Data-Driven Thinking Archives - Page 2 of 13

Pivot, Don’t Panic: How Smart CMOs Turn Market Volatility Into Growth

In times of economic uncertainty, marketing budgets are often the first target for cost-cutting. Nearly half of marketers now report feeling significantly less optimistic about the US economy compared to the previous quarter, reflecting heightened anxiety across industries. Yet, indiscriminate cuts can undermine long-term strategic goals and may ultimately cost businesses far more than they […]

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Data-Driven Thinking

Antitrust Enforcement Works, But It Needs To Happen More Proactively

Google’s recent promise to bring more transparency to its Performance Max product—including better channel reporting and visibility into creative assets—is long overdue. It’s also not a coincidence. Years of litigation and a landmark antitrust ruling finally forced Google to acknowledge what the rest of the industry has long understood: You don’t have to control both […]

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Data-Driven Thinking

New US State Children’s Privacy Laws Continue To Reshape Digital Marketing

Last year saw a proliferation of US state laws regulating the processing of children’s data. 2025 promises to be just as active, with new rules either already in effect or coming into force later this year. Companies in the ad tech ecosystem should pay attention to the evolving children’s privacy landscape at the US state […]

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Data-Driven Thinking

Is The IAB’s Trusted Server A Real Solution For Publisher Revenue Control?

Earlier this year, at a Signal Shift event in NYC, the IAB Tech Lab officially announced a new open-source initiative designed to shift more digital advertising operations server-side, “providing publishers on the open web with privacy-first control over their monetization that is independent of browser APIs and signal loss.” The unveiling of Trusted Server, an […]

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Data-Driven Thinking

Programmatic Reboot: Rebuilding Digital Advertising From The Ground Up

Ask a marketer where their last ad ran and why, and they’ll probably shrug or send a spreadsheet that answers nothing. Programmatic promised clarity: automation, efficiency and measurable outcomes. What we got instead is complexity dressed up as optimization: a stack of acronyms performing trust theater. DSPs, SSPs, exchanges, verifiers and data vendors now pile […]

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Data-Driven Thinking

Marketing To Machines: A New Performance Strategy In The Age Of AI Agents

The traditional marketing funnel is quickly being rewritten – not by a consumer trend but by a shift in how machines process and recommend information. As AI agents like OpenAI’s Operator, Google’s Gemini and Amazon’s Rufus begin to mediate everything from search to purchase, marketers are being forced to confront the reality that they must […]

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Data-Driven Thinking

Four Data Readiness Tips For Retail And Commerce Media

Retail media networks (RMNs) have grown rapidly, with spending representing a fifth of global advertising in 2024. Now, the rise of commerce media is shifting spend and further blurring lines between advertisers and publishers. With over 100 RMNs in the US alone, commerce media is expanding across verticals like travel, finance and health care. This […]

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Data-Driven Thinking

Google Is Keeping Cookies, So Advertisers Will Keep Buying Junk Data In Bulk

The rise of digital media offered the promise of paying for advertising based on definable, measurable impressions. Finally, decades of basing TV and radio advertising on limited survey models were coming to an end. While surveys left advertisers with no insight into who was actually seeing their ads, the new digital advertising environment allowed advertisers […]

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Data-Driven Thinking

After Xandr: Why The Open Internet’s Future Hinges On Integration, Not Fragmentation

Microsoft’s decision to shutter its Xandr DSP, formerly AppNexus, a pioneer in programmatic advertising, is reverberating throughout the ad tech industry. As Microsoft itself puts it: “Our commitment to more private and personalized advertising experiences for a conversational and agentic world is not achievable with the industry’s current DSP model and, therefore, it no longer […]

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Data-Driven Thinking

What Political Campaigns Can Teach Brands After Google’s Latest Cookie Reversal

The last thing most marketers want to think about right now is politics. However, in today’s media environment, where attention is fragmented and trust is fragile, they can learn a great deal from how political advertisers operate. Political campaigns have mastered persuasion, precision and performance under pressure. They have to move people who are skeptical, […]

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