5 Levers Drive CAC, Says Ad Pro - Practical Ecommerce

Hal Smith of H Street Digital says lowering customer acquisition cost on Meta and Google starts with the offer.

I'm 19, and I've watched more than 200 brands quietly give up on influencers

UGC Roster founder Gabriele Muratori, 19, explains why the brands growing fastest on his 200+ brand marketplace are shifting from single influencer bets to high-volume, testable creator content fed into paid ads.

Browsing tools and Ad blockers: A guide to cleaner web experiences

Five browser-based ad blockers compared: Open Adblocker, uBlock Origin Lite, AdGuard, Ghostery, and Adblock Plus, each suited to a different browsing preference.

You and Me and QVC - Longreads

How a home shopping channel became the soundtrack to a friendship.

QVC’s innovation, as well as its biggest challenge, was to make its advertisements seem less like corporate directives and more like recommendations from friends or peers.

Today’s Instagram influencers talk about how and when they use certain products in the same relatable way

YouTube Now Worlds Largest Media Company, Topping Disney

The influential financial research firm MoffettNathanson suggests that the Google-owned video platform passed Disney's media business in 2025.

Why streaming sponsorships are the most efficient buy in TV

Discover how streaming sponsorships boost response rates, conversions and efficiency, and learn why brands are buying direct.

Pinterest just crossed $1 billion in quarterly revenue. The bet that made it work was not social media. It was search.

Pinterest reported its first billion-dollar quarter last week. Revenue hit $1.008 billion in the first three months of 2026, up 18 per cent year on year, with monthly active users reaching 631 million for the tenth consecutive quarter of double-digit user growth. The stock…

A Better Strategy for Location-Based Advertising

New research finds that ad effectiveness depends on more than just how close a consumer is to your store—it matters how close they are to your rival.

‘If you don’t like dark roast, this isn’t the coffee for you’: How exclusionary ads can win over the right customers

By openly saying, ‘This isn’t for you,’ brands signal focus and specificity. That helps the right customers feel a stronger connection.

How I block all online ads

A couple of years ago, I decided I'd had enough of ads. Not just the occasional banner or a quick pre-roll video — I mean all of them. They have to go.

Ads in NFL Games are 23 Times More Effective Than All Other TV Buys

New research indicates the extent to which NFL advertising dominates other forms of TV programming for marketer returns.

Optimally Suboptimal: Behavioral-Economic Product Features

Booking travel online feels like shopping in an Indian bazaar: a deluge of options, no credible information, aggressive hawkers (“recommendations” and “targeted ads”), and hours of frantic search that end with purchasing something more out of exhaustion than conviction. Online…

Advertising Without Signal: The Rise of the Grifter Equilibrium

Economists credit ads with two welfare‑enhancing roles: 1. Informative – trimming search costs (Stigler 1961 (pdf)). 2. Signaling – In classic models, high-quality sellers are more willing to incur large, sunk ad costs because they expect to recoup them through future…

Five Frictions That Flatten the Signal

Because tarnished names can be retired cheaply, long‑run reputation no longer disciplines bad actors.

What Companies Do Well is Not Necessarily How They Make Money

Thoughts on business models that don't seem to make perfect sense

Stockbrokers used to make their money from commissions, but depending on the model their big profit centers are either some net margin on interest spreads

Oil companies

From ‘Hire Me’ to Better Call Tang, the Quirky World of Metro Ads

To diversify declining revenue streams, one city metro launched a personalized ad service earlier this year, allowing individuals to purchase ad space for messages ranging from birthday greetings and job searches to marriage proposals and quirky jokes.

The Art Of Annoyance

When it comes down to it, it’s best to think of advertising as a coordinated, decades-long campaign to annoy the heck out of you. And it works pretty well.

Thanks to NIL, local car dealers are out of the shadows and landing star co

Dealers offer car leases for 12 months in exchange for marketing on athletes' social media accounts.

A guide to investigating digital ad libraries

How to dig into ad libraries from Google, Meta and other platforms to track spending, narratives, campaigns and more

Free tools for investigating digital ads

Originally published Feb. 17, 2022

Bumble, Apple, and the art of the advertising apology

The five types of advertising apologies, explained.

Trevor Noah and Roger Federer board the 'wrong train' in hilarious Switzerl

The duo 'got into deep trouble' for boarding the 'wrong train' but it turned into the ride of a lifetime for them.

I Was at the Clapperboard for Orson Welles’ Drunk Wine Commercial

I also helped undress him so he could lie down

Digiday+ Research: A guide to ad-supported streaming services, from the top

The first installment of Digiday's two-part series on the top ad-supported streaming services provides an overview of the platforms’ offerings and an analysis of how brands and agencies distribute their ad budgets and ad placements across platforms.

