Programmatic Advertising Insights

#AdTech News update AdTech & Programmatic – 2025 is Shaping the Future of Digital Advertising The pace of change in our industry is relentless—and exciting. Here are some key developments that are redefining how we approach media, measurement, and innovation: Meta's Bold AI Vision Mark Zuckerberg just shook the industry: Meta is building an AI-driven ad engine where advertisers only input objectives and budgets. Creative, targeting, and media buying? All handled by AI. We’re stepping into the era of “infinite creative” automation. Generative AI + Incrementality = Smart Ad Budgets Startups like Paramark are blending GenAI with campaign incrementality to drive smarter ad investments. Their tech forecasts the sales impact of ad variations—next-level insights for performance marketers. Privacy-First Targeting Third-party cookies are nearly obsolete. Contextual, geotargeting, and 1st-party data strategies are no longer “alternatives”—they’re core. Regulators are watching, and so are consumers. CTV & Programmatic Audio On the Rise As linear TV fades, CTV and OTT ad spend are booming. Add to that the rise of programmatic audio (think dynamic, host-read podcast ads), and you’ve got new playgrounds for engagement. Industry Shakeups & Consolidation Google’s antitrust saga could lead to serious restructuring. Meanwhile, smaller players are consolidating to offer full-stack solutions—streamlining for buyers, but a double-edged sword for publishers. The Evolution of Brand Building With attribution limitations and rising CPAs, brands are rethinking performance-only strategies. Real-world communities, creative storytelling, and direct customer relationships are back in vogue. We’re witnessing a fundamental evolution—from channels to ecosystems, from media buying to business outcomes. Are we ready for the AI-led future of advertising? #AdTech #ProgrammaticAdvertising #DigitalMarketing #AIinAdvertising #CTV #FirstPartyData #MarketingStrategy #AdOperations #PerformanceMarketing

💡 Retail media is expected to capture a larger share of the programmatic market, rising to 27% by 2026. This growth is powered by data-rich environments (e.g., Amazon, Walmart Connect), allowing precision targeting based on purchase behaviors. This growing #retailmedia share reinforces the need for strategic partnerships with retailers to access valuable shopper data for personalized, high-ROI campaigns. Partnerships between retailers and platforms such as YouTube, TikTok, and Meta enhance opportunities for cross-platform activations and omnichannel campaigns. 💡 Walled gardens such as platforms like Google, Meta, and Amazon continue to account for over 75% of the programmatic market. This trend will grow steadily through 2026, reaching 76.6%. For #CPG brands, this signals that your programmatic ad investments will need to prioritize these platforms due to their dominant control over consumer data and access to specific audience segments. The reliance on proprietary ad channels (such as walled gardens) provides tighter control over data but limits flexibility compared to open web solutions. You must balance spending across these platforms while managing increasing privacy regulations. 💡#Programmatic ad spend growth will decelerate in 2025 compared to prior forecasts, according to eMarketer and LiveRamp. In my opinion, this reduction in growth is important for budgeting and planning; it will signify market saturation or economic pressures. CPG #brands should maximize efficiency and performance metrics rather than increase spending. 💡The partnerships between retailers (Instacart, Walmart, Amazon) and programmatic players (YouTube, Meta, TikTok) also illustrate how ad tech ecosystems are coalescing around data-rich environments. CPG marketers should use these collaborations to drive personalized, contextual ads using first-party data from retailers. Understanding your partners' ad tech maturity is crucial. Platforms with advanced DSP/SSP solutions will provide better ad delivery and performance control, especially in a post-cookie world where first-party data and walled garden ecosystems reign supreme. ++ Tactical REcommendations for CPGs ++ 📍Prioritize walled gardens. With over 75% share, platforms like Meta, Amazon, and Google should remain central to your programmatic strategy. Ensure you leverage each platform's strengths in audience targeting and retail integration. 📍Surprise, surprise! Increase retail media investments. As retail media grows, you must increase your investments in these networks. Align your campaigns with key retail partners, and focus on shopper insights to refine targeting. 📍Plan for slower growth. Prepare for a more competitive market in 2025, emphasizing ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) and efficient spending. To stay ahead, explore advanced targeting options like Connected TV and mobile. 📍Build data partnerships. Strengthen partnerships with retailers and leverage their 1P #data to enhance personalization

