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If we want better media decisions, measurement needs to reflect how people actually make buying decisions, not simply how platforms record them, writes Dan Gee. What’s often missing is an explanation of how all of this contributes to growth. In essence: true media effectiveness.

Marketing teams have become vastly better at optimising campaigns and communications through ever-more precise data and measurement tools. But for the likes of Les Binet, Mark Ritson and James Hurman, such precision puts brands in danger of losing sight of how we generate future demand.

As the platforms take on more of the operational work and AI becomes capable of handling increasingly complicated tasks, the value of having someone manually operate an account starts to fall. Conversely, the value of having someone who understands what the system should be doing, what information it needs, and where it should go next starts to rise. That’s going to change what a PPC agency actually is. Read further.

Marketer spending on product placements will grow 13.7% worldwide, and 12.8% in the U.S. this year, the greatest rate of expansion since the industry rebounded from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2022, according to the 2026 edition of PQ Media's Global Product Placement Forecast.

Andrew Tindall digs into data across 1,478 brands and argues ad awareness deserves a place back in effectiveness planning, alongside attention, emotion and business outcomes. Ad awareness became quite a dirty word in effectiveness. The industry focused too much on it, and we correctly steered toward more System 1 thinking, subconscious engagement and attention, alongside metrics that felt closer to an outcome. But we overcorrected.

Google Ads introduces channel prioritization and budget allocation controls, giving advertisers more flexibility over spending across Search, Performance Max, and other campaigns. Advertisers will be able to designate channels as high or low priority, with the option to cap spending on lower-priority inventory rather than excluding those channels entirely.

Google Ads is introducing commerce audience sharing, allowing retailers and marketplaces to share first-party audience segments with brands and sellers running eligible retail media campaigns.

Based on an event hosted by OpenAI and AppsFlyer on Oct. 7, Salmon reported that the number of advertisers now buying ads on ChatGPT is greater than 60,000. That's up from more than 20,000 a little more than a month ago. More importantly, ChatGPT’s advertiser growth mirrors Facebook’s: self-service platforms let SMBs and direct-to-consumer brands advertise alongside the biggest players.

INSTAGRAM - The app that started as a photographic showcase may soon become video first. THREADS - Introducing Gems, a digital badge designed to recognize perspective, discussion and originality. X - Revealed a new AI ad tool called X Lift, and it reads your website and generates ad campaigns based on what it finds. PINTEREST - Is offering a new collaboration method for brands and influencers. REDDIT – Expanding beyond B2C marketing and into B2B, it’s also expanding its connection with CRM tools as well as new optimization options.

Netflix has shed about 1,000 employees, about 6% of its workforce, in its largest layoff yet, primarily affecting the product, technology, legal and human resources teams as part of organizational changes intended to prioritize key areas and maintain discipline in resource allocation.

Released on Tuesday, 13 October, Publicis’ third-quarter organic growth has topped market expectations, driven by client demand for AI-powered marketing. According to Sadoun, Business momentum was strong on all fronts. “Our marketing transformation capabilities benefited from the growing demand from clients for our AI-powered products and services, with Connected Media and Intelligent Creativity growing high-single-digit and single-digit, respectively.

OpenAI on Monday announced a visual ad format for ChatGPT that will display these ads alongside results while users generate images. The ad unit expands its measurement tools and partnerships, as it works with brands to understand suitability. The new visual ad format shows how people can discover a new brand, understand what makes an offering distinctive, and decide what to buy.

Buyers have a real choice to make again, and it applies to everything from a 30-second spot on linear TV to a banner, or a native unit, or a product placed inside a show. The truth is, no clear answer wins. The case for fitting into context that comes from the ad industry is strong. Contextually relevant ads deliver 43% higher neural engagement and 2.2× better recall, while emotive ads placed next to thematically aligned content drive 40% stronger memory.

OnAudience today announced the launch of OnAudience MCP, a new Model Context Protocol (MCP) integration that connects AI assistants directly to OnAudience’s proprietary audience data and technology, enabling media teams to plan, discover and create audiences through natural-language conversations.

Nearly half of Australian marketers report greater confidence in their decisions because of AI, with 41% relying on it for calculated risk decisions, a new report reveals. Yet it's also creating complexity and tool overload.

The world’s largest brand owners are, on average, spending a diminishing share of their sales revenue on advertising, with the notable exception of consumer goods companies, finds WARC Media in its latest “Global Ad Trends report: The cost of being seen”. Key findings outlined are: Advertising intensity is changing/ Big Tech driving downward trend/ Consumer goods brands an outlier, with intensity rising/ Non tech companies and consumer goods brands are less consistent/ The three forces behind ratio split.

The report demonstrates how advertising impacts outcomes throughout the buyer journey by combining Comcast Advertising campaign data with insights from independent measurement sources to examine performance across attention, reach consideration, and website activity for advertisers of all sizes.

Cumulative attention, defined as the total seconds of attentive viewer engagement accrued across all ad exposures for a given campaign, is a significant predictor of brand outcomes in streaming TV advertising. It found that cumulative attention is 8x more impactful at delivering brand lift than mere frequency.

Threads – Testing shaking up the visual look of photos and videos on the app. Instagram – Live streams can now be boosted on Instagram to aid in discoverability. WhatsApp – Is rolling out teen safety measures that help parents “guide them without reading over their shoulder.” YouTube – YouTube is cracking down on copycats who reupload creators’ videos, and it’s updating its algorithm to limit reach for channels that post content with little or no original changes.