers must become memelords now; Yahoo has incurred the wrath of Apollo; and AppLovin is going hybrid.

The Trade Desk overhauls ID partner payments; investors downplay their software holdings; and Kalshi’s “we don’t do death markets” campaign may be backfiring.

Agentic commerce can’t stop, won’t stop; Perplexity is officially done with its ads business; and AppLovin may launch its own social media platform.

Twitch gets into pause ads; CEOs would love to stop talking about AI agents; and so would brands and publishers, actually!

AppLovin’s profits and revenue are skyrocketing—but investors aren’t buying the story, sending shares tumbling 20%.

Wall Street is falling out of love with SaaS; OpenAI has an “ads integrity” unit; and the Super Bowl is getting more personalized.

We break down some of the most interesting financial trends coming out of Q3 earnings reports, and what rises to the level of being worth covering in the first place.

AppLovin may be facing heat over its data privacy practices, but soaring profits and big AI ad bets have investors cheering anyway.

The pivot to AI has led to a gap in many SaaS and ad tech companies’ payment models; AppLovin bounces back in Q2; and Grok might be your newest media planner.

The Trade Desk makes the S&P 500, triggering a stock price rebound; Estée Lauder is the latest big legacy brand to embrace influencers; and CMOs are trying to measure their return on AI, but it’s tricky.

AppLovin’s CEO has reluctantly embraced the spotlight; Democrats are still failing on digital ads; your daily TikTok habit might actually be a good thing.

Google’s pivot on IP addresses shows it fears competition; the FTC investigates media watchdogs for advising brands not to spend on X; and Mondelez accuses Aldi of copying its snacks.

AppLovin has Axon, and now Unity has Vector AI, which was made generally available to all Unity advertisers and developers on Wednesday.

The wave of CDP consolidation is riding strong. Plus, AppLovin CEO Adam Foroughi responded to reports that short sellers are targeting the company.

AppLovin’s stock popped by more than 28% in after-hour’s trading Wednesday on the news that it plans to offload its entire apps business at a $900 million asking price by next quarter.

What is incrementality testing? “I’ve been doing more interviews with journalists lately and realize I need a better answer to this question,” says Haus Head of Strategy Olivia Kory.

AppLovin’s ecommerce advertising beta program has sparked optimism and speculation. Plus, the results of YouTube’s auto-reply program have been mixed.

On Tuesday, mobile video ad platform LoopMe bought mobile monetization platform Chartboost from mobile game publisher Zynga. That’s a lot of mobile. But with more scale and direct connections to app publishers, said LoopMe CEO Stephen Upstone, “more brand dollars are going to move into the app environment.”

Publicis outperforms its agency holding company rivals because of three primary factors: technology strategy, leadership and deal-making.

AppLovin might be the next breakout in retail media. Plus, some advertiseres have already turned off TikTok Smart+.

Advertisers worried about MFA could take a cue from the mobile app ecosystem and focus on performance instead of viewability. 

In today’s newsletter: AppLovin raises $144 million and buys video shopping app Flip; Google agrees to disclose that it collects data from Incognito users; and why Trader Joe’s is (and isn’t) the Shein of grocery stores.

In today’s newsletter: Microsoft Edge debuts its Ad Selection API, a PAAPI competitor; the EU’s DMA is live; and OhHello aims to help ad industry employees network.

How does AppLovin’s AI-powered targeting software work? Who knows. And other musings on AppLovin’s Q4 earnings.

Tastemade taps Wurl for performance marketing campaigns that direct viewers to its FAST channels while lowering customer acquisition costs.