Last week, I attended the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity to see the best of the best in creativity and brand marketing. While consumer marketing rules the show, I loved seeing the growing focus on B2B marketing. Here are my B2B relevant take-aways... 1. AI will change marketing in many ways; some we see already and many we don’t know just yet. But, no one believes AI will replace the deep, human insights that underpin the most powerful stories and Lion-winning campaigns. 2. The B2B buying group is increasing. There is now an average of 23 people in the buying group, (SAP sees even bigger groups). The target buyers and hidden buyers of the buying group have different needs, risk tolerance, and willingness to engage with a vendor, so must have different approaches. 3. Strong, trusted partnership between the CMO & CFO is essential. Marketing, more than other disciplines in business, requires significant program investment (vs headcount), so ensuring shared understanding and KPIs between finance and marketing is essential. 4. Greenwashing is still happening and tolerance is low. Sustainability is a deep, science-based topic and needs to be addressed with subject-matter expertise and credible metrics. Currently, sustainability marketing is falling flat more often than being impactful. 5. Even with huge marketing budgets and masterfully executed tactics, if your campaign lacks a compelling idea it’s not going to have meaningful impact. Better to save the money until you have a deep insight upon which to base your campaign. #CannesLions2024 #MarketingExcellence #B2BMarketing #SAP #Innovation Etosha Thurman Aaron Green

The most interesting shift in advertising right now is the shift from “Here’s an ad” to “Here’s help”, thanks to agentic AI. Microsoft Advertising’s latest updates shared by CVP Kya Sainsbury-Carter point to a future where ads behave more like helpful nudges than interruptions. Think: - A travel ad going beyond showing you a beach to booking your flight. - A B2B campaign going beyond pitching a product to answering your procurement questions. - A retail banner going beyond promoting a sale to remembering your size, your style, and your last return. Microsoft’s pivot away from traditional DSPs signals a belief that the next era of advertising will be built with AI agents that act, adapt, and assist. Forget about being “personalized.” That's so yesterday. Now, it’s about being useful in the moment. Conversational. Context-aware. Capable of doing something, not just saying something. That’s a big leap. And it’s going to change how we brief, how we measure, and how we build. If you’re in marketing or media, here’s one small way to start preparing: - Pick one of your current campaigns. - Now reframe the creative brief from a message to deliver to a task to help someone complete. - What changes? Make note. This can become a reality. If you want to go deeper, read Kya's post here: https://lnkd.in/dveqDneU and follow leaders actually building this such as Paul Longo, Tim Frank, and Pedro Bojikian. #hicm #AI #AIinAdvertising #AgenticAI

Most B2B marketers make the same mistake: They treat Google, LinkedIn, and Meta as separate campaigns instead of a connected system. Here’s the thing → one channel alone can’t carry your whole demand engine. Google gives you intent. LinkedIn gives you qualification. Meta gives you scale. When you connect them, you don’t just generate leads — you build a profitable, self-reinforcing flywheel. Step 1: Capture demand with Google Ads Google is still the undisputed king of intent. Someone searching “enterprise CRM for SaaS” is already in-market. That’s gold. But here’s the reality: Only 2–5% of visitors convert on the first touch. High-intent clicks cost $8–$12+. Most of that traffic bounces and disappears. If you’re just measuring Google by “conversions today,” you’ll either cap out quickly or burn budget. The smarter move? Pay for that in-market traffic, then pipe it into a system that qualifies and retargets. Step 2: Qualify and nurture with LinkedIn This is where most companies fall short. Drop the LinkedIn Insight Tag on your site and suddenly you can segment Google visitors by industry, company size, and seniority. Now you’re not treating every click equally — you’re focusing spend on the ones that match your ICP. And instead of spamming brand ads, run Thought Leader Ads. These are organic-style posts from your CEO or SME, sponsored into the feeds of your best-fit prospects. It builds trust, positions your team as experts, and warms the accounts you actually care about. Bonus: LinkedIn Company Hub shows you exactly which accounts are leaning in. Served 30+ impressions? 3+ ad clicks? That’s your intent list. Step 3: Enrich and scale with Meta At this stage, you’ve captured intent and qualified fit. Now it’s time to scale. Export your engaged LinkedIn accounts, enrich them with decision-maker contact data, and upload that list into Meta. Why? CPMs are 3–4x cheaper than LinkedIn. Enriched data improves match rates. Facebook + Instagram give you unmatched reach. Now you’re retargeting with testimonial videos, case study carousels, or founder explainers — not to cold strangers, but to warm, qualified accounts. The result? Lower CPC overall Warmer leads Higher conversion rates Cleaner attribution More efficient ad spend That’s the power of building a B2B Ad Trifecta instead of siloed channels. If I were starting from zero today, this is exactly where I’d begin: ✅ Capture demand with Google ✅ Qualify and nurture with LinkedIn ✅ Enrich and scale with Meta Control what you can control: your system. Not the algorithm. Worth testing if your funnel is stuck on one channel.

