Technology

Google has said publicly that it will eventually (“soon”) adopt a national approach to privacy compliance in the US. That’s a big deal – but only if Google actually does it.

Multiple factors such as buy-side practices, the CTV industry structure and shortcomings in ad tech contribute to CTV’s ad frequency problem. Yet there are several ways to overcome these limitations.

In today’s newsletter: Ad blocking is getting integrated into web browsers; why Reddit needs to diversify its advertiser base; and how big media’s affiliate marketing tactics crowd specialist publishers out of search.

In today’s newsletter: Closing arguments begin in the DOJ vs. Google Search antitrust trial; the sports betting ad bubble might be set to burst; and Etsy struggles to stand out among ecommerce competitors in audience scale and marketing spend.

Gannett experienced its fourth consecutive quarter of growth in Q1 2024. It pointed to recent partnerships with non-news publishers as instrumental to growing its audience and ad revenue.

Criteo split out its retail media segment revenue for the first time during its earnings report on Thursday.

There are other motivating factors for crossing the LUMAscape, besides increased efficiency and less ad fraud. These businesses are trying to position themselves to win in a transformative era that will make or break many ad tech companies.

In today’s newsletter: Online news revenue is being throttled around the web; Roblox is on a mission to build a $1 billion ad business; and TikTok is circumventing the Apple App Store’s 30% fee by directing users off iOS to purchase TikTok coins.

Appealing to advertisers’ better angels is never going to bring ads back to the news. But appealing to their bottom lines might.

Roblox’s head of immersive media Ashley McCollum explains how the online gaming giant built its ad platform with demand for programmatic video in mind. And she previews Roblox’s ambitions to grow an ecommerce platform for real-world purchases.

AdGPT, a startup that uses AI to automatically create hundreds of ads across Facebook, Instagram, Taboola, Outbrain, Google, LinkedIn and X, came out of stealth mode on Wednesday.

In today’s newsletter: Roku and The Trade Desk expand their partnership; Instagram changes its content recommendation system; and the European Commission investigates Meta for potential Digital Services Act violations.

Screenverse plans to add about 20 employees over the next 12 months with the help of its new cash reserve. The company also earmarked a portion of its funding for enhancing its publisher suite.

In today’s newsletter: The CMA still has a bone to pick with the Chrome Privacy Sandbox; the FCC fines mobile carriers for selling customer location data to data brokers; and the Financial Times is the latest publisher to strike a licensing deal with an AI company.

There are two paths to transforming your business to capitalize on first-party-data-based advertising: mergers and acquisitions, or making nonrecurring investments. Here are the pros and cons of each.

In today’s newsletter: The CMA outlines plans to fix competitive concerns in Google’s Privacy Sandbox; media mix modeling’s comeback continues; Snap’s Q1 earnings illustrate its attribution-driven turnaround.

For companies testing the Chrome Privacy Sandbox, another delay was starting to feel inevitable, even before Google shifted its deprecation deadline.

By next year, Google will have three separate business lines – Search, YouTube and Cloud – with an annual run rate to generate at least $100 billion, CEO Sundar Pichai told investors.

If you’re looking for a think piece about what Google’s most recent third-party cookie deprecation delay means for the online ad industry – this isn’t it. 😅

GSTV is trying to win a larger share of spend earmarked for TV. In GSTV’s case, it wants to reach a broad and captive audience – while they’re at the fuel pump.

The delay is an acknowledgment by Google that efforts to prepare its cookie alternative will take longer than its proposed deadline allows, which shouldn’t be a huge surprise to those actively participating in testing.

In today’s newsletter: Google’s cookie deprecation delay hurts Chrome Privacy Sandbox supporters; mall chains go for broke with their DTC efforts; Warner Bros. Discovery launches a first-party data product.

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

The IAB projects digital video ad spend will rise to $63 billion in 2024, representing a 16% increase from last year. Of the three video ad categories the report breaks out (social and online video and CTV), the clear winner is social video.

Bonbon gives users rewards – such as discounts or chances to win merchandise – for setting up email registrations with publishers. Now The Trade Desk’s OpenPass will include that same rewards functionality.

In today’s newsletter: President Joe Biden signs the TikTok ban into law; upscale grocery and convenience store chain Foxtrot closes down; and IPG has a rough Q1.

Digital media agency Hotspex Media’s emotional contextual tool, Reticle AI, analyzes the emotions an ad is trying to evoke and the context of where the ad might show up to find congruent ad placements.

Why does MFA continue to thrive? MFA monetization benefits everyone in the ad tech ecosystem that collects a revenue share. That includes both SSPs and DSPs.

In today’s newsletter: Google’s new generative AI image tool within its campaign planning product has some major limitations; Grindr faces a class-action claim over its data-sharing practices; and Snap snaps up political ads.

Global Privacy Controls should be less of an on/off switch, and more of a dimmer switch that reflects online privacy preferences across a continuum from restrictive to permissive.