And, often, the value of this data increases when it's nested within a larger company. For example, Infillion acquired Catalina this week, as it plans to infuse its DSP. In some ways, the MediaMath DSP- Catalina data combo emulates Amazon, whose DSP is superpowered by its ecommerce sales data.
The Trade Desk announced revenues of $2.9 billion during 2025, up 18% year on year, with $847 million of that total generated during the closing quarter of the year, up 14%, with both sets of numbers beating earlier expectations.
To use the new v23.1 features, you must upgrade your client libraries and client code. All the updated client libraries and code examples have been published. We are also releasing minor versions v20.2, v21.1 and v22.1 of the Google Ads API to add additional support for the EU Political Ads Regulation.
As search optimisation becomes more complex - with AI overviews, LLM citations, and zero-click results reshaping the landscape - choosing an agency with genuine consulting depth has never been more important. In 2026, the most effective consulting agencies combine deep strategic thinking with advanced technology, data-driven decision making, and a thorough understanding of how software businesses acquire and retain customers through organic search.
The 2026 Marketing Data Report basically shows a gap between AI ambition and operational reality in marketing departments that's only getting wider. Which explains why agencies continue to beef up their AI smarts - as a means of helping to guide their clients through the morass of knowledge, strategy and technology to implement gen AI.
Nearly one in the four national ad spots-about 23%-was tied directly to artificial intelligence, either as the product itself or as the technology powering the message. OpenAI and Anthropic promoted ChatGPT and Claude to mass audiences. Google and Amazon positioned Gemini and Alexa+ as embedded assistants inside everyday life. Meta showcased AI-enabled smart glasses as experiential technology.
Regardless of whether a media channel is addressable or not, it's still reaching strategic and high-value audiences. So, understanding how these different media buys interact with each other [helps buyers] make better investment decisions.
We view media quality as an engine for growth. What we hear consistently from brands is, 'Prove to us that media quality drives higher ROI and higher efficiency.' Advertisers increasingly demand verification providers demonstrate concrete performance improvements from premium placements rather than simply protecting against brand safety risks.
YouTube is now a ranking asset in AI discovery, and you can lose share even if website traffic looks stable. YouTube is highly machine-readable (transcripts, metadata, chapters) and tends to be a low-risk source for AI to summarize and cite.
As AI-generated answers increasingly influence buying decisions and brand discovery, teams face new operational questions: Where is the brand being referenced? Where is it missing? How does that representation shift over time? For agencies, the challenge expands to making AI visibility measurable and repeatable across multiple accounts and reporting cycles. "Agencies and start-ups aren't looking for another dashboard, they're looking for confidence,"
In its fourth-quarter earnings call last week, Roku announced its platform revenue - which includes ads sold both on its Roku Channel FAST service, as well as display ads on its home screen - grew 18% year-over-year to reach $1.2 billion, pushing total growth for the entire year to a similar 18% and total revenue of $4.1 billion. It's a sign the connected TV (CTV) ad market is maturing - though experts told The Daily Upside it's still far from mature.
In this tutorial Grace Leung explains how to create an AI-supported marketing team using Claude Skills in just 16 minutes. Claude Skills are structured workflows that translate standard operating procedures and brand guidelines into repeatable AI-driven processes. These workflows can handle tasks such as content creation, data analysis, and campaign management, allowing teams to maintain consistency while saving time for higher-level strategic work.
According to an SEC filing dated Feb. 18, 2026, Arohi Asset Management PTE Ltd. sold all 1,717,770 shares of DoubleVerify (NYSE: DV) during the fourth quarter. The estimated transaction value was $20.58 million based on the quarterly average price. The quarter-end value of the position fell by $20.58 million, reflecting the complete exit and changes in share price during the period.
Ads in chatbots are becoming standard practice, and advertisers and AI companies are scrambling to determine how to make the most out of this new format. They need to deliver relevant, contextual ads that don't feel invasive or overly repetitive and fit into the chatbot's interface while still being clearly distinct from the organic chat responses. Since LLMs are a mostly untested channel, though, the ones choosing to introduce ads don't have much data to influence their strategy.
Those ads, at least the ones spotted in the wild, were from Expedia and were spotted by Ashley Fletcher from Adthena. He posted this screenshot of them: The query or prompt was [What's the best way to book a weekend away?] and it did not require a follow up prompt to trigger the ads. The ads just showed up at the bottom of the first response.
At the end of 2024, Meta announced it was shifting away from variable content metrics, such as plays, impressions and accounts reached. Instead, the company said it was pivoting to a more uniform views count instead, and that views were taking over as the main metric for video and image content on both Facebook and Instagram. Now, Meta is building that into its API as well.
One of the industry's most persistent misconceptions is that accountability lives downstream. Better reporting. Better attribution. Better dashboards. But, in reality, accountability begins far earlier, at the point where a business decides what it accepts as truth about identity. Who is real? Who is reachable? Who is persistent? Who has changed? Who should not be acted on at all? The uncomfortable reality is that every optimization decision that follows is only as credible as the answers to those questions.
AI in advertising has gone from a buzzword to a full disruptor in what feels like just a few months. If CES was any indication, there is no sign of this slowing down. Yet, although everyone's talking, few are seeing real results. New research from AdExchanger and Comcast Advertising found that 77% of advertisers agree that AI is transforming how advertising is bought, but a staggering 61% said they hadn't seen a meaningful impact yet.
Revenue -- $137.1 million, up 6% year over year in the fourth quarter. Contribution ex-TAC -- $65.2 million, showing 19% year-over-year growth and representing a 48% margin compared to 42% in the prior year. Adjusted EBITDA -- $24.3 million, increasing 53% year over year and implying an adjusted EBITDA to contribution ex-TAC margin of 37%. Operating Cash Flow -- $21.8 million for the quarter, increasing over 400% year over year.