746M → 737M → 749M. Linear TV reach is wobbling. And this is not a blip. 👉An 11% decline in TV ad volumes. 👉TV’s share of total ad spend is projected to fall from 21% to 15% by 2027. 👉Subscription growth is slowing. 👉Broadcasters under pressure. This isn’t a cyclical dip. It’s structural. Here’s what most people will say: “Digital is eating TV.” That’s lazy analysis. What’s actually happening is far more interesting. 1️⃣ The audience hasn’t vanished. It has reorganised. The same household that once consumed prime-time soap now consumes: • CTV • OTT subscriptions • Short video • Retail media placements • Influencer commerce Attention did not disappear. It fragmented, became portable, and became measurable at a user level. And that changes power. 2️⃣ Ad budgets follow measurability, not nostalgia. As a Data & Programmatic lead, I can tell you this clearly: CFOs don’t cut TV because they dislike it. They cut it because they cannot defend it in a performance review. When advertisers can see: 👉 deterministic signals 👉audience overlap 👉incrementality 👉outcome attribution They will allocate accordingly. The boardroom today asks:“Show me incremental sales lift.” Not: “Show me GRPs.” 3️⃣ The real story is not linear vs digital. 👉It is identity vs panels. 👉Panel-based measurement was sufficient in a broadcast monopoly era. 👉In a multi-device, logged-in, subscription economy? 👉Sample-based inference is colliding with deterministic data environments. And here’s my controversial take: 👉 Attention as a standalone metric will also struggle in this new order. Because visibility without outcome is theatre. 👉Impressions without identity are a probability. 👉And attention without commerce linkage will soon be questioned. 4️⃣ The next shift: Commerce-led media planning 👉Retail media is rising. 👉CTV is becoming addressable. 👉Telecom bundling is accelerating IPTV. 👉Distribution players are moving closer to identity graphs. 👉Broadcasters are moving closer to subscription stacks. The future TV ecosystem will be: • Logged-in • Addressable • Outcome-measured • Commerce-integrated The winners will not be those who defend legacy measurement. They will be those who integrate data across screens. 5️⃣ My POV This is not the death of TV. This is the death of anonymous TV. And that distinction matters. If broadcasters embrace clean rooms, privacy-first identity, and cross-screen measurement, they regain pricing power. If they cling to reach as the primary currency, they slowly lose relevance. 👉The market is not punishing TV. 👉It is punishing opacity. And as someone who has worked across programmatic, privacy, retail media and cross-platform measurement for over a decade, I can confidently say: 👉The next five years will not be about screen size. 👉They will be about data fidelity. 👉TV companies that behave as data companies will thrive. 👉The rest will become content suppliers inside someone else’s platform.

