AdExplainer
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AdExplainer
The Programmatic Auction Is Changing In Real Time – Here’s How
Programmatic advertising has changed a lot in the nearly 20 years since the first RTB ad auction. On the surface, programmatic is just the automated buying and selling of digital ads. Under the hood, there’s a complex, high-speed auction system that decides in milliseconds which ads appear across display, video, CTV, audio, retail and other […]
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AdExplainer
What Does A Beta Test Of A Sell-Side Agent Look Like?
Using machine learning to automate and optimize ads is familiar to publishers. For years, this tech has helped publishers tune floors and serve the best ads behind the scenes. Now, publishers are exploring automation and optimization through agentic AI. Many publishers have identified a similar use case: sales agents who actively make decisions in the […]
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AdExplainer
Understanding MCP, The ‘Universal Adapter’ For AI In Advertising
If there are two things ad tech isn’t short on, it’s acronyms and, more recently, AI product demos. But MCP – short for Model Context Protocol – is more than another TLA (sorry, three-letter acronym) or AI buzzword. Metaphorically speaking, it’s plumbing for AI: the piping that lets large language models connect to other software […]
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AdExplainer
Why You Should Know (And Use) The Marketing Efficiency Ratio Metric
“In the year of the lord 2025, we do not use ROAS.” That was the position of one agency media buyer during a conversation about the Marketing Efficiency Ratio (MER). The data-driven advertising metric has been around for many years but is now reaching mainstream or at least revered status. That is an exaggeration, of […]
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AdExplainer
Your CAPI Cheat Sheet: Understanding Conversion APIs
Hot: Server-side conversion APIs that send marketing data directly to ad platforms. Not: Traditional browser-based tracking methods like cookies, pixels and scripts. Thanks to privacy regulations and browser restrictions, client-side tracking – as in, collecting and tracking user behavior directly through a browser – has become a heck of a lot harder to do. Enter: Conversion APIs. […]
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AdExplainer
When Did Ad Tech Get So Obsessed With Outcomes, Anyway?
Talking about outcomes is practically a mandate, especially in the CTV space, where ad buyers and vendors alike are heavily invested in streaming television’s potential as a lower-funnel, performance-driving channel.
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AdExplainer
Why Data Minimization Is A Very Big Deal For Ad Tech
When it comes to data collection, the ad tech industry has long had a hoarder mentality. Gather up as much data as you can from as many sources as possible, store it indefinitely, and if you’re not quite sure what to do with it now, hey, you can always just figure out that part later. […]
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AdExplainer
How A 134-Year-Old US Law Still Defends Against Monopolies Today
It might be surprising to learn the government fights against monopolies the same way now as it did in the late 19th century – partly because the laws haven’t needed to change all that much.
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AdExplainer
AdExplainer: The Rise Of Sell-Side Curation
Audience curation is a manifestation of what the online ad industry has long been calling for: closer collaboration between partners that isn’t built on unreliable third-party signals. To curate custom ad inventory, buyers have started working more closely with the sell side. Publishers have strong insights into user browsing behavior that advertisers can use for […]
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AdExplainer
T-Commerce Vs. Shoppable TV
Television commerce, or T-commerce, is similar to shoppable TV: both refer to buying something you see on television. But shoppable TV is far more nascent – and also has different implications on attribution.
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