Technology

AdMonsters is officially joining AdExchanger, unifying content under one site on AdExchanger’s domain to further connect our audiences.

YouTube is finally delivering on the promise of shoppable CTV ads. Starting Thursday, they’ll roll out to all of Google’s Performance Max and Demand Gen campaigns, YouTube confirmed to AdExchanger.

ChatGPT’s initial ad rollout didn’t come as a surprise. Now, advertisers are figuring out how to make the most of this new channel.

Everyone has an opinion on OpenAI’s revenue prospects; Threads rolls out ads universally; and sports are a bastion of strength for Paramount.

Retailers court luxury goods to compete with Amazon; indie agency Tombras acquires Opinionated; and talk of an AI bubble dominates discussion at Davos.

Gamera, a media quality measurement startup for publishers, announced on Tuesday it raised $1.6 million to promote its service that combines data about a site’s ad experience with data about how its ads perform.

Open AI finally gets ads; YouTube gets its own BBC shows; and marketers get to grading their own homework.

Ad industry experts call out trends to watch in 2026 and separate the real AI use cases having an impact today from the AI hype they heard at CES.

A Google divestiture is still in the cards; the IAB’s new framework lays out exactly when to disclose use of AI; and Hershey’s doubles down on marketing.

Fraud is eating into retail profits. A new startup called Pinch AI just launched with $5 million in funding to fight back.

Human-made creative is in again; The Atlantic accuses Google of (another) monopoly; and it turns out brands like to have a say in their sponsorships.

AdMonsters joins its sister brand AdExchanger, strengthening its position as the leading platform for the ad tech, publisher and ad ops community.

On Wednesday, retail and CPG data company SPINS added a new piece with its acquisition of MikMak, a click-to-buy ad tech and analytics startup that helps optimize their commerce media.

Meta cuts its metaverse investment by 30%; Netflix makes a renewed push in the gaming market; and the rush to slap an AI label on everything is placing existing ad tech under renewed scrutiny.

Bold, accountable leaders who publicly embrace conflict and challenge industry fraud are essential to spark innovation in digital advertising and ad tech, writes Alessandro De Zanche.

For years, interactive CTV advertising was the star of industry demos – promising, flashy and mostly theoretical. In 2025, they finally made the leap from proof of concept to practice.

Amazon touts its Marketing Cloud, but buyers have concerns; OpenAI’s ad biz may face challenges; and in-chat shopping isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

From afar, it looks like Google had a rough year in antitrust court. But zoom in a bit and it becomes clear that the past year went about as well as Google could have hoped for.

Omnicom unveils the latest version of its ID and analytics tool; there’s a new Google Search update in town; and Omnicom Media addresses CTV ad frequency.

A few years ago, “data clean rooms” were all the ad tech trades could talk about. Fast-forward to 2026, and maybe advertisers don’t need to know what a data clean room is after all.

Agentic Alphabet Soup Another day, another attempt at making sense of agentic AI. On Tuesday, the IAB Tech Lab released its Agentic Roadmap, a framework designed to help the industry scale agentic buying and selling without rewiring existing workflows. Tech Lab CEO Anthony Katsur says the new road map will minimize fragmentation and confusion across […]

NBCU is testing agentic systems that can automatically activate campaigns across its entire portfolio – including live sports on linear.

OpenX’s new API suite provides ad buyers with a more detailed view of the bidstream and, as a result, more accurate targeting.

Ring In The New Year The “everything is an ad network” trend will live forever.  There are always new advertising canvases and data sources to be plumbed. For instance, consumer wearables are primed to go off in 2026, Bloomberg reports, especially accessories and rings. That said, smart watches remain the top wearables choice by far, […]

Publishers can reach relevant audiences at scale and with greater specificity through Optable’s new planner agent.

If any single event can be considered the jumping-off point for TV upfronts, it’s the Consumer Electronics Showcase (CES), which kicks off this week in Las Vegas, Nevada.

It’s been 15 years since this comic first ran in January 2011, and there’s something both quaint and timeless about it. Here’s to more (and more) transparency in 2026, and happy New Year!

From headline to punchline, AdExchanger’s weekly comics distill ad tech industry news into something our readers can laugh about. These are our faves of the year.

This year, programmatic companies faced tough decisions about privacy, awkward acquisitions and the cookie die-off that never quite happened.

The generative AI trend generated endless hot takes this year, but the ad industry also had plenty to say about growing competition between DSPs and SSPs. Here are AdExchanger’s top 10 most popular guest columns of 2025 and why they resonated.