The 10 Golden Rules for Programmatic Campaign Management
W Media Research occasionally invites guest contributors to bring fresh, expert perspectives on AdTech, advertising, and media. In this article, Eric Tilbury -Vice President Programmatic…
Three Execs Leave TTD, Suggesting Dissent Over Company Direction
By Karsten Weide, Chief Analyst In the high-stakes theater of AdTech, where the scripts are usually written in opaque acronyms and algorithmic jargon, yesterday’s news…
When DSPs and SSPs Converge
The rise of unified advertising platforms and the reshaping of the programmatic supply chain By Karsten Weide, Chief Analyst The programmatic advertising ecosystem is undergoing…
Viant Q4 2025 Earnings: Proving That Small DSPs Can Keep Up In CTV and AI
By Karsten Weide, Chief Analyst Executive Summary Viant reported its fourth quarter 2025 earnings on Wednesday, March 11, 2026, delivering one of the more quietly…
Marketecture Live Just Showed The Industry How To Run A Conference
By Karsten Weide, Chief Analyst If you spent your Tuesday and Wednesday this past week at The Glasshouse in New York City, you know exactly…
Magnite Q4 2026 Earnings: CTV Now Core, But Legacy Business Slow
By Karsten Weide, Chief Analyst Executive Summary Magnite reported its fourth quarter 2025 earnings on Wednesday, February 25, 2026, delivering results that confirm a major…
PubMatic Fourth Quarter 2025 Earnings: DSP Losses And AI Ambitions
By Karsten Weide, Chief Analyst Executive Summary PubMatic reported its fourth quarter 2025 earnings on Thursday, February 26, 2026, delivering a set of results that…
The Trade Desk Q4 2025 Earnings: Battling Slowing Growth
By Karsten Weide, Chief Analyst Executive Summary The Trade Desk reported its fourth quarter 2025 earnings on Wednesday, February 25, 2026. Revenue reached $847 million,…
The Trade Desk Opens Its Ventura Smart TV OS to the Broader Ecosystem
By Karsten Weide, Chief Analyst. The Trade Desk is expanding its Ventura Smart TV operating system into what it now calls the Ventura Ecosystem, opening…
AppLovin Q4 2025 Earnings: Stunning Numbers, But Meta Threat Looms
By Karsten Weide, Chief Analyst Executive Summary AppLovin reported their fourth quarter 2025 earnings on Wednesday, February 11, 2026. What they delivered was, on paper,…
Criteo Q4 2025 Earnings: Retail Media Troubles Overshadow Agentic Push
By Karsten Weide, Chief Analyst Executive Summary Criteo reported their fourth quarter 2025 earnings on Wednesday, February 11, 2026. There was good news and bad…
Beyond the Hype: How Real Is Agentic AI In Advertising?
By Karsten Weide, Chief Analyst Agentic AI has become one of the most overused and least understood terms in digital advertising. The promise is sweeping:…
Amazon Advertising’s MCP Server Enters Open Beta: What Does It Mean For The Industry?
By Karsten Weide, Chief Analyst On February 2, 2026, Amazon Advertising officially announced the open beta test for its Model Context Protocol (MCP) server at…
Some Learned Observations on Advertising, Hypocrisy, and a Certain Super Bowl Sermon
By Karsten Weide, Chief Analyst We will soon be able to witness a most curious spectacle during the Super Bowl, that annual civic ritual in…
OpenAI Introduces Ads: What Does it Mean for Buyers, Vendors and Pubs?
