commerce

Machine learning tech is consuming open web ad budgets as big walled gardens consolidate media, data, tech and audiences inside their own fortresses.

Hey readers! This is James Hercher, with the latest AdExchanger Commerce dispatch. This week, we’ll highlight a few recent CPG earnings reports, during which legacy food and beverage brands appear more optimistic about their staying power than their startup competitors.

Melanie Babcock has been at The Home Depot for almost 10 years, starting in marketing. But, recently, she was made VP of Retail Media+ and monetization in February, with her responsibilities shifting to focus entirely on the revenue-generating ad business.

The phrase “subscription fatigue” typically applies to consumers tiring of the ever-growing number of media and entertainment packages. But subscription fatigue could also describe how DTC and ecommerce brands feel about their SaaS costs and vendor rosters.

Recurrent Ventures is ramping up its focus on programmatic direct and PMPs to make up for flagging open auction revenue. Marketers now have access to Recurrent’s 28 publisher brands through Audigent’s private marketplaces.

A legendary anecdote by Restoration Hardware CEO Gary Friedman recounts how, almost 10 years ago, Restoration’s marketing team pushed to double its budget because search ads were converting customers at unbelievably low costs. Friedman asked which of Restoration Hardware’s 3,200 keywords drove sales. “Restoration Hardware” was the top performer – followed by 21 common misspellings of […]

Temu is buying its way into the ecommerce business. Plus, reconciling philosophical views on data privacy with a reality that’s more ho-hum and bureaucratic.

I’m James Hercher, AdExchanger senior editor and your guide this week as we contemplate Temu, an empty shell of an ecommerce business that is propelled by paid media and … not much else.

On Tuesday, Criteo acquired Brandcrush, a small Australian ad startup that manages physical retail campaigns, including in-store signage, coupon circulars, free sampling and miscellaneous inventory that surrounds a grocery store.

It’s not hard to understand why Meta is prioritizing ecommerce advertising with Advantage+ Shopping campaigns, Shops and Checkout on Facebook and Instagram. Meta must reignite its overall advertising business.

The ad agency holding company WPP is on the up and up and remains confident in its clients’ continued investment in marketing projects despite a challenging macroeconomic environment. WPP is “well positioned to deliver sustainable, long-term growth” after seeing broad-based growth in 2022, said CEO Mark Read during the company’s earnings report on Thursday.

This week, we dive into Shopify, and its potential as a uniquely positioned purchase data supplier to the advertising industry with a product called Shopify Audiences.

Hey! This is James Hercher, AdExchanger’s senior editor and commerce industry beat reporter. Welcome to the inaugural dispatch of AdExchanger’s Commerce Newsletter.

Growth marketing firm Power Digital has acquired marketing consultancy Sproutward to strengthen its data and analytics chops. The acquisition is Power Digital’s fifth in the last four years.

In 2022, retail media grew to include practically any business with a first-party identity graph, purchase data and a claim to ears or eyeballs. Despite the buzz, however, retail media has a long way to go before the category is mature.

Brand safety has a hypocrisy problem. Violence that gets a pass when it’s a fictional TV show becomes flagged if it’s part of an online news story. But to what end? Plus: what Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales results portend for retailers’ prospects in Q4 and beyond.

The Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday online shopping bonanza was in full effect this year. But it’s hard to make judgements about whether this season is helping buoy retailers and brands as in years past

Founded in 2016, the male grooming company Manscaped started out primarily as a performance marketing engine. The products were simply a way for the brand to use its expertise in social media marketing and direct-to-consumer dynamics. Fast-forward six years, and Manscaped has broadened beyond one product and mobile performance marketing. In addition to launching a […]

Walmart and Target each had a similar warning for investors when they reported earnings this week. The two major US retailers expect a modest Q4 and spoke of early signs that consumers are dramatically changing their shopping patterns (yet again).

Multitouch attribution has fallen into disrepair. Facebook and Google platform attribution is a mess. User-level tracking is going the way of cigarette smoking during a pregnancy. So, what’s left for digital advertisers who need to bring performance measurement back to their media plans? Incrementality testing, it seems. “I was a little bit skeptical as to […]

Bill Michels knows programmatic data. For the past couple years, he’s led The Trade Desk’s entire product group. Now, he’s headed to Moloco, where he’s starting as general manager of the company’s retail media business unit.

Walmart Connect has gotten a lot more Connect-y of late. Now the retail media platform is striking partnerships to measure social commerce on TikTok and Snap, CTV ads on Roku and live-shopping content with companies Firework and TalkShopLive. The Walmart ad business has had bursts of new partners since it settled on The Trade Desk […]

Merkle’s retail and consumer goods group has become a testbed for multiple other verticals. Although people tend to think of retail advertising from the perspective of grocery store chains and major CPG brands (Walmart, Target, Kroger and the brands they carry), these days the “retail media” category includes a host of new entrant: Best Buy, Marriott, Lyft, Uber, craft goods store Michael’s.

Kroger Precision Marketing, the grocer’s advertising and data business, announced an expansion into CTV and video inventory channels. “It’s critical to … move into these channels that are increasing with respect to where advertisers are investing their dollars,” Kroger SVP Cara Pratt told AdExchanger.

The 2022 Inc. 5000 list was published on Tuesday, and although its purpose is mostly for marketing (companies pay for inclusion, after all), it is a useful benchmark for tracking the startup ecosystem.

In the face of a potential global recession on top of a horrendous year for ad tech stocks, companies have to find comfort in the small victories. Wednesday was one such victory for Criteo, despite a few troubling trends.

Commerce and creator monetization are Pinterest’s two main priorities right now, said Jeremy King, the company’s SVP and head of engineering. King, who is also the former CTO of Walmart’s ecommerce business – he joined Pinterest in 2019 – said that the convergence of creator revenue potential with social media-based shopping and product discovery by consumers “will make Pinterest functional, versus purely inspirational.”

Amazon disappointed investors with a $3.8 billion net loss in Q1 this year, its first quarterly loss in the past six years, plus online sales ticked down 1%. Amazon Advertising, however, did not disappoint. “Advertising revenue was up 25% year over year, and that’s a strong run rate compared to the revenue growth rate,” CFO Brian Olsavsky told investors.

Subscribe to AdExchanger Talks on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud or wherever you listen to podcasts. Amazon’s search algorithm uses a bunch of different signals to rank products on its landing pages, including depth of product inventory, product page richness and paid media effectiveness. It’s not unlike Google, except that all those signals result […]

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 […]