PMax

American publishers are hamstrung by antitrust law; should marketers lean into ragebait?; and Pexplexity is hitting pause on its ads business.

Although furniture brand James & James was hitting its own aggressive revenue targets while primarily spending on search and social ads – the facts told a different story.

A long-awaited development: Advertisers will soon be able to see around three of the most important transparency blockers in PMax.

Transparency has become the currency of credibility in advertising. Larger holding companies and black box AI platforms must recognize that their opaque practices are no longer sustainable.

AI and machine learning services have come a long way in the past couple years, and these changes have introduced a whole new vocabulary for marketers trying to get a handle on how products like PMax work.

PMax has joined Search as what Google dubs “the power pair.”  Plus, TikTok usage and ad spend are still dropping.

Putting an independent vendor like Albert AI in charge of its search and social campaigns means Grassland Beef retains visibility and control over its marketing.

A tool popular with law enforcement can track devices to sensitive locations. Plus, black boxes are getting a bit more transparent.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. The Crusts Are Off The growth of online groceries and retail media puts new pressure on false advertising.  It is not a coincidence that false advertising lawsuits have risen sharply. For one thing, claims made on packages on a store shelf or in a […]

The IAB’s annual advertising outlook has mostly rosy news. Plus, can sludge videos be wielded for good – or, at least, for effective political organizing?

This week, we’re diving into the most important thing in advertising – the actual creative – and how major ad platforms are well on their way to an era of creative innovation. Actually, strike that. I meant creative desolation.

In today’s newsletter: Google’s ad strength meter could push advertisers to adopt Google’s campaign preferences; Home Depot hosts an “InFront” to show off its RMN, Orange Apron Media; and the Privacy Sandbox rollout could do serious damage to the online ad industry.

Google announced a suite of updates to PMax that expand its generative AI creative capabilities, including auto-generated videos.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Maxxed Out Google will temporarily allow opt-outs for its search partner network, GSP, which serves ads for searches on non-Google sites, Adweek reports. Google is responding to a report last week by Adalytics, an ad tech auditing outfit. Adalytics demonstrated how Google advertisers […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Addressable Auspices Traditional TV advertisers are hesitant to try addressable products because they’re expensive and hard to scale. But programmatic TV ad buying is making addressable more accessible, said Sara Wallace, FreeWheel’s senior director of product management, speaking at an event on Wednesday […]

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

Forget Skynet. The robot revolution will be fought between large ad platforms (mainly Google, Meta and Amazon) trying to woo advertisers with generative AI and promises of better performance.

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

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Take It To The Max Google’s Performance Max is a black box that uses automation to serve ads across the Google portfolio, and there’s no arguing that it’s a powerful tool. But PMax also invites tinfoil hat theories about how Google might be serving […]

The slow dismantling of cookie-based tech had its fingerprints all over our coverage in 2022 (if you’ll excuse the mixed metaphor). Data privacy supplied the drumbeat, from stories about clean rooms to new privacy-forward ad tech products to the rise of retail media (a data safe haven).

Meta Advantage+ is not a new streaming service, despite the “plus.” And it’s not a healthcare plan, though it sounds like one. It’s Meta’s version of a first-party data-based ad platform locked inside the blackest black box any Facebook advertiser has ever known.

Google’s Performance Max performs – but with a caveat. Marketers can’t control their campaigns and have no say over where their ads run or even, in some cases, what the creative looks like. And flying blind can lead to problems. Plus: Digital media layoffs and a recap of Google Ad Manager’s recent outage.

Lost in the Sturm und Drang of Q4 (Q for quarantine) 2020, Google introduced a beta program called Performance Max, its first ad product spanning all Google-owned media. Fast-forward to today, and Performance Max has quietly become the fastest growing and potentially most controversial product in the Google portfolio.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Death By A Thousand Subscriptions News subscriptions. OK. Entertainment subscriptions, sure. Gaming subscriptions … I can see it.  But subscriptions have now taken over the economy.  This year, Sweetgreen and Taco Bell started testing subscription offers, and Alaska Airlines also began testing a subscription […]