DIGITAL ROUNDUP
October 2025
Welcome to this month’s edition of the roundup to some core updates in the digital advertising industry.
NB: the following represents my own opinion
Google Anti-Trust Cases reaches conclusion
Google and the fallout of their anti-trust cases enters remedies stages, shaping the future of google based advertising
(https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/public-policy/doj-search-decision-sept-2025/)
DEEPDIVE
Google are in the midst of understanding the fallout against their ecosystem, with direct implications to advertising as the DOJ antitrust cases into online search & ad tech have reached their remedies stage.
For online search, Google have been ordered to make more search data available to their competitors and barred from creating bespoke contracts between their own technologies, including Gemini from an AI perspective. However Judge Mehta did not go as far as forcing Google to sell either Chrome or Android to a neutral 3rd party, which to some extent was expected. What does this mean for advertisers? Well the search engine space as we know it is undergoing changes, from traditional SEM / SEO towards a more generative / agentic approach within different operating systems. Google have already pushed AI Mode / AI Overviews as flagship solutions as well as recently rolling out Gemini directly into Chrome. Ads are coming in all areas, meaning how advertisers operate a paid strategy in conjunction with the increasing evidence that generative based workflows are reducing site traffic is going to be a new era of marketing strategy. Google likely know that the writing is on the wall for the standard search experience, however it remains by far the biggest chunk of search user behaviour to date if you note that Google Search is 210x bigger than ChatGPT for search volumes right now. In the interim, Google continue to fight the remedies to some degree & put out a statement here.
For adtech, the trial continues to be ongoing going into a second week. Shoutout to Arielle and team for the great coverage each day. Where this trial ends up going will be particularly important for the future of how programmatic ads are bought, in an increasingly fragmented and could say dying open web. What the first week has suggested however, is that Google have already explored what the future may look like, if they were forced to breakup GAM / AdX. But the wider question would be if that is to happen, who is best placed to look after it in the ecosystem. Prior to the US trial remedies starting, the EU Commission announced their similar themed findings, but in the form of a significant fine & some strongly worded statements that pushes Google towards breaking up the same parts of their ads ecosystem that Judge Brinkema may enforce. This comes at the same time where leading SSPs Magnite / OpenX / Pubmatic have all announced their own lawsuits against Google for the impact of their monopoly on their ads businesses.
So what can we conclude from all of this? Google remains a powerhouse with or without the remedies taking shape. There is no chance that they disappear overnight nor have the technical / reach advantage when it comes to advertising. Add in the crosswinds of where AI is pushing both user behaviour & advertising opportunities, Gemini is going to be a big part of this & the fact Gemini / Chrome integration has occurred during this process is tongue in cheek.
YouTube revives banned channels, creating brand suitability concerns
Google are allowing certain creators back to YouTube after being blocked for political speech violations in past
DEEPDIVE
Google have announced changes to their channel moderation policy, after admitting to forms of censorship under the Biden administration in the USA, which resulted in certain controversial channels being banned from YouTube and any forms of monetisation from ads. This was generally cited over 2 key themes: COVID-19 & Election / Politics integrity, which were subject to more scrutiny when considering the implications of things like misinformation on a viral platform.
Whilst there are grey conclusions painted by Google on whether this was fully instructed by the US government at the time vs YouTube just being stricter on their own policies, clearly the change of moderation is still open to bringing bad actors back to a platform which already has plenty of brand suitability challenges to deal with. 2 prominent accounts that were unbanned in Alex Jones & Nick Fuentes were shutdown with 24 hours of being allowed back in, showcasing the battle that still occurs to this day around free speech vs misinformation.
