IAB UK Urges UK Government to Recognise Benefits of Digital Advertising Sector’s “Mainstream Deployment” Of AI
IAB UK, the digital‑advertising trade body, released a white paper showing that 95% of firms in the sector now use artificial intelligence, marking near‑universal, mainstream deployment. The research estimates the UK’s £40 billion ($51 billion) digital‑ad market could unlock an additional £12 billion ($15 billion) in annual value through AI‑driven efficiency and targeting. While 57% of advertisers already have AI governance frameworks, the body warns that ill‑targeted regulation could endanger up to £2 billion ($2.5 billion) of market value. IAB UK urges the government to recognise the sector’s AI contribution in its national strategy.
Omnicom Media’s Annalect Leverages Snowflake to Advance Martech, AI and Measurement
Omnicom Media’s data and analytics arm Annalect announced a partnership with Snowflake to roll out a suite of martech, AI and measurement solutions across the Middle East and North Africa. The integration leverages Snowflake’s AI Data Cloud, including Cortex AI,...
Digest: Meta Eyes $240bn Ad Haul in 2026; Alibaba AI Revenue Hits 11th Quarter of Triple-Digit Growth
Meta is forecast to pull in roughly $240 bn in advertising revenue by 2026, marking a 22% year‑over‑year increase after reaching $196 bn in 2025. Instagram is now the primary growth engine, with more than half of global marketers planning to boost...
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How To Measure AI Search: Current KPIs You Need To Know [Webinar] via @Sejournal, @Hethr_campbell
AI‑generated answers are intercepting user journeys before a click, leaving traditional SEO metrics blind to brand influence. Search Engine Journal’s webinar outlines a three‑layer measurement stack that captures AI visibility signals, applies incrementality testing and media‑mix modeling, and ties the...
7 Key Digital Platforms to Market Your Business Online
Domains.co.za outlines a seven‑step digital playbook for South African SMEs, highlighting a website, SEO, social media, email, PPC, content marketing and mobile channels as essential pillars. The guide stresses that no single channel can sustain growth; a coordinated, multi‑platform strategy...
TikTok´s Donte Murry Reveals Why Affiliate Links Are the New Search Triggers
TikTok’s North America director of beauty, wellness and personal care, Donte Murry, highlighted that affiliate links are now acting as discovery triggers rather than simple buy buttons. About 77% of viewers search for more information after seeing an affiliate post,...
How Gaming, Finance, and E-Commerce Marketers Use Claude and AppsFlyer MCP
AppsFlyer’s Model Context Protocol (MCP) now lets marketers link Claude directly to live attribution data, eliminating CSV exports and manual pulls. Gaming, finance and e‑commerce teams use the integration to automate reporting, detect spend anomalies, and compress multi‑hour analyses into...
The AI Chat Ad Frontier: What LLMs Change About Brand Safety And Control
ChatGPT ads are emerging as a new advertising channel, shifting impressions, searches and transactions into the conversational windows of large language models (LLMs). Unlike static web or social media placements, LLM responses are generated in real time, making the surrounding...
‘We Should Own It’: Hershey’s Programmatic Chief on AI Agents and Media Mix Modeling
Hershey’s VP of Consumer Connections Vinny Rinaldi says the confectioner spent a year building a suite of AI‑driven media‑mix‑modeling agents that shrink reporting cycles from months to weeks. The new system lets Hershey prioritize relevance over reach, steering spend toward...
Marketers Put up Guardrails as AI Agents Reshape Programmatic Buying
AI agents are rapidly entering programmatic ad buying, promising autonomous campaign creation and real‑time optimization. Marketers, however, remain wary, citing hallucinations and budget‑blowout risks, and are installing guardrails to retain control. Companies like Kelly Scott Madison and Bayer have built internal gatekeepers...
Netflix Ramps up Global Ad Push with AI Tools and 250M Monthly Viewers
Netflix announced that its ad‑supported tier now reaches over 250 million monthly active viewers worldwide, signaling a major scaling of its advertising business. The company unveiled AI‑powered tools that can manage ad purchases and dynamically adapt creative assets, as well as...
