386 signals

Ad-tech

Desk brief

State of Play

Revised Nov 1, 2026

The moment. Search is paying for the AI that is replacing it. Adweek’s Kendra Barnett reports Alphabet’s Q3 search revenue growth slowed to 12% from 17% the quarter before, with executives citing AI Mode’s lower ad monetization, and TechCrunch has Google taking AI Mode ads international anyway. Google is also moving to personalize those ads with signals from Gmail and Photos. Meta rebuilt the engine underneath its feed: AdExchanger’s Allison Schiff reports an LLM-based ranking model and a retrieval overhaul letting Andromeda score more than a billion ads per second. OpenAI kept building its ad business in public, taking ChatGPT ads to 26 more countries for 89 in all, adding an automatic bid strategy, and applying creative enhancements to existing ads from October 30 unless an advertiser opts out. The FTC cleared Publicis’s LiveRamp acquisition under a consent order with a five-year data firewall.

The tension. The platforms are editing the work and moving the liability to the buyer. Adweek has Meta’s AI reworking creative without being asked, and Meta’s new terms make advertisers solely responsible for whatever it generates, a change Meta pushed from October 30 to November 20 after publisher trade bodies objected. Identity is closing in one browser and opening in another inbox: Apple confirmed it has broken identity resolution vendors’ tracking on Safari, while Google’s policy now lets Gmail, Drive and Photos data feed ads once a user connects them. CTV’s plumbing is still the weak joint: The Measure’s Jon Lafayette reports Wurl finding 89% of CTV ad requests lack a usable program name, and executives from Magnite to The Trade Desk name frequency waste as the problem nobody has fixed. Indie agencies now ask aloud whether they need a DSP at all.

Who’s moving. Google, with search growth at 12% and AI Mode ads going global. Google again, on Gmail and Photos signals in AI Mode ads. Meta, scoring every impression with an LLM. Meta again, delaying its terms to November 20. OpenAI, at 89 countries. The FTC and Publicis, on a five-year firewall around LiveRamp. Apple, closing the Safari workarounds. Wurl, on CTV requests with no program name. Skydance, weighing Google over FreeWheel. FreeWheel, following NBCU in the Comcast split. Madhive, adding AdImpact spend data across 210 markets. Pinterest, launching Programmatic Deals with Magnite.

What the desk is watching. Whether Meta’s November 20 date holds, and whether AI Mode’s ad load closes the gap in Google’s search growth or widens it.

TiVo Ads tops 6.3M monthly users, up 70% year over year

Advanced Television reports that TiVo One surpassed 6.3 million global monthly active users as of June 2026, a 70 percent year-over-year jump, with Q2 ad revenue up 54 percent as TiVo Ads expanded inventory, data and distribution.

OpenX names ex-Roku exec John Rogers to lead publisher development

Adweek’s Partner Portal reports that OpenX has appointed John Rogers, formerly Roku’s Director of Global Programmatic Partnerships, as SVP of Global Publisher Development.

Infillion acquires Foursquare to tie ads to location outcomes

Mrweb’s Nick Thomas reports that Infillion has acquired Foursquare, combining its advertising technology with Foursquare’s location data and attribution tools. The deal aims to let advertisers link ad exposure directly to real-world outcomes such as store visits.

Google faces $3.2 billion in publisher damages after judge clears trials

VideoWeek’s Dan Meier reports that a US judge has ruled USA Today, DMGT and a class of roughly 5,000 publishers can pursue more than $3.2 billion in damages from Google over ad tech monopolization harms. Judge P.

Retailers split on letting AI agents shop their sites

The Wall Street Journal’s Nat Ives reports that retailers are diverging sharply on AI shopping agents: QVC and HSN welcome them and pitch catalogs to OpenAI and Google, while Amazon and Kohl’s block agentic purchases outright, and Tapestry lets agents browse but not buy.

Small business owners distrust Meta’s own AI ad advice

Business Insider’s Erin Greenawald interviews three small business owners who use Meta’s new AI marketing tools and general chatbots like ChatGPT for campaign analysis.

