Technology

Temu pulled back on its US ad spend this week, as tariffs loom. Plus, in France, the ATT prompt was deemed anticompetitive and, as a result, will likely need to be changed.

The Google antitrust ruling will have wide-reaching implications for the tech industry at large, not just the ad businesses therein. But in the meantime, it’s only natural to see programmatic veterans letting off a bit of steam.

Earlier this year, Pinterest conducted reviews of five potential ad tech acquisitions. Plus, what do LLMs think is the best retail media tech for retailers, and why? 

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.

Firsthand is a startup founded by two OG ad tech entrepreneurs that describes itself as an “AI-powered brand agent platform.” But what the heck is an “AI-powered brand agent platform?”

Temu’s US ad spend grinds to a halt; Publicis posts a strong Q1; and creative personalization tech is back in vogue.

In 2017, Mediaocean CEO Bill Wise predicted the demise of supply-side platforms. The category survived, but he’s sticking to his theory that pureplay SSPs are a thing of the past. Plus: An update on Mediaocean’s $550 million Innovid acquisition and Wise’s counterpoint to recent criticisms of The Trade Desk.

Many well-intentioned advertising standards efforts gather digital dust thanks to industry politics and competing interests. Here’s how the industry can stop sabotaging its own progress.

You know that old saw about how regulators aren’t technical and don’t understand how online advertising works? Yeah, that’s not a thing anymore.

The rest of the world is still preparing its tariff countermeasures. Plus Google has started inserting links to new Google searches into AI overviews.

A German appeals court recently ruled that major social ad platforms may not suspend or deactivate accounts without notice. Plus, the Yahoo DSP business is potentially up for sale.

A lot of F-bombs got dropped on stage at the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement’s (CIMM) summit in New York City earlier this week. And no, probably not the F-bomb you’re thinking of.

Agencies around the globe weigh in on principal-based buying; live sports are king, but new sports like F1 are having trouble gaining traction; and Adobe gets roasted by Bluesky’s artist community.

Programmatic bidding algorithms aren’t always aligned with campaign goals, so agencies are relying on AI tech to create algorithms tailored to their campaigns instead.

Here are three areas that marketing technology professionals must handle successfully to get the most out of their AI applications.

Proof keeps piling up that gen AI makes marketing creatives lazy; Google stops serving ads to parked domains, prompting questions as to why those domains were ever monetized; and a resurgent David’s Bridal thinks it can reach profitability this year.

Yotpo, the retention-based marketing and analytics company, announced on Tuesday that it is acquiring fellow Israeli tech startup Coho AI, a customer data platform.

The retail media agency consolidation trend is still going with the announcement on Tuesday that indie shop Acadia has acquired fellow ecommerce marketplace ad agency Crush.

Google maintains its AI overviews are a boon for web traffic. Plus, there’s more than one way to combat fake reviews. 

After adopting OpenPath, Freestar pubs now see 3x higher inventory fill rate from The Trade Desk demand and 27% higher programmatic revenue from these buyers.

CTV advertising has made great strides, but it still lags behind social platforms in one critical area: optimizing campaigns based on outcome data. Here’s how standardized conversion API integrations for CTV can help.

Everything is (or becomes) an ad network. And then it gets ruined. Plus, there’s something the Trump administration has in common with the ad tech world.

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.

WPP has bought InfoSum, a data clean room and collaboration startup. Terms of the deal, announced on Thursday, were not disclosed.

After six months of pilot testing with The Trade Desk, Spotify launched its ad exchange on Wednesday and added new supply and demand partners to the mix.

The Google PMax whisperer releases his latest annual report; publishers brace for more disruptions from Google search updates; and stolen content is the least of Wikipedia’s gen AI concerns.

While advertisers’ interest in gaming may be growing, their spending commitments seem stuck on pause, judging by Tuesday’s IAB PlayFronts event.

No punches pulled in another Senate hearing on Big Tech’s excesses; Nielsen’s lawsuits accusing competitors of IP infringement keep getting dismissed; and investors grow wary of Reddit’s closeness to Google.

Why is programmatic media buying so dang complicated? That question was an ever-present topic at the 2025 ANA Media Conference in Orlando, Florida this week.

Roblox is making major additions to its still-nascent ad offering, including new integrations to make its ad formats available through Google Ad Manager.