Netflix Goes Toe-to-Toe with TV Giants in Aggressive Ad Pitch
Netflix announced its ad‑supported subscription tier now reaches more than 250 million monthly active viewers, a 31% jump from the 190 million reported in November 2025. President of Advertising Amy Reinhard said the company is shifting from proving durability to establishing itself...
Everything We Announced at YouTube Brandcast 2026
YouTube Brandcast 2026 unveiled a slate of exclusive creator‑driven shows and a suite of AI‑powered advertising tools designed to blend brand building with direct performance. New features include Custom Sponsorships that auto‑match videos to brand moments, a Masthead with a...
Check Out the Latest News From YouTube’s Brandcast 2026.
YouTube’s Brandcast 2026 unveiled a suite of AI‑enhanced advertising tools, including Custom Sponsorships that dynamically match videos to brand moments and a Masthead with a Custom Content Shelf for richer hero placements. The platform introduced Buy with Google Pay, letting CTV...
Google Quietly Alters Search Terms Reporting For AI Queries In Google Ads via @Sejournal, @Brookeosmundson
Google updated its Ads help page to clarify that search‑term reports for AI‑powered experiences may show interpreted intent rather than the exact user query. The change covers AI Mode, AI Overviews, Lens and autocomplete, meaning advertisers could see normalized terms...
Netflix Boasts 250 Million Global MAUs, Adding 15 New Ad-Supported Countries, ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ World Concert Tour in 2027
Netflix announced it now has 250 million global monthly active users, with 60 % of new sign‑ups opting for the ad‑supported tier. The company will add 15 additional ad‑supported countries in 2027, bringing the total to 27 markets for its $7.99 plan....
Google Says Search Query Reports May Not Show Actual User Searches
Google Ads has confirmed that its Search Query Reports may no longer display the exact terms users typed, instead showing the closest AI‑derived approximation of intent. The change stems from Google’s increasing reliance on artificial intelligence to interpret user context...
TikTok Announces New AI Advertising Solutions
TikTok unveiled a comprehensive AI‑driven advertising suite at its 6th‑annual TikTok World summit. New premium formats such as TopReach combine TopView and TopFeed for single‑day, high‑visibility buys, while Branded Buzz and Search Hubs enable creator‑powered buzz and top‑of‑search placement. The...
Taboola Data Reveals 76% Advertisers See Improved Performance From Agentic AI
Taboola’s new research shows 76% of advertisers experience performance gains from agentic AI, mainly on search and social platforms. The study finds 80% would boost open‑web ad spend if comparable AI tools existed, with 86% ready to allocate up to...
Condé Nast CEO: Plan As If Search Traffic Will Be Zero via @Sejournal, @MattGSouthern
Condé Nast CEO Roger Lynch told his teams to plan as if search traffic were zero after three consecutive years of declines that outpaced forecasts. He said search now accounts for only a single‑digit percentage of total visits, with AI‑driven SERPs...
Warner Bros. Discovery’s Upfront Was All About Performance
Warner Bros. Discovery used its upfront to unveil two ad‑measurement initiatives. It joined OpenAP’s conversion‑API effort, allowing advertisers to match outcomes data with first‑party data across major TV publishers. The company also launched an Always‑On Measurement & Attribution Dashboard that...
The State of Agentic Advertising
The Digiday‑Optable State of the Industry report surveyed 180 agencies, publishers, brands and retailers on agentic advertising. While 89% of advertisers are already using or building AI agents, most publishers remain in early or fragmented stages, with 42% not prioritizing...
Netflix’s Nicolle Pangis on Measurement, AI, and the Future of Streaming Advertising
Netflix’s advertising chief Nicolle Pangis says the next wave of streaming ads will hinge on unified data, interoperable measurement and AI‑driven infrastructure. She argues that siloed metrics limit advertisers’ ability to assess performance across streaming and retail channels. Netflix is...
Magellan AI Partners with Signal Hill Insights to Deliver Full-Funnel Podcast Measurement
Magellan AI announced a partnership with Signal Hill Insights to combine podcast ad exposure data with brand‑lift research. The integration feeds Magellan’s dynamic and baked‑in ad metrics into Signal Hill’s studies, improving audience matching and control‑group reliability. Advertisers will receive...
TikTok Launches MCP Server to Let AI Agents Run Campaigns
TikTok announced the Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, a developer toolkit that lets AI agents directly create, launch, and optimize ad campaigns on its platform. The move mirrors similar MCP releases from Google, Meta, and Amazon, signaling a shift toward...
