Technology

AppLovin’s recent acquisition of mobile attribution provider Adjust for $1 billion is evidence that M&A doesn’t necessarily decline in times of uncertainty. The mobile advertising ecosystem may be in a holding pattern waiting for Apple to release its AppTrackingTransparency (ATT) framework, which should finally happen by March or early April. But the fact that Apple’s […]

Magnite has acquired video supply-side platform SpotX from European entertainment network RTL Group for $1.17 billion. The cash and stock deal, announced Friday morning, is part of Magnite’s vision to go big in the connected TV space. LUMA Partners and Goldman Sachs advised on the transaction. CTV is so hot that Magnite bought SpotX for […]

A weekly comic strip from AdExchanger.com that highlights the digital advertising ecosystem…

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Antitrust Dust Senator Amy Klobuchar introduced a sweeping new antitrust bill on Thursday that could spell trouble for Big Tech. CNBC reports that the proposed “Competition and Antitrust Law Enforcement Reform Act” would make sweeping changes to antitrust law, granting enforcement agencies more power […]

There are more platforms than Super Mario on this week’s The Big Story. First up, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos has exited stage… right? Left? To pick a more workable metaphor, he’s passed the reigns to Andy Jassy, former Amazon Web Services chief. That decision should give you an indication of Amazon’s coming priorities. We’ll chat a […]

Apple appears to be providing its homegrown ad network with more granular measurement functionality that what everyone else will get through SKAdNetwork. Specifically, the Apple Ads Attribution API payload field will include two parameters that are important for optimization – creativeSet ID and keywordID – but totally absent from SKAdNetwork postbacks. Without creativeSetID, advertisers won’t know which […]

Industry Preview is a special, limited-run audio series, featuring interviews with key leaders in marketing, media and technology who share their predictions and key priorities for 2021. This podcast is sponsored by IBM Watson Advertising. Ad tech veteran Ari Paparo’s Twitter account is a must-follow for thousands in ad tech. But the weight behind his words […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. So Modest Publicis beat market expectations for organic growth in the last quarter of 2020 thanks in large part to its data company Epsilon, which helped the holdco generate modest growth in the US, Reuters reports. Publicis, which bought Epsilon in 2019 for a […]

AppLovin has struck again. Bloomberg scooped late Wednesday afternoon that AppLovin is on the cusp of acquiring mobile app attribution startup Adjust for $1 billion. The news was confirmed by AppLovin in a press release. [Read the release]. AppLovin is an app marketing platform that helps advertisers automate their user acquisition and re-engagment campaigns. Adjust, […]

Over the past year, Publicis-owned Epsilon has been developing a system called Pub Link, designed to buy ads using a publisher’s authenticated users instead of third-party cookies. Epsilon claims its early results are sending more revenue to test publishers. This setup requires publishers add an Epsilon tag to their site or create a server-side link […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Cookie Drama In the wake of multiple antitrust lawsuits and a US congressional probe, Google’s attempt to get rid of the third-party cookie is attracting regulatory attention, Digiday reports. On Jan. 8, the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority launched an investigation into whether Chrome’s […]

When we last checked in with Google for its quarterly earnings in Q3, it was printing money. And in Q4, it printed some more – because advertisers are coming back. Read the release. Google’s 2020 Q4 revenues hit $56.9 billion led by YouTube and its search business. That figure is up 23% YoY from $46.1 […]

“Data-Driven Thinking” is written by members of the media community and contains fresh ideas on the digital revolution in media. Today’s column is written by Chris Kane, founder at Jounce Media. Depending on when you start the clock, we’re now two to three years into the first wave of supply path optimization (SPO). Here’s what we’ve learned […]

It’s still early for in-game console advertising – where ads appear natively on walls and t-shirts during gameplay – but brands are getting interested, says Itamar Benedy, CEO and co-founder of Anzu.io, a programmatic platform for buying in-game ads across consoles, PCs, mobile, esports tournaments and livestreams. On Tuesday, Anzu closed its second Series A […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Brand Value TikTok has inked a partnership with media holding company WPP that will give its media clients early access to the social platform’s emerging services. With 1 billion monthly active users – the app has been downloaded more than 2.6 billion times worldwide […]

