Tools and home improvement delivered the strongest ad returns of any industry at $4.56 for every dollar spent in Q4 2025, nearly 2.5x the return clothing, shoes & jewelry advertisers saw ($1.86), according to a Q4 2025 report from SellMetric.

US adults back youth social media bans: 56% support blocking under-16s, making tougher rules more likely and youth marketing plans riskier.

NBCUniversal proves holiday TV still works: NBC, Peacock, and Telemundo drew 11.2M viewers, showing multi-platform events can extend reach beyond primetime.

Reddit makes testing easier: Reddit's A/B tool gives advertisers native data to prove which campaign tactics lift ROAS before scaling.

Health and beauty AOV fell 7.8% YoY to $62.26 in March 2026, the only industry to decline while eight other categories posted gains, according to a March report from impact.com.

For years, AliExpress has competed in the US largely on one promise: low prices. But its recent Summer Sale suggested the company is looking to broaden that proposition.

Video games attract smaller advertising investments than their audiences and positive attitudes towards the channel would suggest. This suggests brands aren’t fully aware of how much value players get from the games they play. Total US game ad spend is expected to reach $9.21 billion in 2026, according to EMARKETER’s forecast. However, this represents only 2.3% of total digital ad spending, per EMARKETER. A full 83% of US households played on at least one video game device in the past 12 months, per a February YouGov and Entertainment Software Association (ESA) survey of US consumers.

Walmart is aligning Walmart Connect, Walmart Connect International, and Sam's Club Connect (formerly Sam's Club Member Access Platform) around shared technology, platforms and capabilities while maintaining separate brand identities. The goal is to simplify how advertisers buy, measure, and scale retail media campaigns.

Nearly all (92%) commerce media leaders in the US, UK, and Germany are likely to invest in agent-specific measurement and diagnostics in the next two to three years, the leading agentic AI use case among those surveyed, according to April 2026 data from Koddi.

Retailers can bolster customer relationships and long-term revenues through deals, premium offerings, and better shopping experiences.

Marketplace expansion helps the retailer chase relevance without adding inventory.

GLP-1 users buy more produce and less fast food, forcing grocers and QSRs to adapt.

Faith in AI stops short of checkout: Consumers trust AI for product research, suggesting brands should prioritize discoverability over autonomous buying.

Partner perks help loyalty programs earn more attention—and spending.

With in-house banking, Klarna could strengthen its rewards and place fintech peers on notice for parity.

Many Americans doubt they'll achieve financial independence, making proactive planning a key way for banks to earn trust.

Medicare weight loss drug program will lower prescription costs for many older adults, but eligibility and prior approvals may leave patients relying on providers and pharmacies for answers.

Sky builds TV scale: An ITV deal creates a UK ad powerhouse as legacy TV seeks scale while streaming draws viewers and ad budgets.

Vibe coding trims SaaS costs: Some small firms are replacing Salesforce and HubSpot with AI-built apps, saving up to six figures yearly.

In today's podcast episode, we discuss the patterns behind where AI agents are being built, the technologies that are enabling marketers to do things they couldn't do before, and where marketing campaigns are actually won or lost before a single ad is ever run. Join Senior Director of Podcasts and host Marcus Johnson, Principal Analyst Yory Wurmser, and Head of GTM at Rokt mParticle, Nicholas Craig. Listen wherever you get your podcasts, or watch on YouTube or Spotify.