When the agent spends the money, who writes it down?
AI agents will make buying faster. Not more accountable, unless someone builds the ledger.
What we see in the data, every day.
Practical guides to digital media buying, ad operations and measurement.
Written by the people who run the work, for marketing leaders, agency teams and publishers. Each piece gives you a check you can run on your own accounts this week. New pieces are added every month.
The eight numbers your media team owes you every Monday
Eighty dials hide the answer. Eight numbers, each with a threshold and an owner, give you control.
5 min read
The bid request says CTV. Nobody is required to check. So here is how to check
Six checks, in the order a supply path lies. Every file you need is public.
6 min read
Frequency is a distribution, not an average
An average of 6 can hide the households that see your ad 30 times. Ask for the receipt.
6 min read
The crash that wasn't
Conversions down 96% since Friday. Before you pause anything, ask what else moved.
6 min read
Creative fatigue or audience saturation? A ten-minute test
Same symptom, opposite fix. A ten-minute test with three columns you already have.
5 min read
One question to ask any AI that touches your media money
How often were your recommendations right last quarter, and how do you know?
6 min read
The self-serve dashboard is the new principal media
The fastest-growing money runs through consoles nobody audits. One check any brand can run.
8 min read
When the privacy calendar lands on peak season
When consent rules change in the same month as your biggest sale. Five steps for any market.
7 min read
The operating system behind the slide
Seven things that are actually there when execution rigour is real.
7 min read
Global research on where media money goes.
Nine sourced numbers. Each one links to its source.
Lost each year to programmatic waste
The ANA's Q2 2025 benchmark puts global media value lost to programmatic inefficiency at $26.8 billion a year. Connected TV's share of programmatic spend rose from 30.4% to 44.2%.
ANA (Association of National Advertisers), Q2 2025 Programmatic Transparency Benchmark. Read the sourceOf each dollar that enters a DSP reaches the consumer
The ANA's 2023 study found about $22 billion of $88 billion in open-web programmatic spend was wasteful. The average campaign ran on about 44,000 websites and apps.
ANA programmatic media supply chain study (2023), via MarTech. Read the sourceOf every £1 could not be traced to anyone
ISBA (Incorporated Society of British Advertisers) and PwC traced UK open-web programmatic money. About 51p reached publishers. About 15p had no named recipient.
ISBA / PwC Programmatic Supply Chain Transparency Study. Read the sourceOf CTV app IDs were malformed, unknown or fraudulent
Pixalate found 43% of connected TV bundle IDs it saw in Q3 2025 were malformed, unidentified or fraudulent.
Pixalate, Q3 2025 CTV bundle ID report. Read the sourceOf streaming budget recoverable from frequency waste
EDO found a healthy-looking average frequency of 6 can hide 15% of households seeing an ad 30 times or more.
EDO, The silent killer of streaming TV budgets (2026). Read the sourceOf marketers worry agency advice serves the agency
In the ANA's March 2026 study, 58% of US marketers used principal media, up from 47%. Only 57% had formal rules for it.
ANA principal media study, March 2026. Read the sourceOf marketers let ease of measurement decide the budget
Kantar and Marketing Week found 71% of marketers define success differently from their own CEO or CFO.
Marketing Week / Kantar, The Language of Effectiveness 2026. Read the sourceOf winning ads paid their full bid by 2024, the FTC alleges
The US Federal Trade Commission alleges Amazon changed how its search ad auction set prices. These are allegations, not findings. Amazon disputes the case.
FTC (Federal Trade Commission) press release, 31 August 2026. Read the sourceOf US marketers ran an incrementality test last year
Even after test minimums dropped sharply, only about half of US marketers checked whether their ads caused the sales they claim.
eMarketer, FAQ on incrementality (April 2026). Read the sourceCoverage as AdNexa.ai.
What the industry is talking about.
Ten stories from other publishers that matter to anyone who buys or runs media. Picked by relevance and refreshed every week, with at least two on media buying automation. These are not AdNexa.ai articles.
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