But the key message here to advertisers is what this means for YouTube as a place to advertise on. YouTube will likely remain the biggest video streaming platform & CTV platform for years to come, but is not without issues. When the likes of a PMAX / Demand Gen campaign take the YouTube placement and put additional black box logic behind it, it is hard to understand where exactly ads are being served. And don’t forget, there is no post-bid report that can tell you exactly where you bought all your YouTube ads on, no matter what Google says. Therefore in my opinion, YouTube curation is still the gold standard, to build your own inclusion lists or premium publisher buys, to be more in control of where you run ads on YouTube. PMAX / Demand Gen does not support this, so ensuring you have an ad quality reporting approach here is the maximum that can be done
OTHER KEY CALLOUTS
SOCIAL / SEARCH HIGHLIGHTS 📱
Meta have released some detailed collateral on how GenAI text solutions work in their ads product (Meta)
Snapchat have showcased their new app power pack for app download campaigns (Snapchat)
Google have released their POV on anti-trust findings in the US DOJ Search case (Google)
Meta have released Instagram on iPad as an unique app (Meta)
TikTok have released new collateral on the impact of their search ads product (TikTok)
Reddit have done a AMA on their ads solution (Reddit)
Google have released a few new reporting enhancements for holiday season (Google)
Meta have showcased reels growth, value rules & threads ads in a new blog post (Meta)
WhatsApp status ads are incoming for Meta advertisers (Meta)
Reddit showcases their new 6s Video Views optimisation goal, mirroring other social platforms (Reddit)
Google have introduced new options for YouTube, including some side by side ads solutions (YouTube)
Google have made updates to Demand Gen campaigns (Google)
LinkedIn rolls out AI by default to their platforms and expands off-LinkedIn data usage in ad targeting (LinkedIn)
Pinterest introduces new ad solutions including top of search ads (Pinterest)
Meta will introduce a no-ad subscription in the UK to opt out of ads (Meta)
TikTok have expanded their Smart+ solution into the travel vertical (AdWeek)
LinkedIn add some AI themed updates to support SMBs with campaign setup (LinkedIn)
PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS 🌐
Amazon have released some collateral on how AI is being used in their ads solutions (Amazon)
DAZN partners with TTD to evolve their programmatic ads offering (OTTWatcher)
Microsoft have released a new media marketplace solution to showcase all potential publisher deals across DSPs (Microsoft)
CNN are the latest publisher to join Ozone’s ad solution, expanding into the US (MediaLeader)
Kargo have integrated their premium ad formats / inventory into Amazon DSP (GlobalNewswire)
Smartly have moved into a non-social space, integrating with Spotify Ads (Businesswire)
Adsquare have announced an integration with Amazon Marketing Cloud for cleanroom location analytics (LinkedIn)
Google have partnered with Criteo within SA360 to enhance their commerce media offering (Criteo)
Amazon have announced a direct partnership with Netflix, to allow the ability to buys ads on Amazon DSP (Amazon)
OneDSP launches as a publisher centric DSP in Switzerland (Ringier)
Magnite acquires Streamr.ai to enhance AI driven CTV buying (Magnite)
Pubmatic have onboarded a new integration with PayPal Ads to drive commerce buying (Pubmatic)
Rembrand have merged with Spaceback, to power AI creative including social in display (Rembrand)
SiriusXM have integrated with Amazon DSP for audio inventory (Podnews)
Verve have acquired Captify as a core onsite search provider (Verve)
Vistar Media partners with Clear Channel Outdoor for DOOH buying scale (Vistar)
TTD and Acxiom upgrades their partnership on UID2.0 with Kokai (AdExchanger)
VideoWeek unveils their newest CTV EU guide for 2026 (VideoWeek)
Amazon DSP upgrades it inventory hub with a new Commitments UX (Amazon)
TTD announces an AI driven Audience Unlimited solution to power 3P data buying (BusinessWire)
IDENTITY HIGHLIGHTS 🆔
Roku expands their CTV FAST offering in the UK (Roku)
Roqad acquires Zeotap to enrich EU centric identity authentication (AdExchanger)
CNIL have fined Google €325m for Gmail spam email concerns (CNIL)
Google have announced that their Ads API releases will now be monthly (Google)
Google have released new capabilities for web / app campaigns in Google Ads (Google)
Dentsu and Chalice / Index Exchange have announced a partnership for custom algorithms (NewDigitalAge)
Google have released a new post on the impact of AI on lead generation (Google)
Amazon will introduce further AI enhancement to the seller side via Bedrock (Amazon)
Scope3 have put out a blog on the business case for agentic advertising (Scope3)
IAB Europe have put out a new whitepaper on the impact of AI in ads (IAB)
EU Data Regulators are reviewing the possible removal of consent banners with an adapt cookie law (Politico)
Adobe have released some new best practice for Analytics (Adobe)
Google release AI Mode in Spanish, joining English as the only 2 languages (Google)
Bedrock announces a partnership with Anonymised for ID-less audiences (ExchangeWire)
PyMC Labs have released a great comparison of MMM between themselves & Google Meridian (PyMC)
Audience Project expands their measurement solution into Mexico (AudienceProject)
Haus have put out some great research on the role of branded search (Haus)
Google have updated Meridian’s MMM capabilities with newer features for external factors (Google)
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