James Hercher, Author at AdExchanger

Upfronts Advertisers Say They Want Outcomes – And Amazon Licks Its Chops

James Hercher — Mon, 04 May 2026 11:27:32 +0000

2026 may be the year of AI, but the buzzword as television advertisers head into the upfronts season is “outcomes.” And Amazon Ads is drooling about the sales prospects. “TV is historically largely reach-based, and most upfront spending still reflects that,” Lily Tong, Amazon Ads director of brand and cross-channel measurement, told AdExchanger. “But what […]

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What An Outdoor Retailer Learned By Replacing Pricey SaaS With A Newcomer

James Hercher — Fri, 01 May 2026 05:45:04 +0000

I find it useful on occasion to interview people who are marketing-adjacent, and thus possess a different and perhaps more highly clarified perspective on the tools we use for data-driven online advertising. These are the supply-chain managers, data scientists, merchandisers, finance analysts and others who must either appraise the CMO’s performance or are an internal […]

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Google Touts Its AI Ad Tech Adoption And New AI Max Features

James Hercher — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 13:00:44 +0000

The past year has been momentous for AI search engine ads. That’s partly due to ChatGPT’s foray into advertising. But the big AI search ad platform in action right now is Google, which, on Thursday, announced new features and ad types for AI Max, its AI-based bidding product for search and shopping or sponsored product […]

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Alphabet Exceeds $100 Billion In Q1 And Its Profits Almost Doubled

James Hercher — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 23:55:18 +0000

Wall Street investors know that, in the advertising business, Q1 is generally the poorest-performing period of the year. And this is a particularly poor macro-economic time. Alphabet is operating in a different reality. Or so it would seem while listening to the company’s Q1 earnings, which were released on Wednesday. Alphabet earned $109.9 billion in […]

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Rakuten And Impact.com Forge A New Alliance That Resets The Affiliate Industry

James Hercher — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 15:32:00 +0000

The two longest-standing names in the affiliate and partnership marketing category, Rakuten and Impact.com, have decided to stop fighting each other and will instead fight together. Rakuten is best-known for its consumer retail and rewards apps, but its competed with Impact as early affiliate networks platforms for ecommerce companies and other direct advertisers to connect […]

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The Trade Desk Makes Its DSP Available Within Skai And Pacvue

James Hercher — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 13:00:06 +0000

Don’t hate, integrate. That could be the programmatic motto. And it’s definitely true today. Because on Tuesday The Trade Desk announced that it will begin allowing mutual clients to use its DSP within the Pacvue or Skai platforms. That sounds like a mundane integration story, of which there are countless within the martech and ad […]

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Even PayPal Ads Has Its Own ID Now

James Hercher — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 12:00:37 +0000

If you thought programmatic didn’t have room for yet another advertising ID graph, then you’d be wrong. On Monday, PayPal launched the PayPal Ads ID, a new identity product tied to PayPal and Venmo’s customer base. The most important thing to know about the ID, according to Dan Robbins, head of growth and strategy for […]

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Amazon Faces An Easy Boycott But An Existential Question

James Hercher — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 05:56:35 +0000

I couldn’t help but follow up on recent news, first reported by CNBC, about an Amazon ad platform boycott – compelling because it’s been some time since advertisers have boycotted a major walled garden platform. Advertisers used to regularly throw their weight around. Remember when hundreds of major advertisers ditched YouTube for several months in 2017 […]

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Hard Truths For Retail Media At The IAB Connected Commerce Summit

James Hercher — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 05:16:06 +0000

The IAB’s 2026 Connected Commerce Summit in New York City felt to me like the retail media industry’s first sit-down explanation to a child who is now a “big kid” and must act accordingly. Not the birds-and-bees-type conversation by any means (we’ll save that for the consolidation phase in the future). But an important reality check. […]

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For Google Advertisers Who Overpaid The Monopoly – Don’t Hate, Arbitrate

James Hercher — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 05:00:38 +0000

The Chicago law firm Keller Postman is among the pioneers – Partner and Co-Founder Ashley Keller would say the pioneer – of mass arbitration lawsuits. The practice sprang up in response to a corporate tactic whereby customers, subscribers or anyone who signs a contract with a business is defaulted, in the fine print, to a […]

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