OpenAI officially announced its entry into advertisements sales on ChatGPT on January 16, 2026. For a company that once viewed advertising as a last resort,…
The Top Ten Trends In Advertising in 2026
This research note outlines W Media Research’s top 10 trends in advertising for 2026. Next year will be when gradual change in advertising flips into…
TTD’s PubDesk: Making Ads Work Better for Buyers and Publishers
By Karsten Weide, Chief Analyst For years, publishers have struggled with a basic problem: understanding what buyers truly value. Everyone in digital advertising talks about…
PubMatic Introduces Agentic AI: From SSP To End-To-End Ad Platform
By Karsten Weide, Chief Analyst On November 13, 2025, PubMatic showcased the latest progress in how it is using agentic and generative AI throughout its…
PubMatic Q3 2025 Earnings: Positive Outlook Despite Revenue Drop
By Karsten Weide, Chief Analyst Executive Summary PubMatic reported its third-quarter 2025 earnings on Monday, November 10. The independent SSP delivered a quarter that underscored…
Amazon unBoxed 2025: Advertising’s Next Leap Toward Automation
By Karsten Weide, Chief Analyst The Dawn of Agentic Advertising Amazon Ad’s 2025 unBoxed conference, its annual showcase for advertisers and agencies, took place November…
The Trade Desk Q3 2025 Earnings: Slowing Growth, But Solid Profits
By Karsten Weide, Chief Analyst Executive Summary The Trade Desk reported its third-quarter 2025 earnings on Wednesday, November 6, delivering revenue growth of 18% year-over-year…
AppLovin Q3 2025 Earnings: The AI Engine Rewriting AdTech’s Rules
By Karsten Weide, Chief Analyst Executive Summary AppLovin reported its third-quarter 2025 earnings on Wednesday, November 5, continuing a streak that has made the Palo…
Magnite Q3 2025 Earnings: Solid – But Does Amazon Hurt Its CTV Biz?
By Karsten Weide, Chief Analyst Magnite reported its third-quarter 2025 earnings on Wednesday, November 5, delivering a net revenue growth of 12% – nothing to…
Criteo Q3 2025 Earnings: Beats, Prepping Move To U.S. For Capital
By Karsten Weide, Chief Analyst Criteo reported its third-quarter 2025 earnings on Wednesday, October 29, 2025. The AdTech company delivered the tenth quarter of profitable…
The Wrapper Wars Are On: The Trade Desk Strikes Back At Prebid
By Karsten Weide, Chief Analyst. At the October 2025 Prebid Summit in New York, The Trade Desk (TTD) threw down the gauntlet to the sell-side…
Ad Context Protocol: Making Advertising Faster, Cheaper, Better
By Karsten Weide, Chief Analyst. On October 15, 2025, a coalition of AdTech and AI advertising companies announced the Ad Context Protocol (AdCP)-an open standard…
The Top 8 News from Advertising Week 2025
By Karsten Weide, Chief Analyst Advertising Week New York 2025 brought together the industry’s biggest thinkers, dealmakers, and disruptors for a week that captured both…
Meta Platforms: Tone-Deaf On Privacy When AI Must Be Monetized
By Karsten Weide, Chief Analyst On October 1st, 2025, Meta announced that, beginning December 16, the company will incorporate user interactions with its AI tools…
Prebid’s Transaction ID Changes: The Consequences For Programmatic
By Karsten Weide, Chief Analyst Yet another migraine is coming advertisers’ and AdTech vendors’ way. In late August, Prebid, a publisher organization, modified the way…
From Blue Links to Black Holes: How AI Search Threatens Pubs & Vendors
By Karsten Weide, Chief Analyst W Media Research For more than two decades, digital publishers and advertisers have lived in a kind of uneasy symbiosis…
If AI Misrepresents Your Brand, That’s On You: Take Back Control
By Karsten Weide, Chief Analyst How can advertisers make sure that AI chatbots and AI search accurately represent their brand and its values? Here are five…
When Bots Buy – What Happens To Advertising?
