Performance TV Gets a Reality Check, Prebid Challenges Google, and Ad-Delivered Spyware Raises Alarms

Why the head start compounds, and how to begin writing your inventory down. 

A few days ago, I came across an article by David Nyurenberg in AdExchanger titled “Dear Performance CTV Companies: Please Stop. You're Hurting Us.” It inspired me to share a social post (check it out) about how tired I am of hearing CTV being sold as a performance channel. Apparently, I ruffled a few feathers, but I think David raises some really good points that deserve more attention.

Look, I get it. Attribution, conversions, ROAS, all that stuff matters. I'm not arguing against measurement. But why are we so obsessed with making TV behave like search or social? TV has always been great at building brands, creating awareness, and influencing purchasing decisions. Just because someone doesn't immediately convert doesn't mean the advertising didn't work.

David brings up a great example. Someone watches a CTV ad, searches for the brand a few days later, and eventually makes a purchase. Search gets the credit because it was the last interaction before the sale. But what actually influenced that person to search in the first place? We're so focused on attributing conversions that we're potentially undervaluing the channels responsible for generating the demand.

And the measurement itself is far from perfect. We're connecting impressions on one device to conversions on another, relying on IP addresses, identity graphs, and attribution models that have plenty of limitations. David references research showing that only 23% of residential IP addresses tested for ZIP-code targeting reached their intended geographic target. That doesn't mean CTV only works 23% of the time, but it certainly raises questions about how much confidence we should have in some of these measurement claims.

And can we please talk about creative? We spend so much time discussing targeting, attribution, optimization, and AI that we seem to forget the actual advertisement matters. If your creative is absolute shit, I don't care how sophisticated your measurement technology is. You still need to give consumers a reason to care about your brand.

My biggest concern is that we're setting expectations for CTV that could eventually hurt the channel. When advertisers are promised search-like performance and the numbers don't meet those expectations, they start questioning whether CTV actually works. Meanwhile, we may be ignoring the awareness, consideration, and longer-term sales impact that TV has always been good at delivering.

I'm all for making television more measurable and accountable. We absolutely should. But better measurement shouldn't mean completely redefining the value of the medium just because we have more data available.

Maybe the problem isn't TV. Maybe it's how we're selling it.

Read AdExchanger

Prebid is proposing a pretty significant change to how programmatic auctions work, and honestly, it's long overdue.

Today, Prebid sends its winning bid into Google Ad Manager, where it competes with Google's AdX. The proposal would reverse that process, allowing Google and other ad servers to bid into Prebid instead. That could fundamentally change who controls the auction.

Sam Khoury, Co-founder and CSO, recently ran a LinkedIn poll asking the industry members what they thought, and the response was interesting: 66% were optimistic, with 18% calling it a major industry shift and 48% seeing it as a nice step forward. Meanwhile, 32% were skeptical, including 24% who don't believe it'll ever happen.

Prebid is targeting early 2027 to formalize the proposal, but Google hasn't agreed to participate.

Personally, I love seeing Prebid push for this. We've spent years talking about transparency, competition, and reducing Google's influence over programmatic. Now there's an actual proposal that could change things. Whether Google will play along… well, that’s a different question.

Read Digiday

I don't always summarize articles from our own publications, but Co-founder and Chairman Ari Paparo’s latest piece on agentic commerce received some great feedback, so it's worth sharing.

AI agents shopping on our behalf sounds promising, but the economics are questionable. Major retailers like Amazon are blocking agents, and 37 of the top 51 shopping sites reportedly restrict them.

Then there's the potential impact on retail media. If AI agents make purchasing decisions, what happens to advertising revenue?

Travel is showing some promise, but broader adoption remains uncertain.

Ari does a great job breaking down what's real and what's still hype. I highly suggest reading the article.

Read Marketecture

This is an interesting development for the programmatic advertising industry. Researchers at Citizen Lab claim advertising company Discover-Tech used online ads to identify and profile millions of users, potentially allowing third parties to install spyware without anyone clicking on an ad.

The report also points to suspected infections involving Al Jazeera devices and ad activity reaching networks associated with NATO, the UN, and government agencies.

There's still a lot to understand about the full extent of this activity, but it raises some important questions about how data moves through programmatic advertising, who has access to it, and whether existing safeguards are enough.

Read The Guardian

Why the head start compounds, and how to begin writing your inventory down. 

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