Advertising Technology Blog

TikTok launches Agentic Hub, a marketplace for AI-powered advertising solutions built on TikTok for Business MCP. It connects AI agents to advertisers' tools, enabling automated campaign creation, management, analysis, and optimization. The ecosystem includes first-party and third-party AI skills from partners like HubSpot and Wix. Advertisers can reduce manual work, gain insights, and make data-driven decisions. A limited promotion offers ad credits for new SMB accounts spending $100-$1500 within 30 days, with restrictions on eligibility.

New features for YouTube Video Reach and Video View campaigns include automatic inclusion of Shorts Ad Actions in budget optimization and reporting, driving 15% more brand consideration and 20% more favorability when ads exceed 10 seconds watch time and receive likes. Additionally, Attributed Branded Searches is now a global Google Ads metric, tracking searches triggered by ads, with each extra branded search generating $31 in sales on average. These tools bridge brand and performance metrics, enabling better ROI measurement for ad ops decision-makers.

Most fintechs (80%) use AI but only 29% see results due to data fragmentation and unclear priorities. Successful teams start with one workflow using existing attribution data. Examples: GCash used Agent Hub for anomaly detection, saving 3+ hours/week; Flip automated reporting via AppsFlyer MCP for a team of three. Key insight: connect clean, existing data to AI tools, don't wait for perfection. AppsFlyer provides a starter kit with prompts and a 30-day plan.

Slay the Spire II generated $140M revenue in 3 months, with 1.7M DAU and 5M MAU. The sequel outperformed the original by 2.5x revenue and sold 3M more copies. A discounted bundle drove 4M purchases in the first week, boosting both titles. The co-op mode (up to 4 players) adds unique mechanics, attracting multiplayer audiences. Despite early access, it is Steam's top seller for 2026, proving small indie hits can compete with major titles. For ad ops, this signals the growing value of franchise bundling and co-op features in driving user acquisition and retention.

Pet supplies emerged as a dominant retail media category in 2025, with three of the top six advertisers being pet brands. Purina led with 6B impressions across 18 RMNs. Facebook was the preferred channel for over half of top brands, but strategies varied: Freshpet and Basepaws used Amazon OnSite Display heavily, while Nexgard focused on OTT. Chewy and Amazon captured the largest impression share. At Walmart, pet supply impressions hit a 3-year high in April 2026, driven by Delectables' on-site display and Walmart's own Facebook campaign using Blue Buffalo. The fragmented landscape highlights the need for multi-platform strategies.

The 2026 GCC app growth report reveals a shift from acquisition to monetization, with IAP revenue surging 41% (4.5x faster than 9% download growth). Seasonality remains critical but engagement is diverging from installs: OTT downloads rose 48% during Ramadan 2026, yet time spent declined. Shopping's peak windows drive nearly 20% of annual downloads. Marketers must recalibrate strategies, focusing on durable engagement rather than peak-driven installs.

AI is reshaping digital advertising as platforms like ChatGPT and Gemini become new discovery channels. Key findings: ChatGPT ad impressions surged 7x since March 2026, and AI-related ad spend tripled in Q1 2026. Early advertisers are concentrated in Shopping, Software, Travel, and Financial Services. AI assistants drive referral traffic to retailers, with Walmart and Target exceeding 1.5% GenAI share. Competition among AI platforms is intensifying, with Claude gaining professional users. For ad ops, integrating AI into media plans and optimizing for AI-driven discovery is critical.

Gen AI apps have become the primary growth engine of the non-gaming market, with revenue surging 232% YoY to $6.1 billion between Q2 2025 and Q1 2026. The US leads with 38% of global revenue, while Japan and Korea emerge as key growth markets. AI Assistants are increasingly concentrated, with ChatGPT dominating, but vertical segments like AI Companions, AI Agents, and AI Image & Video offer fragmented, high-growth opportunities. Lessons from Plaud highlight success through vertical focus, deep localization, and precision advertising. For ad ops, targeting vertical AI segments and localized user acquisition strategies present significant opportunities.

Short drama apps are reshaping mobile entertainment, surpassing 850M downloads in Q1 2026 (up 140% YoY) with IAP revenue reaching $750M. Growth is concentrated in Southeast Asia, Latin America, and India, where these apps outpace traditional OTT in user acquisition. Engagement is surging: daily time spent grew 85% to 25 minutes globally, nearing OTT levels in Southeast Asia. For ad ops, the shift toward ad monetization in addition to IAP opens new inventory opportunities. Key players like FreeReels, NetShort, and Melolo are scaling via localized content and paid acquisition, creating competitive ad markets.

Mobile wallets are evolving beyond payments into platforms for rewards, commerce, and financial services. The report highlights rising engagement through daily sessions, ecosystem integration as a competitive edge, and increased investment in digital advertising focusing on lifestyle and merchant partnerships. For ad ops, the key takeaway is the growing importance of cross-channel acquisition and localized creative strategies to capture high-frequency utility-driven users.

