Observed Signal · Mar 17, 2026 · M&A · Source: https://martechseries.com/feed/ · Impact: 3/5 · Sentiment: Positive
Smartly to Acquire INCRMNTAL for Enhanced Marketing Insights
Smartly has entered into a letter of intent to acquire INCRMNTAL, an AI-powered incrementality measurement platform that provides real-time insights into the incremental impact of marketing investments across channels without relying on user-level data or tracking. Smartly says the integration will convert INCRMNTAL’s real-time incrementality signals into planning and optimization within its platform, enabling marketers to more quickly direct spend across social, commerce, and premium CTV. Smartly CEO Laura Desmond is quoted emphasizing the importance of connecting business outcomes to media and creative optimization in real time. INCRMNTAL’s methodology analyzes natural campaign fluctuations and complements MMM and MTA tools.
Acquisition integrates real-time, privacy-forward incrementality measurement into an ad platform, improving advertisers' ability to allocate budgets and optimize across social, commerce and CTV—meaningful for measurement and platform capabilities but not industry-shifting.
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Key Takeaways & Evidence Grounding
- Smartly entered into a letter of intent to acquire INCRMNTAL.
- INCRMNTAL is described as an AI-powered incrementality measurement platform that delivers real-time insights without relying on user-level data or tracking.
- Smartly said the acquisition will translate INCRMNTAL’s incrementality signals into real-time planning and optimization within its platform.
- Laura Desmond, CEO of Smartly, commented on the deal and the importance of real-time connection between business outcomes and media/creative optimization.
- INCRMNTAL’s methodology analyzes natural fluctuations in campaign activity and is positioned to complement existing measurement tools including marketing mix modeling (MMM) and multi-touch attribution (MTA).
Connected Companies & Entities
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Related Market Signals & Shifts
Recent verified developments and strategic activity across this market segment.
Smartly Set to Acquire INCRMNTAL for Enhanced Measurement Tools
Smartly has signed a letter of intent to acquire INCRMNTAL, an incrementality measurement startup founded in Tel Aviv in 2019 that emphasizes causal lift over user-level tracking. Smartly CEO Laura Desmond said the transaction is expected to close within a few weeks; INCRMNTAL’s roughly 25 employees, including co-founders Maor Sadra and Moti Tal, will join Smartly’s more than 900 employees. Smartly intends to integrate INCRMNTAL’s "always-on" incrementality signals into its optimization and creative orchestration tools so near-real-time lift estimates can drive decisions about creative rotation, budget allocation, channel mix and audience targeting. Smartly — which acquired creative startup Ad-Lib.io in 2022 and runs hundreds of billions of creative assets annually, with video representing over half of its creative — positions the deal as part of a shift toward real-time, predictive measurement complementary to MMM and MTA.
Smartly Introduces Smartly Synapse AI Orchestration Layer
Smartly announced Smartly Synapse, an AI orchestration and memory layer that powers its Smartly AI Agents to unify campaign data, business context and user input into coordinated actions. The product is intended to synthesize company context, user behaviour, market trends, pre-launch intelligence and performance data to create a continuous performance loop that informs planning, execution and optimisation across channels. Smartly positions Synapse as a way for brands and agencies managing complex media budgets to reduce manual handoffs, speed decisions and improve campaign outcomes. The release reiterates Smartly’s scale claims—supporting 800+ brands and managing over $7 billion in ad spend—and lists strategic partnerships with major media platforms including Amazon, Google, Meta, Pinterest, Reddit, Snap, Spotify and TikTok.
Google Antitrust Ruling Spares Ad Stack, Pressures Trade Desk
A federal judge ruled that Google must open up its ad exchange and publisher ad server to more competition but stopped short of forcing a breakup of its adtech stack. The remedies include connecting AdX and DFP to Prebid, requiring equal terms for AdX bids on alternative servers, curbing self-preferencing, and sharing auction data. For The Trade Desk, which has positioned itself as the neutral alternative to Google's walled gardens, this outcome weakens its core pitch: a fairer and more transparent auction reduces the urgency for publishers to seek alternatives like OpenPath. The article also notes that Google's decision to keep third-party cookies has already slowed adoption of alternative IDs like UID2.0. Analysts suggest The Trade Desk's narrative is shifting towards CTV and agentic advertising as the open-web competition with Google evolves.
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