CTV

Business outcomes are now the most important KPI for determining success with digital video, according to the IAB’s annual report.

Publishers and SSPs aren’t incentivized to accurately label their video inventory. But increased pressure from the buy side could correct the skewed pricing dynamics that result from outstream being sold as instream.

In today’s newsletter: Mobile and email providers face political blowback if they enforce ad policies; a new analytics startup sets its sights on Amazon attribution; and CFOs and CMOs are more aligned than you might think.

The challenges facing digital advertising feel bigger than ever. But when you’re in Cannes, you can’t help but focus on the positives. Here are the six biggest ad industry trends and positive takeaways from this year’s show.

The average CTV platform now authorizes 30 SSPs to sell its inventory. And one of the most noticeable effects of increased SSP saturation in CTV has been higher costs due to SSP reselling.

Pandora can match the email addresses of its logged-in users to UID2 tokens, which can then be passed through AdsWizz, The Trade Desk and other ad platforms that integrate with UID2.

In today’s newsletter: What the surge in political ad spend on CTV looks like for the end user; Mars Wrigley tries to make gum stick online; and Google neglects Fitbit after mining it for data.

How big of a deal is The Trade Desk’s top 100 list? AdExchanger spoke to industry experts for their reactions and bounced some of their hot takes off The Trade Desk.

Since launch, 82% of advertisers that buy inventory through the Yahoo DSP have tried Backstage at least once. And buyers are seeing lower CPMs from cutting out SSPs.

In today’s newsletter: How changes in streaming ad inventory could impact upfront CPMs; video cracks 50% of engagement on Meta’s platform for the first time; and Apple is in talks to launch Apple TV+ in China.

The TV market’s vanishing impression problem is even more concerning than the numbers indicate. But maybe a little impression scarcity is a good thing.

In today’s newsletter: Publishers fear they’ll be excluded from The Trade Desk’s “premium internet”; buyers weigh in on Netflix’s plans to offer an ad server; and PayPal launches an ad network and data brokerage.

In today’s newsletter: Ampla suspends loans to DTC brands, putting their ad budgets at risk; why Sony is investing in IP rather than a streaming platform; and Netflix will move on from Microsoft in favor of in-house ad tech by 2025.

Fixating on ROAS makes it harder to figure out how certain parts of a campaign perform, especially now that retail media buys often include other, less performance-focused channels like display and CTV as audience extension.

The phaseout of third-party cookies kicked off the sell-side curation trend. But it’s also being driven by advertiser concerns about open web media quality and the need to enhance publisher contextual signals with audience data.

Enjoy this weekly comic strip from AdExchanger.com that highlights the digital advertising ecosystem … 

DoubleVerify reported its Q1 earnings on Tuesday and guess which topics didn’t come up, even once? The Forbes-run MFA subdomain, DV’s apparent misreporting of X’s brand safety rates and not a single tough question about measurement gaps.

Multiple factors such as buy-side practices, the CTV industry structure and shortcomings in ad tech contribute to CTV’s ad frequency problem. Yet there are several ways to overcome these limitations.

In today’s newsletter: P&G boosts paid media budgets by 14%; why lower subscription prices aren’t enough to sustain the current rate of ad-supported streaming signups; and news publishers follow the NYT’s lead by using games to retain visitors.

In today’s newsletter: The marketing data ecosystem is key for fin tech; media buyers acknowledge YouTube as part of their TV strategies; and Threads will launch ads later this year.

One side effect of signal loss? Media mix modeling is coming back in fashion. Google’s Meridian is the latest entrant in the MMM space, which is being embraced by large ad platforms and startups alike. Plus: Differentiating between shoppable TV and T-commerce.

US digital ad revenue grew at a slower rate in 2023 compared to 2022, hampered by inflation, climbing interest rates and advertising industry layoffs, according to the IAB/PwC Internet Advertising Revenue Report released Tuesday.

In today’s newsletter: Shoppable TV needs a better reason to exist; Disney+ will roll out password-sharing bans worldwide this summer; and “Bluey” is a huge hit, but Disney doesn’t make much from it.

SuperAwesome CEO Kate O’Loughlin discusses how contextual targeting makes it less risky for brands to market to kids and teens, and whether advertiser priorities for reaching young consumers are shifting after years of metaverse hype.

In today’s newsletter: NAD says influencers should label endorsements as ads, even if they invest in the company; Netflix’s password-sharing crackdown was a catalyst for ad-supported audience growth; and G/O Media sells more of its portfolio.

To fill in the gaps left by third-party data loss, Adobe has added a data collaboration product to its Real-Time CDP that lets advertisers match their data to a partner’s to create lookalike audiences, target ads or attribute campaigns.

More than two decades after they ran, Cerveza Cristal’s Star Wars ads are a perfect and unintentional cautionary tale for ad tech vendors pushing CTV ad products like virtual product placements and shoppable content overlays.

In today’s newsletter: Google PAIR snags a CTV partnership with NBCU; why Madison Avenue and Hollywood will never make their relationship official; and TV buyers explain why they aren’t all-in on alternative currencies just yet.

In today’s newsletter: Meta will shutter news benchmarking service CrowdTangle; Reddit rolls out a new ad format to monetize its user activity; and the ANA readies a report analyzing the programmatic supply chain.

If you’re using retail media or commerce marketing for the bottom of the funnel only, then you’re missing out on major opportunities.