A new kind of buyer is emerging – one that isn’t human, but algorithmic. AI shopping bots act on behalf of consumers, identifying needs, researching…
PubMatic Q2 2025 Earnings: Beats, Traffic Decline Threat, Stock Down
By Karsten Weide, Chief Analyst Executive Summary PubMatic reported its second-quarter 2025 earnings on Monday, August 11, 2025, delivering results that exceeded both internal guidance…
Magnite Q2 2025 Earnings: BEATS, CTV Is Core, Assaulted By Amazon
By Karsten Weide, Chief Analyst Executive Summary Magnite reported their second quarter 2025 earnings on Tuesday, August 6. After a few quarters marked by integration…
AppLovin Q2 2025 Earnings: Shedding Apps Biz, Revenue and Profit Grow
By Karsten Weide, Chief Analyst Executive Summary AppLovin reported its second quarter 2025 earnings on Wednesday, August 6, 2025, leaving little doubt that its transformation…
The Trade Desk Q2 2025 Earnings: Rock-Solid, Yet 40% Stock price Drop
By Karsten Weide, Chief Analyst Executive Summary Criteo reported its second-quarter 2025 earnings on Wednesday, July 31, marking a quarter of steady topline results, significant…
Criteo Q2 2025 Earnings: Beats, But Retail Media Growth Too Slow
By Karsten Weide, Chief Analyst Executive Summary Criteo reported its second-quarter 2025 earnings on Wednesday, July 31, marking a quarter of steady topline results, significant…
The Top 10 Advertising News from Cannes Lions 2025
The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2025, held from June 16–20, was a pivotal moment for the advertising industry. With a record 26,900 award…
The Disney–Amazon CTV Pact: A New Power Play in CTV Advertising
On June 17, 2025, at the Cannes Lions Festival, Disney and Amazon unveiled a far-reaching partnership that could reshape the balance of power in connected…
Amazon and Roku Just Redrew the CTV Map. Here’s What It Means for Advertising And The Trade Desk
At Cannes Lions 2025, Amazon Ads and Roku dropped a bombshell that could reshape the competitive landscape of connected TV (CTV) advertising. The two companies…
Kokai Turns Two: How TTD Made it a Success Against All Odds
June 6 will be a day of celebration at The Trade Desk’s headquarters. Two years ago on that day, the company launched Kokai, a sweeping…
Magnite Q1 2025 Earnings: Forecasts Met, CTV Up, Stock Rallies
Magnite reported their first quarter of 2025 earnings on Wednesday, May 7. While the company delivered solid growth in CTV and beat expectations on multiple…
PubMatic Q1 2025 Earnings: Facing Pressure, Planting Seeds For Growth
PubMatic reported their first quarter of 2025 earnings on Thursday, May 8. In a market where digital ad spending remains unpredictable and supply-side platforms (SSPs)…
The Trade Desk Q1 2025 Earnings: Back on Track – But Can It Stay Ahead?
The Trade Desk reported their first quarter of 2025 earnings on Thursday, May 8. After a rocky end to 2024, the programmatic ad tech leader…
AppLovin Q1 2025 Earnings: The Most Efficient Biz In All Of Advertising
Outperforming Ad Tech While Ditching Its Gaming Roots AppLovin reported its first-quarter 2025 earnings on Wednesday, May 7, delivering a financial performance that left analysts…
Viant Q1 2025 Earnings: Outpacing The Market With Blow-Out CTV Growth
Viant Technology Inc. reported its first quarter 2025 earnings on Tuesday, May 6, 2025. While the company delivered another quarter of revenue acceleration and profitability…
Criteo Q1 2025 Earnings: Making More From Every Dollar Earned
Criteo reported its first-quarter 2025 earnings on Friday, May 2, delivering financial results that were more impressive under the surface than the headline numbers suggest.…
Google Keeps Cookies – Now What For DSPs, SSPs, Publishers And Buyers?
