[1] Microsoft Ads API adds deeper search reporting and more PMax controls
Microsoft Ads enhanced its API to provide more granular search‑query reporting and added additional controls for Performance Max campaigns, enabling advertisers to retrieve detailed metrics and adjust bids programmatically.
Advanced API capabilities for search advertising offer us an opportunity to optimize RPP-EXP campaigns by enabling more precise bidding and detailed performance analysis on external platforms.
[2] Google Ads API v25.2 adds competitive benchmarks and PMax upgrades
Google released API version 25.2, introducing access to industry benchmark data and new features for Performance Max campaigns such as asset‑level reporting and automated budget optimization tools.
The evolving Google Ads API, with competitive benchmarks and granular PMax reporting, offers us an opportunity to enhance our external media strategy for products like RPP-EXP and TDA-EXP, improving performance insights and partner engagement.
[3] Google tests bigger Local Services Ads
Google is piloting larger ad formats for Local Services Ads, giving local service providers more visual space and the ability to display richer service information, aimed at boosting conversion rates.
The trend towards larger, richer ad formats to boost conversion rates, as seen with Google's Local Services Ads, suggests we should explore diversifying ad formats, especially for visually driven products like RDA and TDA, to enhance engagement.
[4] Google Ads adds IP address and timestamp matching to Customer Match
Google Ads expanded Customer Match by allowing advertisers to upload IP addresses and timestamps, improving the matching of offline conversion data to online users for more precise audience targeting.
Google Ads' enhancement of Customer Match with IP address and timestamp matching presents an opportunity for us to leverage our first-party data more effectively for RPP-EXP and TDA-EXP, improving targeting precision and offline conversion measurement.
[1] Buying CTV In The WarnerMount World
With the WarnerMount merger cleared, CTV inventory is being consolidated under a new platform structure. Advertisers must re‑evaluate inventory quality and negotiate pricing on this integrated marketplace. Taboola’s acquisition of Dianomi also signals a rise in cross‑content ad placements.
The consolidation of CTV ad inventory post-WarnerMount merger highlights the need for us to re-evaluate inventory quality and pricing negotiations as we pursue brand budget acquisition and explore opportunities in the video ad space.
→ Read on AdExchanger
[1] Advertisers in 5 New Countries Gain Amazon DSP Access
Amazon has expanded DSP access to agencies in Belgium, Poland, Egypt and Singapore, adding these markets to its 34‑country DSP map (South Africa excluded). Advertisers in those regions can now programmatically buy Amazon inventory and leverage its first‑party data.
Amazon DSP's expansion into new markets, including Singapore, signals heightened competition in e-commerce advertising, emphasizing the need for us to accelerate our strategy for leveraging first-party data and strengthening performance evaluation for external media products like RPP-EXP and TDA-EXP.
[10] Explaining Seller‑Defined Audiences
Seller‑defined audiences are publisher‑built segments sent in bid requests using IAB taxonomy codes instead of user IDs, allowing targeting based on attribute information. The article explains how the mechanism works and its current limitations.
Seller-Defined Audiences represent a crucial privacy-preserving solution for us to maintain targeting in a cookieless future for external media products like RPP-EXP and TDA-EXP, suggesting an opportunity to map Rakuten's rich data to IAB taxonomy.
Explaining cookie syncing
Cookie syncing is the process by which two ad‑tech companies map their separate cookie IDs for a single browser, enabling buyers to recognize the same user in a bid request. Accurate ID mapping becomes crucial for targeting precision and cost‑efficiency as privacy regulations tighten.
As privacy regulations tighten, the precision of cookie syncing directly impacts targeting effectiveness and cost-efficiency in external media products; we must reassess how to leverage this technology while protecting user privacy.
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NumberEight finds IP targeting misreads Fashion Battle audience by 31 points
Household‑level IP data indicated the audience was 51% female, whereas an ID‑less model measured 82%, revealing a 31‑point discrepancy. The finding warns that relying solely on IP targeting can lead to substantial demographic mis‑estimation.
The finding that IP targeting alone can significantly mis-estimate audience demographics reaffirms for us the critical importance of leveraging Rakuten's first-party data for more precise targeting in external media products like RPP-EXP and TDA-EXP.
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IAB Tech Lab sets rules to curb duplicate ad bid requests industry‑wide
A voluntary guidance from the Programmatic Governance Council targets bid caching, ad‑refresh timing, and schain gaps to reduce duplicate bid requests across buyers. Comments close on October 16, 2026.
Aligning with these anti‑duplicate‑bid guidelines will improve our bidding efficiency, transparency, and partnership trust with platforms.
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OpenAI's David Dugan says ChatGPT ads passed a $1bn run rate
OpenAI disclosed that advertising spend for ChatGPT has surpassed a $1 billion annual run rate, expanding from the U.S. to 63 countries within six months.
OpenAI's announcement of ChatGPT ads surpassing a $1 billion annual run rate indicates the rapid growth and monetization of AI-powered advertising, urging us to consider accelerating AI-related products and strategic investments beyond TDA.
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Taboola's new identity tool claims up to 2.4x conversion efficiency
Taboola launched an identity solution that matches users based on scroll depth, clicks, and quote initiations, claiming up to 2.4× higher conversion efficiency, though baseline details are undisclosed.
Taboola's claimed high conversion efficiency with its new ID tool suggests a potential benefit for our TDA-EXP external media expansion strategy, particularly through partnerships like Criteo and SmartNews, by improving ROAS and retention during the merchant learning phase.
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Google LSA advertisers face missed-call charges from October 1
Google will begin charging Local Services Ads for unanswered calls held over 20 seconds starting October 1, with voicemail and spam safeguards still undefined.
Google's decision to charge for unanswered calls in Local Services Ads indicates a rising expectation for lead quality and advertiser responsiveness in performance-based advertising, which we should consider for our own CPA-based ad products like CA.
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Google's September spam update gets a two-week rollout, its longest yet
Google’s September 2026 spam update will roll out over a two‑week period—the longest rollout to date—and introduces camera‑search metrics in Search Console.
Google's ongoing spam algorithm updates signify a continuous effort to maintain search result quality and fairness in the market, prompting us to monitor how this might affect ad performance on our non-RPP channels and how new camera search metrics could influence future ad strategies.
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Game: The buy side and the sell side rarely agree on terms
The piece outlines sixteen commonly mismatched terms between buyers and sellers, grouping them into four categories, highlighting friction points in negotiations.
Terminology discrepancies between advertisers and platforms can hinder our external partnerships, especially in advancing the media strategies for RPP-EXP and TDA-EXP, thus requiring us to establish clear definitions and communication strategies to foster mutual understanding.
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Explaining SpamBrain
SpamBrain is Google’s AI‑driven system that detects and demotes pages violating spam policies, protecting search results from low‑quality content.
Google's use of its AI-based SpamBrain system illustrates how major platforms are broadly applying AI for quality control and search result reliability, prompting us to consider applying our AI expertise from TDA to improve ad content quality and platform trustworthiness.
→ Read on
[1] Advertisers gain nearly 100 HP PC audience segments via Magnite
Magnite’s new offering bundles data from over 1,200 PC apps and more than 300 usage attributes to create nearly 100 high‑performance PC audience segments. Although market pricing and consent handling are not disclosed, advertisers can now target PC inventory with much finer granularity.
Magnite's offering of diverse HP PC audience segments presents a new opportunity for us to achieve more granular targeting for PC users with external media products like RPP-EXP and TDA-EXP.