Forget Dances. TikTok Wants People To Shop
TikTok is accelerating its shift from a short‑form video app to a full‑stack ecommerce platform. In March it unveiled TikTok GO, letting users book travel and activities directly in the feed, and introduced Branded Buzz and Search Hubs to scale creator‑driven...
The IT Line Of Death: The Real Reason Enterprise SEO Stalls via @Sejournal, @Billhunt
Enterprise SEO teams often see a flood of tickets but see little implementation, leading to traffic loss and layoffs. The article coins the “IT line of death,” a hidden resource‑allocation threshold where only projects above the line receive engineering time....
Server-Side Implementations for AdTech: The Architecture Powering the Next Era of Digital Advertising
Server‑side tagging is rapidly becoming the default architecture for digital advertising as browsers clamp down on third‑party cookies and privacy regulations tighten. Addingwell estimates 30‑40% of the top 1,000 websites already use server‑side implementations, a figure that’s climbing according to...
IAB Tech Lab Opens New CTV Ad Signalling Standards for Public Comment
IAB Tech Lab has published updated technical specifications to standardize signaling for Connected TV (CTV) ad formats, including Pause Ads, Menu Ads, Overlay Ads, and Squeeze Back Ads. The framework is open for public comment until June 5, 2026, giving stakeholders a...
Lessons Learned From Adobe’s 2026 Q2 AI Traffic Report via @Sejournal, @Slobodanmanic
Adobe Analytics’ Q2 2026 AI Traffic Report reveals AI‑referred visits to U.S. retailers surged 393% year‑over‑year in Q1 2026 and now convert better than any other channel. Engagement metrics jumped—time on site up 48%, pages per visit up 13%—while revenue per visit...
How to Make Sure AI Is Finding You When Searched: The DGR Interview with Skydeo’s Mike Ford
Mike Ford of Skydeo explains that AI‑powered search is shifting B2B marketing from a ranking‑focused SEO approach to a recommendation model. Language models prioritize clear, objective answers that can be lifted and repeated, rewarding third‑person, data‑rich content. Bottom‑of‑funnel assets such...
Ahead of Paramount Mega-Merger, WBD Bets on Agentic Ads
Warner Bros. Discovery introduced a suite of AI‑driven ad products at its May upfront, including shoppable ads that appear when viewers pause programming and a Kerv.ai partnership that aligns ads with specific scenes. The company also upgraded its dynamic creative tools, linking...
Data Strategies Are Evolving From Single Video Campaigns to Building “Lifetime of a Brand”
Dailymotion is shifting its advertising model from isolated video campaigns to a continuous, brand‑wide strategy. By aggregating data from Connected TV, online video and social platforms, the company can extract insights from each run and apply them to future efforts....
TikTok Builds for the AI Future, Welcoming Third-Party Agents for Ads
TikTok announced at TikTok World that it will open its ad platform to third‑party AI agents, allowing advertisers to automate campaign creation and management. The initiative is powered by a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that functions like an API, letting...
Original Content Doesn’t Begin with an Idea, but with Understanding Audience Behaviour
The article argues that original content should start with audience‑behavior insights, not a pre‑conceived creative spark. It cites AO Originals’ SNAP podcast, which leveraged tennis fans’ love for drama, as a model of behavior‑first thinking. Counterexamples include the wave of...
How To Build Local Pages That Win In AI-Powered Search via @Sejournal, @Lorenbaker
SEJ’s on‑demand session, led by Loren Baker and Alchemer’s Nick Larson, explains how AI‑powered search engines locate and rank local pages. It breaks down the role of site content, listings, schema markup, and customer reviews in feeding AI‑generated answers. Attendees...
InMobi’s MobileAction Deal Boosts Agentic Commerce And Global Advertising
InMobi announced the acquisition of MobileAction, an AI‑powered app‑marketing platform, to strengthen its agentic commerce offering and expand into the Apple ecosystem. The deal adds MobileAction’s data on millions of creatives, keywords and apps, complementing InMobi’s Glance platform that already...