Google’s announcement today to keep third-party cookies in Chrome and allow users to decide whether or not to allow them marks a major shift in…
The IAB’s 2024 Ad Spend Numbers: The Top-Five Trends
After a sluggish 2023, U.S. internet ad spend came roaring back last year. The IAB‑PwC report pegs full‑year 2024 revenue at $258.6 billion, up 14.9 % YoY—the strongest…
Google’s Big Antitrust Loss—And What It Means For You
What just happened? On Thursday, April 17, 2025, federal judge Leonie Brinkema in the Eastern District of Virginia ruled that Google has been illegally monopolizing two critical…
WPP Acquires InfoSum: A Lifeline For Brands In A Post-Cookie World
On April 3, 2025, WPP, the world’s biggest agency holding company, announced its acquisition of InfoSum, a leading data collaboration platform known for its privacy-enhancing…
How Publishers Can Secure Their Future in the Age of Gen-AI Search
The rise of generative AI (GenAI) search engines is reshaping the digital landscape for publishers, threatening their traditional business models in profound ways. Tools like…
Ten Steps To Future-Proof The Trade Desk
The Trade Desk (TTD), the leading demand-side platform (DSP), finds itself at a critical juncture. The bad news for the company have been coming thick…
Viant Q4 2024 Earnings: Revenue Up, Profit Misses, Stock Down, COO Jokes
Viant Technology reported their fourth-quarter 2024 earnings on Monday, March 3, 2025. Despite impressive revenue growth and significant strategic developments, Viant fell short of market…
PubMatic Q4 2024 Earnings: EPS A-OK, But Revenue Miss Gets Punished
PubMatic reported its fourth-quarter 2024 earnings on Wednesday, February 27, 2025, delivering a mixed financial performance marked by robust earnings per share but falling short…
Publishers’ And Buyers’ Top 6 Priorities: TTD’s Forward 2025 Event
The Trade Desk’s Forward 2025 event, held on February 27, 2025, offered a platform for the company’s biggest clients to showcase their accomplishments and discuss…
Magnite Q4 2024 Earnings: CTV Shines, Mobile And Desktop Not So Much
Magnite reported its fourth-quarter 2024 earnings on Wednesday, February 26, 2025, painting a picture of contrasts: robust revenue growth driven by Connected TV (CTV) exceeded…
DoubleVerify Acquires Rockerbox: Putting IAS And Human On Notice
The recent announcement of DoubleVerify’s acquisition of Rockerbox for $85 million in cash signals a transformative shift for ad auditing. Announced on February 26, 2025,…
LiveRamp Investor Day 2025: Turning Data into Gold
On Tuesday, February 25, 2025, LiveRamp hosted its annual Investor Day, offering a deep dive into the company’s strategic direction, product innovations, sales momentum, and…
AppLovin Q4 2024 Earnings: From Mobile Gaming Nerd to Ad Tech Giant
Applovin reported their fourth quarter of 2024 earnings on Wednesday, February 12th. The results and accompanying announcements show a company amid a dramatic transformation, shifting…
The Trade Desk Q4 2024 Earnings: A Rainy Day In Paradise
The Trade Desk (NASDAQ: TTD) reported its fourth-quarter earnings for 2024 on Wednesday, February 12, 2025, delivering strong numbers but missing its own guidance for…
Criteo Q4 2024 Earnings: Amazon Formidable Threat In Retail Media
Criteo reported its fourth-quarter 2024 earnings on Wednesday, February 5, 2025, delivering results that showcased the company’s progress in its pivot toward Retail Media and…
Marketing Mix Modeling: Why Signal Loss is the Best Thing to Happen to You
As digital advertising undergoes seismic shifts driven by the deprecation of third-party cookies and tightening privacy regulations, Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM) is experiencing a renaissance.…
TikTok Ban Looms: Meta And Google Chilling The Champagne
The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a law yesterday that could bring an end to TikTok’s operations in the United States by January 19, 2025 –…
The Trade Desk’s Acquisition Of Sincera: Bad News For DV and IAS
The Trade Desk (TTD) announced a definitive agreement to acquire Sincera, a digital advertising data company specializing in providing actionable insights, on January 15, 2024.…
The Top 6 Ad And Marketing Take-Aways From CES 2025
Amazon Revolutionizes Retail Media by Turning Competitors into Customers Amazon Ads took the prize for “Most Important Advertising News At CES” this year. The business…
The Trade Desk Confirms Smart TV OS. Solidifies CTV Biz. Distri A Challenge
On November 20, 2024, The Trade Desk (TTD) unveiled Ventura, an Android-based smart TV operating system (OS) designed to transform the connected TV (CTV) advertising…
Innovid Acquisition Boosts Mediaocean. Now To Make Innvoid Profitable.
