WhatsApp

Big TV’s shift to programmatic brings in the performance brands; Meta rolls out premium subscriptions for Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp; and Yahoo enters the crowded AI search market.

Judge Mehta defends his light touch in addressing Google’s search monopoly; the de minimis exemption for imports is over, and it could ding Q4 ad spend; and a whistleblower says Meta ignored WhatsApp’s privacy lapses.

When WhatsApp began serving ads in mid-June, there were two main reactions. One, didn’t the founders always insist there would never be ads on WhatsApp? And two, what the heck took Meta so long?

Content aggregators are winning while actual journalism suffers; users say they hate Meta bringing ads to WhatsApp, but Meta’s research says otherwise.

CEOs fear their marketing has lost the plot; WhatsApp introduces ads; Meta’s making its users feel unsafe.

Meta teased new ad optimization offerings as it touted solid Q1 results. It also hyped its AI agents and its launch of a standalone AI app, while hinting at monetization opportunities.

Monday was a busy day for antitrust attorneys in Washington, DC: It marked Day One of the the remedies phase of the Google search trial and the start of the second week of FTC v. Meta.

Do Google AI Overviews really bring exposure to more websites?; Meta considered an all-ad Instagram feed; and agencies are cautiously optimistic even as tariff concerns threaten upfronts season.

With the growing number of social media users paying for a premium and often ad-free service, how can marketers engage these audiences?

Welcome to Week Three of the US vs. Google ad tech antitrust trial. Plus, ews publishers are turning to WhatsApp for traffic.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg cautioned that it will likely take years before Meta’s generative AI products, including Meta AI, are ready for monetization.

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.

In today’s newsletter: Brands risk having their organic sales counted as paid conversion conversions on multiple platforms; Facebook’s Project Ghostbusters spied on Snap, YouTube and Amazon; and DTC brands bow out of brick-and-mortar.

In today’s newsletter: Apple adopts the owned-and-operated model for its ad platform; the banality of click farming; and how consumers and businesses alike are getting squeezed on data storage costs.

In today’s newsletter: Big Tech may be best positioned to take advantage of generative AI’s ad tech uses; ad tech leaders waffle on investing in Chrome’s Privacy Sandbox; Google faces an innovator’s dilemma.

In today’s newsletter: Meta’s growing “other” revenue; charting the depths of Reddit and Google’s new partnership; and TikTok’s ecommerce biz doubles down on influencers.

In today’s newsletter: could an open-source website template fix programmatic advertising?; The Trade Desk’s new tool for targeting only the top 500 sites; and some of Apple and Microsoft’s services won’t fall under DMA regulation.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Pulling The Strings  Disney-owned TV channels went dark on Charter Spectrum last week when the two companies failed to reach an agreement on a new carriage pact, Variety reports. The blackout affected over 25 networks, including ESPN. It was particularly bad timing, too: […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Searching Elsewhere “Google” has become a verb that’s synonymous with “search.” But Google isn’t the only place to go to find content and products.  Google’s own internal research shows that 40% of young people use platforms like Instagram and TikTok as a de […]

As Mark Zuckerberg has said, the metaverse is still years away. So, for the near term, Meta’s opportunity is in messaging.

Meta’s wide reach and success around low-funnel objectives can be worth it. CPMs might be high, but if a brand’s cost per order has remained stable, it’s likely a worthwhile investment. For advertisers focused on higher funnel objectives like awareness or reach, however, there are alternatives, writes Amy Rumpler, SVP of paid search and social media at Basis Technologies.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Untangling Web2 From Web3 Which Web2 social platforms are driving Web3 growth?  It turns out there’s “an interesting inversion” happening, according to a blog by Antonio García Martinez, co-founder of Web3 attribution company Spindl. Web3 companies get huge value from Twitter, whereas Google […]

Meta had a rocky third quarter and the market reacted accordingly. Its metaverse division, Reality Labs, lost nearly $3.7 billion. But the metaverse (whatever that ends up meaning) is still five to 10 years out, and Nicola Mendelsohn, VP of Meta’s global business group, told AdExchanger that Meta is still investing heavily in its core, including ad performance.

Meta reported $27.2 billion in ad revenue in its Q3 earnings report on Wednesday. That represents a 4% drop year-over-year (YoY). Net income for Q3 was $4.4 billion, down 52% YoY. And Meta is projecting another revenue dip for Q4. As a result, the company will implement layoffs and hiring freezes throughout 2023.

Meta is struggling to get its wheels turning on Reels. But Meta has seen more success with business messaging. Click-to-message ads are “one of our fastest-growing ad products,” Dan Levy, VP of business messaging at Meta, tells AdExchanger.

It’s not surprising that AppTrackingTransparency and the end of third-party cookies on Chrome didn’t come up during the razzle-dazzle of Meta’s NewFronts debut this week. But advertisers have been asking about both a lot, especially for brands focused on commerce.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the ad tech industry took steps to freeze Russian-owned media companies out of the advertising ecosystem. But programmatic technology continues to be used by parties on both sides of the conflict as a platform to conduct psychological warfare.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Second Verse, Same As The First? The Federal Trade Commission is trying again to present a convincing antitrust case vs. Facebook after a federal court dismissed its initial lawsuit for failing to prove the social giant runs a monopoly. The FTC on Thursday filed […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Who’s Counting? The verdict is in: Nielsen likely undercounted some pandemic audiences … not the greatest look for a company who’s entire schtick is counting things. As Variety reports, the Media Rating Council found a “generally consistent pattern of underreporting of viewing” by Nielsen […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. In It Together? Ad tech companies, publishers and advertisers are hedging their bets in the quest for a new set of audience identifiers. Many plan to support multiple identifiers and targeting methods, including Google’s cohort-based approach. As PubMatic CEO Rajeev Goel tells Digiday’s Seb […]