performance marketing

When Apple launched AppTrackingTransparency (ATT) in 2021, access to deterministic identifiers fell sharply as roughly 80% of users opted out of tracking. User-level feedback loops became sparse and biased, and iOS performance marketing shifted into a different measurement environment under SKAdNetwork (SKAN). Apple’s AdAttributionKit (AAK) later delayed postbacks, compressed conversion values and set privacy thresholds that made signal availability dependent on campaign structure and scale.

Machines can now flag anomalies, surface trends and spin insights in seconds. Yet, even with its speed, AI still can’t decode the “why” behind the “what.”

Many organizations are encountering a paradox: Performance appears strong, while durable growth remains elusive. How should performance be evaluated when the strongest signals no longer align cleanly with growth?

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

For most of the last decade, performance marketing was rewarded for momentum. Spend efficiently. Scale quickly. Optimize continuously. If the line went up and to the right, few questions followed. But that era is ending, because performance without accountability is no longer credible.

Programmatic’s biggest promise was never automation for its own sake. It was accountability. But today, the industry is moving from reporting performance to steering performance.

Reddit reported on Thursday $690 million in ad revenue for Q4 2025, a 75% YOY increase. But the company’s stock is down 38% over the past month.

“Performance CTV” oversimplifies how television actually drives value, and the focus on performance all but guarantees that campaign results will be misinterpreted.

Advertising’s “agentic” future is a compelling vision, but one that relies on capabilities that do not exist yet. AdCP may one day make buying easier, but it will not make buying better by itself.

CTV isn’t an emerging channel anymore. It’s a fully established, essential part of the media mix. Advertisers now understand its reach, flexibility and ability to drive measurable outcomes.

Marketers used to wait for obvious signals, like a product page view, a cart add or a keyword search, before triggering campaigns. But in today’s fractured landscape, those signals can arrive too late.

The Economist is charting its own course in the age of AI, says Nada Arnot, the 182-year-old publication’s EVP of marketing. It’s steering clear of licensing deals and lawsuits and partnering with Claude on its own terms.

Consumers don’t experience media in silos. They might stream a live game on their TV, scroll social feeds during halftime and research products on their mobile device later that night.

It has long been understood that brand is advertising’s most powerful driver of growth. Yet, in a marketplace worth more than one trillion dollars, less than 10% of digital campaigns track brand outcomes.

Marketing has long struggled to prove itself as a growth engine. What if agentic AI isn’t the threat many fear but the breakthrough marketing always needed?

Clear Channel will provide advertisers weekly, mid-flight reports on outcomes driven by its inventory in order to bring OOH measurement closer to the speed of digital.

Concrete findings on how effective QR codes are at driving ad interactions are now available, and some industry best practices are emerging.

Television advertising has undergone a remarkable transformation in recent years, with connected TV (CTV) emerging as a powerful channel for marketers seeking the impact of traditional television with the precision of digital targeting.

As marketing fails to speak the language of business outcomes due to an overemphasis on vanity metrics, it is increasingly losing its seat at the decision-making table.

Ride-hailing app company Curb Mobility is bringing TikTok’s user-generated content to Taxi TV, its network of more than 15,000 in-taxi screens across 65 US markets.

Overreliance on performance channels in pursuit of short-term gains creates fragility in the growth model, especially when brand equity is underfunded and unable to drive demand. 

Linkby, which connects brands with publisher content that advertisers pay for based on reader engagement, announced its $15 million Series B on Tuesday.

Marketers today are operating in an outcome-obsessed world. For mobile app marketers, especially, the smallest screen in the home – the mobile phone – has become the default choice for driving lower-funnel outcomes.

With a growing array of platforms and channels competing for consumer attention, advertisers have been increasingly looking for ways to understand which ads and placements drive engagement and sales – not just engagement and sales that would have happened anyway but true incrementality.

Fragmentation was on the list of hot topics at Cannes 2025. Allison Schiff, Managing Editor of AdExchanger sat with MiQ’s Tom Richards to learn how MiQ is unifying the complex programmatic landscape for advertisers with MiQ Sigma, a conversational AI agent that transforms hours of manual work into moments of strategic insight. Discover how MiQ […]

Forecasters expected tariffs would impact advertising growth projections. But that was before we knew exactly how steep these tariffs would be – and now that we do, it doesn’t bode well.

DDM is expanding its performance-focused contextual targeting solution, D/Cipher, to third-party inventory.

Pinterest reported $1.2 billion in Q4 revenue, an 18% year over year increase – and its first-ever billion-dollar quarter.

Performance marketing can become a crutch for some brands, warns Duolingo CMO Manu Orssaud, especially app-based businesses that are under pressure to show rapid growth. That’s why Duolingo makes organic marketing a top priority.

Reddit COO Jen Wong shares how the company is banking on AI to push its conversation-driven performance marketing platform forward.