Digital advertising
MarTech is your source for digital advertising content. You’ll find a variety of up-to-date and authoritative resources, including the latest news, tactic-rich tutorials, and the latest data to help you work smarter and make better decisions.
What you read here is written by our experienced in-house team of editors and research professionals, and subject matter experts from leading brands and agencies.
Why we care:
Advertising isn’t just about growing brand awareness or planting a seed. Advertisers and their adtech partners can reach audiences big and small at any stage of the funnel, delivering cross-channel ads across multiple touchpoints. And they aren’t just using traditional demographics and ratings, they’re leveraging device-level or user-specific data, as well as contextual insights, to serve the right message to the right customer at the right time.
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3 ways to get more from your paid social ad spend
Make paid social profitable with smart platform choices, strong creative, sharp targeting and advanced tactics that amplify ROI.
What your attribution model isn’t telling you
The best marketers don’t just track – they test, model and optimize. Learn tips for building a future-ready measurement framework.
Marketing artificial intelligence (AI)
Figma’s new tools create a design-to-deployment ecosystem
Features for marketing and brand teams position Figma as a direct competitor to Canva, Adobe, WordPress and Wix.
US asks court to breakup Google ad businesses
Spinning off AdX exchange and DFP platform would severely impact the tech giant's revenue and be a seismic shift in digital advertising.
The real reason marketing measurement keeps failing
Attribution and MMMs need to evolve. But without cleaner, more consistent data behind them, they’ll never reach their full potential.
Google’s Privacy Sandbox: What you need to know
Updated with the latest news about Privacy Sandbox's future now that Google is keeping third-party cookies in Chrome.
How should marketers market to consumers under stress?
How should marketers approach consumers stressed out by economic uncertainty, tariffs and political turmoil?
How does conversion lift testing work, and which ad platforms offer it?
Need to measure the incremental impact of your advertising efforts? Conversion lift testing will help.
Marketing artificial intelligence (AI)
Firefly brings AI-powered content creation into Creative Cloud and marketing workflows
The revamped platform includes the ability to use Google and OpenAI genAI models, as well as Firefly's Video model.
Marketing artificial intelligence (AI)
ChatGPT with ads: ‘Free-user monetization’ coming in 2026?
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman previously said he hates ads and was concerned about products that manipulate the truth to suit advertisers.
As Google brings back cookies, marketers stick with privacy-first strategies
The consensus among marketers is that cookies are the past, and respecting consumer privacy is the future.
Google is keeping cookies in Chrome
The tech giant reverses course on its long-planned depreciation of third-party cookies.
Google’s adtech antitrust verdict is a turning point in marketers’ fight for transparency
It is a moment when marketers should rethink the strategies hemmed in by Google's ad tech.
Google adtech antitrust trial: Everything you need to know
An in-depth look at the verdict, arguments and trial about Google's monopoly practices in the $200 billion digital advertising industry.
Google loses advertising monopoly case
A Federal judge found Google “willfully engaged in anticompetitive acts” to control the ad server and ad exchange markets.
IAB report reveals digital ad growth and marketers ready for economic turmoil
Omnichannel strategies, better audience segmentation and data-driven campaign management show marketers are prepared for turbulent times.
How attribution masks what’s actually driving growth
Attribution tells you what happened. Incrementality tells you if it mattered. Here’s why that difference is costing you more than you think.
Marketers push back on Google’s attempt to derail California privacy bill
They are angry about Google's astroturfing and want consent-driven online interactions with consumers.
Canva’s Visual Suite upgrade unifies campaign planning and creation
The upgrade puts design and productivity tools in one platform, making it easier to create, execute and monitor campaigns.
How to make CTV ads that stick
From heartstrings to humor — see what makes CTV creative click in 2025, and how to test and measure what really works.
The latest trend in martech M&A: Agencies buying data collaboration firms
More data means a more comprehensive view of consumers, which should lead to more effective campaigns. That’s the theory, anyway.
How tariffs impact retail sales and ad spending, and why 2025 might be different
Advertisers are worried tariffs will take a bite from their budgets. What does recent history have to say?
Marketing artificial intelligence (AI)
AI adoption accelerating, but many fall behind: IAB report
IAB’s ‘State of Data 2025’ report examines how brands, agencies and publishers are using AI and suggests it’s time to think about strategy over automation.
How to assess CTV’s impact on other ad channels
CTV’s true value isn’t always obvious. Learn how to track its hidden impact on paid search, social and even in-store sales.
Google is exploring ads in new AI Mode
Ads could come to Google's conversational search experience, but some advertisers are skeptical about performance.
94% of advertisers concerned tariffs will lead to cut in ad spending: IAB
Another survey found 66% of U.S. consumers want business to cut CEO pay in response to tariff-related inflation.
7 barriers advertisers need to overcome to grow CTV
CTV offers better targeting and more performance metrics than linear TV, but those differences might be holding it back.
5 underrated tools to boost your B2B PPC performance
These will help you track smarter, outsmart competitors, and make sense of multichannel chaos in 2025
3 reasons your paid social ads aren’t converting (and how to fix them)
If your social ads aren’t converting, your creative, targeting or landing page might be the culprit. Find out what’s holding you back.
Adobe looks to navigate privacy and advertising with Adobe Real-Time CDP Collaboration
Adobe’s new data clean room helps advertisers and publishers protect privacy while monetizing audiences.
How to tackle ad fraud in 2025
Despite major strides, gaps in combating ad fraud remain. Learn how emerging transparency tools can drive even greater protection.
Did Meta just launch a CDP with Signals Gateway?
If it looks like a CDP and quacks like a CDP, it might just be a CDP. And it’s an interesting time to enter that market for sure.
6 B2B paid media platforms where you can advertise effectively
Make your B2B ads work smarter. Learn how to target high-value decision-makers across key platforms, such as Google, LinkedIn, Meta and more.
Despite challenges, marketers say retail media is the channel of choice
A pair of studies found marketers are bullish on retail media, despite its growing pains and imperfections.
Google releases its open source marketing mix model to all
Marketers and data scientists have a new tool to help them measure the effectiveness of their efforts.
Meta ad spend up 15% last quarter as TikTok sees sharp drop
Despite the holiday blues, ad spending on TikTok was up 27% for the entire year.
Unilever’s Ben & Jerry’s campaign shows why RMNs are the future
Combining data-driven, privacy-conscious, real-time personalized advertising strategies with Foodpanda's RMN got Unilever a delicious result.
Microsoft Clarity launches Google Ads integration
Microsoft Clarity's new Google Ads integration gives marketers visibility into post-click behavior, allowing them to track user interactions.
Marketing artificial intelligence (AI)
AI-powered martech news and releases: January 16
GenAI companies have a problem: It costs more the more people use it. And OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says, "People use it much more than we expected."
IAB expects digital advertising growth to slow considerably this year
Lack of ad spending for the Olympics and elections cuts growth to 7.3%, down from last year's 11.8%.