Data-Driven Thinking Archives

Can We Really Blame Apple For Blocking ID Tech?

Earlier this month, ad tech received its latest warning about the cybersecurity vulnerabilities baked into programmatic advertising. That context is largely missing from discussions about Apple’s plan to disable the third-party ID infrastructure that powers digital advertising on iOS and Mac devices. But ad tech’s wider issues paint Apple’s actions in a different light. On […]

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Data-Driven Thinking

B2B Buying Decisions Are Moving Where Ad Tech Can’t See

The ad tech industry built the most precise measurement infrastructure in the history of media. Every impression counted. Every click tracked. Every conversion attributed. The ability to measure what happened after an ad was served, across devices, across platforms, across sessions, became the industry’s defining capability and its core value proposition. But that infrastructure doesn’t […]

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Data-Driven Thinking

MMM Is Getting Smarter. It Still Can’t Do The Whole Job Alone

Every media dollar eventually has to answer the same uncomfortable question: Did it create new revenue or simply take credit for revenue that was coming anyway? A channel with exceptional reported ROI may simply be capturing existing demand. Another may appear less efficient while creating customers who otherwise would never have entered the market. That […]

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Data-Driven Thinking

Sure, Debates Between Prebid Members Can Get Heated. That’s Why It’s The Programmatic Melting Pot

The Prebid Summit in New York City on Tuesday exceeded the event’s reputation for liveliness. That reputation was cemented last year, when the Prebid Summit was roiled by controversy after The Trade Desk had forked the main Prebid code due to a data collection disagreement over how to handle programmatic Transaction IDs. TTD’s presence at […]

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Data-Driven Thinking

Has The Ad Industry Lost The Pulse Of American Consumers?

The advertising industry has a relatability problem. Don’t just take it from me. Look at how the industry talks about itself. “I’m going to talk about a few problems that folks might find relatable,” said one startup founder at a LiveRamp-hosted AI demo day that took place adjacent to last week’s Advertising Week New York […]

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Data-Driven Thinking

When Data Providers Get Acquired, Neutrality Has To Be Proven, Not Promised

Infillion’s acquisition of Foursquare is the latest sign that the ad tech market is reorganizing around companies that can combine data, media execution and measurement within a single platform. The strategic rationale is clear: Foursquare brings a substantial location intelligence business, while Infillion already owns MediaMath and has expanded its data capabilities through Gimbal and […]

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Data-Driven Thinking

Who Eats The Spending Gap When Agentic Spend Outpaces Proof Of Impact?

An AI agent can stay inside its budget and still spend too much. It can buy on signals from known sources. It can act within the authority it was given. It can log every decision. But the evidence can still arrive after the money is committed. In three previous pieces, I argued that agents need […]

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Data-Driven Thinking

The Podcast Impression Is Breaking Down: What Display’s Viewability Crisis Can Teach Buyers

Buyer beware: The sins of digital display and the reckoning of impression viewability are coming back to haunt the podcast advertising industry. I stopped buying display advertising in 2016, and viewability was a big part of why. Advertisers had spent years buying impressions before it became evident that an ad being served didn’t mean a […]

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Data-Driven Thinking

Apple’s Latest Privacy Move In iOS 27 Hits Different Than ATT

Editor’s note: After this column published, AdExchanger reported that Apple’s WebKit blocklist has expanded well beyond the initial handful of companies — potentially to hundreds of ad tech, martech and data vendors. Read more. When Apple’s AppTrackingTransparency framework took effect in April 2021 with the release of iOS 14.5, the ad industry treated it like […]

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Data-Driven Thinking

Take A Break, Compliance Nerds. Privacy Is A Research Problem Now

The California legislature has passed the compromise version of SB-690, leaving most of the private right of action provisions of the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA) in place. Thanks to massive lobbying efforts by Big Tech, other states have lost out on their own opportunities for privacy laws enforceable by individuals via civil lawsuits. […]

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