AppLovin

The pivot to AI has led to a gap in many SaaS and ad tech companies’ payment models; AppLovin bounces back in Q2; and Grok might be your newest media planner.

The Trade Desk makes the S&P 500, triggering a stock price rebound; Estée Lauder is the latest big legacy brand to embrace influencers; and CMOs are trying to measure their return on AI, but it’s tricky.

AppLovin’s CEO has reluctantly embraced the spotlight; Democrats are still failing on digital ads; your daily TikTok habit might actually be a good thing.

Google’s pivot on IP addresses shows it fears competition; the FTC investigates media watchdogs for advising brands not to spend on X; and Mondelez accuses Aldi of copying its snacks.

AppLovin has Axon, and now Unity has Vector AI, which was made generally available to all Unity advertisers and developers on Wednesday.

The wave of CDP consolidation is riding strong. Plus, AppLovin CEO Adam Foroughi responded to reports that short sellers are targeting the company.

AppLovin’s stock popped by more than 28% in after-hour’s trading Wednesday on the news that it plans to offload its entire apps business at a $900 million asking price by next quarter.

What is incrementality testing? “I’ve been doing more interviews with journalists lately and realize I need a better answer to this question,” says Haus Head of Strategy Olivia Kory.

AppLovin’s ecommerce advertising beta program has sparked optimism and speculation. Plus, the results of YouTube’s auto-reply program have been mixed.

On Tuesday, mobile video ad platform LoopMe bought mobile monetization platform Chartboost from mobile game publisher Zynga. That’s a lot of mobile. But with more scale and direct connections to app publishers, said LoopMe CEO Stephen Upstone, “more brand dollars are going to move into the app environment.”