蘑菇AV

This is the first installment of our 鈥淏razil Ad Spending Benchmarks鈥� series, which helps ad buyers and sellers calibrate their spending and revenue mix against the market.

This is the first installment of our 鈥淏razil Ad Spending Benchmarks鈥� series, which helps ad buyers and sellers calibrate their spending and revenue mix against the market.

This is the first installment of our 鈥淐anada Ad Spending Benchmarks鈥� series, which helps ad buyers and sellers calibrate their spending and revenue mix against the market.

This is the first installment of our 鈥淢exico Ad Spending Benchmarks鈥� series, which helps ad buyers and sellers calibrate their spending and revenue mix against the market.

This is the first installment of our 鈥淐anada Ad Spending Benchmarks鈥� series, which helps ad buyers and sellers calibrate their spending and revenue mix against the market.

This is the first installment of our 鈥淐anada Ad Spending Benchmarks鈥� series, which helps ad buyers and sellers calibrate their spending and revenue mix against the market.

This is the first installment of our 鈥淢exico Ad Spending Benchmarks鈥� series, which helps ad buyers and sellers calibrate their spending and revenue mix against the market.

This is the first installment of our 鈥淏razil Ad Spending Benchmarks鈥� series, which helps ad buyers and sellers calibrate their spending and revenue mix against the market.

The situation: Amazon and Google, once bound by a symbiotic relationship in which Amazon funneled ad dollars into Google Search and Google indexed Amazon鈥檚 pages, are now veering toward open conflict as generative AI (genAI) blurs the lines between ecommerce, advertising, and search. Both companies are determined to own the entire journey from discovery to checkout, and that ambition is unraveling what remains of their former d茅tente. Our take: Amazon and Google are racing to define where and how consumers discover and buy products in the genAI era. If Amazon succeeds in walling off its marketplace data and steering shoppers to its own AI interfaces, the retail landscape could splinter into walled gardens where tech giants cooperate far less. That winner鈥憈akes鈥慳ll dynamic might suit the victors, but it risks degrading the overall consumer experience with fewer choices and less transparent pricing. At the same time, it could lead brands and retailers into a margin鈥憇apping race to the bottom inside whichever closed ecosystem proves most dominant.

Microsoft reported $76.4 billion in Q2 revenue, up 18% YoY, as cloud infrastructure, productivity software, and embedded AI drove strong performance. Microsoft Cloud grew 27% to $46.7 billion, and Azure's annual run rate surpassed $75 billion, overtaking Google Cloud. Enterprise adoption of tools like Dynamics 365 continues to rise, reinforcing Microsoft鈥檚 role in AI-powered operations. Following the report, Microsoft鈥檚 market cap crossed $4 trillion. The company plans to spend $80 billion in fiscal 2025 to expand its AI infrastructure, while showing capital discipline. Microsoft is positioning itself as the foundational enterprise platform for the AI era.

Amazon sees 18% YoY growth in ad services: While economic headwinds could slow growth, maintaining a presence on Amazon will help advertisers emerge stronger.

Alphabet posted strong Q2 results, with Search ad revenue up 12% YoY and YouTube ad revenue climbing 13%. But analysts and advertisers are asking tougher questions as the company shifts toward AI-led formats like AI Overviews and Gemini. Google declined to provide clear data on ROI, clickthroughs, or user engagement, fueling concerns about monetization in a no-click world. Licensing costs for LLM training, brand safety, and competition from ChatGPT and Perplexity are all in focus. While YouTube continues to lead in streaming ad growth, the future of Google鈥檚 ad engine may hinge on transparency, AI accountability, and performance parity.

The report: OpenAI is reportedly developing a checkout feature that would allow users to complete purchases directly within ChatGPT, according to The Financial Times. Merchants would pay OpenAI a commission on any resulting sales. Our take: At the risk of sounding hyperbolic, checkout integration could fundamentally transform the ecommerce landscape. Even before news of the feature began circulating, brands were exploring AI optimization, or 鈥淎IO鈥�, to rank in AI-generated product recommendations. Now, with purchases just a click away, ChatGPT could emerge as a viable commerce engine鈥攅specially if it undercuts incumbent marketplaces鈥� take rates. And it likely won鈥檛 be alone for long. Rivals like Perplexity and Anthropic are almost certain to build similar transactional layers, creating a new crop of marketplace-like platforms for sellers in short order.

In the first 100 days of his second term, President Trump has reshaped business strategy across retail, tech, healthcare, and media. Here鈥檚 how tariffs, regulation, and market volatility are forcing brands to rethink spend, growth, and planning.

This is the first installment of our 鈥淯K Ad Spending Benchmarks鈥� series, which helps ad buyers and sellers calibrate their spending and revenue mix against the market.鈥�

This is the first installment of our 鈥淯K Ad Spending Benchmarks鈥� series, which helps ad buyers and sellers calibrate their spending and revenue mix against the market.

This is the Q1 2025 installment of our quarterly 鈥淎d Spending Benchmarks鈥� series, which helps ad buyers and sellers calibrate their spending and revenue mix against the market.鈥�

This is the Q1 2025 installment of our quarterly 鈥淎d Spending Benchmarks鈥� series, which helps ad buyers and sellers calibrate their spending and revenue mix against the market.鈥�

This is the Q1 2025 installment of our quarterly 鈥淎d Spending Benchmarks鈥� series, which helps ad buyers and sellers calibrate their spending and revenue mix against the market.

This is the Q1 2025 installment of our quarterly 鈥淎d Spending Benchmarks鈥� series, which helps ad buyers and sellers calibrate their spending and revenue mix against the market.

This is the Q1 2025 installment of our quarterly 鈥淎d Spending Benchmarks鈥� series, which helps ad buyers and sellers calibrate their spending and revenue mix against the market.

A trade war with the US will hinder economic performance in Canada this year. Ad spending overall is expected to lose the momentum gained in 2024. But many digital formats will benefit from the emphasis on return on ad spending.

The news: AI-assisted content now dominates Google鈥檚 top search results, but pure AI rarely ranks No. 1, according to an Ahrefs analysis of 600,000 pages across 100,000 keywords. It found that most top-ranking content includes some AI input, but only 13.5% was purely human-written. Key takeaway: Google doesn鈥檛 care who wrote the content, only whether it鈥檚 of good quality. Marketers should use AI to move faster but rely on human oversight to ensure clarity, credibility, and connection. Optimizing content for authenticity, brand voice, and user engagement鈥攁s well as generative engine optimization (GEO)鈥攃ould lead to higher rankings.

The news: Microsoft Advertising now enforces policy compliance at the asset level鈥攁d headlines, descriptions, and images will be reviewed individually. If one element violates policy, the rest of the ad can stay live, as long as the minimum required approved assets remain, per MarTech. Key takeaway: Marketers should embrace modular creative strategies, ensuring each individual asset is in compliance. Build campaigns with redundancy in approved elements to maintain uptime, and monitor flagged assets to quickly respond and ensure ad integrity.