AI has become the default setting in B2B marketing. Output is rising. Volume is easy. Yet the quality gap is widening. 🤦🏻 Many firms now produce more content while saying less. This problem is not small. Gartner reports that more than 70% of B2B buyers feel vendor content lacks insight. When everything sounds the same, nothing stands out. Many companies are making the mistake of handing AI tools to people without marketing depth and hope scale will follow. That pattern is now visible in B2B teams too. Roles that once demanded trained marketers are being filled by generalists who rely on AI to make up the skill gap. It looks efficient at first. Then the cracks show. ❌ B2B marketing needs expertise because the decisions it supports are complex and high value. Buyers take months to evaluate vendors. They demand proof, clarity, and trust. McKinsey notes that B2B buyers now use at least ten channels before making a decision. AI generated content without strong human judgement cannot meet these expectations. It produces volume but misses context, industry nuance, and the credibility buyers look for. The technician story applies strongly to this world. A machine was fixed in minutes, but the fee was for decades of experience. In B2B marketing, the experience is the ability to read markets, interpret signals, and shape a narrative that speaks to real business problems. AI lacks this intuition. It cannot replace the value of people who know the customer, the sector, and the stakes.💯 There is also risk. Forrester found that nearly 50% of B2B organisations worry about brand reputation issues from unreviewed AI outputs. The danger is not just low quality content. It includes factual errors, misaligned messaging, unintentional bias, and compliance gaps. These risks grow when teams skip proper review because AI feels fast. A balanced approach works better. AI can support research, summarise long reports, build drafts, and speed up routine tasks. It can help teams respond faster and stay organised. But the interpretation must come from experienced marketers. They must shape the final message so it reflects what the brand stands for and what the customer actually cares about. 💡 Takeaway for marketing leaders B2B buyers reward clarity and expertise. AI can help with speed, but it cannot replace human judgement. Leaders should design workflows where AI handles volume and humans handle meaning. Invest in people who understand the market. Give them tools that make them faster, not tools that replace their thinking. This is how B2B marketing stays credible in a world filled with endless content. #futureofmarketing #ai #thoughtleadership

𝗠𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗕𝟮𝗕 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴. I sat down with Jae O. at Advertising Week NYC last month. Jae leads ads measurement, intent, recommendations, and experimentation at LinkedIn. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺: Too many B2B marketers treat measurement like B2C. Anyone can buy toothpaste. Click an ad, make a purchase, measure the conversion. But who's buying million-dollar enterprise software? Not everyone who visits your website. As Jae put it: "You should be measuring towards value." 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝟵𝟱-𝟱 𝗥𝘂𝗹𝗲: Here's where most B2B brands fall short. They underestimate the importance of time in market. Only 5% of B2B buyers are actively in-market at any given time. That means 95% of your potential buyers aren't ready to purchase. They're researching. Building trust. Evaluating options. You need an always-on approach that builds credibility during that 95% of the time they're not buying. Patience is key. The brands that understand this long game win. 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗲𝗱𝗜𝗻'𝘀 𝗠𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗜𝗻𝗳𝗿𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗦𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘀 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀: 𝟭) 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲 𝗔𝘁𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗯𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗥𝗲𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘀 (𝗥𝗔𝗥) Track ROI at the company level with a 365-day lookback window. RAR connects employee engagement at target accounts with subsequent conversions and purchases over time. This matters because B2B buying involves multiple stakeholders. The person who clicked your Thought Leader Ad six months ago might not be the person who signs the contract today. RAR captures the full influence of creator content across the entire buying committee. 𝟮) 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗔𝗣𝗜 (𝗖𝗔𝗣𝗜) Stop chasing clicks. Start optimizing for business outcomes. CAPI integrates your first-party data directly into LinkedIn's ad systems. CRM interactions. Website behavior. Offline sales. Lead qualification status. LinkedIn uses this data to optimize campaigns for Marketing-Qualified Leads and Sales-Qualified Leads in real time. The results: 31% more conversions, 20% lower cost per action, 39% drop in cost per qualified lead. 𝟯) 𝗔𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗔𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘀 Measure the incremental reach that creator content delivers beyond conventional advertising. LinkedIn's demographic data reveals what content resonates with specific professional communities. You can track awareness lift and engagement patterns across that crucial 95% who aren't ready to buy yet. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗼𝗺 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗲: 70% of marketers report LinkedIn delivers positive ROI for their organization. This measurement infrastructure connects ad investment to actual revenue over extended time horizons. B2B buying committees don't move fast. Your measurement shouldn't expect them to. The smartest marketers are measuring what matters. Not what's easy. -- Enjoy this? ♻️ Repost it to your network & follow Brendan Gahan for more. Interested in LinkedIn Influencer Marketing? Reach out to us Creator Authority .