In the days after the Jan. 6 mob attack on the US Capitol – fueled in large part by former President Trump’s false claims of election fraud – advertisers quickly paused their ad spending amid the heightened sensitivity. By most accounts, the ads were pulled back for 24 to 48 hours by brands and agencies, […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Brand Safe? With brands and agencies calling on social media platforms to ensure ads aren’t adjacent to harmful content, Facebook announced that it’s building a tool for advertisers to keep their ad placements away from certain topics in its News Feed. Per CNBC, the […]

A weekly comic strip from AdExchanger.com that highlights the digital advertising ecosystem…

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Investment Boost After hitting the pause button in 2020 in the midst of the pandemic, marketers appear ready to increase their investments in 2021 – as long as a vaccine rollout goes well. A CMO Council survey of 200 global marketers reveals that 65% […]

Google announced this week that its federated learning of cohorts sandbox proposal (FLoC) is nearly as effective as cookie-based advertising. And the rest of the ad industry collectively said, “Whaaaaaat?” Needless to say, there’s a lot to unpack behind all the hype. This week on The Big Story, the team welcomes Flashtalking CEO John Nardone […]

Industry Preview is a special, limited-run audio series, featuring interviews with key leaders in marketing, media and technology who share their predictions and key priorities for 2021. This podcast is sponsored by IBM Watson Advertising. When the global pandemic shut down the world, ecommerce and streaming video surged. Amazon plays prominently in both spaces. But with […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. New Advertisers, New Reality The NFL might have taken a pandemic-related revenue hit during the 2020 season, but advertisers still know that it’s the hottest property on TV. ViacomCBS says its Super Bowl ad inventory is pretty much sold out, with 30-second spots selling […]

Apparently IDFA can move stock prices. Although Facebook had a damned good Q4, with ad revenue up more than 30% year-over-year to $28.1 billion – its fastest growth rate in more than two years – the stock fell nearly 4% in after-hours trading. Why? Because the ad targeting-related headwinds that Facebook CFO Dave Wehner has been referring […]

AT&T’s WarnerMedia saw the number of activations on its HBO Max streaming platform double in Q4 to 17.2 million from the third-quarter of 2020, thanks in large part to the success of “Wonder Woman 1984.” During its earnings call on Wednesday, AT&T said that the total number of domestic HBO Max and HBO subscribers topped 41 […]

Google shared a glimpse of its AppTrackingTransparency plan on Wednesday, but offered few details about exactly how it’s readying itself for Apple’s IDFA changes. Google did acknowledge that publishers “may see” (ahem, will likely see) a palpable impact on their Google ad revenue on iOS once Apple’s policies take effect due to reduced visibility into […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Supercookies Crumble The newest version of Mozilla’s browser, Firefox 85, includes protection against so called “supercookies.” What the heck are supercookies? According to Mozilla, they can be used in place of ordinary cookies to store user identifiers, but are much more difficult to delete […]

Verizon revealed during its earnings call Tuesday morning Verizon Media Group had a solid Q4 – total revenues jumped 11.4% to $2.3 billion YOY – marking the first quarter of year-over-year growth since the wireless giant acquired Yahoo in 2017 for $4.48 billion. Growth in the quarter was fueled by strong advertising trends, with revenue […]

“Data-Driven Thinking” is written by members of the media community and contains fresh ideas on the digital revolution in media. Today’s column is written by Mike Shaughnessy, COO at Kargo. As we come out of the fog of 2020, we must remember the five incredibly important investigations happening right now that affect the way content is […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. SPAC Bandwagon Content recommendation engine Taboola became the latest tech company to exist via SPAC when it announced plans to go public on Monday by merging with special purpose acquisition company ION Acquisition Corp, per Business Insider. The deal, which will value Taboola at […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. New Crew With Biden in the White House, the Federal Trade Commissions and the Federal Communications Commission are playing the usual game of musical chairs triggered by a new administration. The Republican heads of both agencies – Ajit Pai at the FCC and Joe […]