The Cost of Going It Alone: When DIY Marketing Stops Scaling
Independent hotels often start with DIY marketing, using website builders, Meta ads, and AI tools to keep occupancy steady. As the property grows, these ad‑hoc tactics fail to scale, leading to overlapping campaigns, missed optimizations, and declining visibility. The article...
Does a Hotel Press Release Impact AI Discoverability? - By Stephanie Smith
Stephanie Smith argues that hotel press releases still matter, but their value lies in feeding AI‑powered search tools rather than traditional Google rankings. Because large language models train on publicly indexed content, releases distributed on open‑news sites with permanent URLs...
Google Ads Adds Gemini-Powered Dashboards for Real-Time Insights
Google is integrating its Gemini large‑language model into Google Ads Dashboards, letting advertisers generate and modify visual reports with natural‑language prompts. The new feature updates charts, tables and graphs in real time as users ask questions about metrics such as...
Summer Stall? Media’s Ad Trends Against Continued Headwinds
Media advertising revenue is showing a seasonal slowdown this summer, compounded by broader macro‑economic uncertainty. Industry analysts cited in the RBR+TVBR Summer 2026 issue warn that headwinds such as tepid consumer spending and fragmented digital competition will keep ad trends volatile....
YouTube’s Brandcast Puts Creator Partnerships Front and Center
At Brandcast, Google’s Sean Downey positioned YouTube as the future of media, emphasizing its evolution beyond traditional TV to a multi‑screen ecosystem anchored by Shorts and creator‑driven content. He highlighted the launch of YouTube Creator Partnerships, a matchmaking platform that...
Viant Sees A Growth Wave Coming, But First Marketers Must Really Ditch Walled Garden Ad Tech
Viant reported Q1 2026 DSP revenue up 18% to $50.3 million and narrowed its net loss to $2.2 million, while claiming an adjusted profit of $5.5 million. Executives argued that advertisers are increasingly rejecting the opaque, self‑attributing tactics of walled‑garden platforms like Google...
Viant Sees A Growth Wave Coming, But First Marketers Must Really Ditch Walled Garden Ad Tech
Viant posted Q1 2026 DSP revenue of $50.3 million, up 18%, while its net loss narrowed to $2.2 million and an adjusted profit of $5.5 million was reported. The company’s COO warned that advertisers are abandoning walled‑garden DSPs such as Amazon, Google and Yahoo...
Google Discover Performance Reporting Bug in Search Console
Google confirmed a data‑logging bug in the Discover report of Google Search Console that affected metrics for May 7‑8, 2026. The error caused an artificial drop in reported clicks and impressions, though actual Discover rankings remained unchanged. Google clarified the issue was...
Omnisend Launches MCP to Bring Ecommerce Marketing Into ChatGPT
Omnisend introduced Model Context Protocol (MCP), allowing ecommerce marketers to access its email and SMS platform inside ChatGPT. The feature lets users ask plain‑language questions about revenue, campaign performance, and root‑cause analysis without leaving the AI chat. MCP also generates...
ODAIA Marketing Intelligence Brings Real-Time, Individualized Campaign Orchestration to Pharma HCP Engagement
ODAIA launched Marketing Intelligence, an AI‑powered solution that orchestrates real‑time, individualized campaigns for pharmaceutical brands targeting healthcare professionals. The platform ingests prescribing data, CRM records, and engagement signals to score each HCP at the NPI level and recommend the optimal...
fullthrottle.ai® Announces Strategic Audio Partnership With TuneIn to Power Outcome-Driven Campaigns
Fullthrottle.ai has integrated TuneIn’s live and on‑demand audio inventory into its ad‑tech operating system, letting advertisers plan, activate, and optimize audio alongside CTV, video, display and direct‑mail campaigns. The partnership gives marketers a single workflow to reach listeners on mobile,...
Daily Search Forum Recap: May 12, 2026
Google announced that its Merchant Center for Agencies, previously limited to the US and Canada, is now live worldwide, giving e‑commerce partners a unified platform to manage product feeds across all markets. At the same time, Google is testing enhancements...
The TV Ad Market Is Being Taken Over by Streaming Platforms
Advertising dollars are rapidly moving from linear TV to streaming platforms. Madison and Wall estimate U.S. streaming ad spend will reach roughly $20 billion by 2029, closing the gap with traditional TV, which is projected to stay around $38 billion. The shift...