The Economist (September 18)
For years, digital advertising has been “largely impervious to the business cycle” and “dominated” by Google and Meta. These “verities” may be falling as companies tighten marketing budgets. “Until recently, that would have meant cutting non-digital ads but maintaining, or even raising, online spending. With most ad dollars now going online, that strategy is running out of road. Last quarter Meta reported its first-ever year-on-year decline in revenues. Snap, a smaller rival, is laying off a fifth of its workforce.”
Tags: Business cycle, Decline, Digital advertising, Dominated, Google, Impervious, Marketing budgets, Meta, Non-digital ads, Online spending, Revenues, Rival, Snap, Strategy
WARC (March 4)
“Ultimately, the cookie was one of the aspects of the internet (and, by extension, digital advertising) that gave it a bad name. But at least they were everyone’s problem/opportunity – what comes next could lead to a vast concentration of power.” One proposal, federated learning of cohorts (FLoC), is facing growing skepticism.
Tags: Concentration, Cookie, Digital advertising, FLoC, Internet, Opportunity, Power, Problem, Skepticism
Website Magazine (December Issue)
Digital advertising has evolved greatly from the once ubiquitous pop-up ads, but advertisers still frequently lack a “reliable way” of judging the effectiveness of their ad spend. The reports rely on “trust me” technology whose inventors/providers have not been “audited, could not be audited frequently enough for it to be verifiable, or actually refused to be audited.”
Tags: Ad spend, Advertisers, Audit, Digital advertising, Effectiveness, Pop-up ads, Trust me technology, Verifiable