Today, November 21, 2024, Mediaocean announced its $525 million acquisition of Innovid. This purchase, which combines two prominent players in the buy-side AdTech ecosystem, signals…
The Trade Desk Q3 2024 Earnings: Riding High on CTV and Retail Media
Business Highlights The Trade Desk reported its third-quarter 2024 earnings on Thursday, November 7, 2024. During the earnings call, CEO Jeff Green highlighted advancements in…
AppLovin Q3 2024 Earnings: Blowout Ad Sales, Overtaking TTD Market Cap
Revenue Rising Rapidly AppLovin reported its third-quarter 2024 earnings on Wednesday, November 6, showcasing rapid growth and profitability that exceeded analyst expectations. The company generated…
PubMatic Q3 2024 Earnings: Resilience Amidst a Shifting Ad Tech Landscape
PubMatic reported its third-quarter 2024 earnings on Tuesday, November 12, 2024. As a key player in the ad tech space, PubMatic continues to navigate a…
Criteo Q3 2024 Earnings: Can Retail Media Offset Retargeting Losses?
Business HighlightsCriteo reported its third-quarter 2024 earnings on October 30. Gross revenue declined slightly year-over-year (-2% to $459 million), though net revenue grew by 8%…
Magnite Q3 2024 Earnings: A Strong Push in CTV and Curation
Magnite reported its third quarter 2024 earnings on Thursday, November 7, delivering a solid financial performance that reinforces its growing leadership in the programmatic advertising…
AdTech Under Trump: M&A Is Back On, More Freedom To Use Data, More H1Bs
Leaving politics aside, focusing solely on the business side of things, Donald Trump’s presidency will likely impact the advertising technology (AdTech) industry and the broader…
Alphabet Q3 2024 Earnings: Future of Search Remains Uncertain
Alphabet’s third-quarter earnings report highlighted a range of advancements in advertising technology, with a focus on AI-driven solutions. As Alphabet strengthens its capabilities in short-form…
Netflix Q3 2024 Earnings: Rapid Ad Growth, But Monetization Wanting
Netflix presented their third quarter earnings yesterday, October 17, 2024. Here are the earnings highlights relevant to digital advertising. Netflix’ third-quarter earnings show that the…
Google Cleans Up After Gemini Fiasco: But Success Is uncertain
Google’s future depends on the success —or failure— of its Gemini chatbot. Following the debacle of Gemini’s launch back in February, Google is now taking…
Top Take-Aways From Amazon Ads’ 2024 Unboxed Conference
The 2024 Amazon Unboxed conference, held from October 14-16 in Austin, Texas, was an event that highlighted Amazon Ads’ continued rapid growth and its ambitious…
Should The Trade Desk Buy Roku? They can’t. And if they could, they shouldn’t
The Trade Desk (TTD) shouldn’t buy Roku, and here’s why: First, TTD can’t afford it. Roku generated about $3.5 billion in revenue last year, which…
The Trade Desk’s TV OS: It Could Find Distribution – But Enough To Make A Difference?
By Karsten Weide, Principal And Chief Analyst The Trade Desk, the leading independent demand-side platform (DSP), is reportedly developing its own streaming TV operating system…
Google Facing Perfect Storm: Legal fights, AI Threats, Internal Struggle
Introduction Google, one of the most powerful tech companies in the world, has been a dominant force on the internet for years with its search…
PubMatic Q2 2024 Earnings: Steady Growth, But Revenue Misses
Highlights PubMatic reported its second-quarter 2024 earnings on Thursday, August 8th, a quarter marked by steady growth and strategic advancements in key areas like omnichannel…
The Trade Desk Earnings Q2 2024: Stellar Growth, Netflix Partnership
Introduction The Trade Desk reported its second-quarter 2024 earnings on Thursday, August 8th, delivering results that exceeded expectations and reinforced its position as the leading…
Magnite Q2 2024 Earnings: Netflix Boosts CTV, But Where’s Retail Media?