Research is catching up to what we can see about how B2B buying is changing. The 3rs: 𝗥elationships, 𝗥ecommendations, and 𝗥elatability factors are taking centre stage. While product features, price, or brand recognition are in decline. Research from Warc reveals that emotional factors are more consequential in B2B buying decisions than rational levers. • Recommendations from similar customers or trusted colleagues are 3x more likely to tip the balance than cheaper prices • These recommendations are also 3x more influential than products promising better performance So cultural, social signals, and emotions are shifting decision-making. 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗳𝘁? 2/3 of big-ticket B2B buyers are now millennials or Gen Z. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸: This isn't about giving old tactics new names. It's about recognising that B2B buyers (especially younger ones) make decisions based on what their peers say and who they trust, not just specs and prices. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗱𝗼 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗶𝘁? Stop treating B2B buyers like robots comparing spreadsheets. Focus on the right places to build relationships. LinkedIn (not spam), WhatsApp groups, Slack communities, industry events. Focus on getting more recommendations, and broadcasting them. Create customer communities where peers validate each other's decisions. Avoid the BS: fake testimonials, aggressive automation, undisclosed paid recommendations. Most B2B marketers still pump budget into feature comparisons. Your prospects aren't asking "what does it do?" They're asking "who else like me uses this?" Track where your best deals come from. It's not the trade show booth. It's Sarah telling James at drinks that your product saved her quarter. That's your real marketing channel now.

A $50B+ AuM PE firm operating partner asked me a question that could save them millions: “How do you optimize ad spend for B2B SaaS port-cos?” Here are the 5 biggest takeaways from our conversation: 1. Pre-Acquisition Marketing Intelligence One of the biggest mistakes PEs make is neglecting pre-acquisition intel. Even without direct access to ad accounts, you can gain valuable insights: — Use tools like SEMrush, SimilarWeb, and LinkedIn/Glassdoor for a proxy view — Assess current keyword strategies and ad relevance — Identify potential quick wins in marketing optimization An inefficient ad spend isn't always a deal-breaker. It could be an opportunity to increase profitability ASAP post-acquisition. 2. Common Inefficiencies in B2B SaaS Marketing B2B SaaS companies spending $100k-$300k+ monthly on Google and LinkedIn often have hidden inefficiencies: — Optimizing for vanity metrics (e.g., leads) instead of opportunities — Misaligned ad copy that doesn't match their value prop or speak to their ICP — Over-reliance on algorithmic suggestions instead of strategic A/B testing Two recent B2B SaaS port-cos (Series F, $400M raise and $100M raise at $1B valuation) that I audited revealed opportunities to double MQLs. 3. Keyword Strategy Poor keyword strategies can devastate RoAS. One company bidding on "IT remote management software" was showing ads for "applicant tracking software" searches because they were using broad-match keywords. High RoAS requires air-tight alignment between your keywords and your ICP's searches 4. Pipeline-to-Closed Deals Gap Even when generating leads, B2B SaaS port-cos tend to neglect to convert pipeline to closed deals. Optimize the entire funnel: — Improve keyword strategies and ad relevance to boost MQL quality — Work closely with sales teams to increase SQL-to-close rates — Ensure consistent messaging from first touch to closed deal 5 . Audits Matter Whether pre- or post-acquisition, if you've got product-market fit, marketing spend and strategy are your longest levers for growth. Our $20K audit for a company spending $200K/month on ads typically recoups its cost within a month and provides an optimization roadmap. BOTTOM LINE: Whether you're considering an acquisition or maximizing profitability on an existing port-co, start with an audit to uncover. 2x-5x ROAS opportunities within 2-3 months = totally feasible. Questions? AMA in the comments ⤵️