Your biggest marketing channels may not matter most to AI

eMarketer’s Emily Gallagher reports that channels driving the most human traffic and conversions aren’t necessarily the ones AI engines cite or recommend most when answering shopping and brand queries.

Google pilots paying publishers for AI Overviews content

The Verge’s Emma Roth reports that Google is testing a pilot program paying roughly 100 publishers for content contributions to AI Overviews, AI Mode, and Gemini, per The Information.

Apple blocks Trade Desk ads on Safari after iOS 27 rollout

ExchangeWire’s Sheila Obeng-King reports that Apple has blocked The Trade Desk’s advertising domain on Safari following iOS 27, stopping the DSP from serving ads to users who update their devices, amid a week of expanding ad reach and friction.

Google and OpenAI roll out dueling AI try-on tools in same week

The New Things’ Joanna Stern reports that Google Photos Wardrobe and ChatGPT Virtual Try On both launched this week, letting shoppers preview clothes on their own bodies instead of a model’s, with ChatGPT’s version still rough around the edges.

Google keeps its adtech stack whole, muddying The Trade Desk’s core pitch

Adweek’s Kendra Barnett writes that The Trade Desk built part of its strategy around an expected breakup of Google’s ad-tech business, but that breakup never materialized, leaving Google’s stack intact.

Contentstack launches AI visibility tool to track brand mentions in chatbots

Markets Insider reports that Contentstack launched Contentstack Canoe, an AI visibility tool that shows brands how they are named and described in AI search answers.

OpenAI’s ChatGPT ad measurement gaps keep budgets stuck at test level

Digiday’s Krystal Scanlon reports that agencies cite missing conversions, delayed reporting and no demographic data on ChatGPT ads, while advertisers’ legal teams balk at OpenAI’s tracking terms, leaving spend stuck in small test budgets.

EPTVI lays out six fixes for Europe’s fragmented programmatic TV market

Advanced Television reports that the European Programmatic TV Initiative’s Stage Two report proposes six fixes for programmatic TV, including expanded JIC roles, a common impressions-reporting spec, a signals framework, and creative ID interoperability.

Stern tests three always-on AI agents, says the model matters least

The New Things’ Joanna Stern reports she is running OpenAI’s Dot, Meta’s Muse and startup Instinct simultaneously, each given a virtual cloud computer to monitor news, book appointments and shop while she’s away from her phone.

Comscore: audio, CTV only channels set for programmatic budget growth in 2026

Inside Radio reports that Comscore’s 2026 State of Programmatic Report finds audio and CTV are the only media channels expected to gain programmatic budget share this year.

AI search traffic grew 392% YoY, with transactions up 553%

MediaPost’s Laurie Sullivan reports that IDHL’s “State of AI Search 2026" study, drawn from 1.5 million AI search sessions across 175 sites and 20 industries, found AI search traffic grew 392% year-over-year while revenue rose 312%.

XR and Kinetiq pair ad delivery with real-time political intelligence

The Measure’s Jon Lafayette reports that Extreme Reach and Kinetiq Political Insights are integrating, combining Kinetiq’s real-time monitoring of political ad spending, creative and market activity with XR’s ad delivery infrastructure.

OpenAI’s ad chief details plan to move past keyword-matching ads

Mobile Dev Memo’s Eric Benjamin Seufert interviews OpenAI monetization lead Asad Awan, who says ChatGPT hit a billion dollars in ad ARR in under 200 days and describes ads built on conversational intent rather than keyword matching.

Starling emerges from stealth as new CTV supply-side platform

Advanced Television reports that Starling has launched as a new connected TV supply-side platform backed by MBL Partners, led by Executive Chair Michael Bassik with Reshmi Nair as CTO and Wil Danielson as CRO.

Bell Media launches AI video ad builder for Canadian SMBs

Advanced Television reports that Bell Media launched Bell Ads for Business AI Video Builder, letting small businesses turn website content and images into campaign-ready connected TV video ads in minutes through a self-serve workflow built with Waymark’s AI technology.

Ad-tech

State of Play

Coverage

Ad-tech

State of Play