Call It ‘Don’t Invest’
Microsoft is undergoing its second round of massive layoffs in as many months, Bloomberg reports. The details on the latest round are still unknown, but Microsoft Advertising was keenly affected by layoffs in May, which fell hardest on legacy product and engineering roles.
But regardless of how the latest layoffs play out, Microsoft is clearly deprioritizing – if not wholesale abandoning – much of its third-party ad tech: i.e., former AppNexus products, a publisher ad server and PromoteIQ, its retail media acquisition. Microsoft is also calling it quits on Invest, the one-time AppNexus DSP, which is shutting down in early 2026. PromoteIQ went the way of the dodo last year.
Having had a taste of third-party programmatic tech, Microsoft appears to be spitting most of it back out after extracting the bits it still finds valuable.
Yet Microsoft Advertising says it remains “committed to our end-to-end platforms that help our clients reach the audiences they need wherever they are across the open web,” a spokesperson told AdExchanger in 2023 for a story about a reorg related to the former AppNexus.
“Nothing has changed here,” they added.
(Okay.)
After those statements were made, it would be just another 18 months before Microsoft’s DSP was given its notice of pending termination.
Google’s Pub Crawl
Google wants to get back into the good graces of publishers, which isn’t easy, considering Google’s AI searches are siphoning their traffic.
Oh, and not to mention a landmark antitrust case regarding Google’s sell-side ad tech.
But Google is now growing its sell-side ad tech enterprise sales teams, The Information reports.
Google Ad Manager’s (GAM) clientele indexes to smaller businesses that are typically less willing to pay ad premiums, which means publishers get relatively lower rates via GAM. One publisher saw “a lower percentage of revenue coming from Google’s advertising technology tools than they did three years ago,” according to The Information.
Google’s ad network, which encompasses GAM and accounts for money paid out to publishers, has been declining for years, even as Google’s overall revenue has skyrocketed.
Meanwhile, two weeks ago, Google announced a new paywall product called Offerwall that gives readers a variety of options to access articles, such as paying a one-time fee or watching an ad.
Perhaps Google is shining its sell-side business in advance of a potential forced divestiture, speculates The Information. Or Google could genuinely see a need to shore up its sell-side ad tech due to market share gains by vendors like PubMatic, Magnite and Amazon.
Regardless, Google has a steep mountain to climb if it wants to regain its standing with publishers.
Meta-Friendship
Meta has been quietly developing chatbots that proactively engage with users, Business Insider reports.
The goal, per documentation from Alignerr, the AI chatbot vendor working with Meta on the project, is to “provide value for users and ultimately help to improve re-engagement and user retention.”
For creators, the chatbots could respond to comments and fans on their behalf. For brands, it’s an organic way to retarget people. And users might turn to specialized chatbots for recipe ideas, say, or music recommendations.
Meta already laid out its vision of a future where AI chatbots populate its platform indistinguishably from real people. Mark Zuckerberg frames this work as a potential fix for the “loneliness epidemic” afflicting Meta users and people in general.
It hasn’t been smooth sailing, though. Earlier this year, Meta had to frantically delete its first AI chatbot friends, which came off as painfully cringe to actual humans.
Hey, maybe we just need more third places and not more synthetic friends? Just saying.
But Wait! There’s More
HUMAN uncovered 350 mobile apps, now wiped, that were part of an ad fraud operation dubbed IconAds. [Adweek]
Taikun Digital: How Google skims advertisers on the crazy-high cost of its hidden search terms. [blog]
Law360 mandates that reporters pass all stories through an AI bias detection tool after an executive at its parent company, LexisNexis, accused its reporters of anti-Trump bias. [Nieman Lab]
CEOs finally admit it: AI will take away jobs and downsize company workforces. [WSJ]
Why Best Buy and Lowe’s launched new influencer marketing and affiliate programs. [Digiday]