Introduction Magnite reported its second quarter 2024 earnings on Wednesday, August 7th. While the company showed steady growth, a closer examination of the numbers and…
Criteo in Talks To Acquire Skai – But Is A $500M Price Tag Justified?
According to Digiday, Criteo is in talks to acquire Skai. The acquisition of Skai could be a key move to accelerate Criteo’s #retailmedia sales —…
LiveRamp’s Q1 FY25 Earnings: Solid Results, But What About Expansion?
LiveRamp, the data collaboration platform, reported its first quarter of fiscal year 2025 (calendric second quarter of 2024) earnings on August 7, 2024. Revenue: Back…
IAS 2Q2024 Earnings: Back To Double-Digit Growth, New Clients & Partners
Integral Ad Science (IAS) reported its second quarter 2024 earnings on Thursday, August 1st, and the results show a promising rebound. IAS achieved a robust…
AppLovin’s Q2 2024 Earnings: A High-Growth Standout in Ad Tech
AppLovin reported its second-quarter 2024 earnings on Wednesday, August 7, showcasing a robust financial performance that highlighted the company’s growing strength in the digital advertising…
Criteo Q2 2024 Earnings: Betting The Farm On Retail Media
Criteo reported its 2Q24 earnings last week on Thursday. Things look good, net revenue (i.e., revenue net TAC), grew by 11% year-on-year, meaning the company…
Monopoly Ruling Vs Google: For Advertisers, More Choice, Better Products, Lower Prices
A federal judge has ruled Google is a monopoly in search and has acted illegally to maintain its dominance. As a result, Google will get…
DoubleVerify Q2 2024 Earnings: Shines, Succeeds In CTV And Social
DoubleVerify’s Q2 2024 earnings, which came out last Wednesday, showed solid results. Second quarter revenue came in almost precisely as expected, at $156M and a…
Outbrain’s Acquisition Of Teads Takes Over Taboola, Supports Stagnant Business
In a major move within the AdTech industry, Outbrain today announced its acquisition of Teads for a staggering $1 billion, primarily in cash. This strategic…
Likely Scenarios After Google’s About Face On Cookie Deprecation
There was much hand wringing in the industry over the last couple of days on how @Google’s announcement not to deprecate third-party cookies in #Chrome…
Why Did Amazon Never Try Radio-Like Ads on Its Echo Devices?
Marketing on @Amazon’s #Echos never went anywhere beyond some intrepid experiments, for example, by Campbell’s Kitchen (recipes) and Tide (stain removal tips). The only thing…
Google: No Third-Party Cookie Deprecation After All?
Big news out of @Google’s Privacy Sandbox team. It “proposes” to not deprecate third-party cookies in #Chrome after all and instead give users the choice…
Criteo and Microsoft Partner In Retail Media
The retail media partnership between @Criteo and @Microsoft is a win for both, even if it suggests Microsoft is getting out of retail media AdTech.…
Adobe Will Have To Modify New TOS To Avoid Financial Losses
The firestorm around @Adobe’s new terms of service poses a direct threat to the company’s core business. The #CreativeCloud stands for no less than 60%…
Netflix Upfronts: A New Powerhouse in Ad-Supported Streaming
Netflix kicked it out of the park at its yesterday’s upfronts event, putting streaming competitors like YouTube, Amazon and Disney on notice: there’s a new…
Google Search Summaries: A Step Change For Search Advertising
In a dramatic break with the decades-old traditional search experience, Google announced it will provide AI-based summaries on search results pages at yesterday’s annual Google…
The Trade Desk Q1 2024 Earnings: Back to Growth, Surpassing Expectations
The Trade Desk reported their first quarter of 2024 earnings on Wednesday, May 8. After several quarters of more tempered growth in the wake of…
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