Ad monetization dominates mobile gaming downloads, with puzzle titles driving over half of ad revenue across major networks. Hybrid-casual has split into two models: ads-first and IAP-first, with IAP-driven titles significantly outperforming in total earnings. Success requires aligning game design, network choice, and regional strategy. The report emphasizes that ad strategy is now foundational, not secondary, for player acquisition and monetization.

The Indian home services app market is intensifying, with Pronto leading downloads (5M+ in H1 2026) via aggressive paid acquisition (28% from Paid Display, ad spend up 600x YoY). Urban Company maintains MAU leadership but faces local competition, especially in Delhi-NCR. Snabbit excels in engagement (14 monthly sessions per user). User overlap is high—27% of Urban Company users also use Pronto, indicating multi-platform consideration. For ad ops, this signals rising cost of paid acquisition and the need for cross-channel strategies as users comparison-shop across apps.

Cross-border commerce is projected to reach $4.8T by 2032, with 70% of global shoppers buying via social media. In Southeast Asia, messaging-native consumers drive conversational commerce. AI adoption in the region outpaces global averages (46% vs 35%), with 78% of SMEs using AI tools. Businesses embedding AI into messaging channels capture disproportionate value, with 70% of AI impact in sales, marketing, supply chain, and pricing. Sephora's WhatsApp pilot achieved 100x engagement vs email, demonstrating the power of AI-native conversational loyalty.

YouTube's Demand Gen expansion now offers broader video aspect ratio transformations, AI-powered creative insights via Gemini, and web-to-app acquisition measurement. These updates help ad ops unlock new customer growth (72% of incremental conversions from new customers), optimize cross-screen ad performance, and track app installs holistically. Key actions: test auto-resizing to capture views across devices, use Gemini for creative recommendations, and apply new measurement to demonstrate campaign value.

Embedded appointment booking for Facebook Lead Ads removes friction by letting leads book appointments directly within Instant Forms, auto-prefilling contact details, and requiring no coding. This captures leads at peak intent, reducing drop-off and improving conversion rates. Setup is simple: paste a scheduling link and select 'Book time' as the CTA. Supported partners include Calendly and HighLevel, with HubSpot coming soon. Best practices include keeping availability updated and using qualifying questions. Rolling out globally by October, this feature helps service-based businesses convert leads into appointments seamlessly.

Meta announces end-to-end creative AI tools enabling brand-aware ad generation, testing, and optimization for all marketers. Key updates include a unified Creator Marketing Hub combining Instagram and Facebook creator discovery, plus AI agents connecting customer conversations to conversions. A study of 1M+ campaigns shows $4.13 average revenue per dollar spent (up 25% since 2022). New features: brand memory for consistent creative, enhanced text generation, language translations (11 languages), and integrated creative approval workflows.

At Cannes Lions, Google announced new insights tools built with Gemini to enhance creator marketing on YouTube. Key features include deeper trend data in U.S. via Google Ads Insights Finder, integrated brand pulse report metrics, a Content & Creator Insights API for richer creator and audience data, and AI-powered creative tips for Demand Gen campaigns. These tools empower ad ops decision-makers with granular trend analysis, improved brand presence tracking, and actionable AI-driven creative optimization, leveraging Gemini to maximize performance and understanding of YouTube creator influence.

Cross-platform measurement resolves the common problem of fragmented, device-level reporting that inflates ROAS and misallocates budgets. By unifying customer identity across web, mobile, CTV, and other surfaces, marketers gain a single view of LTV and attribution. AppsFlyer provides this via CUID stitching and Product Line grouping, enabling real-time, deduplicated insights without manual BI work. Key benefits include accurate cross-platform ROAS, elimination of duplicate attribution, and reliable data for AI-driven optimization.

Google expands financial services advertiser verification to all EU/EEA countries. Advertisers must verify authorization with national regulators to run financial ads. Non-compliant advertisers will have ads restricted after 30 days. This builds on existing identity verification covering 98% of EU ads, aiming to block scams and increase trust. In 2023, systems blocked/removed 1.6B ads in EU and 327.8M unauthorized financial ads globally. Phased rollout starts now.

One person built, shipped, and marketed a mobile game in 14 days using AI tools, achieving 5,563 installs at $0.39 eCPI on $2,200 spend. MCPs (Model Context Protocol) were critical for agentic workflows. The AI agent CLAW managed ad campaigns via AppsFlyer MCP and BigQuery. Data Locker streamed raw data for analysis. Key takeaway: vendors must offer MCPs for fast, agentic data access; measurement stack (Data Locker, ROI 360, Creative Optimization) is essential for solo teams; human+AI beats AI alone.