Nikhil Lai

We tackle two of the most common questions we're hearing about generative AI's potential impact on search engine optimization.

April showers bring May flowers and the TV upfronts. The ritual began in 1962, when ABC first scheduled all of its primetime programming to premiere during a single week in September. Since then, the medium of TV has evolved rapidly, but the upfronts have not. Consumption continues to grow across smartphones and smart TVs, satisfying […]

Both Alphabet and Microsoft featured AI heavily in their Q1 2023 earnings calls. Before Alphabet’s call began streaming on YouTube, attendees were shown a video about Bard, Google’s AI chatbot. During the call, “AI” was mentioned 51 times. During Microsoft’s, it was mentioned 34 times. For Alphabet, AI’s references related to PaLM, its competitor to […]

The question I’m asked most often is “Is retail media overhyped, or is it the next big thing?” This question comes, in part, from media coverage and forecasts, including Forrester’s, that project a significant share of ad spend — nearly $100 billion, according to Boston Consulting Group — being absorbed by retail media networks (RMNs) […]

Yesterday, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and eight states sued Google, accusing the company of illegally abusing its monopoly on the technology that powers online advertising. According to the Justice Department’s complaint, Google’s dominance enables the company to take at least $0.30 of every dollar spent using Google’s advertising technology. The DOJ is seeking […]

In 2023, marketers plan to spend more on paid and organic search despite data deprecation and economic headwinds. According to Forrester’s Q3 B2C Marketing CMO Pulse Survey, 2022, 82% of CMOs plan to increase paid search budgets and 74% plan to increase SEO budgets in 2023. As search budgets grow, the medium is changing radically. […]

Marketers are turning to retail media to generate and harvest demand while expanding sell-through this holiday season.

In July, Google delayed the death of third-party cookies … again. This delay gave marketers a false sense of security, despite other browsers blocking third-party cookies, Apple letting users opt out of IDFAs, and privacy bills mandating the use of cookie consent banners. Often, marketers focus on data deprecation’s impacts on paid social and programmatic […]

CMOs will face mounting pressure to demonstrate ROI, pushing media companies to innovate and consolidate in order to protect their share. Read our media predictions for 2023.

Given Amazon’s dominance, competing with it in the Google Ads auction is uniquely challenging. But companies can use a strategic approach to make gains.

Every advertising channel now parades as “performance” to appear accountable to outcomes. This dilution, along with three trends, is causing performance marketing’s underperformance.

For B2C marketers, Amazon's latest earnings report yielded insights on advertising, e-commerce, and more.

In Q2 2022, Spotify’s revenue, advertising, and monthly active users (MAUs) grew, defying fears that inflation and subscription fatigue would weaken demand. Spotify’s strong Q2 2022 performance continues the company’s rebound from its bouts with cancel culture in Q1 2022. Advertising Growth Is Solid, But Subscriptions Bolster Business Unlike Snap and Twitter, whose revenues fell […]

Here, we break down three key takeaways from Alphabet’s Q2 2022 earnings release and call and what they mean for B2C marketers.

The speculation has been swirling for months that Netflix was getting into the ad business. We’ve long seen this as necessary for Netflix and have been clear about the upside, so no big shock there. What is notable is the news that Netflix chose Microsoft as its adtech partner. Why Microsoft? Microsoft’s acquisition of Xandr, […]