Media Buying

In 2020, digital video ad spending exceeded TV ad outlays for the first time in Canada. Digital video gained the most momentum of any format amid the pandemic last year, growing by 10.0% year over year (YoY). This includes both in-stream video formats (e.g., YouTube ads) and those outstream (ads appearing in social media feeds).

On today's episode, we discuss the most interesting findings from Facebook's Q1 earnings, how Apple’s iOS 14.5 update might affect its business, and where it sits among the digital ad giants. We then talk about how many people are using Facebook Dating, measuring Facebook's "potential reach," and Facebook Reality Labs' upcoming smart wristband. Tune in to the discussion with eMarketer principal analysts at Insider Intelligence Debra Aho Williamson and Nicole Perrin.

On today's episode, we discuss the highlights from Snapchat's user growth and revenue picture in Q1. We then talk about Snapchat integrating a fashion recommendation company into its app, how social media behaviors have evolved because of the pandemic, and Facebook's latest ad offerings. Tune in to the discussion with eMarketer principal analyst Debra Aho Williamson and forecasting analyst at Insider Intelligence Nazmul Islam.

Scroll on, Twitter: The platform's acquisition of ad-free news startup Scroll is the latest in its effort to build out enough features and content to feasibly sell paid subscriptions to its users.

On today's episode, we discuss what stood out the most about Google's Q1 performance. We then talk about what kind of ad recovery we expect this year and why Google is in hot water again, as well as look at some survey data about third-party cookie doomsday. Tune in to the discussion with eMarketer senior forecasting analyst at Insider Intelligence Eric Haggstrom.

Verizon's exit plan: The telecom giant confirmed this week that it will be selling Verizon Media to a private equity firm for $5 billion. The buyer is planning to focus on a combination of content, commerce, and betting to drive growth.

Connected TV (CTV) advertisers have a new major player: Magnite has officially acquired SpotX, and it plans to commit two-thirds of its business to digital video advertising, with 50% of that going to CTV.

On today's episode, we discuss how LinkedIn is evolving, how successful its creator initiative can be, whether its upcoming social audio platform can compete with Clubhouse, and how user growth and ad revenues are performing. We then talk about whether we can expect nearly all events this year to be virtual, making B2B events more appealing, and how robots can make our lives easier in the office. Tune in to the discussion with eMarketer principal analyst at Insider Intelligence Jillian Ryan.

What to look out for at the NewFronts: CTV and social video will shine at this week's digital upfront presentations, as both formats have grown rapidly over the past year.

Connected TV (CTV) advertising was a beneficiary of pandemic trends and remains one of digital advertising’s fastest-growing channels. Last year, linear TV decreased in importance to advertisers, as cord-cutting accelerated and more programmatic CTV inventory became available than ever before.

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.