BidSwitch

Brandformance Returns: Brand Health Metrics Resurge

A Digiday Podcast episode and accompanying coverage highlight a renewed industry focus on brand health metrics as marketers seek to blend brand and performance approaches ('brandformance'). Advances in measurement tools, wider access to media-mix modeling, and pressure from large language models (LLMs) to manage brand presence have driven interest in metrics like brand lift alongside ROAS and CPA. Speakers include Tim Peterson (Digiday), Kevin Goodwin (New Engen) and Kelly Ballou (Designer Brands Inc), who described DSW/DBI’s biannual brand-health tracker. Publishers also report retraining sales teams to sell brand awareness again after a performance-heavy period following the e-commerce boom.

OpenAI’s ChatGPT Ad Pilot Tops $100M; Marketers Join Amid FOMO

OpenAI’s ChatGPT advertising pilot has attracted major brands and early advertiser interest but remains unproven as a performance channel. Live testing began in early February with advertisers including Williams-Sonoma, Target and The Knot Worldwide; other brands such as DSW and BEHR are running pilots but report few definitive returns yet. Within six weeks of launch the U.S. pilot reached an annualized revenue run-rate above $100 million. OpenAI has rolled out product updates — an ads manager for advertisers, work on a conversion-tracking pixel and cost-per-click ads — while observed CPMs have fallen since launch. Industry voices recommend focusing on foundational tactics like generative engine optimization (GEO) and organic presence in LLMs as measurement and value for paid placements remain uncertain.

Bedrock & PubMatic push custom bidding

Bedrock's Shane Shevlin discusses why traders pursue customizable ad tech stacks and what use cases drive a bespoke bidder. The piece highlights PubMatic's evolving product slate: Connect for data curation, Activate to enable PG and PMPs without a DSP, Convert for commerce-oriented ads (including sponsored PLAs), and Open Wrap, an open-source Prebid wrapper. Nishant Khatri, PubMatic's EVP of Product, explains how these tools integrate with existing DSPs and APIs to extend bidding capabilities. The author revisits BidSwitch's origins and references Carrickmacross, Ireland, described as a European ad-tech hub. Common motivations include custom bidding algorithms, unique data assets, supply relationships, cost control, and ownership. The bottom line is pragmatic: no single solution fits all, and while platforms are becoming more flexible, many firms will still build or augment their own tech to differentiate.