Research Briefing: Frequency capping matters most on streaming platforms

In this edition of the Digiday+ Research Briefing, we examine the top ad attributes marketers want from ad-supported streaming platforms, how brands are increasing their marketing spend on YouTube, and how Walmart and Roblox are teaming up to make virtual e-commerce a reality…

7 Tips for Memorable and Easy-to-Understand Imagery

A few relevant, high-quality visuals placed next to associated text can boost users’ comprehension of your content and its memorability.

The Beer Advertising Posters Designed by Henry Jerome Schile in The 19th Ce

German-American artist Henry Jerome Schile was born in Oberharmersbach, Baden-Württemberg, in 1829. He emigrated to the US in 1851 and worked in New York in the middle of the 19th century. h/t: vintag.es Henry Schile’s work is described by Harry T. Peters in America on Stone as…

? TMB #51: The Mean Girls movie is a two-hour e.l.f. advertisement

What You Need to Know About U.S. Sports TV Contracts

The NFL's television contracts account for $12.4 billion, about 43% of all sports TV deals in the U.S.

Understanding YouTube Campaign Types

Google Ads offers seven YouTube campaign subtypes, ranging from reaching users while browsing to driving conversions.

Text vs. Images: Which Content Format is Effective?

When we talk about using different ways to share information, it's like picking the one that fits what you need! Words, pictures, and mixes of both have

What is RGSP? Google’s Randomized Generalized Second-Price ad auctions expl

A deep dive into why the DOJ thinks RGSP makes ad auctions unfair, and why Google believes it creates a better user experience.

Amazon's $43B ad business, explained

Jeff Bezos long shunned ads. However, Amazon's juicy first-party data has enabled it to compete with Alphabet and Meta in the new digital advertising landscape.

Why so many brands use sound to make you buy stuff

Netflix made sonic logos — the new version of jingles — trendy. But its success is hard to replicate.

The Untold History of the ‘Whassup?’ Super Bowl Commercial

How a grainy VHS tape became one of the most famous ads of all time — and went viral before viral was even a thing.

Should Print Circulars Stay or Go?

Kroger is following in the footsteps of Giant Eagle, attempting to phase out its print inserts in newspapers and mailed to homes in favor of digital alternatives.

China’s Digital Landscape in 2020 | KAWO 科握

A comprehensive overview of the China social media landscape in 2020 - know how to navigate and help marketing teams achieve success in Chinese social!

Sponsorship Definition & Meaning | Dictionary.com

The world's leading online dictionary: English definitions, synonyms, word origins, example sentences, word games, and more. A trusted authority for 25+ years!

How 20 years of Google’s AdSense changed the internet

Google's targeted ad initiative AdSense was initially launched as “content targeting advertising” 20 years ago this month. Here’s how it changed the internet.

Our Tote Bags, Ourselves | The Walrus

How a humble bag became a humble brag

How to set up a Google Ads account

Getting started with Google Ads is a bit more complex than it used to be. This guide walks you through the initial steps of account setup.

Complete List of Songs Used in Commercials by Apple, Samsung, Google and Mi

Songs used in commercials, advertisements, events, presentations and promotional materials by Apple, Samsung, Google and Microsoft.

Meet Performance Max, The Blackest Black Box Of All Google Ad Products | AdExchanger

Lost in the Sturm und Drang of Q4 (Q for quarantine) 2020, Google introduced a beta program called Performance Max, its first ad product spanning all Google-owned media. A year later, Performance Max exited beta. And fast-forward another year to today, and Performance Max has…

Media Mix Modeling: How to measure the effectiveness of advertising with Py

Media Mix modeling, its implementation, and practical tips

Branding With Bonobos? A Conservation Fee Might Help Save Them.

Data suggests brands can blunt public awareness of species loss when they use at-risk animals in ads. Should they pay?

Basically everything on Amazon has become an ad

Inside the under-the-radar business that makes more money than Amazon Prime.

What is an Ad Exchange? An A to Z Guide for Publishers and Advertisers

Learn everything you need to know about an ad exchange, from how they function to their impact on advertising success. Here's an A to Z guide.

A Complete Taxonomy of Internet Chum - The Awl

by John MahoneyThis is a bucket of chum. Chum is decomposing fish matter that elicits a purely neurological brain stem response in its target consumer: larger fish, like sharks. It signals that they should let go, deploy their nictitating ...

How Bots Corrupted Advertising

Botmasters have created a Kafkaesque system where companies are paying huge sums to show their ads to bots. And everyone is fine with this.

How Much Does Google Ads Cost? | 2022 Google Ads Pricing

How much does Google Ads cost? Google Ads costs $100 - $10,000 per month with an average CPC of $0.11 - $0.50. Learn more about Google Ads pricing here!

The Science of Controversial Content

Let’s step away from the “hoo rah” surrounding content marketing, and discuss some legitimate strategies for creating popular, controversial content.