Paid Social
OpenAI Lets Health, Finance Ads Into ChatGPT Chats
OpenAI quietly stopped blanket-blocking ads near medical, legal and financial topics in April, and new SE Ranking data shows just how often they're showing up.
Raj Malhotra
Advertising
Advertising
Paid media across every surface, from search to billboards.
Paid Social
YouTube Doubles Shorts Payout Bar, Sets 2027 Deadline
YouTube is rewriting Partner Program terms effective February 1, 2027, doubling entry thresholds for new creators and adding a monthly view minimum for Shorts payouts. Current partners have until January 31 to re-sign or lose monetization.
Raj Malhotra
Programmatic & Display
Publicis Buys LiveRamp, Rivals Ditch It Within Days
Publicis's $2.167 billion purchase of LiveRamp has ended shared identity infrastructure in ad tech: Omnicom moved up its exit date and WPP has already walked.
Raj Malhotra
Programmatic & Display
Nielsen Acquires DoubleVerify for $2.15B, Reshapes Ad Verification
Nielsen is buying DoubleVerify for $2.15 billion in cash, the second of the industry's two biggest independent verification firms to leave public markets in under a year.
Raj Malhotra
Paid Search
Microsoft Ads Adds AI Visibility Topic Insights, PMax Tests
Microsoft Advertising used its first monthly product newsletter to expand AI Visibility reporting in Clarity with Topic Insights, alongside Performance Max testing and Ad Preview Hub updates.
Raj Malhotra
Programmatic & Display
Chalice AI Injects Custom Models Into DSPs and SSPs
Chalice AI's Ali Manning says the startup lets brands run proprietary models inside walled gardens, DSPs and SSPs, chasing outcomes the CFO cares about instead of clicks and viewability.
Raj Malhotra
Paid Social
Snapchat Bans AI-Generated Videos From Its Spotlight Feed
Snap says Spotlight's algorithm will no longer surface fully AI-generated videos, betting that Gen Z wants human-made content over synthetic feeds.
Raj Malhotra
Retail Media
Retail Media CPMs in 2026: The Benchmark Table Buyers Need
No retailer publishes a rate card, so we built one from the agency benchmark reports and public filings that do exist, comparing what brands actually pay across the top retail media networks.
Raj Malhotra
Programmatic & Display
PubMatic, Optable Agents Now Monetize Publisher Data Live
PubMatic and Optable have taken agentic ad buying out of the lab: about 30 programmatic campaigns are already running on AI-curated first-party publisher data, and half of them flow through their new joint integration.
Raj Malhotra
TV, Radio & Audio
YouTube Long-Form Ad Revenue Drops Despite View Surge
New Metricool data shows long-form YouTube views climbing 76% year over year while estimated ad revenue per post fell more than half, a warning sign for anyone budgeting against view counts alone.
Raj Malhotra
Paid Search
Google Ads Mandates Passkeys Starting Aug. 5, Closing a Scam Loophole
Google Ads will require every API customer to authenticate with a passkey starting August 5, a move aimed at shutting down a scam that's been draining agency ad accounts.
Raj Malhotra
Paid Search
Google Search Revenue Growth Slows to 17% in Q2
Alphabet's core search advertising engine cooled to 17% growth in the second quarter, snapping four consecutive quarters of acceleration and raising fresh questions about AI's bite on the click economy.
Raj Malhotra
Retail Media
Albertsons Runs a Scripted Micro-Drama Inside Retail Media
Albertsons Media Collective and Procter & Gamble just put a 22-episode scripted series on grocery store screens, betting that retail media can carry brand storytelling, not just item-and-price ads.
Raj Malhotra
Out-of-Home
Out-of-Home Advertising Formats and Costs: A 2026 Buyer's Guide
Billboards, transit wraps, digital spectaculars, and place-based screens all get lumped under one label. Here's what each actually costs, how impressions get counted, and who to call.
Danielle Cardinal
Paid Search
Apple Maps Ads Locks Out Plumbers, Crypto ATMs, Bail Bonds
Apple's newly published advertising policy, effective July 14, 2026, shuts an entire class of local advertisers out of Apple Maps before the product even ships.
Raj Malhotra
Paid Search
Google's Gemini Agent, Ask Advisor, Now Spans Its Whole Ad Stack
Google is making a Gemini agent the front door to its advertising products. For marketers, the console is starting to answer back.
Raj Malhotra·2 min
Paid Search
Google's Ad Stack Is Becoming an Agent You Brief. Here's the Playbook.
Google's new Gemini agent isn't a new direction. It's the destination a decade of automation was always heading toward, and the marketers who come out ahead will be the ones who kept the two things the agent can't hand them: guardrails and honest measurement.
Raj Malhotra·9 min