Media Buying

Search had a challenging time during the pandemic. Spend grew just 5.3% to £7.34 billion ($9.41 billion) in 2020, down from 17.7% the previous year and significantly down on our pre-pandemic estimate of 12.2% growth. However, this latest forecast is a reversal on our interim August 2020 estimate, when we expected a decline of 1.7% for the year.

Roku consolidates its inventory around its DSP: Brands will no longer be able to use a third party to programmatically purchase inventory next to Roku's original content.

Apple's privacy changes are finally here: The learning curve may be steep, but the consent prompts could encourage more consumer trust and opt-ins than marketers expect.

Verizon looks for an exit: It's reportedly considering selling off its media assets, including Yahoo and AOL, in a deal worth an estimated $5 billion.

Canada catches up with new self-serve tools: Bell Media and Xandr are bringing a self-serve ad platform for linear and digital TV to the Canadian market.

Neustar senior vice president of product and general manager of customer experience Steve Silvers and eMarketer principal analyst at Insider Intelligence Nicole Perrin discuss some misconceptions about cookie deprecation, what marketers should do to prepare for the loss of third-party cookies and react to the loss of Identifiers for Advertisers (IDFAs), and more about future approaches to addressability.

Amazon's ad biz expands: The platform's higher-funnel Sponsored Brand option is growing in popularity, making its ad business appealing to marketers that want to target customers in all parts of their journey.

TV ad spending in the US reached its highest point ever in 2018, a year that featured the Winter Olympics and a midterm congressional election—except no one realized it was a peak at the time. Linear TV had been stagnating for several years, though in early March 2020, the combo of the Summer Olympics and a big presidential campaign season looked set to generate a record $72.00 billion in US TV ad spending that year.

On today's episode, we discuss what brand-new forecasts the forecasting team cooked up in Q1, including time spent with TikTok and some direct-to-consumer (D2C) numbers. We then talk about say-through rates for voice ads, the battle between host-read and preproduced ads, and how knowledge workers will soon use a virtual assistant every day. Tune in to the discussion with eMarketer senior director of forecasting Shelleen Shum, directors of forecasting Oscar Orozco and Cindy Liu, and forecasting analyst at Insider Intelligence Peter Vahle.

Alphabet earnings: The tech giant reports its Q1 2021 earnings today. Here are three things we will be watching for in the announcement.

On today's episode, we discuss digital video: Where has video ad spending overtaken TV, what do the streaming wars look like in different countries, and how much has live sports migrated to digital platforms? Tune in to the discussion as eMarketer senior analyst Bill Fisher hosts principal analyst Karin von Abrams, senior analyst Paul Briggs, and research director at Insider Intelligence Matteo Ceurvels.

Awards shows keep winning ad dollars: Even though ratings for the Oscars, Grammys, and other big TV events keep falling, they're still often the best option to reach a broad audience all at once.

Facebook tests out new ad options across all types of videos: The company is testing ads in Reels, topic targeting for in-stream video ads, and new brand sticker ads in Facebook Stories.

Nielsen wants to make comparisons across linear and streaming more possible: The company is rolling out "Nielsen Streaming Video Ratings" ahead of upfronts to help programmers and advertisers better understand audiences and their viewing habits.

On today's episode, we discuss how airlines, hotels, and vacation rental homes are recovering, and the ways in which travel might be changed forever. We then talk about the shift of ad dollars and viewers from connected TV to linear, TV makers that are staking their future growth on streaming ads, and how the vMVPD (skinny bundle) market is shaking out. Tune in to the discussion with eMarketer associate forecasting analyst Zach Goldner, director of forecasting Oscar Orozco, and senior forecasting analyst at Insider Intelligence Eric Haggstrom.

Almost all digital display advertising is transacted programmatically now—but that doesn't mean programmatic isn't still evolving. Gila Wilensky, president, US at programmatic media firm Xaxis, joins eMarketer principal analyst at Insider Intelligence Nicole Perrin to discuss what Xaxis is expecting for the next 10 years of programmatic advertising, including how AI will continue to evolve in the space, how addressability and measurability will change post-cookie, and what the maturation of ecommerce means for digital advertising.

Podcasting will continue on its upward trajectory: However, stakeholders will need to assess their priorities when it comes to advertising as fragmentation continues to present an interesting challenge.

A March recovery: The Standard Media Index reported nearly 25% growth YoY in the US ad market in March, as well as 7.2% growth over March 2019.

Nielsen versus the networks: The ratings giant rejected demands for an independent audit following accusations of undercounting; citing its existing auditing partnership with the Media Rating Council.