kevel

Amazon’s ad tech ambitions are crowding out Amazon specialists; EU regulators have concerns about Apple ATT; and Google says breaking it up could threaten national security.

The convergence of on-site retail and shopping across the web got a little more converged on Tuesday with the news that Kevel has acquired Nexta.

As the ad industry awaits Judge Leonie Brinkema’s decision in US v. Google (ad tech edition), get up to speed quick with AdExchanger’s in-depth coverage.

The IAB gave us new retail media standards for Christmas. But will the industry actually adopt them? Plus: how AI will be used in advertising in 2025.

Achieving consensus on the definitions for even baseline retail media metrics required a tough 18-month slog. Unfortunately, this was the easy part.

But beyond making his parents proud, participating as a witness in a historical antitrust trial was gratifying for another reason, says Kevel CEO James Avery. “I never thought I’d have a chance to really say my piece like this.”

It’s not often one gets to hear sworn witnesses in federal court explain the intricacies of header bidding under oath. But that’s what happened during the first day of the Google ad tech-focused antitrust case in Virginia on Monday.

In today’s newsletter: Under DMA’s gatekeeper rules, Apple reinstates Epic Games’ developer account one day after it suspended it; brands are building first-party-data-based walled gardens to weather cookie deprecation; and Kevel raises $23 million.

In today’s newsletter: IAB Europe’s Transparency & Consent Framework operates under threat; DSPs frown upon ID bridging; and Google Ads is getting into marketing mix modeling.

First-party data is bolstering Slickdeals’ direct sales efforts and offsetting an industry-wide decline in programmatic CPMs. That data is also making ad targeting more effective for its native retail media inventory as demand for retail ads ramps up.